Canada

Body Heat


The last few days have been scorching and this practically on the heels of my whining about a dud summer. We don’t have air conditioning, central or window box. Even the heat waves we can get are not long enough to warrant the expense of a central system, but as our bedrooms are the dormer attic type, we caved and purchased one of those room units that vent to the outside via the attic. It only cools the upstairs and that’s with doors open, but it makes a difference in the quality of one’s sleep.

I grew up without air conditioning. When I was about fourteen, Dad purchased a unit for the kitchen window that basically cooled the kitchen and living room. The summer I left for university, for reasons I still don’t know, Dad decided to install central air. So while I was sweltering in a dormer attic room of Currier Hall, my siblings were living the life of Reilly with central a/c and another out of character purchase for my father – cable television.

Air conditioning was erratic in my apartment years. Sometimes I had it. Mostly I didn’t. It wasn’t until I was 33 and a first time home owner that I lived in true comfort during the sweaty Iowa summers.

When I moved to Alberta, Rob assured me that “heat”, “humidity” and “summer” were near mutually exclusive. The summer we got married, we had a heat wave of 30C or better for nearly a month and a half. Although the humidity really isn’t taxing on a non-native used to summers when it sometimes equaled the temperature, sleeping in an attic bedroom that never cooled was exhausting. Throw in the whole newlywed thing and we were both wrung out zombies for the first few months.

Last night reminded me of that summer. I was baked to the point of migraine. I woke once in the middle of the night and fleetingly realized that one could probably fry an egg on my stomach – and this was in a room with the a/c running its little motor out.

Today the winds have shifted a bit and there is a slightly cool caress in the breeze, but we are exhausted with the effort of keeping hydrated and staving on spontaneous combustion by whatever means necessary.

Feels Like Summer Rambling Thoughts


Woke up yesterday morning to warm, sun, and what passes for humidity here, and I thought, “Summer?” The question mark is essential because Rob believes we are in for a non-summer this year. Great. Let’s punctuate that with a heaping of Swine flu when school starts up and snow before Halloween too, shall we?

I long ago lost my taste for blistering Iowa summers which draped a person in hot moist air like a towel in a steam room. Back in the late 90’s, when I was still very much on my own, I loved that kind of weather. I ran around all summer in cut-offs, bikini tops and halters, went to the pool every afternoon and took long runs in the evenings. A decadent lifestyle. 

Humidity now feels like someone is stuffing a wet towel down my throat while kneeling on my chest, and I have neither the figure for a bikini top nor the patience for kid infested afternoons at the local pool. And long runs? Not to my knees’ liking. 

Ten years. Where have you gone? And what have you done with me?

Monday was lazy. Dee and I went into town to run errands. One of them was taking deposit containers back to the Bottle Depot, a filthy, disgusting time suck of a chore. I may have mentioned that the family that runs the place have a relative notion about hours of operation. Although the sign says 10am to 4PM, open and close have a 20 to 30 minute give or take on both. Knowing this, I just did a drive by around 10:30 and found customers backed out on to the street. Off we went to run the other errands, which included fortifying Dee with take away lunch because I was sure we’d still end up sitting and waiting a good half hour when we tried the Bottle Depot again.

While we were at the grocery, Dee spied two Army light-armoured transports and wanted to go over and take a peek as the soldiers were clearly on lunch break. One invited her to climb aboard and check things out. She did. She loves heavy machinery and uniforms. Rob says this is how they begin their seduction of the youth.

As we walked away we discussed the fact that soldiers are the ones who “stand on guard for thee”. Dee takes this duty of all Canadians very seriously.

“I watch all the time except for when I blink and am asleep.”

When do we lose that? The first time we single issue vote?

Later, as we sat at the Bottle Depot (40 minutes), I watched the car ahead of me. A young man not too many years younger than the soldiers we saw earlier. Iron Maiden shirt. Camouflage shorts. Cigarette dangling from his lower lip and hauling box after bag out of this little Nissan, each filled with beer cans. I wonder if he still stands on guard for Canada?

An El Niño Kind of Summer


Which is to say, no summer at all. Most of the early to mid-part of the 90’s were El Niño years and when we weren’t building arks, we were unpacking winter wear to stay warm. I can remember taking my nieces to the Colfax pool with Cissy and the kids would be blue with cold and insisting that they did indeed need to stay in the water rather than seek out a nice sunny patch pool-side. I was wearing bikini’s then and between my pasty skin (because I was a sun-block fanatic) and the frigid water temps, I often looked quite corpse-like after an afternoon of swimming.

The scientists are ready to declare this an official El Niño summer. Great for those who live in areas where the weather is too hot and too dry but in places where “warm” and “summer” are relative and often mutually exclusive – it totally bites.

It’s rained for days here. The temps will hover close to freezing the next couple of nights. I have already mentioned to Rob the necessity of planning a winter vacation because without a summer to break the unrelenting “not warm” theme this year, winter – which was too long by half last year – will not be do-able this coming season.

As I have mentioned, summer here is extremely short. It really doesn’t get warm – if it’s going to – until July and by mid-August it’s early fall again and the days are noticeably shorter. With such a short season, summer is sacred. Weekends find towns and cities half empty as people head for camp grounds, lake lots and other outdoorish adventures. Canadians are like Europeans when August rolls around – hard to find.

When summer is a no show, it shows. On people’s faces and in their demeanors. It’s a country full of SAD’s. And it’s not pretty.

The temperature is 10C today. I am making soup in the crock pot and writing while Dee drives my mother crazy in the other room. Mom is ready, I think, to get home.

Rob is installing the new dishwasher. There is an upside to rain, tiny but tangible. He would have worked on it regardless because having two extra mouths to feed this last week and a bit has given me more than a little taste for what it must have been like living on the farm back in the day when food prep and clean-up comprised a hefty chunk of the day. If I haven’t been cooking, I have been washing dishes or doing laundry or driving since before Canada Day. Or at least it seems like it.

Be sure to check in tomorrow sometimes for #fridayflash. I have a zombie short that’s not too terrible.