My friends in the Mid-West have been choking on the heat wave for quite a while, and as Mother Nature often does, she has cycled the heat back to California this week. I grew up here, so I am no stranger to the often hot and dry summers. It's catastrophic for other parts of the country that are not prepared for it, so I hate to be a whiner when in reality it's just a minor blip in the overall scheme of things here in the "Golden state".
Perhaps it's my age (Medicare next month, folks) but it seems to get harder and harder to tolerate 104 degrees. As a kid, we would just run through the sprinkler or jump in the pond. And let's be real, I do have a pool...so why the complaining, you ask. I just find it interesting that my patience and demeanor changes in direct opposition to the thermometer - the temperature goes up, my patience drops and my normally sunny disposition all but disappears. My body just kind of shuts down and my brain goes into a funk - that's where me, everything around me and all the things that I normally like to do become annoying.
For instance:
My hair is driving me nuts. More than anything else, I hate my hair on my sweaty neck. I grew it out this summer so that I could put it up in a rubber band. My daughter the hairdresser keeps my gray nicely colored, so she has a cow when I swim in my chlorine ridden pool too often...so that let's out swimming laps, I guess. Or any form of exercise, for that matter.
TV is not a solution for the doldrums. There's nothing on in the summer, so laying around under the fan is out of the question. And forget snoozing in the recliner - it's leather and everyone knows that shorts, tank tops and sweaty skin do not mix well with leather.
Sewing and beading is out...my craft room is at the farthest most point on the air conditioning duct work, so the tiny vent in the farthest most corner of the room is not going to cut it as far as cooling down the room. Let's not forget that running the air conditioner enough to keep your home as cool as you'd like it will mean sacrificing food and gas for the month.
Knitting is problematic, as I am presently working on a lace scarf and I can't see the stitches unless I sit under the lamp...lamps are hot. And since my brain is obsessing about how hot I am, I can't count my stitches...not to mention my readers slide off my nose.
The oven and stove heat up the kitchen, so cooking's out. And forget going to the Mall with all the other sweaty people...your car can heat up to a mere 120 degrees while you are inside shopping.
Forget reading...I forget the plot from one page to the next. Those reader issues again...
Enough already, Laurel! It's suppose to be hotter today, so I am really going to have to pull up my big girl panties and get over it. After all, I haven't lost a whole crop of corn, I don't have cattle scraping the bare dirt for a blade of grass, I'm not in a shelter because my home incinerated in a wild fire, I haven't been out of power for a week and I know my aging Mom lives in a nice air conditioned home up the road. I really should be more thankful and pray for the folks who are truly suffering under Mother Nature's erratic whims...she obviously doesn't sweat, otherwise she would be more compassionate too.
 |
| It just "looks" cool, but it's not. |
Laurel. Hot, but not in a good way.
