honeybee wrote:You made me think to call my grandmother (husband's grandmother) in Philadelphia to see how she's doing.
Glad to hear she's okay. As I posted in the upsetting news thread, one of my elderly neighbors died from heat related causes last night.
Oh no.

Heat's something I can deal with - I grew up in Houston. It's anywhere from 100 to 113 degrees in August and 90+% humidity, so everything is air-conditioned to within an inch of its life. It's like living inside a sauna and the only way to deal with it is to remember that it's equivalent to the worst of winter in northern climates. In other words, you take precautions, stay inside inside most of the time and look out for pets, the young, the elderly and the homeless until it passes. In winter climates you might have to scrape ice off the windshield and warm up the engine. Here you have to open all the windows and let the heat out of the car before you get in and attempt to touch the hot steering wheel.
[I had a pen pal from Scandinavia visit me once in the middle of August. He thought I was exaggerating about the heat and humidity until he stepped out of the airport tunnel right into the parking lot. It hits you just like it does when you open an oven door, with a wave of heat that feels like a solid thing. His eyes just got wide.

I've had a similar reaction to cold temperatures, the lowest I've experienced being 7 degrees. I can't imagine what it would be like to live with temperatures that are 'minus' anything!]
I guess it makes sense then that, like most folks here have mentioned their discomfort with air conditioning, I'm uncomfortable with central heating! I so rarely have to use it here that I'm just not used to it (and it's probably blowing collected pollen or dust or something at me.) When I do have to use it (usually a week or so in December and January and through most of February) it leaves me with a headache, chapped lips and a tender nose. :-/ On the other hand, I get all excited if it's cold enough to have a fire in the fireplace. That's just
neat.

All of that really makes me sympathetic with poor Shran who once mentioned have visited a planet where the temperature was just slightly below the boiling point of water. And for Archer! Twenty eight below in the middle of summer on Andoria? Yikes.