Hot weather coping advice

Dear Knitty,

What can I do to cope with the heat this summer?

signed,
Sweltering in the suburbs

Dear Sweltering,

Take out a loan for next month's utility bill, then turn down the air conditioning a few more degrees. Pull the shades or draw the drapes on any window where the sun enters. This isn't just for energy efficiency, it is so you can prance around in your skivvies. Wait...skip the prancing...that is too strenuous and could cause you to break out in a sweat.***

Consider having cold cereal for dinner, preferably in disposable bowls and eaten from plastic spoons. If you have a demanding family who thinks dinner should be a balanced meal, suggest they eat their Fruit Loops while standing on one leg. The alternative is take out a bigger loan and go out to eat. Often.

If you're suffering from boredom and feel you must get outside, consider going door to door to talk to your neighbors about politics. This will work especially well if you know their political inclination and present yourself as working for the opposing party. How will this help? They will get so steamed at you interrupting their air conditioned comfort, you will feel cool in comparison. Either that or the slamming of their door in your face will create a breeze. Ahhhh....didn't that feel good?

And one last piece of advice, put down your copy of Fifty Shades of Gray and take a cold shower before going to bed. Alone.


Be cool,
Knitty

*** Just another thought...does your old, wealthy, nosy neighbor mention you in his will? Go ahead and prance. It might be too much for his libido and your inheritance could pay your electric bill and dinners out!

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?

Happy 4th of July!

The heat wave continues. We are lucky that yesterday's storms didn't affect us, and none of SE Michigan was hit anywhere near as badly as a good portion of the states SE of us.

I hope all my blog buddies are safe from storms and extreme heat, even if it means staying indoors most of today.

The truth about Middle Age according to Mother Goose

Thank you to my friend Joyce for her email which provided today's words of wisdom.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT GROWING OLD: Well, CRAP! Now I forgot what I was gonna tell ya!

July 1st: Happy Canada Day! and Rabbit! Rabbit!

Happy Canada Day to my northern friends and neighbors!


It has been a wonderfully busy weekend in Knitty-ville. I think we had around 50 people here Friday night to watch my city's fireworks from our driveway. Being that we were outside and some friends are also friends of neighbors and therefore wandered in and out, I have no idea what number of people were actually here.

Yesterday I frosted a cake for my great-niece's birthday party and also a dozen cupcakes. Her request for a cake that tasted like cookie dough. I wrote about that here. I made a yellow cake and frosted it with the frosting portion of this recipe.  I used a candy mold to form letters to spell out Happy Birthday Allison to decorate the top of the cake along with a few mini chocolate chips.



The chocolate cupcakes were frosted with a recipe that the Pioneer Woman claims is the best she's ever tasted. The frosting isn't overly sweet and is much like what Kroger uses in their bakeries. That recipe is here. My husband was very pleased with that frosting. Next I will have to experiment with adding cocoa to it, and will see if it holds up to simple decorating tips, such as shell and rosette borders.

Before the luau themed birthday party, we had a neighbor's wedding to attend. Since I haven't asked permission to share their photos, I've lopped the heads of the bride and her daughters. Trust me, they were all gorgeous. I'm including this picture because I wanted to talk about the bride's dress.

Taken by cell phone without a flash as they were moving doesn't do the fabric justice, but it was stunning and perfect for this woman's second wedding. Here is another view taken at her backyard reception. It was hot yesterday, 95 degrees or more, so the groom had ditched his tux before dancing.

My neighbor doesn't like to shop. One of her sisters found this dress for her at Penney's online. It looks much better on my neighbor than in this photo at Penney's. She looked beautiful, and at a bargain price!

I've had such a nice chatting with people I don't see every day, and one little guy that I am blessed to see often. It wouldn't be a photo heavy post from me if I didn't include one shot of the grandson. Here he is concentrating, hence the position of his tongue.

Here he is laughing at the fact that his little cousin, who couldn't see over the top of the pool from where he stood on the grass, managed to shoot water from the hose directly into daddy's face.

Ahhhhh....summer!

Rabbit! Rabbit! for good luck this month to everyone! I hope you're enjoying family and friends as much as I am.

Never too old to learn or too young to teach

I think children are now born knowing how to maneuver the screens of iPhones , iPads and similar devices.

I have folders for my grandson's apps on both devices and moving the order of the folders doesn't phase him at all. He is two, but knows (and has known for quite a while) which folder is his. The only other app he goes to is the one for YouTube. Once there he selects "favorites" and scrolls through saved Kipper the Dog and Caillou clips.

He never seems confused or bothered that his parents have different apps or bookmarked clips. Just as kids know they can get another bedtime story out from Mommy or a cookie from Grandma, they know this phone offers these things while that one offers something else.

And then there is my husband. He appreciates all that the current electronics can do, but he'd be just as happy with a rotary dial, wall mounted phone and a pad of paper and a Bic pen. Given that one almost has to be plugged in and logged on these days, he has learned the basics but often asks me to find something or complete a task to save time.

Colton will change all that. But only if Grandpa can keep up with those flying little fingers.

Are you taking pictures AGAIN, Grandma?

You bet I am. As long as you and Grandpa are making memories, I'll be recording them. 

The doggie bag is for the dog

The doggie bag of leftovers from the restaurant is for the dog. Don't kid yourself that it will be tomorrow's lunch for you, especially if you have a smart dog.