258 – The Heat

Now before you get really excited – this is not about the Paul Feig-directed buddy action-comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy (though my review of that film is: pleasantly alright, save for a truly awful – SPOILER ALERT – villainous turn by SNL‘s Taran Killam). No, I’m here today to talk about the literal heat. As in “the temperature.”

I’m going to sound like a prize asshole for complaining about the weather in LA. And it’s true – I really don’t have a leg to stand on. For the majority of the year, the weather is perfect. 70 and sunny during the day, with about a 10 degree drop at night. Can’t ask for more than that.

Well it turns out I can, because here we are halfway through September and I’m complaining. It’s just so darn hot. We’ve been looking at high 80’s/low 90’s for a couple weeks, and there is no real end in sight. What’s worse is the fact that humidity is so high that it doesn’t really cool off at night anymore. As I write this, we’re holding steady at about 40% humidity, which is nothing compared to a place like my hometown of Annapolis, MD, but this isn’t what I signed up for.

Annapolis has unbearably hot summers and incredibly cold winters. That’s the kind of thing that drove me away from the too-variable east coast. I need consistency, dependability in my weather. And LA seemed to offer that in droves.

Of course no place is perfect. And September tends to be the hottest month of the year out here for some reason. I remember one day in September or October, three or four years ago, when the high was over 100 degrees. We’ve avoided a day like that so far, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see one in the near future.

The problem is that the heat makes people crazy. For one, most of us living the rental apartment game don’t have air conditioning, so every night becomes a series of hourly sweat-drenched wake-ups, punctuated by short periods of fitful sleep. Is it any wonder that I feel so sick?

We’re so close to autumn, though, when the temperature will drop back down to a bearable 70. It will be 60 degrees at night, and the weaker members of LA society will start breaking out their heavier jackets in preparation for the cold that never really comes (outside of frigid nights in insulation-less apartments). I guess that is one good thing about this heat wave – it keeps me from becoming completely complacent when it comes to weather in Los Angeles. I’m still an east coaster with thick skin at heart. I can handle the heat, so I won’t be getting out of the kitchen. Yet. Give me another few years.