Georgia Summer Heat

If one more of my "north of the Mason-Dixon" friends tells me they're hot, it's possible they'll get a one-way ticket to Atlanta in the mail and a glass of Coke dumped in their lap upon arrival. This heat will literally knock you down and take your breath away. You haven't even met summer heat until you've spent a July and August in the deep South, and don't even start with me about humidity. I had to laugh the other day when a Canadian weathergirl who presumedly lives in Manhattan said she couldn't take much more humidity because of her bad hair days.

All of that said, I've spent the past 24 hours in the most unimaginable conditions. At approximately 4:30 PM yesterday I was tricked into thinking a pleasant summer storm was sweeping through town. The gentle breeze and cool rain made me think I might just be in for an enjoyable evening, a little relief from the 96 but feels like 106 degrees. Boy, was I wrong. It only took a few claps of thunder and flashes of lightning for the power to go out and it only took about two seconds for me to realize the breeze wasn't quite as cool as I thought it was. I tried not to complain at first. The last puffs from the AC still lingered in the air and boredom wouldn't set in until later when I would realize my laptop battery wasn't quite as charged as I would have liked it to have been. The failure of my neighbor's electric fence provided a half an hour or so of entertainment as I watched a herd of cattle graze on another neighbor's grass, while yet another neighbor's slightly less than intelligent teenage son mooed at them.

By 9:00, it was still in the low 90's and I was beginning to wonder how people survived hundreds of years before. When faced with a difficult situation, I often ask myself, What would Scarlett O'Hara do? I know, I know, it's silly, it's stupid, and it's too corny Southern girl, but there is a lot of wisdom to be learned from her. She was determined and strong, and not only did she make the best of a situation, but she did it to meet her standards. I mean, she managed to prance around Atlanta in the middle of a war wearing curtains and never broke a sweat.

By 9:30, I caved in to my cousin who was begging me to go swimming with him despite the fact the pool was pitch dark and I couldn't see what was or wasn't swimming with us. Even though it was refreshing, I could only take so many creatures rubbing against my legs in the water.

I knew I'd never get to sleep, so I lit a few candles, got out a pen and notepad, and proceeded to write, but again learned how spoiled I'd become by modern technology when I lost all feeling in my wrist and got bored when my iPod switched off because it, too, needed charging. Sleeping was out of the question and soon my attention focused back on the heat. I tiptoed into the kitchen and hijacked what was left of the ice in the freezer. My parents were attempting to sleep and I threw all instructions of rationing it out the window. I drank...no gulped... four glasses of ice water, chewing each piece of ice as I did, savoring it as if it were made out peanut butter cups instead of water. I also had no idea my mother was sitting just feet away from me in the dark. "What on earth are you doing?" she asked finally, scaring the you know what out of me. "You better not be using all of the ice!" Ooops!

Before I could respond, every light in the house came on and our attention focused elsewhere. It was 4:30 AM. Twelve hours without power and I had survived. It could have been much worse.

Time to go to sleep. And sleep I did, minus a couple of trips to take care of all the ice water.

Today, more storms came through and I braced myself. Sure enough, the power was knocked out again but this time it was only for a couple of hours. After last night, I knew I could handle it. I'd learned a valuable lesson. This time, I saw to it that my laptop was fully charged all day and when the heat became too much, I sat in the car and ran the air conditioner. And I'm pretty sure that's what Scarlett O'Hara would have done, at least the 2006 version.

Quote of the day 7-4-06 Abraham Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." - Abraham Lincoln

Happy 4th of July! Eat lots of good food, have lots of fun, and remember why you get to do that!

Quote of the Day 7-2-06 Adam Housley

“I think for anybody, your dreams sometimes change. Even though I had dreamed of playing baseball — and I will always wish I had played in the big leagues — sometimes it’s not meant to be.” - Adam Housley (Fox News)


I can identify...not with playing baseball...but with dreams changing.