Summer in the South

Finally, summer is here. Well, it will be this afternoon. I love summer in the south. I like it when you get up in the morning, knowing the chances are it will be over a hundred sometime around noon or so. I like it when its so hot that you think slow, just to keep your brain from sweating. Drink cold water by the gallon. Get started at sun up, and slow down around 10:00 AM when the heat starts beating on ya. I like it when I sweat so much that I squish when I walk. I turn off the AC when I wake up around 4:30 or 5:00, and don't turn it on again until I around dark. That way, I'm not particularly motivated to sit in the house.
One of the best things about summer is tomato sandwiches. The worst thing is that it just don't last long enough.

[Tommyice]

Originally Posted by zong

One of the best things about summer is tomato sandwiches. The worst thing is that it just don't last long enough.

Can't beat summer tomato sandwiches.

[Vickie44]

Z I hope you have the epiphany you have been counting down towards, or is tomato sandwich that which is sought ?

[WhyNot]

This is my first full summer in the south. I do not count my many humorous although uncomfortable visits to the south between then and now....if I did....I wouldn't be here.

I'll have to give my full report about summer down here sometime this fall. So far though I can say that I never have any idea what time it is anymore. I never use a watch, never had to, usually knew what time it was because of where the sun was (no, that's not a joke). Having grown up where I just moved from...it was just...I always knew about when it was.

Now, I'm all discombobulated. It seems like noon but it's 3...seems like 5am but it's really 7am. The days seem like they never end. I also have rashes in places I forgot about and have purchased stock in baby powder. Make up is obviously something you wear only in winter as it's a fruitless effort...which is probably good because I'm usually too lazy to apply it anyway. I have seen women here with full on makeup and figure there is some southern secret that I'm not allowed to know right now.

[TNHermit]

Like them but I can eat tomato sandwiches in Nov if you plant the right maters. They can put summer on hold for me. I'll take spring (which we didn't have this year) and fall. And I hate to sweat. Guess that comes from living in Colorado. but you find out why gold bond is so popular down here.. Get up at first light till 2. Then go to the air office till 5

[Belfrybat]

I used to like summers in the South until last year. That burned me out (literally). 87 days of 100-109, and the rest above 90 with no respite, even at night, was just too much. This year I am turning the A/C on at noon and keeping it on until midnight, ---- the cost.

I like tomato sandwiches, but my favourite is to pick a sun kissed tomato right off the vine and eat it in the garden (bent over from the waist so I don't drip all over myself).

[Fowler]

And that's the reason I do not wear make-up, it just sweats off, but you are right there is a secret, but I'm sworn to secrecy....LOL

[Ramblin Wreck]

The best thing about Summer for me is taking naps on my front porch (when I'm home, which I'm not most of this Summer). Like you Mr. Z, I don't want to go in/out of air conditioning all day. Leads to Summer colds I think. When I'm working in the heat, I try to acclimate by stretching my work days out over a few weeks time until I'm pretty much out all of the day. I'll probably average three showers a day in the Summer too.

[maverickxxx]

I've been packing at about 7:09 I'm turning into pure light I guess

[Shygal]

I'd never make it. Its only 72 today and I went out to feed the chicks and came back in and I am sweating like I took a shower. its supposed to be 97 today and tomorrow.....

[foxfiredidit]

I think this is why I don't keep animals. Those heat and humidity infested plots of vegatables require too much work, too many hours labor at this time of year. Growing it is one thing, add to that the late night hours spent preserving it and there doesn't seem to be much more I want to tackle. If there was more to do one person couldn't handle it all. So until things change, it will be gardening (foraging) in the spring and summer, and hunting in the fall and winter. I would however like to have chickens as the quail populations have diminished the last couple of years. Just not sure as I recall from my boyhood that chickens for meat and eggs is pretty time consuming as well.

What, is 97 in Vermont somehow cooler than 97 in NC?? 97 is nice. Hey, around here, we learn real early on, "you might as well like it"

[Vickie44]

Its not the heat its the humidity!

Humidity? I'm supposed to feel humidity? I don't know why you'd even bring that up. Now I'm all bummed out. I might just sit under my overhang, looking through the Wang Kong beans, scaring hummingbirds with sudden movement, suffering my personal humidity. If it was real dry, wouldn't my skin crack and all my precious bodily fluids ooze out? Humidity must be a good thing.

[Shygal]

Originally Posted by zong

What, is 97 in Vermont somehow cooler than 97 in NC?? 97 is nice. Hey, around here, we learn real early on, "you might as well like it"

97 in Vermont to Vermonters, would be like 125 to people in NC

Ask me how I like it when its 20 below zero.......

[maverickxxx]

Shy is lying it's supposed to be 95 the record is 97.

[maverickxxx]

She's just being optamistic

I never heard of anybody freezing up and exploding like in that movie "day after tomorrow" from it being 125 degrees. I actually don't remember any days that hot, but I put a roof on in 107 degrees once. That was uncomfortable. But when it cooled down to 97 that evening, I was thinking "This sure is a nice evening".......
ETA: OK, its almost 11:00. Only 87 degrees here, so far. 95 expected. and 97 is the record high for this date, here. From 1949. See?? The weather there isn't any cooler than the weather here. Y'all just been fooling yourselves.

[rickfrosty]

Originally Posted by zong

Finally, summer is here. Well, it will be this afternoon. I love summer in the south. I like it when you get up in the morning, knowing the chances are it will be over a hundred sometime around noon or so. I like it when its so hot that you think slow, just to keep your brain from sweating. Drink cold water by the gallon. Get started at sun up, and slow down around 10:00 AM when the heat starts beating on ya. I like it when I sweat so much that I squish when I walk. I turn off the AC when I wake up around 4:30 or 5:00, and don't turn it on again until I around dark. That way, I'm not particularly motivated to sit in the house.
One of the best things about summer is tomato sandwiches. The worst thing is that it just don't last long enough.

Oy Vey ! Twill be hot today here - maybe 90. I went out at 6:30 to cut brush in pasture (no goats yet) for an hour while it was still cool.
Don't like to sweat & "Don need no steenkeen AC here !" at all .
My gene pool is a little too nordic for the south I'm afraid - like it fine right here where I was born, but those ol farms down by the Cumberland river sure sound pretty enticing too ?
One thing about a little longer winter & a cooler summer (besides no AC needed), is it's easier to keep stuff cool (or frozen) longer by old methods.
Have cut & saved ice 2 or 3 times in the past - you can even just freeze water in drywall buckets, so no muss, no fuss, your ice & later cold water has a handle on it !?

[rickfrosty]

Originally Posted by Shygal

97 in Vermont to Vermonters, would be like 125 to people in NC

Ask me how I like it when its 20 below zero.......

W/climate change so noticable 20 below is about as cold (22 below) as it ever got last winter here in the mtns. - shucks - wanna go swimmin Ellie May ??