Beat the Heat

Last week was a whirlwind of busyness... you know, the kind of week that starts with a mile-long Monday-to-do-list and somehow Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday got skipped because it is now Friday? It seems as if it was almost like giving birth again to get everything accomplished before the weekend.

This past Friday was my mother-in-laws birthday so we traveled to my husband's hometown to celebrate. Our gathering was not like last year's big birthday party, but instead a quiet, relaxed family time, which consisted of doing pretty much nothing... which is exactly what we needed! I guess it was too hot to do anything that fantastic other than hook up the sprinkler in the garden to keep the kids and plants well watered and find some nice shaded spot and stay there until the sun made you find another.

I remember when my parents came over last summer, they asked me what they should pack for the stay here. There seemed to be a long, puzzled silence on the other end of the phone when I said, "bring EVERYTHING"... Long sleeves, short sleeves, long pants, short pants, closed toed shoes, open toed shoes, jackets, and tank tops... in Northern Germany one really has to be prepared for anything weather-wise. Which is why this heat wave seems to be quite unusual. The first summer I was in Germany (four years ago just shortly before I moved here) we had such a heat wave. I thought, hey, this isn't so bad... the weather is just about like it was back home. There were a few scorching hot days where I begged my husband to let me sit with him on the combine harvester just because it had air conditioning (mind you, it was the WHOLE day!), then we had some very pleasant skirt and sandal weather where you leave the doors and windows open all day, and then a few rainy days, but nothing that prepared me for the what can be the normal cold, rainy, un-summer like weather that one can find here too.

So one would think that I would be rejoicing and shouting from the rooftops that we have now had several days of 35 C weather (that's 95 F HOT!) But when you grew up knowing and loving air conditioning and then move where you are without it, it is a whole other ballgame. Since living here I have now learned how to do the whole window and curtain management throughout the day to keep the house as cool as possible... one would just not believe that it is almost a science, but it is.

So wherever you are, whatever you are doing, I hope you are staying cool and well-watered.