I Think We Are Melting

I read a book yesterday titled "The Age of Miracles".  Once I finished reading it I felt the title was peculiar because there was certainly no miracle for the characters in the book.  The premise of the book was that the rotation of the earth gradually slowed down and how this "slowing" effected the people in a particular Californian neighborhood.  Needless to say, it was bad.  But one of the effects was that because the rotation slowed so significantly by the end of the book,days were 72 hours long and nights were 72 hours long.  Because the sun stayed "up" longer, the climate changed so that the temperatures became increasingly high and eventually, no one could go outside during the daylight hours because of the heat and exposure to radiation and the killer sun.  Needless to say there was no "fix" to the problem and eventually life on Earth ceased to exist.

I told Daniel last night after I finished the book that I felt somewhat how those people must have felt during those 72 hour days.  This summer my allergies, especially my asthma, has been so bad I hardly go outside and this past week, with temps way over 100 (like 107, 106, 105, etc.), it's just too darn hot to even open the front or back door just to peek out.   In order to cut down on our energy use and keep the house as cool as I need it, I keep the living room closed off until around 6PM and I have as few lights on as possible.  Because of the way this old house is built, there really aren't a lot of windows, so the dining room area is pretty dark and the bedrooms are very dark as well.  Therefore, I feel like I'm living in a cave unless I'm here in the office looking out my window at 12th Street.

Yesterday, Daniel had to be at work at 5AM.  He got home around 3PM and he went to lie down in the spare bedroom, so the puppies and I decided to nap in the master bedroom.  By the time we all got back up it was 5:30PM.  I worked in my office some more, and we finally opened the living room up around 7PM to watch TV.  Since the living room faces east and we have a large, covered front porch, the living room is fairly dim without lights by 3PM anyway.  So by 7PM we had to turn on some lights in the living room even though there was still light outside.  

By the time I went to bed around midnight, I felt as though yesterday had been 72 hours long and I'd been in a cave all day.  I was tired, depressed, grumpy, etc.

I know it's summer in Texas, but I wish these super hot days would just go away.  I need to be able to go outside for just a little bit without melting or feeling like my skin is going to spontaneously catch fire!

Maybe I should forgo weird Science Fiction books for a while too!