Freaks of nature

Last Thursday, I read an article in the Washington Post which shocked and horrified me. And not in the good way, either. In "Give me swelter" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/19/AR2006071900508.html?referrer=emailarticle), the reporter interviewed a bunch of people who live in DC and yet inexplicably choose not to use their air conditioning. In my minds, this is grounds for involuntary committal.

The people that were interviewed were, and I say this as a democrat who grew up in la-la-land, tree-hugging hippies. Sure, they had one cheapskate who didn't want to pay for the a/c, but the rest kept talking about how guilty they felt about what it was doing to the environment.

Now, I started an environmental club when in high school (20th anniversary of the first Earth Day), so I am not unsympathetic to green causes. But there's also such a thing as quality of life, and air conditioning is a necessity, NOT a luxury, for that.

I say this as someone who lived in DC for one summer without a/c. And after that, as god is my witness, I vowed that never again would I submit myself to something so awful. Our landlord, who we eventually got into not one, not two, but three lawsuits with - but that's another story - couldn't seem to get the a/c fixed. Seeing as that house was falling part and since has been nicknamed amongst my housemates "the house of Usher," that's not surprising.

I was on the top floor, so my room just baked during the day. I remember one night I got up around 3:30, just completely miserable because of the heat and the humidity, and it was 85 degrees in our hallway. WITH the a/c on. So I had to leave my doors open to get whatever sorry excuse for a breeze that was coming my way. Because there weren't screens on the windows, I got eaten alive by the mosquitoes. I tried everything, from slathering myself with insect repellent before going to bed, to burning citronella coils, to taking vitamin b to build up an immunity.

Nothing.

Worked.

It got to the point where I had so many mosquito bites that people would ask in all sincerity what kind of rash I had.

Ever since, I slept in a/c. Call me a delicate flower, but there are just some things that are worth spending money on. And cool air so that your towels can dry off after your shower, so that you can sleep the entire night without waking up in a sweat, and so that you actually *like* to spend time at home is entirely worth it.