changing weather

A friend on facebook commented to my update of "why do I always get sick when the hot weather hits?" and reminded me of how the body dislikes rapid change. My body does not take heat well. My body especially doesn't take rapid heat fluctuations well. I know this because I picked up another cold right when the heat hit. This cold is not so bad if it was regular weather, but it is dreadfully horrible in this heatwave.

Yesterday the wind kicked up all sorts of crap into the air, and in order to survive the office that is our "easy-bake oven" I took refuge in the air-conditioned bathroom that felt like a chilly 50 degrees, though I'm sure it was more in the 70s, splash some water on the face, arms and neck which dried by the time I hit the office just 20 ft away. Repeat. No, I'm sure that didn't help any either. In the evening I went to bowling which wasn't much cooler, yet threw one of my best series of league coming 9 pins short of bumping the top woman in the high scratch series category and 9 short of my ultimate league goal of a 600 series. (I'm so close I can taste it!).

Afterwards, I was going to go get gelato with my sister to celebrate the 218 game I rolled in the 3rd game, but as soon as I sat in the car, the body just started giving away. The nausea, the headache, the exhaustion. Hmm...feels like heat exhaustion. I had drank water all day and ate nachos during the game to try to get some salts back in the body. I went to bed and the slight itchy throat that had given me a bad but livable cough earlier in the week, got worse.

So rather than put my body through those extremes again, I decided to stay home. Grant it I don't have AC, but our place is predictable in temperature and there's a shower if I can't get my body cool enough with an electric fan and gatorade. That seemed to do the trick. While I still created a pile of used and blown tissues next to me, I am able to type this post without a sniffle nor cough. Home was warm but not dreadful and I jumped into the shower twice, once in the morning and once just before dinner, which we had outside in a restaurant patio, which was lovely.

And while my body dislikes the current heatwave, I can't imagine living someplace where the weather is even more extreme. Maybe my body will toughen itself out eventually if I did, but for now, I am still a California weather wimp.