I know that I live in the south and everything.
I know that I shouldn’t be surprised when it’s so hot out that I legitimately can’t breath.
But somehow, every year it takes me aback. Maybe it’s because I’m born and raised in northern Illinois that I never developed legs for hot weather, or maybe I’m just physiologically predisposed to being overheated and worn out. Either way, I do not flourish around here when the air temperatures climb above 100 degrees and the humidity isn’t far behind. That’s exactly what happened last week, when I awoke to find that summer had officially arrived while I slept. In fact, I found out the hard way, but waking up to a sweltering home. It turns out that I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t handle the coming summer heat; my AC unit had no way to deal with the increasing temperature change, either. In the middle of the night, my cooling system had given up the good fight and simply died. That meant I woke up to find the morning sun beating powerfully on my home, streaming sunlight and heat straight into the unit. I woke up that morning and the inside of the house was over 85 degrees. The indoor humidity level was climbing steadily towards 80%. Between the sauna outside and the oven inside, I had nowhere to go for respite. I also didn’t know of a reputable HVAC technician to call out, which led to a week without any working AC unit. I know I should be prepared for southern living in the summer time, but honestly, I couldn’t be more miserable with this heat.