Heat Crazies

I haven't liked summer since I stopped having it off as a student. When the weather is hazy, hot and humid: I am miserable. But when it is hazy, hot and humid with a temp over 90 and a heat index around 110 for 6 days and your air conditioning takes a vacation and your bedroom is upstairs: it gives me the heat crazies.

The heat crazies occur when it's just so hot all rational thought leaves me. It becomes a fight for survival: not only for me but for my puppies too. They are little dogs that never pant: but this weather had them non-stop panting and that worried me. So I had to make sure they were okay which led to some pretty irrational behavior on my part and a lot of laughter on Brie's part. Let me give you a few examples.

The first night I tried to stay in my room., which I did. But the dogs were panting so Brie and I decided my fan wasn't good enough; we went to Wal-Mart at midnight to get a big powerful tower fan. For the dogs. I got it home, had Kitty set it up and took it upstairs. 5 speeds, ionizer, oscillating: should have been a winner. But when your windows don't open: it's mostly blowing warm air. So I gave the dogs some water and ended up with Lilly plastered to one side and I was holding Vivian so the air was blowing directly on her. I did this until 3 a.m. when I finally collapsed and slept for a few hours.

The next day was worse. When nighttime came, I took the dogs out to the car because it was cooler outside than it was in my house. When you have an automatic starter, it runs for 10 minutes and then shuts off. So every so often I'd turn on the car for the air conditioning and we were in the car until 5:15 a.m. Yep: I left my 87 year old mother in the house with a fan but had the dogs in the cool car. Heat crazies!

The following night I stayed downstairs with a big box fan like 3 feet from my face on the coffee table. Lilly was plastered to one side and Vivi was on the other. I wet paper towels with cool water and ran it over their fur to keep them cool. I was sweating like an m-effer but they were enjoying those ministrations. And I had water in a little blue cup in case they were thirsty. Then when I finally laid down on the couch at 4 a.m., Vivian slept on my head figuring that would help me cool off. WRONG!

So now periodically during the day and night I am rubbing the dogs down with cold paper towels and giving them water like they can't drink out of their water dishes. I am watching TV until the wee hours until I finally fall asleep on the couch for a couple of hours. And no one wants to know how I look after these 6 days!

I had told Brie that I just wanted to run across the lawn to the police station, bang on the door and yell, "I've got the heat crazies!" She said she was sure the jail cells were nice and cool!

So rumor has it that tomorrow this heat wave will be over and it will be bearable. Dear Lord I hope so! These dogs have been pampered and spoiled much more than usual; and I need some sleep. I sure hope that this is the only bad spell we have this summer. Otherwise next time no telling what form the heat crazies will take!