When weather makes you weird

Weird might be the wrong word, but I was on an alliterative roll.

Like much of the country, SE Michigan has been unusually hot lately. Our official high was 102* yesterday after a forecast of 99*. Tomorrow's forecast is 101* so I hate to think what we might actually get. Humidity, or the latest weather buzz words "dew points", have the heat index higher. At some point, do the numbers even matter?

I'd like to think I am an uncomplaining sweetheart no matter what the weather is, and with heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, shouldn't that be the case?

Despite living in Michigan my whole life where frozen white crystals fall from the sky in the winter (a.k.a. snow, but I hate to use dirty 4-letter words here), I tolerate the heat better than extreme old. 

As long as air conditioning is available.

If I were to be completely honest, my ideal weather variance is this wide, but I don't really expect that. Unless you know how to make that happen...

It is a puzzle to me that changes in barometric pressure still affect my sinuses despite being in a controlled climate inside the house. Either the headaches have lessened in severity over the years, or I my coping skills have improved. Probably both is true.

My mom has been gone for 29 years now. I never asked her or dad exactly what happened that put her on edge about heat, but it was related to a trip they took to Texas years before I was born. I suspect things unrelated to weather had her on edge and the heat of that trip, long before cars had air conditioning, did her in. Hot weather triggered memories of whatever happened. Just the forecast of expected hot weather affected her. My childhood home was small and as was the norm then, did not have air conditioning. We had a window unit, but they were hard to control. Some of the house remained uncomfortably warm, but if you sat too close, it was cold. She hated using it and hated having the house closed up. Window fans were a constant in my childhood summers.

My early years in this house didn't have central air but extremely hot weather was usually limited to a few days per summer, rarely consecutive. One stretch of back to back hot days had us sleeping on the living room floor which was a bit cooler. I told myself that I could cope one more day but would check into a Red Roof Inn if this continued. Red Roof Inns were $29 per evening back then. It would not have been a practical expense, but the thought of escaping there if the heat didn't break was enough to carry me through until the temperatures dropped.

I think we've had central air for 20 years now. It has been a blessing this past week but the part of my mom that didn't like the house being closed up is showing up in me. It isn't just the windows and doors being closed, but a few shades that I've kept drawn to minimize the heat from the sun. That bothers me more than the closed window. I love sunlight.

I am fortunate that things that I must do and places I must go all will be done in air cooler than what Mother Nature is providing. I will take this any day over the other extreme. There is nothing to shovel, to slip on, and no worry about the other drivers plowing into me because they aren't taking road conditions into consideration.

Perhaps next week we'll be able to turn off the air and open the windows again. Ideal weather for me is warm enough for the open windows and cool enough for my husband that he doesn't need a fan. I don't have angst over a window or tower fan as my mom did with the window air conditioner, but if I never heard a fan again, I would be happy. That is my neurosis, what's yours?