Yesterday was hot. I'm not complaining you understand, but for me 99 degrees is hot. I drug out my fans and set them up and had them going 'full steam' by mid afternoon. I also had just about every window in the house wide open...with drapes, closed, keeping the sun out, while allowing fresh air to circulate through the house.
I do this, because I've discovered (through trial and error) that keeping the house tightly closed during hot spells, DOES NOT, keep my house cool. Matter of fact by 5 O'clock my house is every bit as hot as the out of doors, plus, it STINKS. Yes, ladies and gentlemen...it STINKS. The air is so stale, thin and re breathed I dash around the house like a loon-a-tick, throwing open windows and doors as though my life depended on it...because it does. I'd sell my soul for a good, lungs filling, deep breath of outside air.
I have a window air conditioner, but I don't use it much. Only when I know we are going to have several days of near hundred degree temperatures and my furry friends and I hibernate in the only cool room of the house. Yes, we eat, hang out, watch TV and sleep in that air conditioned room. It's nice...but makes me appreciate that I'm not a bear...living in a 'den' for months on end would drive me insane...well more insane than I already am.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not an idiot. I know better than to leave my house 'wide open' during heat spells and every night I have a ritual, I methodically walk through the house and, as my mother would say "close up". Windows and doors are checked, re-checked then re-checked again. However, I love having fresh air coming in my room while I sleep, even during the winter. I'm very careful. I follow police directions and make sure the opening is too small for someone to crawl through, and I keep a 'stick' in the window's track, so it cannot be pushed open, nor can the stick be pulled out should someone try to reach in and remove it. I've always felt pretty safe and secure. But, that pretty much 'went out the window' yesterday when I saw on the news some woman had left her window slightly ajar, and three men removed the screen and entered her home. Her dogs alerted her, and she was able to call 911 and all ended well.
Here's the thing. I don't know whether she had her window blocked or not, the report didn't say, but the report did say we should CLOSE our windows every night. That's right, apparently the police now say we need to CLOSE our windows at night. Oh, my goodness, I'm hyperventilating just contemplating that. CLOSE my window. Gasp. I'm not sure I can do that. Gasp, gasp. The thought of breathing the same air all night long is like contemplating somebody throwing a pillow over my head and expecting me to continue to breathe all night long. We all know I'd be gone in minutes. So, I've been thinking about what to do ever since I got up this morning.
I've really got no good solution, but maybe one, that might work. I've got a little fan that I can attach to the edge of my night stand, I just might have to use it year round instead of when the temperatures hover in the nineties. That way I can close the window, but still have air 'circulating', hopefully giving me the allusion fresh air is washing over me. Is this a bummer situation or what?
I guess it's a sign of our times. As a kid we didn't worry about locking the house at night, windows were always wide open, we stayed out till dark and never worried about a Boogie Man. Today, our doors have double and triple locks, windows have blocks, and we hustle around to be indoors at dusk because Boogie Men lurk around every corner.
Breathe deeply, friends, breathed deeply, because as Mrs. 'Lovey' Thurston Howell the Third would say. "We're doomed I tell you, doomed."
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