There's no point in trying to avoid it. I'm talking about summer heat in Washington DC. I know, some folks stay in their a/c houses, moving, when necessary, into their a/c cars in order to travel to their a/c cubicles at work. After work? A journey to an a/c supermarket, restaurant, or movie theater, then home ... to a/c of course.
That's not how we do it in DC, mostly. One of our shared values is an identification with being tough. So we go about our daily walks as if the air wasn't shimmering with heat. We sit out in the sun, some of us even take our usual run or bike ride.
When it's "just" hot, like yesterday and today, 100 F. (38 C), I like to put on a wide brimmed hat and take a walk at midday. Or a short bike ride. I'm not stupid - I don't stay out for a long time, and I know about hydration, etc. For me it's a shamanic dance of alignment with reality. Or maybe I like to pretend I'm tough, too.
Everyone draws the line somewhere. On days when the air is foul, those Code Red days? I stay inside and breathe filtered air. And on those days I judge the folks who are tougher than I am, out there taking a run in that toxic brew of heat, humidity and smog. I believe these people have taken it "too far." Or maybe I'm just intimidated by their will power. There's no shortage of that in DC, not ever!
Today is a work day. I'll move my massage table down to the first floor of Quiet Waters so I don't have to crank the a/c up to maximum. I won't be sitting on the porch between clients, either. It's supposed to crack 100 again today.
Summer is here. Hunker down, people! Or not ... whatever ...
7 comments:
We're feeling the heat too. I hate going from a/c to a/c. I had enough of that when we lived in Florida. So unnatural.
They say we'll have this hazy heat around until mid week. I do like to go out and feel the humidity on my skin until the heat becomes unbearable. Then it is hunker down time in the good ole a/c. For sure.
For me the a/c is an absolute necessity, inbetween bouts of being tough. lol.
Also I drink gallons of my fav summer drink, the Arnold Palmer: half lemonade, half sweet iced tea. Delish!
I must admit I'm inside with my a/c on at the moment. :) (And we're a whole five degrees cooler than you!)
I'm so used to a/c now, that when I lost power several nights ago, I found it extremely difficult to fall asleep! (And this well before the heat wave...)
But I do like to feel moments of the heat during the day. It feels good on the skin.
The Catskills are only 15 degrees cooler today, but since we on a ridge almost at the top of a mountain, there's a constant (clean) breeze. We could easily have a wind farm up there! However in Nyack it hit 97.2 degrees and Nyack's air is nowhere near as clean as the Catskills air. You need to visit the 'skills honey!
You know what? I do need to visit the Catskills!
When I was driving to my OUTDOOR gig yesterday afternoon, the outside temperature reading on my car said 101 degrees as I was crossing over Connecticut Avenue on the Beltway. By the time I got to the American Legion Bridge it had cooled off to to a mere 99 degrees.
Ouch!
If I can remain as still as possible I actually like being outside during really hot weather. Unfortunately that was not in the cards for yesterday.
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