Skipping Spring

Spring Along Louisville's Water Front

If I am not mistaken the offical beginning of Summer is still a week away: the Summer Solstice (here in the Northern Hemisphere) is June 21^st. Thus, I should feel as though we are moving toward the end of Spring. But it ain’t so, my friend! At least, here in Louisville, it ain’t so.

A few days ago a drug store clerk said to me, “This year we skipped Spring.” I must agree with here. We had about of week of Spring-like temperatures: highs in the 60s or low 70s (F). For the remainder of Spring 2007 the highs have been in the high 80s and 90s, with the lows never dropping below our normal Spring highs. Combined with the lack of rain we’re experiencing. I have felt as if I am experiencing a foretaste of the fires of Hell.

In a previous post, I wrote of the pollution than can hang over Louisville and the Ohio River Valley. It continues, with pollution warnings and alert being issued for every afternoon, which the temperature reaches its highest. It seems that the only thing that will clear out the pollution and allergens in the air is rain—and none is forecast for at least the next week.

The heat and air pollution have impacted me personally in several ways. With the air conditioning in my house and car being kaput, I have found breathing to be very difficult. Thus, I have spent most of the afternoons using my C-PAP and oxygen compressor. I look forward each morning to when the temperatures reach their lows, which isn’t usually until after 3:00 a.m. That’s when I get up and remove the C-PAP and oxygen compressor mask. I take a couple of puffs on the Combivent inhaler and try to do something, like live. However, by early afternoon, the heat in the house (the temperature in the house at now at 9:00 p.m. is 88 F; outside it is 91 F) is so bad that I climb back in bed, on which I have two fans blowing, and breath using the C-PAP and oxygen compressor.

The heat and pollution have affected Alex’s life style, too. He has been demanding to go out side at night and in the wee hours of the morning, when the temperatures are cooler and the air contamination is less. When I am in bed, he still leaps up beside me and snuggles against my body. I tickle him beneath his chinny chin chin and Alex purrs. However, evidently the heat generated by my body adds to his discomfort. If he is on my left side, which has been the norm since he was a very small kitten, my body blocks the cooling wind of the fans from him. If he moves to my right side, those same winds apparently ruffle his fur too much and so he leaps off the bed to the floor where he curls and sleeps.

If you get the drift of this post, the weather has been damned bad for both man and beast. And Summer hasn’t even officially arrived yet! My own experiences have raised my concern for folks like me with breathing problems who are not blessed with a CPAP and oxygen compressor. I do not know how they are surviving.

This brings twos additional concerns to my mind: air pollution and global warming, which are, from what I have read, intrinsically connected. Perhaps I’ll share my thoughts about those in a later post. Now I need to upload this one and perhaps join Alex outside, where my computer tells me the temperature has dropped to 86 F, which is cooler than inside my house.