I Capitulate

For the past two years, I've had my sister Aces's old a/c unit sitting in my living room. When she moved to AZ, it became one of the castoffs my mom gave me as she decluttered the house. I never put it in because 1) this house was built in 1914, with cross-ventilation as its primary design function and 2) in Cleveland you really don't need it. No, seriously--aside from my first apartment, I haven't had a/c since I moved here for college. And I think I ran that unit 3 times. Even the 4th of July in 1999, when it hit 100 degrees inside my bedroom in the second apartment and I left the house to go anywhere else, I haven't broken down on the a/c. There's maybe 10 really hot days a summer. It's not like NJ, where most of August is an ozone action day and I could barely breathe outside. And after a while, you get into the spirit of living in the heat. It's a lifestyle, like all that eating locally from farmers jazz.

You sleep a little less in summer, even with open windows. You get up earlier, when it's cool out. You drink lots of fluids, and forget to eat. You hang out outside on the porch. You run fans, and mist your sheets to that the evaporation cools you as you fall asleep. Put a bowl of ice in front of the fan for a little freshness. Or you take a bath or shower before retiring and just let the moistness lay on your skin. Sandals, skirts and a t-shirt. You wear lightweight, flower-colored clothes. Sometimes you sleep downstairs because it's cooler, or outside.

It was 87 degrees at 11am when I finished mowing the lawn, and after I finished my bath and book I put the a/c in the kitchen. I first tried it in the dining room last weekend, when it was also very hot and muggy out, but the outlet I plugged it in is dead and I was so tired from wrestling it that I gave up. But today! I plugged it in, it worked and I sat in front of it for 20 minutes. I even put Mencken in my lap and told him "See? It makes it cooler!" He was unimpressed. They are all still in the basement window.

It feels like the end of an era.