Behold: the Climate Wuss!
This past week has been ugly-hot. I’ve endured the days by taking cool showers, putting icepacks on my chest and back, using the cat’s Discouragement Bottle to mist my face, and eating ice cream bars, ice cubes…anything cold. No cooking has taken place. (Alright, even less cooking than usual has taken place.) The dishwasher, with its heat-dry cycle, was grudgingly run only because I had no more clean dishes.
This morning I’m cramping, and have to either suffer (a lot) all weekend or spend two days with a heating pad on my lower back.
The universe is snickering.
It’s easier to deal with cold than with heat. Get too cold, you can keep adding layers (or swap out some of the thinner layers for thicker ones). Staying active increases your core temperature, which means you feel less cold. Get too hot…you can reduce movement and strip down, but there’s only so far you can go before you hit epidermis. Then you’re just motionless, sweaty and naked, but not in any fun way. (If you’re still too hot, you get to preview Hell. If your in-laws happen to be about, the preview will be that much more realistic. Viva la veritas!)
If I close the windows and curtains during the day, the temperature isn’t quite as bad. It’s still not comfortable, but it isn’t quite as hideous. My two closet-door panels — about 1.5ft wide by 6.5ft high, which I kept because of the mural painted upon them — have been propped against my patio door to block even more light. The door panels are painted white on the backs, so from the outside the patio doesn’t look quite as ghetto as it could. (Hey — in one place, I used flattened wardrobe moving boxes. Blocked sun in the summer, kept in heat in the winter, highly effective…but not exactly Homes-and-Gardens. These nicely painted panels are a step up.) Yesterday I got a hand-me-down air conditioner. Sure, it’s a hand-me-down; but who cares! This thing blows cold air. It has an oscillation setting, to spread the coolth around instead of creating a single isolated Arctic zone in the middle of Muggyville. It cools down the main room nicely, even with the computer’s heat-additions. It will really impact the energy bill, so I’m trying to use it as efficiently and effectively as possible without having to sell a kidney. (Though — would that lower my core temperature? H’m. Cool down and make money. Must look into this…)
Hopefully, the Midol + coffee + stretching will ease the pain enough that I won’t have to break out the heating pad. If I have the heat on my back, and the icepack on my front, I think my internal regulator will throw a hissycow and demand that I make up my mind.
Keywords: | home | heat |
Posted by Laughing Muse • 977 views • Share this link • Newer • Older
Click here to join