I'm know there are other hotter places in the world but Japanese humid summers really are miserable! And actually this is the first year in a long time that I've had to live through it for any length of time. Usually I'm in California where it is hot but a dry desert heat. This oppressing humidity starts my head to pounding even before I get up!
We start the air-conditioner from about 8:00 am and it stays on all day which I've always felt guilty about but really, without air-conditioning we are liable to succumb to the heat... We are all getting older and my body at least doesn't seem to adjust the way it used to!
For all that, Tetsu still thinks he's a young man, until he comes gasping into the house begging for water and a cool towel. He still goes out to do yard-work which he claims he loves but I'm afraid I'll find him prostrate. The other day, for some reason only known to him, he decided to cut the weeds in a large empty lot halfway across the neighborhood. When he didn't come back for an hour I tracked him down by the sound of his weed-whacker and I brought him ice water and asked him to call it quits. He didn't come home until 2:00 in the afternoon!!! The hottest part of the day! He said the various neighbors kept coming out telling him he should stop, bringing him cold water bottles and warning of heat stroke. It wasn't until some man came out dressed in working wear and took over the job that Tetsu finally gave in and came home.
"Tetsu! You think you can still do these things but the neighbors just see you as an old man who is going to die on the street if someone doesn't step in and help him! Please come back inside by 11:00 at least!"
Tetsu thinks I am a bossy nagging wife and pooh-poohs my harping at him...
Tell Tetsu again to be careful! I'm about your age, and I was outside the other day when it was in the 90's and humid. I thought I was going to be OK until I came inside and realized I felt a little odd. I took my temperature, and it was 100 degrees! I had been drinking cold water while outside but that heat still caused my body temperature to shoot up. I wasn't exerting myself the way Tetsu does. I was just standing around, and my body still reacted badly. That's never happened to me before. So yes, age is definitely now a factor for me and should be for anyone 60 or above. We start the air conditioner in April or May and don't turn it off til October! We leave it set at 79. As long as the house is dehumidified, that temp is OK. Bare feet and shorts indoors for 6 months, and just a sheet at night.
ReplyDeletepots on the stumps, that is a very nice arrangement, and using the left overs after the felling is a good way to pretty up that area.
ReplyDeleteWas that forest Sugi? I like the idea of making use of those stumps but I think all that piled brush might make the area a fire hazard in the future. Meanwhile, it looks like you still have a bit of shade. My AC now goes on from around that time too but still is off at night. At least Nikko gets to lie on the cool genkan tiles.
ReplyDeleteTake it easy in the summer heat!
ReplyDeleteQueenie