Lasting effects

"This heat has got right out of hand."

-- Cruel Summer, Bananarama



It was supposedly a "summer-like" day in Pittsburgh today, according to the weather guy. I dressed Zoe in capri pants and sent her off to school. I threw on a t-shirt and a cardigan.

I was sitting at work for less than an hour before I was sitting on my hands. My limbs were freezing! I swear, when it hits 65, they crank on the AC. My toes were bitter cold, and I threw on my sweater, ON TOP OF my t-shirt and cardigan. It wasn't long before the graphics editor came by complaining about THE HEAT.

"It's so hot in here!"

WHAT??

"Yeah, look how misty it is outside. It's so humid."

I looked out the window. Clear as ever.

It seemed that everyone who does laps by my desk on a regular basis felt, too, that it was unbearable. Apparently none of these people spent a summer in Florida.

"Did you SEE it outside? UGH!"

"Why don't they turn on the AC?"

"It's too HOT to go out to lunch."

IT'S MAY, PEOPLE. IN PITTSBURGH.

I thought maybe I was hallucinating, that maybe I hadn't come to work at the same time as all of them, and maybe I missed some natural phenomenon going on outside. So shortly after lunch I headed downstairs and out the door.

I expected to get a deep breath of heavy air, the kind you have to endure in mid-August in the deep South, where you can barely catch your breath and start sweating before you get down the sidewalk to the car.

I thought of the hot summer nights I spent in Florida, when my friends and I sat outside drinking good wine, our skin glistening, our hair limping, listening to weather reports for hurricanes and hoping for a breeze to take the edge off, hearing nothing but the hum of air conditioners all around and knowing we could go inside to get relief, but seeing how long we could last before our shirts were soaked or the bugs drove us home.



I shivered when I stepped outside. It was all of 80 degrees with about 1.4 percent humidity.



There's a "cold front" coming through here tonight... should be 68 tomorrow. I can predict how many will be wearing shorts and tank tops to work, expressing thanks for the break in the weather.

I'll be wearing a sweater, for sure. Zoe too.