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Post by spindrift on Jun 24, 2009 8:13:36 GMT
A scorching day is predicted for southern England...by scorching I mean probably 24 degrees
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2009 8:21:59 GMT
Same here -- but higher tomorrow with storms.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 24, 2009 13:34:36 GMT
spindrift, the Auvergne is very beautiful and quite distinctive, indeed long isolated and poor. I have a friend originally from Buenos Aires who has also studied in Paris who is teaching at the university Blaise-Pascal at Clermont-Ferrand, the largest city and not a very big town in comparison to the ones he has lived in and is quite happy there, especially since he and his wife have two children and they find the quality of life there for families is very good. It may be "isolated" but there is a train to Paris, and it isn't so very far from the Mediterranean coast in the other direction by train or car. I'm sure you'd enjoy a visit. www.auvergne-tourisme.info/ (in several languages). The poet Arthur Rimbaud was one of Charleville's most famous sons - and glad to see the back of it! www.ardennes-culture.net/Rimbaud/It is tragic seeing the parched land in casimira's country...
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2009 13:48:41 GMT
At least today they have cones up,yesterday there were no cones warning of the buckling and several vehicular "mishaps" occurred. I see that the vegetation in this suburb still retaining it's green . The inner city lots do not look like that at all. Probably have a sprinkler system. I know I dread seeing my water bill and all I'm really watering are my herbs,vegetables and citrus. That's enough right there.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2009 13:58:55 GMT
The earth is in revolt!
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Post by lola on Jun 24, 2009 15:00:30 GMT
I'm outvoted in the air conditioning dept. (me: anti. remaining household members: pro).
For years I had talked to people who claimed they loved hot weather, and I always thought they were odd. A few years ago I decided to become one of them and embrace it. When I walk out of a ridiculously cold supermarket into the heat and humidity I now think ahhh. It really worked for me, as if I somehow fooled myself. (though it annoys my family when I say "I LIKE hot weather!") (one more reason to do it)
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 24, 2009 16:29:29 GMT
Oh Lola ~~ we must room together next semester!
I hate air conditioning, even when it's miserably hot and humid outside. The thing about heat is that at least it's not (spit, shudder) cold. That gelid feeling on the arms, the drying out of the eyeballs, the singing of the sinuses -- how can anyone tolerate a.c.?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2009 19:08:21 GMT
Neither my husband or I are AC fans,never have been. This past week however,I have been the one to run one unit upstairs on the lowest setting there is. At the end of the day the upstairs is suffocatingly hot. I am outside at least half the day and drive in an non air conditioned car. Fans usually do the trick for me. Our downstairs stays amazingly cool.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 24, 2009 19:39:09 GMT
How do you dress in heat waves (especially if you have to look nice)? I really like bixa's Mexican dress, by the way, though here that might look costumey unless worn by people who seem to be of Mexican of Central American origin. I have a very cool (tempwise) African dress, though don't really wear it on the street.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2009 19:45:59 GMT
I love the contrast, so I love air conditioning and I love leaving it for the blast furnace of a heat wave.
I have already used my air conditioner more this year than in the past two years combined. (But it is a piss poor excuse for an air conditioner and only brings my attic temperature from 28° to about 23°.)
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Post by lagatta on Jun 24, 2009 20:07:13 GMT
Wouldn't that be very expensive in France?
Although 23c is scarcely the frigid temps some air conditioners provide.
By the way, a big plus. I usually have to take an ibuprofen or 2 for arthritic pain - none at all with this heat.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2009 20:32:31 GMT
France has very cheap nuclear electricity.
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Post by lola on Jun 24, 2009 23:35:05 GMT
lagatta, loose linen is a good bet.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 25, 2009 1:04:33 GMT
Loose anything works in heat, but if Lagatta has to appear at work looking "professional", I'd suggest skimpy, sleeveless, cotton knit tops over which a very light jacket or blouse could be thrown when inside in the a.c. That's a blouse in the photo and you could probably get away with something loose like that over a lightweight not-too-peasanty skirt -- the kind of ensemble that allows one to wear sandals.
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Post by traveler63 on Jun 25, 2009 1:43:13 GMT
Ok you anti air conditioner people. You have the right to sweat and be hot if you want. Right now at 6:30 pm. Tucson Mountain Standard Time(no daylight savings for us), it is 103 degrees with 15% humidity and this is one of those "eyeball frying days, with potential rain monsoons all around us. I'm with K2 on air conditioning, SOCK IT TO ME!!!!!!
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Post by hwinpp on Jun 25, 2009 3:02:05 GMT
France has very cheap nuclear electricity.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 25, 2009 3:09:51 GMT
I laugh at your "heat", T63. When it's in the 90s in Louisiana, and the humidity is 100% and it's not even raining -- that's hot.
A few years ago my sister & I went to Mérida together. It was hot even by my standards. It was the kind of hot that you sort of stagger down the street, carried by your own momentum because your brain has over-heated.
My sister & I shared a room and I said, "You know -- we don't need to use the a.c. because we have a ceiling fan." After she goggled at me, she got a look that I interpreted to mean she was ready to kill for the a.c.
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Post by spindrift on Jun 25, 2009 8:17:51 GMT
No air-conditioning for me.
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Post by bjd on Jun 25, 2009 10:37:35 GMT
It gets very hot in southern France, but few people have air-conditioning. Mostly we close the shutters on the windows when the sun shines on them. After the terrible heat wave of 2003, people invested in AC the year after, but we haven't had such a bad summer since then.
I hate it in N America -- it's hot outside and everywhere is air-conditioned too cold.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2009 10:43:10 GMT
I couldn't use my air conditioner the year of the heat wave, because air conditioners built for the northern part of Europe do not work if the temperature goes above 35°. And it got up to 40° in Paris.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 25, 2009 10:59:00 GMT
There was another heatwave in the northern part of Europe in 2006, though it didn't last as long and emergency measures prevented the deaths of fragile elderly people which had occurred in France and Italy in 2003 (I visited Paris that year as well). Once again it was very hot in places such as Berlin, Amsterdam and London. I was taking the train from Amsterdam to Köln, and while my carriage was spared, there was no air conditioning in several carriages and many of the TOILETS didn't work. The otherwise precise German engineering hadn't provided for such high temps.
Yes, bixa, that is about how I dress when I have to look somewhat professional, and pretty much how I dress most of the time in the summer. I thought the pretty garment you had on was a Mexican dress (and wanted one like that) but I know the blouses as well.
I don't like air conditioning, but have never had to deal with the type of hot, extremely humid weather found in Louisiana. I like hot, dry weather as in the Mediterranean.
Not many people in Montréal triplexes have air conditioning (some even sleep on their balconies on very hot nights). It does get hot here, though of course the real problem here is the snow and cold. Don't even want to think about that now.
About 30° today, probably a few degrees higher in central neighbourhoods.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2009 11:41:20 GMT
I remember spending a month in Nevada in 1976 and the difference between the heat there and the heat on the Atlantic Coast or NYC was so radically different. Aside from my hair which is generally wavy,feeling like straw and my skin parched, it was very bearable. I went horseback riding in the desert everyday and don't remember it being unpleasant at all. One of the hottest summers I ever endured was in Saint Louis in the early 1970's. I was going to summer school at UMSL and the ride out there was unbearably hot and miserable. I spent the bulk of the summer in a local tavern, even though I wasn't 21 ,they served me.
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Post by traveler63 on Jun 25, 2009 12:32:42 GMT
Ok Bixa:
Uncle!!!! Yes, I know the humidity makes it hotter and yes I have been in the Southeast. Humidity and heat are not comfortable either. However, when we do have 65 days in a row of over 100 degrees, whether the humidity is 5-15% it is hot and uncomfortable no matter what. We also watch the dew point for our storms. They are predicting 30% chance today. It is 5:30 a.m, 84 degrees, 18% humidity and 33 dew point. I think when it gets to 50% dew point and holds that or higher over more than a couple of days then we have a better chance of rain.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2009 12:46:05 GMT
Today's paper reports that yesterday was the hottest day EVER recorded at 104F(heat index 110F). The Public Service Commissioner has forbidden the local utility company from cutting power for unpaid bills.(I assure you they will make up for it with some rate hike or surcharge).
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Post by lola on Jun 25, 2009 15:37:13 GMT
Wow, casimira. Even I would turn on the upstairs AC. There's just so much you can do by wrapping yourselves in wet sheets under a fan.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 25, 2009 17:02:10 GMT
104! Damn. I well believe that's the hottest temp there ever.
T63 ~~ I will concede that dry heat can make people crazy also. My mother lives in southern Oklahoma, and the summer temps of 105, 110, etc. along with the endlessly blowing wind are hard to take. It would be much easier to acclimate, though, if as Bjd points out, the air conditioning were not cranked to freezing everywhere you go.
When I wrote that about dressing, Lagatta, I somehow had a feeling that was your mode!
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Post by lagatta on Jun 25, 2009 17:13:01 GMT
Yeah, I'm not the type to walk around the city in shorts, though I could not abide a job where I'd have to wear closed shoes and nylon stockings in the summer heat...
And I always wear silver earrings. Think I'd find some very pretty ones in Mexico.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2009 17:17:02 GMT
T63, one might wonder why so many people chose to move to that part of the U.S. Were they thinking only of winter temperatures? Or has global warming made the summer worse than it used to be?
My parents felt that Florida had become much too hot in the summer in the last years they were there. It became impossible to do anything in the outside temperature.
Right now in Paris a terrific thunderstorm is splattering onto my roof -- as it should. Today was hot and muggy, and we need this change.
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Post by traveler63 on Jun 25, 2009 19:13:32 GMT
K2: We were younger when we moved here in 1987, and so the heat was desireable. We came from Portland, Oregon. We also moved back because my parents and Kirk's mom were getting up there age wise and he is an only child and we decided it was time to be closer to family. Yes, global warming has changed our weather patterns. For instance it never rains in Tucson in late May and early June and yet we had rain. Our string of over 100 degrees are becoming longer and the heat is coming earlier in the year. Right now it is only 80 degrees and the humidity is 52% and we are cloudy and it is actually raining right now. Tucson is a little cooler than Phoenix and I really think the reason is there is so much more building, asphalt and people up there. Phoenis generally runs 5-7 degrees hotter than we do. Tucsonians really try to conserve water, while the Phoenix valley has so many houses with grass, small man-made lakes and canals which I think adds to the heat and humidity that they have. All of a sudden? everyone is concerned about running out of water, and hindsight is 20/20 I guess. One thing Kirk and I do know is as soon as we feel housing prices have stabilized, we are out of here. Just haven't decided where yet.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 26, 2009 2:58:01 GMT
I love silver and this is a mecca for silver jewelry. There's usually a stall or two selling it at the weekly markets in the city, and the vendors will tell you where their workshops are so you can visit and have even more choice.
Boy, are we having a storm here! It sounds like it's finally abating, but it was dramatic. My house is made of block and is setting on solid rock, but I can feel the thunder and it's also rattling the windows. I had to disconnect the tube that takes the roof runoff to the cistern, because the cistern was about to overflow.
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