Breathing..

Breathing in the dog days of summer is a fine art. The heat is unbearable--in fact, it's been so hot throughout August that I haven't even seen any "Yellow Jacket" Bees. Our sedum plants want to flower, but I think it's due to the lack of bees that they haven't even turned pink yet. Even the burning bush is slower turning red this year.

But breathing? Yesterday was so hot that I pretty much stayed in my bedroom with the A/C on full blast, in and out of bed mostly because the heat just drove the life right out of me. Who would have guessed that Michigan would be the new Florida. However, I understand that Oklahoma and Texas have not fared well this year, either.

I've often thought of moving to Canada and even Alaska. My fear is that the winters are simply too cold. Bone chilling cold. My husband and I are on opposite sides of the spectrum. If it's hot, and it doesn't matter if it's "dry heat", I may as well be dead. I can warm up the cold, but you really can't sufficiently cool off the heat. My husband is totally opposite--he doesn't mind the heat, and sweats profusely (just ask the laundry). So much so that he can literally sit in a chair and drip puddles. He can even sweat in a snowstorm--and I've seen that happen. Out on the driveway, blowing snow, turning into ice because he's SWEATING. When my husband comes into the house on a cold winter's day, after blowing out the driveway, I have to sit him down in front of the fire to thaw. So if we move anywhere, it has to be somewhere on a beach--or perhaps with a pool--so that he can cool down his body. In the winter, I can still sit him in front of the fire.

But when it's hot like this, I can't even knit. That's a bad thing. I have a chair in my bedroom, but it's tucked away from the A/C, and it's a wooden rocker, so it's not too comfortable for sitting and relaxing. My slider in the living room is meant for that. I can sit there for hours and knit, but not in the heat, because there is no A/C in the living room. We have just a small air conditioner in the bedroom so that we can at least SLEEP during the dog days, and even that has been difficult this year. I also think that the poor little machine has seen it's better days and isn't working as well as it could. Poor thing. I think it might be a candidate for a trip to the dump before snow flies. This means that hubby is going to have to put in the bigger unit in the living room before things get too crazy next year--which will keep us cool in the living room, but I'm concerned that the chill won't make it to the bedroom without a fan. Right now it's just too difficult to consider. All I can think about is the 16 remaining rows that I can't knit because I can't get comfortable in my chair!

Now all of this means nothing to anyone but me. It seems everything gets hotter (and colder) as I age, and I'm feeling too warm now, and the thermometer says it's humid, but only 70 degrees out. I used to pray to God to make it 70 degrees year 'round. Now, I pray for 55. I can walk to work in 55 degrees. But when it hits 70 (unless it's DRY), I can't breathe. I'm a little addicted to breathing. It's a good thing to do now and then, but I do it pretty regularly--it helps keep me alive, I think. But when it's hot like this, I almost don't breathe (deep in, blow out) at all.

My husband, however, can breathe deeply all the time. In fact, he's snoring now.

How he can sleep when I'm not even breathing is amazing to me. And darn it, I want to get back to my knitting!

Wish me luck, because I'm going to try. Right after I tie up my hair and put on the deodorant that will give out on me in the first hour.