Its hot and the air stinks

I hope this heat isn't going to be a regular thing but we did have these triple digit temps 3 day in a row twice before, long ago. I don't remember the exact dates but I think it was something like 1911 and 1947. If I didn't have air conditioning I would be melting in a chair in front of a fan and taking 10 showers a day. Just like my hubby in Kosovo, because they don't have A/C there.

Would you believe dad and I didn't have A/C when we were first married? If any of you are confused by that statement, I'm referring to my first hubby. My first couple summers here were amazingly cool. In fact, I think most of the 1970's were fairly cool. I wrote to my parents (still out in California at the time) that summers here were in the 70's with a few 80's and a 90 was rare, and it rained every 3 days. I was more bothered by the HUMIDITY. Geez, we did NOT have humidity in southern California. We did have smog. And even though a northeast wind brought the toxic mill smoke, I still thought the air here was fresher that L.A. Except at night, when it seems like they were always burning a dump somewhere, and all the industries decided to vent whatever because it was night and nobody could see. So I would tumble out of bed choking and wheezing and close all the windows...and swelter....because dad didn't want to buy an air conditioner. Why? I asked. His answer...he didn't want to get used to the air conditioning because he had to work outside. I always figured that was flawed reasoning because he worked outside in -5 temperatures in winter and we still had heat. 


Well, eventually, in the 1980's summers got warmer, so we finally got window A/Cs. There were also other changes. In the 1970's the snow always turned black from soot within 3 days and the Little Calumet river never froze from all the pollutants in the water. These days I do have to say the snow stays white longer and the river freezes. Also, no more dumps on fire, or tire burning, and mostly no more toxic releases at night. I do keep my house closed more than in the past. And if it's hot, I turn on the  A/C. In the past dad always wanted to sleep with a fan in the window blowing right on him (us). I was always sick. The night air around here is just not healthy. It's HUMID and full of MOLD and MILDEW. Geez I hate humidity. It makes me sick. I can't breath. I get congested, and my asthma worsens. Finally I convinced him it was making me sick and he went along with having the fan to the side of the window, not right in it, and eventually the A/C won, and he was ok, because he saw I was healthier. 


Now I sleep just fine with the A/C. I only have two window units, but they do a good job, and I can run one or the other or both. My electric bill is low. Now if it would just cool off....and rain!