Imagine the most humid, hottest, armpit of civilization you can live. Well, I live there. Two nights ago, my a/c went out. It's not like, cool mountain air is going to erase the heat built up in the asphalt that surrounds me, or the heat built up in my attic, but as the thermostat passed 85 inside the house and continued to rise, all I wanted to do was go sit outside in the 80 degree breeze, where the evaporation of my sweat would cool me down some. Understand, with the heat index, it easily reaches 110 at the hottest part of the day, with a nice thick layer of humidity so your sweat doesn't evaporate to cool you down. Now, that in itself was not the stressor that made me want to run to the nearest store to buy a pack. The thought that was trigerring it was that I didn't know how I was going to pay for whatever was wrong with the a/c in the first place, especially since I didn't know what was wrong with it. Stupid me. If I had gone out and bought the cigs, I would've been $6.00 poorer, and smoking would've just attracted more mosqitos to bite me 😉 I got through the night with fans and good old fashioned wet washclothes, and just reminisced about the summers I used to spend with my grandparents in Oklahoma without a/c. There, with windows open, listening to the crickets and night sounds out in the middle of the country, Grandma would bring in more wet washclothes on those especially hot nights.. Back then, I didn't smoke, so if i could make it through those nights, I could make it through this night. I also just told myself I'd put the a/c repair cost on a credit card (which I hate and only have for emergencies like ill family, last minute airfare, rental cars, etc.) After all, no a/c to a 48 year old woman is like withholding crack from a crack addict. So, on the credit card the bill went, having my a/c back by 10:30 the next morning, and I was able to sleep like a baby last night, although the nostalgia of nights at my grandparents had me keep the fan on, and I turned my sound machine to crickets 🙂
