Classic Hifi Care

We've got several SW residents, right? How are y'all doing in the latest heat wave? Here in MI it's been a cool summer. I've been wearing a fleece to ride to work in the a.m., and sometimes home again in the p.m. Out sailing Tues. night I had to don the fleece, although tonight it warmed up enough (upper 60s) to wear the t-shirt alone.

Chris Campbell

It was 115 here today with 7% humidity. They have fire warnings out. The high country has been getting thundershowers and the knotheads have been setting off wildfires. One was started by a guy dragging his trailer down the road after he had lost a wheel. The sparks created when the frame dragged on the road started the fire. Human-caused fires are charged back to the person who started it. When the monsoon rains get here, there will be flooding. People will drive thru the water, then have to be rescued. It is supposed to be 119 on Saturday. This kind of heat is no harder to manage than the humidity in the midwest. Landscapers and construction people start work at daylight, then are done by noon or a little after. Just make sure you have your "refrigeration" checked each spring so it will be ready for the summer, and you are okay. We don't have air conditioning in AZ. We have refrigeration.

We celebrated a family birthday this afternoon at a local restaurant. It was 118 when we were out. The Tahoe never did cool down. Too much hot air inside to get rid of with all the heat outside. We have no business out when it's this hot.

My brother from WY and his daughter, son-in-law, and 3 kids from MT are visiting here in MI. Maybe got to 75 here today before the thunderstorms this evening cooled things off. We finally got a bit of rain; made things humid for a while. No AC here....

Chris Campbell

Ummmm... ya'll might have noticed that weather in Vermont has been a bit challenging lately.

More heavy rain possible.. not good. The Gov already got approval for VT's damage from last week's storms as a Federal Disaster for aid, hope more damage is avoided, some areas are worse than Hurricane Irene in 2011.

We could use some of that moisture out here on wildfires. It's been over 110 here for almost two weeks, headed for a record. It's summer time in the desert Southwest. Like snow in Michigan. It's inevitable.

Our temps warmed up into the mid-70s today, so when I got home from work, I opened some windows to let some warm fresh air in. Then went on the daily walk, which has become a weekly walk while I try to let my heels heal, and after that rode the bike down to the Bay and went sailing. At one point it was almost too cool for a t-shirt. At work the crazed AC system was spewing cold air so I opened the office window to let warm air in. I'm not really a fan of AC, although it's great on hot summer days when you are all sweaty and want to dry off. We have only had a couple really hot days. Once it got into the upper 80s. Usually we get a few more of those scorchers. Not this year. I can't imagine having to stay indoors all summer.

Chris Campbell

Both the thermometer in the house and the one in the shop showed 123 degrees this afternoon about 4pm MST. It is now after 5pm and it has dropped to 119. The weather babe on radio just said the LOW tonight will be 102.

Rather like it being -25 at night with the high the next day not getting above zero, plus a 20 miles-per-hour wind.

Being 123 during the day is one thing. What hurts is when it doesn't cool down at night. That is when it gets hot. We use our "refrigeration" in summer like they do in the Midwest with furnaces and stoves in winter. The monsoon is trying to fire up, so the humidity is on the rise. 14% right now, but with the high temps, it is really muggy outside. The weather babe calls it "steamy". You can't use fans for ventilation to any advantage when it's this hot. Drawing the hot air over your body dehydrates you. This leads to heat prostration or heat stroke. One needs to be respectful of this kind of heat, like you do when it is below zero cold. For what it's worth, it is typically 2-3 degrees cooler here than in downtown Phoenix. We don't have the asphalt and the "heat island" like they do. Yet.....

It warmed up enough here so I could open the office window and let some heat in to counter the AC. They were saying 80s but I doubt that it passed 76. I walked down to the bank at lunch time, about 2 p.m., and it was very comfortable. I know it's hot when I work up a sweat riding the bike home. Just a bit of dampness under the helmet today.

Chris Campbell

It's actually been quite pleasant most of the summer both here in NY and in VT, where we're going tomorrow. VT had those awful floods, the capitol Montpelier had water to the top of parking meters, I'm sure you saw the news, terrible damage, lucky we didn't either place, we barely had rain in NY.
But temps have been pretty consistently in the low to mid 80s, and at those #s humidity isn't particularly bothersome. I think we had 1 or 2 days about 90 so far, 1 or 2 days of high 80s, but that's it. The 1st 10 years here in NY (we're Central/Upstate) we had only 1 window a/c for the BR for that 1 week or 2 in July or Aug when it was really needed to sleep. In VT it was needed maybe 3 days a year at most, so we had fans. But we've since put Mitsubishi cold-climate inverter mini-splits in both places, so now have either heat or a/c with maximum efficiency, boy those things are great.

Heat wave in MI. I had to go to a neighboring county today so I drove to work--the old red truck with its working AC because I was all duded up in coat & tie. Also had to meet the mobile service tech this a.m.--the dealer has replaced both air bags twice and now they were auditing the last service tech who installed them and who is no longer with them. Ahem. They seemed nervous enough about it to send the mobile guy to my office. He reported they were OK.

I've always been a skeptic about car AC because the systems all seemed to have short lives and expensive repairs. The 4-4-2 and Mustang AC systems both failed. The Freon just disappeared. Now you can't get it. But the little red truck is still blowing cold after 18 years.

Our temps soared into the 80s. On the way back it started at about 86 and hovered there. Stopping on hot pavement, the reading went way up into the high 90s but then was mid 80s in motion. At home in the shady backyard it was 85 and steamy. I'm ready for a return to normal. The house stays closed up so it's cool.

Chris Campbell

It rained here last evening. The temperature fell from 115 to 74 in a couple of hours. That was the first time since the first part of July the temps went below 100 degrees. It was 113 here today, they are saying ONLY 107 by Monday, which will indeed be a cool spell. This is the 32nd day with temps above 110 degrees.

Honestly, this has been one of the best summers in NEPA I can remember in years. It's been hot and humid but not unbearable and we've gotten pretty regular rain... at night.

The lawn is lush and green, unlike years past. Popinki are everywhere ( if you don't know what that is, Google it.) Whats popping up are early and different varieties than I was taught to harvest. Gotta be careful...

The blueberries are still getting annihilated as green berries by the birds. We haven't had a good harvest of those in I can't remember when. We get flowers, a bad frost and that's it...

Hopefully the wintergreen will mature this year. Nothing like a real wintergreen berry.

I've noticed changes in so many plants the last 10 years. Wild dogwood and azaleas dying off. I lost a gorgeous tree i dug up as a sapling years ago. Haven't seen a trillium in years but the lady slippers still bloom on their 2-year cycle. And our native mountain laurel... it used to be everywhere. Lots of bushes but less blooms.

Sassafras trees grew like weeds in Indiana, usually in fence rows. That and multifloral rose were pests. Grandpa would use his team of Percheron mares to pull the sassafras trees out, usually they were less than an inch in diameter, just big weeds. Grandma would use grandpa's knife and cut the roots off the sassafras saplings. Then she would boil them and make sassafras tea. It tasted like watered-down root beer. Sassafras tea and persimmon cookies were a fall-time delicacy where I grew up. I haven't tasted either in over 40 years.

Just back from a trip 87 miles north of here for a memorial gathering for an old friend who died. Her daughter organized it and one of my oldest friends was going to be there too. So off we go on one of Michigan's loveliest drives, US-31 from Traverse City to Harbor Springs and then a bit beyond on M-119, Michigan's most famous highway. The road mostly parallels Lake Michigan and passes through rural farm land and the occasional resort city (Elk Rapids, Charlevoix, Petoskey, and Harbor Springs). It's green and rolling and pretty and thought-provoking. The native Americans were there first, of course, and then we Europeans arrived and kept coming, generation after generation finding a place to conduct their lives. Especially earlier when it was more remote, that was not necessarily an easy thing. The soil is glacial and not overly fertile and in past times the weather was northern. But my grandfather chose the Lake Michigan shoreline in 1912 and the friends north of here made that decision in 1970. He was from Toledo and she was from Florida and they never left. Driving along that pretty highway, I understand perfectly.

M-119, by the way, is also known as the "Tunnel of Trees." It's so narrow that it does not have a painted center line. Beyond being too skinny, it also flunks the highway engineering standards by having big trees close to the edge and by making abrupt turns. As a result it's pretty and people like it.

It was a fine mid-70s sunny day. I drove the truck and had the AC going on the way up so I could listen to the radio. By the time I left at around 8 p.m. the temps were mid-60s and pretty soon I had the truck heater turned up a bit just for comfort. Perfect summer weather.

Chris Campbell

It has been so hot for so long here, we have been watering the cactus! The top half of our grapefruit tree is brown. They said on TV the other night that the big saguaro cactus are dying in the desert due to the heat. 34 days of temps above 110, with 27 of those above 115. Supposed to only be 107 here today, cooler again for this week, then more above 110 on the weekend. We lost our geraniums and even a couple of the desert plants that have been there since we bought the house. I'm ready for the 90's to come back.....

Whoa, I couldn't take that kind of heat.
We're only an hour N of Walt so we've had the same pretty pleasant and green summer in NY. We go back there tomorrow for a week.
Here in VT we've had so much rain that Lake Champlain is at record high level for late July. The water level normally fluctuates thru the year and typically the level is down somewhat by late July, so we have to have 2 moorings: one closer to shore for higher water, and one about 150 yds offshore for low water, usually needed by August. Typically the inner mooring, about 100 ft offshore, is about waist depth in July so we can walk out and board by the stern ladder. This year it's over my head (I'm 6 ft) and we have to use the dinghy-tender. Such an extraordinary year, what with the awful Canadian fire smoke and all this rain... crazy. At least the smoke is gone, for now.

I remember the winter of 1977-'78. I had a gas station and fuel oil route then. I had to service the PennCentral train engine at 1am each morning. Without fail. I parked my '75 GMC 6000 fuel truck inside the wash bay of the gas station so it would be warm enough the oil would pump out into the train's tanks. It was so cold the 2000 gallons of diesel fuel would gel in my truck tank. I couldn't shut the 366 engine off for more than a few minutes or it wouldn't start again, it was so cold. I removed the fan blade and put cardboard over the radiator to keep engine temp high enough the heater would somewhat work. It never got above about -20 for several days, and not above zero for about three weeks. This was in southern Indiana where we were not used to that kind of cold. Frozen water supplies were rampant.

Cold vs. hot, always a trade off... ideally a place in both climates is the answer, but expensive. If I were smart I'd keep the Lake place, sell the NY house and swap it for someplace warm in the winter. No easy choices out there though.

It's gorgeous here today, a cool front came through, deep blue skies, low humidity, temps in the low 70s, slight breeze, sunny...perfect. I'll take it.