Keeping It Cool

The past three months have been challenging.  I am not someone who enjoys heat too much.  Lately, in Tennessee, we have had nothing BUT heat.  Not the itty-bitty kind either.  The serious, triple digit, melt your ice-cream and your make-up stuff.  Naturally, the best recourse is to stay in air conditioning as much as possible.  For the most part, I tend to hide inside when it's this crazy hot, but every once in a while, I am forced out of my wonderfully controlled environment into the harsh reality of the outside world.  Like when my youngest goes for swimming lessons.  She gets to get into the pool and keep cool, while I, with all the other chauffeur  parents, get to sit outside in the heat.  No cool place for us to take shelter in.  Just unrelenting, energy draining heat.  By the time her lesson is done, we are both sopping wet, although I suspect that my youngest's reason for being wet are far more fun than mine.

Today is yet another ridiculously hot day.  I know it's ridiculously hot because I could actually feel my skin burning en route from the car (in the parking lot) to the store.  Seriously!   Now I have to consider putting on sunblock before stepping out the house at all?!  And, somehow I suspect that SPF50 just "ain't goin'" to do it.  What I felt out there this morning (9am by the way), a SPF100 wouldn't be able to keep you from burning!  It brings to mind a saying we have in Afrikaans, "Daar's net 'n sifdraad tussen Nelspruit* en die Hel".  Loose translation:  There's just a sieve (strainer) between Tennessee and Hell.  There's rumors of rain and possible cooler temperatures heading our way, but they're just rumors.  I've been burnt (pardon the pun) by such whispers before.  In the meantime, I'll continue to try keep it cool.  Drinking lots of water (with ice) and staying in the AC as much as possible, all the while hoping and praying that it will soon cool down!  I have a jungle exploding in my flower beds, for Pete's sake.  Who knows what I will have to deal with by the time things get to being bearable again.  Oh well, guess I'll have another ice-cream while I wait.



*Nelspruit is a city in Mphumalanga province, South Africa.  It is known for it's tropical-like weather and tropical-like heat