The moral is, never say anything negative about swamp coolers in the vicinity of your own. When I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the way they go on the fritz, I should have known that mine would get ideas. You know how unreliable they are.
Even though I hadn't been using the swamp cooler much recently, just a little bit now and then to take the edge off a hot afternoon, it's been an intermediary at need. Now summer is happening entirely at first hand, the way it has for most of my life. I was grateful for climate control when I moved here from Vermont, as it took me several years to adjust to southwestern heat. I'm still incredibly grateful for it when the temperature tops 95F (35C), my Personal Wilting Point. I'm not into virtuous suffering; asceticism has never been my cup of tea. If the weather were still blistering hot, some handyperson would be out here fixing the swamp cooler. But it isn't—it's just ordinary hot, summery hot.
When comfort is the flick of a button away, you make yourself comfortable. (At least, I do.) When summer heat is sprawled out lazily in front of you until sunset, though, you find ways around it. You "tune" the windows to maximize a draft, you take a cool after-work shower. You start fixing cold dinners with lemon and fresh herbs, and put the drinking glasses in the freezer, so they frost over when they're filled. You remember that watermelon is no ordinary fruit but ambrosia and savor each cold, liquid bite as the juice trickles down your throat. When comfort is easy, you forget that the ordinary discomforts of summer—and the end runs you make around them—create its best memories.
With windows closed and the cooler running, all the details of summer get air-brushed away. But when you feel every change in the breeze and hear every rise and fall in the cicadas' droning song, when you see the changing face of the sky from one moment to the next, summer days grow long again, long like they were in childhood. That's what's surprised me most without the "safety net" of the swamp cooler. The days are just so long.
Virtuous suffering? No.
This feels more like hedonism.
It's hard to imagine the need for a swamp cooler when I'm back to jeans and a cardigan in 66' Seattle! Yesterday was 80', today 60's. Go figure.Love that last image.
ReplyDeleteKaren, we won't see the 60's again (as a high) until at least October! The whole 'cardigan in July' thing is very exotic.
DeleteThat watermelon looks so luscious -- but how to you keep the delicious juice dripping down your throat instead of down your chin??
ReplyDeleteI don't envy you the heat, since my personal wilting point is closer to 85; but those blue skies are spectacular. -Jean
Well, Jean, truth to tell, the delicious juice drips all sorts of places. I launder a lot more t-shirts during watermelon season.
DeleteI should specify that 95 is only my western wilting point--it's much lower in humid climates!
Tough luck, Stacy. But cold watermelon and stunning skyscapes are some consolation. That top photo looks like the pre-amble to A Very Important Announcement from up on high. D
ReplyDeleteThe skyscapes are amazing this time of year, Dave, at least in the morning and late afternoon. (The rest of the day they're just blue, which is fine, too.) We've had a lot of pre-ambles to Very Important Announcements recently, but no actual announcements seem to have followed them. Or if they did, I wasn't paying attention.
DeleteI feel your pain as I had to endure 100+ temps in AZ in grad school... I love temps in the 70s and wilt past 80. Without AC I would be having great difficulty here this summer. I remember the long hot humid days of summer as child without AC. We spent our days finding ways to stay cool, eating popsicles, swimming, wading, tree forts and sprinklers...I love the images of the sky...I can feel the heat. Hoping you can escape the heat!
ReplyDeleteDonna, I don't think I could take the summers in AZ--100 is more than enough for me. I'm glad you do have AC out there, especially with the heat waves you've had! Oof! Those childhood summer days you describe, though, do sound magical. You've sent me on a mission to find/make a grown-up version of a popsicle...
DeleteI just melt...until the next AC zone.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like me in winter, Greggo--freezing between one heater and the next.
DeleteI feel for you, wish I could send you some of the rain we are promised again, the mini heat wave we had last week here in London is well and truly over, back to same old rain and showers...
ReplyDeleteHelene, I can't imagine how frustrating it must be not to have a real summer. You especially must really count on it to melt some of winter's aches and pains out of your bones! I would gladly give you 15°F of warmth (or even more!) in exchange for a couple of inches of rain. Our official rainfall total for the year is still just 3.17 inches...
DeleteHi Stacy, that's a beautiful picture of sunny blue sky with fluffly clouds and it totally the opposite to how it is here at the moment. It's the mid afternoon and it's gone very dark. Great black clouds have rolled over and the temperature's dropped. Fat drops of rain are starting to bounce off the windows and I've just heard a crack of thunder. I know where I'd rather be.
ReplyDeleteSunil, at least dark and dramatic sounds like a nice change of pace from dull gray and dreary? A good thunderstorm always gets the blood moving. On the other hand, sunny blue sky and fluffy clouds...I know where I'd rather be, too!
DeleteWe had a watermelon poisoning scare (salmonella)in the UK earlier in the year. I haven't had a slice since ... so tempted by your thirst-induced description.
ReplyDeleteb-a-g, we had a similar cantaloupe scare here last year, which has taught me to scrub melons well with soap and water before ever taking a knife to them. Give in to temptation! (With soap and water.)
DeleteI've often wondered why days were so long when we were young, and now they seem so short! Air conditioning! Who knew? haha :) Yes, I've lived without any kind of air conditioning, and it does make the days seem soooo long - and the nights, too! Even when I was young, although the days didn't seem so bad without air conditioning, I remember how hot and long the nights were.
ReplyDeleteHolley, those long days had nothing to do with our age--it was just the misery! I've usually lived places that cooled down pretty well at night. Trying to sleep in the heat just doesn't work. My Dad said when he was growing up in TX near Longview that they used to dampen the sheets at bedtime to make them cooler. (He never made it sound like it worked, though.)
DeleteI've never thought about how using AC could change my total perspective on summer. We actually had not put ours in (window) until just recently. We had opened windows, used fans, etc.... and we of course are NOT super hot and we do cool down pretty well at night. I have enjoyed the sounds of summer and will miss them with the nasty roar of the AC units.
ReplyDeleteThe road work is going to start soon, so we will have to have the windows closed for that anyway..... and the AC units will help drown out the noise of the workers:) Always a silver lining!
Blessings!
Elaine, the natural sounds of summer are so much more pleasant (though not necessarily quieter!) than that white noise roar. I've always loved going to sleep to the sound of crickets and katydids. How nice that you've been able to enjoy them through most of July! The white noise does sound better than the road work, though--hope it gives you a buffer from all the thumps and bumps.
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