Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Simple Life


We had a power outage in my neighborhood the Monday after the 4th of July which led to everyone evacuating their homes for the marginally cooler weather of the outdoors. I must explain that in general I do not like excessive heat. At all. In fact I have strong words for how I feel about hot weather; the words that come to mind include abhorrence, enmity, loathing, and animosity to name a few. I know it doesn’t make sense considering I was born in the desert state of Utah and have lived here my whole life. You would think that at some point I would have adapted to the weather. N-O-P-E.

Back to the power outage. After calling the power company and discovering that we would be without power until at least 2 a.m., I panicked. In general my residence is what I would consider toasty even with the A/C on, more so than I would like. There are various factors that contribute to the fiery furnace that is my bedroom in the summer; the southern facing window and the neighbor’s ridiculously yellow paint job that reflects the sun into my bedroom are the main reasons. Thus I was faced with the prospect of a day that had reached 100 degrees turning into a night without much hope of relief.  I couldn’t handle the thought of tossing and turning sleeplessly while enduring the agonizing heat. I was mulling over the benefits of taking off for cooler climes when one of the neighbor kids came running out of his house and darted across to us. “Can you believe it?” he cried. “Now I can’t play my video game!!” If only I could have the worries of a child again.