NaturallyResilient

About

It is starting to feel more like summer around here. The days are getting hotter in Central Texas. Even though summer doesn’t officially arrive until June 21, summer ‘officially’ arrives around here when you have to run the air conditioner all day to stay halfway comfortable. Every year I try to hold off as long as possible before turning it on. The air conditioner is the main cost of electricity and it can easily double your electric bill. We have ceiling fans in every room but the bathrooms and the kitchen, but just stirring the air does not help when the air itself is hot.

As a teen growing up in Houston, which has not only heat but humidity, there was a year when we had a major heat wave. I remember one day it got up to 114 and I had to go outside to see what 114 felt like. It felt like walking into a giant oven! It was suffocating.

I believe the South did not really become heavily populated until air-conditioning was invented. Have you ever been camping in 100 degree weather? It is not much fun. If you are from up north you may not have any idea what I am talking about.

Fresh out of college, I visited a friend and her family in New Hampshire in May. It was still pretty cool in New Hampshire at that time of year. Her father was planting tomatoes and I mentioned that my dad got his in early enough that he could have early summer tomatoes and then replant for early fall tomatoes. He had no idea what I was talking about. He could not get his mind around that the tomato plants would literally burn up in the heat of summer; wilt and die. I wonder if he even knew that tomatoes will not “set” (produce tomatoes) if the weather turns too hot.

I expect we still have a few more weeks before I absolutely, positively have to have the cool blowing 24 hours to live in the house.