What do you do when it's hot? When you need to wear the lightest clothes and sleep with no covers and go to bad movies just to get into the air conditioner? And hopefully not perform in shows in sweaty theatres in full period dress?

-- Kymm (hedgehog@hedgehog.net), June 26, 2000

Answers

I spent the last year living in Hong Kong. Having moved there from sunny London, and having had no previous experience of tropical climes, the whole temperature thing was a bit of a shocker.

It used to hit highs of about 35C, but the big problem was the humidity. It was like walking through suspended rain, a curtain of tiny, warm droplets. The slightest movement was enough to make you faint. To get some fresh air, you had to go indoors, where industrial air conditioning was powerful enough to blow small children off their feet.

What did I do? As little as possible. Spent as much time in cool showers as possible. Sat under the air con, with a book, trying to make sure that no part of my body was touching any other part of my body, and wept.

-- Pale Blue (paleblue@darkblue.2ndmail.com), June 26, 2000.

I am such a wimp when it comes to heat. I was brought up in Northern Maine, and anything above, say, 85 is like hell to me.

I have lots of fans in the bedroom and a window air conditioner in the living room. I go to the mall sometimes, too, to enjoy the industrial strength air and window shop.

A cold washcloth on the back of the neck does wonders, too.

Today it's hot hot hot here, with about 93% humidity, so walking around is like walking through wet felt.

-- Laura (lbhelfrich@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

Well, I have alot of fans in the bedroom too, but I don't see...o, wait, you mean those kind of fans.

Never mind.

-- Kymm Zuckert (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

Well, see, originally the "Escape the heat" plan involved moving from Tampa to Boston. Then last summer, having packed my bags and furniture, and temporarily camped out in Western Mass for two months while looking for an apartment in Boston (don't even try it if you aren't kid-free, rich, with unblemished credit and rental history, and willing to spend months apartment hunting), I found out the hard way that it's just as hot. It was actually hotter in Northampton last summer than in Tampa (I swear! The weatherman even said so!).

Atleast it doesn't last as long. Three months of suffocating heat versus 11.5 in Florida.

My best technique to beat the heat is to shower and then lay down in front of the A/C.

-- Tynan (ty@power-lines.com), June 26, 2000.

I escaped by going to Alaska for two years.

I'm back now and swear I'll take the heat any day.

-- Jackie (jackie@jackie.nu), June 26, 2000.

In Costa Rica, I always wear light cotton dresses without underwear . . . let's face it, in the tropics, every bit of clothing counts. Or, make friends with someone with a swimming pool, visit daily (preferably around the heat of the day) and go everywhere else you need to go in your bikini and wrap with wet hair.

Hey, you asked.

-- Elan Kesilman (elan@elanworks.com), June 26, 2000.

How do I beat the heat? In random order:

1. Sleep half the night in bed and half on the couch, wrapped up naked in a hippie bedspread under a fan with the A/C on.

2. Do without clothes as much as possible. Sometimes I'll peel off my suit as soon as I get home from the office and not put anything on until I go to work the next day. My poor roommate . . .

3. Cool beverages: orange soda at the office, club soda or iced tea at home.

4. Remember to keep the living room blinds down all day; the afternoon sun pours through them like a furnace.

5. The beach.

/Robert

-- Robert (rbdimmick@earthlink.net), June 27, 2000.

I like the heat. I love leaving the air-conditioned office at the end of the day and getting into a two-hundred-degree car. Ahhhhh!!!

But when the heat gets to be too much even for me, I get wet.

-- Catherine (catcoicrit@earthlink.net), June 27, 2000.

Moving from South Australia, which tends to have a dry heat, to Southern New Jersey which has previously unimaginable humidity of 100% (surely that should mean underwater, no?), my heat coping techniques have changed. I also have a basement that stays cooler longer, and it's where my PC lives, so I spend a lot of time on humid days hanging out in the basement with fruit and cool drinks. Cool showers only work if combined with a fan, if I don't stand in front of a fan, or towel off immediately, it's just like being sticky and humid all over again. I keep jugs of cold water in the fridge, and drink them all day, no soft drink other than seltzer water, the other soft drinks just seem sticky and clingy and make me thirstier. I live on raw fruit (particularly watermelon) and veges (particularly cucumber), and iceblocks (those long popsicle things you buy that are ostensibly frozen fruit juice).

Swimming is great for reducing the effects of temp, I have a ool, but unfortunately this year it's a green swamp. Too much effort and cash involved in keeping it clean and leaf free and covering it up for winter. Jeff's brother has a pool, we might have to hang out there up to the point of annoyance this summer.

At night, if it's really hot, I sleep with a freshly drenched facewasher on my face, and sprtiz myself regularly with a squirty bottle before I go to sleep. Minimum clothes bearing in mind windows and the occasional unannounced visitor.

Once it gets absolutely nasty at night, 30+degC plus large humidity level, we give in and put the AC on overnight, just to help us sleep. If I don't get sleep due to the heat, I exponentially less cope with the next days heat. Beth (xeney.com) is right when she talks about not relying too much on AC, that it makes the heat seem even worse, I agree with that. It's like the last ditch effort for us, when we have to sleep.

On that idea of heat vs humidity, I would rather 40 degrees C and no humidity than a 30 degC day with 100% humidity. I've only gotten heatstroke once, and that was here, with above 30 weather, above 100% humidity, at a 4th of July BBQ.

-- Amanda Page (amanda@amandasprecipice.com), June 27, 2000.

I moved from Maine to Alabama, and despite the wet, muggy heat of Alabama, the one very good thing I have to say is that NO ONE around here doesn't have air conditioning, thank god. Since I'm not the outdoorsy type, I stay inside my 70-degree house and enjoy the sunshine from afar.

I'm not looking forward to my trip to Maine at the beginning of August; my parents don't have an air conditioner, though the hot, humid days beg for one.

-- Robyn (robyn@hiwaay.net), June 27, 2000.

Kymm, I live in London. I just don't understand the question.

-- Jackie (jackiec@diaryland.com), June 28, 2000.

Jackie, what do you mean? We've had some really blistering days...Just the other week it was up to 81F! (My Dad really enjoyed me complaining about that when it was 110F+ with humidity in Ohio the same day.)

When I lived in a truly hot and humid climate, we had central air. On the days when it was hot and my Dad refused to turn it on because it was 'too early to be this hot' (um, yeah, I agree, but it is, so turn on the fucking A/C!), I would soak a washcloth in cold water and maybe put a few ice cubes in the middle and wipe the little ice bundle across my face. Lukewarm showers help, too.

-- Jackie Danicki (nein@freeuk.com), June 28, 2000.

Hot is twice a pain for me, because I have a hormone disorder that makes me unable to regulate my temperature. If I get hot, I stay hot no matter what I do. If I get cold, I stay cold, ibid. It's a huge pain in the ass, and what I end up doing is running myself from climate controlled area to climate controlled area. Though, running around (in my house) naked seems to help a little if it's just a leetle too toasty. I also have a gel coldpack I can wear to help cool things down. Sure, I look like a dork, but I'm comfortable!

-- Saundra (headspace@anywherebeyond.com), July 03, 2000.