Under the Broiler

Wed 97 / 70 Thu 100 / 72 Fri 101 / 73 Sat 102 / 74 Sun 100 / 74 Mon 100 / 73 Tue 99 / 72

It’s beginning. Despite my greatest attempts to squash it down, the dread is rising within me. The heat is here and will not leave, except during the occasional monsoon-driven thunderstorm, until mid-October. I need to sit in a dark, quiet corner and say “Ohm” over and over so as to avoid the inevitable heat-induced meltdown. (Actually, I have never successfully done this, my mind is too busy; it wanders to tasks undone or dreams unfulfilled. My brain is purple, remember?)

We are doing our best to avoid the first step in acknowledging that Mother Nature has turned on the oven, which is cranking up the air conditioning. This is a turnaround for me. When we first made the decision to move here, I said to David the Husband, “I want to go but don’t ask me to economize on the AC. You know how I am with the heat.” Well, that was before our first $475 electric bill knocked me on my generous rear.

Would someone please give me a hand up? It’s time to check and repair the existing misting systems and add more around the garden and sheep pen. Shade cloth has to be repaired and added. We will need to rise earlier, just like Ben Franklin advised but apparently did not adhere to himself, to accomplish outdoor chores before it is hot enough to bake biscuits and fry eggs in the yard.

I don’t like this time of year but nonetheless I feel blessed to have our home, land, and animals who have added infinite pleasure and experience to our lives.

Don’t take that to mean I am not looking forward to October. I might be a mush-factory today but I know that some too-soon day I will tear up because I can’t touch the steering wheel of my car without receiving first degree burns.

By the way, keep an eye on that weather pixie. In the 90's, she wears shorts and a bathingsuit top. She might just get nekkid when it gets over 100, at least David the Husband hopes so. It's the little things that keep us going somedays. Woohoo!

Comments

[Karalyn]

We've had the heat here too (Oceanside, CA) and I have no energy in this kind of heat. Early this year too as we usually have "May Gray" and "June Gloom" before all that. It's a good thing I don't have AC in this house --- I wouldn't be able to pay the bill. But it's better than the heat bills I had in Colorado in the winter!

[Beth T]

Please feel free to push some of that heat up this way so the ground will warm up enough for me to start planting stuff that my Yard Bunny won't eat. Sigh. I think that means that this year I will have tomatoes, marigolds, and tomatoes.

Signed,
Drooling Over Your Lettuce in Michigan

PS I wilt in the heat too. Yes, A/C is expensive. On the other hand, Mr. Pi doesn't have to listen to PixelPi piss and moan when it's August and Michigan mysteriously turns into Burma.

[Kathy]

We're "warm-ish" up here too, Lauren. The sheep have been staying in the barn most of the time, as it's part cinderblock, part frame construction it stays nice and cool all day long. We have to get some shade up in the pasture though.
And even here we'll be sweltering in the heat this year. My DH is working on installing AC for us as the heat really flares me up to the point where I'm just a puddle. He works in AC all day long, getting home when its starting to cool down so never feels the brunt of the heat of the day. I had to give him choices - he could take care of everything while I "summer" in NZ's winter, I can stay in a motel every night to get cool, or we put in AC. :)
I am in "Summer Mode" now - gettting up with the first light, doing chores 'til 9 am, then it's quiet stuff until the sun goes behind the mountain.
Remember to keep drinking more H2O as well as we can't tell we're losing fluids here in AZ until we start hallucinating! :) (Beer won't work for that, darn-it...just compounds the problem...which doesn't seem logical to me but...)