The AC is on high with the outside temperature already in the high 80’s, and when you add the humidity, the low 90’s. We are under a heat emergency while north of us has an official heat wave. I have a list for today, my first list in a while. It is a long one with more than a couple of stops. The dump is on the list, but I’m moving that to tomorrow as that’s when my cleaning lady comes. Laundry is not on the list. I have no dirty laundry. I’ll repeat that last one: I have no dirty laundry, literally or proverbially.

We didn’t have air conditioning or even fans when I was a kid. My mother kept the house almost as dark as a cave. All the shades were down to keep out the heat. I remember being restless in bed on hot nights. I remember throwing off my sheet and being impatient for the Sandman and the dreams he’d bring. But finally, the bike riding, the games at the park, the walking to the pool or the zoo caught up with me and I’d fall asleep.

In Ghana, during the dry season, every day was close to or over a hundred. I didn’t have a fan then either. I’d go about my day regardless of the heat. I’d teach my T2 classes, the second years, every day. Often, when my work day was over, I’d even take a nap. Everything in town shut down for a couple of hours each day. Later in the afternoon, I’d sometimes go to town. I’d walk but not very far. Someone always stopped to give me a ride. They knew the white lady walking down the road was a teacher at the training college. It worked the same way for my walk home. I was one of few whites in town and the only one at my school until my second year when Bill and Peg joined me so most people knew who I was. They aways greeted me as madame. Every night I took my cold shower. I hurried doing my hair as the first water out of the pipe had been warmed by the sun. I rinsed with the cold. During the dry season I never toweled dry. I’d put on my robe while I was still wet, hurry inside and go to sleep as the air dried me. That always worked.