Be hot and steamy and sweaty in this week's Free Thread
March 24, 2025 7:57 AM Subscribe
As the song about sauna, the Swedish entry for Eurovision, continues to delight fellow musicians and climb various music charts, the Free Thread for this week asks: what situation, event, or incident were you hot, sweaty, comfortably or uncomfortably warm in, maybe needing to cool down? Either deliberately or accidentally; perhaps a trip to Death Valley or Burning Man? Eating a chilli-laden meal? Falling asleep while sunbathing? Something else?
When I was in my early 20s, I got a really bad flu, the kind where when I woke up in the morning, my mental process was laborious:
“I need to call in.”
“Where’s the phone?”
“It’s on the floor over there.”
“That’s too far away.”
I did make it to the phone and called in, but the process of leaving the bed had me in uncontrollable shivers by the time I made it back into bed. I called in and passed out.
I had a couple waves of fever breaking, where I soaked one half of my bed with sweat, then moved to the other side and soaked that half on the next round. Then I staggered to the futon and had one final fever round and soaked that. Then I staggered to the bathroom to check my temperature. 103.
I called mom, and asked “is 103 fever bad?” She was like, “yes it is, go to the doctor”. And this was after I had recovered enough to even make it to the bathroom. I’m certain I had some delirium during some of those fevers, I was weirdly altered and couldn’t think straight. I guess I’m lucky I made it through without assistance?
posted by notoriety public at 8:08 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
“I need to call in.”
“Where’s the phone?”
“It’s on the floor over there.”
“That’s too far away.”
I did make it to the phone and called in, but the process of leaving the bed had me in uncontrollable shivers by the time I made it back into bed. I called in and passed out.
I had a couple waves of fever breaking, where I soaked one half of my bed with sweat, then moved to the other side and soaked that half on the next round. Then I staggered to the futon and had one final fever round and soaked that. Then I staggered to the bathroom to check my temperature. 103.
I called mom, and asked “is 103 fever bad?” She was like, “yes it is, go to the doctor”. And this was after I had recovered enough to even make it to the bathroom. I’m certain I had some delirium during some of those fevers, I was weirdly altered and couldn’t think straight. I guess I’m lucky I made it through without assistance?
posted by notoriety public at 8:08 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
I’m just here to say I’m enjoying the new White Lotus more than the new White POTUS.
posted by caviar2d2 at 8:15 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
posted by caviar2d2 at 8:15 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
Lake Superior is cold even on the warmest Summer days.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 8:20 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 8:20 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
When you go to Finland, saunas are kind of obligatory. Like if you are at a conference and everyone is a complete stranger, you have to go to the sauna with them. As a young woman, I found it very weird and uncomfortable and while you might think that the insane amount of strong liquor you have at all hours would help, it did the opposite for me.
But then you get used to it...
Here, the weather is very beautiful, but not warm yet. I have sunbathed in April, but also built a snow house. One never knows.
posted by mumimor at 8:23 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
But then you get used to it...
Here, the weather is very beautiful, but not warm yet. I have sunbathed in April, but also built a snow house. One never knows.
posted by mumimor at 8:23 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
I grew up in a town that had the biggest concentration of Finns outside of Finland
After the sauna I assume you'd get pancakes at the Hoito?
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:25 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
After the sauna I assume you'd get pancakes at the Hoito?
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:25 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
I never experienced seasonal affective disorder until moving to Texas just in time for the second-hottest summer on record. Months of punishing heat without relief. After a "milder" 2024, signs aren't looking much better for this year. Almost every cycling event I took place in last year has moved their dates up by a month or more. Time to start preparing my body to wake up at 5am for those pre-dawn runs again.
My ex nearly died from heat stroke at Burning Man in 2017. That was the one year we decided to take the shuttle bus into the event instead of driving ourselves. He was in the medical tents getting pounded with saline bags while I raced around the whole city trying to find some way, any way, to get him out of there, short of spending thousands on emergency ambulance transport. In my desperation, a friend from home decided to loan me her stick-shift mini-van, but only because I'd driven it out there with her a few years before. She never lets anyone drive her car, but since I'd earned her trust, she probably saved his life that day. Going forward, I swore to (a) always drive myself and (b) buy the emergency medevac insurance after that ... and immediately used it the next year when I fell ten feet off an art project during build week and broke three ribs!
posted by mykescipark at 8:26 AM on March 24 [9 favorites]
My ex nearly died from heat stroke at Burning Man in 2017. That was the one year we decided to take the shuttle bus into the event instead of driving ourselves. He was in the medical tents getting pounded with saline bags while I raced around the whole city trying to find some way, any way, to get him out of there, short of spending thousands on emergency ambulance transport. In my desperation, a friend from home decided to loan me her stick-shift mini-van, but only because I'd driven it out there with her a few years before. She never lets anyone drive her car, but since I'd earned her trust, she probably saved his life that day. Going forward, I swore to (a) always drive myself and (b) buy the emergency medevac insurance after that ... and immediately used it the next year when I fell ten feet off an art project during build week and broke three ribs!
posted by mykescipark at 8:26 AM on March 24 [9 favorites]
My problem with saunas is that I can’t breathe in them. I need to keep sticking my head out the door for air.
Though a cold shower after a hot sauna leaves you feeling like a newly minted coin.
posted by Lemkin at 8:26 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
Though a cold shower after a hot sauna leaves you feeling like a newly minted coin.
posted by Lemkin at 8:26 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
Well, the temperature here got to 116 once...I'm used to hot temperatures and I don't really care until it hits 105 or so, but at that point even I'll look to hide in the AC. I can't stand sauna air either though. I'm not used to insane humidity because humid doesn't happen here much.
Today's update: I got my hair done by my mom's hairdresser while I was visiting for the weekend. Mom bribed me, basically. OMG it was AMAZING. She actually talked about the natural wave of my hair and how to deal with it, how to style it, how you shouldn't just re-dye your non-roots every single time even if it's faded because that's not great for your hair, she put multiple shades in there, and she cut it into shorter layers in the back so that it'll stay wavy and not just poop out at the back and be straight and only have curl/wave on the ends. It's freaking brilliant. $300 for 3 hours, but worth it. I'm not sure if/when I can go back because she's pregnant, but would do again. I was completely spoiled to actually talk to a hairdresser beyond "here's a picture, do that" level of conversation.
I feel absolutely rummy today because I started The Perpetual Wakeups around 1:15 this morning and just kept waking up every 45 minutes. I *think* what happened was that after a weekend of having left the house, I downed the wrong sleeping pills--I have two kinds for sleeping through the night and a third one for the middle of the night wakeups and I think I consumed the latter rather than one of the former. Oops. Well, at least I don't have any important meetings today.
Meanwhile, it's supposed to be the first 80 degree day here today and I did not know what to wear. I'm so tired of my winter wardrobe (while I make a sweater and maxiskirt). I'm wearing a long dress today that I hope works between 50 degrees when I leave for work and 80 degrees when I go home.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:31 AM on March 24 [7 favorites]
Today's update: I got my hair done by my mom's hairdresser while I was visiting for the weekend. Mom bribed me, basically. OMG it was AMAZING. She actually talked about the natural wave of my hair and how to deal with it, how to style it, how you shouldn't just re-dye your non-roots every single time even if it's faded because that's not great for your hair, she put multiple shades in there, and she cut it into shorter layers in the back so that it'll stay wavy and not just poop out at the back and be straight and only have curl/wave on the ends. It's freaking brilliant. $300 for 3 hours, but worth it. I'm not sure if/when I can go back because she's pregnant, but would do again. I was completely spoiled to actually talk to a hairdresser beyond "here's a picture, do that" level of conversation.
I feel absolutely rummy today because I started The Perpetual Wakeups around 1:15 this morning and just kept waking up every 45 minutes. I *think* what happened was that after a weekend of having left the house, I downed the wrong sleeping pills--I have two kinds for sleeping through the night and a third one for the middle of the night wakeups and I think I consumed the latter rather than one of the former. Oops. Well, at least I don't have any important meetings today.
Meanwhile, it's supposed to be the first 80 degree day here today and I did not know what to wear. I'm so tired of my winter wardrobe (while I make a sweater and maxiskirt). I'm wearing a long dress today that I hope works between 50 degrees when I leave for work and 80 degrees when I go home.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:31 AM on March 24 [7 favorites]
I think that it was a few decades after first hearing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" that I found out that the line "Superior, they said, never gives up her dead" comes from the fact that the lake is so deep and cold that bodies don't decay and therefore never float to the surface.
I've never done a proper sauna, with the ice bath. Mostly I've lived in the midwest, which can have the worst of both worlds in weather--bitter sub-zero cold in winter and punishing humid heat waves in summer. WRT what mykescipark said above--"Almost every cycling event I took place in last year has moved their dates up by a month or more"--that's one of the reasons why I probably won't do RAGBRAI again, and am approaching some of the local one-day rides with caution. The best ride that I did last year was the Door County Century; it's done in September, and even though camping out the night before wasn't great because I didn't have a proper cold-weather sleeping bag, the ride itself was quite fine and I'm looking forward to this year's.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:33 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
I've never done a proper sauna, with the ice bath. Mostly I've lived in the midwest, which can have the worst of both worlds in weather--bitter sub-zero cold in winter and punishing humid heat waves in summer. WRT what mykescipark said above--"Almost every cycling event I took place in last year has moved their dates up by a month or more"--that's one of the reasons why I probably won't do RAGBRAI again, and am approaching some of the local one-day rides with caution. The best ride that I did last year was the Door County Century; it's done in September, and even though camping out the night before wasn't great because I didn't have a proper cold-weather sleeping bag, the ride itself was quite fine and I'm looking forward to this year's.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:33 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
After the sauna I assume you'd get pancakes at the Hoito?
Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner.
Actually my favourite saunas were at friends' camps (north of the Soo, cottages are called 'camps') so you could jump in the lake, even if it was Superior. 'New-minted coin', indeed.
Yeah, it's been a long time since I've been back there. The Hoito was a nice spot. I'm glad it got saved.
posted by Artful Codger at 8:36 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner.
Actually my favourite saunas were at friends' camps (north of the Soo, cottages are called 'camps') so you could jump in the lake, even if it was Superior. 'New-minted coin', indeed.
Yeah, it's been a long time since I've been back there. The Hoito was a nice spot. I'm glad it got saved.
posted by Artful Codger at 8:36 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
My kid recently had her fever get up to 103, so we took her to the ER. They did some tests, and determined that she just had the Flu, and sent her home when it started going down after a couple of hours. That's when we discovered that our ER copay jumped to $500.
We went to see Journey a week ago, and Don't Stop Believing turned into a singalong. Midway through, the band stopped playing, and it was just the audience, which would've been cool, if it was planned. It wasn't though. It was an electrical fire. :(
posted by Spike Glee at 8:38 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
We went to see Journey a week ago, and Don't Stop Believing turned into a singalong. Midway through, the band stopped playing, and it was just the audience, which would've been cool, if it was planned. It wasn't though. It was an electrical fire. :(
posted by Spike Glee at 8:38 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
I would give my eyeteeth to hang out in a sauna for an hour right now!! I'm so sore and stiff from pulling, untangling, and cutting branches, loading them in the wagon and pulling them in the back to burn, and then getting another load, and another, and another.... We're in the process of cutting down three 40+ foot trees and several smaller ones, so it's a huge job. Fortunately, the weather is comfortably cool. However, I did get a tad bit warm a couple times dumping branches in the fire. I commented to DH that it was high and hot enough to singe my eyebrows off at a couple points. Unfortunately when I went to take a shower last night, I realized that I had gotten close enough to frizzle my hair. Fortunately I was heading in for a haircut this week anyway.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:43 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
posted by BlueHorse at 8:43 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
I've spent most of my life in either North Dakota or Minnesota, so I like things on the cool side, and really hot times are few and far between and I haven't been stuck in that situation for very long. My home office is on the top level of the house and depending on the day sometimes with the angle of the sun and heat rising it's like 80 degrees in there and I'm miserable (or dozing off).
I can tell you that I have no interest in ever going into a sauna, it sounds horrible.
In the opposite direction: the short film I'm working on takes place at Christmas. Yesterday, in late March, was the date scheduled to film several of the outdoor scenes. The snow has been gone for several weeks and we've had weather in the 40s and 50s.
But -- when I got up yesterday morning and went to walk the dog: it had snowed overnight. It was a Christmas miracle! It stayed cold enough that we weren't racing the melting sun and we did our shoot with snow in the background and everyone's noses and toeses were frozen but we got what we wanted.
Last week was the Fargo Film Festival, for which I'm a selection juror. It was my second year as part of the Festival, and I had a blast. The first year I didn't know many people and was learning how everything worked. This year I had friends and knew the routine, which helped me feel comfortable in talking to all the filmmakers and actors and producers who attended the festival, and it was such a good time. The thing about this year I realized on about day 3 -- this year, I was connecting with my peers. These are people on the same path as me, both locals and visiting people, just enjoying film and loving making films and everyone's aspirational about moving forward, it was very inspiring.
It also reinforced, via a couple conversations, how neurotic artists about their own work. Even people who just got handed an award will then tell you where they went wrong. It's never done, it's never good enough, it wasn't what they wanted -- it reminds me to not be so hard on myself when I have these same feeling.
On Friday I hosted a "session", from 10am to noon, which ended with me having a Q&A with a filmmaker and the costar of her film, and I felt it went really well -- later in the day the director of the Film Festival stopped me to say how well I had done, and how she needs to find me a "showcase" to moderate in the future...this is a big deal; the Showcases are the night sessions where the audience is almost full and lots of awards are handed out and usually it's big names in the Festival who are given this responsibility. It's looking like next year will be even better!
Last thing: ran into a student whose non-school-project short film I acted in (I was the only actor and it was dialogue free, which was a lot of work but creatively refreshing) and was informed that this film was accepted to a film festival, making it two films in the past year I've acted in which have gotten into film festivals and I'm quasi-frustrated that my "acting is not my thing" attitude is becoming less true as time goes on.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:43 AM on March 24 [9 favorites]
I can tell you that I have no interest in ever going into a sauna, it sounds horrible.
In the opposite direction: the short film I'm working on takes place at Christmas. Yesterday, in late March, was the date scheduled to film several of the outdoor scenes. The snow has been gone for several weeks and we've had weather in the 40s and 50s.
But -- when I got up yesterday morning and went to walk the dog: it had snowed overnight. It was a Christmas miracle! It stayed cold enough that we weren't racing the melting sun and we did our shoot with snow in the background and everyone's noses and toeses were frozen but we got what we wanted.
Last week was the Fargo Film Festival, for which I'm a selection juror. It was my second year as part of the Festival, and I had a blast. The first year I didn't know many people and was learning how everything worked. This year I had friends and knew the routine, which helped me feel comfortable in talking to all the filmmakers and actors and producers who attended the festival, and it was such a good time. The thing about this year I realized on about day 3 -- this year, I was connecting with my peers. These are people on the same path as me, both locals and visiting people, just enjoying film and loving making films and everyone's aspirational about moving forward, it was very inspiring.
It also reinforced, via a couple conversations, how neurotic artists about their own work. Even people who just got handed an award will then tell you where they went wrong. It's never done, it's never good enough, it wasn't what they wanted -- it reminds me to not be so hard on myself when I have these same feeling.
On Friday I hosted a "session", from 10am to noon, which ended with me having a Q&A with a filmmaker and the costar of her film, and I felt it went really well -- later in the day the director of the Film Festival stopped me to say how well I had done, and how she needs to find me a "showcase" to moderate in the future...this is a big deal; the Showcases are the night sessions where the audience is almost full and lots of awards are handed out and usually it's big names in the Festival who are given this responsibility. It's looking like next year will be even better!
Last thing: ran into a student whose non-school-project short film I acted in (I was the only actor and it was dialogue free, which was a lot of work but creatively refreshing) and was informed that this film was accepted to a film festival, making it two films in the past year I've acted in which have gotten into film festivals and I'm quasi-frustrated that my "acting is not my thing" attitude is becoming less true as time goes on.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:43 AM on March 24 [9 favorites]
I haven't had a sauna, proper sauna, in years. Maybe it would fix me.
We used to use the sauna for family bath night, and rinse with the water from the rain barrel on the deck outside (one had to ignore the mosquito larvae jinking around inside.) The deck, last time I saw it, had rotted out. The sauna was probably not functional, and there was a shower (with hot water!) inside the house. I used it and it was an inferior experience - sulphurous well water and too-long shower curtains that dragged around my legs. The novelty of it was pleasant though.
The last time I used the sauna I wore a bikini. My stepdad asked why I was wearing anything and, being 22, I avoided a straight answer which would have amounted to "I am no longer comfortable being naked with you and nobody else is here right now."
Time is a mother.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 8:46 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
We used to use the sauna for family bath night, and rinse with the water from the rain barrel on the deck outside (one had to ignore the mosquito larvae jinking around inside.) The deck, last time I saw it, had rotted out. The sauna was probably not functional, and there was a shower (with hot water!) inside the house. I used it and it was an inferior experience - sulphurous well water and too-long shower curtains that dragged around my legs. The novelty of it was pleasant though.
The last time I used the sauna I wore a bikini. My stepdad asked why I was wearing anything and, being 22, I avoided a straight answer which would have amounted to "I am no longer comfortable being naked with you and nobody else is here right now."
Time is a mother.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 8:46 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
In the June of 2021 parts of the Pacific Northwest experienced crazy amounts of heat in an extreme weather event called a heat dome.
I live in Vancouver, BC, on the top floor of one of those 3 story generic apartment buildings from the late '60s that are all over Vancouver. A large one bedroom, facing south, with zero protection from the sun. The roof is black tar and it absorbs heat like mad.
In my apartment it was so hot the needle on the thermostat completely disappeared. At least 50c. My electronics slowed down, every surface was warm to the touch including the floor and I could not sleep because of the heat in my place. Windows and doors ope but zero airflow and sleeping with a fan a foot away. It was horrible.
The thing is, the Pacific Northwest doesn't have the infrastructure for heat like this. The buildings rarely have AC, and nothing is designed and built with extreme heat in mind. Rain, maybe, but not heat.
So yeah, heat. And, crazy levels of humidity.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 8:47 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
I live in Vancouver, BC, on the top floor of one of those 3 story generic apartment buildings from the late '60s that are all over Vancouver. A large one bedroom, facing south, with zero protection from the sun. The roof is black tar and it absorbs heat like mad.
In my apartment it was so hot the needle on the thermostat completely disappeared. At least 50c. My electronics slowed down, every surface was warm to the touch including the floor and I could not sleep because of the heat in my place. Windows and doors ope but zero airflow and sleeping with a fan a foot away. It was horrible.
The thing is, the Pacific Northwest doesn't have the infrastructure for heat like this. The buildings rarely have AC, and nothing is designed and built with extreme heat in mind. Rain, maybe, but not heat.
So yeah, heat. And, crazy levels of humidity.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 8:47 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
has anyone worn a gorilla suit or similar? I bring out my sasquatch costume every once in a while and within 10 minutes the sweat is pooling in the latex fingertips of the hands, my fingers are pruning in their own sweat after half an hour
my work hosted a conference and for one of the recreational breakout sessions we invited attendees to walk one of the nearby trails, a nice interlude between sessions, and I hightailed it so I could be ready to leap from the bushes and surprise people on the trail. I got into the costume, it's a bit of work believe me, I ordered the thing off the internet years ago from a guy in Nevada I think, who had a career providing special effects in the film industry. Not super high end, but excellent for the price and the mold of the face was not goofy and not terrifying, kind of a pensive looking proto-human face, I love the costume. So I'm down the trail a ways and I had retreated into the trees and down a slight slope to ensure I wouldn't be seen from the trail, and I'm waiting. Waiting. Waiting. The little gnats are audible and sweat is starting to trickle down my brow, vision is a little impeded and the claustrophobia of being in a suit is starting to wear on me, what was likely 10 minutes felt like 30, and I'm starting to think I missed the walking group so I carefully advance up the slope toward the trail and hide behind a couple of trees, waiting. Waiting. Finally! I hear sounds of people, I come crashing up out of the trees and onto the trail and: it was a kids' after school running program. Not just any kids, these were early middle school age or younger, I think Grade 2 even. I made a kid cry because they were so startled, again: the sasquatch face was not terrifying but not friendly particularly. The teacher or parent on the scene frankly didn't seem to know what to do, it was such a shock, and I retreated trying to call out apologies but it was all just muffled gibberish I'm sure. I was in no mood to "Do Sasquatch" when the (delayed) walking group finally arrived, it was all pretty lack luster by then.
I am not aware of a running group for younger kids from that day. If they have maintained the group, they're using a different part of the trail system.
posted by ginger.beef at 8:50 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
my work hosted a conference and for one of the recreational breakout sessions we invited attendees to walk one of the nearby trails, a nice interlude between sessions, and I hightailed it so I could be ready to leap from the bushes and surprise people on the trail. I got into the costume, it's a bit of work believe me, I ordered the thing off the internet years ago from a guy in Nevada I think, who had a career providing special effects in the film industry. Not super high end, but excellent for the price and the mold of the face was not goofy and not terrifying, kind of a pensive looking proto-human face, I love the costume. So I'm down the trail a ways and I had retreated into the trees and down a slight slope to ensure I wouldn't be seen from the trail, and I'm waiting. Waiting. Waiting. The little gnats are audible and sweat is starting to trickle down my brow, vision is a little impeded and the claustrophobia of being in a suit is starting to wear on me, what was likely 10 minutes felt like 30, and I'm starting to think I missed the walking group so I carefully advance up the slope toward the trail and hide behind a couple of trees, waiting. Waiting. Finally! I hear sounds of people, I come crashing up out of the trees and onto the trail and: it was a kids' after school running program. Not just any kids, these were early middle school age or younger, I think Grade 2 even. I made a kid cry because they were so startled, again: the sasquatch face was not terrifying but not friendly particularly. The teacher or parent on the scene frankly didn't seem to know what to do, it was such a shock, and I retreated trying to call out apologies but it was all just muffled gibberish I'm sure. I was in no mood to "Do Sasquatch" when the (delayed) walking group finally arrived, it was all pretty lack luster by then.
I am not aware of a running group for younger kids from that day. If they have maintained the group, they're using a different part of the trail system.
posted by ginger.beef at 8:50 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
cottages are called 'camps'
My friend I'm from Sudbury and lived in Hornepayne- "Always camp , Never Cottage." The worst is the rich southern kids who'd called it the "chalet."
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:55 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
My friend I'm from Sudbury and lived in Hornepayne- "Always camp , Never Cottage." The worst is the rich southern kids who'd called it the "chalet."
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:55 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
As a student I once hitch hiked around Namibia during summer. Spent a few hours on the back of a bakkie (mini pick up truck). Arrived at Luderitz covered in dust and suffering from heatstroke. Eventually ended up camping in an off season resort in the Fish River Canyon (summer is not the holiday season in Namibia). The tap water was too warm to drink and the pool was as hot as a winter jacuzzi. Got a lift out of the canyon to a gas station where I bought an ice cold coke and downed it like a coke ad.
Got a hitch all the way to Cape Town that day. As the city smog revealed itself on the horizon, I realised how much I was going to miss that hot, but absolutely pure, desert air.
posted by BrStekker at 8:59 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
Got a hitch all the way to Cape Town that day. As the city smog revealed itself on the horizon, I realised how much I was going to miss that hot, but absolutely pure, desert air.
posted by BrStekker at 8:59 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
I'm one of those Men Who Wear Shorts and No Socks in the Winter: I'm *always* warm or hot. My baseball season started yesterday and it was gorgeous and 80°, and it just made me dread Atlanta's hot and super super long summers. It'll be in the 90s every day between about the middle of May and the beginning of October, and while any one day isn't that bad, it just goes on and on and on...
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 9:02 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 9:02 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
About 6 years ago, for our June/July birthdays, a dear friend splurged on day passes to a very fancy hot bath spa. Except I was on public transit that day, the outside temps were in the 90's, and menopause in full swing. I wanted to enjoy it, and in memory I can recall the lovely waters, the quiet, the warm cave-like ambience; it was a weekday and we were often the only people in some of the pools. No chlorine reek, no industrial tile. But my body was beyond unhappy, I could barely tolerate the lowest temperature warm pool, and I'd have to just sit in the cold plunge tub over and over. One of those days where the nicest plan is the worst thing to do.
Today it's very windy, the grey overcast and damp cold feel extra "ha ha, fooled you with those recent warm spells, we ain't done yet no gardening for you!" so my tiny dream of bicycling is gonna stay indoors and clean and fix things. I have determined to work on a daily schedule so the stuff doesn't pile up as much, or the piles are more evenly spaced, something? Got the seedling rack put together, got the seeds delivered, and I realized I could try another bread starter on the seed rack where the temps will be consistent.
posted by winesong at 9:09 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Today it's very windy, the grey overcast and damp cold feel extra "ha ha, fooled you with those recent warm spells, we ain't done yet no gardening for you!" so my tiny dream of bicycling is gonna stay indoors and clean and fix things. I have determined to work on a daily schedule so the stuff doesn't pile up as much, or the piles are more evenly spaced, something? Got the seedling rack put together, got the seeds delivered, and I realized I could try another bread starter on the seed rack where the temps will be consistent.
posted by winesong at 9:09 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
I'm a human cisgender female above the age of 40, which implies I have been through period of self-generated heat. Let's just say that.
Other instances of overheating:
* The very first time I went to New Orleans was during August. That was a mistake.
* On a visit to a spa in Budapest, I wandered into a steam room that was pumping out so much steam that I had only 12-18 inches of visibility in front of me. I was able to find my way into the room and find a seat, and was comfortable enough - but that much steam VERY quickly went to my sinuses, and dislodged congestion that had probably been there since the first Obama administration. I could only take it for about three minutes before my nose was running profusely and I left in search of several tissues.
* Some NYC apartments are notorious for having the heat either be all the way on or all the way off. My Lower East Side apartment was one such space - and even worse, I had a loft bed in my bedroom, and one of the radiators was directly under that bed. And just for good measure - it was an eastern exposure. I slept with an open window in winter.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:09 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
Other instances of overheating:
* The very first time I went to New Orleans was during August. That was a mistake.
* On a visit to a spa in Budapest, I wandered into a steam room that was pumping out so much steam that I had only 12-18 inches of visibility in front of me. I was able to find my way into the room and find a seat, and was comfortable enough - but that much steam VERY quickly went to my sinuses, and dislodged congestion that had probably been there since the first Obama administration. I could only take it for about three minutes before my nose was running profusely and I left in search of several tissues.
* Some NYC apartments are notorious for having the heat either be all the way on or all the way off. My Lower East Side apartment was one such space - and even worse, I had a loft bed in my bedroom, and one of the radiators was directly under that bed. And just for good measure - it was an eastern exposure. I slept with an open window in winter.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:09 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
many years ago, during a slightly hotter than usual texas summer, i remember being impressed by seeing a bank time & temperature display that said, "113". (i think we've topped that several times by now.) --above 105 F or so, it just all feels miserable. i guess the only difference is at some point you start to die.
posted by graywyvern at 9:13 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
posted by graywyvern at 9:13 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
KAJ are a huge deal here in Finland. As a Finn said on bluesky, when he was a kid, he thought it was an impossibility that Finland would ever win Eurovision, but the idea that Finns might win Sweden’s Melodifestivalen was beyond the possibility of thought.
I had coffee with a Swedish-speaking Finn this morning, and we talked about how her community was reacting to the success of Bara Bada Bastu, and she told me that the biggest Swedish-language newspaper in Finland had basically run at least one story on them in every single issue for the last month.
For a minority that feels it’s forgotten in Finland and Sweden both, this is a rare moment of not only hypervisibility, but of feeling embraced positively by these two larger communities.
posted by Kattullus at 9:25 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
I had coffee with a Swedish-speaking Finn this morning, and we talked about how her community was reacting to the success of Bara Bada Bastu, and she told me that the biggest Swedish-language newspaper in Finland had basically run at least one story on them in every single issue for the last month.
For a minority that feels it’s forgotten in Finland and Sweden both, this is a rare moment of not only hypervisibility, but of feeling embraced positively by these two larger communities.
posted by Kattullus at 9:25 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
has anyone worn a gorilla suit
[leans towards microphone]
On advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer.
posted by Lemkin at 9:25 AM on March 24 [8 favorites]
[leans towards microphone]
On advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer.
posted by Lemkin at 9:25 AM on March 24 [8 favorites]
Yeah, pretty much nightly, every time I turn over in bed, KABOOM! I miss flannel sheets.
posted by JanetLand at 9:25 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
posted by JanetLand at 9:25 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
I have a membership at a sauna here in Stockholm, and though the idea of going from the extreme heat of the "bastu" to the icy plunge in Lake Mälaren seems in abstract to be insanity, after about a half hour in the heat seems the only sensible thing to do. I've managed to avoid any "Melodifestivalen" coverage so far this year but figured I should probably know this song because it's going to come up, so thanks for this post!
posted by St. Oops at 9:38 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
posted by St. Oops at 9:38 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
The most harrowing, gut-turning account of what a mass heat-death event could be like is the opening of the novel "The Ministry for the Future" by Kim Stanley Robinson.
I've managed to acclimatize to the few heat waves of Southern Ontario. Our secret weapon is 5 ceiling fans. But still, I cannot imagine I could manage the summer heat y'all get south of us, or in any tropical region away from the ocean.
posted by Artful Codger at 9:56 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
I've managed to acclimatize to the few heat waves of Southern Ontario. Our secret weapon is 5 ceiling fans. But still, I cannot imagine I could manage the summer heat y'all get south of us, or in any tropical region away from the ocean.
posted by Artful Codger at 9:56 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
ginger.beef, I haven't worn a suit like that, but this is for you. Found on my Lego calendar today.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:00 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:00 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
There's a curious thing I wanted to say in the thread about Bara Bada Bastu, but I was busy doing other stuff and forgot: for some reason, we Danes find Finnish-Swedish the easiest dialect to understand, and Skånska, the dialect spoken closest to Denmark the hardest. Obviously, on the other side it's directly opposite, so it's an ongoing tragedy.
The heat-stroke stories reminded me of once I had a heat stroke and the kindness of strangers. I was on a group trip in Iran, but I was the youngest person in the group, so in Persepolis I decided to try and climb up to have a closer look at the tombs all alone. When I came down, a bit before the others arrived, the bus driver immediately saw I was ill. He raced over to a group of Bedouin who were staying next to the site and brought back a 1,5 liter bottle of doogh. I drank it all and recovered and still to this day love doogh, though mostly I can only get ayran here. I was able to thank the Bedouin tribe for their help, they refused any money.
posted by mumimor at 10:00 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
The heat-stroke stories reminded me of once I had a heat stroke and the kindness of strangers. I was on a group trip in Iran, but I was the youngest person in the group, so in Persepolis I decided to try and climb up to have a closer look at the tombs all alone. When I came down, a bit before the others arrived, the bus driver immediately saw I was ill. He raced over to a group of Bedouin who were staying next to the site and brought back a 1,5 liter bottle of doogh. I drank it all and recovered and still to this day love doogh, though mostly I can only get ayran here. I was able to thank the Bedouin tribe for their help, they refused any money.
posted by mumimor at 10:00 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
30-ish years ago my then-wife and I were exploring the idea of co-housing. For some misbegotten reason we thought we might find kindred souls among the Rainbow Gathering that was happening in Alabama's Talladega National Forest that year...at the height of summer, with both temperature AND humidity unrelentingly in the 90's. I've always hated summer at the best of times, but there's you some serious hot steamy sweaty! The shade under the trees was only barely better, and it stayed hot and humid at night as well. There was a lake (more of a pond, really), but it was tepid at best, and - well, some background: On the surface, the "Rainbow Family" are hippies with high-minded ideologies, but from what I could tell most of them were barely better than transients and beggars, and they certainly didn't have much respect for the land they were "legally" temporarily squatting on. That lake/pond I mentioned? There were multiple turds floating in it, so even if the water had been cooler I still wouldn't dare put a single toe in it. I couldn't sleep because I was constantly sweating and dealing with a raging monster headache (I was likely approaching heat stroke). On top of that we didn't come remotely close to finding anyone we cared to discuss co-housing with. We left partway through the second day because I simply couldn't handle it anymore. Rolling down the car windows once we got on the road, even with a hot steamy breeze, was still a relief. That event pretty thoroughly soured me on the notion of co-living with any group of people whatsoever.
Speaking of weather, we're apparently getting a single gorgeous day this week: Tuesday will be sunny and in the low 70s (I'm absolutely going to play hooky from work). Then it's back to rainy and temps in the 50s for the next two weeks. April's supposed to be on the cool and wet side as well. On the one hand I'm ready for some nice weather; on the other hand the hot dry summer months will be here soon enough and I'll be wistfully recalling cool rainy days.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:06 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Speaking of weather, we're apparently getting a single gorgeous day this week: Tuesday will be sunny and in the low 70s (I'm absolutely going to play hooky from work). Then it's back to rainy and temps in the 50s for the next two weeks. April's supposed to be on the cool and wet side as well. On the one hand I'm ready for some nice weather; on the other hand the hot dry summer months will be here soon enough and I'll be wistfully recalling cool rainy days.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:06 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
On July 3, 2023 it was over 100°F and I was outside trying to trim a wisteria vine over the sidewalk. The city requires 10ft clearance and the vine was at 9ft high. They had given me a citation to fix it within three days or be fined some gigantic amount, so I, an elderly person in a wheelchair was outside standing with a long lopper over my head trying to cut down this 40 year vine. I was sweating so hard my clothes were completely soaked.
I was about to collapse so I stopped and went inside to lie down and cool off. I started having wracking chills so hard my teeth were chattering. I had a fever, I thought I was going to die of heatstroke. I fell into a deep sleep.
When I woke the next day I could barely move and the whole bed was sweated through. I stumbled into the bathroom, tried to find a thermometer and failed. My gaze fell on the stack of Covid 19 tests and I decided to take the test. It was positive. Happy Fourth of July! I had Covid. I called a friend, crying, and she went by the pharmacy and picked up Paxlovid and left in on the porch for me. I stayed on top of my stinky bed for 5 more days before I had the strength to get up and shower and change the sheets. I have never been as hot and cold as I was in that one day.
Later my friend told me she had secretly come by and finished trimming the vine. The city did not fine me and I lost about 10lbs. Yay! and I didn't die.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 10:11 AM on March 24 [11 favorites]
I was about to collapse so I stopped and went inside to lie down and cool off. I started having wracking chills so hard my teeth were chattering. I had a fever, I thought I was going to die of heatstroke. I fell into a deep sleep.
When I woke the next day I could barely move and the whole bed was sweated through. I stumbled into the bathroom, tried to find a thermometer and failed. My gaze fell on the stack of Covid 19 tests and I decided to take the test. It was positive. Happy Fourth of July! I had Covid. I called a friend, crying, and she went by the pharmacy and picked up Paxlovid and left in on the porch for me. I stayed on top of my stinky bed for 5 more days before I had the strength to get up and shower and change the sheets. I have never been as hot and cold as I was in that one day.
Later my friend told me she had secretly come by and finished trimming the vine. The city did not fine me and I lost about 10lbs. Yay! and I didn't die.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 10:11 AM on March 24 [11 favorites]
only one mention of menopause hmm.
ok: menopause
posted by supermedusa at 10:14 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
ok: menopause
posted by supermedusa at 10:14 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
My favourite book is probably Popular Music from Vittula by Mikael Niemi, a semi- or hyper-autobiographical book that's set in Pajala, rural Sweden, near the border with Finland. It's the kind of personal writing I've aspired to, but never reached; not even close. There's a chapter in it about a wedding ...
The wedding took place in the middle of summer when everybody was on holiday, and the family home was flooded with relations. I was nearly thirteen and was allowed to sit at the table with the grown-ups for the first time. A solid wall of silent men, shoulder to shoulder like huge blocks of stone, and here and there their pretty wives from Finland, like flowers on a cliff face. As was normal in our family, nobody said a word. Everybody was waiting for the food.
... and the event degenerates into a sauna contest and it is surreal and wild. I've re-read that chapter more than any other piece of text; it was the first thing which came to mind on hearing Bara Bada Bastu.
The second thing which came to mind was going to a European project consortium meeting in Helsinki, heck this was decades ago now. There were two items at the end of the agenda:
- project finance and expenses discussion
- sauna (my first in Finland!)
Except ... I had misread the agenda and was unaware of Finnish sauna culture to that extent then, and it was actually just one item: the meeting took place in the sauna. Which seemed unnatural for, briefly, a short while, but then seemed natural; even discussing currency conversions in a group of of unclothed, heavily perspiring, people. Oh, the heat. My god, the heat. I'd been in a few sauna in England (in retrospect they were weak piss sauna) but they had not prepared me for how ferociously HOT Finnish sauna were. Only in a Finnish sauna have I sweat from places I did not know it was physically possible to sweat from. But after the shower following the meeting, I don't think I've ever felt so intrinsically and extrinsically clean in my entire life, like my body had just forcefully sweat out utterly everything toxic inside it.
One of the things I love about Finland is that sauna culture is integral and natural, and every half-decent hotel has at least one. A picture I took of the Holiday Inn hotel sauna in Oulu.
Huh. It's been a few years, but I now have to borrow Popular Music from Vittula again.
posted by Wordshore at 10:15 AM on March 24 [7 favorites]
The wedding took place in the middle of summer when everybody was on holiday, and the family home was flooded with relations. I was nearly thirteen and was allowed to sit at the table with the grown-ups for the first time. A solid wall of silent men, shoulder to shoulder like huge blocks of stone, and here and there their pretty wives from Finland, like flowers on a cliff face. As was normal in our family, nobody said a word. Everybody was waiting for the food.
... and the event degenerates into a sauna contest and it is surreal and wild. I've re-read that chapter more than any other piece of text; it was the first thing which came to mind on hearing Bara Bada Bastu.
The second thing which came to mind was going to a European project consortium meeting in Helsinki, heck this was decades ago now. There were two items at the end of the agenda:
- project finance and expenses discussion
- sauna (my first in Finland!)
Except ... I had misread the agenda and was unaware of Finnish sauna culture to that extent then, and it was actually just one item: the meeting took place in the sauna. Which seemed unnatural for, briefly, a short while, but then seemed natural; even discussing currency conversions in a group of of unclothed, heavily perspiring, people. Oh, the heat. My god, the heat. I'd been in a few sauna in England (in retrospect they were weak piss sauna) but they had not prepared me for how ferociously HOT Finnish sauna were. Only in a Finnish sauna have I sweat from places I did not know it was physically possible to sweat from. But after the shower following the meeting, I don't think I've ever felt so intrinsically and extrinsically clean in my entire life, like my body had just forcefully sweat out utterly everything toxic inside it.
One of the things I love about Finland is that sauna culture is integral and natural, and every half-decent hotel has at least one. A picture I took of the Holiday Inn hotel sauna in Oulu.
Huh. It's been a few years, but I now have to borrow Popular Music from Vittula again.
posted by Wordshore at 10:15 AM on March 24 [7 favorites]
Remembering the computer magazine articles that discussed whether average users needed to spend the price premium for a Pentium 133 processor.
posted by Lemkin at 10:39 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
posted by Lemkin at 10:39 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
got mildly sweaty over the weekend planting 17 (!!!) pole bean plants. we are gonna have SO.MANY.BEANS!!!!!
posted by supermedusa at 10:41 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 10:41 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
what situation, event, or incident were you hot, sweaty, comfortably or uncomfortably warm in, maybe needing to cool down
Yes hello perimenopause I am so unbearably hot so often and so tired of it. About to make my second attempt at HRT - wish me luck.
The best thing I can liken it to, is when you go camping, and you wrap up really warm at night because it's cold. Then you wake up in the morning with the sun beating down on your tent and it's like an oven, and you're still done up like a super-toasty burrito with all your clothes and the sleeping bag zipped round your face and suddenly you panic that you're about to burn alive and have to fling yourself for the tent door to gasp some air.
It's that, only the heat's coming from inside you, and you can't escape it.
posted by penguin pie at 10:46 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
Yes hello perimenopause I am so unbearably hot so often and so tired of it. About to make my second attempt at HRT - wish me luck.
The best thing I can liken it to, is when you go camping, and you wrap up really warm at night because it's cold. Then you wake up in the morning with the sun beating down on your tent and it's like an oven, and you're still done up like a super-toasty burrito with all your clothes and the sleeping bag zipped round your face and suddenly you panic that you're about to burn alive and have to fling yourself for the tent door to gasp some air.
It's that, only the heat's coming from inside you, and you can't escape it.
posted by penguin pie at 10:46 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
For a minority that feels it’s forgotten in Finland and Sweden both, this is a rare moment of not only hypervisibility, but of feeling embraced positively by these two larger communities.
What Kattullus said. It's a strange and beautiful thing, totally in tune with Eurovision wonderful madness. I've heard the song, it's not bad, and the fellas seem to be almost too good (which is like an ages old class thing that Finnish-speaking Finns are often jealous of Swedish-speaking Finns for being better/more successful/privileged etc and so they make fun of them or dislike them, the "svenska talande bättre folk") but I am happy for them. They might even win the whole thing, who knows.
About saunas, actually, about me first: I'm Finnish. I was born in Kemi, by the sea near the Swedish border, 41 years ago. In Finland you DO sauna, everything you hear is absolutely true, but I've grown out of it a bit. My last apartment before this one had a sauna, but after a couple of years I found I barely used it IF I didn't have people over, which leads to the next thing:
In Finland a sauna is a very social event but I don't mean that the sitting in the sauna sweating is a social event – it usually isn't, it is too hot to talk much –, more like the whole thing saunotaan, let's sauna, let's have people over and sauna (and drink and maybe eat) is a huge social thing in Finland, and you know your friend who is traveling and crashing at your place for one night only WILL WANT TO sauna even if it is late and dark when he gets to your place.
So basically, even for a Finn, anywhere you go you get offered the chance to sauna. Usually if you don't know the people, and it's not a party, you don't sauna with them, of course swimming pools and public saunas are different. If it is a party, everyone is invited to sauna if they want to.
The apartment building I live in was built in the mid-60's and has a private sauna in the street level and was renovated like ten years ago. A lot of saunas are built in basements, but our building doesn't have one. My reserved slot is saturday 8PM to 8:30PM and another half hour to chill in the dressing room. I sauna maybe once every three months. I find the older I get, the less time in the heat I can take?
posted by fridgebuzz at 10:47 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
What Kattullus said. It's a strange and beautiful thing, totally in tune with Eurovision wonderful madness. I've heard the song, it's not bad, and the fellas seem to be almost too good (which is like an ages old class thing that Finnish-speaking Finns are often jealous of Swedish-speaking Finns for being better/more successful/privileged etc and so they make fun of them or dislike them, the "svenska talande bättre folk") but I am happy for them. They might even win the whole thing, who knows.
About saunas, actually, about me first: I'm Finnish. I was born in Kemi, by the sea near the Swedish border, 41 years ago. In Finland you DO sauna, everything you hear is absolutely true, but I've grown out of it a bit. My last apartment before this one had a sauna, but after a couple of years I found I barely used it IF I didn't have people over, which leads to the next thing:
In Finland a sauna is a very social event but I don't mean that the sitting in the sauna sweating is a social event – it usually isn't, it is too hot to talk much –, more like the whole thing saunotaan, let's sauna, let's have people over and sauna (and drink and maybe eat) is a huge social thing in Finland, and you know your friend who is traveling and crashing at your place for one night only WILL WANT TO sauna even if it is late and dark when he gets to your place.
So basically, even for a Finn, anywhere you go you get offered the chance to sauna. Usually if you don't know the people, and it's not a party, you don't sauna with them, of course swimming pools and public saunas are different. If it is a party, everyone is invited to sauna if they want to.
The apartment building I live in was built in the mid-60's and has a private sauna in the street level and was renovated like ten years ago. A lot of saunas are built in basements, but our building doesn't have one. My reserved slot is saturday 8PM to 8:30PM and another half hour to chill in the dressing room. I sauna maybe once every three months. I find the older I get, the less time in the heat I can take?
posted by fridgebuzz at 10:47 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
has anyone worn a gorilla suit or similar?
Why yes. Once upon a time, for reasons I won’t get into at this time, I spent 15 minutes in Disneyland wearing an official, sanctioned Baloo costume. It was June. I have no idea how real character employees manage the 30 minute shifts.
posted by Bryant at 10:51 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
Why yes. Once upon a time, for reasons I won’t get into at this time, I spent 15 minutes in Disneyland wearing an official, sanctioned Baloo costume. It was June. I have no idea how real character employees manage the 30 minute shifts.
posted by Bryant at 10:51 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
At age 21, I (a Scottish person, and consequently rather a wan unit) fell asleep for three hours in the middle of the afternoon on the beach at Miyazaki in Southern Japan in August. I managed to stumble back to the hostel, but started to shiver uncontrollably (it wasn't shivering weather). I tried to spend the night sleeping under as many futons as I could find, but some weird self-preservation thing had me crawl out and sleep on the cold stone shower-room floor. I got up, but a lot of my skin stayed stuck to the floor.
On the flight home a few days later I shed what was left of the top layer of my skin. I remember piles of it around my seat (eww!). A lasting memento was the burn shadow left by my swimming shorts on my lower back. That was visible for at least five years afterwards.
Kids: don't try this at all.
posted by scruss at 11:10 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
On the flight home a few days later I shed what was left of the top layer of my skin. I remember piles of it around my seat (eww!). A lasting memento was the burn shadow left by my swimming shorts on my lower back. That was visible for at least five years afterwards.
Kids: don't try this at all.
posted by scruss at 11:10 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
Our condo building has sauna in the basement. It’s dry sauna which is ok. I like using it but I don’t like the lack of fresh air. Or the chatty neighbours. Shut up! The CO2 levels bother me.
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:11 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:11 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
I can't stand a wet steamy sauna, but my favorite-ever dry sauna was the one some friends had built overlooking a small creek. They had even dug a little creek-fed dip pool next to it. This was in northern Florida, but even so it occasionally got well below freezing around the end of December-beginning of January, at least out in the country; on one such evening those friends had a small get-together to eat, have a few beers, socialize, and sauna. I sat in the heat until I couldn't stand it anymore (GAAAAHH!), then fully immersed myself in the creek, which actually had a thin film of ice on it (Ahhhhhhhh...), three or four times. Each time I sat in the creek for a good 10-15 minutes until I started to get really cold, before I was ready to brave the sauna again. At the end I may have felt the most relaxed and happy I've ever been, before or since.
A gym I used to go to a few years ago had a very nice dry sauna, but trudging to a communal shower room to cool off afterward was a far less amazing experience than being up to my neck in a freezing creek gazing raptly up at the brilliant crisp night sky.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:45 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
A gym I used to go to a few years ago had a very nice dry sauna, but trudging to a communal shower room to cool off afterward was a far less amazing experience than being up to my neck in a freezing creek gazing raptly up at the brilliant crisp night sky.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:45 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
another sweaty mascot story, and easily the worst costume I've worn, is a single outing in the Safewalk Sam costume, a giant plush cube with no arms and your legs stick out underneath and you just walk around and hope you're not jostling too many people. You needed minders, there are just too many campus bros who see a person in a costume and it is like motion to a cat, something goes off in their evil brains and they'll totally come for you because obviously they have a hilarious prank that must be shared with the helpless mascot person.
this is how I got my worst wedgie: wearing a Burger King oversized head at a house party without minders, no defence and some "funny guy" grabbed my underwear from behind and ripped them right off
Lesson #2 is to be very careful around a team of horses while in costume but that's a story for another day
posted by ginger.beef at 11:51 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
this is how I got my worst wedgie: wearing a Burger King oversized head at a house party without minders, no defence and some "funny guy" grabbed my underwear from behind and ripped them right off
Lesson #2 is to be very careful around a team of horses while in costume but that's a story for another day
posted by ginger.beef at 11:51 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Oh yeah. I had double the usual number of minders because I was an amateur, but even the pro Disney characters get a dedicated minder.
Speaking as someone who popped Pluto in the nose in a moment of 8 year old panic, I get it. Protect them from the likes of me.
posted by Bryant at 12:38 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Speaking as someone who popped Pluto in the nose in a moment of 8 year old panic, I get it. Protect them from the likes of me.
posted by Bryant at 12:38 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Hey there Artful Codger, I am also from the town of the Finns on the shores of the lake that never gives up her dead.
So many of the shitty apartments I rented in that town had basement saunas. We didn't ever cut a hole in Superior in the winter but we would roll in fresh show when available just to see how big of a steam cloud we could make.
Did they really save the Hoito? The last I could see was that there was a fire at the Finn Labour Temple in 2022 that destroyed its remnants before it could reopen...
posted by Sauce Trough at 12:51 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
So many of the shitty apartments I rented in that town had basement saunas. We didn't ever cut a hole in Superior in the winter but we would roll in fresh show when available just to see how big of a steam cloud we could make.
Did they really save the Hoito? The last I could see was that there was a fire at the Finn Labour Temple in 2022 that destroyed its remnants before it could reopen...
posted by Sauce Trough at 12:51 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
Not a sweaty story, but I'm surprised at how affected I am that a great friend from my youth, who I haven't been in touch with for a long while, is now a Elon-stan and a walking, talking regurgitator of Nazi talking points. I had to nope out of the conversation only a few minutes into it and in all likelihood will never talk to them again. It was surreal.
posted by maxwelton at 1:29 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
posted by maxwelton at 1:29 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
On a visit to a spa in Budapest, I wandered into a steam room…
This reminds me of one of the steam rooms at Szechenyi Baths. I think I lasted roughly two minutes before I had to leave. I could not handle it.
Perimenopause has been interesting as I am getting cold freezes instead of hot flashes. I have to wrap myself up in a scarf and spend all day in gloves and slippers and blankets, even in the middle of summer. A hot bath has become routine to warm myself up because I am so damn cold.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 1:29 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
This reminds me of one of the steam rooms at Szechenyi Baths. I think I lasted roughly two minutes before I had to leave. I could not handle it.
Perimenopause has been interesting as I am getting cold freezes instead of hot flashes. I have to wrap myself up in a scarf and spend all day in gloves and slippers and blankets, even in the middle of summer. A hot bath has become routine to warm myself up because I am so damn cold.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 1:29 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Also I have to go do the sports parent thing in an hour and work the concession stand and I am dreading it. The last time I did this kiddo was little, it was my first time and the people I was working with were obnoxiously rude and unkind. I am hoping for a better experience this time around, because I have to do 2-3 games and if people are going to be shitty I’m just going to ask how much they make per game, multiply it by my required number of shifts, double that number and write them a check. I’m too old to deal with mean people.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 1:36 PM on March 24 [3 favorites]
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 1:36 PM on March 24 [3 favorites]
Family stories have me reaching fevers of 106 ⁰F again and again from 6-18 months and claim they could only be controlled by immersing me in ice baths for hours at a time.
Tales like this exaggerate themselves in the telling, and I had my doubts — until I found a medical diary of those days in my mother's hand on a yellow pad when my sister and I were cleaning out their house after my father died. I was about six episodes of 106⁰ temperatures in when I read about the attempt to control a raging ear infection by beaming my left ear with X-rays and stopped reading.
Whether all that's the cause or not, I've always run hot. When I was 10 and in my doctor's office to get a penicillin shot for one of my innumerable strep infections, he pulled out my chart and showed me a notation in red ink that said my normal temperature was 99.5 instead of 98.6, and I once waded down an ice choked creek for several hours with water up to my armpits in a bunch of places, after falling through the ice and being rolled under it at the beginning, all without shivering or feeling cold. However, I was so terrified that my date for what was meant to be a pleasant afternoon hike to a waterfall in full spate from Spring runoff was going to be killed that I may not have noticed.
And parts of my body have demonstrated a capacity to heat up that just doesn't seem to be accounted for by blood flow.
For example, I was riding my bicycle home in a steady rain punctuated by downpours on a cold early Spring afternoon, in a bike lane around a lakeside park which happened to have plums in full flower hanging over it, when a burst of rain knocked some kind of beetle from a flower on one of the trees directly into my right eye. Where it promptly broke into many extremely painful fragments as soon as I blinked.
I'm very near sighted and was wearing a contact only in my right eye because of a corneal abrasion in the left, and my hands were crusted with mud because I'd had a flat earlier and had to replace a tube. This was my only right contact, I wasn't carrying a case, I wasn't at all sure I could get the contact out of my eye anyway, and I was ten miles from home.
The pain was becoming unbearable and I knew I had to do something, when suddenly there was this tremendous surge of heat in my eyesocket and hot liquid started dribbling out of my eye down onto my cheek. 'Oh great' I thought. 'I've punctured my eyeball and the fluid is leaking out'. But the heat intensified, much more liquid came pouring out, and it ended up washing all the bug parts out down onto my cheek. The liquid felt like melted butter when I rubbed it between thumb and forefinger, and it lubricated my eyeball enough for me to get home.
The heat in my eye lasted for at least 10 minutes, and I would swear it was way over my core body temperature. It never happened again and I've been waiting for years to hear a similar story, but so far I haven't.
posted by jamjam at 1:52 PM on March 24 [5 favorites]
Tales like this exaggerate themselves in the telling, and I had my doubts — until I found a medical diary of those days in my mother's hand on a yellow pad when my sister and I were cleaning out their house after my father died. I was about six episodes of 106⁰ temperatures in when I read about the attempt to control a raging ear infection by beaming my left ear with X-rays and stopped reading.
Whether all that's the cause or not, I've always run hot. When I was 10 and in my doctor's office to get a penicillin shot for one of my innumerable strep infections, he pulled out my chart and showed me a notation in red ink that said my normal temperature was 99.5 instead of 98.6, and I once waded down an ice choked creek for several hours with water up to my armpits in a bunch of places, after falling through the ice and being rolled under it at the beginning, all without shivering or feeling cold. However, I was so terrified that my date for what was meant to be a pleasant afternoon hike to a waterfall in full spate from Spring runoff was going to be killed that I may not have noticed.
And parts of my body have demonstrated a capacity to heat up that just doesn't seem to be accounted for by blood flow.
For example, I was riding my bicycle home in a steady rain punctuated by downpours on a cold early Spring afternoon, in a bike lane around a lakeside park which happened to have plums in full flower hanging over it, when a burst of rain knocked some kind of beetle from a flower on one of the trees directly into my right eye. Where it promptly broke into many extremely painful fragments as soon as I blinked.
I'm very near sighted and was wearing a contact only in my right eye because of a corneal abrasion in the left, and my hands were crusted with mud because I'd had a flat earlier and had to replace a tube. This was my only right contact, I wasn't carrying a case, I wasn't at all sure I could get the contact out of my eye anyway, and I was ten miles from home.
The pain was becoming unbearable and I knew I had to do something, when suddenly there was this tremendous surge of heat in my eyesocket and hot liquid started dribbling out of my eye down onto my cheek. 'Oh great' I thought. 'I've punctured my eyeball and the fluid is leaking out'. But the heat intensified, much more liquid came pouring out, and it ended up washing all the bug parts out down onto my cheek. The liquid felt like melted butter when I rubbed it between thumb and forefinger, and it lubricated my eyeball enough for me to get home.
The heat in my eye lasted for at least 10 minutes, and I would swear it was way over my core body temperature. It never happened again and I've been waiting for years to hear a similar story, but so far I haven't.
posted by jamjam at 1:52 PM on March 24 [5 favorites]
I visited Japan in October 2019. It was a pretty warm fall, I guess?
Anyway, I've been walking around Tokyo for a couple hours getting sweaty in the sun, humidity & heat. When suddenly I realize I really REALLY need a toilet.
I accelerate towards the nearest subway station, increasing my general heat level even further. But it's not far and Lo! they have good toilets & a stall is immediately available.
I drop trou, sit down, and ... the toilet seat has been set to hot, Hot, HOT! (yes, the subway public toilets are swanky enough to have the usual Japanese features like a heated seat & water jets)
I about died, with this new heat source just absolutely pushing me over the edge in mysery. All I could think about was finishing my business so that I could get off the damn hotseat!
Writing this now, I realize that if I could have managed it, the toilet probably had a nice cooling water jet available. But I didn't even try; and with my luck I'd have gotten scalding hot water somehow.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 2:15 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Anyway, I've been walking around Tokyo for a couple hours getting sweaty in the sun, humidity & heat. When suddenly I realize I really REALLY need a toilet.
I accelerate towards the nearest subway station, increasing my general heat level even further. But it's not far and Lo! they have good toilets & a stall is immediately available.
I drop trou, sit down, and ... the toilet seat has been set to hot, Hot, HOT! (yes, the subway public toilets are swanky enough to have the usual Japanese features like a heated seat & water jets)
I about died, with this new heat source just absolutely pushing me over the edge in mysery. All I could think about was finishing my business so that I could get off the damn hotseat!
Writing this now, I realize that if I could have managed it, the toilet probably had a nice cooling water jet available. But I didn't even try; and with my luck I'd have gotten scalding hot water somehow.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 2:15 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
...has anyone worn a gorilla suit or similar?
Back in college, for reasons that are lost to me, I spent an entire evening at the area mall, greeting children, dressed in a Sylvester the Cat costume. And, yeah, you wear nothing but your undies inside those things. I was a drenched mess by the end of the night. The hardest part was not being able to speak to the kids as they run up and hug you. Not so much as an “awww.”
.......
I ran across my old tattered copy of Snow Crash last week, and thought I’d re-read it once again, just for giggles. Holy crap, has it not aged well. The details of the future it gets utterly wrong are pretty funny and endearingly naive.
.......
On a much cooler note, the heart surgery on our month-and-a-half-year-old grandson seems to have gone amazingly well and appears to have kick-started a whole lot of healing/development in him.
His surgeon had just done his 200th pediatric heart transplant the same week, so we all figured our little guy was in good hands. I can’t imagine doing 200 heart transplants, let alone 200 transplants on little ones.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:30 PM on March 24 [14 favorites]
Back in college, for reasons that are lost to me, I spent an entire evening at the area mall, greeting children, dressed in a Sylvester the Cat costume. And, yeah, you wear nothing but your undies inside those things. I was a drenched mess by the end of the night. The hardest part was not being able to speak to the kids as they run up and hug you. Not so much as an “awww.”
.......
I ran across my old tattered copy of Snow Crash last week, and thought I’d re-read it once again, just for giggles. Holy crap, has it not aged well. The details of the future it gets utterly wrong are pretty funny and endearingly naive.
.......
On a much cooler note, the heart surgery on our month-and-a-half-year-old grandson seems to have gone amazingly well and appears to have kick-started a whole lot of healing/development in him.
His surgeon had just done his 200th pediatric heart transplant the same week, so we all figured our little guy was in good hands. I can’t imagine doing 200 heart transplants, let alone 200 transplants on little ones.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:30 PM on March 24 [14 favorites]
That's funny. On impulse i am rereading Distraction by Bruce Sterling which was published in 1998. It's a pretty uncanny read right now, he got a surprising lot Not wrong. Particularly weird, Weird politics. If you've never read it, I recommend it.
posted by supermedusa at 3:36 PM on March 24 [3 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 3:36 PM on March 24 [3 favorites]
Sounds like somebody stopped believing, Spike Glee.
posted by adekllny at 4:27 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
posted by adekllny at 4:27 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
Perimenopause has been interesting as I am getting cold freezes instead of hot flashes. I have to wrap myself up in a scarf and spend all day in gloves and slippers and blankets, even in the middle of summer. A hot bath has become routine to warm myself up because I am so damn cold.
ME TOO I am a lifelong overheater but I've been cold since 2023 and I'm so over it.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:38 PM on March 24 [4 favorites]
ME TOO I am a lifelong overheater but I've been cold since 2023 and I'm so over it.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:38 PM on March 24 [4 favorites]
...has anyone worn a gorilla suit or similar?
As part of a fundraiser for the guide dogs association, I was dressed in a giant upright puppy costume at a country fair.
Very gratefully mine had a cooling fan built into the nose part, that gently blew fresh air onto my face the whole time. Would highly recommend.
I did have to have a guide to walk around though (a guide human for the walking upright guide dog): Visability to see any closer than a couple of meters around my feet was impossible. Plus because I was a giant walking soft and fluffy plush toy (and it was a pretty new suit), my legs would often get stuck suddenly as small hidden kids appearing out of nowhere wrapped their arms around my legs for a hug.
posted by many-things at 5:08 PM on March 24 [4 favorites]
As part of a fundraiser for the guide dogs association, I was dressed in a giant upright puppy costume at a country fair.
Very gratefully mine had a cooling fan built into the nose part, that gently blew fresh air onto my face the whole time. Would highly recommend.
I did have to have a guide to walk around though (a guide human for the walking upright guide dog): Visability to see any closer than a couple of meters around my feet was impossible. Plus because I was a giant walking soft and fluffy plush toy (and it was a pretty new suit), my legs would often get stuck suddenly as small hidden kids appearing out of nowhere wrapped their arms around my legs for a hug.
posted by many-things at 5:08 PM on March 24 [4 favorites]
Simultaneously endearing and unnerving!
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:17 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:17 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
Cool thoughts. LOL
I grew up in KC. Summers were hot and humid, winters were cold.
Can't remember anytime I had an issue with the heat.
Do remember being a YMCA camp counselor, and sending all the kids to the pool while we hung out by the creek and played Canasta. Good times
Red Cedar Forest if anyone remembers..
posted by Windopaene at 7:42 PM on March 24
I grew up in KC. Summers were hot and humid, winters were cold.
Can't remember anytime I had an issue with the heat.
Do remember being a YMCA camp counselor, and sending all the kids to the pool while we hung out by the creek and played Canasta. Good times
Red Cedar Forest if anyone remembers..
posted by Windopaene at 7:42 PM on March 24
The most uncomfortably humid weather I've ever experienced was on a flight layover on Guam, on my way to Taipei. It was the dark of night, but must have been 100 degrees/45 C. Every pore in my skin began dripping with sweat as all my clothes stuck to my body and I prayed for a quick end to the misery. I recall it was literally difficult to breathe.
posted by honey badger at 8:03 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
posted by honey badger at 8:03 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
I live in Maine. My heating system has gone wonky. Also, I keep the heat down because, Climate. I stay in bed under a pile of blankets and quilts in the morning. I have invested in warm clothing; it helps. There will be a day in summer when I forget how dreary it is to be kind of cold all the time, or anticipating being cold. I long for that day.
I had a baby, surgical delivery. A few days later, left the hospital, and it felt like a terrible idea. Couple hours later, I came back with a fever of 105F. That really sucked, but I'm thankful for effective antibiotics.
posted by theora55 at 9:37 PM on March 24 [4 favorites]
I had a baby, surgical delivery. A few days later, left the hospital, and it felt like a terrible idea. Couple hours later, I came back with a fever of 105F. That really sucked, but I'm thankful for effective antibiotics.
posted by theora55 at 9:37 PM on March 24 [4 favorites]
My ex’s parents were back to the land hippies in West Virginia. They built this crazy log cabin completely by hand in the 70s and of course it included a sauna. No electricity, no running water, but a wood fired sauna. They lived there for years. Fast forward 20 or so years and my ex and I and a bunch of other people - kids and dogs and friends and so on, probably more than 20 people, we were all kind of hippies ourselves - went out to visit for a long weekend in the spring / early summer.
We decided to to sauna it up, ladies first, so there were about 7 or 8 of us in there, naked, sitting on the benches in the dark, chatting as it got warmer and warmer and was approaching hot when somebody gasped and said to the person across from them, don’t look down. And someone else said OH MY GOD and then there was a general extremely rapid exodus as all the sleepy black snakes who had apparently been living there all winter started waking up and checking out the festivities.
A bunch of screaming naked women can sure shake up a campsite and even though we weren’t actually being pursued by the snakes, we thought we were, so we were moving fast and screaming loud. It was pretty funny. When the dust settled and the snakes had been politely relocated it turned out there had been more than ten of them and some were really big. I don’t mind snakes too much but I’ve never been enthusiastic about saunas since.
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:51 PM on March 24 [10 favorites]
We decided to to sauna it up, ladies first, so there were about 7 or 8 of us in there, naked, sitting on the benches in the dark, chatting as it got warmer and warmer and was approaching hot when somebody gasped and said to the person across from them, don’t look down. And someone else said OH MY GOD and then there was a general extremely rapid exodus as all the sleepy black snakes who had apparently been living there all winter started waking up and checking out the festivities.
A bunch of screaming naked women can sure shake up a campsite and even though we weren’t actually being pursued by the snakes, we thought we were, so we were moving fast and screaming loud. It was pretty funny. When the dust settled and the snakes had been politely relocated it turned out there had been more than ten of them and some were really big. I don’t mind snakes too much but I’ve never been enthusiastic about saunas since.
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:51 PM on March 24 [10 favorites]
Hot is it? We have a wood stove in the living room that usually has a kettle simmering away atop. A few years ago, 'someone' filled the kettle too full and it started to spatter over on the stove-stop when it got to the boil. Thinks: Oh wet kettle bottom, can fix that. I picked the kettle up and dried it on the thigh of my chinos. Really needed the bag of frozen peas for that bright idea.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:45 AM on March 25 [4 favorites]
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:45 AM on March 25 [4 favorites]
A week ago on tuesday I was coming home from work by bus. I stopped at the city centre for some groceries and stuff from the pharmacist. I had my over the shoulder bag and the bag of stuff I just bought. I moved the eyedrops and the little one of the two bottles of vodka into my shoulder bag and promptly proceeded to bus home and forget the bag of stuff in the bus. NORMALLY this wouldn't be a big thing because I could just wait for 15 minutes and the same bus would come going the other way on it's route, but no it just happened to be the bus that stops going at 6PM and heads to the depot. (Before 6PM there are two buses, one every half hour, after six only one every hour.)
It wasn't a HUGE deal, I thought I was just out the forty-fifty euros for the groceries and lotion and vodka, which yeah, not nice but not the end of the world. I don't think anyone would take a bag of groceries to the lost and found. HOWEVER: the good friend whom I've mentioned before a couple of times has a friend who just started driving the bus here. So my friend decides on his own to call him up. And, by coincidence, the guy was just getting off duty and heading to the depot, and found the bag, and picked it up and my friend went to meet him at our local library and brought the groceries and lotion and VODKA to me.
I had to work the next day (hence the 2dl small vodka, which I was glad to have with me when I didn't yet know I'd be getting my stuff back) but I cracked open the bigger vodka and he had a couple of huge screwdrivers as a reward.
posted by fridgebuzz at 2:32 AM on March 25 [7 favorites]
It wasn't a HUGE deal, I thought I was just out the forty-fifty euros for the groceries and lotion and vodka, which yeah, not nice but not the end of the world. I don't think anyone would take a bag of groceries to the lost and found. HOWEVER: the good friend whom I've mentioned before a couple of times has a friend who just started driving the bus here. So my friend decides on his own to call him up. And, by coincidence, the guy was just getting off duty and heading to the depot, and found the bag, and picked it up and my friend went to meet him at our local library and brought the groceries and lotion and VODKA to me.
I had to work the next day (hence the 2dl small vodka, which I was glad to have with me when I didn't yet know I'd be getting my stuff back) but I cracked open the bigger vodka and he had a couple of huge screwdrivers as a reward.
posted by fridgebuzz at 2:32 AM on March 25 [7 favorites]
A few years ago, 'someone' filled the kettle too full and it started to spatter over on the stove-stop when it got to the boil. Thinks: Oh wet kettle bottom, can fix that. I picked the kettle up and dried it on the thigh of my chinos. Really needed the bag of frozen peas for that bright idea.
I did a year or so in the McDonald's trenches as a high school job, and one time I was working the fry station. One night I had just pulled a (metal) basket of fries out of the (boiling) oil when my grip wavered and the edge of the basket went whang into one of my wrists. It was at least a second-degree burn, and I was sent to the back room to spread a layer of Bactine over the burn and then wrap it up well, and I was kept away from the fry station and sent out to do cleaning duty for the rest of my shift. ....Which was okay, because that was the same night that a dude dressed up as the "Mac Tonight" character was touring our local McDonald's to make appearances and I got to do some FANTASTIC people-watching.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:00 AM on March 25 [1 favorite]
I did a year or so in the McDonald's trenches as a high school job, and one time I was working the fry station. One night I had just pulled a (metal) basket of fries out of the (boiling) oil when my grip wavered and the edge of the basket went whang into one of my wrists. It was at least a second-degree burn, and I was sent to the back room to spread a layer of Bactine over the burn and then wrap it up well, and I was kept away from the fry station and sent out to do cleaning duty for the rest of my shift. ....Which was okay, because that was the same night that a dude dressed up as the "Mac Tonight" character was touring our local McDonald's to make appearances and I got to do some FANTASTIC people-watching.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:00 AM on March 25 [1 favorite]
Life before air conditioning was hot.
Every July, from the late 1950s on, my family drove from western Pennsylvania to coastal North Carolina in an unairconditioned car. Turnpike speeds meant closed windows (other than those triangular “no-draft” things) so much of the trip was four people in a rolling oven. At meal stops we would stagger into buildings and gulp the cool air like icewater. In fact, thermos full of icewater was the only respite on the road. Many, many hours—days—of unrelenting heat.
In the mid-60s the Valley Forge Music Fair was under a circus tent. I attended a matinée there that was so hot the performers’ greasepaint was melting and running down their faces and their costumes hung limp with sweat. The audience struggled to breathe. A couple passed out. It was so bad I occasionally have nightmares about it.
Now that a/c is ubiquitous most folks today have no idea.
posted by kinnakeet at 7:48 AM on March 25 [5 favorites]
Every July, from the late 1950s on, my family drove from western Pennsylvania to coastal North Carolina in an unairconditioned car. Turnpike speeds meant closed windows (other than those triangular “no-draft” things) so much of the trip was four people in a rolling oven. At meal stops we would stagger into buildings and gulp the cool air like icewater. In fact, thermos full of icewater was the only respite on the road. Many, many hours—days—of unrelenting heat.
In the mid-60s the Valley Forge Music Fair was under a circus tent. I attended a matinée there that was so hot the performers’ greasepaint was melting and running down their faces and their costumes hung limp with sweat. The audience struggled to breathe. A couple passed out. It was so bad I occasionally have nightmares about it.
Now that a/c is ubiquitous most folks today have no idea.
posted by kinnakeet at 7:48 AM on March 25 [5 favorites]
Welp - my job hunt actions this morning have gone totally pear-shaped, since a lot of the applications I'm sending out have "verify your application with this pin number we just emailed you" as a final step - but my ISP seems to be down.
Eh, I sent 23 applications out yesterday, I have earmarked another 20 for today and I'll just do them tomorrow.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:12 AM on March 25 [1 favorite]
Eh, I sent 23 applications out yesterday, I have earmarked another 20 for today and I'll just do them tomorrow.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:12 AM on March 25 [1 favorite]
Menopause... but thanks to HRT, I now only get hot flushes if I wake in the night after not enough sleep. Or if I forget to note when I started the Lenzetto spray and continue using it after it's empty. Not keen to return to the pre-HRT days and slightly dreading how it will be if I ever stop taking it. (I too get cold hands and feet).
On a visit to Finland I was invited to use my friend's relative's sauna, and as a concession to my Britishness I was allowed to go in on my own. That's when I realised that keeping metal-framed glasses on while in the sauna is fine if they have plastic nose and ear bits, as long as you don't then touch the frames with your fingers. OUCH.
posted by altolinguistic at 8:22 AM on March 25 [2 favorites]
On a visit to Finland I was invited to use my friend's relative's sauna, and as a concession to my Britishness I was allowed to go in on my own. That's when I realised that keeping metal-framed glasses on while in the sauna is fine if they have plastic nose and ear bits, as long as you don't then touch the frames with your fingers. OUCH.
posted by altolinguistic at 8:22 AM on March 25 [2 favorites]
My ISP is back up and running again - and one of my emails that finally came in was a request for an interview, so things weren't a total loss today.
I've been turning the heat down a touch in the apartment now that things are getting warmer. I try to keep things on the low side anyway for economy's sake - also, the boiler for the apartment is in my bedroom closet, so at night things are a little artificially warm for me anyway.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:44 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]
I've been turning the heat down a touch in the apartment now that things are getting warmer. I try to keep things on the low side anyway for economy's sake - also, the boiler for the apartment is in my bedroom closet, so at night things are a little artificially warm for me anyway.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:44 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]
Wau-g-h! I'm feeling crochety today.
I had a physical yesterday and am not happy. My left ear has been stopped up for 6 weeks. They went in there with tools after identifying the problem and they couldn't do it so I have to go back at which point I imagine they'll have a full set of flame-tools. They ignored my other complaints. I'm not used to being treated this way.
I had a staff meeting this morning. There was me, 4 other Direct Support people, 2 peak support people and someone from billing.
Billing is concerned because this is a 3 resident house with only two residents and we are barely scraping by. Staff is concerned because management keeps proposing unsuitable candidates for the third room. We said no thank you to an actual shit thrower and they said "Think this over again." I'm not used to being treated this way.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 11:59 AM on March 26 [2 favorites]
I had a physical yesterday and am not happy. My left ear has been stopped up for 6 weeks. They went in there with tools after identifying the problem and they couldn't do it so I have to go back at which point I imagine they'll have a full set of flame-tools. They ignored my other complaints. I'm not used to being treated this way.
I had a staff meeting this morning. There was me, 4 other Direct Support people, 2 peak support people and someone from billing.
Billing is concerned because this is a 3 resident house with only two residents and we are barely scraping by. Staff is concerned because management keeps proposing unsuitable candidates for the third room. We said no thank you to an actual shit thrower and they said "Think this over again." I'm not used to being treated this way.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 11:59 AM on March 26 [2 favorites]
KAJ performed for free in a downtown Helsinki mall yesterday, where I could’ve gone with my kids, if my daughter didn’t happen to come down with a fever.
Anyway, people have uploaded clips from the performance, including BaraBada Bastu. I will say that the raised eyebrow of one of them when he hears a thousand people yell perkele is pretty funny.
Also, the one I thought probably didn’t have the dance moves down pat, doesn’t have the dance moves down pat.
posted by Kattullus at 4:00 AM on March 27 [2 favorites]
Anyway, people have uploaded clips from the performance, including BaraBada Bastu. I will say that the raised eyebrow of one of them when he hears a thousand people yell perkele is pretty funny.
Also, the one I thought probably didn’t have the dance moves down pat, doesn’t have the dance moves down pat.
posted by Kattullus at 4:00 AM on March 27 [2 favorites]
Today my company had to have an all-hands meeting to continue discussing what plans and protections are available for employees who need to flee their state or country. And as a side-quest, remind us that it doesn't matter if bribery is now technically legal, we're still not supposed to bribe anyone. Just having a real normal one over here.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:41 AM on March 27 [2 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:41 AM on March 27 [2 favorites]
Well, that was bizarre. Random caller at the door this morning:
Him: Are you interested in sandwiches?
Me: ?? um ... well it depends what the filling is?
Him: {looks at sheet on clipboard he is holding} I've only got YES or NO on my sheet.
Me: ..
Him: ..
Me: It's a no, then.
Him: {ticks NO, leaves in silence}
That was the conversation in entirety. No other words, no card or leaflet, no badge, no context, no van with e.g. "RANDOM SANDWICH GUY" on the side, no free sample, no nothing.
posted by Wordshore at 7:18 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
Him: Are you interested in sandwiches?
Me: ?? um ... well it depends what the filling is?
Him: {looks at sheet on clipboard he is holding} I've only got YES or NO on my sheet.
Me: ..
Him: ..
Me: It's a no, then.
Him: {ticks NO, leaves in silence}
That was the conversation in entirety. No other words, no card or leaflet, no badge, no context, no van with e.g. "RANDOM SANDWICH GUY" on the side, no free sample, no nothing.
posted by Wordshore at 7:18 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]
no van with e.g. "RANDOM SANDWICH GUY"
not even MINISTRY OF SANDWIGE?
(I mean, your story does sound like it could be a MP skit...)
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:45 AM on March 28
not even MINISTRY OF SANDWIGE?
(I mean, your story does sound like it could be a MP skit...)
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:45 AM on March 28
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posted by Artful Codger at 8:01 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]