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Let's snivel about the heat.

My wife's yoga instructor has visitors from Iceland, the boys from Iceland said Minnesota is very warm. I looked up Iceland average temps Dec,Jan, Feb 39 degrees (F) during the day, July average is 58 degrees(F). The ocean is a great thermal regulator.
 
For those of us that grew up in the humid hot climates, how did we ever survive the 50's-60's without bicycle helmets, seat belts, warning labels and A/C? Southeast Texas is no picnic when it comes to summertime. Our weather patterns were the same then as they are now. Businesses, schools and Churches didn't have A/C either. You were lucky if you lived in a house with 10 ft ceilings and an attic fan. Swamp coolers don't work in the high humidity.
I had this discussion with a couple of my schoolmates the other day. As best as I can recall, I was 24 before I got to live in air conditioned comfort. Weatherwise, SE Asia was no different than SE Texas.
The last week, has been off and on for A/C. My unit died and we were without for a couple of days. When the new unit started up, the thermostat read 99 degrees. Took about 6 hours for the new A/C to get all the heat out of the house. Even the recliner and gun safe was at 99 degrees.
 
My Dad was career Air Force and we lived mostly on base. At Sheppard AFB out of Wichita Falls, Tex we had one swamp cooler in the Wherry housing. Dad closed off all the house except his bedroom. We slept outside. We moved to the new Capehart housing and the wonders of central air. No A/C in school. I guess we just got used to what we had to deal with and moved on.
 
KMart said:
For those of us that grew up in the humid hot climates, how did we ever survive the 50's-60's without bicycle helmets, seat belts, warning labels and A/C? Southeast Texas is no picnic when it comes to summertime. Our weather patterns were the same then as they are now. Businesses, schools and Churches didn't have A/C either. You were lucky if you lived in a house with 10 ft ceilings and an attic fan. Swamp coolers don't work in the high humidity.
I had this discussion with a couple of my schoolmates the other day. As best as I can recall, I was 24 before I got to live in air conditioned comfort. Weatherwise, SE Asia was no different than SE Texas.
The last week, has been off and on for A/C. My unit died and we were without for a couple of days. When the new unit started up, the thermostat read 99 degrees. Took about 6 hours for the new A/C to get all the heat out of the house. Even the recliner and gun safe was at 99 degrees.
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Surviving in the heat with no AC is like fasting - it's tough the first day, but by day 3 it's normal. In the "old days" in the south houses had high ceilings and some had french doors in the bed room with a sleeping porch. The beds were on casters and could be rolled out on the screened porch when desired. In the old days people didn't live in/near the swamps in the summer. They built summer houses on high hills inland from the coast.

One of my grand parents had a 36" whole house fan in the hall way - you opened the windows (they weren't painted shut), turned on the fan and that thing sucked air in through the windows like nobodies business. Cars had vent windows to blow air through the car, but in my experience a high heat high humidity day makes car travel unbearable no matter what.

It's all mental. I live where I work most days and come home on the weekend. At work the AC stays on 73. At home it's on 80 and I'm comfortable at both places. I do have a dehumidifier at home that (to me) dramatically changes what I am comfortable with temp wise.

And finally, you get used to that nasty, oily, sweaty, stinky feeling like people who are nose blind to sulfur in well water.

I have a friend that just sold his HVAC business and retired. If a customer had a unit that went out, he had someone installing window units for them to use until he could get the new unit in.
 
We are doing a big Bearing Conversion on a 110 ft long Push Boat, it involves boring the Struts and Stern Tubes for Rivertough Bearings. it’s about 100 degrees right now, but at least we are in the shade under the boat.

It’s summer time in Houston. Life goes onIMG_2115.jpeg
 
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It was abot15 years ago I was working on a nearby bridge project, just because it was a job close to home. It was Mid August and the temperature was in the mid-nineties. I was on a skiff, tied to one of the piers, with the shade from the bridge about fifty feet from where I stood. I was cutting rebar and passing it up to the steel guys on the piers, and I was cooking pretty good. The Workers Comp inspector came by and gave me a hard time about not wearing a life jacket. I pointed out, if I wore two inches of foam insulation on my torso, I would likely be dead inside of an hour. If I fell of the skiff, the worst that would happen was that I would drown, and I honestly couldn't say that would be a bad thing!. He decided, since I was tied to the pier, I could skip the life jacket.
By the way, a beautiful day today. It's clear, in the mid seventies, with a breeze out of the SE. I think I'll hop on the motorcycle and take a ride. WH
 
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