Jay and I have very different standards for when to turn on the central air. I would rather not have it on unless it’s both very hot and very sticky. I do have a window AC in my office because high end hand painted needlepoint canvases shouldn’t have sweat stains.
One of my favorite things is to sleep with the windows open. Even when it is hot and sticky, I like to crack the window next to my head so as not to feel claustrophobic while trying to sleep. What I really hate is being in the house while its being cooled down. It’s like being in a tomb.
We just had four days of temps in the high nineties and humidity to match.
The last few days, Jay didn’t have to fight me over having the air conditioning on in the house all day.
Okay, it wasn’t on all day: after Jay went to work, I turned it off for a few hours every morning, opened all the windows and doors and recycled the air. I love fresh air. Between 9:00 am and noon, even though the hot, damp air wasn’t exactly fresh, at least it hadn’t already been breathed, sweated, cooked and farted. By noon, the house was full of all new (hot, damp) air and I’d had it with sweating through my clothes.
Then, this morning, I awoke to thunder and pouring rain. It was raining so hard I couldn’t see the Parkhouse across the street. Rain is one of the best smells on earth so I opened the front door to see if the rain had cooled things down at all and it felt like I’d opened the door to a sauna.
So I left the air on.
The rain stopped by mid-morning and I opened everything up. Within minutes, my feet were sticking to the floor, so that didn’t work. I closed the house, hit ‘cool’ and went up to work.
Mid -afternoon, Megan dropped off the kids. While she went off to do her thing, the kids and I sat under an umbrella on the deck and ate popsicles. Most of the deck furniture was soaking wet so I moved it into the sunshine. The clouds were thinning out but it was still so hot that our popsicles melted too fast. Babalouie lost most of his when it fell off the stick.
I asked Babydoll what she wanted to do and she immediately answered “Walk around the lake.”
Ooh, that’s my girl. The problem was that the stroller had been out in the rain and was soaking wet. So we went down to the park, instead.
A few big puddles were the only clue that it had rained. The park was sunny and the pool was full of kids. Babydoll wanted to go swimming but we didn’t have any suits so the two of them played on the swings. After a half hour or so, Babydoll suggested we go back to the house to make sure there weren’t swim suits in their bag, which we’d left in the kitchen.
So we hiked back up the hill to the house. No swim suits. But we decided we needed another round of popsicles to cool us down after our exertions.
While we were enjoying them, Megan returned. Babydoll had some stern words for her, for leaving the swimbag at home. Babydoll has a wide bossy streak and a penchant for thinking she knows best: she’s a lot like some other little girls I’ve known. On the other hand, if you ask her ‘who’s the boss?’ she will reply without hesitation ‘Mom.’ Megan promised that they’d pack their suits from now on, just in case.
After they left, I went back into my air conditioned office and painted a few tree top angels. I didn’t come down until Jay came home and got dinner going.
So I was pretty surprised when I came down to discover that the skies had cleared completely, the humidity had broken and the temperature had come down about ten degrees.
It was absolutely perfect out.
Jay and I sat on the deck furniture that had dried out and had a drink while the ribs cooked on the grill. He had already turned off the air and opened all the windows.
Dinner was spectacular.
I’ll sleep well tonight.
And who knows? There could be another thunderstorm by morning.
Nope! Nine hours later, it’s till perfect!
I love Minnesota.