Monday, July 24, 2006

Turn on the air conditioning, please...

I'm melting. And I'm quite sure that I'm very close to losing my mind as well.

As I'm sure we've mentioned before, nothing in Basel (including houses/apartments) is air conditioned. I've really never been bothered by that before because the heat here is nothing like what we lived with in DC. Now, I think it's coming close. For the past 2+ years we've heard everyone in Basel complain about the infamous Summer of 2004. The "hot summer". Well, I've now heard a few people say that this current heat wave may actually be worse than the 2004 heat because it's also humid. We've had countless days in a row of temps in the 90s, with humidity, and it hardly even cools off in the evening. The temperature inside our house is generally 82 or 83 by noon, after dipping to a morning cool temperature of 77 or 78. That is not cool enough! I've found that it's somewhat bearable if I sit right in front of the fan and don't move, but as soon as I start moving I begin sweating profusely which makes me miserable, especially when holding (or nursing) a beautiful little Baby (aka "the heat machine").

Normally, I wouldn't complain about a warm summer because I would just plant myself at the pool to stay cool, but now I have a little one to care for (not to mention that my doctor recommends waiting 6 weeks post-delivery to go swimming again-- is that torture or what?). While we try to get out to run errands or take a walk or visit with friends every morning, I always try to be back home by early afternoon so that I don't cause Baby to have a meltdown (literally). That's when I start to go crazy! Seriously, cabin fever is starting to set in. Is there any end in sight to this heat?!