Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Too hot already!

Well, here we go. Temperatures are expected to reach way up into the 90's today.  A heat advisory is in effect for the area for the rest of the week. And it's not even June yet. Ugh.

This afternoon we're going to set up the dogs' little portable A/C in the garage. We're trying to figure out some way to close off part of the garage with tarps, so that the cold air can be concentrated around their bed. Attempting to cool the whole area is expensive and not very satisfactory in terms of temperature. The ideal solution would be to just let them live in the house, but we can't. George might be a danger to Marco and we hate to risk it. Ginger's behavior is exemplary, but she doesn't like coming in the house, having been born out in the country on 14 acres of land with two ponds and plenty of fields and woods to explore. Even after we moved to town, she preferred to spend her days in the back yard, watching the sun rise, napping in the shade, patrolling the perimeter of the fence, etc. The good life for a dog!  Although I'll bet that if she got a taste of the climate-controlled house in the hottest part of the summer she'd quickly learn to love being inside, at least in the summer.

Now that George is here, though, with his prey drive and destructive chewing habits, it's necessary to keep them living in the garage and back yard instead. (Side note: not only do they have a portable A/C for the summer, they have a heater for the winter, a big cozy bed, fans, access to the laundry room, access to the back yard, and a view right into our den via the back door. They're hardly roughing it even if they're not "house dogs").


I need to prepare our house for the onset of hot weather, too. The houseplants that live in the front living room and dining room will have to be moved, so that the blinds and drapes can be drawn--we hardly use those rooms and they have hot westward facing windows. Gregg can't sleep unless the house is super cool at night. Since his lung surgery 5 years ago, he wakes up occasionally in the middle of the night struggling to get a deep breath and gasping. After about a minute of acute anxiety that makes him jump out of bed and pace around, everything goes back to normal and he can breathe again. These episodes are more likely to happen if the room is warm. So power bill be damned, we have to crank down the A/C at night, even now. It's in the daytime, when we're mostly at work, that we need to be conservative with it. Combining our cooling needs with the dogs' makes our summertime power usage soar. No matter what we do, our next four or five bills are going to be scary.

And don't get me started about how uncomfortable being outside will be for the next 5 months. Even at night, it's so hot and humid no one wants to go outdoors.

Yay for summer in South Carolina! (Not).


22 comments:

  1. Sounds not unlike summer in North Florida. It's not easy.

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    1. My brother in law lives in North Florida--Jacksonville. It's basically the same climate as we have here in Florence. Swampy, humid, hot, and miserable. Sometimes the heat is dangerous.

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  2. This will be my third summer in Central Florida. It is odd to be hibernating in the summer instead of the winter; however, I guess if the truth be told I would choose the heat over snow and icy cold. Still, the heat really is relentless.

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    1. We spend far more time outdoors in the winter than we do in the summer. "Relentless" is the right word for the heat.

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  3. Hooray for our (more or less) moderate climate here in the south of Germany...! Although over the past 10-15 years, we have had increasingly longer and hotter periods of hot, dry weather. The sumer of 2003 started it off with record highs in terms of temperature, and record lows in terms of groundwater.
    Nobody I know personally has A/C in their houses here; some new office buildings have it (not ours - it is from the early 1990s), and most shops, but not people's homes.

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    1. You're lucky that there's no real need for A/C for most of the summer in Germany. It's necessary here; heat stroke and heat exhaustion are real things.

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  4. I picture you as Blance dubois when its hot

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  5. Here in England we only get big power bills in the wintertime. May to September is when the bills go right down. What a contrast with South Carolina!

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  6. You are so good to have A/C for your dogs. I hope they appreciate you; I know they do :)

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    1. I think Ginger, at least, understands that we're doing our best to make her life good. I don't think George has achieved her level of perception, not yet.

      How is Bounce?

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  7. I also have need a cold room to sleep in. We do get cold weather for a few months in Tucson but we rarely turn on the heater over 60.
    I think the tarp idea sound great, plus blanket to keep the edges down. Good luck.
    Ginger and george are darling.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. The tarp/plastic enclosure for their bed has been a total pain to build. We're still far from happy with it but we had to get something up and running. Yesterday and today the temperatures have reached 95-98F outside. The poor dogs need a cool place when it's that hot.

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  8. Around 30 C here (86 F), so not as hot as where you are. Bok just lies in the shade of some tree until he gets too hot, then heads for the kitchen where it's much cooler. It's a hard life.

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    1. Our dogs live really well, too. They don't do any kind of work for their living, that's for sure!

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  9. Good to hear how well you look after your lovely dogs. I flop in high temperatures...by which I mean anything over 25c. Luckily that is fairly rare in SE England. ( Harpenden) I was feeling too hot yesterday after gardening in 18c. !! Raining today, and for the next few days apparently. Thank goodness...we have totally dried up rivers in some parts of the country.

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    1. I have a friend who went to England with her husband the last week of April, and she was shocked at how cold it was. I think she was in the North of England, though.

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  10. I must say, I don't miss summer in the South at all! Ugh. I can't sleep in a warm room either.

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    1. That's right, I sometimes forget you're from this part of the world! I think of you as "Steve in London".

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  11. It will be 90 degrees up here in PA also. It should only last three days, and then return to a more normal 70 degrees. Meanwhile, the AC will be running 24/7. I do not do well with heat anymore.

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    1. I hope it will cool down for us after a few days, too!

      I despise the heat. Actually, I despise the combination of high heat and humidity. That's the killer.

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