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" />" width="500" height="214" alt="ccb" />" />Summer officially began 2 days ago, but in all fairness, this post began 2 weeks ago.
Since I did my best to describe what living at 30 below (and then some) feels like, I'll try to explain what it's like to live with this Alabama heat.
The air is heavy. It's heavy with moisture.
You can feel the air.
You can FEEL the invisible, stagnant air floating in the seemingly empty space all around you.
When it is really hot and humid, you are aware of every. breath.
To me, it's like breathing through a piece of cheesecloth.
When it "feels like" 103 degrees outside, even person who's normally adamant about having the windows down (me), rolls the windows up and blasts the air. And most of the time, it's so hot, the air conditioning can't work hard enough to cool the car before we've reached our destination.
Sweat pours down your back while you walk from the house to the car. (at 9:00 a.m.)
Seatbelts scorch. God forbid you let the buckle touch your child's skin after the car has been in the Wal-mart parking lot an hour or two. It'd be like that awful scene in Indiana Jones (see below) except it'd be on your kid's inner thigh.
I've learned that if I can't find any shade, that I should put a towel down over the Youngin's car seat. Even fabric gets hot enough to char in this heat.
When I get into the car, the FIRST thing I do is reach in and crank it up.
(Notice, I don't actually get IN until the air is circulating.)
Lotions or sunscreens left in the car should be shaken before use
to minimize the chances of scarring during application.
Crayons melt into a gooey mess in the seat of your car if left unattended.
(I speak from recent experience.)
Lipsticks are done for if left in a parked car.
(Though the heat does a tube a crusty mascara good.)
The heat radiates off of the asphalt so thick you can see it coming off the ground.
Water from hosepipes left stretched in the sun, will literally burn your skin.
Worms that don't seek shelter as soon as the rain stops, bake into the concrete.
Dogs spend most of their time under porches in shallow, cavities of cool, red dirt.
You take afternoons walks and seriously wonder if you can make it back.
You imagine dragging your limp body across the asphalt and into the driveway of your home.
During the heat of the summer, it's just too hot to be outside for any length of time unless you are wet. A lot of people around here, see fit to join a local pool.
Notice I didn't say a local, public pool.
The price tag for joining the local pool for the summer, is around $500 or $600 and A LOT of people don't blink twice about the price, because to them, it is well worth it.
Lucky for us we have a very generous neighbor who is willing to tune out
the screams and laughter of little girls splashing in his pool.
But, it is what it is, and the heat and humidity feel like home to me.
I live in the land where, when canned or bottled beverages are left in hot cars for too long,
they explode and SHOOT like rockets.
True story:
Once my Dad was getting some rocks off of a mountainside. (He's been getting rocks off of mountainsides for most of my life. He uses them for rip rap and to build walls and chimneys and such around his house.) And, let's just say for the sake of the story.....this mountainside didn't belong to him. So, when he had his last load of rocks piled into the truck he set out through a field headed back to the road.
About that time, a bottle of "RC" exploded from behind the truck seat.
Only at the time, he didn't know it was a bottle of RC cola.
"Glass went everywhere."
Dad ducked and gunned it through that field of tall grass thinking he was under attack.
It is way too hot and humid for me!! I love the cold weather. I'm really in the wrong state (Florida) I was born in northern Virginia, but want to be in Alaska so bad.....oh well at least I a chuckle out of your post about your Dad!! rofl must have been a site to see :)
ReplyDeleteHa! I don't suppose I knew that story about Dad. That musta been hilarious. That's so sweet of Pat to let the girls romp around in his pool. It's pretty awesome to have that next door.
ReplyDeleteI remember the hottest I think I've ever been is in that Alabama heat wearing my like, 18 piece band uniform, hat with plume included. I didn't know I could sweat that much.