Inasmuch as we are having so much in the way of heat waves, all over the U.S. and in Europe I thought you all might be interested in saying how you are coping, or have coped with this problem in the past. BBC News. http;//new.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/medical-notes/5190094.stm. A four page primer seems well worth a look.While we all think we know how to handle things, it’s always good to read a reminder..
Beat the Heat
Here is some information from the Red Cross
Are You Ready for a Heat Wave? http://www.redcross.org/static/file_cont203_lang0_93.pdf
Stay Cool
Ya know, this heatwave has gotten me thinking about a loss of power during a pandemic/disaster. We in FL are used to the high heat/humidity. But we also have ubiquitous air conditioning. And we are VERY used to it.
I keep thinking about what would happen to all those exposed to extreme heat WITHOUT the benefit of electricity. That means no air conditioning, fans, refrigeration.
Just in FL alone, our population consists of a significant percentage of elderly citizens. Those with various medical conditions suffer even more with extreme heat. And certain medications make them more susceptible to heat stroke, etc.
We have had the thread regarding the status of the electrical grid. Regardless of your position on that situation, we have been witness to many glitches to downright failure of the system with this heatwave.
Loss of power will require that more energy be exerted to continue basic daily activities. Can you picture the elderly or ill people trying to carry water, supplies, etc. in high heat? There will be an additional chance of illness from ingesting bad water/food requiring more (clean) water. Add any medication that causes vasodilitation and it is a recipe for disaster. Medication that requires refrigeration will be at risk for loss of potency or deterioration making it ineffective.
We currently recommend those without air conditioning to go to “cooling centers” to give them a break from the heat and get them thru the hottest time of day. In a pandemic, there will be an inability to travel and with prolonged power outages, no cool place to be found.
This is where my brain stops. I can’t fathom an acceptable solution to this situation. Sure, a few of us might have alternate power sources, but most won’t. And a scarcity of clean water will add to the situation.
I assume that TPTB recognize the immensity of such a scenario. Loss of utilities will surely mean increased deaths, regardless of the situation. I’m thinking that my healthcare worker dose of Tamiflu (ha) needs to go to a utility worker first. One utility worker = thousands of lives affected vs. me = hundreds.
G. I guess this means there are NO diabetics or hemophiliacs living in the heat of the jungle. I keep thinking how a massive disaster, whether natural or man-made, immediately brings us to a survival of the fittest mode. Scary.
The flu would be bad. The side effects on society could be worse.
How do you cool with no power and limited water?
Spray yourself with a spray bottle and waive paper like a fan?
Douse yourself in your stored water and hope for power?
Walk to a lake/creek if possible, ignoring all pathogens, and dip yourself repeatedly?
Dig a hole in the ground one evening/night to cool yourself “like in a cave” the next day?
Any other options?
only thing i can hope for is, isn’t “flu season” for my areas anyhow (USA — mid - atlantic states) during the winter and spring months? I.E. I wouldn’t expect to see pandemic flu break out here in July and August.
ACM,
Seasonal (annular) flus usually run Oct-April in the Northern Hemisphere. Pandemic flus know no season
I thought pandemic flu, just like any other flu, spreads by droplets floating through the air (sneezing) and that such things were far more likely in dry air, not humid? At least, that humid air would significantly slow down the spread?
Hell, living in DC I’m COUNTING on the humidity to be good for something, please don’t tell me I’m wrong! (-:
humidity increases the transmissability of influenza.
I started a ventilation thread on non-powered ventilation, but it did not go very far. I’m planning on using a KAP;
See this link http://www.oism.org/nwss/s73p917.htm
ACM: After visiting DC and riding on the Metro, I think it’s a good bet that no matter what the weather is like, panflu is going to spread like wildfire.
Average Concerned Mom: As Melanie pointed out, pandemics know no season. That’s one of the defining characteristics of pandemic. They most often explode out of cycle with seasonal flu. Sorry.
while pandemics know no season, it’s probable a pandemic would spread over two complete seasonal cycles. I’ve given as much thought as I can to this heat problem (since I live in baja and it’s hotter’n hades out there) Mexicans often sleep on their roofs at night to get away from the radiated heat of the building and earth. I’ve also considered that icey ball thing (ammonia and heat fired cooling system) but I can’t seem to find someone here to make me one.
my best solution so far is shade and a twelve volt fan operated on solar and deep cycle golf cart batteries. I do wonder if a battery charger hooked to the batteries to keep them charged… might make an inexpensive cooling system (with said 12V fan)
My parents live in Los Angeles (Calif.) which had record breaking heat for 2 weeks about 10 days ago. I visited during the heat wave. We were lucky that the power did not go out except for one afternoon after I left. The outage was not widespread so they found a hotel with power for the night.
In the event of a prolonged power outage, I have suggested that my parents use spray bottles and battery operated fans.
I wonder what people who live in Phoenix and other dry areas would do (I have friends in Phoenix).
Any thoughts or suggestions about how to deal with this would be appreciated.
Mike
In dry areas, wetting a towel or washcloth and draping it over your body helps a lot, especially if there is a breeze. Evaporative cooling is great stuff!
I don’t want to make my bills skyrocket, but an oscillating fan that plays on you is very cooling. I haven’t used it yet. So far I’ve been going out in the evening and washing down my hair and arms and face with rain water. Hair never softer. Also keeping washclothes in fridge and putting them on the back of my neck. If you put sheets in a plastic bag in the freezer, than use it just before going to sleep it seems condusive to feeling a bit comfortable until you fall asleep. Of course you sweat while sleeping. It usually cools down at nite, so I sit outdoors until the mosquitoes devour me.Put feet in a basin of rain water with a few ice cubes. The nites are getting hotter they say, everywhere on earth. Usually the earth cools down, but now it isn’t cooling off at night. Enviormental factors. I think everyone has to have some strategies to make themselves as comfortable as is possible.
Although we’ve not had any loss of power, the utilites folks are asking for voluntary conservation of power. We’re trying to help by conserving as much as possible plus switching our major power usage-laundry/ showers (hot water) vaccuming etc early in the morning. It has occured to me that this is also a good drill for possible outages/brownouts during flu epidemic. The heat is worrisome.
I meant to say-the heat is one of my big worries, esp in regards to the elderly.
Watch a documentary on National Geographic channel last night. If you choose to be outside in the evenings make sure you protect yourself from mosquitos. If you had watched this show you’d know that they are much more dangerous than you might think. It covered West Nile Virus, Malaria, Yellow Fever, River Blindness (flies not mosquitos) and Dengue. Don’t think none of these affect North America now or in the future.
If you are outside to sleep make sure you have netting over you because mosquitos hide during the day and come out at night looking for blood. Using netting with built-in insecticide showed sharp reductions in Malaria. I think it said 436 people got West Nile in California last year. Some died, some paralyzed for life and some very very sick.
I am not in the sweltering heat like LA or NY but I’m sensitive to heat so I do take precautions as our house absorbs heat like crazy. I have a small AC that helps but doesn’t do the whole house. I bought black out liners for the west windows of which we have a lot and a lot of direct sun. I close the windows in the morning, cover the windows with blinds and drapes. I keep lights off as much as possible. I actually will hop in the hottub when it’s really hot and I find that afterwards I sweat until my body starts to chill, then I go to bed. Do they still recommend salt (tablets) to increase drinking water? I drink a lot of water with electrolytes, potassium and sodium.
We have a basement that has been cool so far, so I was planning to sleep down there if our power failed. We have a chaise longue with plastic tubes instead of webbing and a nylon and aluminum cot, so the heat would dissipate fairly well. I think sitting in the bathtub would feel cooling, but it’s easier to do with just DH and me. This year, with running water, that is. The whole house got hotter as the 95 degree days went on, so the second floor bedroom was 89 on the 3rd morning, despite leaving the windows open every night.
Sorry, different computer, anonymous was Jane
A few years ago a neighbor of ours contracted West Nile. Although he was in his 70′s he was a hale and hearty very healthy farmer. I was astonished by how the disease ravaged him. He spent three weeks in Intensive care in Louisville. ( Around here, if your ill enough to go to Louisville, your pretty much at death’s door.) He did survive, but he was never the same. That episode caused dh and I to be extreamly vigilent about tracking down any sources of standing water, and it has definatly helped, but there are still mosiqitoes out there. I urge people to take precautions!
I have been thinking of an umbrella with amosquito netting floating around it, as I sit in my nitegown sipping a green martini or iced tea, my feet in a basin of water with a few ice cubes in it, as I watch the bats swooping around. The back yard of course, no sense shocking anyone. They would think I was a nutcake, they all use their air conditioning.
I have asked my Mother this exact question as she, her two sisters, my Grandmother and Great Grandmother all lived through many summers in Texas without any electricity, and every task was done the “old fashioned” way. I asked her how in the heck they survived the heat, and she said they didn’t know any better. :) Of course, some of the things that they did do to stay cool were to get up early and get all of the hard work done while it was still early. They took cues from the Mexicans and rested during the heat of the day. A lot of the cooking was done outside so as not to heat up the house by firing up the woodstove. Flour sacks were soaked and hung in the windows (as their windows didn’t have screens) to help cool the interior and keep out bugs. At night, the linens were removed from the beds and soaked in water and rung out well so they were damp and not wet, and were put back on the bed just before turning in. They would also wash their hair at night and go to bed with their hair damp. My Great Grandmother used to bring her bed out into the front yard and sleep outside. :) Of course, I don’t think they worried too much about mosquitoes. Many of the more affluent families had screened in “sleeping porches” on their houses where they would put their beds. Almost every house had some type of covered porch on it, even the little shanty that my Mother lived in. People sat on their porches in the shade a lot. Women wore light cotton dresses which I still think are cooler than shorts or pants. I think more than anything, you simply learn to live with the heat and your body adjusts. My GreatGrandmother walked a couple of miles into town everyday to sell her eggs and did that almost until the day she died. She lived to be 96.
Just as a sidenote, it was 105F where I am just a little while ago. It has cooled down to a mere 100 now. :)
I found the washing of my hair before going to sleep the very best. Today after a bad nite I went to my local Y and took a long very,very hot shower, just to feel extra cool when I stepped out. I am a little leery of mosquitoes, but we have little brown bats that swoop around so it isn’t as bad as it could be. I sit now in the back in my nitegown and slather on insect repellent. I should make up a mosquito netting hat out of one of my old sun hats. Very quiet and velvety at nite. Set foot indoors and its stale air.
I’ve got one word for you…
nekkid
In the winter cold, you can keep piling the clothes on to keep warm, but in heat like we’re experiencing now, you can only take so much off before someone gets offended!
Thie looks promising.
Wonderful, and cheaper than the 299 a nite hotel charge than my usual free hotel is charging in this heat wave. (About $10 for N.J. hotel tax) My neighbor couldn’t understand how I had rooms for 10 when she was quoted prices like 600. Now I know what she was talking about.
How about a Chillow Pillow…many sites available to purchase online. This is only one I found. Might be really great to help relieve a fever too.
This topic came up a while back:
http://www.fluwikie2.com/pmwiki.php?n=Forum.CoolIdeasForHotDays
And another one:
http://www.fluwikie2.com/pmwiki.php?n=Forum.UnpoweredVentilation
We have a basement and until recently (after 112 degree days) it has been somewhat cooler. No central air downstairs, only fans. I think I am going to try Lily’s idea of freezing at least a top sheet to cool us as we are falling asleep.
A lot of heat goes out the head and feet. Taking off socks and rinsing feet and then using a wet hankerchief on the neck or over the head helps alot. You can also cool dogs by dipping thier feet in water or drapeing a wet towel over thier head
I stopped going to flea markets in the summer as I always overheated. So I learned that running cold water over my wrists, and keeping a bit of ice in an igloo cooler and bathing my feet in cold water took my internal temp down. I also noticed at Wegmans a lady used the ice machine on the soda fountain and let ice go into the plastic bag with her meat purchases. I thought it a bit much, but a small plastic cup of ice dumped into your purchases from the machine should be a bit more discrete, and if you overheat, just running it up and down your arms helps.
Alcohol based gel hand sanitizer- all over bare feet, hands and neck. Actually here many who work outdoors refuse to allow air conditioning in their homes. They say after a few weeks they get acclimated to the heat, but a/c messes them up to the point where they suffer every day.
Ladies, try a closed bottle of cold water on the center of your chest. Sure cools me down!
If I may, it seems that many are missing the point: how do you keep cool WITHOUT electricity. The grid powers your refridgerators (most of them) that provide the ice, the cold water or the chilled sheets. Also, those of us who live in the steamy southeast will get not relief from evaporative cooling (wet sheets, wet window hangings, etc.) As a transplanted Yankee in the Old South, I’ve given much thought to this too. My #1 strategy is too open the house at nite and close it up during the day. So many people, quite natually, open the windows when it is hot inside. That only works if it is cooler outside than inside or if you can get a good breeze to rustle thru the house. #2 strategy is a battery powered fan. In my case, I’m putting in sizable solar panels so I can have regular fans powered by rather robust batteries, but flashlite battery fans exist. I used one in the jungles of Costa Rica when I was fatter (MUCH) than now, and it helped enormously. Campmor has them. #3 strategy is to dig basement of sorts—a LOT of work and expense, but given the sultry South as my home, it may be worth it for extended heat waves like we recently had.
Gary -
Even prior to pandemic flu preparations, we were considering a pre-fab below ground tornado shelter. Any idea what the temp would be in one of those during a hot summer? Thought it might serve dual purpose as a fraidy hole and retreat from the heat (along with battery-op fans) if the grid was down. Thoughts?
Last week when it got over 100 here, our dog started digging a tunnel to China, searching for cool earth. I guess we could do the same, and line it with wet blankets, if it were a life-threatening heat spell.
Lily, I love the idea of an umbrella with flowing mosquito-proof fabric hanging from it. It even sounds picturesque.
Grew up in deep south Texas with no air conditioning. Some tips:
Here in coastal Texas, unfortunately, we can’t have a nice cool basement - too close to the water table.
Moeb at — 16:37 I’ve also considered that icey ball thing (ammonia and heat fired cooling system) but I can’t seem to find someone here to make me one. I have surfed the entire Internet in both English and French for these icyballs. I even got plans from one who sells them for 15$. But to someone my ability, I can’t make it. There are other products to be used apart from ammonia - experiments have been done with zeolite (spelling?). One would need to find a product with particular boiling points. The point is the whole system is under pressure whatever product you use, so it is difficult to build. If someone could give me better plans than I got, I can buy ammonia in the DIY store in France and have a go. I’m handy with tools, but not so much with soldering, for which I am not that well equipped. Some people advocate the use of the old propane fridge system, which you can sometimes find in second hand sales. I remember I used to have one of those. I retrieved two old fridges for dismantling and looking, but they were not this sort, and my friends made me throw them out, they looked horrible in bits on the lawn. Some say you can use camping fridges, but their capacity is small. Some countries in Africa have had test fridges which use solar power with one of these refrigerants. I’d love to be able to make an icyball or find some way to refrigerate with solar heat.
Perhaps Eccles would have a look at this? Maybe we should have a Refrigerating with Solar Power thread? If interested I can give most of my links?
Well, now I see that we had a refrigeration thread where Eccles commented on the icyball and decided he would not do it - sigh.
FrenchieGirl – at 16:15
The icyball and a lot of other ideas were considered and rejected. It seems that there is no easy and inexpensive way to keep things cool.
Thanks Hillbilly Bill. That was my conclusion too, but I’d hoped maybe one of you had found the solution.
About the best solutions were to either apply short periods of cooling to a well-insulated freezer that is packed full of frozen water bottles, or to add some cooling to water drawn from a cold spring or well. Both require power of some sort and have their limitations.
Packing the freezer up with ice/frozen bottles worked for us recently, as well as covering the freezer with heavy blankets to keep it insulated. After 2.5 days everything was still frozen. I don’t know how much longer that would have lasted but if power is available once in awhile to cool it off again that would work. Thank goodness our basement stayed fairly comfortable - we all slept down there. The kids had a ball. My back still aches from the pull-out couch!
The other thing we did that helped the house was we kept it shut tight after the power went out (the ac had been one). The top floor got pretty hot after one day, but the first floor (kitchen/family room) stayed tolerable. We figured the inside temp of 86 was better than the outside temp of 99! Again, another day I’m not sure that would have lasted, but if power loss is intermitent it might be helpful.
I’ve been thinking about this myself recently. When we moved into this house recently the power had not yet been turned on. It was HOT! We moved in during a heat wave of 100 degree temps with high humidity that we were not used to. To top it off we had no refridgerator so there was not much we could do to cool of short of taking cold showers. My DH has congestive heart problems and I have high BP, neither is a good thing to have in such conditions. We have been thinking about trying to buy or build a home here. This is an area the was affected by hurricane Rita last year despite being quite a ways inland. The power was out for 12 days after that hurricane. one day without power is bad enough for people with our medical problems, 12 days….I just don’t know how we could manage. Alternative power is something we absolutely MUST consider in our plans for a home. I really think one of those whole house generators that is tied into the gas service is going to be a necessity we must consider. Solar may be an option as well but I worry about the solar panels getting damaged by the high winds and possibly by hail in the event of a major storm. It’s a discussion we will need to have with a contractor when the time comes so that we can perhaps have several back-up sources of power. I don’t know how my GG-Grandparents ever managed living in such a place in the days before air conditioning.
Poppy – at 23:16 --- Don’t know if you ever looked into solar here in CA, but PG&E has a contractor that can install shields for the panels (for a modest fee, of course!). My guess is where you’re at now, it could very well be a wise investment. Try to find out if the local utility company offers the same type of rebates that PG&E offers here for solar panel installation. Last I heard, they’d rebate (subsidize) up to 70% of the cost of installation.
A big part of dealing with heat is mental. If you decide to stop fighting it, and stop trying to accomplish things in the hottest part of the day, you can just find a cool spot in the shade and be spiritual for a few hours. That’s how my dear old neighbor survives it. She sits in her rocker on the enclosed porch, either reading a bible or staring at the children outside. She also doesn’t eat much. I remind her to drink water, but she is fine. Catch a breeze. There’s got to be one somewhere. We can learn a lot from other animals.
By the way, my dear neighbor’s environmental “footprint” is small compared to most Americans and their big machines.
Thanks Bill. That’s something worth checking into. I like the idea of solar power and if I can get a rebate for having it installed so much the better. There sure is no lack of sunshine here. I just think having one or more backup systems is a good idea for everyone these days. One only need to look at the strain on power grids during these summer heat waves to see why. I would have a windmill too if I wasn’t afraid some wind would come along and wreck it.
OK birwatcher, Haven’t seen this thread until now, so late to respond. I’m told that all caves settle down to about the mean annual surface temperature of their area. Thus, your cellar, while not being as constant as a cave, should be a lot cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. That is the principle of underground houses, they use a lot less energy because the temperature of the earth around them changes a whole lot less than the outside air temperature. Thus, one of the things old people would do years ago when it got too hot was to retreat to the basement. Some public buildings in my area are actually putting in air conditioning systems that use holes bored deep into the ground. They put U-shaped pipes in them and run water down and then up in them to air conditioners above groud. Pretty fancy, and, I’d guess, pretty expensive to install. Yep, cellars are neat. You can store vegetables that need the cool and humidity, wait out tornados, and keep your cool all at once.
FrenchieGirl – at 15:28 Moeb at — 16:37 I’ve also considered that icey ball thing (ammonia and heat fired cooling system) but I can’t seem to find someone here to make me one. I have surfed the entire Internet in both English and French for these icyballs. I even got plans from one who sells them for 15$.
SCW AZ: I’d be willing to give it a look. If you’ve got plans. I am a member of a metal shop in my retirement community where one man (80 + years old) is building his third railroad steam engine (about 10 feet long) from a plan he has.
Unheated waterbeds help cool the body too
The laundromat where I do my laundry is cool and breezy. They keep the front and back door open, have a ceiling fan, and its actually very pleasant folding your clothes or if no other errands just reading a magazine there. I know my in laws spent summer evenings in a screen enclosed porch just sitting on a glider or rocking chairs, and chit chatting in the dark. For earlier in the nite, after supper, they sat in gliders on the side patio. Neighbors walked by in the evenings. You had T.V. but noone had airconditioning, and I don’t recall being miserable. I bought a chair umbrella at Shoprite on sale for a dollar. Usually buy large market umbrellas every few years, but haven’t replaced the old ones. If this delightful weather we are having right now turns nasty and humid, I’m going to try out sitting with mosquito netting until I’m ready to turn in for the nite.
It’s hotter than hammered hell here in SE Texas right now. My lantana looks like tumbleweeds… and my garden is wilting. Having grown up south of somewhere my entire life, and growing up in the 50′s & 60′s w/o AC (well, early 60′s no AC) all I can say is you adapt. We didn’t sit around with battery operated fans that shot out mists of water (although… I have these gadgets in my prep’s). My family had an attic fan, but most of my friends and extended family didn’t. People sat outside in lawn chairs while kids chased lightening bugs. We ate most meals outside on a picnic table or on a blanket. We slept with the windows open (w/o fear of being robbed, raped or murdered.) When it rained, and it usually rained often… the rain blew into the house through the open windows. After the rain, the heat created a miserable steam. But, we sat on porches or carports or under trees in lawn chairs or in hammocks and talked, read, played cards, etc., inspite of the steamy heat. We fanned ourselves with fans we made, or fans given to us at church or from some local store. We wiped sweat off with hankies or “rags”. We didn’t know any better, we didn’t know any difference. It just wasn’t a big deal.
Now, I am spoiled by central AC/H. But that would be just another thing I’d have to adapt to… like it or not. One thing I remember vividly: sweat was cooling! Also, shade could mean as much as 10 degrees of cooler-ness.
What I am more worried about are the things that come out in droughts or excess rain… snakes and such. This year we have seen more snakes than I can ever remember. And it is creeping me out. I think about having to sleep outside to keep cool… and I can’t help but hope it isn’t a heat like “this” summer… the summer of the snakes!
Many of us don’t have porches any more.
Then, I’d invest in an umbrella and a wide brimmed hat.
I think that as a whole we have adapted to always having ac, and our bodies aren`t used to coping with the heat, I grew up in Phoenix, many years ago. Then the only places that had ac were large stores. Used to go to matinees for cool relief. But, it was summer, and it was hot. WE ran our swampers, and drank lots of fluids, iced tea, water mainly. Walked everywhere, would hurry from patch of shade to patch of shade. The point is we were adapted to the heat. I have a small ac unit in bedroom for monsoon days, when I need to sleep, because I work nights. Otherwise I just use my swamper, and during periods of high dewpoints,it doesn`t cool very well. I take an afternoon shower,if too sticky. Drink lots of water, and don`t do silly things like mow the lawn at high noon.I`ve readapted to the temps here in the desert. At least you don`t have to shovel hot, is how I look at it. :-) Come winter,I feel for folks living where that weird white stuff covers the ground.At least I won`t have heating issues.
This is the most bizarre August. I love it this week. Opened windows in the a.m. are like Maine in June. Sleeping with a light blanket as otherwise am aware I am chilled. Lovely cool summer mornings, but without that magic light that arrives in Sept to October. The end of summer. I always remember that the Jewish holy days had gorgeous weather when I was down the shore. I think its not just heat waves that get us down, its the expectation that we can be cooler that we have grown to expect with universal airconditiong in stores, malls, libraries, anyplace you go, even if you don’t have it at home. We were acclimated to it years ago, didn’t know any better, just coped. When I pass houses now,how few have wrap around porches or rooms with screens. When I was down in Pa. at Ike and Mamie Eisenhowers farm, I was impressed that they lived most of their days in their enclosed sun room. At least that was what I was told. They sat in comfortable chairs, ate there, read there looking out over the rose garden and the fields. We have lost so much with our comforts, that now will be so expensive to maintain. We’ll just have to adjust. I’m glad I’m flexable.
Lily,
I love your posts…so Hemingway-like…
You wrote you are glad you are “flexible.” And apparently Healthy! :)
But, many people with various health problems would have a difficult time dealing with unmitigated heat. People are living longer today with more health problems, but IMO, no matter what the CFR is for a designated age group, those that are dependent on certain meds and modern conveniences, will be some of the most vulnerable.
I wonder if there may even be a larger loss of life today than 1918 because of that fact. In 1918, those with any serious illness (not panflu) usually died quickly. Those that survived, often did so because of their stamina.
Today, the sick, even the VERY sick, are often still alive because of our technology. Modern conveniences, like air conditioning, clean water, refrigeration, all contribute to their survival. They are like “props”, keeping these patients supported. Pull out the props, and….
The loss of the infrastructure which provides such conveniences, would seem to be a major insult to these people. Our population is aging (you are ageless), many are dependent on those props, and would not survive unless well-prepared. Many are also now housed in multi-family dwellings with limited air flow and water access.
Even my DH, who is middle-aged and healthy as a horse, (with one exception - malignant hypertension), would be in distress. Without one specific med, his BP hovers around 200/100. If he did not have his meds, plus the heat, and the stress of increased physical work, he would be in great danger. <even moreso if we have to SIP together for any amount of time with kids> Needless to say, HE will be prepared.
It’s as tho our technology has created a new group. Healthy, but with modifiers/asterisks/addendums. Remove the supports, and they immediately fall into another group - unstable and at risk.
I see this group as being as vulnerable as the one being targeted by a panflu. So, I fear the loss of this group as well as those from a panflu, something we didn’t have in 1918.
With prepping, they could improve their survival chances.
But we see how many are prepping. Very few.
I find that in this one week of fine weather without any humidity to speak of I feel more inclined to plan activities. I just signed up for free yoga sessions which I am sure I would not have done in the heat of the week previous.
nsthesia. I have poor heat control. I overheat and don’t disperse it. So I do everything in my power to compensate. I think that is what I do for any problem. I compensate and adjust, and noone is the wiser. We all have these mechanisms to adjust to the realities we all face, each one of us with something different. The frailer among us, who can say. I am taking Tasha Tudor as my role model for the coming years. She is ninety, looks frail, but seems as sturdy as a young pony in her doings. I don’t much care for her art work, a bit on the sweet side, but the art in which she exists and leads her life.
Dear Lily,
“Poor heat control?” Do I foresee some yoga al fresco in your future?
At the least, a flowing, white cotton dress, floppy wide-brimmed hat, sipping a mint julep from your veranda…
Methinks you could “keep cool” in any situation. And THAT is probably the most important prep of all.
nsthesia. Walking now that the weather is in the low eighties. Signed up for free yoga twice a week. Teach is 8 months pregger, so I don’t think she’ll push me. A little stiff in the joints, want to get a bit thinner so when I start baking bread I won’t baloon out.
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