Feeling the heat

We're in the middle of a pre-summer heat wave out here in Maryland. Not just hot, but oh so humid. Right now at 8:21pm, it is 92 degrees with 47% humidity, according to weather.com. That makes for a heat index of 96 degrees. At almost 8:30pm. Almost 2 weeks before summer even officially starts.

Every year as summer approaches, I try to hold off on turning on the air conditioning. It's just a huge electricity guzzler. Our electricity bill can easily double just by trying to keep the indoor temperature comfortable. I figure that if I wait to turn the A/C on, my body will get more used to the hotter temperatures, and then two things will happen: I will feel slightly more comfortable outdoors in the heat, and I won't need the A/C to be on quite so much. But it's so hard to resist the A/C when it's so humid! The air gets so moist that it feels hard to breath. Every single piece of your clothing sticks to your skin. And carrying around a 14+ pound baby to try to get him to sleep is nearly like walking into a sauna.

And yet, we've managed to keep the air conditioning off so far. (Well, except on one evening, when Jesse came home from the air-conditioned work office, to me using a stovetop burner and the oven at the same time, with nothing more than a fan running.) Today we've mostly avoided cooking hot food, or turning on the lights, and we've kept the blinds closed and the fans turned on, and cold water readily available. And at about 5pm, I remarked to Jesse how surprised I was that I felt fairly comfortable in our 80+ degree, humid apartment.

Now it almost feels like a challenge - when everyone else in the surrounding area has their A/C running full blast, how long can I keep mine off?? How well can I avoid that huge jump in my electricity bill?

At times like this, I seriously miss the Colorado heat. Sure, it'd get to 100 degrees in the summer, but it was dry heat. You don't stick to yourself in dry heat, you only feel like you're baking. That's a lot different from melting! (And, arguably, more comfortable?) Also, the very best part, it actually cools off after the sun goes down. Once it's dark, you can set up fans in your windows to circulate the air through the house, sucking out all the hot air and letting in all the cool air. If you do it all night, you'll actually need your blankets, because it gets down in the 60's, consistently! But here in Maryland? Tonight, we can look forward to a lovely 75 degrees with 67% humidity.... which is bad enough, but that won't happen until 4:00am!!! It's still going to be in the 80's through the 3 o'clock hour. Yikes. Not much potential for cooling off, there. I'm learning to sleep without covers, and with a fan blowing directly on me. Both would otherwise normally really bother me.

I know, I know, I *could* turn on the air conditioning to be comfortable at night. But that would just set up a pattern. If I get used to cool, dry air, I'll need it that much more! If a fan works, use it, I say!

As for my other goal of avoiding sweets, well, I've done really well, I think. I didn't freeze the birthday cake, though, and I've allowed myself to eat a piece every day since my birthday so far. Maybe I'll go ahead and send the rest of it with Jesse to work tomorrow, huh? But avoiding the sugar has really helped. I'm feeling much more strong against my cravings, now, and I'm feeling the cravings much less frequently already! So I didn't have a perfect week of no sweets, but I'm feeling much better about where I'm at. I lasted all the way from last Sunday until my birthday on Friday, and I've moderated myself since then. And I've snacked on a lot more fruits and veggies, yay! I'll try and keep up the pattern this week. Jesse's requested a pie instead of a cake for his birthday, so that'll be a lot less temptation in the house this week, too. I feel like I deserve a small pat on the back, at least, don't you? :)