Posted tagged ‘hot’
August 11, 2016
Here I am again, inside the house retreating from the heat. Today will be in the high 80’s on the cape and the 90’s in Boston and north of Boston. My friend Bill sent me the weather from Bolgatanga, Ghana where it will be cooler than here and rainy. What’s with that, cooler in Africa than here?
I could do a couple of errands today, but I won’t. I’m staying housebound by choice. I have food and drink, a semi-full larder, so I’ll be content and cool. I’m even considering baking something.
I hit a wall in watching the Olympics so last night I hunted for something else. It ended up being Cupcake Wars. I traded one boring program for a really boring program, but I’m guessing those cupcakes inspired me to think about baking today. This morning I’ve already watched women’s water polo. That wall is getting closer.
Yesterday I did two loads of laundry. They by themselves are not remarkable, but, for once, I didn’t leave any laundry in the dryer. I am known for leaving laundry in the dryer for up to a week. The clothes come out really wrinkled, but I don’t care.
Books are on the table in front of me as is the TV remote. They represent the day’s diversions, things to keep me busy, things to help the day pass.
When I was a kid, I’d be bored by the middle of August. I had done all the fun things several times, and they had begun to lose their luster. The afternoons were often too hot to do much. I remember being at the park and sitting in the shade. We played some checkers at the table and worked gimp. I remember painting a tray for my mother. We couldn’t play softball. Little kids couldn’t use the slide and seesaw because of the heat. The metal slide would have burned the backs of their legs. August is always hot and humid.
Every month I get a report from my electric company on my usage and how it compares to my neighbors’ usage. My sister in Colorado happened to mention her report to me as her husband, Rod, showed her they were the highest in the neighborhood. I said mine was too. We both decided we didn’t care. We want to live comfortably: cool in summer and warm in winter. I’m sending my next one to Rod so he’ll see they are not alone.
Tonight after midnight the Perseids meteor shower will begin, but the best viewing is after 1 AM or even later. There will be an unusually high number of meteors tonight anywhere from 160 to 200 meteors per hour. The suggestion is to lie on your back and look straight up. Drinking caffein to stay awake was another suggestion. I’m thinking iced coffee.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 90's, Africa, baking, Bolgatanga, boredom, cool in summer, Cupcake Wars, electric report, Ghana, gimp, hot, Olympics, park, staying cool, swimming, warm in winter
Comments: 14 Comments
July 26, 2016
I’m close to screaming in frustration. Today will be hot yet again. That the humidity will be less is small consolation. I have the AC off for a while, but the temperature in the house has risen three degrees already so soon enough I’ll be stuck behind closed doors and windows. I did finish one of my errands yesterday, but that still leaves one more for today.
The kitchen in the house where I lived the longest was tiny. When the oven was lit, the kitchen quickly got hot and stayed that way long after dinner was finished. My mother, during the summer, cooked on the stove top. She made stuff like pasta, hamburgers, fried dough and even hot dogs. She never grilled. Her dinner sides were sometimes potato salad or pasta salad. She never made a green salad. Dessert was always a maybe dependent on what was in the house. It could have been cookies, Oreos of course, or ice cream or a popsicle. My favorite popsicle was root beer followed by a close second, cherry. If neither was available, an orange would do just fine.
Some people I know don’t ever eat leftovers. I don’t get that. Some food tastes better the next day. My chili is always best the day after I make it so I usually make it the day before I need it. That way any fat gets skimmed. I like leftover pasta. Add fresh garlic bread, some cheese and you have a perfect meal.
Winter has comfort food. It keeps us warm and brings back memories. Summer has hot dogs and hamburgers best cooked on a grill. You have to toast the buns.
My mother used to make piccalilli every fall when there were green tomatoes. She made New England style piccalilli with those green tomatoes, red peppers, onions, brown sugar, cider vinegar and some spices like mustard powder and a few others I don’t remember. She’d give us all a couple of jars. I’d use it sparingly so it would last longer. I swear a hot dog with my mother’s piccalilli was perfection in a bun.
Categories: Musings
Tags: AC, Air conditioner, cherry, comfort food, errands, hamburgers, hot, hot dogs, hot kitchen, ice cream, leftovers, oreos, oven, pasta, popsicle, Potato salad, root beer, stove top
Comments: 14 Comments
July 25, 2016
It is change the air day so the AC is off for a bit, a short bit as the house is getting hot too quickly. There is a breeze, but it is doing little good. It might thunder shower this afternoon. That would be a most welcomed storm.
I have a couple of errands I can do today or I can wait until cooler weather. That might be Friday or Saturday. My friend Peg, one half of my Ghana travel mates, reminded me I need to get used to the heat. I remember the last time I was there every time I did anything I was soaked from sweat. The dry season is easier to get used to as the rainy season brings the humidity. We’ll be there at the tail end of rain.
It seems the older I get the less tolerant I am of weather. I hate the heat in summer and the cold in winter. The AC is now on days at a time. In my earlier life, I didn’t even have a fan, and I was always comfortable. All winter I now wear a sweatshirt even though the heat is on 68˚. I used to need only a long-sleeve shirt. My mother always kept her house far too hot in the winter. My sister and I wore tee shirts and complained. Now we both understand.
I have stuff to do on the deck like check lights, put the adapter on the umbrella and water plants. These are wonderful intentions but that’s what they’ll stay, intentions. I use the heat as my reason, not my excuse.
Across the top of one chair was a spider’s web. When I was going to clean it, I noticed many tiny spiders were attached to the web. In August my house is inundated with baby spiders. Now I understand why. In that one web were about twenty not ready to be born babies. I left them there. I’ll complain about all the spiders, but I just could’t bring myself to swipe away that web. It was sort of neat to see.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 68˚, AC, baby spider, change the air day, cold, Consumer Cellular, hot, humidity, spiders, sweating, thunder shower, web, winter
Comments: 18 Comments
July 23, 2016
The doors and windows are open just to change the air. It is already hot, and the house is up to 73˚. When it hits 74˚, the air conditioner will be back on to keep the house cool. Nothing is stirring not even a leaf. It is a quiet Saturday morning. I do hear bird calls but no cars and no kids.
In a bit I have to start getting ready for movie night. I have to bring up the projector, the table and the screen. They are in the cellar but will be stored under the dining room table for the season. Already, on the counter, are some ingredients I need for dinner. I’m using my lazy Susan for the condiments. I’ll cook the peppers and onions ahead of time then reheat them for dinner. There are three different kinds of sausages. There’s also cole slaw as a side. I do have to go out for a single errand. I need blue curacao for tonight’s signature drink. It’s a new one. I was drawn by the glasses rimmed in coconut.
The barbecues we had as kids were always hot dogs and hamburgers or cheeseburgers. There was always a bowl of potato chips. My father, like every other man in the neighborhood, was the cook. He always had a charcoal grill. He always used the fluid to start the coals. We used to hear the whoosh of the fire from the lit fuel. We also sometimes heard my dad putting out the flame on his shoes or the cuffs of his pants. Mishaps aside, my dad always cooked the food perfectly. When we were older, the menu took a decided turn. The meat changed. My mother bought chicken, sausages, steak tips, ribs or pork. The potato chips disappeared and were replaced by my mother’s potato salad. My father still cooked, but he used a hibachi because his grill had bitten the dust, had rotted away, but it didn’t matter. He still cooked dinner to perfection.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Chicken, cole slaw, hamburgers, hot, hot dogs, movie night, peppers and onions, perfect dinner, Potato salad, quiet, ribs pork, sausages, steak tips, windless
Comments: 14 Comments
May 26, 2016
Yesterday summer dropped by for a visit and decided to stay a while. It was 70˚ here and in the high 80’s away from the coast. It will be the same today.
This morning the doorbell rang at the ungodly hour of eight. Gracie, in her watch dog mode, started barking, leapt off the bed and ran downstairs. Other than the barking, I did the same thing. It was Sebastian, my neighbor and landscaper, who handed me my morning papers from the driveway. He just laughed when I told him he had woken me up in what was literally a rude awakening. Sebastian said he had rung the bell to let me know he and his guys were working on the garden planting the new flowers and herbs and laying down mulch. I was actually glad he had rung the bell as I had other yard work needing a bit of attention. One guy cleaned out the winter headquarters of the spawn of Satan, my outside shower, which had a huge mound of pine cones and pieces of pine cones meant to feed families of spawns over the winter. They also filled Gracie’s chasms. One hole was so big it needed to be walked around instead of jumped across. I swear I could faintly hear Chinese. I think it was Mandarin. Finally they cleaned the debris from the deck and from the deck furniture. Sebastian said the guy would be here tomorrow to stain the deck. I asked him to swear the guy was coming. Sebastian declined.
The noisy morning has given way to a stillness occasionally punctuated by the sounds of birds singing and Gracie snoring. All three animals are here with me, and all of them are sleeping. Fern and Gracie are on the couch and Maddie is on her chair.
Days like today are meant to be enjoyed. The wash I was going to do can wait until tomorrow or even Saturday. There is no rush. I could do a dump run, but that too can be put off until tomorrow. Nothing is a must today except maybe some time on the deck with a cold drink and a book.
Categories: Musings
Tags: China, digging holes, herbs, hot, morning nap, mounds of pine cones, Mulch, planting flowers, rude awakening, summer day
Comments: 10 Comments
September 8, 2015
Yesterday Boston set a new record for the day’s high temperature at 92˚. Happily we were much cooler thanks to the sea breeze. Yesterday’s leave the cape exodus of tourists was backed up for 6 miles to get over the bridge. I think I would have gone crazy sitting in my car for that long.
Nothing outside is moving. The air is thick with humidity. My street is so quiet it could be an after shot in an apocalyptic movie. The breeze we had yesterday is gone. Today feels more like a day in August, a dog day. It was already so hot in the house, 78˚, that I turned on the AC. When Gracie came inside, her whole body seemed to be panting, but the cool air now has her quiet and sleeping.
September is a neither nor month. It is neither summer nor fall but can be either. Last week it was in the 50’s at night. Last night was close to 70˚. Boston may have another heat wave, three straight days in the 90’s, but by the weekend it’ll be back to the 50’s at night. The temperature doesn’t really matter. September is still my second favorite month.
I had two whole paragraphs written about people who drive me crazy because they are ill-mannered and impolite, but I ditched them as they made me sound like some old lady. I imagined myself stooped, carrying a cane and wearing generic frame glasses. I’d be wearing flowers on my clothes and smelling like lilac. I’d have expectations for other people and mumble when they didn’t meet them. That’s why those paragraphs disappeared.
Nothing much to do today. I think I’ll just read and do a couple of chores to make me feel accomplished. I have already cleaned the two cat boxes, a gross chore. I do need to wash the dog’s bedding and today is as good a day as any. I’m going to order in for dinner. I’m thinking a sub, maybe sausage parmesan. That will be the big decision of the day.
Categories: Musings
Tags: AC, apocalyptic movie., cat box, chores, dog bedding, hot, humidity, long wait over the bridge, nothing is moving, old lady, stir crazy, sub sandwich
Comments: 6 Comments
August 3, 2015
I should have done something illegal so I could count all these days inside as house arrest. This morning I gave the day a chance but it failed. I opened doors and windows but the house got warm far too quickly; however, the paper’s weather prediction does offer some hope: a late-night thunderstorm and another one tomorrow. Thursday and Friday will drop to the 70’s during the day and the mid 60’s at night. I can hardly wait. Today looks lovely from the window view. The sun is bright and there is a breeze. What you can’t see is the humidity hanging in the air.
I look at the obits, not all of them, just the headlines. Fame is relative so I don’t know most of the people highlighted who were well-known on the Cape. They all seem to have lasted a long time. 80+ is the average. The only obits I notice in the Globe are those of famous people. Cilla Black died yesterday. She was 72. My first thought was how young she was, a reaction which has to do with my age and thinking of myself as still young.
My generation sees age very differently than previous generations. One of my friends will be 70 this year. When my grandparents were 70, I thought them quite old. They looked old and dressed old. I couldn’t imagine being 70. I wondered how it felt and whether or not it was scary. I believed it was limiting as my grandparents hardly did anything. They stayed home mostly, and we went to them.
My mother cracked the mold. She never dressed 70, and she traveled. Our last trip together was to Italy. I wanted to be just like her.
In my head I am still quite young though word retrieval is a problem and hints to my being older. I don’t think of limitations though I’m stuck with a bad back which curtails my walking. I dress exactly as I have all of my life though far more casually every day than when I worked. I don’t stop to think sometimes when I carry stuff. I forget I’m not 25 or even 55. I used to haul 50 pounds of cat litter into the house. Now I find 20 pounds a burden which leave my back aching. I am a bit surprised at that being so young and all.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 70's, age, casually dressed, cooler weather, dressing old, feeling young, hot, house arrest, humidity, looking old, obits, thunderstorm.
Comments: 10 Comments
July 17, 2015
My house was only 66˚ when I woke up. In the winter that’s cold but during this time of year it’s a pleasant, lovely morning. Today will be in the 70’s, but tomorrow the humidity will return with stifling air which will make moving uncomfortable and sweaty. No one is attractive in the humidity. We all wilt. Sunday will be the same but with a probability of rain.
My mother was always cold. She kept her house in the 70’s during the winter. The rest of us wore t-shirts and sandals and light pants. Her house was almost tropical. We complained, and she hated it when we did. Now, as I get older, I understand. Each winter I am colder than I had been the winter before. I keep the house at the same temperature it has been for years, but I need a sweatshirt. Long sleeves used to be enough. I think I am becoming my mother.
The other day my former Ghanaian student Franciska called. She likes to check to make sure I am doing well. She calls me her mother though I am only seven years older than she, but motherhood, to her, is a matter of principal, not age. I was her teacher, and that is enough to bestow motherhood on me.
When I am with Franciska, I notice she talks to anyone she can. She also introduces me to her new friends as her mother. They look a bit bewildered until Franciska explains I was her Peace Corps teacher 45 years ago. I cringe at the 45 but love that Peace Corps gets into the conversation. Anything that promotes the Peace Corps is just fine with me. Franciska often tells me she is still bewildered as to why volunteers actually agreed to go to Bolga. She says even Ghanaians don’t like Bolga. It is flat, almost treeless and hot, really hot, in the dry season. Back in my day there were no creature comforts, but I always figured that was just part of the Peace Corps experience: you take, even embrace, what you’re given.
My list is long today-errand day. I have four stops and not a single one of them is fun or exciting. Where’s the Ferris wheel when you need one?
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, cold winter, errand day, Ghana, hot, hot in the house, humidity, Peace Corps, pleasant moring, rain showers, stifling, sweatshirt, wilting in the heat
Comments: 6 Comments
July 12, 2015
The air conditioner is keeping the humidity at bay, but I feel a bit like a hermit. The closed windows and doors isolate me. No outside sounds, no people can be heard. Rod Serling could be standing in front of a camera on the front steps to introduce this episode of The Twilight Zone. I can hear him now,”Inside this house Kathleen Ryan sits in isolation, comfortable and cool and totally unaware that the world outside her walls has changed, but soon enough she’ll know she has entered The Twilight Zone.”
The morning is sunny with a slight breeze, but I can already feel the heat when I open the door to let Gracie in and out. According to the weather in the paper, the humidity will start to lessen tomorrow.
I don’t remember the weather being such a complicated topic when I was a kid. It was hot or cold or comfortable. There were no ten-day forecasts or drawings of cold fronts sweeping down from Canada. Forecasting was iffy at best, and the weatherman, always a man back then, was the target when his forecast went awry, and it went awry often. The best way to check the weather was to walk outside.
We seldom got sick when I was growing up. I think it had to do with the world being far less sanitized than it is now. We did get measles, mumps and chicken pox, but those were expected and there was nothing you could do about them. The worst was the itch from chicken pox. My mother went crazy making sure we didn’t scratch, “Do you want scars all over your face?” Then there was the possibility of blindness from measles. My mother kept the shades down and muted the light from the lamp by covering the shade. I couldn’t read or watch TV so lying in bed doing nothing made having measles seem interminable. The only thing I remember about the mumps is how huge my face and neck felt. I don’t know who brought home the mumps first but all four if us got sick at just about the same time. All I can think of is my poor mother!
Categories: Musings
Tags: air-conditioning, children's diseases, forecast, hermit, hot, humidity, Measles, Twilight Zone, weatherman
Comments: 6 Comments
July 6, 2015
I’m melting. I’m melting. Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit. From wearing hoodies on July 4th to 84˚ this morning is a giant leap. The sun is brutal already. It is pretty to look at but that’s where the good part ends. It is just plain hot. Luckily this room is still cool as it doesn’t get sun until afternoon. It is a full 10 degrees cooler than outside. I will migrate to the deck when I finish here. If there is a breeze, it will find my deck.
At the park where I used to spend my summer days, the picnic table was in the shade under trees.The horseshoe pit was also in the shade just below where the table sat. The softball field was in total sun. Practice meant sweating all over including drips in my eyes and on my cheeks. I used the sleeves of my blouse to wipe my face. The sleeves got grimy, but I didn’t care. The slide got so hot in the mid-afternoons you chanced burns using it. The only water was a bubbler close by to the park. We taught Butch, the neighbor’s dog who followed us everywhere, to drink from it. We also taught Butch how to climb the ladder then slide to the ground. I spend most of my pre-teen summer days at that park. We always had plenty to do. I remembering painting flowers on a wooden tray for my mother. It was the best painting job I ever did. I bought gimp and made my father a key chain which he gushed over but never really used. It was well made but a bit gaudy and what adult male uses a gimp key chain? A couple of afternoons a week we competed against other town parks in baseball and softball. There was even a park column in the town’s weekly paper, The Independence. I love seeing my name in print and saved all of the columns which mentioned me. The park closed from 12 to 1 for lunch, and I’d go home, about 5 or 6 minutes away, eat lunch and sometimes even change my grimy blouse then it was back to the park until it closed at 4.
At the end of the summer we had contests then awards. I was the horseshoe champ a couple of years running. I also got awards for softball as our team was always first or second in the park league. I won the checker board award one year but only one year. I really loved going to that park. It was such a fun way to spend every summer day and having my name in the paper was my favorite perk.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 84˚, brutal sun, bubbler, Fenway Park, gimp, grimy blouse, horseshoe pit, hot, hot slide, on the deck, painintg, softball field, wooden tray
Comments: 6 Comments
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