Saturday, July 23, 2011

I'm Melting... Melting....

I apologize for not posting anything lately. To be frank, I'm not at all disposed to sit in my studio/computer room when the temperatures are above 100 outside, and the temperature in my room hovers around 80. There hasn't been a whole lot to share, anyhow, since I've been sprawled on my living room floor most of the time, reading an old Alan Dean Foster novel.




Yesterday Keith and I took ourselves (and laundry) over to his mom & dad's house. We sat in the cool air-conditioned house, hanging out with his dad. All was well and good, and then Heidi, the family dachshund, wanted to go for a walk. Now, it was about 3 pm, the temperature was at about 102-104, the humidity was about 50%, and the sun was fully beaming... and she won't go for a walk without two people. You have to understand, though; Heidi is about 8-1/2 years old, and the family has been trying to get her to lose weight: altered diet, and trying to get her to exercise, but she wasn't very excited about any of it. You're lucky if you can get her to walk across the street and to the neighbor's house. So when she wanted to walk, of course we indulged her. She jauntily trotted from house to house, and then even made to cross us at the "busy" intersection to the other side of the development.... we were kind of in shock. So with the heat cranked full-throttle, the sun beaming, and sweat already forming on my lower back, we let her take the lead. She walked us to the point where I thought I might actually be getting heat stroke. We made her turn around after several blocks, and got her to return home with us. She was incredibly excited to be out walking, for some reason, even though her black fur was absorbing the heat of the roasting sun, and she was almost tripping on her tongue. At several points on the walk, we gave her cool water from the water bottle, and I even poured a bit onto her back to help cool her off. (I really wanted to pour it over my own back, but it was already wet with perspiration that had soaked through my dress, so I didn't bother.)




When Keith mapped out our walk, turns out we walked almost a mile! Heidi was such a good girl! I mean, with as much as we walked and with how hot it was, she had to have burned off some calories... I know I DID. I pretty much just drank water and read my book the rest of the afternoon, until the laundry was finished. I'm not entirely sure how much of my book I absorbed because I was in a little bit of a daze. Even the fruit popsicle didn't help that much.


So, after all the good advice about "how to stay cool" in the summer heat, we kind of threw that all out the window for love of Heidi. :-) Tonight is our friend's graduation party, as he just finished his master's degree. Way to go, Dan! I plan on spending it inside the house, unless they have the sprinklers on or some misters going outside... it's still very hot, and I'm not sure I'd survive another sweat-a-thon like yesterday.


I hope you guys are all staying cool somehow. If any of you have a nice, cool swimming pool anywhere in the Lehigh Valley, invite me over. I'll bring the fresh fruit and a bottle of chilled white wine. Deal?

4 comments:

-E- said...

this is one of the few times i've been happy with the british weather.

Diane said...

Thanks for sharing Heidi's adventure's with everyone! She slept the rest of the day very soundly in the air conditioning.

Shannon of HAPPINESS IS said...

Wow, we have exact opposite weather. It's raining and thundering right now :) Although our weekend was lovely, low 80's. Hope it cools down for you soon! xo

shari said...

It cooled down a bit, but it's hot again. Ha ha. I'm getting more used to it, though. Three showers a day helps. ;-)

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