Sweltering

It's currently somewhere in the neighborhood of 85°, which is far too hot. It was considerably cooler just a few days ago, and it's supposed to drop below 60° later in the week. I am thoroughly unprepared for this weather. While I'm happy that it's warm enough for me to ditch the jacket and long pants, I'd rather it were less warm so that I'm not forced to consume gallons of iced tea in an effort not to break a sweat while sitting around doing nothing.

That said, it's not terribly hot, not yet. I know that in a few months, at the height of summer, the temperatures will creep closer toward triple digits, and worse still, the relative humidity will be off the charts, which means the only way not to perspire profusely will be to sit in a tub of ice cubes with a few fans going. It'll be even worse here, since we lack air conditioning. At the moment we just have several windows open, but when it gets warmer, our only recourse will be to run our relatively puny fans full blast, and probably to sit around indoors in our underwear until it cools off late at night.

So I'm really not looking forward to going to work in the summer, when I'll have to wear a buttoned-down shirt and slacks during the week. I'm reasonably confident our office has decent A/C, but I don't think that'll be enough, and it certainly won't help any for my commute. Even if I take to wearing shorts and a t-shirt to and from the office, I'm still going to have to contend with walking several blocks and riding very crowded trains. Fun stuff.

On the bright side, this will the first and last Chicago summer I'll have to endure. And then I'll get to move to the nice, temperate climes of the Pacific Northwest, where I think the temperatures really suit me and my comfort level.