Flashes of Panic

As everyone who may care is undoubtedly already aware, it’s been disgustingly hot in the U.S. northeast since about Sunday. “Disgustingly hot” means high 90s; apparently we cracked 100 today. This is not unheard of around here, but generally it happens in late July and August, not early June. We’re due for thunderstorms any minute now to break the heat (high 80s forecast for tomorrow, low 80s on Thursday, much more seasonable).

This house is good at holding on to its cool air during the day, providing it gets any; this is useful considering there’s no air conditioning. We keep the windows shut to keep the hot air out, then open them up and run my big box fan at night as soon as the outside temperature dips below inside. It’s still crawled up into the mid-80s yesterday and today, driving us to head for Puffer’s Pond (which is still cool but warmer than one would expect this early in the year.)

Today I caved and retreated to the basement, which is at least ten degrees cooler than upstairs, possibly much more. I have a little table (too low) and a chair, and a direct ethernet connection to the router, which is down here. I also have to put up with a musty smell, but I prefer that to having sweat drip off my nose and on to the keyboard.