It really is summer isn't it? Through all the financial foils of last weekend I will admit that the weather was some of the best I have ever experienced in Texas and July. I guess it was wind left over from the hurricane that hit just 700 miles south of where we were. The air felt more like May than July. It was nice. Imagine my disappointment then, this weekend when I found that July had returned and brought all of the swampland humidity along with it. I know those in the North look forward to these months. I caved, like I always do and turned my thermostat down to 78.
My daughter's Aunt Bea was with us again. She is a charming 13 year old who loves to dress in black. Goth is all fine and good, but don't tell me you are hot if jeans and long sleeve shirt are you summer look. "Bea you can either have the look or the comfort, and you have made the wrong choice I'm afraid." I guess I shouldn't blame the kid. So much of our lives down here are lived in refrigerators. I keep a jacket in my office so I won't freeze to death. When I first started working at this firm I took up a bad coffee habit because the worm cup helped me keep my fingers warm enough to type.
I don't get on my environmental high horse often, but there is an alarming disconnect in our lives from what it is we are actually consuming. I know people who recycle their plastics and cans, but think nothing of turning their thermostat so low they require a blanket to watch TV. We want to put a moratorium on drilling in our oceans, but what about those mountains we have stripped in Tennessee? The truth is, most of our electricity in America comes from coal, not oil. Yes, we need to reduce our dependence on plastic, but lets not forget our dependence on strip mining. We come up with all sorts of different concepts to make ourselves feel better, but the simple truth is there is no such think as clean coal. The problem is a huge one, but why not start to tackle the problem one over active air conditioner at a time. Its true that air conditioning saves lives. The threat of heat stroke is very real, but a Goth kid shouldn't be comfortable in their black get up in the middle of a South Texas July. They should be sweating. Their black eye liner should be dripping off their faces. They should be wondering if the rebellion is really worth the pain.
As a side note: I would like to add that I find it really cute how this goth 13 year old comes to our apartment to play board games and watch the Disney Channel. Its too cute, really.
2 comments:
I'm sweating just listening to Bea's outfit! We don't keep our thermostat very low during waking hours, but I have to admit that I turn it down to sleep. I'm approaching hot flash age & I already get VERY hot in the night. And I'm usually sweating in the morning after a tepid shower. Sigh. I think I should just give up entirely on makeup. That would be more environmental too!
I used to just toss my lean cuisine trays at work, but now I keep a bag under my desk to put all my recyclable material in. I REALLY want to get to where I don't HAVE any recyclable material from my meals at work. That might involve cooking. Hmmm.
I am lucky in that I live in a small, old apartment that has windows that open and ceiling fans in every room. I'm sure its the circulation makes the heat barable.
And food packaging is probably my biggest enviromental sin. I like cooking from scratch and do cook a lot. Its just hard to find the cooking motivated at the end of the day.
Still, it bothers me when people talk about our dependance on oil, like if we stop drilling for oil and just dismantil the mountains everything will be okay.
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