Heat

Let me start by saying that I will not be complaining about the heat. So don't let my post title deceive you. I don't mind the excessive temperatures that we are having. Actually, I most definitely prefer the steamy heat waves to the bitter cold snaps. I cope with heat quite well. Here's the problem: I have been forced to use air conditioning for years now. Though I may tolerate the heat, well...Josh? Not so much. He's more than happy to live with the technology of air conditioning. I mean, heck. He is a heating an air conditioning guy, right? And with children came allergies. With allergies came the need to block the outdoor air out. Open windows + allergies = bad time for Alex. So here I sit in my 77 degree house all summer long. Apparently the years have slowly desensitized me to the effects of air conditioning. Those effects hit me this weekend. It's hay season which means I get to go on my annual trip to the fields in the blistering heat and work my butt off under a blazing sun. Generally I do just fine. Keep in mind this is one of the biggest heat waves we've had in a while. (Actually I have to tell myself that to make myself feel better about what I'm about to say.) At the end of the first day of hay hauling, I sat down for one last break before unloading the last 30 bales of hay. I began to get nauseous. I could feel the water I'd just guzzled swirling around in my over-heated belly while mixing with a torment of acid. Not good. I stood up and felt the world begin to spin. Dizzy now. Great. My head had already been pounding for an hour or two and the bright flashing warning signs starting making sense in my head. I'd suddenly felt as though I'd just been run over.

What did they say in my first aid class? Oh yeah...heat exhaustion. Yep. That was it. Ugh...

I went inside to cool down but it just wasn't helping. I got home later and tried to feel better. It took pretty much all night for me to feel half as good as I should have felt. Two days later it was back into the field for round two. Luckily we had our faithful annual hay hands Tommy and Chris to help. And then there's my mom. *sigh* My mother. She's got to be one of the toughest women I know. She's got 25 years on me and could run circles around me while juggling flaming pitchforks without even stopping for a break. Of course, she was pulling the 'mom card' with me and made me drive instead of stack hay (my normal job) in hopes of keeping me from dying...or some blather like that. So here's my mom...working the job that should be mine because of my frustrating new found weakness. Granted, once we got the hay loaded I had to work my buns off unloading the two trailers, but it was evening so heat exhaustion wasn't really going to be an issue. Of course, I fully plan on never letting this happen again. In a last desperate attempt to not feel like the weak link, I will blame the only thing I can. Air conditioning. They call it 'air conditioning' because the cool air is meant to condition you in to needing it. Oh well. I'm gonna go curl up in a blanket on the couch now. It's freezing in here.