BS: Too Effing Hot!!!

Subject: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: ranger1
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 07:45 PM

I'm a northern New Englander of mainly Quebecois and Irish ancestry. I do not deal well with the heat. Today, Portland, Maine hit a record for July with 100 degrees. I work mainly outside, with my only indoor refuge a maintenance shop in an old barn, with no air conditioning. By the end of the day, all I could think of was stopping somewhere and buying some tiny, little AC unit to combat the heat in our tiny, south-facing apartment. Normally, I would never shop at Walmart, but that was my first stop. No joy. Then I went to the Mall. I tried Best Buy. No dice. I went into Sears, where the nice gentleman in Appliances told the guy in front of me that there are no air conditioners to be had anywhere in the area. I thanked him and headed home. I found poor little black Kaylee Kitty looking like an oil spill on the floor, mewing at me piteously. After rummaging in the freezer, I found an ice pack that I wrapped in a towel and put on the lino in the kitchen. She hasn't moved off it since I put it there.

Kaylee and I agree: we've had enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 07:48 PM

Do you have an oscillating fan? That would help.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: ranger1
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 08:04 PM

Yeah, we got one of those. We've got window fans that will do both intake and exhaust, too. I'm just whinging. It's uncomfortable, but we'll survive. It's better for J-boy, myself and the dog, we can go to the neighbor's house and take advantage of the AC. Poor Kaylee's an indoor cat, no options other than our fans and the ice pack.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: gnu
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 08:13 PM

Gee... here we are just to the north of you and just to the north of the jet stream it appears. We are having a great summer so far... maybe a dozen days of kinda hot and only several of too hot, unlike last summer which was a scorcher. Down south and out west have had it bad. I feel for youse as I am also one who does not like heat. I hope things ease up on youse.

When yer maters won't even set, like SRS's, that's just way too HOT!

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Greg F.
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 08:17 PM

You'll feel a lot better if you'll just remember that there's no such thing as global warming or global climate change & most importantly, vote Republican.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 08:23 PM

99 here in "win-git" north Carolina today...

I was gonna jump in the swimming pool but the water temp was in the 80s... forget it...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: gnu
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 08:49 PM

Bobert... how could the heat affect you ya skinny thing? Gee whiz, just wet yer shirt and ya'd catch cold. Now, fer us fat folks, heat is not good. It takes a lot of cold beer and a lot of laziness to battle hot weather. I know ye loikes yer beer but with all that movin and plantin and such, yer just not lazy enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: EBarnacle
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 09:15 PM

Could these be the same people who complain it is too cold or too snowy in the winter? What is, is.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 09:21 PM

When it gets too hot to do much of anything, perhaps there is reason to look at things like:

10 completely useless homemade machines

Special attention should be given to the next to last item at the bottom, that for certain of our regulars could provide relief from the onerous job of changing TV channels.

The last item shown likely is one many have seen; but it is worth watching the fairly brief video if you haven't. (Don't make your machinery angry!)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: DebC
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 09:36 PM

I did 20 years in the Northern Sacramento Valley in California where temps climb into the triple digits frequently. Our heat here in new England (I am in Massachusetts) has been bearable for me as the humidity has been low (24%!!). This summer and last year's were hot and dry. Weird.

It's a dry heat so far.

Deb Cowan

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: olddude
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 09:52 PM

hey its just practice we are all going to hell anyway
:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: gnu
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 09:55 PM

Dan... hahahahahaaa.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: MarkS
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 11:11 PM

So hot today I saw two trees fighting over a dog.

Yeah, its old, but so am I.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 11:23 PM

It was 103F at 10 am here...

I have central air and I'm setting at minimum bearable expenditure, if the kids complain they can go outside.

I thank the people who are calling Mom and telling her to stay inside, which she would anyway. I've kept my unhappy cats in. Mother Nature ain't to be disrespected.

It occurs to me to ask her (Mom, not Mother Nature, upon rereasing) tomorrow, which is supposed to be both hotter and the last really hot day, if she has a get-to-AC-now plan if the elec in DC goes out with the demand, since there is no limit to the # of people who are buying, and plugging in, fans and pocket ACs.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 11:26 PM

JohninKS, thanks! Fun to see the update to that angry machine!

ranger1, my daughter's cats in CT have been having the same trouble. Two to them favour the dining table as it is metal and stays more cool. It has been miserable there with the "Three Aitches: Hot, Hazy, & Humid." I well remember those days and do NOT miss them. I hate high heat and, like you, do not tolerate it well, but dry heat is easier to deal with, imo, plus the high desert cools off, usually, at night.

Here's something I would recommend you get. It REALLY does work: MISTY MATE. That is like one I bought years ago, which still works. You strap it around your waist, clip the end of the hose to a cap or whatever you want and the mist it sprays before you cools the air significantly, making it more tolerable to be out as you are. There are larger ones like that. They don't show it in their new, "Improved" models which are hand held, but if you search for "strap on," it shows up. They also have other cooling accessories including the Arctic Tie. Those really help a lot, too!

Please be careful, everyone!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Janie
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 12:01 AM

What we are acclimated to makes all the difference. In my adult life have suffered heat stroke when visiting summer Florida while living and being acclimated to cooler and less humid climes. Then moved south and without AC for several years. Suffered hypothermia on a very hot July day at a beach in Delaware after playing in the ocean for an hour due to cooler water temps.

These past couple days, and the weekend to come are gonna be hard on many of us - but I can tolerate 100 degree temps much better than you Maniacs can, just because I'm more acclimated to higher temps and humidity.

The body bears the burden.....

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 01:56 AM

Fun to see the update to that angry machine!

But kat - did you check out the one above the angry: the Spaw Controller?

John

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: ranger1
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 03:41 AM

EBarnacle, I revel in the cold. I'm usually the one pointing out that one can always put another sweater on in the winter, but there's only so much one can take off in the summer.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Will Fly
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 04:19 AM

Bring it on, damn you! We've had cool, grey, windy damp days in the UK for the past few days or so, and I'm itching for some sun. Just send a little bit of yours this way - perleese!

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: ranger1
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 05:20 AM

Will, you can have it! I'll take cool, grey, windy and damp!

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 05:53 AM

10/08/03 we had 100.6F in the south of England - highest ever in the UK "since records began".

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: MikeL2
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 07:00 AM

hi

Phew.....over here in UK probably the worst July we have experienced.

Went to North Wales last week-end to watch one of my son's take part in the Welsh Triathlon.

On the worst day possible we all stood there on the beach as the contestants pined up in their wet suits for the start of the race.

Just as they got set to race in the sea the race-director called off the swimming leg - too dangerous !!! Winds of 60 - 70 gusting higher.

So we had a "duathlon".

The winds increased and the rain came down in torrents. The plucky contestants fought against the elements and they did actually finish the event.

We were lucky. We had a hotel on the beach and our room overlooked the route that the contestants took. So we sat warm and cosy in the window and I shot some great video. Never seen so many umbrellas blown inside out and up into the sky.

This is mid-summer in the UK. !!!!!!!

We have been promised some "good weather" imminently but I'm holding my breath. The forecasts this year have been so bad that we just don't believe them any more.

cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 07:07 AM

...I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walking. (Utah Phillips)

I have lost 5 pounds this past week.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: maeve
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 07:53 AM

Speaking for my family in Maine, we have high temperatures and humidity every summer, and often in spring and autumn as well. We may or may not enjoy the heat, but it's a normal occurrence in our experience and we know quite well how to manage. We feel fortunate to live in an area with dramatic contrasts in severe weather; we accommodate to whatever weather we encounter... weeks of punishing heat or weeks of punishing cold. Some of us have lived/traveled in Texas, California, Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, England, Italy, Germany, Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa as well as Maine, so we have experienced different climates.

It's all too easy to assume that other people can't handle what we ourselves survive. :) May we each manage well enough with current weather conditions to be able to help those who are in need.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: gnu
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 01:21 PM

Yeah? Well my nuts were stickin to my thighs (my silky smooth white thighs) after watering the greenery for only twenty minutes. I am NOT acclimated fer that and I shant get acclimated fer that on accounta I got 25kBtus a frosty cranked full tilt and I ain't goin back outside unless the power cuts out. And, if it does cut out I am gonna get hosed reeeeal good.

And it ain't even REAL hot here. I feel sorry for youse what got real hot weather.

Kendall... get Jac to bring you iced lemonade and fan you with a frond.

Hmmm... is it cool in the cellar?

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 01:30 PM

It barely made 14C here today.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Crowhugger
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 02:01 PM

Oh I would PAY for 14C right now! Once the temp gets above 28 or 30C I become a little unhinged. I really don't deal well with heat and will do almost anything to get and stay cool.

By the time June rolled around I was already looking forward to next winter. Don't get me wrong, I make the best of summer and take advantage of what it offers, such as water play without freezing to death. Part of the attraction of winter when one has 3 large dogs: snowy playtime means coming home with 12 clean feet!

A girlfriend and I are usually the only ones at the dog park when the wind chill hits 35C below. I don't own a winter coat--just layer some wool over a couple of under-layers of cashmere...if it's good enough for Himalayan goats, it's good enough for me. Add a woven layer to shed snow and cut the wind and off we go. The dogs well know how to cope: they run & wrestle more when it's that cold. Ahh, it's been nice to revisit those winter memories...

Sorry, UK-ers. I'd send you the heat if I could, HONEST!!

Side benefit of the heat, though: It's a big reason I have time to post here lately instead of my usual read 'n' run. Too hot to step outside if at all avoidable.

Is it fall yet? Gosh, this complaining is kind of fun.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Will Fly
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 02:09 PM

Forecast here (Sussex, UK) for tomorrow is 23C - that's promising...

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 02:53 PM

Oh I'd love to be there in that heat, truly! I'm sitting here (Norfolk, UK) in a jumper and thick trousers, with my little fan heater on. Ridiculous for July! I'm trying to persuade my Ivory Coast hubbie to take me to visit his mum & dad in Abidjan, but he's not looking too enthusiastic. The poor children, all last term they sweltered in their classrooms during the drought, and now, the first day of the hols., it's rotten. Wish I has a nice hot sauna to sit in!

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: gnomad
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 03:12 PM

Lucky Will, we are being offered drizzle all morning, with northerly winds gusting to 44mph. (Whitby, NE England) Top temperature to be around 4pm, 15deg Celsius. The wind will make it feel a lot lower.

We are supposed to be a seaside holiday resort, but our beach will have those same northerlies straight off the sea, which is predicted to have 11.5 ft swells to encourage paddling.

Maybe we could swap some of ours for some of what those on the west side of the pond are having?

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: olddude
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 03:51 PM

It has been total hell in western NY, I don't think I have ever been so hot ... and not in a good way either ... gosh .. punishing heat. I went for a walk at 2 in the morning and it was still 88 with 100% humidity ... my server shut down from being overheated ... brutal for sure.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 05:33 PM

Great! Now I have this visual of a hairy gnu with silky white thighs stuck to his balls. That could put me off sex for life.
WTF gnu!
Keep that crap to yourself.

SINS, hot, sticky and cranky

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: gnu
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 05:47 PM

"hot, sticky and cranky"

Soooo, what are you not wearing?

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: ranger1
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 06:09 PM

SINSULL beat me to that comment.

I wuld love to be able to breathe easily. My rarely bothersome, usually mild, mostly exercise-induced asthma has kicked in majorly over the past couple of days. It's not in any way life-threatening, but it is extremely uncomfortable.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Amergin
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 06:12 PM

Not sure what you all are complaining about....it's 78 degrees here in Oregon...

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 06:45 PM

The turf is tinder dry and it is impossible to step anywhere outside barefoot.

My attic doubles as a roaster oven.

The trees are losing their foliage in a bizarre summer leafstorm, and those that aren't dropping leaves are turning brown.

Cracks opened up in the back yard soil that are so large that I'm afraid my dogs will fall in and get lost.

The year-round creek isn't running and the few deep standing pools are so hot even the mosquitoes won't go there to breed.

Bicyclists and motorcyclists fear afternoon or evening accidents in which they might cook to death if they have to lie injured on the pavement.

You guys back east are just getting started. Think about how it would feel for seven weeks straight, like we've had down here already in Texas and Oklahoma. We've been in the high-90s since the first of June, the 100s for all of July. At least the odds are against your having to live with the heat for that long, or even a sizable fraction of this amount of time. We face the possibility of at least six to eight weeks more of it, based on our typical weather patterns. August and September can be the miserable months of the year down here, and we're not there yet. The desert southwest has been even hotter than this, but the charm of true desert is that it tends to cool down nicely at night. We haven't been below 80 at night in weeks.

U.S. Drought Monitor Map

Relax and feel lucky that it probably won't last as long up there in the east. Drink lots of fluid, don't be stupid and exercise hard in the heat, take it easy. Enjoy the shade, carry an umbrella to keep some of the worst of it off of the back of your head and neck. You should carry a filled water bottle everywhere you go. I carry one of these BPA-free bottles at work and in the truck and if I have to work in the yard I do it at 7am and I take a full 64oz bottle with me into the yard. A small squirt of water on your shirt, back and front will cool you off rapidly and very efficiently. And because it's so hot, no one will think you're a dork if they see you with a wet shirt. It goes with the territory.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Crowhugger
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 07:28 PM

Lately been taking my water gun to the dog park. Dogs don't much like the feel & sound of the squirt but their humans are thankful for it. In this heat it's a dreadful walk from parking to creek. Thank goodness for clouds rolling in this aft, making this early evening time more bearable. As I always say to one of my friends: You call it cloudy, I call it shade.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 07:33 PM

It's 76F on the porch and warmer still in the backyard -- probably 80F or so. I have to go out there and do some stuff. I hope that I don't collapse from the heat, at least before I have dinner.

(Fear not, it'll be 90F tomorrow, which is why I want to get it done today.)

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: maeve
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 07:55 PM

Funny how competitive folks are regarding weather. Kind of cute.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: olddude
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:13 PM

Just hosed down my fat lab/newfie dog with the garden hose. He doesn't like it much but afterwords he thanks me for it ...

If I had two more arms, the pits on them would be sweating also ...

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:22 PM

It's so hot here in Maine that there was no need to put the bread slices into the toaster. We just placed them on the plates for about a minute, and then poured the butter over them.

Whining,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: maeve
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:29 PM

Good whinge, Charley!

olddude, we use a gentle spray setting with the garden hose to cool the chickens and their run, too. My little broody hen has come to enjoy a quick cool down in the water bowls.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:41 PM

If you're walking a dog on hot concrete in the middle of day it can kill small dogs if they get too hot. My vet told me about a couple who had two small dogs that they walked at noon one day; the dogs were clearly in distress so they iced them down - first, walking in the heat was a bad idea, and cooling them with ice put them into shock and caused fatal kidney failure. If a dog is too hot, stand them in shallow cool water or put wet compresses on their feet, but don't use ice. They will lose a lot of the excess heat through their feet (in addition to panting) and moist rags or cool water are best.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 09:41 PM

So far I have NOT seen any TV flacs trying to fry an egg on a sidewalk.... but there's still time.

'Only' 98 here today.

Have you all put out water for birds in a shady spot? In my back yeard, it took about 2 minutes for a Cardinal to find it.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Beer
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 10:21 PM

Just spent 6 and 1/2 hours in a dried up swamp picking blueberries. Got a great tan and slept for a good half hour when I got home. Going back tomorrow with a friend. lots of water is a priority. today it was about 36c.
ad.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 11:45 PM

My bird bath evaporates fast but the birds do use it.

I guess maeve picked up on a few spots of fiction in my account of how hot it is. :)

Bill, instead of trying to cook an egg on bare concrete, put your skilled down on the concrete and let it get hot along with the sidewalk. Right before you try to cook your egg, move the skillet over to another hot area that wasn't shaded by the skillet to boost the heat and I bet you can cook an egg. Don't forget the oil!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 11:10 AM

Today the forecast is 103 to 106 (depending on which source I use). Over 103 it's pretty miserable around here.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 12:11 PM

SRS...that's why I put a few small, shallow pans around so I can move them to a shady spot. (I also have a fairly shady patio in back)


The sidewalk thing is borderline 'possible'

http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/friedegg.html

My son agreed to take over mowing the lawn, and I warned him yesterday to just do part of it. He thought he was ok...for about 15 minutes... then he saw the point and stopped at about ¼ done. More today.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: maeve
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 01:00 PM

Fiction, SRS? Surely you jest!

We aren't mowing anymore; the grass has pretty much gone dormant. We are trying to catch up with the overgrowth of weeds and brush at the edge of the woods, around the gardens, etc., but even that has to stop for now due to way too many yellow jackets in bad moods.

Subject: RE: BS: Too Effing Hot!!!
From: olddude
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 01:14 PM

I found something that really disturbed me. Since it has been so hot I never thought about the birds. I found one in my fountain near my flower garden. Apparently he drowned trying to get a drink. I now have a big bowl of water next to it. I never thought of that, birds gotta drink but if they try to drink out of that big plastic fountain they fall in and it is all over for them. Maybe I need to get a bird bath or something.