"Wait for the monsoons," they said. "It'll cool down," they said. Well…I have. And it didn't. And here I sit, naked at my desk chair, sweating and angry. I've been sweating since 8:30 since morning, and it's left me quite cranky.
Air conditioning isn't a thing here in Flagstaff. I don't know why, but it isn't. And it's hot here. High 80's/low 90's is hot and I don't care if it's a "dry" heat…it's still hot. I've been told to go spend a day in Phoenix, that upon my return to Flagstaff, I'll appreciate the weather here. And yes, it's hot in Phoenix. But that doesn't mean that it's not hot here. It's all relative to where you are. If I could bottle up the Phoenix environment and bust it out every time I started getting hot and cranky in Flagstaff, then yes, I probably would appreciate 90 degrees as opposed to 110. But I'm incapable of differentiating when I'm still sweating whilst lying in my skivvies in front of two fans running at high speed.
I'm a hot sleeper…alway have been, most likely always will be. I'm one of those crazy people who sleeps with the windows open almost right up until the first snows hit the ground. Even in the winter, I sleep with a light blanket, and sometimes just a sheet. We keep our furnace set around 62 degrees in winter, mostly because we're cheap and know that putting on more clothes is free, but partly because I don't like feeling overheated, not even a little bit. Simon is the opposite. He sleeps swaddled under a blanket even in the summertime. Most of the time, I can't even see his face because he covers up his head. The funny thing is, for someone who feels so cold while sleeping, he dumps heat like a furnace. I can't even sleep next to him most of the time.
I also have the misfortune of owning pugs…pugs who have less heat tolerance than I do, who pant at a constant starting at 60 degrees, and who can't stand to be more than 5 feet away from me at any given moment. So, not only am I hot and sweaty, but I've got two dogs who are hot and sweaty, panting in my face, stinking up my air and driving me nuts with the noise. Granted, I've made my bed with these dogs and so I have to lie in it, but the combination of my crankiness and their panting does not make for a good outcome. I find myself moving from room to room to avoid them, only to have them frantically pace after me to see where I'm going. Which just exacerbates the heavy breathing and the panting.
It's gotten to the point that I make up excuses to go places just so I can be in air conditioning. Our trips to the movie theater increase in the summer, I find random reasons to go to Target, and my desire to cook at home is non-existent. Well, I have very little desire to cook at home to begin with, but the idea of heating up the house by turning on the stove is repulsive. I even look forward to going to work, knowing that for 12 straight hours, I get to be cold.
We have a running joke in our house…"Simon said no." That's my response to just about anything when Simon thinks that an idea I have isn't really all that great. And 90% of the time, he's usually right. I'm one of those people who thinks that there's got be a way to buy something to make inconvenient situations convenient. Simon is one of those people who tries to make do with what he has until it has been proven otherwise. So you can see the struggle we sometimes have when faced with adversity, whether it be a legit adversity or not. I wanted an air conditioner in May. Simon said no, that we have enough fans and that we can leave the windows open at night and close them up during the day to keep the house cool. So that worked for May. I wanted an air conditioner in June, Simon gave me the same response. And for the most part, it worked. It's now July, the rainy season is here, and it's not cooling down like everyone promised it would. I remember going through this last year as well…the constant sweating, the crankiness, the inability to sleep…it's all so familiar. However, I made the proclamation just a few minutes ago, that I am buying an air conditioner on Monday. I don't yet know what kind, but it's happening. For the sake of all involved, if I have to spend very many more days like this, it's going to get really ugly.
On the plus side, I figured out how to make my favorite iced coffee drink from my favorite coffee drink here in town. I randomly asked them the other day if the iced mocha was made with milk or half and half, or a combination of the two, and was slightly disgusted to be informed that the drink is made with ONLY half and half. And I've been drinking 16oz cups of these things, multiple times a week. No wonder I can't lose an inch these days! So with Simon's newest interest in cold brew, I found a way to make my favorite iced drink using milk…I can barely tell the difference. And I'm happy again. And I hear thunder…bring it!!
bahaha! I can just see you running around the house with the pugs closing in. :) i too live in a climate where most of the summer we can get by on no A/C... this week is the beginning of the hot spell. The desire to go shopping and lack of desire to cook sounds all too familiar! hang in there!!
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