Thursday, September 18, 2014

I got mine

Well, well, well, who says the universe does not provide?

It has for me this week, dear friends, in spades.

I was all bent out of shape about the San Diego Unified School District's decision to grant half days to many of their schools for our "extreme heat."  All schools without 100% air conditioning would be dismissing the kiddos half day. Neither school that my kids attend have 100% air conditioning, so my kids were off school by 12:45 on both Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday are regular half days at one school or the other (omg, please do NOT get me started on why we even have these every week in the first place!!!), so, four out of five days this week I've got kids out half day.

Oh, but they're just kids!  How can we expect them to sit in a classroom with fans on when it's 89 degrees outside? It's almost child abuse!

I know. I'm a bitch. But it's not as though they are sitting outside in the scorching sun, it's not as though the windows don't open, it's not as if they don't have water bottles on their desks, and it's not as though they have air conditioning AT HOME! So yes, please, let me pick up my kids from their non-air conditioned school and take them to their non-air conditioned home. Of course, we could head to a "cool zone" as one school email offered up, and then linked to a list of San Diego libraries, only about 33% of which even have air conditioning. In fact, the Ocean Beach library didn't even open on Monday because of the heat (yes, that's right, it's literally 4 blocks from the ocean).

I'm sorry, isn't this a wee bit totally cat shit bonkers wimpy? I mean, who are we? What have we become? We are so used to complete comfort. Entitled, it would seem. Temperature-controlled everything. Can we not even sit with discomfort anymore? What would our ancestors think? We are fucking wimps.

I said this, or close to is, out loud a few times this week, the last time with my mom at an amazingly perfect night out at the ballpark on Monday (because yes, it was hot in the day, but oh my, it was perfect at 8 pm). And guess what? Well, I got mine.

I have been sitting in discomfort pretty much ever since.

I'm pretty much sick of it. But I asked for it.

I actually did do the almost unthinkable and turned on the air conditioning in my car on Tuesday, so chalk one up for wimpy for me. When I got in to drive home at 4:00 and my temperature gauge read 106 degrees, I did it. I turned it on. And I'm not going to lie, it felt good.

It was down to 90 by the time I got to my house, which was completely tolerable. Then we got this glorious, quick but furious little rain storm that I couldn't help but go outside to walk around in. It felt like a gift.

I then headed to hot yoga (I know!), struggled through that heated torture, and after came home to find my house blanketed in total darkness. The electricity had gone out thanks to the glorious little storm. I was hot! I was dripping sweat. I was SO looking forward to a tall glass of cold filtered water. Snap, no filtered fridge water, no power. And although I love cold water, cold showers are not my favorite. Oh well. I don't have much of a choice. (And hey, maybe I'll just drink the ice-cold water in there.) But the worst? No ceiling fan to sleep under. And on top of that, some lame ass neighbor of mine, right below my house, could not hack the blackout (ie, no air conditioning or fan) and ran his exceedingly loud and incredibly annoying generator all night long. My windows, were, of course, wide open to catch any night breeze that might be blowing.

I woke up early that next morning and headed straight to work to try to knock out some of the tasks I'd fallen behind on due to this heat and it's garsh-darn schedule changes.

Guess what? It was hot in there. Really hot, and there is nary a window that opens.

My landlord sent this:

The deal is the 1st floor has no air conditioning.  L

My co-worker asked to go home after a few hours. Me? Well I just sat there in my discomfort.

3 comments:

Pat said...

Exactly! All this complaining on airplanes--no room, crowded etc. well, we are actually flying thru the air and no longer in covered wagons!
And you forgot to mention the best part about the game--2:08 minutes, the shortest this year bliss for you.
Love, Mom

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Oh, yuck! Your windows don't open? That's not cool. My girl opted to stay at school for the 'voluntary early dismissal' on Wednesday, because she knew they'd be watching movies in the air conditioned portables, which apparently beats doing chores at home. The nights have been lovely, glad you and Pat enjoyed the game!

xo
Jacquie

Me, You, or Ellie said...

You had me at "wee bit totally cat shit bonkers wimpy"

Good luck San Diegans! Serious shit out there in Sunny Cal.....

xoxox

Ellie