And not in the good way.
If you're not from or have never visited a region that has humidity like this, then you can't hope to understand. It makes it hard to breathe. It feels like a wall. The air is so thick. It's oppressive.
Now, I grew up here so it has always been a part of my life. When people said that other regions were hot, when they talked about the southwestern portion of the nation having temperatures ten and twenty degrees hotter than our hottest days, but then turned around and said it was a dry heat so it was better, I never understood the actual difference. I'd see those temps and think that I'd just boil and die if I were there. Then I went to visit Sis while she was living in Denver. The day I got there she took me to the zoo. She asked me if I knew how hot it was. I did not. When she told me it was 96, I just blinked at her. It didn't feel that hot to me. It didn't feel anywhere near what a 96 degree day should feel like in my experience. Then, and only then, did I understand how much humidity makes a difference.
There's a heat wave sweeping most of the nation right now and here it's fucking humid. Which not only makes it feel hotter than it actually is, it makes you feel gross, too. Sticky and gross.
In my next life, I'm living somewhere humidity isn't such a factor.
You don't need to wait till your next life do you? You've got a huge country there. One thing I've always found fascinating in American novels and films is people packing things up in a u-haul and making a new start elsewhere, often a vast distance away and, yes, with a whole different climate. No worries about different languages or money etc.
ReplyDeleteEasy for me to say, I know, I know. :0)
I have grand fantasies of doing exactly that. Lack of funds, however, keep it from happening. And being so far away from my family that I would hardly get to see them...yeah, I don't love that. So, as soon as I become independently wealthy and can travel to see them whenever I want, I'm totally on it! :)
DeleteYou know, if you were in a novel, Kris, some distant relative would die and leave you their house in a small town, a small town where everyone looks out for everyone else, filled with quirky characters and full of small independent shops. (yes, only in a novel are there towns like this.) You, of course, would open a yarn shop and there would be this (straight) man who kept llamas for their fleece which he turned into yarn and you would bond while discussing knitting patterns. Now why does this all sound awfully familiar? *g*
Delete*snort* I actually adored that book. And the ones that followed. But that's the big dream, right? Goodness, I'd love that. Small house I didn't have to pay for, a job to go to everyday that fed my soul, a pretty man who raised llamas...sigh, excuse me while I daydream!
DeleteHi Kris. I am totally with you about the humidity. We had a few days when the temp was in the 80s, which is usually bearable, but the humidity was in the 70s, which is in the oppressive range. Tomorrow the temp might actually reach 100 and I'm trying not to be outside since the humidity is still in the oppressive range.
ReplyDeleteI always seem to be more irritable when it's that high. I swear I don't know how people managed before the days of air conditioning. Whoever invited AC should have won the Nobel Prize or something! LOL
Dr. Willis Carrier is the founder of modern air conditioning. I know this only because there once was a huge plant, and HQ, of Carrier here in my hometown!
DeleteI'm right there with you on the irritability, Brad. To say I get cranky is an understatement. I'm suddenly snapping at people for apparently no reason and I have to remind myself to calm down.