summer in the (biggest little) city
(*) pink plastic rather than black rubber
Which is to say..., it's here... my single most dreaded time of year in my new home.
I've never been a heat guy; one of the best features of Mill Valley was the marine layer, days where the crispy cool temperature and the moisture in the air made me just want to get up and sing! ... which certainly begs the question, why the hell did I move to Reno if I am a heat hater and a wet air lover???
And a good question it is, but I prefer to ignore it and instead dwell on one of my more functional aptitudes -- the ability to genuinely love where ever I am (as opposed to say, being able to love whomever I'm with, which I'm much less good at, and which perhaps might lead to greater happiness...).
As it turns out, I have been calling on my upbringing. I lived from ages 6 to 16 in the warm and humid Ohio River Valley (histoplasmosis capitol of the country!), in Louisville KY, without A/C!! Later, my ex and I were urban pioneers in the even more unpleasantly fetid Washington, DC without A/C, in the latter part of the 70's. This re-frames the question in an entirely different way -- what's a few days of triple digit heat and 9% humidity along the river in the high desert?? (yes, I looked it up, the relative humidity gets all the way up into the 30's at night, but in the death march part of the late afternoon, 9% !!
We just finished a record-breaking nine straight days of > 100 degree highs, and the good news to me is that I kind of dug it! My place is pretty well shaded, and the lawn sprinklers and the river cool it down a little more, and I have found that getting through these very hot days is no big deal! According to my thermostat (yes, O do have A/C, I just choose not to use it!), my interior temps range from about 83 (9-10am) to 90-ish (4-10pm).
And in some odd way, the crazy heat kind seems to energize me by its absence at night. Some nights it's like someone put Ridalin in my evening meal - after the sun goes down I get very wired and must be out doing something.
We just finished a record-breaking nine straight days of > 100 degree highs, and the good news to me is that I kind of dug it! My place is pretty well shaded, and the lawn sprinklers and the river cool it down a little more, and I have found that getting through these very hot days is no big deal! According to my thermostat (yes, O do have A/C, I just choose not to use it!), my interior temps range from about 83 (9-10am) to 90-ish (4-10pm).
And in some odd way, the crazy heat kind seems to energize me by its absence at night. Some nights it's like someone put Ridalin in my evening meal - after the sun goes down I get very wired and must be out doing something.