Tropical Heat

The grass smells like wet rain this morning, and the scent reminds me of wet hay in summer after a surprise shower, a scent that brings back the fields around my village when I was growing up. The relentless heat the past weeks seems to change things , emotionally and socially. I am living in my bathing suit, as the temperatures continue to rise, and peaked at 92 Fahrenheit yesterday. I almost burned my bare feet yesterday afternoon as I was crossing the patio tiles to go swimming. The soft feel of the dry, hot grass felt like a massage compared to the searingly hot tiles. The water in the pool just soaks my body and soul with relief, and I love walking around in my wet suit in my bare, wet feet in the house, pleasantly chilled to the bone as the window fans blow cooling air through the house. The house is dusty from the air the fans bring in, the floor is wet and the dog adds her wet paw prints from rolling around in her own little pool, to get some relief from the beating down sun. The house feels like a small beach house, wet towels everywhere, wet bathing suits. I soak my hair to keep my head cool, and do not towel dry after I get out of the pool. The added chill keeps me comfortable until I am all dry again, and go swim again and again, drinking cold water all day to stay hydrated. The houses here, built on Scandinavian models inspired by the largely Nordic 19th century immigrants in the area, are made of wood frames and absorb the heat like sponges. If the summers increasingly keep getting hotter, I wonder if builders will have to switch to brick and mortar to ward off the challenges of overheated wooden houses. I think back of being a child in Belgium. We had a large custom built pool, full of ice cold water, as my father funnily did not want to spend the money on a heater for his fancy pool. We lived in that thing anyway, and would swim until our lips were purple and our teeth rattled with the cold. Our nanny would make hot chocolate and as soon as we were warmed up, we  would go back in the pool. For all the subliminal stress the hot weather here creates, mostly some irritation trying to keep the house below 80 Fahrenheit, which usually fails, even with all the window fans on maximum capacity, and the stress of the always on the verge of being resolved issue of when to install central air conditioning, I love the heat,because of the casual attitudes it invokes. BBQ dinners, ice cream every night for dessert, fresh berries from our garden, and fresh squash and beans, snap peas and green beans, living in bathing suits, wet hair and towels. It is a perpetual beach vacation in our own backyard. All the neighbours are out in their front yards in flip flops and shorts, no one cares what they look like in their bathing suits, everyone is united in the cause to stay as comfortable as possible in this scorching heat. People walk outside in their swim trunks to go check the mail, the men pause to chat in their shirtless jeans while mowing the lawn, women walking to the neighbourhood pool down the street in their over sized middle age bellies wrapped in towels and sporting large summer hats, their spouses trekking behind them in dark sunglasses and Hawaiian print baggy swim trunks, grand kids clattering along with pool toys and brightly colored swim gear. Humanity on display in all their comical flaws, off to enjoy a cooling swim on a hot day, united in the pursuit of happiness as they see it on a summer weekend day, as the hot sun overhead seems to melt not only assumptions about the summer weather, but also about clocks, schedules,and our obsession with filling every moment of time tied to them.