Hot 'nuff for ya?

I’ll be seeking a siesta with a cold drink in a shady spot … and suggest you all do the same.

Yeah, it’s been hot

And I’d be willing to wager it’s gonna be hot again.

I’m not sure why this seems to come as a surprise to so many folks. It’s summer…comes around every year…no surprise there. Or there shouldn’t be.

As for me, I’ve been waiting for this since the last sweaty day in September. A hot afternoon, a cold drink, a good book, a seat in the shade…life is good. Come summer, I take my cue from the turtles…relax and do little.

Of course, that hasn’t always been how my days went. In those days, long before curmudgeonly old-farthood, doing what needed to be done pretty much ruled out basking in the sun no less than five days out of the week. In those years, before I supported self and family by committing journalism, that usually involved actually working for a living…hammering nails, baling hay, mucking out calf pens…actual, honest work, done under God’s blue sky and sweltering sun. Work that had to get done, hot or not.

I won’t lie to ya. If I never find myself putting down shingles on a 90-degree day, I won’t feel the least bit deprived. But let me assure you, that sentiment goes double for thawing out frozen hog waterers on a 20-below morning.

Yeah, I’ll take hot over cold … and take either one over chilly.

I hate chilly. I hate chilly so much that I wish that tasty cumin-scented bean-beef-tomato stew were named something else. For hot there’s gin and tonic and a spot in the shade. For cold there’s woolly long johns and central heat. Chilly is numb toes, a runny nose, and no damn way to get away from it. Chilly sneaks in through the cracks, weasels in under the covers, settles in to where the sweater’s too light, the jacket’s too warm, and life will be off kilter for the duration.

Which brings me around to air conditioning.

I’m a fan of the fan. Whole building refrigeration…not so much.

Way, way too often our culture’s proclivity to blast the AC as soon as the ambient temp exceeds the high 60s leaves me chilly…very damn chilly.

Full disclosure here. I grew up and lived much of my adult life in homes without AC. Obviously, I survived – but I’ll confess, there were many a day when bringing lunchtime temp down 10, 15 degrees would have helped my bologna sandwich go down with greater pleasure. A little cool on a hot day can be a welcome thing…but turning every enclosed space I enter into a human meat locker takes me right out of my comfort zone.

One of the first survival skills imparted to me as a small boy was knowing how to dress for the weather. Pretty elementary stuff, but damn important where the daily temperature can vary by 130 degrees. That’s not a problem come winter – just shed the parka on coming inside. But coming in undressed for 95 and humid makes that 68-degree waiting room a veritable refrigerator unless you’ve packed an overnight bag with sweater, long pants, wool socks and a stocking cap.

There’s no serious doubting that climate change is giving us more and hotter summer days, a fact that even gives pause to a wanna-be lizard-man like me. There’s no small irony in the expectation that as the world grows hotter my days will be chillier as we try to air condition our way out of a crisis. Meantime, as the sun climbs high, I’ll be seeking a siesta with a cold drink in a shady spot … and suggest you all do the same.

After all, winter’s coming.