Alt. Friday Five

from NotShyChiRev

1. What's the high temperature today where you are?

The high temp was supposed to be 96 here. I'm pretty sure we reached it, along with 90% humidity. Our outside thermometer says it's currently 85 degrees...at 8 p.m.

2. Favorite way(s) to beat the heat.

--Staying inside with the a/c and a book; but I usually prefer to wait till it's in the mid-80s outside
--This isn't really 'beating the heat' but if it's not too humid, I like sitting in the sun and basking
--Cold drinks, and lots of 'em
--When I was a kid, we used to run through the hose whenever it got this hot. Admittedly, most adults look ridiculous doing this, but who cares? It's very refreshing.
--Shopping at a mall, going out to dinner, visiting the library...we've done all of these this summer when our electricity went out and we had no a/c
--Eating lighter foods: salads, fruits, etc.

3. "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." Evaluate this statement.

Yup. When it's hot in a low-humidity environment, you sweat, the sweat evaporates and cools you off. When it's hot with high-humidity, you sweat, the sweat and the humidity mix and run down your skin. It sucks, sometimes very literally. It can be 90 out in Colorado and I'm perfectly comfortable (especially if there is a breeze), but mix in humidity and forget it. I'm cooked.

4. Discuss one or more of the following: sauna, hot tub, sweat lodge, warm-stone massage.

I loathe saunas--see the discussion of humidity above. I've never done the last two on the list, but they sound miserable, unless the warm-stones are being applied in the middle of January. Hot tubs are great although they are much nicer when the air temperature is at least 30 degrees lower than the water temperature. I want a hot tub, actually, but it's not in the cards right now.

Any of these will make me absolutely nauseous from overheating if used inappropriately. Right now, they all sound absolutely awful.

5. Hottest you've ever been in your life

The longest I've been consistently hot was probably Mississippi last month. But the worst heat was in about 1989 when we were living in an upper flat--very under-insulated--during a summer that broke heat records almost every day in July and August. We caved in after awhile and bought the last window a/c unit for our bedroom. It ran all night just to keep our room (door closed) cooled down to 80. There was no air circulation because the living room windows didn't open at all, and the floor plan discouraged any movement between any of the other rooms. It was really miserable, but I was young and didn't mind that much. We never went to bed before midnight that summer.

Non-temperature related bonus: In your opinion... who's hot?

--The guy we saw at the pool on Friday--no clue what his name was, but Holy Mother of God was he scenic! AND, he was a fabulous dad to his very adorable kids.
--William Petersen, George Eads, Gary Dourdan...and, well, Marg Helgengerger, Jorja Fox, and Eric Szmanda
--Tiger Woods, Brett Favre, Andre Agassi, Jeff Gordon, David Beckham, Corey Pavin, and Jerome Bettis
--everyone in the middle west of the North American continent, and probably most of the rest of the continent too but I haven't seen a proper weather forecast for a couple of days....