I guess the heat wave all over the US started sometime last week. Thanks to sitting in an air conditioned office all day long, I never noticed it. Even the noon walks at lunch was okay. The first time I really noticed the heat was on Friday night. Me and a bunch of friends had come back to my apt after dinner. When I opened the door, I felt like I was entering an oven set at medium baking temperature. For goodness sakes, it was 11.30p in the night at that time. After opening all the windows, the patio doors and turning on the fans (my apt does not have air conditioning - at any other time I would have thought of it as a wasteful accessory), the apt finally cooled down a bit.
Fast forward to Saturday morning. I woke up due to the extreme heat. The first thing on my agenda was to get out of the heated crock-pot called my apt as soon as possible. Where to go? Ah yes, my favorite while-away place - the library! Lots of cool air amidst lots of books - could heaven be better? "Ah, Archu, you are a genius," I thought as I got ready at double fast speed and zoomed away to the library.
Self-praise still ringing in my ears, I arrived at the library. Yes, I had had a stroke of genius. Only problem was that only about 95% of the other residents of my city had also had the same stroke of genius. For, turn where I may, I couldn't find a parking spot :-(. Ugh! So I drove around for quite sometime before I finally found a spot. This spot was only a little bit closer to the library than if I had parked at my apartment itself and walked the 1.5 mile distance to the library. So much for my brilliant ideas to avoid the sun - hmph! Anyways I trudged all the way in the shimmering heat and finally arrived panting at the library.
The blast of cool air as I entered was a welcome relief. As the umpteen cars in the parking lot foretold, the library was chock-full of people. I grabbed some magazines and started hunting around for a place to sit down amongst the zillion other library patrons. Then, the first nice thing of the day happened. To my amazement, I found an extremely comfy chair, facing the park. Yippeeee - even as I sat down, another lady sitting nearby said "you are very lucky you know". I know, I know!
Anyways, the next few hours sped by and then it was time to go back home to get ready for meeting another friend in the evening. By this time, the parking lot was even more full. So much so, there was competition for my far-flung parking spot too and a minivan was waiting to squeeze into my parking place. When I got into the car, the hot air felt like a blast from the furnace. I inserted my keys and pronto rolled down the windows. Then turned to put on my seat belt. Ouch, ouch, ouch - the metallic tip was HOT. Then put my hands on the steering wheel. Ouch, ouch, ouch! I gingerly place my hands on the baking steering wheel and pulled out. And drove back to my oven, oopz, my apartment.
Phew! Its so darn hot, its unbelievable. My first words to anyone I have met or spoken to in the past two days has been - it's hot! I am wishing for a speedy return of the famed Bay Area weather before I completely evaporate and turn into a new compound called ArB or some such thing!
I am unable to to believe I am the same person who used to survive Chennai's smouldering summers with great elan. It's surprising how much just three years of staying in a place with nearly always pleasant weather can spoil you!
16 comments:
For twenty two years I have listened to friends say, "Florida! I couldn't live there! It is too hot and humid." For the first time, I am able to say," Na,na,na." We are having the usual summer with no unusually high temperatures or humidity. Of course, I'll crawl back in a hole when the hurricanes arrive.
This too will change. Hang in there.
Haha!! Evil Grin :)
Romba thaan bay area, enga area thaan weight nu sonna :) Aandavan irukaan ;)
Surprisingly, texas this weekend was cloudy and it rained too and it happened when I travelled to TX :)
Floridora - Your comment made me laugh :-D! Thanks - I am waiting for your words to come true!
Prabhu - that God was teaching me how not to be a show-off occured to me too :-(! En neram, people from NY, NH and now from TX are telling me about how the weather over there is not all that bad - sigh! Me and my big mouth!
:-) :-) Hope this heat wave goes off quickly. Surprisingly its been turning really hot here in NC too just when I was thinking we are kind of past the summers. The temperatures are still not in 100's but the humidity is like 80-90%.
.. new compound called ArB.. was sooo funny. I hope not all Archana's with last Initial B will turn into that compound! :-)
ArB - LOL!
Nalla venum nalla venum...hahahah
Welcome to my world where its darn hot !
The good thing abt TX and Dubai is that atleast there is AC.
Nyways, it will cool down soon...so enjoy till then.
Hey Arch,
Yes looks like the heat wave has been moving from east to west slowly. Its been very hot.
But no AC in apt? How does one survive in this heat?
And LOL@ the Ouches :--) There was a time when the steering wheel used to be tooo cold to touch :-(, now its tooo hot. I am desperately waiting for the heat to die down.
Archana - ah, I am glad that at least one other state is hotter than it should be :-) - misery loves company!
Prasanna - :-D!
Shilpa - enakku theriyum ippadi solvey-nnu X-(! Yeah, I guess we bay area ppl just dont expect it to get hot enough to make AC mandatory - many apts dont seem to have AC! Bad thinking!
Saranya - the past two years in the bay, I have felt the need for AC for maybe one or two days - otherwise don't miss it. This year is HOT - sob :-(!
hey, i wanted to add a comment to your last post. but you have already put up the next one. :-D
i cannot think of anything to say about this post. and floridora rightly says it too shall pass. arb sounds similar to a bschool favourite word arbit!
haha...I knw...
When I first moved into AZ it was almost end of Oct and supposedly winter has started...( only to discover later that it was elsewhere..and not AZ):-)
My bed room in the apt had a window facing west...Yikes...can u imagine 115 degrees at 6PM..
If some one tells me comeback to AZ and work there during summer...
hmmm......:-D
you will be surprised what a $20 walmart fan can do in your apartment.
I do have air conditioning and it runs most of the time but I have two tower fans at two levels of my home. ( power consumed by the fan is much much lower than the AC and it cools down the home faster ).
Spark - thank you :-)! Temperatures have come down considerably this week :-D!
Ginkgo - I can't even imagine how it must be in AZ! Even from the aeroplane (and from inside the air-conditioned airport) Phoenix looked hot!
T - I already have a $14 walmart fan in my apt :-D! It works like a dream - else by now I would already be in the ArB state! Another super-effective trick my sis told me was to sit on a wet towel. When combined with sitting in front of fan, it works EXTREMELY well!
hello , i never knew it was dis hot @ d US , and know ur commentary is non-stop , its like ur talking non-stop , its quite something 2 hv d perseverance 2 write and express !.
I suppose u hv frige and lots of cool stuff , and Chennai everyone dere complains of d heat .
anyway , nice reading dis , wish u
a gd time while stay stay determined on beating d heat .
Some anom - "and know ur commentary is non-stop , its like ur talking non-stop" - LOL - I always knew I am very verbose - thank you for reinforcing my belief :-D!
your blog post sounds like a interesting novel.
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