We’re all surviving the heat wave over here, despite the fact that neither house has air conditioning and both houses are crazy hot. On the bright side, I can’t tell anymore when I’m having a hot flash. And at least the car has AC, so when we’re between houses we’re blissful.
CBC Radio was asking listeners to call in their favourite beat-the-heat tips a couple of days ago, and my
favourite was the woman who said she paid her kid 50 cents to fan her. Sadly, our kids are in their twenties and would probably charge us 50 bucks.
Sometimes, when we can’t stand the heat anymore, we take our lawn chairs and go chill in the frozen food aisle of Loblaws. If they give us a hard time about loitering, we buy popsicles, thereby transforming ourselves into paid customers once again.
I’m kidding. But we do go to Loblaws and buy popsicles. And we do go to Chapters and chill.
But we can’t hang out and chill all the time. There are things that still need to be done. Push-ups, for example. Miss VIcky tweeted about doing 170 push-ups one day, so I followed up with her and learned about the hundred push-ups program. GC and I did the initial test three weeks ago. He could do eight push-ups and I could do (cough, cough) two. Since then I’ve worked my way up to 22.
Another thing that couldn’t wait til after the heat wave was pitching the tent. My sister lent us a tent, which we’re taking to the Mariposa Music Festival this weekend. I’m used to little pup tents. This tent is bigger than some of the apartments I’ve lived in. It’s got bay windows and cup holders and a remote control light.
Anyway, last night we finally got around to setting it up to make sure we wouldn’t find ourselves flummoxed at the campground. It took us over an hour, and the sweat was stinging my eyes, but we did it. We went inside the tent for a few minutes once it was set up, and it was even hotter in there, if you can imagine. The outside air felt almost cool when we emerged. Then we spent another half hour dismantling it and trying to make it fit in the bag.
I feel bad for the pets who get virtually no relief from the heat. They don’t go in the car, and they don’t go to Loblaws and Chapters. Duncan hasn’t even slept with me the last few nights, which is highly unusual. He hasn’t even shown up for bedtime stories, which he normally loves. Instead, he’s been sleeping alone, spread-eagled on the living room floor. He comes up once or twice during the night to check on me, but only stays a minute or two.
Logan, the golden retriever, has been spending a lot of time on the cool tile floor of GC’s laundry room in the basement.
Lester and Billie spend their days and nights cooped up in the little nesting box, sitting on their eggs, which we worry are going to cook. Sometimes they come out and plunge their heads into the water dish. Both birds have been very quiet the last couple of days.
Speaking of the eggs, I noticed something interesting yesterday on the webcam, while Billie was out of the nest. I think I can see a faint image of Jesus Christ’s face in one of the eggs. GC thinks it looks more like Conway Twitty. What do you think?
I give poor Bazel a very thorough brushing every day and pull out a couple of extra cats every time, so I’m thinking he probably has very little fur left by now — which should be cooler, right? Then I leave fans on for him pointed at the tile floors. Last night I got a cool wet towel and wrapped him up in that a few times and walked around with him. He seemed to enjoy that. I feel sorry for him in his fur coat. I read a suggestion that you get a big ice pack and wrap it in a towel and leave it somewhere for the cat to sleep next to. Also, apparently cats sweat through the bottom of their paws, so leaving dishes of cold water with ice cubes around for them to drink or dip their paws in once in a while is good.
My grandsnakes are okay but we’ve all been worrying about Ming Ming the cat and Chester Field my grand rat. Not to mention that my kid and her guy look pretty droopy. Kid and her guy have, however, rigged up what they call their redneck AC: a big bucket full of ice water for their feet. Given that his are a 15W, I’m not sure how long the ice lasts.
I just did 10 ‘girl’ push-ups and now I am going to go lie down for a few hours. I think I would need a hydraulic lift to do a real one.
I was thinking about the tent the other day and wondered how you made out. We saw a commercial on tv for one that you take out of the bag and toss in the air…it is put up and ready to use by the time it hits the ground. Sorry that I didn’t get that one for you.
Chloe just cooled off by jumping in the pond with the fish.
yeah – it’s disgustinly hot. I can live with it but Dave can’t which is why I have a mondo a/c unit in my kitchen window, instead of the normal power conserving one I have in my bedroom. Of course, I think Dave’s internal thermostat is off kilter, because he seems to melt as soon as it his a nice sunny 25, and anything over that just kills him – but he can go outside in the freezing wither with nothing more than a light fall coat or a heavy sweater.
I feel sorry for the furry pets too. Mine aren’t suffering becuase Dave keeps our place at “Icebox”.
But then again, I was at my mom’s the other day and her cat Duece (who is solid black) was sprawled on the hot patio stones, baking in the sun. And he wouldn’t come into the nice air conditioned house either, so I guess he likes it….
Hopefully the weather break soon so your sleeping companion can take up his rightful post again.
Mostly Cooler just flops on the ground whenever she finds a worthy spot, and stays absolutely still. During the last heat wave she was actually panting, which is something I’ve never seen a cat do before. At that point I packed her up and brought her to my girlfriend’s AC cooled apartment.
I’ve tried giving Cooler a fan of her own, but then she’ll avoid the area with the fan. I held her in front of the AC for a few minutes last night, but she fought it. If I duct tape ice cubes to her she’ll hate me forever.
If I had a dog I’d take it to the river, or throw it in a cold shower, or feed it a frozen hot dog.
I have no idea what to do with a cat.
With a cat there’s nothing to do aside from make sure it has lots of fresh water available. One of our cats is still trying to claim he’s cold and needs our body heat for warmth. I’m not buying it, but he spent all last night climbing on me only to be thrown off, and try all over again.
My pets seem to love this heat – as in they insist on sleeping upstairs and still seek out sunbeams. I think 19 yr old cats LOVE warmth, and the husky is just crazy.
We don’t have a/c in the house except for the bedroom. So, guess where we’ve been spending most of our time (when we’re not at work)? The cat has been staying outside most of the time. I tried to get him to come into the bedroom and he yelled at me until I let him outside to sit under the tree.
This can’t last all summer, can it?
Two pet store chains are inviting people to come in with pets on leash and use their air conditioned stores as pet coolers. Since we have AC, I haven’t taken Tyson down to test their hospitality but I was pleased to hear that we have local pet cooling stations as well as people cooling stations at senior centers and libraries.
Gwyndolyn-the-Cat lets me swab her with a damp cloth on occasion, or with just wet hands. She mostly doesn’t seem to want it: she’s either in the sun or on her heating pad (!). She is nearly 18, after all. “When 130 years old you become, look as good you will not!”
I have this vision of the two of you in the Loblaws in lawn chairs. LOL.
I’ve become much more inenamoured with our OPL, also my mother’s house.