Heat Wave Whining

The heat wave continues and I'm torn between feeling frustrated and foolish at how utterly flattened I am by it. Years ago my mom used to complain about how she couldn't handle the "heat" and I will admit to thinking she was exaggerating her reaction to it. I mean, I never felt ill, so why would she? Now I've gotten older and in the last few years I've consistently gotten ill from the first high temperatures of the summer but a day or two of heat sickness, then I'd adjust and be fine.

But here I am, still feeling useless and ill two weeks into nonstop heat, two weeks of temperatures over 100 degrees. It doesn't help that the heat is triggering hot flashes. Nor that I've picked up a bit of a stomach bug the last couple of days. I've tried pretending I'm not feeling ill from the heat. That hasn't been particularly helpful. I put a photo of an icy ocean up as wallpaper on my computer. I'm fondly replaying memories of chilly autumn winds and winter snowfalls. I've tried simply waiting out the heat and getting things done at night when the temperatures drop a little, but I'm so exhausted from feeling sick during the day that I don't have much energy to do anything even when it's finally cooler. "Cooler" being a relative term.

It's embarrassing to complain about the heat when folks over in the valley have had temperatures consistently ten degrees hotter then here in the mountains. The national news just did a small spot on the ongoing heatwave and said at least 102 deaths in California have been attributed to it. It's frightening to think of how someone with less mobility or financial means, elderly or isolated, might be at the mercy of this unmerciful weather.

About the only thing that helps is going somewhere air conditioned during the heat of the day. An hour or so in an air conditioned restaurant, my body temperature goes down, I feel well enough to eat (not eating doesn't help, I'm sure) and then I start to feel bored and restless and want to go home and get something done. Of course within minutes of leaving the air conditioning I feel drained by the heat again. So drained it's hard to even think clearly sometimes. William suggested I bring my laptop and write, a brilliant idea, if my brain wasn't feeling so muzzy, boggy, sizzled from the heat. Sigh. I have been able to retreat into novels quite a bit, until today when the headache made my eyes hurt too much to read.

Okay, that's enough whining. The temperature has dropped enough to feel downright cool tonight. A couple of migraine formula tablets and extra water and my headache if finally receding. Now, for some more pleasant ramblings...

The most exciting news, I'm typing this on my laptop, while sitting on the couch watching... well, I was watching the news, then a landscaping challenge show on HGTV, and now a rerun of Monk I've never seen before. I bought a wireless router for our cable service while I was in Reno the other day and my darling son figured out how to make it all work. Isn't he a wonderful boy!? YES!

Rosie has been such a funny girl today. This afternoon I threw one of her toys for her to fetch. It fell behind a box sitting in front of the rocking chair, some bags and baskets, and a standing lamp on the other side of the room. She jumped off the couch, ran across the room, wound her way through the maze of chair legs, a basket, and the lamp base. Finding the toy she came out the other side of the box, which wasn't blocked at all. It was completely clear on that side of the box. She was about to run back across the room when she paused, thought "this isn't the way I came" turned and very carefully made her way back through the more convoluted path, not easy with a big stuffed toy in her mouth. She returned the toy, proud at doing it "right".

Later in the day she was walking across the top of the bed as my husband left the bedroom to go into the bathroom. As he was closing the door he, uhm, well, he farted - loudly. At the sound, Rosie stopped halfway across the bed and looked at her butt as if to say "Was that me!?"

Lastly, a dog barked on the street outside a little while ago. Rosie was on the living room floor. Her ears perked up and she immediately jumped from the floor to the couch, from the couch to the windowsill above the couch. Well, that was the plan anyway. She managed the floor to couch part fine. It was the couch to windowsill that didn't go as planned. She didn't get quite enough lift and ended up bouncing back off the couch back cushions. Without hesitation she took a second jump and made it to the windowsill, too busy barking furiously at the dog on HER street to be embarrassed, but it was funny to see her bounce across the room like a super ball, a little back bounce in the middle of it all.

Okay, maybe those Rosie stories weren't funny enough to be blog material. I can't really say, the heat has made it tough to make simple assessments. Maybe some ice cream will help cool me down. With chocolate. Chocolate lowers body temperature, right? What else..... ghosts? Aren't ghosts supposed to lower the air temperature? The classic "cold spot" in a haunted house? How does one invite ghosts to come for a visit? Okay, now I know I'm not making any sense. I'll go eat that ice cream.