Every year I forget how hot the summer gets. I had a toasty reminder one day last week. The temperature was in the high nineties with a heat index of 105-110 degrees. I did what I needed to do outdoors and got back in the house before eleven a.m. I had a hair appointment at four p.m. My son had my vehicle and Bud had gone somewhere in his, so when I got ready to go, I realized I had to drive his old 1996 Jeep Wrangler. He loves that old truck. He’d wanted one since he was a kid, so he can’t bear to part with it. He usually drives it once a week or so, just to keep it from feeling depressed. When I was ready to go, there it sat, in all its un-air-conditioned glory, just waiting to bake me all the way to the hairdresser.
I climbed up on its sizzling plastic seat, no simple thing since it has no running boards, and settled myself in. It moaned and groaned, making end of life noises as I struggled to herd it out of the driveway. It has a stick-shift and no power steering. The windows were down so I could cool myself with the sultry air. Remember, the heat index? Long before I drove the two miles to the hair shop I looked like Sasquatch. Driving that Jeep felt like a combination of a tractor and a log wagon. I’ve driven both and really can’t say which I prefer. I told Susie to just cut my hair and forget styling it, knowing I had to go home in the hot Jeep. Just as I climbed back in, I remembered an errand I had to run. I thought I’d die. I took care of my business and thought I was just about to survive the heat when I saw flashing lights at the railroad crossing. I was caught.
As I sweltered, dying for a cool drink, my sister called on my cell phone. “Hey! What are you doing? I’m just sitting here in the air conditioning with a glass of iced tea. I had to step out and check the mail and thought I’d burn up!”
Oh! That was bad timing!
Cars sure have changed – thank God!
LikeLike
Good for the camels!
LikeLike
They would be grateful, if only they knew 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just love your wit!
LikeLike
Thank you.
LikeLike
We get extremely high temperatures during our summer months too, Linda. Fortunately, it is not humid here.
LikeLike
That helps!
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Nutsrok.
LikeLike
Oh dear…I can definitely relate to the ole Sasquatch look and I could FEEL that “sultry air”!!! Been there. Done that. Will NOT go any place these days without AC…will not, will not, will not. I’ll cut my own hair before I’d fry my buns on a Jeep’s plastic seat! Too funny!!! 😉
LikeLike
I looked great when I was done, like a haystack!
LikeLiked by 1 person
😉
LikeLike
Sorry about the heat. I have a lot of sympathy. I hate very hot days and cope really badly with it. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
It makes me grouchy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too, unless it gets too hot and then I don’t have the energy even for that. 🙂
LikeLike
It is so hot now and will be mid- September.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow sounds so hot there!
LikeLike
I bet you wanted to reach your hand into the phone and grab that cool drink from her. It truly bakes during Summer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I feel for you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah yes, the wonderful sweat of summer!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This post gave me the laugh I needed today, with the visuals your words created all the way through and the perfection of the last line. Thank you for making my day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are so welcome. I like be your stories.
LikeLike
We took Danny’s ’96 Landrover Defeender on a day trip yesterday. When I found out we were taking it rather than the 2015 Subuaru, I sighed. Danny said, “What is it now?” I told him the rover was hot (it has A/C but it often causes issues to use it). He got all pissy and offered to take the Subaru but my passive/aggressive self told him that we would take the rover, after all it was Father’s Day. He recognized my passive-aggressiveness but we did take the rover and ended up pulling over and rolling up the wide and back window covers. It helped but it really isn’t that bad. Thank God we weren’t in Texas. My point is, I feel your pain!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember sweltering in cars when I was kid. Back then cars with four or five squalling, fighting kids lined the streets in front of stores are n the fifties and sixties while Mama shopped. Mad big kids whomped the bawling little ones. It was very committed n!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I remember it well! My sister and I reminisce about being left in the car and acting up, honking the horn etc. now I cringe at the thought of leaving grandkids in the car.
LikeLike
You know you’d land in jail. That was cruel and dangerous.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mentioning your hair dresser’s appointment had me worried about your hairdo. Of course, you’d have the right solution. I’d have cancelled and hidden beside the closest vent blowing out cold air.
😀 😀 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, it was aggravating me to death!
LikeLike
Wish I could share our cool 60-degree weather with you from the Pacific Northwest. We start melting here when it hits 80 LOL. And today marks the first day of the summer season!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Send me some, now!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I feel ya! It’s sizzling where I’m from, and any ‘outside errand’ that doesn’t get done by 10:00am immediately goes onto tomorrow morning’s ‘To do’ list! LOL
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are right! It’s got to be down ne beforehand re eleven.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL! That was bad timing! It is really hot here too – temperatures in the low 100’s (120 degrees in Phoenix!).
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Phoenix heat is killer. My DIL is from Prescott Valley. The first hot afternoon she was here she couldn’t wait to open the windows and cool off. She was so surprised to find it doesn’t cool off when the sun goes down. In our high humidity, the shade doesn’t help a lot like it does there.
LikeLike
I went to Louisiana once in August and I couldn’t believe the high humidity. We rarely have any humidity here. The humidity makes the heat seem so much worse. And yes, we can get cooler by standing in the shade. I’m just thankful I don’t live in Phoenix right now. LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
People die if they don’t hydrate.
LikeLike
I’m melting…..melting. ☺
LikeLiked by 1 person
I just stepped out. It’s hot already.
LikeLiked by 1 person
First vehicle I ever drove was a CJ7 Jeep. I could not come close to reaching the pedals – I could only shift gears when my trusty brother said.
First vehicle ever mine? A Jeep – of course!
Lasted for about 6 years after it was “mine” til Howard Avenue in New Orleans and a crossing Olds that ripped the wench of the front end, but left this wench harmless!
Thank God for Daddys and jeeps!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are right. Both those experiences were bumpy for me!
LikeLike
I understand your pain. This summer it got up to about 111 degrees at times here. I didn’t have to go out but it was hot enough inside without air conditioning. Our summer is near the beginning of the year. until the monsoon arrives in June. 😦 — Suzanne
LikeLiked by 1 person
Is the monsoon hot or cold? You are winter now?
LikeLiked by 1 person
The monsoon will last about from June to September. Because of all the rain, it cools off. It’s still warm but not hot. Our cold weather (around 50 degrees, a bit like a California winter) starts around November until February or middle of March. Then the hot weather starts. There are only three changes as there’s no Fall. 🙂 — Suzanne
LikeLiked by 1 person
We have 5 months of summer, long springs and falls, and about six weeks when we might get a frost. Most winters I never get my coat out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Monsoon season is warm but damp.There are some disadvantages. I don’t have a dryer so it takes longer, sometimes a couple of days, for laundry to dry. The doors swell and stick. You can’t put a glossy-finished photo behind glass in a frame as it will stick to the glass. Envelopes here don’t come with glue on. Some of the ones I brought from the U.S. stuck shut. We use glue sticks here. There are more mosquito-borne diseases occurring during monsoon. There’s trouble with dish TV when it rains heavily. There’s more trouble due to electric outages. We’re all hoping for a good monsoon as we’ve had two poor ones in the last couple years. The reservoirs where this area gets its water.are drying up. —- Suzanne
LikeLiked by 1 person
Enough water is good!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I feel for you. I’m sitting inside wrapped up in my dressing gown with the heater on trying to keep my hands and toes from freezing 🙂
LikeLike
Wish you could have a little of my heat.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just a little ….. I’ll send you some cold 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Deal!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow ibeth, you need to stay cool, because your writing is sooo hot. We miss your presence at Gastradamus and we would really appreciate your feedback on our latest short story, Blue Jasmine, please comment and let me know what you think.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember those days in Texas.. I gave up on long hair in the end and had it cut short.. I love heat but humidity is the worst.. Has your sister recovered from your phone call!!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Her
Injuries weren’t fatal!
LikeLiked by 1 person