Back in the day, I was in the Peace Corps.  I lived in the south of Thailand where monsoons, scorpions and hot air was the norm.  Air conditioning was something you only enjoyed in the capital city bank lobbies.  After the Peace Corps in the early to mid 90s, I moved to Chicago and as you may remember, nearly 1000 people died from heat one summer.  During this time, I was still accustomed to the Peace Corps heat and would cuddle up under a down comforter, in my bedroom on the 3^rd floor of a non-airconditioned building.  Fast forward to today.  Post 2 kids and many years and pounds, I live in a modest bungalow in Oak Park, Illinois.  We have radiator heat with no central air.  We operate window units, except in my bedroom where we have a portable air conditioner.  This serves as our air in the summer and our heat in the winter.  It has been a lifesaver the past couple of years.  In early June, however, Danby, as I call him, died.  No longer did he pump refreshing cool breezes into our chamber of heat on the 2^nd floor of our house.  We have had a VERY hot summer.  For those of you who think Chicago is like Alaska it is not, it gets frigging hot and on the 2^nd floor, it is like an oven, or as I like to call it…Satan’s little hut.  Given that we are saving for a European trip this year, I decided, “We don’t need an air conditioner” My husband, who happens to be from Africa and should be able to handle the heat protested and resolved to sleep in the kids’ bedroom!   But, I have decided to stick it out for the summer.  One night recently, when the humidity was 100% and the temps were in the 90s I fell asleep and at some point woke up delusional and convinced it was raining on my pillow.  There was a pool of water on the pillowcase.  I guess I didn’t mind too much, because I flipped the sucker over and went right back to sleep.  Don’t call me sister sustainability, ask anyone, I am a sweaty pig who would live in front of an ac vent if I could.  But, to save the money I am going to withstand this summer of heat in hopes that they’ll finally make a window unit small enough for my bedroom window next year.   Suggestions for a 10″ verticle window opening?

I am old enough to know that what comes around goes around.  What I am continually surprised by are that life’s lessons seem to be on shuffle/repeat these days.  I go from doing a 10 mile run combined with months of training, to nothing….NOTHING.  I am not entirely sure of the reasons for this.   I stick with my usual “blame Kitty” for all of my workout blunders.  But, as the lather, rinse, repeat cycle continues, I wonder if there is something I could do to ramp up the interest in exercise.  What do you do to remain motivated?  Summertime should be the time when I am out doing laps around the track in the pool and living on my bike.  What is my problem?  All I want to do is enjoy the weather, wine and friends.  Then again, is that really a problem??