They'll be turning on the air conditioning tomorrow. That means that they'll spend the day turning it on (they tell me it takes eight hours), so it'll go on Wednesday evening, but it won't cool down until sometime on Thursday (if I'm lucky), but more likely Friday. That means I'll have been in 90 degree temperatures for 5 (probably 6, possibly 7) days. If someone did that to a dog, they'd be prosecuted by animal rights activists.
In the past, this has gone on for a week or two in Spring, and in Fall.
I live in government subsidized housing for low income seniors. The maximum you're allowed to make and still live here (and be considered low income) is more than three times my income.
When I looked up heat exhaustion on the internet, it told me to do what my landlady said to do: go somewhere else. In other words, they're telling me that this place is not fit for human habitation. Another thing they said to do was to spray water on yourself. I went to do that last night, and discovered that my skin was red all over. I looked like I had the beginning of a bad sunburn.
One of the things that the landlady said to do is keep my windows open. I've tried that, and it doesn't cool the place off. Last night, I had the windows open and was blowing 70 degree air into the apartment, and it stayed at 90 degrees. The building itself is so hot that putting cool air into it is not cooling it off.
I live in government subsidized housing for low income seniors. The maximum you're allowed to make and still live here (and be considered low income) is more than three times my income.
When I looked up heat exhaustion on the internet, it told me to do what my landlady said to do: go somewhere else. In other words, they're telling me that this place is not fit for human habitation. Another thing they said to do was to spray water on yourself. I went to do that last night, and discovered that my skin was red all over. I looked like I had the beginning of a bad sunburn.
One of the things that the landlady said to do is keep my windows open. I've tried that, and it doesn't cool the place off. Last night, I had the windows open and was blowing 70 degree air into the apartment, and it stayed at 90 degrees. The building itself is so hot that putting cool air into it is not cooling it off.
What the open windows will do is give me a good dose of tree and grass pollen, plus mold spores. My eyelids feel like they're a quarter of an inch thick. I can hardly open them. And my system is so full of histamine that I can hardly keep awake.
When I used to be allergic to tree pollen and ragweed, I had time during the summer to recover from the tree pollen before I had to contend with the ragweed. But, back around 1998, I developed an allergy to grass pollen, thereby converting three whole seasons into a nightmare of illness. These allergies, combined with the extra big dose of pollen in the Spring and Fall that I've gotten here the past two years are truly disabling.
I'm hoping I can find someone in the Northern Virginia or DC area that has a stand-alone (portable) air conditioner that they no longer need or want that they would either donate or sell at a low price. It won't help me now, but it will in the Fall, and next Spring it might give me a chance to spend a reasonably healthy year.
I am not allowed to use a window mounted air conditioner, but I can use a portable one. They're hard to find, though, so the chances of finding a low priced one are correspondingly low. Feel free to send a contribution through the button in the sidebar. Any help will be gratefully accepted.
I'd like to say something witty and fun, or at least interesting, but I just don't have the energy.
Keep cool!
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