We're Havin' a Heat Wave, a Tropical Heat Wave

Yes we are. Temperature's rising. Gonna hit 98º today. And it ain't gonna cool down much tonight. The forecasted low is 77º. This is not a good thing for us, cuz we don't have air conditioning. Well, no one out here does really. They don't install central air as a general rule when they build houses out here. So when it gets hot - and it does - everyone suffers. We have a whole-house fan in our attic that pulls air up though the house and expels it out the roof vents. We turn it on at night and suck all the cool night air into the house. In the day, we button the house up to keep out the heat. If we can get the house down to 68º or 70º over night, it'll stay relatively cool in there all day. Of course, that only works if the outside temperature goes down to about 65º over night. That ain't happening tonight. Tomorrow's gonna be bad.

It's funny, but I don't remember being hot when I was a kid. We lived in hot places too - Maryland, Florida - but the heat didn't seem to bother me. I remember wearing a wool shirt in Florida in the summer time and not being too hot. Today, I'd melt if I did that. When I was younger, though, I'd run around all summer long, riding my bike, playing softball, hiking the hills behind my grandmother's farm, and I never recall the heat sapping my strength like it does now. That didn't come about until I was in the military down in Texas. In San Antonio. I recall the heat. Oppressive heat. You'd walk out of an air-conditioned building and walk into a wall of heat. One summer, when we were in the midst of a major heat wave, the AC unit for the barracks died. We suffered that summer. I fled back to Idaho in 1984, in part to escape the heat. Of course, Idaho gets as hot as Texas or Florida in the summer. Temps shoot up to near 100º during the day. Because of the altitude and the dry air, however, at night it always drops to near 60º, so you get some relief. Good sleeping weather.

Yesterday afternoon, I was working outside, and the sweat ran off of me in rivers. I soaked both my undershirt and my outer shirt. Been a long time since I sweat that much. Looks like I'm in store for a lot more of that too. They're forecasting the heat wave will last into August. For once, I really wish the weather folks would get it wrong. Of course, come the dark days of JanuFeb, when we're knee deep in snow and shivering our cahones off, we'll be wishing it was warm again. Well, maybe not quite this warm. But the dog days of summer will seem pretty enticing when I'm shovelling snow.