i'm fairly sure i'm going to melt at any point. it's been about 100 degrees here for the past week and there is no relief coming. as my boys and i were driving, it occurred to me how spoiled we all are in the year 2011. we were driving home from my mom's and i realize that i have the air conditioning in the front seat spewing at full blast with all the front vents aimed directly at me. my hair was actually blowing from the force of it. i also have the air conditioned seat on full blast too so my tush stays properly cooled. i looked in the rear view mirror at my boys, each in their own "section" of the car. the rear air conditioning is blowing at full speed, and my boys begin complaining that the air is making too much noise and they can't hear their movie. it must be nice - i haven't listened to my own music in months. but i can recite every line from toy story. it must be nice to be a child in 2011.
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| me and laura in our backyard oasis - note all the code issues in the bkgd |
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when i was about 10, my mom and stepdad asked "us kids" a choice - me, laura, and jay were living at home at the time. we could either choose to get a pool installed in the back yard or have central air installed for the house. the air conditioning was tempting...
laura and i had lived in that house on 58th street our whole life without air conditioning, and it was h-o-t in there. the windows only half worked, so we had to prop them open with sticks or books or whatever we could find. my mom had this system worked out with these brown metal box fans. during the summer, she would put a fan in our window (which also held the window up) and that is what cooled our room at night. i also created a little cooler for my pillow - i would wet down a washcloth with cold water and put in inside my pillowcase. initially, it was great for cooling my face, but by the middle of the night, the cloth felt just plain sweaty. zane actually created something similar this year with a ziploc baggie filled with water - i was impressed. i saw a little bit of myself in him at that moment. but, yes, my childhood home was hot in the summer no matter what we did.
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| zane, living the good life |
of course, as children, we obviously chose the pool. that pool has been one of those life defining moments for me. as an adult, my biggest wish was for my own pool. john made that wish come true, and now my boys and i spend our summers in the pool.
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| me and the boys in our pool |
my parents did however realize the NEED for air conditioning and it was installed a couple years later. life with a/c is good. i can't imagine how we made it without the a/c. but i also think as a result of air conditioning, we sacrifice a lot of the summer fun we had without it. when i was little, my mom sat outside and watched us play and all the neighbors were friendly. it was too hot to sit inside, so everybody was outside and chatting with each other. i have to literally force my boys outside (unless we are in the pool). and truth be told, i like sitting inside in my well chilled, 68 degree home. i guess it's nice being an adult in 2011 too.
