I just got back from a meeting across town and I cannot believe I am hot, so hot I am nearly feint. It’s may 15th and it’s 85 degrees out side! This promised to be a wonderful summer. The weather guy says we are a month a head of schedule. We are basically safe from flooding since it was cool, this early Spring the snows have had ample time to melt. There will not be a makeshift river down main State street like in ’83. A year of fairly heavy snow pack a warmer then normal Spring run off and there was run off and lots of it. Local population loves to rehearse the story about how the local volunteers were called on and everyone filled sand bags and build a channel down State street. Industrious as bees.
Not this year though. It’s hot and it’s early. See I am a quadriplegic; granted I am a lucky quad. I can do everything I need to do by myself—the action may take fore ever but I will usually get it done except getting myself back into my chair from the floor. Anyway one of the other things I cannot do is regulate my body temperature very well in heat spikes. Heat used to not bother me in the beginning of my disability in 1966 but later on as I have aged I have be come much more sensitive to heat spikes. Now a days I have to pay close attention to my hydration and direct sun light exposure. I do not have air conditioning in my van, again, actually I would if I was not so cheap as to not repair the air conditioner. This would cost a fortune for only three months , usually, out of the year. One the other hand the best definition f a van I know is “ a box on wheels”. Where the temperature maybe 85 degrees outside, in side the oven I call my transportation it is way close to a hundred degrees if not more. I am sure you know the rules, never leave pets, children and people with disabilities in a vehicle, on a hot day and I do not care if the windows are open you just cook slower. Today was such a day, not bad going over to the Blind Center where my meeting was but the van/oven was quite toasty for the ride back to my office. I made the trip OK, I was just dizzy and cotton mouth by the time I got to the parking lot. I leave the van open in the summer if I can. This helps a little at least until I close the lift and the side doors close. If I ride with the window open and hang my head nearly out the window, like a Labrador I can usually get my body temp down to a survivable if not safe road experience. In the dead of summer I am beginning to do real old fart things like drive with a cold rag over my head or wrap ice in a towel and drape the towel over my shoulders.
I was talking with a dude who had driven up from St. George to the meeting—actually his mom drove him up. He has MS and heat just wipes MS folks out. You can bury the suckers in ice after they get overheated and it will not do them any good. St. George is in the South portion of the State, it’s always hot there…they have already had 100 degree days. St George is populated by scorpions and old farts both love the heat. Anyone else is wise to leave. I told him my idea of ice on the head in a towel and the last I saw of him he looked like an Iraqi headed South.
No comments:
Post a Comment