So how's everyone faring?
And I saw on a news clip that the London Underground still has no air conditioning, because it was built before AC? Yikes!
It has been between 95 and 100 degrees here for over a week now. Humidity today is said to be 85%+. Not too bad for me because I drive in to work in an air conditioned car and work in an air conditioned office. Right now it's good preparation since I'm off to Houston next week! Colleagues who come in by train are having a hell of a time though. Trains are operating at reduced speds because of the risk of rails buckling - the steel temperature is reaching 45 degrees plus in the sun. We have long days at this time of year so the heat really has time to build up and of course because this is unusual for us we don't have air conditioned houses - so the nights are hot and sweaty!
But I'm not complaining - I love it.
Terrific photo in the paper yesterday of two bears in a Paris zoo licking and mouthing cod-flavored ice blocks provided to help keep them cool in the pool. What'll they think of next!
> So how's everyone faring?
I'm toasty thanks. Never spent so much time outside in Europe. Average temps have been exceeded for five months straight! In January some towns in the Rhein area were under water; now there's very little water anywhere in Europe. I compared the UN description of its predicted weather for 2050 assuming 'business as usual', and almost all of their predictions have been fulfilled in the last two years throughout the world. We should be worrying 'bout 2005, not 2050, I think. And skeptics are saying people are merely panicking. I get the feeling the joke is on us and our exalted history.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/0,12374,782494,00.html Anyway, I'm heading for a lake now. Keep cool people!
Sometimes it helps to be my age and have memories of how we beat the heat in those "no air conditioning" years!
Close all windows and draw all drapery first thing in A.M. to hold any coolness night may bring.
Strange as it seems, drink hot beverages to cool off. (When you visit Houston you'll find this is common.)
Take lukewarm showers, not cool.
In baths put some baking soda to beat heat rash.Also useful when washing and dusting baby.
If you can get blocks of ice, (bags of ice cubes work too) place in a washtub, have a fan blow across the ice to cool one room.
A flannel bottom sheet will actually be cooler than a slick one.
Wear cotton - best cooling fabric is seersucker, next Palm Beach cloth for men's suiting.
Eat small meals more often rather than big meals.
For animals - usually a dog will find a spot under a tree or behind shrubs, find that spot then dig a hole several feet deep, drop in several bags of ice, (puncture to allow melt to run off) refill hole. The ice will keep the spot cool and help dog cope. Provide lots of cool water. If animal gets wet, lie you hoase the dog down, be sure to dry thoroughly using cool setting on hair dryer, especially under "arms." Else a mould develops which is murderous to clear up. (A hot setting on a dryer can raise an animal's blood pressure and cause death!) Keep cats indoors and dogs away from beaches. The sand works into fur and causes all kinds of irritation, hot spots etc. (Cheaper to take the time than pay those Vet bills!)
Last and by far not the least : Tape a reflective material onto the top half of windows to reflect sun away. shiny side outward. Silver foil - the kind used for cooking and freezer storage - works like a charm. Will usually drop temp in house about 15 or 20 degrees.
Great suggestions, wow! To me, AC has become something I definitely don't want to do without. I often wonder how people made it through blazingly hot summers without it, particularly people in hot office buildings where breezes don't reach. Men in suits, trekking blocks to work; and un-air-conditioned subways (or even trains)? I don't want to think about it! Buckling railroad tracks?? Geez... sympathies.
And aren't we glad we don't have to dress like they did 150 years ago?! Long sleeves, and tight-fitting garments buttoned up to the neck...shudder.
Hmm--wow, your post reminded me of something my father always said, when I'd be down on the farm in shorts and sleeveless tops: that wearing long sleeves and long pants is better, because once they get wet with sweat, the breeze actually cooled you down more. Your comment about hot drinks reminded me of something, too, that I heard a long time ago: that in North America, food in the north tends to be kind of bland; but the further south (hotter in temperature) you go, the hotter (spicier) the food gets--and it's true!
WO'N, thanks for starting this thread. I'd intended to put this first, then got to running my mouth...sigh: I've been hearing about the awful heat in Italy; and now they're having a bad time with wildfires. Emanuela, tell us how you are, when you can. b-youth, good to hear from you--hope you enjoyed your swim! wsieber, how are things where you are? ammelah, if you're still around, how is Austria? crealude--France? I don't think Juan Maria has been here for a while, but I heard on the news that the heat in Spain is truly awful--people have died from it.
From my days in the Mexican desert:
If there is any shade around the house, position fans in windows so that it will draw the cool air in and suck the hot air out.
If it's too hot to sleep, wet and wring out a bath sheet or beach towel, cover yourself with it and point the fan on you! This got me through months of 90-100+ degree days when I worked nights.
If your schedule permits, take a nap in the heat of the day and stay up later at night when the air is cooler. My kids and I used to take our naps on the cool cement floors with the fans pulling in the air from under the fig tree.
Michigan tricks or "It's not the heat, it's the humidity":
Use a dehumidifier. Mine has been running non-stop for weeks now and I'm emptying the gallon reservoir 2-3 times a day. I can always tell when it's full by the heavy feel of the air.
When you can't stand the heat another minute, well, then, it's time for dinner and a movie. Let the air conditioned coolness of restaurant and theater wash over you.
Haven't owned an air conditioner or a heater of any kind for 18 years (but I have dodged a couple of hurricanes).
heat wave or no heat wave, its a good idea to have some sort of reflective coating on your windows to keep out heat and UV rays-- the newest stuff is like 'clings' you put it on wet, with a squeegee, and you can peel it off in the fall (to let more light in for winter) and reapply the same stuff, next spring.. about $20 a roll (3foot wide by 20 foot long, does alot of windows!)
well placed fans, work well too, in my house we had a 'attic fan' that went on every evening, it exhausted hot air out of the attic, and drew the cool evening air into the house. I don't have any A/C in my apartment, about 10 days each summer i wish i did, but for the other 90 or so, fan do fine.
(and i have both southern and western expossures, (1 window faces east-- one more thing i like about the place, lots of cross ventalation!)
When we were kids, we would also hose down the roof (of our apartment, we lived on top floor of the building) in the early evening. the cold water started cooling down the tar (so it didn't radiate heat into the apartment all night,) and evaperation cooled it further--water shortages some places mean that can't be done, but 100% cotton sheets,(flannels, or better yet, 'brushed or sueded' cotton which have a lower nap) are great. and a evening cool down shower before you go to bed is a good idea too.. don't use soap, just rinse, (washing with soap too often can dry skin, and make it itchy, and uncomfortable)
i also like long sleeves, in a soft almost sheer cotton, they keep the sun off the skin, and you feel cooler.. loose skirts, or baggy pants are good too. (wear braces/suspenders, not a belt, for increased air flow!)
and remember, this too shall pass!
Thanks for all your great suggestions. I'm going to try the fan one in a mo. We had the heatwave in Manchester but we were also the proud possesors of the only cloud in Western Europe so not much sun ( thank goodness). I'm seriously considering moving to Iceland. Sure there are no trees and it's dark for six months of the year but hell at least it's a normal temperature. I don't do well in the heat, anything over fifteen degrees (centigrade) and I spend the whole day in a tepid bath with a pair of frozen underpants on my head. Sunstroke, heatstroke, claggy head, you name it, I've got it. I ask you, what is the point of living in a temperate zone if summer gets all over enthusiastic on you? Aaaaargh, I'm dreaming of fog, of drizzle and most of all snow, snow snow. You might think I'm being a miserable so and so but if I wanted wall to wall sunshine I'd move to L.A. I can't wait for autumn. Roll on October gales.
Dody, 2 peas in a pod, we are!
spend the whole day in a tepid bath with a pair of frozen underpants on my head. 
By the way, if you ever answered Helen's question of long ago, I never saw it: are you kin to dody, or, if you are a dody skin, what's a dody, please?
just saw a report that nearly 3000 people have died in France from heat related causes in the last two weeks. hope that there's a break in tbe weather soon for them...
Three thousand?? Oh, I hope not!
are you kin to dody, or, if you are a dody skin, what's a dody, please?Dear Jackie, it's no great mystery; a dody is a dummy ( I think you call them pacifiers), and I've a skinhead ( no hair, or I used to till I lost my clippers and now I've got girly doll hair again grrr). I am a bit thick and was a bit bald so it's a description of me.
Howye fokes
I'm sweaten in me fur.
I remember reading this review last year (almost a year to date) about a heat wave in chicago, in 1995-- 800 or so were killed...(do you remember it? i remembered some of the story) here is a link to a book review (i still haven't read the book)
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/08/20/heat/a quick google search points out, in 1998, Chicago lost another 30 or so people to a shorter heat wave.
Point is, Heat kills. Its 90º or so now, and while i have a/c (lower case, power, upper case (A/C) air condisioning)--many in NYC, and other areas don't. NancyK and Sparteye may or maynot have running water (mine was only a short 14 story hike away, and i was only with out for 12 hours)-- and i suspect its as hot in MI as it is here.
most of us don't have houses or lives that are built around dealing with heat (accept with A/C). this is not the first heat wave in europe, nor will it be the last...
sweaten in me fur
Hey, GT:
When it gets too hot for comfort
and you can't eat ice cream cones
tain't no sin, take off your skin and dance around in your bones.
(Words by Edgar Leslie, Music by Walter Donaldson)
In Michigan, it's not the heat, it's the humidity. We are currently experiencing very high humidity with not much in the way of breeze. It is a stifling heat. The brownout damaged the A/C where I work, so yesterday was not a pleasant day in the store. It was actually cooler outside than it was inside. As I write this post, it is 5:30am and the temperature is 71° (22°C) and the humidity is 90%. The expected high is 83° (28°C). That's not as bad as it could be, however, the high humidity prevents the body from cooling properly. It's a good day for going to Lake Michigan. I know just the place to hang my hammock
I was reminded the other day by a friend that the best place to go if you are out and about when it's hot is a shoe shop. Here in the UK, outside of the big shopping centres, few shops, except shoe shops (for obvious reasons) are guaranteed to have air conditioning. I think that I'll save up all my shoe shopping for hot days in future.
It seems that the counting of people dead for the heat is more or less made simply by comparing the number of people dead this summer with the number of the previous summer.
Of course, they are not dead exactly "because of the hot wheather" , but mostly they were old people having other health problems, and the heat simply made them heavier.
yeahbut®
All the stuff in the media is put in some perspective when you know that 25,000 deaths are calculated to have taken place in the UK last winter from the effects of cold... yes, that's correct, 25,000 preventable deaths in a so-called first world country, with a high-cost social welfare and health system in place. So France's late response to an extraordinary heatwave maybe is not so shabby after all...?
mav, I can't believe that figure is accurate. Here's what our Center for Disease Control says:
...in the United States. On average, nearly 700 people die each year due to hypothermia. http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/mmwrnews/n010202.htm
yeah, I was wrong.
It's more.
In total, 27,300 more people than expected died last winter - and of these 25,100 were aged 65 or over...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2357237.stm
And as for those dodgy sounding numbers on hypothermia in the USA (hah!), well the procedures for reporting deaths and their causes are clearly laid down in this cheerful little guide:
On line (b) report the disease, injury, or complication, if any, that gave rise
to the immediate cause of death reported on line (a). If this in turn resulted
from a further condition, record that condition on line (c). If this in turn
resulted from a further condition, record that condition on line (d). For as
many conditions as are involved, write the full sequence, one condition per
line, with the most recent condition at the top, and the underlying cause of
death reported on the lowest line used in Part I. If more than four lines are
needed, add additional lines…http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/misc/hb_cod.pdfbtw, don’t you just love that motto and title “Safer-Healthier-People ~ Physicians’ Handbook on Medical Certification of Death” ?!
So in theory all the causative breakdowns going back downstream to “government failure to provide adequate preventative healthcare” could be listed. But is it likely to happen in practice, especially if it tends to throw up uncomfortable political truths? I notice that over 65,000 Americans are listed as dying from ‘flu, for example.
And before you take a view about that last question, consider the answer to this simple query: how many American service personnel have died in combat since the “end” of the Iraq war? If statistics were neutral numbers, there could only be one answer to this – yet there are two in circulation. I know which I believe, and it ain’t Shrub.
I notice that over 65,000 Americans are listed as dying from ‘flu, for example.
And depending how you categorize, these deaths could be attributed to the "effects of cold weather," even if not directly caused by it (as hypothermia).
Did you or Jackie read this review of a book about the 1995 Chicago heat wave that left 700 dead?(its a few post up)
It's rather long, (of course the book is longer and more detailed) but it covers alot of what makes a heat wave in a modern city dangerous- from poverty, to crime, to government 'effecientcy' -- i haven't kept track of how the various government in europe have acted in response to the heat wave-so i don't know if they were as bad as chicago was.
its a sobering read-- (the book sounds almost gruesome)
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/08/20/heat/
Now in Europe is cold. Subject is out of date.
True, K. We realize autumn is coming, in the northern hemisphere. It's getting cold here in New York, too. But what we are now talking about is political and statistical truth. (nice to see you here again!)
... political and statistical truth.
Well done, Betsy. Two oxymorons in one phrase. On yer, girl!
"But what we are now talking about is political and statistical truth." What do you mean by that?
Mav claimed that 25,000 people died in the UK last winter due to the extreme cold. Jackie countered that only 700 people died in the US from hypothermia each winter, and therefore, mav's stats must be in error. The problem is that mav's figures did not specify the proximate cause of death, merely that there were (approximately) 25,000 more deaths last winter than there were the winter before, a more normal winter. The assumtion is that they were due to the harshness of the winter. Jackie's figures were only from one particular cause of death, one that is predominantly occuring in winter, but not the only cause of severe winter deaths nor does hypothermia occur only in the winter. Heart attack while shoveling snow is just one example of other deaths that can be blamed on winter. If the severe winter brought with it greater amounts of snow and the number of heart attack deaths increased during the severe winter, then they too could be blamed on the severe winter.
I'll leave the subject of political truth to others more versed in the subject.
""mav's stats must be in error" - It's not always. When in our country was communism our statistics never say that somebady die of hot or cold.
Em--I apologize for my apparent "countrycentrism". It wasn't that, so much as I was assuming (nope, I never will learn) that, while numbers of deaths were unlikely to be falsified at lower than the actual number, the causes of death that England's figures must include might well have caused that total to be exaggerated--compared to our total, that is. I would be interested to compare the two countries' totals for ONE direct cause of death only, say, literally freezing to death.
Though I do agree with mav's point that, barring accident, we have no business letting anyone in either country die because it's cold.
The assumtion is that they were due to the harshness of the winter.
It's a clear cut assumption, and stands in direct parallel to the criticism of the French for their perceived failings in the face of the heatwave. Without LIU exhaustively, I will nevertheless bet a guinea to a groat that the French death toll in similar fashion will not reveal the exact proximate cause of death. I doubt if anyone was killed by "fried brain pan" or whatever the medics' Latin translation is - but the overall effects of the heatwave were to cause the deaths of several thousands of people who can be expected to have lived through a more typical summer. In similar fashion were felt the effects of a severe winter in the UK; and I have little doubt that the USA stats do not show the full causal picture either.
But when an elephant falls in your deckchair, it's not much good discussing from whence it was exfenestrated. ;)
not much good discussing from whence it was exfenestrated
If you're intersted in stopping future elephants from landing in your deck chair, it's *very important to discuss from whence it was exfenestrated[sic]. While comparing deaths in a normal winter with deaths in a severe winter is a good way to get a first order estimate of the deaths caused by "the winter," it can be inaccurate if there was, e.g., a big flu epidemic that would have happened regardless of the severity of the winter. Possibly more people would have died from the flu epidemic in a severe winter, but perhaps many who died would not have if they had been house-bound by the severity of the weather during the epidemic.
Two oxymorons in one phrase. On yer, girl!Thank you.
One does one's best.
exfenestrated?
I always thought de, as in defenestrated was the correct prefix to use.
Death resulted from the unfortunate circumstances of sitting under the path of a defenestrating elephant.(as to whether or not the elephant survived the experience was not noted)
I betcha Mav was
pulling our collective leg.
on the other hand, see adfenestration -- I wouldn't put that past him!
re: see adfenestration --where?
couldn't find it.. i am guessing ad, meaning to (or forward to) -- Are you suggesting Mav's was pulling a fast one, and assisting the elephant in some way, knowing the consiquences?
where?? helen, that's akin to admitting you don't use OneLook! (or Google, for that matter) <g>
... or Gurunet. By the way, I like that picture of you, tsuwm.
Sorry, eta, Gurunet is a download--it won't give a link; and the "picture" is just an icon-thing, anyway.
I did Google adfenestration, and got links to wwftd and one other place--apparently somebody had a contest for using obscure words. The very first line made me think of Father Steve, and so I smiled, but a few words later I frowned. How can someone who can use all these obscure words use the word that I will put in bold? A clowder of cats were laying in a kef... Argh!
>LINK!
http://gurunet.com/page.pl?p=todayclick on the "word of the day" and select the "obscure" tab (but it's not a good likeness ;)
(this won't work on older versions of some browsers)
not a good image
Whaddaya, kidding? It's the spit and image!
hehe. that was fun! thanks for the link.
plus you're linked from the same page as Britney Spears!!!
I was curious about the images on the licitation page. have to spend a bit more time exploring what a large container has to do with licitation...
If you're intersted in stopping future elephants from landing in your deck chair, it's *very important to discuss from whence it was exfenestrated[sic].
Agreed -"if". What you have missed out is the complete lack of interest in anything, oh, Fong, if one was seated comfortably in the first deck chair!
and btw, I chose 'ex' rather than the 'de' form because I wanted to not imply the heffalump had necessarily been pushed but. ;)
'ex' rather than the 'de'
And here's me thinking you were distinguishing the point of view of defenstration (the going out of the window) from the point of view of exfenestration (the having come out of the window). Rather like the difference between take and bring.
distinguishing the point of view of defenstration
Prelaxly®
Seeing it from unnerneath rather implies yah woz not throwin it out yown goodsef :)
Big window!Is now