La Editrice has a recent entry whose title sums up my feelings quite adequately. It's been another week with highs in the 90s, and after a few days of relief, it's supposed to get back up there again later. And I just don't get the appeal. Since we've had central air, and cars with a/c, I'm actually okay most of the day - but after a while I'm just tired of having to treat the entire outdoors as a species of enemy, an enemy that will make me feel as if it's covered my body first with a layer of hot glue and then with a sealing layer of thin, vaseline-smeared plastic wrap. I like wearing pants, for instance (as opposed to shorts), and dammit I actually enjoy being able to put on a nice casual jacket, or layer my look a little bit, instead of wearing as few clothes as public decency allows. Rog may parade around in public in nothing but a Speedo (or so he says: please don't post photos) but going around striking terror into the hearts of little children is not my idea of entertainment.
And about that air-conditioning: I'm not sure why so many places think it's effective only if it's dialed down to like 68 degrees. (In the house, I rarely have it set lower than 79 - and since it removes humidity, that's just fine.) It's not so bad for me - I apparently am well-suited to Wisconsin winters, and don't get too cold too easily - but Rose gets cold far more readily than I do, and as a consequence of over-cooled air in public places, ends up having to cart around sweaters to keep herself warm when the outside temperature's 90 degrees. This is absurd, of course. The worst offenders are restaurants, who apparently set the temperature that's comfortable for their running-around waitstaff, while their clientele sit shivering in sweaters at their table frightened to use the silverware lest their tongues freeze to the metal. Worse yet is when you ask someone to moderate the a/c, and they claim they can't do anything about it (I'm talkin' to you, Cempazuchi Guy). Uh-huh...I suppose if the temperature outside suddenly dropped 40 degrees (which can happen here) it'd still be going on? Plus, Rose being an architect, she has some knowledge of how HVAC systems work...and unless the system was designed by a drunken chimpanzee, it should be controllable by the occupants. Anyway.
Fall is lovely - I can't wait.
1 comment:
Re: air conditioning in restaurants: Joe & I were in Florida a couple years ago during the month of August (he was there for a conference -- I assume they got some kind of enormous discount on the facilities for agreeing to meet in FLORIDA in freakin' AUGUST) and I made the mistake of not bringing a sweater to a restaurant one evening. I spent the whole time we were there freezing. Oh, and the cab we took to get there had its AC turned to around 64 degrees. Silly me for not thinking to bring a parka to Orlando when it was 96 degrees outside.
--Sue
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