For the love of all that is holy, let it end

I don’t want this to turn into a weather blog, but it’s pretty much all I can think of about the moment!

Look at that map. Just look at it. (We’re the white dot.) I think it hit 100° today, tomorrow it’s supposed to be 102°, and Saturday 100° again. I felt kind of crummy when I got up this morning, sluggish and sort of dizzy. I was never able to really shake it off, but felt okay enough to go out and pick up sticks and storm debris in the yard. I took water out with me, and I stayed in the shade almost the entire time (we have lots of trees), so I was being careful, but it still got to me. I wasn’t out for long, but I really did not feel good when I came in. I was a little nauseated, and was happy when that finally eased up. I laid on the loveseat for a while, the with A/C blowing on me, and felt better after a little while.

I was mentioning this on Bookface, and my niece Jennifer commented that when she was in Thailand (super hot and humid), it really got to her, too. She said a pharmacist advised her to eat some potato chips for the salt. That makes sense, because I know your electrolytes can get wonky when you get dehydrated (I’m such a bench chemist, I know). I didn’t have any potato chips downstairs, but I had some sea salt bagel chips and had a few of those. That really seemed to help, and I’m feeling quite a bit better now.

I wondered why this was getting to me so much. Jen speculated that it was just sneaking up on me after several days of this, and since I’m a small person, it might be affecting me more. I’m not going to an air conditioned office every day, too. Although we have the room A/C running in here, when it’s this hot, it doesn’t cool it off completely. You can still feel the heat and humidity. (Thank science the bedroom one is a different story...in that small room, it gets fairly cool in there, and we sleep pretty well.)

Unfortunately, we’ve got two more days of this before it breaks. I hope folks who are without A/C are able to go to places to cool off, whether it’s the library, the mall, or a cooling center. This is pretty dangerous stuff. If a relatively healthy (and not totally old!) person like me feels this crummy from it, you know that those who are more vulnerable have to be really hurting. Please stay safe, everyone!

I made sure the bird bath was filled for any critters who want a drink or to cool off, and I set out a little bowl for Chip and Dale (our chipmunks). Tomorrow afternoon we’re going to enjoy some Happy Fun Pool Time™ at Shane and Matt’s, and boy, is that ever going to feel good! Hey, it’ll be like a bird bath for humans!