Arrrgh!!!

...and women's too. I am concerned about our ecology. Our household recycles more materials than just about anyone I know. Glass, plastic, paper, cardboard, chipboard...you name it, it goes out in our recycling. We are willing to heat the house to less than 70 degrees in the winter, and cool it to 76-78 degrees in the summer. We do not keep our grass to a regulation 2 inches, and a great deal of our outdoor work is done by hand, where it can be.

I'm contemplating keeping a bucket to catch water as the shower warms up, to be used to water the plants, and we have not let the water run as we brush our teeth for ages. We use hair products that pump, rather than spray. We've begun to change our light bulbs to those which are better choices ecologically.

We limit our driving. We have ALWAYS done all our errands in groups, and tried to create the shortest route possible. We're becoming savvy about eating food grown nearby, so that we're not adding shipping fuels to the expense of getting them to us.

We have areas where we can certainly do even better, but we try, and we try hard, to avoid making our ecology any worse than it is. But, I think I've found the point where I may find it difficult to be a good citizen.

I ran two errands today and when I came home, I felt like I was ready for the paramedics! It was all due to the humidity. We have been in a drought area for a number of years now. We finally got a tiny bit of rain the past few days, and coupled with heat in the 80s, voilà: HUMIDITY!

I'd forgotten just how bad humidity affects me. Unfortunately, I'm one of those people whose head and face perspires buckets when it's humid. I get to the point where I look like I'm standing in my own private waterfall. There's no way the perspiration can do it's job to cool me, because there's too much of it, and the humidity won't allow it to evaporate. So, I get warmer and warmer, and can't find any relief. At least during exercise I can wear a headband, but it's not realistic to think I could wear one all the time.

So, I cannot give up my air-conditioning. I wonder what would happen to me if our circumstances changed and I didn't have access to cooler, DRIER, air? I can envision renting a carrel at the library (if they had them). I could haunt the mall, or do a lot of grocery shopping. I could fill the tub with cool water and immerse myself for an hour or so. If I was still working, maybe we could find a small part of an air-conditioned office to sublet. I don't need a lot of space.

Meanwhile, I pray for enough rain to keep my plants going, but not enough to drown me in my own perspiration the following day. There has to be an answer to this problem!