Ladies and Gentlemen, (and with apologies to my youngest sister, who says talking about it makes it worse):

IT. IS. HOT.  Pure-T fried egg on the sidewalk, 100+ degrees, thank God for air conditioning, get in the car and ride around to cool off, hot. 

Driving home on Monday, the bank sign informed Kayla and I, just for grins and giggles I guess, that, at 6:21, it was 101 degrees.  The car’s thermometer disagreed, coming in at 99 degrees.  There’s just nothing redeemable about that kind of heat. 

Our poor heat pump is doing its best, but I know it has to be ready for a break!  When we’re not home we keep the thermostat set fairly high (for us), but the heat pump is still pulling about 14 hour days to keep the house comfortable.  However, at least it is working.  Last year, in August, with similar weather, the air compressor went out.  

With the impeccable timing that home appliances, office copiers and computers have, the heat pump decided it would go out on one of the rare days when we were having company over.  Our friends were quite gracious about it, declining to comment on how hot it was in the house when even the dogs were looking for some kind of shade at 8:00 p.m. at night. 

The high today is supposed to be 96, with 88% humidity.  I don’t believe it.  They have tried to con me into thinking that the temperature would stay in the mid-90’s for two weeks, and each day it has instead inched up towards 100. 

I haven’t watched any weather reports on TV; I just check the forecast on the computer.  The reason is that infernal invention known as “the heat index.” 

The “heat index” is supposed to tell us what the outside really feels like, as opposed to what the temperature is.  According to Mike Hoffman, a weather man at WNDU, the “heat index” is “an ‘estimation’ of how a human feels during certain weather situations.”  I know how a human feels during weather like this – we feel hot!  (My observation has been that the “heat index” is always higher than, or equal to, the actual temperature.  If not, than it is called “wind chill” which is used to make us understand how much colder we are in the wintertime than the temperature would suggest.) 

I asked if we could move to Maine, (the high today in Caribou is supposed to be 58 degrees) but my husband nixed that idea, so I guess I am stuck with the heat until the weather breaks.  According to the weather channel, that looks to be sometime late next week, when the temperatures will ease back down into the low 90’s.  A veritable cold wave, no? 

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy