I love the change of seasons; in Michigan, the change of seasons can happen all in one day! I feel sorry for people that live in an area where the climate barely changes. I enjoy the smells and colors of fall! The white and cold and crispness of winter. The life rejuvenation of spring. And the warmth and activities of summer! Of course, for each season, I have an appropriate number of snuggly throws to wrap around myself at naptime. What’s the best time for nap time? Any time is the best time for nap time.
As I settled into my comfy chair for my first nap of the day, I used a light colorful sheet as my throw blanket for a warm summer nap! As I was about to drop off to sleep, my wife yelled out, “Joel, shouldn’t we turn on the air-conditioning today? It’s going to be 90 and high humidity!” I replied,” You know how I hate air-conditioning and air-conditioning bills! Nope, we will just use the fans.
When we built our house, I included many fans: One whole house fan pulls the air through the open windows and pushes it out the attic vents; you can exchange the air in about 15 minutes with the outside air and cool it down. Three large ceiling fans, one in every bedroom, two tower fans, three window fans, and a tabletop fan. We topped it off with a large fan with lights and a 70-inch wingspan in the family room we call: “Vanilla!” “Fanzilla!” on full power will move couches! We turn on all the fans, and my home converts to a hover house! I’m surprised my hover house does not start flying across the lake, or maybe it could fly to the ice cream parlor on a hot day! Yes, I am a fan of fans.
As the day warmed up, it was like a chess game; with each temperature increase, I put on another fan, and when the outside temp hit 90 degrees, all fans were on! It felt like a windstorm in the house. The cat ran to the basement to escape the wind. The dogs were panting, I was sweating, the humidity must have reached 95%, and the mosquitoes quit flying so they would not drown in the high humidity. The fans were so loud we had to turn the volume up on the television to its highest setting! I started a movie marathon, “Ice Station Zebra,” then “Abominable Snowman,” “Happy Feet,” and finally “Eight Below”! I consumed ice cream, held my head in front of the open freezer, and sucked on ice cubes! As bedtime approached, about 9:00pm these days, I went to bed, and the suffering commenced. Hot, muggy air! I felt like I was deep in the Amazon forest or in one of Finland’s hottest saunas. I developed a water mustache as my CPAP fogged up, I wiped it off, and in a few seconds, it reappeared. Finally, I jumped out of bed and yelled: “Turn off the fans, close the windows, I’m putting on the Air-Conditioning! Within 20 minutes, the house cooled down, and soon, it was nice, cool, and comfortable. I love air conditioning! I hate the bills!
“Remember, every day is a gift! Some are just a little more fun to open than others!” – Joel Vernier, Author of “The Guinea Pig In The Freezer!”
