Too Hot

Our house is old by Durham standards. It was built in 1954. That is a young house in my life’s history. I grew up in a “house” that was technically two barns put together. One was over 300 years old when we lived in it. It had no insulation, no air conditioning, no doors to the outside that locked. It was hot in the summer and cold in the winter, but it had a lot of charm.

Our “old” house has two HVAC units for which I am externally grateful on this day where the actual temperature was 102°. The “feels like” was even hotter, but what difference does that make once you are at 102.

The old part of our house, the part built in 1954, does not have good insulation and so our bedroom is the warmest room in the house. Last night it was very warm to the point that I woke up at 3:00 am and could not go back to sleep.

The new section of our house is much more efficient. So the bedroom on the bottom floor of the new section is like a freezer compared to my bedroom on the top floor a world away.

I was down in the “sweat shop,” my sewing room next to the coldest bedroom, this afternoon working and it was so cold I had to go turn the air up four degrees. Since it is still over 100° at 8:00 at night, I have decided to sleep in the freezer bedroom tonight. Why not be as cold as possible and get a good night’s sleep.

Heat is debilitating and I would like to keep going. I am conserving as much as I can by not going outside and doing unnecessary activity. I know I am lucky. If you have to work outside please be careful.

I am thankful to have air conditioning. Not like my no air conditioning childhood, where we used to jump in a cold shower and then lie naked in front of the box fan. Only kept us cool for ten minutes, but it was ten minutes we might have had a chance to fall asleep.