By JB Lester
I prefer summer over winter. Warm weather over cold weather. But this is ridiculous. Looks like global warming has caught up with us in a big way. It only got down to 80 degrees last night. Today is supposed to be 95 with it feeling like 110 degrees with the humidity figured in. It’s an El Nino year and that means some drastic weather swings. In the Midwest, we can expect a warmer fall and winter than normal. Maybe more snowfall. There will be more hurricanes in the Pacific that are stronger and more destructive. I had to laugh when the weather man said a cold front was coming in tomorrow dropping the temperature to 90 instead of 96. That’s not a cold front; it’s a warm breath from Iowa. Climate change skeptics say that climate shifts have been common throughout history. Maybe true, but when you add in man-made global warming from the burning of fossil fuels, history becomes historic. Heavy rains become floods, thunderstorms become tornadoes, tropical depressions become hurricanes, droughts become wildfires. Yes, there have been weather disasters in the past. But global warming has brought about more events with more severity. And there doesn’t seem to be any change in sight.
As I sit here typing on my laptop while the temperatures rise outside, I wonder what we would do without air conditioning. Some people don’t have it. The homeless have to deal with this heat in ways the rest of us just can’t comprehend. Our family of feral cats find comfort in the shade under the porch. We keep water out for them and put ice cubes in the bowl daily. My doctor has told me not to cut the grass or play golf in this heat. I try to follow his advice. The heat does make me dizzy at times. I don’t even try to tend to my tomato plants anymore. It has been a bad year for fruit. Not enough blooms for the pollinators. I keep trying to grow some big tomatoes and end up with small ones. So much for the Big Boy variety.
The heat hasn’t kept the Goldfinches away. They are making their way through the neighborhood munching on coneflowers that are turning in the late summer. The houseflies are particularly bad this time of year and we had to buy a fly swatter for the first time in years. The opossums love the dry cat food and water we put out for the ferals.
The important thing for heat is to stay hydrated. I am working on it. I should drink about three liters of water a day. That’s not easy. Drinking water when you aren’t thirsty is tough. And they say that seniors like me lose their sense of thirst in our old age. But I will soldier on and drink as much water as I can. I will stay indoors and not cut the grass or play golf when the thermometer hits 90. I hope you follow this advice as well and eventually autumn will come and put this heat behind us. For now, the heat is on and if you can’t stand it, stay out of the kitchen. What the heck does that mean anyway? I think the heat is making me balmy.