88 degrees... 92 degrees... 96 degrees... It is a good day to hibernate indoors. I'm glad my little town has lots of trees because, as hot as it has been this last week, the larger towns on either side of us are even hotter.
Although I would rather be too hot than too cold, it does make life interesting in our little household. When the nights do not cool off and leave a little bank of cool air in our house the next morning, we start our day at a disadvantage. By mid-morning, rather than mid-afternoon, I am turning on area fans, guzzling decaffinated iced tea, and finding low-energy activities to keep myself busy. Add to the mix my random hot flashes and I am thankful when the air conditioner finally kicks on. 
However, this mixture of high temperatures and air conditioning is volatile to a household combination of both middle-agers and seniors. Tempers begin to flare in small ways as Mom leaves the living room and re-enters with a sweatshirt over her long-sleeved shirt, the hood over her head drawn in a tight pucker around her 94-year-old-face-that-doesn't-look-a-day-over-70. *sigh* I try to ignore the gesture. After all, we don't turn the air conditioner on until the inside temperature is over 80 and she can always go back to her room and turn up her electric heater. Okay, I don't really want her to be quarantined to her room, but is the hood really necessary? We live with furnace settings of 78 degrees in the winter, can't she grant us a little grace in the opposite direction during the summer? "The air conditioning isn't always this cold, is it?" she asks.
Silence. How do I answer that? What kind of a question is that? AC is what it is.
*sigh* "I'll turn it down."
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