A Word About the Heat:

[saavedra77]

Luxurious.

I realize that this probably isn't the way that most Northwest natives feel, but there's nothing, I mean nothing, I find quite as relaxing as temperatures hovering around ninety.

You have to understand, where I grew up, the weather was like this all summer--in fact, temperatures in July and August tended to go a ways higher. And, unlike here, we had 90% humidity most of the season, too--until it occasionally broke out into a rolling, Wagnerian thunderstorm.

So this "heat wave" we're having? Without the accustomed humidity, it's like an expense-paid vacation.

Plus, when I wake up, my mind is bubbling with these memories of summers growing on the farm, of blooming wisteria, grapes right off the vine, picknicks, lying in the backyard hammock reading, watching thunderstorms as if they were television on the back porch--the sort of things that nostalgic, Faulknerian run-on sentences are made of.

I mean, for Christ's sake, I haven't even broken a sweat, yet ...

Comments

[sarrabellum.livejournal.com]

Me, to Duncan, in the car on Sunday: "Oh, yeah, I just remembered."
Duncan: "What?"
Me: "I hate summer."

I grew up in Texas & Florida, two of the hellishly hottest states in the country. Yet I have no happy nostalgia about the heat. I didn't love it then, I'm not thrilled with it now. It makes me nauseated and exhausted. I walked a half-mile today and I was drenched. And I am a person that rarely gets all sweaty, even while working out hard.

I love a lot of things about summer, but the heat isn't one of them. If we actually had things like thunderstorms and, I don't know, fireflies, I might change my mind.

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

I spent a good number of years living in the DC area, so I got the 90-100º temps and tremendous humidity too, but there I also had stuff like air conditioning. I've been here (my god) ten years now and have acclimatized, so this heat is killing me....he said, sitting in his oven-like apartment.....

[sarrabellum.livejournal.com]

I was watching Say Anything the other day. I noticed that Lloyd's sister's crappy apartment, supposedly in Seattle, had a built-in air-conditioning unit. I almost shouted, "No way is that cruddy apartment in Seattle!"

I can't understand how our house holds no heat in the winter but ungodly heat in the summer.

Our family's summer sanity saver: a spray bottle and a box fan. Sit or lay down in front of the fan, and frequently spray mist in the direction of the fan. It goes everywhere! Heaven! Well, not to our cats, but that's not a problem for you. ;)

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

Ooh, a spray bottle. That's a good idea. Thanks!

[sarrabellum.livejournal.com]

:) My pleasure. I can only imagine how hot your apartment must get.

We'd be cross, wilted puddles of lethargic crankiness without them.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

God, I miss fireflies. And, to a lesser extent, thunderstorms. (You don't have to unplug everything for fireflies.)

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Fireflies are just ... magical, almost too good to be true. They nearly make up for the mosquitos.

And do you remember the way the air feels, right after a thunderstorm?

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Hey, I didn't know you'd lived in the DC area. Whereabouts? I've spent some time in Bethesda & Gaithersberg, on the Maryland side--I mostly liked it there. But, yeah, you had the same muggy summers we had in South Jersey.

Funny thing, though: growing up with old people who kept the AC blasting inside the house all summer? Couldn't stand it. It was like the refrigerator, in there. I used to flee outside.

Now, I associate AC with stores and offices ...

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

My parents have lived in Columbia since 1983, and I was there from 83-90 and then on and off (college and all that) until 94 or so.

I actually think MD has it muggier than NJ; it is (drained) swamp country, after all...

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Let me echo the thanks for that tip--because the fan alone hasn't been enough!

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Jeff always points out that I was born in Karachi, as if that should give me some natural advantage to handle the heat. But he's more like you--he blooms in the sun, while I skulk in the shadows, curing a blue streak at him (because he's generally the reason I'm out there in the first place).

Anything about 73 generally has me unhappy, so these past days...UGH!

I do love the late light nights and all the other fun that comes with summer, but a couple more days like this and I'd do anything to stick us back in the rain with a high of 50 degrees!

[sarrabellum.livejournal.com]

It's bliss! We especially like to point a fan at the bed, mist the fan, and then throw ourselves onto our slightly damp, very cool sheets. Aaaaaah.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

That is exactly my plan, for my fan is pointed directly at my bed, too!

[sarrabellum.livejournal.com]

Fireflies and thunderstorms and the sound of crickets - I miss those three things so much it's almost enough to make me want to live in the south again. Almost.

The weather you guys had in Portland today makes Seattle's temps look like a cool autumn day. You've my sympathies.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

I actually think MD has it muggier than NJ; it is (drained) swamp country, after all...

South Jersey (or, at least, the part where I grew up--Burlington County), is largely drained swampland, too. It still has a high water table--floods easily.

But I never spent enough time in MD to truly take the Muggy Challenge ... :)

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Funny: I like to joke that it's my Caribbean and Iberian blood that makes me feel more at home in the heat--though I get the feeling that most people's tolerances seem more attuned to what they've been accustomed.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Probably, though when I lived in the Bay Area, I lived in a hotter area. Hated every sweaty minute.

And I need to put my glasses on before I run around typing. So many typos, ugh. (Cursing a blue streak and anything above 73. ugh ugh ugh)

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

It's OK: Sometimes I think I have a special computer-keyboard activated form of dylexia. I'm amazed at how mangled some of my posts come out, the first time ...

BTW, how's Hobbsie handling the weather? My cats are suddenly total sloths. Even Ozzy, Mr. Feline ADHD, is just laying around all day.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Hobbsie is as listless and inert as I am. We both just lie sprawled half-concious in front of the fan.

Though he doesn't seem to understand that I don't particularly want a warm pile of cat fur pressed against me...