Are you a fan of the hot weather? NOT ME!

I was sitting in my living room around 10am thinking about how hot it must be outside. The air inside was already starting to get heavy and oppressive, despite the coolness that greeted me at 6am.

Now and then I could hear a strong breeze rustling the leaves of the trees outside. So that was something to look forward to when I eventually had to venture outside.

I dubbed around on facebook, chugged some lukewarm coffee (Instant coffee, and hot tap water…A favorite of mine when I don’t want hot coffee, or iced coffee) played a few dozen hands of solitaire and read the headlines on www.bangordailynews.com.

In the end, I knew it was time to go outside. The chickens and rabbits would want water, and so would my sorry attempt of a vegetable garden.

Looking out the window I could see the trees swaying in heavy wind. Thank God for the breeze…

So I thought!

Now granted, the metal siding on my 1973 mobile home gets hot pretty quick, as it is situated east to west. The southern exposure can likely fry an egg on the hottest day. But I was NOT prepared for the hot blast of wind that came at me from a northern gust.

Instantly as I stepped onto the front steps it was like my days working in a US Air Force kitchen and opening a large convection oven!

Some people say, “But it’s a dry heat!”

I say, “I bet the flames of Hell are a dry heat too!”

I mean seriously! Dry heat… Humid heat… HOT IS HOT FOLKS! And if you ask me?  IT SUCKS!

I went out and ran the hose for a bit, taking a moment to let the old hose water cycle through…And I can assure you the water in that hose, that had only been in the sun for 2 hours AT THE MOST, was hotter than the cup of coffee I had just finished!

I saw that the animals all had water, and recalled something I was told many years ago about not watering a garden on a hot dry day until after sundown. So I opened the windows in the van, and headed back to the house.

I was outside MAYBE ten minutes. When I opened the door I was blasted in the face with “cold” air. It was so refreshing! I glanced at the thermostat on the wall a few feet away…IT WAS SEVENTY THREE DEGREES!

Anybody that knows me, knows for certain that I DO NOT consider 73 degrees to be cool! Even on the coldest day of winter you wont find it to be above 70 degrees in my house! NO WAY!

I look at it like this. If you are cold, add a layer!

The same is NOT true when you are hot! What do you do if you are naked as the day you were born, fresh out of a cool shower, and sitting in front of a fan, and you are STILL hot???

Many of you are thinking “OH! But it’s SO nice after the cold winter, and the wet cool spring we had!”

In a couple of weeks, many of those same people will be complaining about the heat, and wishing it would be cooler!

ADMIT IT! No matter how much you hate to…You HAVE to admit it… Sure, warm weather is a nice change from cold damp weather, but in the long run, it is ALWAYS better to be cold, because eventually you CAN get warm!

If I want to, I CAN make it 90 degrees in my house when it is 15 degrees outside. But I have yet to find an airconditioner that will let me bring the temperature in my house down as low as 50…let alone the 40’s I prefer for sleeping!

I for one, will be VERY happy to see the warm sunny days that are broken up by a cold blast of wind when October rolls along!

Doug Alley

About Doug Alley

I grew up in Bath, Maine in an upper lower class family with 3 step sisters, a step brother, and a little sister. After high school I spent 3 years serving in the USAF at Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage AK. I've competed in, and won, demolition derbies. I've competed in, and never won, stock car races. I am the 47-year-old father of an 11-year-old boy who is pretty sure he is smarter than I ever was. We live on a little less than an acre of land in a 1973 mobile home in Stetson with my wife Jen, some cats, a few chickens, and rabbits, and a couple of goats. I hunt, fish, camp out, dabble in photography, gardening, and I cook in variable degrees of near success.