It’s that time again. Time for sun, sweat, and bugs. Time to run the AC nonstop while you close the blinds and pretend you live in a cave. Time for swollen hands and legs and increased pain levels. Ah, there’s nothing like the magic of summer.
If you’re lucky enough to live in a climate where the above horrors don’t happen I’m going to need you to go away because I’m extremely jealous. I basically live on the sun (otherwise known as Texas) with the addition of high humidity, so really it’s even worse than the sun. Last year I shared my view on why summer is the worst. This year I’ve come up with a whole new list of reasons!
- Hot/humid weather increases pain levels
My hands are the bane of my existence. In the winter (all two months of it) I do okay because it rarely gets cold, but come April when the temperature gets into the 80’s they start swelling. The more hot/humid it is, the less I can use my hands. No more using a can opener or buttoning buttons, my kids are on their own and I can only wear things with zippers and even those are questionable. Mostly I need old lady pants with elastic which is just super sexy.
2. Bugs and other gross animals
Cockroaches, fire ants, mosquitoes, flies, scorpions, cicadas, you name it I hate it. I’ll even add obnoxiously loud frogs to this category because even though they aren’t bugs, they are super loud so they are pretty much on par with cicadas. Sometimes they get so loud they wake me up at night, and I live in the city and have the tiniest yard imaginable! There are not enough words to convey how much I hate bugs. Oh and snakes, snakes are bad too.
3. Not being able to take hot baths
Taking a hot Epsom salt bath is my #1 coping mechanism for pain, but I just can’t do it in the summer without risking heat stroke. Sure, I could turn down the AC, but it’s actually physically impossible for the AC to get my house down to a livable temperature during the day.
4. Slathering your entire body with sunscreen every time you leave the house
Having a chronic illness means that you are likely on medication which strongly warns you to stay out of the sun. So when you practically live on the sun this presents a bit of a problem. Every time you leave the house you have to cover yourself from head to toe in sunscreen. Inevitably your sunscreen fails you and you turn into a lobster.
* In the interest of full disclosure I will admit that my sunburns eventually turn into a nice tan. My husband finds this extremely unfair.
5. No hot drinks
I love hot chocolate, but I haven’t had any in two years. Why you ask? Because it hasn’t been cold enough. There’s nothing like that fresh feeling of drinking hot chocolate, tea, or coffee and simultaneously sweating through your clothes.
6. The sun wakes you up at 6 am
Because I have school aged kids the summer is my only chance to sleep in. Of course the sun comes out at the crack of dawn and there’s no curtains that I’ve ever found that can block it out.
7. Cooking turns your whole house into an oven
During the summer I have a lot more time to cook than I usually do. No after school activities during dinner mean we can actually all sit down and eat together. However, I have to cook everything without the oven or stove top, otherwise my AC will freak out and my sweat will drip into the food. How many salads can we eat this summer? We’ll find out.
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