Seriously, what do you southern folk do??
 

A relative who lives way down south told me, "Well, you stay in when it's hot." Hello? I've been looking at the forecasts for family members in near Atlanta, Tampa, and Raleigh...you would have to stay inside from May-September, right? The forecast just says 95, day after day after day.

I've barely been outside this week, and I live in Vermont--it will go away soon. What in the world do you folks do where it's hothothot three or four months (or more) straight? Only go out at night, like bats? Have your groceries brought in? Wear head to toe cooling "vests"?

I'm afraid I would literally be homebound.

We hibernate in the summer. Here, the heat starts in April and ends towards the end of October.

I go out in the early mornings and/or the evenings when it is cooler outside. It is over 100 today and humid. Well, humid for us. LOL It can be brutal. There is minimal shade and people jockey for parking spots in the shade - which can sometimes be a skinny little tree. :eek::p A car sitting out in the sun can easily reach 125 degrees or more in a matter of minutes so we take that minimal shade.;) I shower a few times a day just to keep cool.

I guess we're just used to it. I mean, it's really, really uncomfortably hot and humid but that's just summer in the south.

I've been inside for days on end when the humidity is high and the temps are 95+. It doesn't really bother me. I'm used to it. Even if I could get out and go I don't have the extra money to do so.......so I guess it all works out in the end.

I read, play computer games, visit NT, take care of the birds and cats, do housework, etc. I guess the nice part of it is that I can do everything at my own pace........s-l-o-w-l-y. ;)

My friends say they go from their AC homes, to the AC car to the AC mall or MD office, and to the AC pharmacy and back to the AC home. God forbid if the AC gives out in any of those places. I said I felt sorry for them, because they so rarely get to fling open a window and breathe in fresh mountain air. No soft breeze fluttering the curtains.

I would just melt into a big ol dejibo puddle. :(

My question always is, how do you do the transit from one A/C to another? 20 feet in the heat is sometimes impossible.

That's just what I was thinking about, Bill. For one thing, I don't "hurry" anywhere, anytime. And 20-30 feet is a long way, especially when you've about reached your saturation point.

I've bundled up and tromped over to the Post Office when it was 30 below zero. Almost no matter how cold it is, I can pile on enough wool and down and polartec to keep warm. There is, however, a limit to how much you can peel OFF in polite company.

Southwestern Ohio is sorta south, but yes we do have the occasional pleasant springlike day to give us a little relief. I simply couldn't live comfortably in the deep south. :eek:

But, Kelly is right, your body does get used to the longer periods of heat and humidity, if you're out in it longer, I guess?

You mean like, if it doesn't kill you it'll cure you?

I was referring to being used to having to stay inside for extended periods of time. :) I have never gotten used to the unbearable heat. In my younger days I could tolerate it better than I can now that I have MS.

Is it just me or does it seem like it's getting hotter with each passing year? I can remember my mother opening all the windows in the middle of the summer and I do not remember the sweltering heat like we have now.

Ah, Kelly...Young'uns don't notice heat..At least it's not the first thing they notice :D.
I grew up in low humidity (Colorado), I've lived in Minnesota (much higher humidity) for 20 yrs and I can attest to the fact one does NOT get used to it. Like I said in another post, I much prefer winter to summer, because I can always put more clothes on. There's only so much I can take off (legally..in public)..:D

It's not that bad. Yeah - ya try to minimize the time you're outside when it hits 100 but ya live with it.

I'm a native Ohio/Michigan boy. We moved to Miami FL after I got dx'ed and lived there 9 years. Then Houston - 12 years now.

I take 3 shirts to work, just in case. And there's been days I wear all three. I manage the power plant for mission control and ya just don't air condition a power plant. And there are days I live in the utility tunnels - no sun but 115 degrees. I really enjoy the days where I'm stuck in the "Houston we have a problem" room because it's nice and chilly.

Yeah - the walk from the power plant or the mission control center to the cafeteria is several hundred feet and I'm soaked.

But when I get home - I put on shorts and nothing else and go outside and do the yardwork and sweat and use a towel to wipe off the sweat and drink beer and get dehydrated big time and, well, basically I'm trying to run this old body of mine into the ground and get as much out of it as I can before I croak. I do have a tan year round - from the sun. No tanning beds.

I'm gonna share something now with y'all that not a whole bunch of people know because I'm reflecting now... I'm also bored and the sun ain't up yet and I gotta chop down a dead pecan tree today...

The neuro in Toledo who told me I had MS back in 1988 also told me heat would be my biggest enemy. When we got the confirmed dx via MRI in 1989 I started looking for another job - anything out of the area so I didn't have to live with the dx. When Florida Power & Light offered me a job down in Miami I told my wife - let's just see how bad the heat is and if it's bad, we can always go back north in a few years.

Well, it's been 21 years. We're still south of the Mason-Dixon line...

Forecast for today - 95/78. A tad cooler because of the rain from that minor tropical disturbance that came in. 78 degrees is saturation so that's as cool as it can get because of the water in the air (100% humidity).

Tom

Like most of us, I grew up with no house A/C, in a car only the "Rich" had it. But now! I need it bad. Lucky to have a pool, pay HUGE electric bills for A/C, have ceiling fans, open windows at night. Wear no pants in house. As a younger me without MS, sweated I guess.

Me trying to be cool.

Did I read someone does ...yardwork?! in the heat?! OMG! :eek: I cant even imagine it. :o

I was raised in the mountains of NC and yep, only the rich had AC, and only the rich had cars. We biked everywhere or jumped the train as it raced thru. (dont tell mom!) and we never knew how badly we had it. To us, it was just another day.

things we do in the South when heat and humidty linger-

we shuffle as fast as we can from one A/Ced environment to another

plan all our trips for the coller tmies of the day (the grocery stores get a lot of after dinner businees)

wear as little dark clothing as possible, topped off with sunglasses, sandals and hats

hankerchiefs are seen regularly mopping a brow or cleavage

invest in Sam's quantities of deoderant and powder (!)

learn to dread getting hte power bill each month

drink sweet tea non-stop

invest in high quality ceiling fans and close all the drapes all day long.

learn to "grade" how bad someone has it by the sweat stains on thier clothes

move slower and get crankier when someone declares they love the
heat/humdity/forecast of higher temps

look forward to winter and Spring

:o

I don't do heat. I hibernate from march until late October.(one year we had the a/c on Christmas day). Pay huge electric bills..lucky for me my hubby LOVES the heat, so he does all the errands and grocery shopping. I only get out for church on Sundays and Wed. nights. The heat is bad enough but add the humidity and it's unbearable for me.

I hvae a remote start on my car so it's cool when I get to it. If I'm in my hubbies car he is great to drop me off and pick me up at the door. I drink a lot of cold water. I hate my cooling vest because it looks like a police bullet proof vest so you know that if I'm wearing it that it really must be HOT!

I tried a new thing at my aquasize class the other day. Unfortunately the water at the Y is warm and the room sometimes even warmer. So I am now frequently dunking myself so my hair is wet!! The first time my head was under water the instructor and life guard looked a little alarmed but they got what I was doing when I took my glasses off and raised them above my head!

We moved to a different house this past March. Well, the landlord neglected to tell us that the a/c unit is too small for the house (I called an attorney; we have no recourse available).

In this South Florida heat the inside temp in the afternoon won't go below 82 degrees. It definitely isn't going well for me :(.

I hobble around with ice packs strapped to me :p. I rarely leave the house.

I've been in FL for nearly 5 years and I definitely haven't gotten used to it.

I grew up here, so I guess I just got used to it early on. I feel the same way y'all do about the cold. I made it through one winter in Michigan and bailed before I had to go through another.

In Texas, if I get too hot, I can go inside, step into an ice cold shower or dive in a swimming pool, and I am cool in seconds or minutes.

In Michigan, when I would spend the day out working in the cold, even dropping into a hot bathtub, it would take hours before I truly felt no longer cold.

Also, for those wondering how you get from AC in the house to the AC in the car to the AC in the office, etc...it is this southern invention called iced tea. Best way to cool your outside is to cool your insides...

:cool: Yes indeed!

I lived in the Houston/Clear Lake area for 8 years.. ya just get use to having wet clothing from May - Oct! It was a shock when I moved to the Mojave desert :eek:. Now that I'm back in the southern US.. you just learn to expect the big electric bills May - Oct.

once you get above Virginia you cant get sweet tea. or at least its a rare find. I hear that McDonalds sells it now,and Long horn steak house has it on the menu, but past that, its as rare as hen's teeth.

I love sweet tea! wooo! :cool:

LOL, how does McD's make Sun Tea???? With a sunlamp? Har Har..:rolleyes:

Somebody mentioned doing errands, etc., during the cool part of the day? Uh. And that would be when? I just looked at my daughter's forecast in Tampa, and it says 75 at NIGHT for as far as the eye could see. Nuh-uh.

I said cool-er, not cool LOL;)