How Hot Is It?

The recent temps are in the high 90's.  With high humidity the heat index is usually somewhere between 115 and 120

2/3 of my meals come in slushy form.  I force myself to eat 1 real meal per day, but some of it always ends up going to Tucker b/c hot food makes me feel sick

I realize siesta was put in place as a safety measure. It keep you out of the sun during the most brutal parts of the day, which gives you a chance to hydrate, take a nap, and avoid exerting yourself.  

However it also keeps individuals from beating each other into a pulp from heat rage.  Case and point, around 3pm today I was updating the attendance list for my exercise class.  During the previous class, one lady pointed out that her name was spelled incorrectly, but told me she would write it again.  While looking at the sheet today however, I realized she had written it in illegible cursive, the same way she had written it initially.  And naturally I still couldn’t read it.  This is a pet peeve of mine and I’ve told the class many times I can’t read their cursive and they need to write in print, but alas some still write their names down like wanna be doctors. So I started shouting to no one in part “God Damn it Ninfa!  I still can’t read this shit! Why the hell didn’t you write this shit in print when clearly I couldn’t read it the first damn time!” Or something to that effect. So yes, siesta is important to keep people still and quiet and not angry.

To keep cool I fill a bucket with water to put my feet in. They will stay there for 2-3 hours usually.  If things get really bad, I put ice in the bucket as well.

My favorite possession, other than my fan, is a wet hand towel that currently resides in the freezer or on my neck.

My air conditioner consists of putting my fan in front of my window and blowing the cool night air into my house before I go to bed.

I have become partially nocturnal.  I make an effort to stay up until 2-3am so that I will sleep as late as possible, usually 10 or 11am if I’m really lucky.  After about 10:30 it usually gets too hot to stay in bed and I have to get up and start taking more active cooling measures.  At 6:30 am the sun starts to shine through my windows, at which point I get up, let Tucker outside, and shut my front windows, locking in as much of the cool air as possible. If necessary I go and do morning errands, come back to the house, lie down, and try to take a long nap.  I am like an ostrich sticking my head in the sand; maybe if I go to sleep I can pretend it isn’t blazing hot outside.

If the humidity is high the house never really cools down completely even at night. Its sticks around like old chewed gum. Thankfully the fan makes up for the difference.

My house splits perfectly into an east and west side.  In the morning I close the east facing windows and let the cooler, west facing rooms take the edge off of the hot eastern walls.  In the evening I close off the Westside rooms to lock the heat over there and let the eastside rooms.  It’s a delicate dance, but I’ll do just about anything to keep the house a few degrees cooler.

It gets really hot and humid a few days before it rains.  These days are almost unbearable.  I confess I’ve almost cried from frustration a couple of times.  But thankfully, when the rains come through, the temp drops into the low 90’s maybe even, joy of joys, the high 80’s.  The humidity lowers again until the next storm comes through.

I have not had running water inside of my house since December 29^th.  There is one faucet outside that comes on between 10:30 and 12:30 at night, which gives me a chance to fill the eight 2-liter bottles, bucket, kettle, and a large jar I use to store water for the next day.

Wearing pants and a shirt, at the same time, is sometimes asking too much.

I spilled half a glass of ice water on my shorts, after the initial cold shock I decided it was actually an improvement on my previous condition and continued my work.