The Lazy, Hazy, Days of Summer

  

When I took the dog out last week, we found thick fog and scorching hot weather. Later in the day the haze was gone, but the heat and humidity made outside time almost unbearable for me, and I’m not covered in thick fur like my dog. The heat made me feel lethargic—or one might say—lazy.

I could feel myself wilting when I had to take the dog out. At least when we finished outside, we came inside to a cool house with a dehumidifier. It still took time for me to recuperate after a stroll around the yard with a recalcitrant dog. The dog led and I followed.

On those foggy mornings, the heat made my glasses fog over. I sat on a chair in the shade, and the dog promptly jumped into the chair next to me. As we sat there panting in the heat, I suddenly felt a cold wind hit me for a few seconds. I thought maybe I’d left the door open, but it was closed. About the time I decided I’d imagined the cold wind, I felt it again.

It didn’t matter whether it was 6 a.m. or midnight, the air was heavy and oppressive. I thought about the hot nights when I was a kid and we had only a box fan to stir the air. Summers may not have been  hotter, but when you had no respite from the heat, it seemed that way.

When Jim and I first married, we rented a one-room apartment in Kansas without air-conditioning. We had one window, a screen door, and a fan for circulation. It got so hot at night that we wet a beach towel and put it over us.

Several years later, we lived in a two-story farmhouse, and the downstairs was comfortable even in the hottest part of summer. When we bought our land and moved a mobile home on it, we made it until June without an air-conditioner. It took us that long to decide that our mobile home was a heat trap in the summer.

Our favorite way to beat the heat was to go to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. August was our favorite time to go because that’s when the weather was miserable in “Misery” as we often called Missouri. It was always great to put on a jacket and sit by the campfire.

I recall how vigilant I had to be with Jim during the summer. When he was inside the house, he sometimes wore his denim jacket to stay warm. In his confusion, he would try to warm the house up, but instead he would push the thermostat lower. I finally had to put duct tape over the control to keep him from pushing it as low as it would go.

One day I told Jim we would go to town to eat. After I was ready to go, I grabbed my purse, but couldn’t find Jim. I finally decided he’d already gone to the car. That’s where I found him, with all the windows shut tight, wearing his denim jacket, and sweating profusely. I couldn’t imagine what would have happened if I’d taken longer to get ready.

When the thermometer hits triple digits, it’s hard to stay comfortable without a fully functioning cooling system. I feel for those who suffer through the hazy, lazy days of summer without a way to cool down.

I hope we have an autumn this year and don’t go from the summer heat to the bone-chilling cold when all the winds are cold. As I bundle up to take the dog out, the summer heat will be only a fond memory. As for the dog—she prefers the snowy, windy, icy days of winter.

 

Copyright © Aug 2023 by L.S. Fisher

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