We're Havin' a Heat Wave, A Tropical Heat Wave...

Whew!

Here in Minnesota, we’ve just gotten through the worst “heatstorm” - as our television weather people called it – in the last thirteen years or so. Broadcasters tend to want to describe things in extremes, but for the last couple of weeks, no one in these parts would disagree with their nomenclature…fiercely hot, terrifically humid, and altogether unyielding.

Now what is horrific here is probably quite normal for anybody dealing with summer and living in Texas, Alabama, the Carolinas, Mississippi, and similar places, and it seems clear that we do not know how to handle this particular challenge.

For example, I live in an old farmhouse with no air conditioning, except in the bedroom. Normally I close the house up in the morning, and if it gets hot, the house is about 79 degrees when I return in the afternoon. Not too bad, in other words.

During this last bout of heat, the house was 86 degrees upon my return, so I would retreat to the bedroom for much of the evening – reading, going through piles of stuff and organizing them into new piles, and having the occasional evening meal. Well, it was the only part of the house that was 74 degrees.

My solution to the evening meal was two microwaved hot dogs, a similarly prepared ear of corn, potato salad, and raw carrots. Not much heat, not much nutrition -–I guess – but it was enough.

In the second week, people’s temperaments began to express themselves more colorfully – more active facial expressions, more and louder vocal behavior, and plenty of those digital signals which indicate displeasure with the acts of another in a nearby automobile.

And then, mercifully, the heat moved East to destroy people’s sense of equilibrium out there.

So if you live in the American South or someplace equally hot, I don’t expect any sympathy at all from you about our recent profound thermal discomfort.

But come December and January, we’re at our best in the snow and ice and wind. We know how to live in that stuff – why we go outside in t shirts and beat our chests in defiance of Mother Nature, when those of you who get the occasional inch of snow turn up your toes and retreat back to bed.

Do you know what the best part is about living in Minnesota? We can complain ferociously about the weather every darn month of the year…just part of the character of our state.

Cheers,

Nick