One of the biggest surprises I experienced moving here to North Georgia from Florida was the lack of A/C at some establishments. Some of the folks we know don’t have it at home either. And then there are the lizard people who keeps their thermostats set at 78F or higher, like they live in a terrarium.
Y’all of plushness who prefer coolness can be really thankful you’re not here. Metro Los Angeles looks to be roughly the same latitude as north Georgia. Most places inland from the coast are air conditioned, but not all.
This is prolly the only house in the neighborhood lacking central air conditioning. Just one small room air conditioner in what used to be an outdoor patio which was enclosed in the 1950s, not insulated. I only turn it on when temps are going to head north of around 40°C/104°F, and even then, one has to be pretty much right there next to the unit to get a sufficient cooling effect.
None of you will want to be in my van on hot days either. When i bought it used (many decades ago), it didn’t even have a heater (long story). Originally it had factory A/C, and i did get all the needed parts for the heater portion of that from wrecking yards and put heat back in, but cooling? Nah. Was living fairly coastal in the S.F. Bay Area and didn’t need it, plus keeping auto A/C systems working can be a pain and $$ pit.
Obviously i’m not dealing with the sort of built-in insulation around which this thread centers. In terms of being a lizard person, might that be related to growing up with The Doors all over the radio, and that whole Lizard King thing i never looked into?
Seriously, with climate change over the past several decades i’ve lived here, there’s been a small lizard population explosion. Growing up ’60s/’70s when my grandparents lived in this house, i can’t remember ever seeing a lizard. End of the ’90s when i moved here, they were very rare. Now, i see at least a dozen every day. It’s like this part of California is now Arizona.
When it’s very hot it’s sometimes almost sauna-like. Recent years i keep seeing more and more articles about the health benefits of saunas, such as how the high heat can correctly re-fold mis-folded proteins in the body, staving off disease. For reasons unknown, there are no actual public-access saunas anywhere near me. So the way i figure it, when i’m simmering in super hotness, i am:
- Healing mis-folded proteins
- Saving money on sauna rental time
- Saving the environment via consuming far less electricity, not using air conditioning*
- Saving the environment from not consuming the resources that would be used in a sauna to heat it
* The local power utility routinely sends out “You’re an awesome energy saver, compared to your neighbors!” messages during warm months.
If anyone reading this finds themselves stuck in a vastly over-hot situation, perhaps think: {I am not sitting here uncomfortably, sweating profusely for no earthly reason. My body is busy re-folding mis-folded proteins for my health!}
Wishing you coolness, comfort, and hydration, but if not the first two at least re-folding proteins,
