One Hot Day in Paradise

As the week's forecast continued to rise and rise, I never really believed it would be here. But, as the week progressed, the high temperatures forecasted kept getting higher and higher, near and above the record highs for the area. Today, when we woke up, our house registered 87 degrees at 9am. A friend had offered us a place to come and hang out for the day if we needed too. It's not custom for many people to have AC's here in the Northwest, as we just don't have a large need for them. It gets warm in the summer, but summer really only lasts from July 4th to Labor Day. Two whole months, if we're lucky. Before and after these days, we're normally guarenteed rain at least once or twice a week, and at least overcast days. This summer has been different. It's been warm since back in May and the mercury seemed to rise and rise.

Today, the forecast for Seattle was 101 degrees, and the forecast for Puyallup was 103 degrees. We went to our friends home early this morning and spent the day inside, playing with toys and watching movies. At about 3pm, I got worried about our dogs who had been in our home all day long with only an open window, fan and a bowl of water (plus thier beds) in our laundry room. So we went home to check on them. I drove the 7 minutes it takes to get home with the AC blowing as high as it would go, and Finnegan was asleep by the time we got home. I left the car running in the garage and went in and found the dogs happy and ready for us to be home. But the house was registering 92 degrees. It was still pretty warm. I rigged some ice and water for the dogs to step in and drink for a couple more hours and left to return back to our oasis. Finnegan slept on the basement floor for 2 hours while I rested and read my book and even caught 30 minutes of rest myself. Around 6pm we decided to vacate and go home to wait for daddy as he'd be home soon.

When he got home, he brought a window AC that is on loan from a friend at work. They hadn't used it in years, and thought it might help us. We jimmy rigged it up in our sliding glass door - my husband wasn't interested in spending the time and patience that it would take to put it in the window properly - and cranked it up. We left to venture to the mall for dinner, and found the reconstruction project a bit overwhelming for us, so chose to leave and eat somewhere else. We got home around 9pm. Unfortunately, the 2 hours we'd been gone, hadn't changed the temp inside the house at all. It's cool when you stand right infront of it. And perhaps that's what we'll do tomorrow and temps promise to be almost as high tomorrow afternoon!! So, we'll try again tomorrow and see what happens.

Oh, funny thing... when we left for the mall, we decided to leave the dogs out in the house, not in their room as before. When we got home, Oreo, was out running the neighborhood!! We don't know for sure how she got out of the yard, but we're pretty sure she wiggled her way through the gate on the side of the house... which is very unlike her, as she won't go near a door if it's cracked and she thinks it might close. So, we know that Tootsie isn't the one to worry about when we leave them home alone, it's Oreo, our calmer, more anxious dog!! :) Ok, so not such a funny story... Just checked the answering machine and heard a neighbor called to tell us our dog was out running the neighborhood and she almost hit her with her car... Not so good!!

P.S. Even though I've been a bit overweight all my life, I must admit I've never had trouble with chaffing. Perhaps I am a lucky one. But being pregnant in this heat, especially 8 months pregnant, has not allowed me to keep saying that statement as truth. Today, after being home for one hour at 6pm, I sweated so much that I developed a small area of chaffing on the top of my belly!! Poor baby within!! But Baby Powder is my new best friend in this heat!!