Seems we arrived in the middle of a heat wave…I just figured it was normal Oklahoma hot! It’s 10 p.m and it’s still 91 degrees outside. There has not been a single day since we arrived when the high temperature was below 91 and three days the high was 100 or above. Even the professors have been apologizing for the weather…frankly, I like it. It’s just not that bad with the lower humidity and the wind blowing. I even opened the window in my room this morning to enjoy the warm breeze. They keep the thermostats in the halls set really cool and even if mine is set higher, the fan brings in the cold air.
Oh, dear. I just had a flash of my grandmother sitting outside at my parents’ house in Raleigh in the middle of July…wearing a sweater. Everybody else was getting inside as quickly as possible, but she seemed to prefer to stay outside. I could not understand how she could do that without melting. I realized that she grew up before air conditioning was the norm, but Piedmont North Carolina in the middle of July is just plain muggy! And yet now I seem to be comfortable in those high temperatures myself. Even though I am considerably younger than she was at that time (she had to be in her 80′s), I am beginning to see how much a person’s comfort zone can change through a lifetime.
My “kids” are much less tolerant of temperature extremes than I seem to be right now. They think that I keep the thermostat set too low in the winter and too high in the summer. It’s not unusual to find that it has been “adjusted” closer to what they prefer. Of course, nobody admits that they did it, but then they don’t pay the electricity bill, either.
I hope they’re staying comfortable while I’m away, cause after checking this month’s power bill, they may find out just how hot it is in August in Piedmont North Carolina.
The temperature has dropped a couple of degrees, so I think I will open the window again and enjoy the breeze before I head for bed. Good thing my (younger) roommate isn’t here tonight as she would probably say the same thing my “kids” would say: “Aren’t you hot?!”
Yeah, that’s me – Hot Stuff!