Friday, July 6, 2012

Holy Crap! Is It Ever Hot

I received an email the other day from a fella in Oklahoma. He said it was so hot he saw three trees chasing a dog. Dublin, Ohio will reach the 103 mark today. It won't affect me because I'm about to assume my favorite position; in front of the air conditioning duct, prone on the couch, with the TV going and my computer on my lap.
I was trying to think  when Lizzie and I bought our first home with air. It might have been in 1982 when we lived in Davenport, Iowa. Talk about dying and going to heaven.
"We don't complain when we don't know what we don't have". By that I mean growing up in the Fifties without air would be like someone trying to explain a microwave oven to me at that time. That was Captain Video and the Video Rangers stuff. My grandma would sit outside with a rolled up newspaper fanning herself all day long. Luckily, there were plenty of Elm trees that offered affordable amounts of shade. Musser, Rolfes and I would grab a bottle of grape Lindy's soda pop* and lie down on our backs using the trunk of the Elm as a pillow. We went swimming at McHose Park. It was only ten cents to get in. I may have even bought a summer pass. It seems as though I pedaled my bike to the pool every day. My long term memory is pretty danged good but I can't recall staying up all night as a kid screaming out, "Someone help me. I'm melting"!
Some areas of Columbus, Ohio have been without power for a week due to a massive storm that swept through town. I was talking with our golf pro this morning. He lives in Delaware, Ohio, a few miles north of Columbus, and he was telling me how he swelters at night with temps in the upper 80's in his house. Now, I'm not too smart but I asked him why he didn't sleep in his van at night with the air on. "Never thought of that", he said. Egg on his face.
Okay, I know you've been waiting for this. Do not, under any circumstances, use the excuse of global warming. I've been nice enough to add some figures about one of the hottest, if not the hottest, decade in American History. It spawned the Dust Bowl. The figures are from Washington D.C. and the high temps couldn't have happened to a more lousy bunch of guys.
Read them and wonder how the old-timers survived without all the pleasures and conveniences of today.
*soda pop-It's an Iowa thing


July 19 - 102°F
July 20 - 106°F
July 21 - 103°F
July 22 - 100°F
July 23 - 94°F
July 24 - 93°F
July 25 - 100°F
July 26 - 100°F

The August heat wave high temperatures are as follows:

August 2 - 94°F
August 3 - 100°F
August 4 - 102°F
August 5 - 102°F
August 6 - 88°F
August 7 - 97°F
August 8 - 104°F
August 9 - 102°F

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