A "Sticky" Topic

[htc1992eaglescout47553 10]

I keep on hearing "It's hot out here" (and I am guilty of saying that too). I just wonder if the weather is really hot OR if we have gotten used to air conditioners. What do you think?

[lasteagle83 10]

A bit of both, I'd say.

 

I remember summer camp 1980, Bert Adams Reservation, when the COOLEST day that week was 103 degrees; it was the hottest summer of the century. Got home to the air conditioning and almost froze to death for a couple of days!!

[wffarrell 10]

Raised in Arizona; live in Houston. Love the dry heat and the wet heat. Yes, I think that living in air conditioning sort of ruins you for the outside. I try to run every day outside at lunchtime. Just for an hour or so. I find that I can go to soccer games, camp and do outdoor things without the heat bothering me. Many of my friends wilt in the heat because they're not used to it. Also, I've learned to stay hydrated, seek the shelter of live oak trees, and to be truthful, I'm not a big fan of the beach because of lack of shade.

 

A big part of it is attitude. I live in a hot place so I've come to expect it to be, well, hot.

 

In Arizona it was so hot that it would rain but the rain would evaporate before it hit the ground. We only knew it was raining because the birds were wet. We occasionally had six-inch rains; rain drops six inches apart.

 

It's so hot there that the animals have to develop special strategies to cope. The stick lizard, for example, carries a stick in its mouth as it runs along the desert. When its feet get too hot, the critter jams the stick in the ground and climbs up it to cool off.

 

In Houston we have the fan fly. It's attracted to peppermint. If you want to cool off you pop a mint in your mouth and exhale a lot. The fan flies will be attracted and hover a few inches from your face fanning you. Great way to cool off at a soccer match.

[Fat Old Guy 11]

I think that we have gotten too used to A/C but the world is much different place than it was 50 years ago. There's more pavement and fewer trees. I cringe every time that I see acres of woods being cleared to build houses. After the houses are up, they stick saplings in the yard to become shade trees in 30 years. That leads to the next subject, shade.

 

Before there was so much pavement, there were more trees giving shade. I believe that trees also have a cooling effect on the air so a stand of trees will gives you a nice zone of cool.

 

Homes were better designed for cooling without A/C. Remember big porches with big awnings? Back before A/C houses were built with windows on the front, back and sides. If you opened a front and a side window you were almost guaranteed a breeze through that room. New houses have very few side windows and those are usually tiny. No breezes.

 

Some years ago, I learned to live without A/C in my car. My A/C died and I didn't want to shell out $2,000 to get it fixed so I went without for three summers. The only time that it became a problem was if it rained because I'd have to close the windows and modern cars aren't well designed for fresh air ventilation.

 

I don't think that its gotten hotter, we've just changed the way that we live.

 

 

[NWScouter 9]

Now I come from a place where we have natural air conditioning. Of course we start to complain about the heat when it reaches 75. Shorts are worn by some all year around. My son worked all year round mapping surface water features for the county in shorts.

If we get a week of snow on the ground we come to a stop. Very rarely do we reach the teens.

Our natural air conditioning is to head to beaches on Puget Sound in the evening and watch the sunset.

The camp I went to as Scout and as a scoutmaster took the troop every other year is Parsons on Hood Canal. In the swim area the water rarely gets over 60, and that only in August. It has a pier that goes out 600 ft. The best evening i had there as a scoutmaster was when the temp got up to 90 and we had pier jump. Dropping 25 feet into the cold water cooled one down real fast. By the way Camp Parsons has been an active scout camp since 1917, I was there for the fifth in 67th and hope to be there for one hundredth.

 

When we hike in high Cascades, nothing feels better to stick those old tired dogs in a stream or lake fed my the snow fields. After a few minutes you feel nothing. I been up there were the sweat is pouring off during the day and frost on the rainfly in the morning.

[CubsRgr8 10]

Come up to Wisconsin and cool down fast! It's averaging 15 degrees cooler this summer than last - highs in the 70s more often than not. Tomorrow I leave for scout camp near the Michigan border and believe you me, I'm bringing a couple of sweatshirts and maybe even some long underwear !

[acco40 95]

I've lived in Michigan (cold & windy), St. Louis (hot & humid), Southern Arizona (hot & dry), Kansas (hot, cold, ragweed, flat, Jayhawks) and many other areas. People use to adjust their activities due to the weather. Why do you think genteel southerners of old appeared to be slow (in action, not thought) and relaxed? It was due to the heat and humidity. Now with man-made climate control (heaters and air conditioners) and the homogenation of society, we don't really change our work habits from season to season or from location to location.

 

It is true one can partially adapt to their surroundings. Moving from the Arizona desert to the snow belt in western Michigan (lots of lake effect snow) was a shocker to a boy of six. Moving from southeastern Michigan to the heat and humidity of St. Louis was difficult. As a previous poster pointed out, the city "concrete jungle" doesn't help by contributing to heat retention. I remember in Baltimore, before A/C became prevalent, some of the neighbors would hose down their brick houses in the late evening to cool them down. The bricks acted just like the tiles in a sun room by storing the heat of the sunlight beating down on them all day. Problem is, nobody wants that heat in July & August (northern hemisphere).

 

I type this as I sit in my home, windows open, and a gentle breeze blowing after a nice freshening rain a few hours ago, sun now, and a beautiful non-humid 72F! Ain't life grand!(This message has been edited by acco40)

[OldGreyEagle 5]

ho boy, can I relate...

 

A massive thunderstorm blew through the neighborhood on June 21. A lightening strike on a nearby telephone pole wiped out power for a few days and fried the control panel of our A/C unit. Wasnt fixed until July 9th. Apparently the A/C unit is as Old and Grey as this Eagle is and the part was hard to find. Well, in those weeks it got really hot and humid around here and the family had to adopt. I will tell you I dont know how life was done without A/C, actually I do know, it was done slower thats for sure. Towards the end, I could tell the difference between 90 and 98 degree weather. Humans do adopt.

 

I grew up around Chicago, when I was living in St Louis it would be 15 degrees out and people would say it was "bone chilling" heck, I would say, Bone chilling has to be 5 below at least. Had an old friend who said the coldest he ever was was in Los Angelos. He had spent 6 months in Vietnam and was flown back state side in a single day. On monday he was in rice paddies and at 9 pm tuesday night he was on the runway at LAX. Seems the temperature got all the way down to 60 degrees that night, he says he almost froze.

[hops_scout 9]

St Louis summers are horrible. I was in Little Torch Key, Florida last week.. it was hotter and more humid in St Louis than it was in the Keys!! I carry my Camelbak with me and at camp two weeks ago, I drank 2 gallons of water, it was so hot.

[acco40 95]

OGE, is was so hot you had to adopt? Do you have trouble with "Mr. Johnson" when the temperature increases? With some good counseling, maybe you could adApt to the situation!

 

(Sorry, I could not resist.)

 

Where abouts in St. Louis did you reside? I was a north county resident (Hazlewood/Florissant). Every once in a while, we meet our St. Louis friends (I'm up in Michigan) in Chicago and attend a couple of Cubs-Cards games. Sure beats the way the Tigers have been playing for the past 10 years.(This message has been edited by acco40)(This message has been edited by acco40)

[OldGreyEagle 5]

Lived in Alton from 85 to 94, thorugh the big flood

[hops_scout 9]

I kind of remember that. In the newspaper, lately there has been stories from 93. I live basicly up the bluff from Valmeyer.

[matuawarrior 10]

You guys make me glad I live on an island.

 

I've experienced both extremes during my time in the military. Cold weather training at Ft. Drum, NY, and up at Alberta, Canada, and then Extreme Hot weather during the Persian Gulf War(Desert Storm).

 

Here, if I get too hot. I just go to the beach. I have to admit though that when the wind is not blowing. It does get really Hot.

 

Just thinking of the heat, I'm gonna hit the waves.

 

Having Fun . . .

 

Matua(This message has been edited by matuawarrior)

[acco40 95]

Driving across the old Alton bridge was the coup de grace for drivers education. All of the antique shops in Alton were neat and a nice little drive to Concordia College and seeing the Illinois, Missippi, and Missouri rivers meet from atop the bluffs was a sight. I moved away right before the flood (Winter of '92) but remember the markings on an old grain elevator that had dates and highwater marks from days gone by. Many people will "flame"me for this but it seems to me the further one gets from the east coast, the nicer people become.

[Fat Old Guy 11]

"Many people will "flame"me for this but it seems to me the further one gets from the east coast, the nicer people become."

 

I think that it is the further that you get from large cities. Go to a small town in Pennsylvania or North Carolina and you find nice people.