I spent most of my youth in California’s central valley where summer days average 90+ and a couple runs of in excess of 100 degrees is typical. We moved to the central coast when I was in high school and as soon as we hit the salt air I realized that I was a coastal person at the core.
I am perfectly content in a climate that seldom gets below 50 in the winter and is only occasionally over 85 in the summer. There was something cozy and comforting about the “June Gloom” that creeps in overnight, enticing one to sleep in until it burns off (around noon) and keeping the daytime temps from getting much above 80.
Now we live close enough to the coast to be taunted by their balmy temps as reported on the evening news, but inland far enough that for a good part of the year it’s just plain hot. Our 39-year-old air conditioning unit can’t keep up, even running from dawn until midnight.
To compensate, I’m becoming acquainted with local places that are heavy on the air conditioning (we made an unfortunate choice at lunch yesterday when the restaurant was having its door repaired so it was the same temperature indoors as out) and taking the kids to the pool. I’m not a water-person--never have been—so that doesn’t fix things for me, but it does keep them busy and tire them out so there’s not as much opportunity to notice just how cranky mom gets when she’s hot! I don’t cook unless it’s something that can be microwaved and we live like moles with the curtains and blinds drawn against the heat. And I’m not sure whether I torture myself or find some hope in scouring the weather reports for any sign of a “break.”
So, I’m sitting here in the dark, trying to figure out where to spend the day as it’s already 78 inside (at 11 am) and hoping the weather guy is right about it “dropping” into the high 80’s tomorrow.
What about you? Do you prefer hot or cold? How is it where you live? What’s your ideal climate. How do you adapt when it’s the opposite of what you like?
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3 comments:
I like the weather best when we are below 80, but above 40. I really like the rain and the coastal fog.
The summers where I live are hot, so we run our AC. We black-out windows on the south and west sides of the house. The best thing we do is open up the house at night. When we go to sleep we leave a window open in the kitchen with a fan blowing air out and we leave our bathroom window open. The fan sucks the cool air through the bathroom window and draws it through the house. (We would leave more windows open at night if we could.)It gets down to 65 inside most nights. About 7:00am, I close everything up. Most days we make it well into the afternoon before the AC comes on. I've found that if I'm cold in the morning, I can take a bit more heat to warm me up, so the AC comes on at 78 instead of 74.
There are a handful of nights that just don't cool off and then we keep the AC on at night.
Ha! Last weekend I was melting into a grumpy puddle of grouchiness, today I had to wear a sweater! Yay!
my favorite temp is upper 80s. Perfect. I am a heat girl through and through. I crave sunshine- too much rain gets me down- or else i have to be creative and make it fun regardless!
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