How Hot is it?

Today it is HOT. How hot is it you ask? Well....it is so hot, no, won't tell you that joke either. This is a sort of PG rated Blog.... As you probably know, I have become somewhat used to the Arizona dry heat. For those of you who might start in on me with the "dry heat" jokes...don't. As much as I know you can tolerate a higher air temperature if the humidity levels are low, once you get over 105 degrees, hot is hot is hot. But, if you are talking about mid- to upper 90 degree temperatures with the humidity levels over 60%, well, now that is a different kind of hot.

Everything you touch feels hot, which is similar to Arizona. The difference with higher humidity is that you can't move without feeling like you have to push the air aside. The air feels thick, you are sweating. The advantage to this is you know that you are sweating and may tend to drink more water because you see that you are sweating. In a dry heat, you sweat, but it dries so fast, you don't even realize that you were sweating. It is very critical to keep your water intake up in dry, hot climates because you forget that you are sweating since you don't have evidence of the sweat.

I am here in Georgia, sweating like there is no tomorrow, and trying to figure out what to do in order to cool off. With a lower humidity, cooling off could easily be by placing a wet towel on your face and sitting by a fan. The evaporation will allow the towel to feel cooler to the touch, instant air conditioning. Out here, where the humidity is insanely high, that technique does not work nearly as well. I sit in front of a fan, and have things STICK to my sticky, sweaty body because the fan is just tossing all kinds of stuff my way. Did I mention it was HOT here? The bigger question is how do I keep the dogs cool in this humid heat?

This afternoon, I stuffed them in the shower stall and rinsed them off with cool water. They were initially not thrilled (really??? I wonder why???) but seemed to perk up a bit after they were towel dried and allowed to run like maniacs around the rig. Problem was that in their running, they got hot all over again. I am thinking about stuffing them in the fridge, but then that won't work, (not for the reasons you may think) because they will most likely eat all the good stuff in the fridge. I have put ice in their water dish. Now all they do is stare at that lump of clear stuff floating around in the dish. Great, do I tie a lump of ice around their neck now? (just kidding)

The bird has a fan dedicated to her cage, it takes up about 2/3rds of her cage, so she has a constant flow of air blowing over her. She is not thrilled about this heat, but she seems to be doing OK just sitting in the breeze. The dogs do have a fan they too can sit in front of, but they choose not to for some stupid dog reason no doubt. So here I am, sitting in front of a hot computer, sweating all over the keyboard, typing, while the fan spins in the bedroom, waiting for these goofy dogs to get some sense and lay in front of it. When I rinsed the dogs off earlier, Gypsy did have the sense to stand in front of the fan to dry off. Don't know if it made her feel any better, but she did spend time in front of the fan.

I will continue to sit and sweat here, hoping for some version of inspiration on keeping the dogs cool. Actually, right now, they don't look too uncomfortable right now. They are sleeping peacefully on the cool parts of the floor. Perhaps I am the only one feeling the pain of the heat. Maybe, I should stop typing, get away from this hot computer, let it cool down, and go sit quietly in the shade too. Perhaps I too will not feel as hot... Maybe the dogs are on to something here...

So, to answer your question, how hot is it? Well, it is currently 93 degrees with 45% humidity. The heat index states that it feels like 100. It may feel like 100 for an East Coaster, but for use out of Arizona, it feels like 120...

Until tomorrow...