It was hot this week. But we made it. I don’t hate the heat, I actually kind of like it. I was born for hot weather, my whole family loves the heat, my parents escape the Washington winters for the dry Palm Springs desert. My sisters and I spent summers in our bathing suits at our neighborhood pool and our vacations were always focused on finding the sunshine. Whether it was a boat trip in the San Juans or more recently heading east to soak up the sunshine in the Outer Banks.
At home, during this heat wave, I enjoyed the warm breeze in the morning, sitting on my couch on the front porch, a short meditation, some chai and my journal. It’s not a bad way to start the day. Spending the day in shorts and a tank top and never feeling the slightest chill, I’ll take it. Paddle boarding on the lake, with the warm strong wind was beautiful way to beat the heat. I kept covered with my hat, sunglasses and sun screen, and when I got a bit too warm, it was refreshing to pull on a drenched swim shirt to cool off. When my hat blew away in the breeze, although I knocked my face with my paddle trying to pull it back in, when I finally jumped in to retrieve it, I was once again rewarded with a refreshing break.
I will admit, it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. I felt the affects of the heat after a long walk on a mostly empty stomach, I arrived home feeling nauseous and a little dizzy, a cold shower helped with that. I also felt a lack of energy or ability to be productive, which in some respects isn’t so bad, forcing me to read or just lie still in front of a fan, but its grueling for those having to get work done in a 1909 home with no air conditioner.
My pup didn’t love the heat either. Wearing his fur coat all day, every day, he gets a little overheated. He hates being sprayed down with the hose which we did multiple times throughout the day and we all had trouble sleeping at night. Seattle homes are not built or meant for this type of heat, so no matter how many fans we had blowing, curtains we had hanging or blinds we had drawn, the heat still filled the home. But we made it. We did sleep and we didn’t melt.
The concern of climate change is real and we saw that with these record breaking temperatures, with the impending fire season approaching, this is no joke. While I love a warm breeze coming in from the window at night, after our few days of intense heat, we invested in an air conditioner unit so we are prepared for the warm days to come.
KathyGorohoff.com 