Saturday, September 1, 2007

Baby, it's HOT out there!

I've experienced hotter weather since I moved here, but that doesn't make this less hot! I've discovered that no one else wants to go out to our condo pool in this heat, so I can have it for myself. The water is probably pretty hot, but a lot cooler than 107°, so it's refreshing!

When I arrived in California from cool Denmark 7 years ago, I remember going to a football game at Pomona College in our neighboring town against Oberlin College (my alma mater) when the temperature was said to be 108°! Pomona beat the Yeomen by about 56-0, partly because the Obie team was pretty new, but certainly also because they weren't used to heat like that!

The summer of 2002 I was working in North Palm Springs, right on the edge of the desert, for Vestas-American Wind Systems. I loved driving out to the desert early in the morning, and much less the drive home with the sun in my eyes and a lot more traffic. I remember it got up to 120°! Going outside it felt like being hit by some object! I had to cover my Honda Insight hybrid with a special sun-reflecting cover to keep the battery at ambient temperature. I understand that it wouldn't have worked over 160°!

And there was also the summer of 2001 when the temperature got up to a very humid 100° in Maine!

Before that, my hottest summers were when I was studying in Chapel Hill, NC, between 1965-72. My son was born in August 1970 in 90° humid weather and wore nothing but a diaper and an undershirt his first 2 weeks, before we took him off to cooler Denmark for a couple of weeks, where he got his first cold, poor dear!

I remember, however, getting used to the heat in Chapel Hill, (for the most part.) One of the delights of Chapel Hill summers were the torrential rains every afternoon at 4 pm, which (I think) cooled things off. (My husband, who moved himself out here from Georgia because of bugs and humidity, among other reasons, says the rain just turned into steam.)

2 comments:

Mary Witzl said...

I feel so envious! We have had no more than five summer days so far, here in Southern Scotland. The slugs in my garden are so fat they don't even look like slugs anymore; I keep thinking someone has torn up pieces of tractor tires and left them lying around.

Bonnie Y said...

You wouldn't if you were here!
Right now, at 1 pm it's evidently 106 going on 108 (cooler than yesterday where they promised 112 and I think we got 110.)

I have made a couple of forages to the supermarket walking, carrying a bottle of water with a lot of ice cubes (reusable bottle, of course) and got cooled down at the supermarket before heading home. Last Wednesday and Friday I had to bike uphill at noon in 90+ temperatures after a class.

I figure if I'd driven, I'd have had to put up with enormous temperatures in the car after 15 minutes in the parking lot, and I do need my exercise!

Basically we're locked in to air-conditioned areas, like home and stores. At least I've discovered no one wants to use our condo pool either, so that's available, and at least cooler than 106!