Omigosh. We are dying of heat over here. I swear it's about 90 degrees F in the house. Yes, that's in the house.

Trying to sleep last night was an exercise in mind over matter. Normally it's possible to cool the house down at night by throwing open all the windows and running a bunch of strategically placed fans. Not so last night. I had all the windows open and the fans going, and still it was hot. Finally, around 4:30 a.m. I had to close some windows because the freeway noise was wafting in, and the room got hotter still.

The windows in the living room face east, so of course the sun was burning the place up first thing in the morning. Yes, I'm still sleeping in R.'s living room while I get my stuff unpacked at the new place. Just finished a freelance assignment, which was my first priority. Now I can focus on unpacking. But I digress...

R.'s place has no air conditioning, and the windows are mainly on one side of the house only. This means it is damn near impossible to get a cross breeze. He's told his landlady several times about the extreme heat in the house, and although she's a nice person, she doesn't seem to get it.

"I don't know why the previous tenants didn't say something. Maybe it was because they weren't there all day. Hmm. Maybe if you run the ceiling fans..."

Sure, that'll move the hot air around...

She thinks if we run the fans enough the place will cool off, but it doesn't work that way. All it does is keep it hot and windy in the house. Ah, a double pleasure.

I'd been mainly comforting myself with the thought that my new place would be inhabitable soon, and that place has air conditioning. R., however had had enough of the heat in his house, and decided to take matters into his own hands.

We packed up the kiddo and set out for Home Depot. Normally I love Home Depot. All the gadgets and gizmos and appliances and whatnot — what's not to love? But it was hotter still inside the warehouse-like store, and our toddler was getting pretty cranky. R. selected a couple of window units he thought would work, and we headed off for food, then for home so R. could install the things.

Ah...I gotta hand it to him. He got the air conditioners installed and it feels like they're working already. Boy, this is going to make a huge difference in everyone's mood around here! ;^)

So I think I'm going to go and lie on the living room floor for a while. Maybe I'll check back in when we've all cooled off a bit. In the meantime, have a lovely day and try to stay cool if you can...

- Beth