Small Calamities

Your Calamities

Fixin' to Die
July 10, 2007 | permalink

I know this is kind of a tired and boring subject, but can I talk about the heat for a minute? Because, really, this is too much. I swear if it keeps up like this the temperature is going to send me into a psychotic break. No, really- I am just not built or equipped to handle temperatures this high, and the last couple of days I have been the very picture of misery.

There are a couple of things going on, I think, that combine to make me so miserable in the heat. In the first place, I am not exactly a waif (or even close), and as we all know from 8th Grade Biology, larger animals lose heat slower than smaller ones. Which might be okay, except for the second factor, which is that I generate a lot of heat.

I am one of those people who is always warm- it is rare that I think it is cold enough for more than a sweater or maybe a fleece vest and light jacket. I don't use more than one light blanket except on the very coldest nights of winter, and the windows in my apartment are open even in January. The body heat just pours off of me. I've been told I am better than an electric blanket, even.

The last thing that I think is a factor in my heat-induced misery are my scars. (This is conjecture on my part, but it makes sense to me, so bear with me a second.) We sweat to lose heat and cool down. I, however, lack sweat glands (and thus the ability to sweat and cool down) on a fairly large percentage of my surface area, and I think this helps to make me so unhappy in the warmer weather. I mean, what do you think it would feel like to you if 20 or 25% of your cooling system didn't work? Like the song says, I heat up, and I can't cool down. So, if we could just turn the sun down, that would be great.

Thanks ever so.