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BS: Heed heat.
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Subject: BS: Heed heat. From: Rapparee Date: 15 Jul 07 - 09:16 PM This morning I cut the grass. When I started the temperature was about 82F (about 28C). When I finished about 12:30 the temperature was about 100F (about 38C). The back yard, which is actually all that really counts, is about 5,000 sq. ft. (465 sq. meters). I took three breaks and drank about a liter of water. In addition I had six small slices of salted watermelon. I laid down and took an hour's nap. I awakened with a roaring headache and lethargy. It didn't occur to me what the problem was until around 4:30 -- and then I dissolved about a half-teaspoon of table salt into about 1/4 liter of water and drank it; I almost immediately began to feel better. After dinner my wife went out and bought some "sports drink" (Gatorade). It's in the fridge and will be there for when it's needed. Please, if it's hot where you are, and especially if the humidity is low as it is here, stay hydrated and watch for signs of electrolyte imbalance. If you work or play outdoors be especially careful. Drink plenty of water -- better to pee it away than to end up in the hospital. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Bill D Date: 15 Jul 07 - 09:19 PM yep...I do only half the yard at one time, and plan for 'safer' parts of the day....and drink cool liquids during.. (we just got a 2nd window AC so we could have one in the kitchen window..) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Rapparee Date: 15 Jul 07 - 09:28 PM We have a whole-house unit, and we're powerful glad to have it, too! Also a ceiling fan in the bedroom. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Bee Date: 15 Jul 07 - 09:36 PM Or you could just live in a perpetual fogbank, like we do. The sun has shone a few times this summer, brief, humid events, during one of which I did mow the lawn, took breaks, drank water, and damn near collapsed because it was too humid for sweat to evaporate for body cooling. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Bill D Date: 15 Jul 07 - 09:38 PM well...we HAVE a big unit in the attic, but it is 40 years old and leaks water. I have put a plastic cat pan between the joists with a submersible pump in it with a float, and a garden hose to drain it to the outside. It uses lots of power, cools only 'moderately' and is noisy. We use it when we have to. Replacing it would cost about $4000, and I can buy 2-3 more window units for ¼ of that. We also have a lot of shade.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: katlaughing Date: 15 Jul 07 - 10:40 PM Ummm...Rapaire, I didn't wanna tell ya I thought you were crazy to be out in the 90's mowing the grass!**bg** Glad you are okay and thanks for the reminder to be careful. My friends back East are always telling me, "but, kat, it's dry heat where you are." Yes, sez I, but it is also at 4500 feet above sea level and not much shade! Lot stronger sun. My brother didn't know about humid heat when he first moved to MA. He walked to a local park, about 2-3 miles when it was infamously Hot, Hazy and Humid. When he got there, he collapsed in the shade. Finally was able to get some water and a bus home. He realised after, he'd come close to heat stroke and was never so foolish again. It just pays to take it easy in high heat no matter the humidity. There's a reason some warm counties have siestas! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: GUEST,Bruce Michael Baillie Date: 16 Jul 07 - 01:18 AM ...Ah Sun? what was that then? we've not seen much sun here in the UK, it's not been out much at all since April! we've had plenty of rain though, and I mean plenty! I can only dream of things like sunstroke and heat exhaustion! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Barry Finn Date: 16 Jul 07 - 02:01 AM Why once when we were working on this old nasty coal tar pitch roof an the heat was getting so bad that when we tried to cut it up with axes the axe just sunk seven an' half inches into a pool of black gum & it took 4 men to move the handles back & forth, the axe handles they just broke. We was sweatin so bad that around the holes cut by the axes ponding water was starting to build up. After a while we was standing ankle deep in salt sweat, the water cooler was dry for all of us soaking our T-shirts in it an wrapping our heads with them just to keep from burning up & with us soaking our eyes. Coal tar pitch gives off sulfur fumes & burns your eyes bad. Now it always been an unwritten rule that once you open up a roof nobody goes home until the roofs finished & tight. Well we were threaten mutiny & murder our aces were getting redder than the sun & twice as hot but rules were rules besides walking off the roof once opened could get you blackballed. Meanwhile, guys were still working in the middle of that sweat puddle trying to pull the axe heads out when suddenly with a woash & a suck the axe heads pooped out. Well the the coal tar pitch was so soft with the heat, (we'd normally heat it up in a kettle to 450 degrees, regular tar 525 to work it) that the holes caused by he axes just filled back in on themselves with running pitch & we noticed that none of the sweat water was leaking into the building. Like a flash we all looked at each other with the same light bulbs going on over all our heads. The roof wasn't open & was tight after all. Yup, we all quit work for the day, it was 102 on the gound but the temp on the roof we never did know cause the roof thermometer only went as high as 120 (it's always beeen a known fact that the temp on the roof is usually a min of 15 degrees higher than on the ground). Anyway, when I got home my wife asked me if we'd take the kids to the beach & lay about in the sand. Always have lots of water & gator-aide, (leck-er-lites or some such things). Have an aloe plant handy for the burns, an keep your head covered, cold & wet with a soaked T-shirt, preferably someone else's. Barry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Jul 07 - 02:27 AM I mow in the heat down here in Texas because I don't have much choice many times, but I have a routine for approaching it. I wear a broad hat and a bandana down my neck. I have a large bottle of water in a strategic place so I can easily swing past and pick it up for a drink without shutting off the mower. I pour that water down my shirt front and back when I begin to feel the heat--that is remarkably effective for cooling while mowing. Like Bill, I usually only mow the front OR the back, not both in one session. It takes about an hour for each, giving me two good workouts a week (though with our rain it has sometimes meant four workouts a week). I have lost about 20 pounds since spring, by cutting out the sugar, eating more fruit and veggies, and mowing my lawn. This and dog walking are my major forms of exercise. We have two powerful heat pumps in this 2500 square foot house. I did it so it would be zoned and they both aren't usually on at once. I have (last count) seven rooms with ceiling fans (four bedrooms, the living room and the other living room and then the sun room). In those without ceiling fans there are handy oscillating fans. We work hard at staying cool, and if that doesn't work, stay still and in the shade and dribble water on yourself. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Liz the Squeak Date: 16 Jul 07 - 05:24 AM Oddly enough, we had a rare hot day yesterday - trouble is, it was the forerunner of a storm which did little else but make everything wet for an hour. Having experienced heat-stroke in Spain (dressed in black, in August, at midday.... how dumb was I?!), I can not recommend it. Drink twice as much water as you normally would, eat a salty cracker once an hour (it's a lot more palatable than drinking salt water) if you're out in the sun and sweating, and wear loose, cotton clothes in light colours or white. Try to avoid moving energetically during the hottest part of the day but if you have to, take a big bottle of water with you. If you are out and about, put as much water on your outside as you do down your inside if possible. If you start seeing white spots or talking to inanimate objects (more than usual that is), get out of the sun, get some salt, water and sugar into you and lie down in the shade for a couple of hours! LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Rapparee Date: 16 Jul 07 - 09:28 AM A quarter teaspoon of salt and the same amount of bicarbonate of soda in a quart (or liter) of water will do a lot to help. Kat, I'm at about 4700 feet, so I know what you mean. The first time I went Back East (to DC) after being here for a while I left the airport terminal and felt like I'd had a wet blanket thrown over me. It was...uncomfortable. Yes, I was wearing a cap and not my usual straw hat; that was because I always wear ear protection when working with power tools, especially the lawn mower. And still I have hearing loss...tomorrow afternoon I go to Salt Lake City for testing at the VA Hospital, in fact. Being fair of face (and full of grace) I am very cognizant of the damage the sun can do to my boyish good looks -- not to mention that skin cancer would be a real drag. Sunblock on exposed parts...ALL exposed parts -- sunblock with an SPF of 30 or better. The dermatologist froze two spot off my head already this year. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: katlaughing Date: 16 Jul 07 - 11:14 AM This one is more expensive and bigger than the one I have, but a Misty Mate can work wonders for keeping one cooled off. I strap it round my waist, attach the nozzle to the brim of my hat and have a cool mist right in front of me all the time. It is wonderful! I'm thinking about getting one of their Umbrellas while it is on sale. Good luck with the VA checkup, Rapaire. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: frogprince Date: 16 Jul 07 - 01:40 PM I made one really good attempt to get heat on the 4th of July weekend, 1967. Our Navy destroyer was invited up from San Diego to Everett, Washington, for the 4th. I decided to go over to Whidby Island to look over the old fortification site. Our beloved captain made the liberty uniform dress wool blues. Hiked and looked around, rode the ferry back, and caught the bus back into town. Got off the bus and realized I had all I could do to find my way along the sidewalk. A YMCA was within a few steps; I sat down and drank a whole lot of fluids, and came around in a little while. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Rapparee Date: 16 Jul 07 - 01:54 PM You captain was a twit and possibly incompetent -- at least at that time the Army made summer khaki Class-A's out of cotton, and even the lightweight summer dress greens weren't worn more than could be helped. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Jul 07 - 04:13 PM When I was a ranger, National Park Service standard uniform in summer was "Class A" and are a heavy cotton-polyester shirt (with a permanent crease, so you know that is comfortable against your skin) and lightweight wool pants and your stetson hat was straw, not beaver felt. Probably still is. Wool, ferchristsake, in places that are so hot and miserable and the visitors to your park were wearing a pound of clothing and that included their shoes. Not like we needed to go native, but lighter shirts and the option of comfortable gabardine shorts would have been welcome! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Naemanson Date: 16 Jul 07 - 08:00 PM Hmm, 81 degrees F and climbing. High humidity. My shovel is calling me to continue spreading the crushed coral. The iced tea is in the fridge. I have no A/C (broken) in my car. A typical day in the tropics. You get used to it. The tough part is the power failures that go on for hours, days, or, after a typhoon, weeks. A friend once said that at night it gets so quiet you can hear yourself sweat. But we end the day with a cool shower and lie under the fan. It's really quite nice. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Rapparee Date: 16 Jul 07 - 08:47 PM You DO get used to it. In fact, when I was 18 and in Basic Training in the Ozarks a five-mile hike out to the shooting range after an hour of calisthetics was nothing much. We'd sweat like hogs, the salt just pouring out and staining our shirts, pants, and even boots and as you entered the mess hall for every meal you TOOK two (buffered) salt tablets right there in front of the Sarge. That, however, was in the summer of 1963.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Dickey Date: 17 Jul 07 - 12:08 AM I cut grass in my yard and two commercial locations yesterday. I towed my riding mower and push mower around on a trailer. The temp was upwards of 91 F. I did drink a lot of water and I got through pretty well for a 62 yo geezer. I find my head starts pounding when I reach my limit of endurance. Also last week I poured some steps that took 52 60# bags of Sakrete. I had to move them by hand 4 times. Onto the cart at the store, into the truck, into the garage and into the mixer. I lifted and carried 12480 lbs of Sakrete. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Jul 07 - 12:47 AM I have a friend who mows lawns for a living, and he has described the horrible kidney stones you can get when you don't drink enough water. He's had them lay him out a couple of times. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Cluin Date: 17 Jul 07 - 12:48 AM I was out mowing the lawn, dumping pruning clippings up the road with the wheelbarrow and staining the back deck today. It wasn't as hot here, but hot enough. Put down 3 cold beer and 2 giant ice teas. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Rapparee Date: 17 Jul 07 - 09:15 AM A year after Basic I was setting tombstones. This was a great job, quiet and all that. But the absolute worse was when we poured over 9,000 pounds of concrete as a foundation for a whole-grave job -- it was over 100F., humid, and the (I'm not making this up!) the water source was downhill from the graves and came from a shallow well. The Boss went into town several times for icey-cold beer...we used the water to mix the cement. By the way, we also put a 5-sides-polished, 2,000 pound slab of granite on top of the foundation. The lady buried there is in a coffin, inside a vault, under 4.5 tons of concrete and a ton of granite. We figgered that come Judgement Day she ain't gonna make the roll call. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Ebbie Date: 17 Jul 07 - 12:04 PM What was it that Huck Finn said, Rap? Something about the concrete on top to make sure she couldn't get out. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Jul 07 - 10:57 PM Sure sounds like it! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: alanabit Date: 18 Jul 07 - 04:12 AM I can't drink beer in the heat at all. I used to be able to when I was younger. Then I could do it if I drank an equal measure of water. Then it had to be at least twice the volume of water as beer. Now I can't do it at all. It means my weight goes down in the summer (which it needs to anyway!) Thanks for all the tips on coping with heat. We get the humid type here in Köln. Once it has been much over 25°C for a couple of days, the moist air hangs in the Rhine Valley. Kat has an interesting point about the high ground. That is what I found when I started going to Austria about twenty years ago. I just was not used to taking the sun at that angle. I also was not used to having it in my eyes like that. I have never been a sunglasses person (haven't got a cool enough image) but I really did struggle with the sheer brilliance at times. On one hot afternoon at Linz Festival, I actually blacked out during a show. That sudden black, squeezing feeling in the head and then the sudden return. I was still on my feet, twelve kilos of drum on my back, guitar, harmonica and a balloon in my hand. One man banding in 35°C heat is not a good idea anyway, so blowing up a modelling balloon for a kid as well was probably not the best idea I had that day. I must have looked really stupid, because although I had only been gone for a second or two, it felt as though I had been sleeping heavily for hours. So I am staring with blank incomprehension at the hundred people standing around me - a crowd which it had taken half an hour to build up - thinking, "Why are all these folks looking at me?" When I realised what had happened, I blurted it out and asked for a drink. They thought it was another gag in the show! Eventually someone brought me something and I finished the show, which was a good one. I didn't do any more balloons though! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Crystal Date: 18 Jul 07 - 07:11 AM Well it hasn't been really hot here in Scotland, buit it IS humid. Had a dance practice last noght and we were gulping down water (and munching chocolate) after every dance. Fortunatly by the end we all smelt the same (i.e bad!). I passed out through the heat once when I was quite young. It was actually at Towersey Festival, and I wasd promptly carted off to the St Johns people by a steward. When I got back to the childrens festival tent I was devestated to discover that a jelous friend had asked the team leader to cut my spear in half so it was shorter than everyone elses! Ho-Hum, these things meen a lot when you are 6! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Scoville Date: 18 Jul 07 - 09:55 AM It's rained almost every day here for the past month--Houston is *9 inches* ahead on rainfall for the year--so it hasn't been particularly hot (low to mid 90's) but it's been ungodly humid. We mow early, early, in the morning when the temperature, hopefully, is in the 80's but if we tried to mow when it "wasn't hot", we'd have to wait until Hallowe'en. Around here, people die just sitting in their houses in the summer. Salt is important and, depending on the type, sometimes sports drinks are not enough. A friend of ours nearly died during a marathon a few years ago because he didn't realize his sport drinks didn't have enough salt. Alcohol and caffeine are diuretics, so if you're already dehydrated they will make it worse. Sodas, iced tea (unless it's decaf), and alcoholic drinks contribute to the problem rather than solving it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Gurney Date: 19 Jul 07 - 12:13 AM Dehydration can cause cramp in some people, me for one, so that's another symptom to look out for. You can still wear earmuffs and a panama. Just put the clamp (is there a name for that spring?) around the back of your head. I'm in the middle of the southern-hemisphere winter, so I am having difficulty raising too much sympathy..... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Liz the Squeak Date: 19 Jul 07 - 01:50 AM Don't eat chocolate whilst trying to hydrate - Yes... you heard it.. *I*, the Chocoholic said don't eat it!!! Chocolate dries the mouth out, so drinking water and then following it up with chocolate defeats the object. The best thing to drink when hot, thirsty, sweating or tired, is water. Put a cordial in it if you wish, or one of those electrolyte restoratives you get for diaorrhea patents, but avoid too much sugar and as Scoville says, caffeine and alcohol are just what you don't need. Eat lightly during the day, salads, fruit and vegetables. Eating meat and heavy carbohydrates will slow your system down as it concentrates on digesting, encouraging that post-prandial nap that may have you snoozing in the sun for hours, and baking like a tortilla on a griddle. Gurney - we're in the middle of the most 'traditional' British summer we've had for some time, so I'm with you on the 'not much sympathy' front. Mind you, we've had worse... back in 1984... missed summer that year, I was in the bath. LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Naemanson Date: 19 Jul 07 - 05:02 AM As I said above my car doesn't have air conditioning. The average daily temperature during the wet season (actually all year round) is about 84 degrees F. All the wet season (now) does is contribute humidity. Some days it is so humid here you can see the haze. Other days we have clear air and the temperatures FEEL cooler. So, today I got to work at the language school where I teach. There were some small children (6 and 7 years old) in my classroom. One whispered to her teacher to ask what was wrong with my back. The teacher had to explain it was just sweat seeping through my shirt. The people here in the islands chew betelnut (pugua). The nut grows on the betelnut palm tree. They peel off the husk, quarter the nut with special betelnut cutters, sprinkle on some lime and tobacco and wrap it in a sweet tasting leaf. I tried it once. It instantly dried out my mouth and then my saliva glands kicked into high gear. It was bitter and tasteless at the same time! I politely spit it into the weeds and thanked my benefactor. She laughed and still offers me some when we go to visit them. Ugh! I tell this story because of the mention of diuretics above. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: GUEST,redhorse at work Date: 19 Jul 07 - 08:44 AM Not having air conditioning in your car isn't necessarily bad. As a means of getting severely dehydrated without even getting hot, car air con takes a lot of beating. nick |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Rapparee Date: 19 Jul 07 - 09:07 AM Another week of clear & 90s here. And again the plant life is so dry that it's explosive -- as we were driving back from Salt Lake City yesterday my wife watched cedar and pinyon almost literally explode into flame on a 1,400 acre firesite easily visible from the highway. Probably six or seven of the trees fell to the flames in the time we drove past. (Since this is a small fire and isn't threatening anything except open land they're letting it burn itself out. They ARE watching it, of course!) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Dave the Gnome Date: 19 Jul 07 - 09:11 AM Beer is OK - Remember that it is generaly 95% water. The hops can be soporiphic though so you may want to try cider instead. But check the strength if it is farmhouse stuff! Remember that heavy manual labourers used to drink the 'small beer' (around 3% abv) all day. The water rehydrates you. The alcohol is absorbed into the system as energy faster than pure glucose. No good for todays GI concious of course... :D |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Naemanson Date: 21 Jul 07 - 03:36 AM "Beer is OK - Remember that it is generally 95% water." Yeah, that's the excuse the drinkers of Guam like to give. "I need to stay hydrated!" Try inebriated... Still, they are not as affected by the heat as some of us are. Our group, the Traditional Seafaring Society built a traditional canoe house last year. Essentially it is an A-Frame roof with no walls. On the hottest day you can find relief in that canoe house. The air sweeps into the shade and the hot air rises into the peak. The roof is thatched with pandanus leaves which is thin and allows the hot air to escape. And judging from how much that group can talk there is plenty of hot air to go around. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: GUEST Date: 21 Jul 07 - 04:21 PM Has anyone noticed how difficult it is to find salt tablets ("thermotabs") nowadays? THey used to be very widely available.
Thanks. -Joe Offer, Forum Moderator- |
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Subject: RE: BS: Heed heat. From: Sorcha Date: 21 Jul 07 - 08:56 PM Have you looked in outdoor/outfitter/camping stores? |
