Hot Town, Summer in the City

It doesn’t need to get anywhere near 100 degrees Fahrenheit in New York City to feel miserable. The 80s will do just fine, particularly in August after the summer heat has baked into the concrete and facades of tall buildings. The hot air blowing onto the sidewalks from window air conditioners adds to the discomfort.

Unlike most people, summer is not my favorite season. When heat and humidity combine, my body swells, my fingers plump up into fat, little sausages that don’t bend properly and my brain shuts down.

Yesterday was such a day in Portland, Maine, as it has been for about a week while we have experienced a mini-heat wave. It is nothing like some of you have been suffering in the rest of the northern hemisphere, but it has slowed me way down. I hate these sticky miseries and at the height of the afternoon heat, I head for the cool green of my back deck.

Ollie the cat doesn’t like summer heat any more than I do and has adopted the wicker chair in a corner of the deck to escape into the pleasures of an afternoon bath.

He glared at me when I called to him to look up so I could play with our new digital camera. Hot day or cold, baths are a serious undertaking for cats and they don’t like being interrupted.

In the end, however, it was too hot even for a soothing bath, and Ollie succumbed to an afternoon snooze, having changed position hardly at all.

But Portland is different from New York, at least in my end of town on the down-slope of the ocean side of Munjoy Hill. Without fail every day in the late afternoon, a cool breeze wafts in, the temperature drops and I’ve learned now that I've lived two summers in my new city that no matter how hot midday is, the evening will be pleasant and the overnight about 55 or 60 degrees.

Ollie and I know that this regularly-scheduled relief is just a short time away when the long shadows appear on our deck.

[At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Nancy Leitz has a few choice thoughts on the purchase of insurance through the years in Sign Right Here.]

Comments

[joared]

I bypassed a few summer weeks in NYC when A/C minimal many years ago for just the reasons you describe. Perhaps I should have gritted my teeth and bore it. I knew those humid 80 degree days from another place I lived, and knew only too well, NYC's would be worse. I don't miss the humidity, though I do like the effect it has in bringing out the natural waves in my hair.

Wonder if I could get the same result in the dry air of inland So. Cal. if I just carried around a spray bottle and spritzed my hair every so often?

We've had nineties and a few hundred or so degree days, but laugh as some may, dry heat is different as I've experienced the humid days. I also share your appreciation for the fact we, too, generally receive cooling once the sun is down.

Your deck greenery certainly lends itelf well to creating a visual cooling image.

[Kay Dennison]

I envy you and Ollie your deck! It is sooo lovely! I don't blame Ollie a bit -- I wish I could just snooze way the 90-degree days we're having here. In my next life I'm coming back as a cat! lol

[Darlene]

This reminds me of an incident when we were about to leave a three year stint in Massachusetts and return to Arizona. In those days your Montgomery Ward credit card had to be transferred from store to store. I visited the local store to make the change and the manager asked me how I could stand the heat is Arizona. I had to laugh because that day it was 90 degrees with humidity to match.

joared is right; dry heat is more tolerable. We have just gone through a summer that nearly broke the record of 39 days with 37 straight days of temperatures over 100. Now we are in our Monsoon season and the temperature is down but the humidity is high. I am nearly as miserable now as I was a month ago.

[kenju]

I can't enjoy my deck now because the mosquitoes are so numerous and hell bent to feast from every inch of my skin. It will be 97* here tomorrow and perhaps break the century mark on Mon. and Tues.

Your new camera is fantastic! The pattern of your wicker chair and Ollie's stripes are gorgeous!

[jen]

I love the second photo of Ollie here. He looks so insulted/surprised that his leisure has been interrupted.

[Marlys Styne]

I love Ollie. It's hot in Chicago now too, although to quote the old saying, it's "cooler by the lake," and I live near (not on) the lake.

My cat Lyon, now deceased, and I always loved air conditioning, and I still do. And I still love living in the city; the great fall and spring overshadow the heat and cold.

[Marilyn]

It usually takes some time to adjust to climate changes, especially as we get older. We moved from 'four seasons in the mountains' to almost year-round summer. (And to think I paid good money to haul those sleds, snow shovels, and winter coats here!)

I still miss the changing seasons. For us, it 'cools off' to the high 70s during the night. We won't see 55* until next January! And the humidity. You have to concentrate on inhaling if you're outside more than ten minutes. lol

I agree with Kenju, the photo of Ollie in the wicker chair is beautiful.

[Nicole]

He's beautiful! What kind of cat is that?

[Ronni Bennett]

Nicole: Ollie is a Savannah. You can read more about what that is here.