Four Ways To Keep Cool

Summer seems to have officially begun here in Nashville (we've had three days in the high 80s last week), and I'm breaking out all my strategies to keep from overheating and melting my brain. Readers of my profile will note my references to being a sweaty person. I think I take this one step beyond normal people and actually have a "condition." Therefore, I have to take additional precautionary measures to remain chilled out during the hot months. One may ask why I wanted to move to a warmer climate. Well, for the sunshine, of course!

For those of you who live in a perpetual state of summer (Florida or SoCal) and for those of you who are still waiting for summer to come (poor Michiganders!), here are my tips for keeping cool in warm weather:

1. Undershirts. I know that the idea of wearing MORE clothing in hot weather seems crazy, but I learned in the scorching, humid weather of a Taiwan August that wearing at least a cotton tank under all of your clothes somehow really does make you cooler. Not being much of a physicist, I'm not sure if it's that the undershirt absorbs the sweat, somehow creating a layer of cool-dampness between your skin and your outer shirt, or if the sun doesn't shine as hot on your skin through two layers of clothes, or what exactly, but I know it works. I only own about four tanks right now, so it's time to go shopping for more.

2. Frozen Grapes. If you have never tried frozen grapes, I encourage you to live a little. The idea of freezing fresh fruit goes against my better judgement (I am remembering how the bananas we froze for milkshakes when I was younger turned out brown and ugly and dried after a few weeks in the freezer), but with grapes it really seems to work and they turn into better versions of themselves. Wash grapes, pull them from stems, place in Tupperware or freezer bags, and enjoy in a couple of hours. Healthier than ice cream, more tasty than ice cubes (what isn't?), frozen grapes are juicy and cold, immediately dropping your body temperature. For some reason, the sweetness of this treat also seems luxurious to me. A nod back to the debauchery of the ancient Romans, perhaps?

3. Gatorade. Water is my drink of choice, but when I am really, really hot, I go for Gatorade. I don't know if it's the electrolytes or what, but Gatorade can actually give me a chill and I feel like I can sense every part of my internal system cooling down, one cell at a time. This is the most cooling drink I have ever had.

4. Air Conditioning. Yes, this may be a no-brainer for many of you, but for me (cheap, cheap, cheap) it is an internal battle to turn on the central air each season, and then another internal battle to decide how low to keep the thermostat. As the temperatures got higher this season, I was determined not to turn on the AC before June 1 (an arbitrary date that popped into my head for no good reason). I suffered through two of the 88 degree days, opening the windows after dark and using a fan to pull in cooler air at night, but by the third day the apartment was up to 80 degrees inside and Les urged me to "not be stupid and to just turn on the AC." I set it at 70 (it is wonderful how quickly a one-bedroom apartment cools down, compared to 1800 sq.ft. house!) and slept wonderfully. The heat continued and I kept the AC on, but today it's down to 75 outside so the air is off and the windows are open again. I have to admit it was hard to get used to the humidity, after being spoiled by coolness and dryness, but I tried to toughen up, recalling something we learned last October while touring the Hemingway House in Key West -- Ernest Hemingway, living in this especially hot and humid part of Florida, refused to have air conditioning in his house (even though it was technologically available) because he prefered the fresh air instead. However, in looking for a website which cited that fact, I stumbled upon this article, written by Patrick Hemingway's wife, which says that nearly everything the tour guides in the Key West Hemingway House tell you is a complete fabrication.

With this one and only toughing-up factoid debunked, I guess it's back to AC for me.