“The sun burnt every day. It burnt time.”
Yesterday I went on the deck to fill feeders and water plants. That was my only visit to the outside world. Today it may reach 90˚ here on the cape for the first time all summer. The rest of the state is in an official heat wave, 90˚ weather three days or more. Today is day four. I have to go out, a no choice errand. I’m already dreading the trip.
I have become intolerant of too much heat and too much cold. Maybe it is because I am so much older than I was. My mother used to keep her heat so high in the winter the rest of us wore t-shirts. When I lived in a hot country, I abided the heat. I had no choice. Now I leave the air-condition running. I think today is day three. My feet get cold so I put on slippers. I think having cold feet in the middle of a heat wave is a wonderful thing.
None of my windows have shades. I have never liked them. I might have gone with blinds, but I didn’t think of them, and I probably would have put them only in the two bathrooms. The windows in the den here and the ones in the dining room have nothing, not even curtains. The window in here facing east is my favorite view of all the windows. From it I can see the trees in the backyard, the bird feeders and the now opened red umbrella on the deck. If I were a painter, I would use water colors to paint my view. The living room lace curtains came from Ireland. I bought them in a store in Dublin. The rest of the rooms have a variety of curtains: valances, full curtains and half curtains with valances. The ones in my bedroom came from India. I bought them on-line. The ones in the guest room came from Bradlees, a store no longer in existence. Soon the upstairs bathroom will have curtains made of cloth from Ghana which matches some of the cloth in my new shower curtain. Grace said she saw the cloth in Accra at a market and will buy it for me. That’s kinda neat when you think about it: there’s the Ghana connection still so strong and the market and cloth and my former student who is 60 or 61 and happy to shop for me but won’t call me by my first name. I am Madam or Miss Ryan.
When I was young, I lived in a cave, not a real cave but a darkened house which resembled a cave. My mother put the shades down in every room to keep out the heat. I remember walking outside and not being able to see because of all that sun. We had morphed into moles.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: air-conditioning, Bradlees, cold feet, curtains, Ghanaian cloth curtains, heat, Heat Wave, Indian curtains, intolerant of heat, lace curtains, moles, shades, windows
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July 18, 2013 at 12:38 pm
Hi Kat,
Curtains from Bradlees. Wow! That’s thrifty. Not to mention very hard wearing curtains.
I think I still have a Casio watch that I bought there. It doesn’t work.
I like lots of light. If I could, I would have glass walls and brick windows. And sky lights in all the rooms. I don’t know how that would work in a two story house but I can dream anything I want.
I haven’t been out yet but will have to go out later on. The Jeep is finally coming home after a month of being in the repair shop. Yay! Life will be normal again though my bank account will be much thinner. I miss my jeep and so does Rocky. He hates the rental car.
It hasn’t reached 90 here yet. I’m sure it will. I have lanterns on my front steps. Inside are battery operated candles that are made of wax. I have had to bring them inside every day this week because they were beginning to melt in the sun.
Stay cool. Only a couple more days of this to go.
July 18, 2013 at 1:28 pm
Hi Miss Ryan:
Just came back from Fedexing our visa applications to Ghana. I think this is the first time I have had to fill out a visa app. Every other time it was done by my company. The Ghana Embassy really makes you jump thru hoops to visit Ghana.
Peg is working today. The girls are coming over to chill out in the pool for awhile. Saturday should bring some relief in the form of violent thunderstorms–can’t wait. Homemade black iced coffee is keeping me sane this week.
I remember being in the classroom in Bolgatanga at 8 a.m., and the temp was 110 degrees. Gotta love those metal roofs.
July 18, 2013 at 2:20 pm
Hello Mr. Sandford,
The passports will be back quickly. I was surprised at how soon they were returned. I sent mine registered at the PO with the return registered inside.
I adore iced coffee, homemade or Dunkin’s. I have been drinking lemonade today just for a change. I left the house to get x-rays, and it hit 90º while I was out.
In the rain, I loved those metal roofs even though you couldn’t teach. It was the sound I loved. In the sun it was like being in an oven.
I am just sitting here in the AC and reading. This is the life I was meant to lead (with lots more money though!).
July 18, 2013 at 2:28 pm
Hi Coleen,
They were exactly what I wanted, and I had looked everywhere. The curtains are long and white curtains and match the room which is blue while the spreads, antique ones, are blue and white. I think of it as my Victorian room.
I get light in here after the morning because it faces east and then it stay light all day. I have candles in the trees and on the tables. It looks like a fairly land on the deck. I also have lights in the yard: some on trees and others on metal. They look so great.
In Ghana, all my regular candles melted without ever being lit. They were perfectly flat.
Counting the days until Saturday’s thunder showers!!!
July 18, 2013 at 1:50 pm
I KNOW you are not lace curtain Irish, right? LOL!
Waving from…oh hell, it’s too damn hot. I send my regards…
🙂
Coleen
July 18, 2013 at 2:23 pm
Coleen,
I always think of them as ironic!!
It is too damn hot for anything. I went out on the deck to water plants and couldn’t stand it. I had no shoes on and my feet were burning. I’ll go out later to water them.
Sat cool if you can!! Waving from the AC house!!
July 18, 2013 at 3:19 pm
90 degrees? That’s generally a cool day in these parts, so you can guess I don’t have a lot of sympathy for you northerners. Understanding, yes. Sympathy, no. The temperature here just got a bit cooler a few minutes ago. Down from 87ª to 86º. It feels like a cold snap! The much-needed showers we got the past couple of days were most welcome and I’ve got my eyes on the sky hoping for another today. Alas, this good weather won’t last and we’ll be blasting away in a furnace before we know it. So count your blessings that your hot temps are the abnormal and not the normal. Iced TEA is the beverage of choice for me. SWEET tea at that. When I lived here years ago, if you ordered tea in a restaurant, they automatically brought sweetened tea. Today, the influx of people from other parts of the country seems to have had an influence and they now ask if you want sweet or unsweet. See how progressive we are! Be patient — it’ll be deck weather again for you before you know it. (BTW, I may have missed it, but did you ever come up with a theme for your weekly movie nights?)
Sending cool breezes your way… im6
July 18, 2013 at 3:45 pm
im6,
This has been the hottest week on the Cape in my memory. I can’t remember the last time we hit 90˚. WE are supposed to have thunder showers and cooler temperatures starting Saturday.
It hasn’t rained in ages.
I really like ice tea but not SWEET tea. I find it cloying. I am very impressed with how worldly your state has become.
No theme for this summer, just an odd bunch of movies. It’s difficult as we all have such different tastes. I hate musicals, but I love West Side Story which I happen to have. I’m going through my movies and I bring out a couple for choosing. We won’t have one Saturday if the weatherman is correct. I love movie night!!
July 18, 2013 at 3:52 pm
I asked about movies because I saw a couple on cable this week I’d forgotten about, but they really don’t fall into any particular category other than being good:
1) Jonathan Demme’s “Melvin And Howard” (1980). Offbeat and quirky. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081150/?ref_=sr_1
2) Peter Bogdanovich’s “Paper Moon” (1973). Offbeat and quirky. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070510/?ref_=sr_2
Offbeat and quirky. Do you detect a trend?
July 18, 2013 at 5:57 pm
im6,
I like the trend! I really liked both of the movie you’ve mentioned. Thnaks for reminding me of some great suggestions!!!!
July 18, 2013 at 6:27 pm
In 1953 my family moved from Brooklyn NY to Dallas Texas. Besides the culture shock of living in the segregated south, that first summer’s heat was murderous. My father was a traveling salesman and had an air conditioner installed in his car, a Buick straight eight Special. This air conditioner’s evaporator lived in the trunk and the cold air was funneled up through the package shelf on both sides of the car through clear plastic tubes. This thing could make the car cold enough to hang meat so my mother would wear a sweater while riding shotgun. The following summer we drove to NYC to visit the family. We arrived in lower Manhattan at rush hour and were crawling through the streets of the Lower East Side to get to the Williamsburg bridge. People were stopping on the sidewalks and laughing at us because they couldn’t understand why anyone would be driving in the summer heat with the windows rolled up or why a woman sitting in the car was wearing a sweater while they were sweating in the heat and humidity. What a difference 60 years makes? I don’t think you can even buy a new car without air conditioning today.
Airconditioning made the entire economic boom in the sunbelt possible. I think it’s the second most important invention next to indoor plumbing.
July 18, 2013 at 6:43 pm
Bob,
That’s a great story. I never knew air conditioning in any form was available in a car in 1953. I can imagine how it must have looked by the time you got to New York. Now it is strange to see a car with open windows in the heat.
I remember when theaters first were air-conditioned. That got people in the door on hot nights. I remember going to a matinee not so many years ago before I had central air. It was wonderful sitting in the cool theater.
July 18, 2013 at 7:44 pm
Theaters were some of the first places to get air conditioning because they realized the economic benefit. Many people living in the North don’t have central air conditioning today. I am always struck by how many homes I drive by in places like Toronto that have window air conditioning units.
July 18, 2013 at 8:12 pm
Bob,
Most everyone I know has window units. My neighbors across the street and I are the only ones with central air.
Most times it is the upstairs bedrooms which need air for sleeping as the downstairs room stay cool enough to abide with windows and doors opened.
I knew air in theaters was a money maker. It was well-advertised to draw in customers.
July 18, 2013 at 9:18 pm
Ouch, that is too hot. I hope the x-rays show everything is fine. I will be going for x-rays Monday, because my toe hasn’t healed at all, it seems to have become worse. Yes, I am from the mole family, I stay indoors, and venture out once it has cooled off some Of course we don’t get much really hot weather here.
When I was a child, my father was so “allergic” to heat, he had the beach house on the dunes air-conditioned. That was unheard of. I would be thrilled to live in that house now ( except I think Sandy must have rolled it into the sea).
Keep cool,
Waving,
Lori and…..
July 18, 2013 at 10:08 pm
Lori,
It is absolutely too hot, but I am cozy in my air conditioned house. I did go out as I had to have x-rays on my back so I had no choice. Luckily I went from the cool house to the cool car.
No one I knew had air conditioning when I was a child. We had fans, and that was it though they were enough to get us to fall asleep.
I’m keeping nice and cool inside my house!!
Waving!!