Hot

I hope all Upstate New Yorkers are happy. It has been in the 90's for days. Unusual for Syracuse. The average temp for this time of year: 82 degrees. They don't even build the new houses with central air. Fireplaces, yes. Air-conditioning, no.

But these people have pools. Every other house sports a pool. That's why they gripe about wanting to move to North Carolina all the time.

When my Syracuse acquaintances groan about continuous cold and snow and never-ending winter, I excuse them. But when they were complaining about mid-70's in June, I did not. Who complains about paradise-like weather? People in Syracuse. Because they want to get adequate use out of the pools they installed and maintain in their yards.

So I hope they are enjoying this Southernesque spell. If I hear them complain, I might not be able to hold my tongue. I have spent the past two nights up for hours with my children who have been too hot to sleep. I do have one of the few houses with central air-conditioning, but a 1970's two-story house does not distribute the air well to the upstairs. And certain husbands are too cheap to have the house temp set any lower. (Though I did change that at 3 am). One night we tried turning off the air in the middle of the night and putting in the window fans. We swapped sleeping arrangements around last night to have more people sleeping on the first floor. The kids just woke up freaked out in the middle of the night because they didn't know where they were or where we were (our kids have inherited our fuzzy-middle-of-the-night-thinking). Jeff has said several times that after this hot spell we are not turning on our air for the rest of the summer. I wonder if my neighbors sleep on rafts in their pools?

The Rozelles will be looking forward to average Syracuse summer temps again.