Hot for days

IF you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

 

I honestly don’t know how anyone can stand to be in any kitchen these days, because one can cook a whole meal outside in the heat that we have been experiencing these last weeks.

 

I can’t take it! I don’t know how Barbadians are handling the rising mercury, but I for one am wishing for a little rain to help cool the days down. Does the globe not realise that this is the month of October and it should be heading into cooler breezes?

 

This is absolutely “repent weather” as I simply would not want to experience hell fire if this is just the earthly plain version.

 

I know many persons are dreading seeing this month’s electricity bill as fans and air conditioners work overtime to ensure persons do not expire as they perspire. In fact, I had to admit to my husband, who has been insisting that we install air conditioning for years and meeting strong resistance from me, that it is now an absolute must. My excuse was always that in living on an island surrounded by water, there is no way that we would ever get hot enough to make this a necessity. Boy, was I wrong!

 

Every day now, one can see persons trying to find what little shelter they can in trying to traverse around the island and I even overheard one man tell another that he would gladly pay three dollars in bus fare if the van he was in carried air conditioning, so he could get to work looking as cool as a cucumber and not like a dumpling swimming in soup.

 

The only persons who are happy about such heat must be sno-cone men, who are in high demand, as many can be seen heading home just after noon, informing those eager for the cool treat that they are out of ice. Business is good!

 

On a serious note however, several reports have shown that as the weather gets warmer here and around the world, many persons are now at risk for heat strokes and doctors are consistently urging persons to drink more water on a daily basis.

 

In conversation with my own family physician, she made it clear that persons should be drinking half their body weight in ounces. In other words if you weigh 150 pounds, you should be taking in at least 75 fluid ounces of water or more daily to prevent dehydration and the issues that arise from it, including pesky headaches.

 

To beat the heat some persons have taken to having more than two showers per day, however in considering that many persons in the north of the island would just be grateful to have any water coming through their taps just to wash their face or even cook, this heat just adds heavily to the inconvenience they have to deal with. These individuals truly deserve better.

 

While it may be a little longer before the temperature returns to a comfortable degree, I just want to urge persons to try to stay as cool as possible and to keep hydrated.