Witness, dear readers, the temperatures for today.
It's days like these that I:
1) feel glad that I work in a heavily air-conditioned environment
and
2) begin to wonder just how all you lovely people in hot climates deal with the cocktail of knit-love and, ostensibly, its mortal enemy, hot hot heat.
I have great admiration and respect for you all! I doff my proverbial hat.
And, in a fun, non-knit related sidenote, I thought I'd share with ya'll a few of my favourite summertime stories.
1) It may come as a shock to some of you, but many, many elementary/high schools round these parts do not have air conditioning. This always seemed very ill-advised to me, since it does indeed get hot in May and June (see evidence above!!) and even September.
So, on to my story.
Way back whens in 1996, when I was a mere 8th grader, I went to one of the aforementioned un-airconditioned schools. It had been a record week of hot hot heat. We were all dreading having to sit in class, practically incapable of learning anything at all.
They tried giving us the treat of popsicles for a day or two. I believe that met with mediocre success.
They tried an oscillating fan, but again, not very efficient.
With no other resources left to reign the class in, with no other method to cool us down, the teacher brought the whole of the class out on to the front lawn.
The turned the garden hose on us - to great shouts of joy from us hordes of happy students!
2) Teenagers do the darndest things... I was certainly no exception.
I was perfectly aware that laying out in the sun was not the best of ideas. But, being at my friend's cottage, what else was there to do?
So we swam ourselves out to the small raft anchored a ways off the shore, hoisted ourselves up and on, and proceeded to lay out. In the mid day sun.
Being all lazy sorts, and now having warmed up from the chilly water, we were all loathe to jump back in and swim ourselves back on to dry land.
We'll wait for the next boat-passerby, we agreed.
That took a bit longer than expected.
I've never been so very sunburned in my life. The backs of my knees could not bend without pain for at least two days, and it even hurt to brush my hair!
Needless to say, I run and hide from the sun now!
3) One of the great memories I've held on to from childhood were the pudding popsicles my dad used to make for us kids. His homemade fudgesicles were never quite the same as the real thing, of course, but much sought-after and enjoyed.
Being all grown up now, I realized that my kitchen is missing something: a popsicle mold! I'm on the lookout for a good one, and am looking forward to replicating that great homemade fudgesicle tradition.
6 comments:
Oh my god, I hear you. I can't seem to even work on the tiny leaves I'm supposed to be knitting right now. It's so hot and humid that the yarn won't even slide through my fingers properly. I *never* want to just sit and do absolutely nothing, but that's precisely what I've been doing for the last few days.
I'm all for summer and heat and all that, but this really is a bit much.
I'm in Ottawa and it is offensively hot and humid this week. We're about to move into a second floor walk-up, sans AC, and I think I'm going to miss the AC our current place has!
1998 was a wretched hot spring/summer, too, when I was in grade 8. The grade 8 classes were all in these things called "relocateables", sort of like a portable, only they actually attached to the school. Still, we were stuck in a tin can, and it was HOT. All the students were encouraged to bring in sports bottles of water. One boy filled his with vodka. He ended up going to the hospital in an ambulance for alcohol poisoning. No more water bottles for us. I don't think I was ever so happy to see the school year end!
There's no AC in my kids' school now and they move some classes into the cafeteria when the temps reach 90. I like the hose idea better!
Ikea has fabulous little popsicle moulds, I think they were $2 or $3. Fun colours, too! I love the heat, even though My apartment (which has no air conditioning) is an oven and my poor cats actualyl feel a bit sweaty. I think I'll have to cave and buy a window unit soon.
The weather does seem to be a bit hit and miss. We've had everything from hot & humid one day to rain and hail another... and frost.. all in the same week. I love summer, but I'm always surprised at how quickly I lose enthusiasm when it's too hot! :D
Here is a site you might find your molds....http://www.blueribbongeneralstore.net/Kitchen.html
I am in Northern California, this weekend is traditionally the "hot" beginning of summer, but we are still using our wood stove for heat, we had hail yesterday and snow in the mtns. and I put my winter cloths away months ago... never have I seen such a cool Spring. But I am not complaining because it is always 90-100 during the summer.
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