Another Friday Farrago

Bridge over the Tuscarawas River, psychedelic style.

It’s Thursday as I type this.  I’m feeling a bit drained from the heat and humidity.  What better time to sit, relax, sort through some photos, and get a post together?  The computer is located in the coolest part of the house.  Might as well take advantage of it.  The photos from this post are a mixture from this past week, most of them from Monday’s bike ride.  (The one I was too exhausted to blog about.)

Reality.

Tomorrow, whether we have the new air conditioning unit installed or not, I won’t have time to work on a post.  There are a lot of things I need to do before Sunday.  We’ve invited a friend from India to come over, take a walk around the pond, and have dinner with us.  His home is very neat and tidy.  Mine?  Well.  It’s a bit like Chaos Central at the moment.

On the Towpath Trail.

Anyhow.  I’ve been feeling sorry for myself this afternoon, and decided to take some kind of action:  A cold shower.  It was just the thing to help me adjust my attitude from one of misery to one of gratitude.

Looking up

I am lucky (and blessed) in many ways.  For instance, we have well water.  Well water is a good thing to have on a hot day because it’s always nice and cold.  It’s difficult to complain about being hot when I’m standing (and shivering) under a shower of cold water.

Stopping to admire the flowers

I get to experience what it was like for the family who built this home.*  There was no air conditioning in this house until we had it installed our first summer here.  The family who originally lived here did their sleeping and eating in the basement during the hot summer months.  They even had a kitchen in the basement, a tradition we reestablished a few years after we bought the place.  We use the second kitchen for canning and homebrewing so we don’t have to heat up (and mess up) the upstairs kitchen.

Normally, the temperature in the basement stays a nice, steady, 65 degrees (F).  It’s been five days since the a/c died, and it’s still not too bad down here.  It’s been slowly warming up.  It’s 73 degrees today.

The Tuscarawas River

We haven’t been doing any cooking down here, though.  I put the kabosh on that.  It’s already hot upstairs.  Might as well keep the heat there.

The heat depresses my appetite.  Cold fruit and salads are about all I feel like eating.  Since I’m trying to lose weight, that’s a good thing.

The weight loss experts say one of the (many) reasons for the obesity epidemic here in the U.S. is due to air conditioning and heating.  Our bodies no longer have to work to regulate body temperature which burns a few extra calories.  So, I’ve got that going for me too.

I’m too hot to do any of my usual crazy workouts.  Any extra calorie burn is appreciated.

Reflections on the Tuscarawas

Because it feels too hot to move, I’ve had to slow down and rest.  That’s given me time to play a little, too.  You should see what I’ve done with some of my photos.  Maybe you will someday.  Not today.  I already picked out the photos for this post.  Well, okay.  I did start the post with one of the playful photos.  Maybe I’ll end it with one, too.

So you see?  It’s not all bad.

It’s Friday now.  I didn’t quite finish this yesterday so I’m here to wrap things up.  M and I are going to a concert tonight.  It should be fun (and air conditioned).  Tonight will also bring a cold front, helping to cool things down.  I am truly going to enjoy that once the line of strong storms makes its way through.

Praying mantis in the goldenrod

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Stay cool or stay warm, depending on where you are in the seasonal shifts, and have a delightful weekend!  🙂

*For the record:  I grew up without air conditioning and even as an adult have lived in places (South Carolina, Georgia, and our first home here in northeast Ohio) without it.  I realize I’m spoiled.  I think the heat might be more tolerable if I was not at a point in life where I’m generating enough heat to contribute to global warming.

Today’s view of the pond

Advertisement

---