Keeping My Cool

"What is cool changes;

that there is such a thing as cool is immutable."

-- Lionel Shriver, We Need To Talk About Kevin

Melting purple popsicle 9-5-14

"Get cool, boy!

Got a rocket in your pocket,

Keep coolly cool, boy!"

-- "Cool," West Side Story

As much as I love hot, humid weather and wide open windows, I have to admit that there are days when I feel pretty damned lucky to live in a house with air conditioning.

I grew up in one without it.

It was brutal.

My parents finally got  a little window unit -- in their bedroom. My little sisters would sneak in during the night and sleep on the floor. 

Not me. Never once.

I sucked it up and sweated it out in muggy, over-heated misery. 

Growing up in a sweat-box taught me that even when it seemed like I didn't have a choice, I really did. Several, actually. I could totally flip my shit, or I could:

1. Eat a popsicle.
2. Drink iced tea.
3. Take a cool bath.
4. Turn on a fan.
5. Spray myself with the hose.
6. Take something off.

The list still works.

Yeah, sometimes the "something" is a whole lot more complicated than hot weather, but usually the solutions are still pretty simple.

When life turns up the heat, I can't change the weather -- climatically or emotionally speaking.

But I can get through it it without it wrecking my day, or my week, or my sleep, or my waistline, or my whatever.

It's that old thing about perspective, I guess.

I can bitch and complain, which only makes it worse and intensifies the misery.

Or I can choose to do something else. Something cooler.

And for pretty much all situations, the old solutions still work:

1. Eat a popsicle.
2. Drink iced tea.
3. Take a cool bath.
4. Turn on a fan.
5. Spray myself with the hose.
6. Take something off.

Oh, I almost forgot.

My parents had central air installed the minute we all moved out of the house.

Not cool, guys. Not cool.

Heated Seats

"Heat, like gravity, penetrates every substance of the universe..."

-- Joseph Fourier, The Analytical Theory of Heat

Orange popsicle, hot cocoa, marshmallows 6-9-14

"We laughed a lot and I grew warmer still,

lovely and warm."

-- Franny Billingsley, Chime

Yesterday was cold and windy, rainy and gray. 

Not what you'd expect almost mid-June.

I was chilled all morning. It was the kind of chill that settled deep in my bones and refused to budge.

Then Sam and I got in my car to drive somewhere for lunch.

My car has heated seats.

We cranked those babies up to high and let 'em toast our backsides all the way there and all the way back.

Heated seats are like a warm, cozy hug from behind, the way they wrap around you and melt away the chill. 

They make a drive feel more like a snuggle.

When I'm really, really cold, they feel really, really good.