June 30, 2021

 

My grandmother (but on her wedding day)

It's hot.  It's very hot.  When I got up this morning to go for my walk (why did I do that?), it was already 86 degrees in the home office. (Which is why the portable air conditioning unit is on right this moment.  Thank you cousin Lee:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2020/06/mystery-gift.html).  I did manage to get in just under 5 miles this morning (didn't expect to do even that much) while the temps hovered just under 80.  By midday it will be 98 with a real feel (ok, I'm not sure exactly what that means) of 107.  Ouch! 

I'll have the office unit on all day (and into the night) and will keep the bedroom doors shut to keep the cool air in when we are not using the room.  I have a feeling today will be a day where my son and husband will hide out in those rooms with the air on to try and keep cool.  How cool that will be, I don't know.  You can get cooler, but not necessarily cool when the temperatures outside are so hot.

Downstairs I have a multitude of fans going.  It won't lower the temperature, but circulating the air around will make being there more comfortable. (Not comfortable because that is an impossibility, but better.)  There's a ceiling fan in the living room, a table fan in the sun parlor/music room, a standing fan in the dining room and a window fan in the kitchen.  That's a lot of fans. 

And that's using a lot of electricity.  I know the PSE&G bill will be attroious, but at least we have electricity.  I know there are plenty of place where the power grid is having trouble keeping up...and understandably so.  Fingers crossed that we make it through another day without any issues.

However, I am not complaining about the heat.  At least I don't live in Canada where temperatures reached just over 121 degrees this week.  No, I am not making that up.  Temperatures in British Columbia in Canada and Oregon and Washington in the US have had temperatures in the triple digits for days.  What makes that all the worse is that many people do not have air conditioning...why would they?  It's the Pacific Northwest?  Summer temperatures there are usually in the 60s and 70s.  But climate change isn't a thing, right?  

Instead of bitching and moaning about the heat (which I claim I am not going to do, but you know I will), I'm thinking of my grandparents who were married on this day in 1923.  How hot was it then?  (I tried to do a quick check, but was not successful.  I couldn't even easily find a photo of the day.  (I know I have one along with an article from the local paper safely tucked away in a bin that is in my basement.  Getting to it was just not a task that I was up to today.) As far as I know there is only the photo of my grandmother; nothing of the happy couple, which saddens me.   There is so much that I would like to know about my maternal grandparents. (Why did you move to Chicago for a year? How did you come to return to NJ?  How did the purchase of this house come about as it was built two years prior and you were not the first residents?)  I have no way to getting the answers now.

How many of you know what this is?

So perhaps today, when it is so hot and there's nothing that you want to do because of the heat, take a few minutes to talk to an older relative.  Ask them to tell you a story.  Record that story if you can.  I have an unintelligible cassette of my grandfather talking about his childhood.  I somewhat remember listening to his stories.  I wish I asked for more.  I wish I asked for more from my grandmother.  I didn't, but I can (and will) continue to write MY story (and thoughts) here on this blog page.  Someday, I will be someone's history.  We all will.  So don't be shy.  Ask and share.  What else is there to do a hot day at the end of June?