Friday, June 29, 2012

Might as Well by Walking on the Sun


Oh lawd y'all it is HOTTTT!  Today it was 106,  I didn't even know it could get that hot here!
9:00 am - 95 and climbing and not a cloud in sight
I was chatting with the BDJ earlier lamenting the hot weather.  He had no sympathy for me since he deals with these temps for months out there in Hot Vegas.  I guess I know how he feels now.

 Last summer (his first summer in Vegas) he would tell us about the temperatures and we would toss out "well at least its a dry heat" and he set us straight more than once saying "105+ is hot......dry or not it is like walking around in your dryer."  I felt kind of bad today because he was soooo right and I hadn't been very sympathic to him (and I did feel just like I was walking around in my dryer).   Everybody knows Southern girls don't sweat....but I have to admit this Southern girl glistens during a normal Southern summer....sometimes I glisten a lot...but the last couple of weeks since we have had practically no humidity I have to say I do like the lack of glistening even with the high temps!

BDJ also pointed out that he had told us how weird it was to go days and days without seeing clouds.  At the time it sounded wonderful to me, but as I am watering two times a day and hearing my plants screaming for a break I can see where it would get old.

Now I don't want anyone to think I am whining about the heat because I'm not.  I like it hot.  In fact, I don't really enjoy yard work until it is about 85 and full sun. A cloudy 79 degree day sends me inside to read till it warms up!  I can take the heat, I can always seem to cool off but I can't take much winter since I apparently have no blood and can't warm up.  I am only whining about the lack of rain. 

I have the August yard crunch going on in June and the flowers I would normally cut back in two weeks because they were just too big, have yet to really grow at all.   I am struggling to keep my impatients alive and they are in the shade and watered twice a day!  I have to say BDJ was also right about everything being brown as it is there in Vegas getting old.....everywhere I look I see brown and I am tired of it.


The heat is even affecting my grocery shopping.  Nobody here in our little corner of the South seems to have any appetite at all.  The only thing that remotely appeals to me right now is tomato sandwiches and ya'l have heard me whining about my lack of tomato supply already so I won't put you through it again.  I think tomorrow I will trek to town and see if there is anyone crazy enough to be set up at the farmers market, maybe I will score some tomatoes there.

Life has slowed to almost a halt here this week and with the extended forecast looking the same and no rain in site, I can't really imagine the pace picking up anytime soon.   I have so many projects to do outside (mowing isn't one of them right now) but it is just too darned hot.  Low humidity would be great for all that painting I need to complete but I just don't care :)

So I was thinking about some of my favorite memories of things I can remember doing to cool down or things I did years ago that just make me cooler thinking of them.

For those of you fortunate enough to be from Tennessee I'm sure you are familiar with Fall Creek Falls.  The photo below is of the big fall. 

Photos of Fall Creek Falls Bed and Breakfast, Pikeville
 Courtesy of TripAdvisor

  As a kid my parents took us here for many a picnic in the summer.  For whatever reason we never got to get in the swimming pool there but we did wade the creeks and hike to the base of the falls.  You could stand and be covered with that wonderfully cool mist.  If you haven't been there for a visit you need to add it to your to do list....just being around the falls makes you feel cooler. 

Photos of Fall Creek Falls State Park, Pikeville
Why am I not in the car headed there now?
This photo of Fall Creek Falls State Park is courtesy of TripAdvisor

We didn't grow up with a swimming pool handy and spent many Sunday afternoons swimming at one swimming hole or another in the Piney river (really a creek).  Now let me say this, the temperature could soar to 120 and you won't catch me in a creek or a lake after my encounter with the Sneaky Snake earlier this summer.  I can remember not being super excited to wade through a field (even though someone had usually weed wacked a path) to get to said swimming hole.  I also remember the adults seem to always stand around watching the banks and talking about cottonmouths!  Really?  What were they thinking?  We were kids and we were hot so we would jump right in the icy water and tell ourselves it was too cold for snakes.

Before we trekked off for an afternoon at the creek we would sometimes stop in at the local ice plant to get a watermelon.  They kept a nice selection in the walk in cooler.  We would really drag out choosing one just to be able to hang out in the cooler just a bit longer.  We would take our melon and drop it in the creek to stay cool while we swam.  When we were finally turning blue, the parents would drag us out to warm up and have watermelon.  Naturally we managed to get juice all over us therefore requiring another dip in the creek before packing up for the day! lol

Lastly, I have always loved making homemade ice cream in the summer heat.  More times than not we end up making it for my birthday.  Lucky for me I just happen to have one of those coming up in the next few days!   I like it with bits of strawberries (but I will eat any flavor).  I always think of my grandfather when we do make strawberry ice cream, he loved it and his strawberries were the best.

So there you have it.....some of my favorite cool down memories.   My current fave cool down and what I fully plan to be doing in a few hours.....sitting in the hut, listening to my waterfall (pretending I am bobbing in the Caribbean just off Saphire Beach) and sipping a pina colada while reading a good book.

 Now I just have to wait until dark.....until then I'll be thinking chilly thoughts.  Have a great weekend everyone.

5 comments:

  1. You like the hear? 100+ degrees??? We were 103 a bit ago and that is way to hot for me. I always have nightmares when temps are that hot that my air conditioners are going to crap out cause they are running so hard. Stay cool, and enjoy your cocktail and book.

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  2. The above should say heat not hear! see , it's so hot I can't spell

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  3. Or you could pretend your in HI sipping your pina colada with me!

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    1. Okay....that would feel cooler too....and much more fun! Be glad you were here last week!

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  4. Loved your cool down memories. You've sparked some of my own, and I have decided that it might work to dupe the brain during this season.

    I'm whining about the heat.
    I'm whining, whining, whining.

    We've had more rain this year than in the past several years, but it's still not nearly enough.

    Going to my happy place now... Umpachini Falls... barefoot... 10 years old...

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