Is it hot where you are? It’s hot here and has been hot for quite a while. It’s always hot and humid in southern Ontario in July, but this started in June. Unlike most years, we haven’t had much of a break yet. Usually, we have two or maybe three bouts of very hot weather, which last maybe five days each. Then the boomers come and the air changes, and we have a holiday from the humidity and heat for a week or two. Not this year. Ugh.
The problem is that it’s hard to work in such weather (the creative part of my brain just turns off when it’s hot) and it’s tough to sleep. Mr. Math and I have debated the merits of having air conditioning installed in the old girl. It won’t be easy and it won’t be cheap. (Old houses are like that.) We run dehumidifiers and fans and open windows at night. Usually, the thunderstorms roll in right around the time we think we should go for AC, then it’s easier to rationalize going without. If it’s only for two weeks out of the year, it hardly seems worth the trouble and expense. We invariably decide that we can sit in front of the fan and catch up on our reading for a few days each year.
This year has changed our minds. Mr. Math is talking about productivity ratios. And he’s right – neither of us can take a couple of months each summer to not work. Plus I doubt that summers will be getting cooler anytime soon. (The question of whether the power will stay on during hot spells is another one altogether.) And so, the adventure will begin. I’m not looking forward to the dust, the hassle and the expense, but it will be worth it in the end. The AC probably won’t be up and running this summer – these kinds of projects are like rows of tumbling dominos when you live in an old house, plus AC guys are all pretty busy right now – but I’m looking forward to writing and sleeping next summer.
How about you? Is it hot where you are? Do you have air conditioning? Or do you sit in front of the fan and read on hot days?
Deborah Cooke: Author 
5 responses to “Phew!”
I live in Wyoming and it’s been in the high 90’s, low 100’s here for about a month. We live in a nice little concrete block house with a swamp cooler that keeps it just this side of cold! This isn’t really a humid area so we need the cooler to put moisture in the air.
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No humidity! DJ, that sounds like heaven. We have terrible humidity here in the summer – yesterday, the air was so thick that it was hard to breathe. I think that’s what puts it over the edge. We installed AC in our last house but used just the dehumidifier setting most of the time. It made all the difference in the world.
d
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Hi Deb, it’s Deb here from the toasted Midwest, we are used to hot summers and usually some days in the mid 90s to 100s but omg, this year has been brutal, the Governor of Missouri just had all farm counties a disaster area and I live in a farming community out side of St. Louis and have seen the corn die before my eyes. We’re on a record and not the good kind we’ve been over 15 days in a row over 100, the heat related death toll is rising and the temperature is too and it’s only the middle of July what’s going to happen in August when it usually gets hot.
The only other thing you and Mr. Math could do would be to move to a tropical setting for a couple of months a year, think of sitting on a beach with trade winds blowing while you write of fire breathing dragons. Sound good.
Good luck w/ the air conditioning
stay cool
deb
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Yes, Deb, they’re worried about the harvest here too. The corn looks more like pineapple, the leaves are furled so tightly for lack of rain. We got some rain on Sunday, but the predicted storm yesterday blew right past us.
LOL on our moving to a tropical setting even some of the time. We are winter peeps – give us snow and we’re happy! I am tempted to visit Hawaii, though, after all the research for EMBER’S KISS – more or less 70 with a breeze, more or less all the time, sounds pretty good to me (even without the snow).
d
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I don’t know how you survive in snow and ice. I’m with Debbie H – I’m moving to Hawaii as soon as I can figure out how to make it work.
If I were you, I’d be considering a night in a hotel (that takes dogs, of course) just for the break. I remember the days of trying to sleep in weather like this and I have no desire to do it again.
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