How hot is it?

I don't mean this to be a gloating entry . . I know some folks are suffering with cold, snowy weather, but there's nice warm weather, then there's what we had this week.  99 degrees Friday, 108 Saturday, and 99 today.

Let me try to paint a picture of life at 108:

I wore sandals and felt the sun burning into the tops of my toes within a minute. 

The cold water came out of the tap as lukewarm. 

You don't even sweat when you're outdoors because the sweat evaporates immediately.

My solid coconut oil melted entirely in its jar.  That was in my "air conditioned" kitchen.



The weather this weekend in Melbourne reminded of a scene from Good Morning Vietnam:

Our air conditioning system is something called evaporative cooling.  The way it works:  A heavy cloth is soaked with water. Fans blow air through the cloth, cooling the air as it evaporates the water.  The cooled air is then blown through the house.  But you need to  keep windows open a crack so the hot air can leave as the cool air is blown in.  Ingenious.  Except it doesn't really work well on temps above 34 C, which it is (we're at 42 C yesterday), or if you're in a humid area, which we are.  We are miserable.  Joel researched how much it would be to take the family to Tasmania for the weekend just to get away from the heat.  He has a hotel in mind if our "cooling system" goes kerblooey.

A/C systems are usually evaporative or split-systems in Australia.  Split systems are units attached to a wall and they work well, but you need one for every room.  They used them a lot in the Caribbean too.  The typical A/C found in the U.S., called refrigerated air, is much more expensive thus much less common.  

Making meals is a challenge. Obviously I'm not turning on the oven.  I'll turn on the stove for very small periods, so we can make eggs, but pancakes,soups, stir fries, rice, pasta - all out of the question.  We had a lot of leftovers, so we're eating those, microwaving anything that needs longer cooking time, and lots of cereal for dinner.

Some might think a barbecue would be a good idea - keep the cooking heat outside.  But in this heat, and especially with wind, there's an elevated chance of bush fire.  We have a total fire ban in effect, even in the city where there is arguably no bush.  There have been multiple fires popping up all over Victoria, and lots of warnings given out to pay attention and make plans if the fires grow or change direction.

 Okay, trying to be positive - some great things about 108 degree weather.

1.  Great diet weather!  No one feels like eating, no one feels like cooking, just drinking lots of liquids.

2.  If you hang your laundry out, it dries in 10 minutes.  Seriously.

3.  The aforementioned solar cooking.  Save the earth! Obey the fire ban!  Cook on the pavement!  Some mums at a birthday party Isaac was at yesterday said that someone cooked a roast in their car in this weather.  It was to demonstrate the danger of leaving kids and pets in the car, but still - not a terrible idea.  And your car would smell so yummy.

Aaannnd I'm out of great things about the weather.  It's supposed to get cooler on Monday.  I might be able to unstick my sweaty self from the bed sheets by then.  Cheers.