Committed: The Ties that Bond
with Angella Dykstra
I'm a mom of three, a professional accountant, and an amateur photographer and writer. I am not a marriage expert. But my husband and I take "Til death do us part" seriously, and here I'll be sharing how we keep our marriage strong while we both do that insane work-life juggle.
Check out my Work It, Mom! profile and my blog, Dutch Blitz.
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It’s hot where I live. “How hot is it?” the crowd asks. It’s been 38C/98F which a whole lot hotter than any human being (without air conditioning) should be subjected to. We are spending our days at the lake/in the pool in an attempt to keep ourselves from melting into a puddle of goo.
While looking for a relationship topic to cover for todays post, I came across an article on MSN.com titled, “Hot Weather Couple Meltdowns.” Considering that I spent the bulk of my afternoon working in a tank top and my underwear while sitting in front of a swamp cooler (I am nothing if not classy), the title of the article pulled me in.
As I mentioned above, we do not have air conditioning (*shakes fist at the sky*) and the next few points didn’t seem to apply to me either. We have a fridge that has water in the door! And that makes ice!
We also don’t battle over wandering eyes (Heck, even I can admire a hot woman…and a hot man). Looking and touching are two different things.
It was the last point that had me nodding in agreement. When it comes to, ahem, relations with my husband the heat wave can put a damper on the desire to be within five feet of each other. I cold shower before bed (and a ceiling fan on above) help make everything so that we can at least stand to be in the same room together. And maybe even you know.
How about you? What tricks do you use to stay cool in the summer heat?
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hen I was deployed, I spent the hottest summer on record in the middle of a desert. It reached 150 degrees F during the daytime hours and not even the most powerful A/C unit could do much about that. So, I took my “keeping cool” tips from the locals who were fairly used to living in temperatures that hovered around 130 F during the summer:
Drank lots of hot tea. Yes, hot tea. It kicks your internal temperature regulator into overdrive somehow. I don’t know how, but it worked.
Ate yogurt and fruit until the camels came home.
Unfortunately, acclimitization is really the best cure. That means living with no or limited A/C. It got to where i could put on a head covering when I had to go out into town and wear long sleeved, black tops (made of a breathable material) and long black pants and not think about it.
If it’s any consolation, when I returned, I had to wear a sweater in 98 degree weather. ; )
Phe | July 28th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I have no tricks (besides, uh, complaining. A lot.)
hillary | July 28th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I don’t know how you are handling the heat, especially without AC. Cold/cool shower together works well too.
Amanda | July 28th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
How come you don’t have AC?
vera babayeva | July 28th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Because our house is twenty years old. And we can’t justify the cost for the few weeks a year that it is this hot
Angella | July 28th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Angella. Ok, I get. How about a fan. But I totally hear you, having relations while it’s very hot, is um, not pleasant.
vera babayeva | July 28th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I sometimes hold my hands / feet under a stream of cold water. That temporarily cools my whole body. I put a cotton cloth over the vinyl chair so I sweat less. Also going out into the hot sun for a few minutes makes it feel a lot better to go back in again, since the shade is usually cooler and by then you have beads of sweat to cool you down. Also working in the basement if the above temporary solutions aren’t enough. (These are obviously daytime solutions; for a shared bed, other than the cold shower you mentioned, I have no wisdom.)
I agree with staying away from A/C as much as possible if you don’t have consistent access to it.
I don’t remember ever feeling “too hot” in natural heat as a child. Maybe for a minute if I’d been running, but that’s about it. What is it that happens as we age, making us so intolerant of relatively normal temperatures?
SKL | July 29th, 2009 at 8:51 am
In 15 years in this city only ONCE have a had a place with central A/C. It was nice, but really not necessary. The window or wall unit is all most of us live with. Like noted, it is expensive to justify retrofitting an older home for the brief period cool air is needed.
Mich | July 29th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
We also do not have an AC. I sometimes damp a bed sheet with cold water, and use it as a cover when I sleep. The trick is to make sure that no water drips, but the material is still dump and cool.
Maria | July 30th, 2009 at 11:27 am