Day before yesterday was an unusual day. The offical temperature here only reached 98 degrees. Yesterday the official temperature was 101 but at one time, the weather feature on my google home page said 108. It is not unusual for us to have hot temperatures this time of year, but this is getting out of hand. We have been experiencing this kind of heat since mid May and have only had a couple of inches of rain since it began. We did get a little bit of a break for a few days last month and last Thurdsay was wonderful. We got just over an inch of rain here that day thanks to Dolly. Most of Austin, however, got nada drop.
This is such a contrast to last year when we had so much rain that flooding was a problem and our real summer temperatures did not get started until around the first of September. We are thankful now for all of last year's rain because the lake levels are still pretty high. They are dropping at a fast pace so water conservation measures are being enforced by the city. I have a well in my front yard so my water consumption is not regulated by the city. However, I don't know how much water is in the well so I am being pretty conservative.
The thing about this weather is that you really can't get out and move around much. I have been experiencing bouts of cabin fever. I am seeking out things to do that keep me inside such as yoga, or near water such as visiting friends with a pool. I take Lani to the park first thing in the morning for her walk. If I can't get there by 8:30, we just don't go. I am getting quite a bit of reading done.
We are keeping our thermostat set at 80 degrees in the daytime and slightly cooler at night due to the distance from the thermostat to the bedroom. We also have a fan in the bedroom and a ceiling fan in the living room. We have put a clothes line in the garage(too many trees to put one outside) so that the dryer is not getting too much use. I am cooking most of the time in the crock pot or the microwave. We are also eating quite a few sandwiches and some salads. Anything to keep from using the oven or more than a couple of burners. We have trees that cover most of our roof and keep the sun off of it most of the day.
I know that we are fortunate to have this house and our air conditioning system and the means to pay our electric bill. There are people right here in town who do not have it so good. Family Elder Care's Fan Drive provides fans for people who would not otherwise have them. I always donate enough money for at least one fan but I think I will be donating more in the coming weeks.
I hope your weather is much milder than ours and that you are having a wonderful summer.
Soundtrack for this post Lovin' Spoonful: Summer in the City
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4 comments:
Oh maaate!
I understand heat stress, I honestly did not know that it got so hot over there, that is our weather, our desert weather.
It is the point that we live in the house dam, racing is called off, we don't train, race the horses in it, school is ok, because it's all airconditioned, but all around the rest of it is keeping a cool water supply to livestock and just survival mode.
Minus 2's here at the minnie, picture frozen water pipes! The extrem heat and cold gives us such an awareness of what people must experience, meaning with no airconditioning..
I also make icypoles, frozen fruit juices or chocolate and strawberry milk icecreams. It's a break from sipping water all the time.
Watermelon is good! Big chunks and bury your face in it! :)
Watermelon softens the discomfort. (Heh, and brings ants).
Stay cool, it will pass, but I understand the discomfort and heat, it's so everywhere...it is nature's way of slowing the whole process of life.
Pam
My comment is just the sound of one woman gasping.
So sorry. I wish you were here instead. And yer little dog, too.
Lovin' Spoonful---a trip down memory lane! It's hot here too---high nineties and humid to boot.We tolerate this so we can have our blissful rest-of-the-year! If you go outside, even early in the,morning to tip around in the garden, you come back in soaked. But, it's August already. Fall's comin'.
My thermometer read 97 today. I don't know what the heat index is due to the humidity. There's hot and then there's HOTDAMN, and let me tell you, it is HOTDAMN with no sea breeze over here. Ok 97 is not 108, but over 90, that death heat all feels the same to me....
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