Heatwave, Part II
Thank you for all your kind comments to my last entry; my lack of answers wasn't because I didn't appreciate them, but because we still suffer from the hottest July since recordings started (and they started here sometimes in the early 1800s).
Fact is that I'm hardly online anymore; I check my mails on my iPhone, have a quick look at tumblr and that's it. My laptop can't handle the heat anymore (I'm on my third laptop cooler by now), and quite frankly, nor can I.
There are posts circulating of well-meaning people from hotter parts of the world with good advice on how to deal with the heat and how to look after yourself during this heatwave. I appreciate the thought, but we know that you should drink a lot in a heatwave, and we'd love to stay inside while it's hot, really, but we can't just call our bosses and tell them that it's too hot to work and that we'll stay at home for the next three weeks or so.
Our society is simply not prepared to deal with such lenghty spells of heat, and our bodies are not accustomed to it. The mortality rate among elderly people has skyrocketed. Most offices and buildings and homes here do not have AC. When I went to work at the charity shop on the weekend, the temperature there was 40°. That's 104° F. I don't know, maybe it's no biggie to work under such conditions if you're used to it, but we are not used to it. I already tried to arrange my working hours in a way that I avoid the "hottest" times, but we don't have siesta here, there are fixed office hours, the system has to run.
Me and my colleagues are at our limit; and the people we look after are, too. The heat influences the way medications work. Some suffer from hefty mood swings. It's not making work easier. I heard suicide rates have jumped, too. That's truly horrible.
So yes, the streets are melting, it hasn't rained for a month, the trams are breaking down because those hideously expensive and super modern beasts can't handle the heat and need to be cooled down, and so we have to get around town in trams dating back to the 1960s and 1970s without AC. If you'd like to share the experience: sit fully clothed in a sauna with hundred other people.
As I said, I'm not really online at the moment, and I'm not reading my f-list. If you need to talk to me, if there is anything important happening, please send me a mail. I crawl back from work, barely manage to get the household done, and then I just flop down on the sofa. I'm completely drained, and have no energy left. Two weeks until my holidays, and I can only hope that the weather will change, but it doesn't look like it will. Weatherman says yet another week of temperatures in the mid thirties. That's ten degrees more than normal. WTF.
Molly originally posted this entry at http://joyful-molly.dreamwidth.org/447734.html. You can comment on LJ or DW, using OpenID.
Fact is that I'm hardly online anymore; I check my mails on my iPhone, have a quick look at tumblr and that's it. My laptop can't handle the heat anymore (I'm on my third laptop cooler by now), and quite frankly, nor can I.
There are posts circulating of well-meaning people from hotter parts of the world with good advice on how to deal with the heat and how to look after yourself during this heatwave. I appreciate the thought, but we know that you should drink a lot in a heatwave, and we'd love to stay inside while it's hot, really, but we can't just call our bosses and tell them that it's too hot to work and that we'll stay at home for the next three weeks or so.
Our society is simply not prepared to deal with such lenghty spells of heat, and our bodies are not accustomed to it. The mortality rate among elderly people has skyrocketed. Most offices and buildings and homes here do not have AC. When I went to work at the charity shop on the weekend, the temperature there was 40°. That's 104° F. I don't know, maybe it's no biggie to work under such conditions if you're used to it, but we are not used to it. I already tried to arrange my working hours in a way that I avoid the "hottest" times, but we don't have siesta here, there are fixed office hours, the system has to run.
Me and my colleagues are at our limit; and the people we look after are, too. The heat influences the way medications work. Some suffer from hefty mood swings. It's not making work easier. I heard suicide rates have jumped, too. That's truly horrible.
So yes, the streets are melting, it hasn't rained for a month, the trams are breaking down because those hideously expensive and super modern beasts can't handle the heat and need to be cooled down, and so we have to get around town in trams dating back to the 1960s and 1970s without AC. If you'd like to share the experience: sit fully clothed in a sauna with hundred other people.
As I said, I'm not really online at the moment, and I'm not reading my f-list. If you need to talk to me, if there is anything important happening, please send me a mail. I crawl back from work, barely manage to get the household done, and then I just flop down on the sofa. I'm completely drained, and have no energy left. Two weeks until my holidays, and I can only hope that the weather will change, but it doesn't look like it will. Weatherman says yet another week of temperatures in the mid thirties. That's ten degrees more than normal. WTF.
Molly originally posted this entry at http://joyful-molly.dreamwidth.org/447734.html. You can comment on LJ or DW, using OpenID.