Summer Survival

Running this house feels like sailing a boat these days. Instead of trimming sails, we run around opening and closing windows, drawing curtains, directing fans and consulting the weather report and thermometer. We have a very large house with 5 stories, going from chilly in the basement to sweltering on the top floor. For the last two summers, we've managed to avoid putting on the air conditioning more than five times total. Until now—the heat wave of 2010. Everyday for the last two weeks, CBC reports not just the expected highs, but the "humidex." As in, the thermometer will reach 30 today, but it'll feel like 43 with the humidex. Ugh. The A/C has been humming pretty well the whole time.

On the other hand, my body feels like an ancient car. A certain amount of maintenance is imperative: stretching, strengthening, icing, heating. Limiting walks and bumping up and down the many, many stairs on my bottom. Rattling, creaking and popping from joints. I need to spend over an hour a day doing my exercises for knees, back and shoulders. Do I actually do this every day? Well, most days I'm a good girl. I have very little choice.

I leave you with a photo of the back yard during one of the frequent rain storms that never manage to cool anything down, just intensify the humidity. In other words, the humidity is at 100%, rather than our normal 80%.

And it's not doing much for the ping pong table either.