Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Extreme heat and me

Heat and I do not get along.  During the winter I prefer to keep my house around 67 degrees.  To be kind to the other humans in the house I will usually jack the heat up to 70 or 72 if it's really cold out.  For the most part I radiate heat, a fact that Bryan comments on frequently. (That's probably the closest I'll ever come to a compliment like "You're radiant, dear." from Bryan--the man generally doesn't do compliments.)

Yesterday, I came to fully appreciate (once more) the value of air conditioning and the lifestyle of climate control which I have fully become accustomed to over the past nine summers.  Bryan took a day off from work to spend with his family.  We originally had planned to go to the beach in Wildwood.  I try to take the girls to the beach once or twice a year during the Summer and then once or twice when it's Fall or Winter (my preferred time to visit since there are no tourists--I love the feeling of frigid sand between my toes).  Unfortunately for us, yesterday was one of those days that like to remind us of why exactly we don't want to wind up in Hell.  It was a 97 degree day with a heat advisory warning in place.  The night before the local news station indicated that with the heat index it would likely feel like 100-105 out.  When you are talking about those temperatures in an area where the humidity is very high we are talking about some serious heat.  Since Bryan HATES the beach with a passion I capitulated and agreed that we'd go to the beach another day.  If we hadn't already told my sister-in-law and my father-in-law's significant other that we were coming down, we would have bailed on the Wildwood trip altogether and hung out in our pool all day.  Not wanting to get the ire of the in-law's up, I lobbied hard to get Bryan to take the kids down to visit them.  I realized once we got down to the Summer house that I should have listened to Bryan.

It was hot down there, and not just hot, but disgusting feel like your flesh is going to start melting off your bones hot.  We managed to suffer through the horrid heat for probably three or four hours.  The little window A/C unit they had going did little to fight the overwhelming heat.  How on earth did I survive the first 23 years of my life living this way?  How I managed to survive all those horribly hot and humid summrs will remain a mystery to me.  

Our naive plans to take the kids miniature golfing were quickly dashed once we spent a few minutes outside with my father-in-law in the yard.  We settled for ordering sandwiches from A&LP, the hoagie shop where I worked one summer as a teen, and then headed over to Duffer's to get ice cream sundaes.  We also took the kids to the Hertford Inlet light house to take pictures in the gardens and on the seawall (that's where we went for pictures after our wedding).  True to form Madeline decided to squint and make funny faces in every picture, and Ellie who doesn't like being in extreme heat pouted and looked annoyed.  Ahh, family fun!  Gotta love it!

The girls did have a good time playing with the dogs and giving their Aunt April a makeover with real makeup.  My sister-in-law is one brave soul!  I would never let my girls near me wielding mascara and eyeliner.  The girls put enough make up on April to last a month.  What a fun auntie to have!  I can assure you that I will never be that cool  of an aunt to allow two little girls to come at me with cosmetics. 

Once we got in the car to go home we blasted the A/C and started to cool off.  I cannot tell you how incredibly thankful I was to walk into our chilly house.  You don't realize how wonderful A/C is until you are without it in extreme heat.  The last time I felt this way about not taking A/C for granite was the week before I gave birth to Ellie.  Our A/C unit died during a heat wave that did not break until I had given birth.  It took the entire week for our repair guy to get us a new unit (after getting the replacement part failed miserably).  By the time the new unit was up and running I was on my way to the hospital in labor.  Fortunately for me, I had great neighbors in the old neighborhood and they lent us a room air conditioner so I didn't have to roll over and die.

If one thing is certain it is this: Heat and I are not friends.  I don't like to be hot.  This fact alone should be motivation enough for me to make sure I don't wind up in Hell.  

2 comments:

  1. Amen, amen!!
    Came back from a lovely week on the Maine coast to this!! Thank heavens for A/C!! Hope you are enjoying a cooler day.

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  2. my hubby is like you; he radiates heat, which is nice on those cold nights when we lived in Montana; not so nice these days when we are in So. Calif. So we don't owe an arm and a leg, we keep the A/C on 80 during the summer and the heat around 70 in winter. I'm comfortable in summer, cold in winter; hubby is hot in summer and comfy in winter.

    years ago I worked with a woman who had a vacation home in Wildwood; she always told of fun summers spent on the boardwalk etc. However, in that heat you experienced, it does not sound like fun

    betty

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