(Doesn't the header make this sound like a soft porn site?) This week has been the hottest of the summer, so far. I do expect worse ones before we find the relief of October cooling. However, let me tell you how the week went for me.
Tuesday:
As I am driving him to the airport, Hunky Husband mentions that the air conditioner (well, it's a heat pump, but it works as an air conditioner in the summer) sounded funny to him that morning. (The compressor/radiator sits just outside his walk-in closet, several feet from the window of his bathroom.) I forget about it until I note, a few hours later, how hot it feels and find that the thermometer says 84˚ Fahrenheit (it is in the mid-90s and climbing, outside)
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - in the basement - high temperatures are forecast to be 99-101 each day:
Little time is spent in the main floor of the house. It is hot and humid. The carpeting buckles in several places in each room as the heat and humidity cause the carpeting to expand. I live in the basement, sleeping on a couch, reading (fortunately, I had stopped by the library on my way home from dropping HH off at the airport), sewing, sorting through Mom's old photographs, and generally keeping myself busy. (The basement includes a refrigerator and microwave, so it is entirely habitable!)
Actually, I am rather proud of myself for making the third of the three curtain panels that cover my window-on-the-world, my little bay window in the kitchen. The first panel had been completed several years ago and had been put into immediate use with the second panel having followed in another couple of years. Now, all three panels are in place. Their function in life is to keep direct sunlight off of the refrigerator. Depending upon the time of the year, there are a few hours of the day (morning or evening, rarely - in the dead of winter - both) during which the direct sunlight is a problem through one or another (or two) of the three glass panes.
In addition, I get started on sorting through my mother's plethora of photographs that she left behind when she died 15 years ago. Starting with the parking lot on our way into the funeral home for Mom's funeral, one of my cousins (I'll dub her "Clueless") had bugged me to let her come go through the photos. I had told Clueless that, first, my brothers and I and our children would go through them. After a few years, she stopped mentioning it. (Clueless lives in another state and I've only seen her at family funerals since she came to Mom's house a few days after the funeral and, with my permission, loaded up a china cabinet, dishes, and household goods into her pickup truck and drove off. She was admonished that she should share her bounty with her brother and sister, which I've no doubt she did.)
There is now one large envelope of photographs with Clueless's name on it, one large envelope with another cousin's name on it (she is not a sister to Clueless), and a medium-sized box of photographs and whole (small) photo albums for my younger brother and his family. (Elder Brother has no kids and has gone through many of Mom's photos. I see EB more than any other of my non-progeny relatives.)
Thursday:
The service technician shows up at 5:00 PM, and is out of here by 6:00 PM. The unit just needs its normal spring servicing - cleaning and Freon recharging. I renew our annual contract with the company which had, inexplicably, expired in 2006. It is understandable that the unit needs servicing! Hunky Husband is normally "on top" of that sort of thing, in this house (I took care of maintenance in our last house); but, he had mentioned the lapse of our contract a few weeks ago, without acting on it. (He did get our July taxes paid before he left town.)
Friday:
By 4:00 AM, this morning, the air conditioner has pumped the inside temperature down to 79˚ Fahrenheit, to which I had set the thermostat last night (it had been 88 or 89 when it started). Normally, we keep it at 78˚ Fahrenheit in the summer. I set the thermostat to "hold" at 79˚ Fahrenheit. With the humidity (inside) now being at a reasonable level, my being at the Red Cross all day (and HH's being gone), and with the over-100˚ Fahrenheit outside temperature that is forecast, this seems a reasonable temperature at which to hold. As I leave for the airport at 9:15 PM, I return the thermostat to our normal summertime temperature scheduling.
Saturday:
Most of the buckles in the carpeting have worked themselves out at the cooler temps/lower humidity. We really must have them all re-stretched, though. They are not taut.
I am back to normal scheduling. We go to see a performance of Camelot, this evening. I'll be coming around to check you out soon!
P.S. Thanks to the friends who noted my comment on Facebook and became concerned about my physical well-being in the excessive heat and humidity. It was not pleasant; but, as I emailed one friend, "As long as I have a basement, my health is unendangered. Instead of getting some of the things done, upstairs, I found things that needed doing downstairs ....The biggest issue was my not getting much sleep due to sleeping on a couch downstairs.. Fortunately, the couch is the most comfortable of any on which I've ever slept, but it is not my bed!"
I got a good six hours of sleep (in my own bed) Thursday night and seven hours, last night. I'm good to go.
Those temps are no fun without air conditioning - especially when you don't sweat (as I believe you have mentioned before). Glad that a tech was able to correct it fairly quickly!
Basements are really great for staying cool. That is one of the reason our bedroom is downstairs.
Posted by: bogie | June 28, 2009 at 06:07 AM
I was just thankful not to be back in 1980 when we had 20 straight days of 100+ temperature highs. As you'll recall, neither my house nor my car was air conditioned. You do recall correctly that the amount of perspiration that I put out is negligible. My scalp and face, on the other hand, ooze oil. Too bad I can't scavenge it for the gas tank. lol
Posted by: Cop Car | June 28, 2009 at 10:57 AM
I suppose we are due for a change, but we have only had a few days of over 100* temps. That's most unusual and I am not complaining. With our low humidity I am able to keep my thermostat at 81* and I use ceiling fans in the rooms I'm in. I have only had to use the bedroom fan one night because it normally cools off at night.
Our Monsoons are due to start soon and then we will have humidity. That is the only time I mind the heat. Outsiders laugh and make fun of Arizona's hot summers when you mention dry heat by saying "So's an oven" but I have never suffered from heat more than in Massachusetts when the temperature was in the 90's and the humidity was close to that.
Posted by: Darlene | June 28, 2009 at 04:38 PM
I know what you mean with the oil production - I could definitely run at least one vehicle if I could only figure out how to process it!
Posted by: bogie | June 29, 2009 at 02:53 AM
Darlene--Good luck with the Monsoons. I don't envy your having the prospect.
I have commented, elsewhere, on how in July 1980 our area edured 20 straight days of 100+ high temperatures at a time when neither my home nor car was air conditioned. At that, I endured it better than being pregnant 20 years earlier, with no air conditioner in home or car. We moved into our first air conditioned house in 1967. What a relief that was.
Bogie--That's another thing for which you may blame your maternal genes!
Posted by: Cop Car | June 29, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Your week in the cellar reminded me of my childhood in Mtn. Grove and Flat River MO. Missouri building codes mandate a storm cellar or basement, as I expect Kansas does, to provide some safety from tornadoes. We've had record heat in Austin, 105 F one day and 100+ for a stretch. Glad you "weathered" the week.
Posted by: Claudia | June 30, 2009 at 10:14 PM
I save all my basement cleaning for those days in the 90s! If you could see my basement right now, you'd know that we have had an unusually cool spring! lol
I'm so glad that you weathered the heat, and that your heat pump is working once again. Good news all around!
Posted by: buffy | July 01, 2009 at 10:59 AM
Claudia--Welcome. There are probably few governing units in Kansas that have codes requiring a storm cellar or basement safe room, although some (many? - this would include Greensburg) now require schools to have them. I feel for you and your heat. As I recall, Austin has high humidity which means the heat really hurts.
Buffy--Hmmm...maybe I should have checked out your basement while there. Really, I say "nuts" to anyone who thinks they must inspect another family's basement. That is just beyond the pale.
Thanks for stopping in and good luck on the rest of your summer's gardening. You may be surprised to learn that I am actually using some of the dill that I planted, this year. It is yummy. My rosemary died and I just haven't used either kind of basil, yet. Cilantro, I've used - a lot!
Posted by: Cop Car | July 04, 2009 at 09:28 AM
Hi CC...just checking in on you. I hope your heat and humidity problems have subsided and you have been comfortible...even outside of your basement. I hope you had a nice 4th of July...however you spent it. Just getting back into the swing of things after my daughter and her family left early on Sunday...catching up. Hope you are well sweetie...Love, Joy
Posted by: Joy | July 07, 2009 at 09:15 AM