Jul 09, 2015
What can I say but…..
…it’s hot out there and it’s hot in here. Yesterday we along with a number of other local cities broke some heat records and today we are going to do it once again. We are at 100F when the norm should be 81F for this time of year. Never before have we run our A/C from 8AM till 10PM. And then we run the huge overhead fan over the bed at night as we restlessly try and sleep.
As you know we have more windows than walls. On days like these where we face the rising sun in the morning and then the afternoon southern sun followed by the setting western sun we get rather hot on the inside of the house. Even with the A/C running. Full sun 80% of the day is tough on any A/C unit. On the side of the house where the furnace spews the cold air from our outside A/C unit we get down to 76F which is just fine. However where our desks are and where we spend the day, even with the A/C running full out, it is 87F right now at 5:15PM. Not the best of conditions to work in.
I’m tired of being kept inside, of not being able to go for a walk or a bike ride. Forget about taking the girls for a ride in the golf cart, they are panting after 2 blocks and I am after about 4 blocks. However if I go outside midday to take the girls out to do their business for five minutes and come back in, it seems blissfully cool. I am not complaining about our home, we love it but right now things are at the extreme. I’ve pretty much given up on my diet and am eating the wrong foods, my choice to cope with the situation. Of course it is the wrong choice but as I said to Colin last night ” I am done” 😯
Don’t ever recall being so unsettled living here. It’s more that depressing.
A very special thank you to the 62 Mexican fire fighters who have arrived in Alberta to help. Bienvenudos’. Meanwhile not only one contingent of firefighters have arrived from Ontario but two delegations have arrived. Thank you. Their cool and wet weather have allowed them to come help us. And then I hear from a reader, Ann in Indiana, I wish I could send you some of our rain. We have more than enough to put out all the fires. Crops drowned and houses flooded here in Indiana. Talk about extremes.
I just can’t get my head around the FACT that 2.6 million hectares have burned in Canada in the past few months.
According to one of the news reports today things are not improving.
10 of 18 new fires here in B.C. in the last 24 hours were human caused 🙁
Meanwhile back to our life. Colin brought the RV in on Monday to a local RV shop, to have new slide rubbers ( which we already had ) replaced on the slides. We have been having some wet carpet issues the last six months and as we already had the replacement rubbers ( ordered from Rexhall a few years ago ) we decided that this was the time. However it was not to be. Once the job was underway we received a phone call. There was too much rust on the rails to reapply the new rubber and it would have to go to a body shop. Colin was home doing photoshop and hopped in the car and was onsite within 15 minutes. Not a big deal in his opinion. There was only a 3 foot area of the entire slide that had rust ( likely rain seeping in ) but the RV dealer refused to deal with the situation. Lazy….oops, did I really write that 🙄
So he asked them to simply put some goop in that area and reapply the existing slide out rubber seal to restore it. He also asked them to replace the bulb seals on the flange. When he went back to pick up our RV, the seals on the slide out looked better than ever. Meanwhile we have contacted our wonderful RV tech, Eric from Manitoba/Mazatlan, who will replace the slide rubbers with no issues once we arrive on the Isla. Of course he will grind the bit of rust off and we will be as good as new. However Colin is confident that we are good for several more years now that he has seen the goop fix up and the new bulb seals. We shall see how the trip south goes and then decide.
Once the RV was done with the dealership, Colin drove the RV to a Freightliner shop where the two air bag were replaced. As we already had the parts, the cost to us for labor was a mere $212.00. Good deal. Why do we carry the extra airbags and the slide out rubbers? When we travel Mexico there are certain parts you can’t get and it behooves us to carry them. Over the years we have suffered with no A/C way south in Acapulco. Another time heading south the air bag came apart. Thank goodness and Colin with his attention to detail figured it out. Otherwise one of us would have had to stay in the RV at the side of the road while the other drove back to the USA to get the part. We can’t carry it all but certain things we do as we know they are impossible to get in Mexico and especially if we suspect that the part needs replacing very soon.
Colin is doing photography in a home that is extremely chilled. The owner keeps asking if he should turn up the ‘heat’. Meanwhile Carmeh keeps her vigil out the bedroom window.
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Mexico to the rescue!!!
Gracias!
BTW, they were the first responders to Hurricane Katrina with mobile soup kitchens and water filtration wagons.
I had no idea and thank goodness they came then and now.
The thing to do in this sort of situation with your windows is to get the blinds down and added insulation over top if you can.
The fires are something, aren’t they?
I’ve been reading so many nasty comments about the Mexican firefighters stealing jobs and gaming the system to get temporary work permits and residency (there’s even a comment to that effect after the article you posted). DISGUSTING. These men are so brave and generous!
Rae that might work for an RV but the windows in question here are 66 feet wide by 9′ 2 ” high. Impossible to do. We do have heat repellent blinds but still gets mighty hot in here.
Some people must be born with a negative malicious streak in them 🙁 I agree those Mexican firefighters are heros coming to our aid.
Our weather is holding at about 27-29 degrees per day but all the sunshine – although a sprinkle is in the 7 day forecast, lets hope that happens. We too have a home with a lot of windows which is great in our long dark rainy winters but hot in summer. As we work from home we too have AC and it is running all the time now. So glad the firefighters are coming – that plus they got the water bombers back up and working that were out of commission on Vancouver Island. I hope you see some relief soon!
Yes I had read that the one Mars water bomber was being tested yesterday and should be in the air ASAP. The other though has been sold to a museum in the US, Florida I believe. I know that the one will make a big difference in getting water on those fires.
You are right. It’s hot, even too hot! I think our electrical bill is going to be huge this Summer.
Darn Rod, I never even thought of the Fortis bill. Oh well, what ever it takes to stay cool.
I think you heat wave will soon be settling down and things will get back to normal for you, good luck.
You just might be right George. We have cloud cover and a cool breeze this morning with showers in the forecast. Sadly lightening is also in that same forecast.
Now that the weather is supposed to cool off, let’s see if anyone complains about it being too cold!
You won’t catch me complaining.