Our weather has been getting steadily warmer and I am eternally grateful to the person who invented air conditioning. Were our summers cooler before that? I don’t remember us needing air conditioning when I was a child. And we didn’t have it in schools. Now they are having to install it in schools because it is too warm for students during the spring and fall terms.
When you look at photos from bygone years and see the amount of clothing people wore, they must have had cooler temperatures. Or died from heatstroke. I remember reading about the Europeans who went to Asian countries back in the day and of how many refused to adapt their clothing style, still wearing wool in high temperatures and sometimes dying of heatstroke or getting very ill. I would have died 10 minutes after I arrived – or adopted local clothing styles.
I don’t like heat. I am happy with a summer around 22 C and would prefer warmer winters. But warmer winters usually mean damper climates and that is not good either.
Can we win?
My mother loved the heat. She literally basked in the sun and was happier the hotter it was. She’d even put the heat on in the summer if she didn’t think it was warm enough. If you had visited us at that time, you might have found me wearing a bathing suit while I looked after her. It was that or suffer heatstroke.
So, what makes us different like this? Why do some love heat and others don’t? Is it genetic or just “what you were used to growing up?”
And how the heck some people can write in hot weather I don’t know. I can’t unless my beloved air conditioning is functioning. Otherwise, I feel as if my brain is frying. Cooler weather suits me best, though not sub-zero – I am not a fan of freezing either. Yes, call me picky!
What kind of weather do you prefer when writing? Hot, hot, hot? What’s too hot? Do you prefer it cooler thanks to air conditioning? And in the winter? Extra warm in the house or moderate? It must affect how we write.
