Heat Wave Day 6: Sweat and Irritation
Welcome to day 6 of the first heat wave of 2010. Last night was so hot and there was so little breeze that even with a fan blowing directly onto our bed, I was soaking the pillow and sheets in sweat. Too gross? Well it's the TRUTH. Deal with it.
I'm so hot all the time that my own body is irritating me. Touching my hand to my leg causes an insufferable increase in heat. The stickiness of my skin is also irritating. The healthy sheen of it is kind of nice - I look like I've been oiled up for a photo shoot most of the time - but the source of that sheen is exhausting me. It is actually exhausting to be so hot all the time.
In the midst of this, Drew is on day 5 of bike couriering in this wretched heat. It was 41 degrees yesterday. Today we're at 39 so far. AND, it has just rained really really hard. The rain did not bring with it a cooling breeze and a hammer to break the iron grip of the sun. Instead, it teased us and soaked everything and left so that the sun could come out and make everything twice as humid as it already had been. Papers lying on our table are damp. The tables and chairs are sticky. The air is close and I constantly feel like I'm wearing a scarf. That feeling is only comfortable when one is, in fact, wearing a scarf.
This morning Drew and I ate breakfast in the garden rather than inside because for the first time all week it was cooler outside than in. The very calm air and wash-out-blue sky brought to mind summer mornings in Fenelon, when the lake would be calm as glass except for the wake of a canoe. I would go down to swim there before work creating new ripples on the water that would die out slowly. Everything in the town was quiet, everything on the lake was quiet, and the fish and I would be the only things quietly gliding through the cool water. All day I dream about Fenelon and the lake. All day I yearn for next friday night, when Drew and I hit the road to get the hell out of Dodge and head to the countryside where we can swim and drink lemonade (spiked) and not have to work. The lake is ever-present in my thoughts - I used to swim on my breaks at work when I would go home for summers in my undergrad. I would swim two or three times a day in weather like this. The normal unpleasantness of putting on a wet bathing suit evaporated when the cool damp material hit my sticky hot skin. I am so impatient to wade in over the rocks and stroke out towards the pier.
I'm so hot all the time that my own body is irritating me. Touching my hand to my leg causes an insufferable increase in heat. The stickiness of my skin is also irritating. The healthy sheen of it is kind of nice - I look like I've been oiled up for a photo shoot most of the time - but the source of that sheen is exhausting me. It is actually exhausting to be so hot all the time.
In the midst of this, Drew is on day 5 of bike couriering in this wretched heat. It was 41 degrees yesterday. Today we're at 39 so far. AND, it has just rained really really hard. The rain did not bring with it a cooling breeze and a hammer to break the iron grip of the sun. Instead, it teased us and soaked everything and left so that the sun could come out and make everything twice as humid as it already had been. Papers lying on our table are damp. The tables and chairs are sticky. The air is close and I constantly feel like I'm wearing a scarf. That feeling is only comfortable when one is, in fact, wearing a scarf.
This morning Drew and I ate breakfast in the garden rather than inside because for the first time all week it was cooler outside than in. The very calm air and wash-out-blue sky brought to mind summer mornings in Fenelon, when the lake would be calm as glass except for the wake of a canoe. I would go down to swim there before work creating new ripples on the water that would die out slowly. Everything in the town was quiet, everything on the lake was quiet, and the fish and I would be the only things quietly gliding through the cool water. All day I dream about Fenelon and the lake. All day I yearn for next friday night, when Drew and I hit the road to get the hell out of Dodge and head to the countryside where we can swim and drink lemonade (spiked) and not have to work. The lake is ever-present in my thoughts - I used to swim on my breaks at work when I would go home for summers in my undergrad. I would swim two or three times a day in weather like this. The normal unpleasantness of putting on a wet bathing suit evaporated when the cool damp material hit my sticky hot skin. I am so impatient to wade in over the rocks and stroke out towards the pier.
Tokyo is the rainy season now.
ReplyDeleteHigh temperature and very high humidity.