Hey! Relief is here! No, not from another one of these mind-numbing blogs...from the triple digits. By this afternoon we should be almost 20 degrees cooler than we've been the last few afternoons and we even got a little rain in the bargain. Certainly, it will get hot again and that's when we all want to remember the Channel 9 Fan Club (there's more info right here on the website) to help our friends and neighbors stay safely cool. Heat does kill more people, worldwide, than any other weather situation. I am lucky to live and work in cool comfort. Okay, having said all of that, let me say this: I have never quite warmed up to a/c.

It goes back to childhood. I don't think I knew one family with central air when I was little. When you did see a portable unit hanging out of a window, you usually felt kind of bad, figuring someone in that house was sickly and couldn't have the windows open. We never had any kind of a/c, in the house or car, when I was growing up. My mom didn't like it, anyway. She said that closing up all the windows and doors made her feel like she was living in a cave and, despite being a little batty, she didn't want to do that. I almost always slept with the window in my room wide open. You could hear the crickets and other creatures. On Friday and Saturday nights you might hear a neighbor yell out "EUCHRE!" That is pronounced "yooker" and is a card game everyone in Wisconsin knows how to play. In fact, you are not allowed to get a driver's license, graduate from high school or buy a house until you know how to play and what it means to "trump your partner's ace." If you take all the tricks, without any help from your partner, it is called having a "loner." The successful completion of that effort will sometimes cause a player to yell "EUCHRE!" One night, the open window allowed me to hear a car slam into one of the elm trees out front. This was just as Dutch Elm Disease was starting to move through our town and the trees were showing the signs. The uninjured driver insisted the tree had jumped out in front of him in a suicide attempt.

As for air conditioning in the car, it was the 2/65 kind for us: open 2 windows and go 65. It's actually a good thing I never got very used to the moving chill since in every car I've ever owned, the air conditioning has been weak and, eventually, non-existent. I just roll down the windows, open the vent, crank up the fan and sit in an ice bucket-seat.

I have no proof and I may just be completely off the beam, here, (not unlike my weather forecasts) but I think, in some ways, air conditioning may make us a little more likely to get summer colds. In the course of a day, from the house to the car to the store to the office...we are moving from the hot stuff to the big chill a lot. Our own personal thermostats never have the chance to adjust. I read once that some historians blame air conditioning for the growth and inefficiency of government. Before a/c, everyone got out of Washington DC, for example, because of the stifling heat and humidity. It kept representatives back in their hometowns and more in touch with constituents and limited the time Congress was in session. Please, feel free to insert your own "full of hot air" joke, here.

Around our house, I try to set the temperature at 78 because I read, once, that that was a good number for conservation and expense purposes. Mysteriously, it seems to end up closer to 75 by the end of the day. Everyone denies touching it. Maybe it's the dog...I mentioned before that he likes to sprawl out on top of the vent. The desire for a cooler indoor climate may be my fault. When we first moved into the house, back during a hot July, I accidentally bumped the thermostat while carrying in a box-spring or something. It set the temperature around 60. By morning, it was like October in the house. We actually had to rake the carpet since all the plants had lost their leaves. My first thought was "Wow...we've got some really powerful a/c and great insulation!" The family was excited...thinking "Dad is loosening up on the utility bills!" As I walked by the reindeer and penquins that had migrated into our kitchen overnight, I glanced at the thermostat and saw the 60 degree setting. After making the proper adjustment, I immediately started the process of taking out a second mortgage to pay the next electric bill.

Well, thanks to our temporary cool-down, I won't have to try to chase down the thermostat vandal. However, I am still on the trail of whoever is leaving the lights on at night and water dripping in the kitchen. Right now, I have to go feed the reindeer...he never left.