Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Heat and Inconvenience

In the Los Angeles area, we are currently experiencing record breaking heat. I live in an old home that is not air conditioned. It usually stays very cool, but that is not the case this week. Yesterday, I watched the temperature climb to 108 degrees in my town.

I work at home. I have a home office. Yesterday was hot and miserable, but we have a large fan that brought relief. I also watched photos of snow while listening to Tony Bennett sing "Snowfall" yesterday morning for a dose of mind over matter. In the afternoon, I listened to a rainstorm also to distract myself from the heat. YouTube helped me get through the day.

The evening was still too hot in the house. Usually things cool off nicely. Tough night to sleep. I was awake off and on.

Today was another story. I got up at 5:30am to get ready for a 7:00am Bible Study. When I left around 6:30am, it was cool, relatively, and beautiful outside. Dawn was breaking. A nice time of day.

By 9:00am, we were in the middle of a brown out. So, as the temperature climbed again, we now were without enough electricity to run the fan. We did not have access to the Internet. I could not work at home. After I returned from a home visit, I packed up everything for a work day, and Glen and I went uptown for a quick lunch in air-conditioning to discuss a plan.

I went to the public library. He went on to Starbuck's. I did some reports and cooled off. I packed up and went to the restroom, only to find out that the bathroom was not working because the water was shut-off. Ugh! My 2-hour parking was about over, so I headed home to use the bathroom.

I headed back out and went to Starbuck's. Every seat was full. I tried the library again. Another 2-hours of parking. More air-conditioning and Internet access, and this time I found a desk with an outlet to plug my computer in for a while, too. Things were looking up. I got some work done and headed out for my 3:30 home visit.

The day went OK, but it did have its inconveniences...or creative opportunities.

1 comment:

Pami said...

i hear you! i don't have air conditioning either and I was working on missions stuff from home today with my industrial strength fan working overtime all day... I remember days in Manila with no power, 90% humidity, and scorching heat. My mom was wise to get us waterbeds so at least the water in the beds was cool. But I feel your pain!