The Dog Days of Summer

It is early August and the heat is on here in the Midwest. Last night we left the air conditioner on all night. I usually turn it off after the 10 o'clock news, open all the windows, and then switch on the ceiling fan when I head to my room for the night. However, last night the air outdoors was thick and hot and still, even at 10:30 at night. Clearly the ceiling fan would not have been enough to keep the room from becoming a humid, hot chamber in which sleep would have been filled with much tossing and turning and frustration. Unfortunately it looks as though the air conditioner will get a workout this week, as we expect temperatures in the 98-100 range, with high humidity for at least the next five days. May it please hold up as it is rather old! St. Louis in the summertime!

My mother told me stories of her youth in Baltimore, another steamy city, long before the days of air conditioning. On the hottest days she and her sister would spend much time in the bath to keep cool. How did other people manage to bear such intolerable heat? Last night I saw pictures of men in Baghdad, where it is over 120 degrees, sitting on the floor of a shop, fanning themselves. They did not have power, and for that matter, don't on a very regular basis. How do they bear it?

Last summer we had a strong storm that knocked out power in much of the region, and we lost electricity at my house for 4 days. The first day was tolerable because a cool front (cool being a relative term here) had passed through with the storm. The basement, always the center of operations in the summertime, remained comfortable for the first day and a half. As the heat outdoors rose quickly towards 100 over the next couple of days by the final day without power, even the basement was barely a comfortable refuge. That memory alone is enough to make me call first thing on Monday morning to have the air conditioning checked. Note for the future: make sure to call in the experts during the spring to ensure reliable cooling during the dog days of summer.