Well, it's arrived.
The time of Cave-Like Living.
Yesterday the temperature reached a toasty 107 degrees.
But it's a dry heat, so it really only felt like 107.
According to weather records on June 16, 1990, when the record high was 117 degrees, yesterday was down-right chilly.
I still lived here in 1990, why don't I remember that?
Anyway, when the weather starts to turn up in the Wild, Wild, West we all start doing little "desert dances". Yesterday I remembered several things that I always tend to forget during the winter month. (Yes. One. Month.)
1. Never walk to the mail box with out shoes. It's like walking over hot coals. That are actually on fire.
2. Never forget to put your sun shade up in your car. Our else your steering wheel (and seat) will feel like hot coals. That are actually on fire.
When your feet, hands and backside, are all burning, life is not pleasant.
3. Always, always, always look for shade while doing anything outside. In this town gasoline and shade are the two most expensive commodities. Gasoline we will just pay for, but shade? If we are hot enough, we may fight you for it!
OK, there are others on the list, but it's early and I have only had one cup of coffee (yet) this morning.
So, what was I writing about? Oh yeah, Cave-Like-Living.
One of the positive things about living in this place in the world is that the sun DOES shine year round. I love natural light, and I love to have my blinds open all the time. As a matter of fact I would keep them open all the time, and never ever close them, because I don't like to feel like I live in a cave. But The Mister doesn't like them to be open at night...something about feeling like he lives in a fish bowl.
This time of year, keeping the heat out and the cool in is practically a full time job. Actually, its like a well timed dance, requiring what I call the Keeping it Cool in the Cave Choreography. It goes like this:
5:30a: Get up.
5:31a: Get coffee.
5:32a: Go open all the blinds (we have eleven windows in the common area of our house.)
5: 33(ish): Try not to spill coffee while opening blinds.
7:00a: Close the blinds to the East. Sun is rising. Makes front of house hot.
8:30a: Open east blinds a bit. Just enough to let some light in, not
enough for heat.
1:30p: Close west blinds in dining area.
2:30p: Close blinds on patio door.
3:00p: Close west window in family room.
3:00-7:00p: Open all blinds to west side of house. Close blinds to east of house (we don't want neighborhood peepers.)
8:30 (ish): Close all blinds that remain open.
Go to bed. Wake up. Start Again.
Yes, desert dwelling is good, but not everything is sunshine and light.
Sometimes it's Cave-Like Living.
La Vida Dulce!
PS: I am not really complaining as much as dredging up something to blog about. My heart and prayers go out to those of you who are living in water-logged parts of the country.
12 comments:
Kelli -
I received my apron and I love it! Thank you so much. The funniest part is I bought almost the same pattern to make my swap partner's apron. I got the full pattern with four apron patterns including the one you made.
Thanks again,
Deborah
Kelli -
I received my apron. I love it! Thank you so much. The colors and pattern on the fabric is great. The funny part is I purchased the full pattern version (http://www.butterick.com/item/B4945.htm?tab=list/accessories&page=all) of the pattern you used for my swap partner. I did view C but couldn't figure out the bottom so I changed it to a ruffle.
Thanks again, I love it!
Deborah
Kellie...I do the same thing in my house! We have AC but haven't had to turn it on yet because of my strategic blind opening/closing tactics. The hardest part for me is not opening my front door in the mornings to let the light in. My front door faces east and it heats our house up SO quickly if it's open. But man, I miss the morning sunshine streamin' in (which, btw, is GREAT in the winter time!).
Stay cool (as best you can)!
Meredith
We do the same thing here in Georgia! If we keep the shades closed, it really does make a temperature difference.
And really, I am just so impressed that you get up at 5:30!
Michelle,
OH how I wish I could tell you getting up early is because I am so self-disciplined and organized!
But the TRUTH is that I am a horrible sleeper. I wake up early, and usually can't ever go back to sleep. Especially in the summer when the sun is shining so early in the morning! I sleep a little later in the winter months when the sun is up late too!
Hi -
I found you through my friend Jo (Musings of A Housewife).
We're kind of the same here (we are Wild West Dwellers too). It's just hot. And hotter. And burning, burning, hot. We're lucky that our house stays pretty cool - I think that it maybe gets to 80 (if I let it just go) but that is still pretty hot to me. The air is so expensive now though, I try to keep it up but use the excuse of a baby to keep turning it down, ha ha.
PS I'm glad I'm not the only one with a messy area of my own, :-)
I'm in the dredging up phase of blogging at the moment too Kellie. Without the kids at home my writing material sort of bottoms out. Your ideas are far more entertaining than mine though. I totally relate to your desert dance; we have a wall of windows that requires lots of my attention!
Sounds like quite the process for keeping the house cool.. My husband hates having the blinds open at night as well because eh says he feels like he lives in a fish bowl also!
We unfortunately have the hot humid heat here in VA.. My curly hair and the humidity are arch enemies... it gives me more volume than even the 80s could handle!
Oh boy. That is some serious heat. I live in the southwest as well (New Mexico) but it is ONLY 99 degrees here today. So...I cannot complain. :)
Kellie-thanks so much for stopping by my blog! You're my first fellow desert-dweller in blogland, and your cave-like living definitely struck a chord. I, too, am up at 5:30, coffee in hand, opening every shade in the house. I can't stand a closed-up house when the sun is shining! Stay cool, and please do stop by again!
Hey Kellie-
This post made me laugh because I can relate so well. I go into a little bit of depression every year when it starts to get so hot, especially now being holed up in the house with kids all day. We still don't have window coverings at the new house yet and boy are we noticing the heat in the afternoon!
Wow. This makes me never want to live in AZ. :) WE had a heat wave a couple weeks ago where we were in the upper 90's all week -- I'm sure not a big deal to you, but we NYers are not used to June getting above 85. We're not supposed to have 90+ heat until August. Anywho, we were using your cave-like techniques all week. It really works! Well, that and my husband "chilling" the house every night while we slept to ensure no outages in the afternoons.
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