Hot in the city

As you know that while I was born in Dallas I have no recollection of it and have no memory of what a Texan summer is truly like. My Dad has told me a few stories of coping with the change (basically go from your A/C’ed house to your A/C’ed car to the A/C’ed shop), and I am now myself experiencing this novelty of running from one icy establishment to another.

As you can see on the image for this blog post it has the temprature here for the next week, and it was exactly the same the previous week. For both sides of the spectrum, 38 Celcius = 100 Fahrenheit. Last year Austin had 16 days in a row with 100 degress or more and hopefully we don’t exceed that. It’s actually not that paralyzing, you do acclimatize to these things (is cool to actually use the term ‘acclimatize’ in a more relevant situation), but it’s fun to moan about how you’re dying when NZ is wrapped in their warm coats throwing snowballs at each other. And I think that might be why I’m more of an Autumn (Fall)/Winter person. I like wearing a fashionable jacket with a nice buttoned shirt, black jeans and some nice shoes. You have more combinations to choose from. Summer here it’s what shorts and what t-shirt should I wear. Which is actually a lot quicker so I can’t really complain.

But my experience is that most of Austin aren’t that bothered by it and still wear jeans and wander around without any sweat on their brow. I did my usual Saturday afternoon stroll and I was sweatin’ like a stuck pig in Pokeno. I knew what I was in for before I left NZ, and many kiwis told me that despite the high temprature “it’s a dry heat”. Well in Austin it ain’t, it’s rather humid so according to those ‘Realfeel’ indicators they say the 38 feels like 44, and I can atest to that. It can be quite funny when I walk outside and my glasses suddenly fog up.

When it comes to interior climate control the difference between Austin and Auckland is that they have this technology that can change the temprature of a home. In Auckland if it’s a hot humid day outside we open the windows and get the bug spray ready. If it’s cold we just close the door to our room, put on a jacket and turn the heater on. Every indoor space here is cool and crisp but gives you a false sense of security. Opening the front door feels exactly like opening the oven door before you slide in your ANZAC biscuts. But again, you get used to it. In Auckland the max is about 27 degrees, here it’s the overnight low. But this is my second summer in a row so it’s not a sudden shock. I like to exaggerate for comedic purposes. Though I won’t be complaining once Fall rolls around. My random thoughts to finish are as follows:

– If you make any sort of complaint about summer then the people who groan the most and say you shouldn’t complain tend to be ripped “Do you even lift?” dudes, or slim and trim chicks forever wearing minimal active wear.

– In winter you can hide your ‘Dadbod’ under comfortable clothing, so while my true physique is now exposed it’s ok when Leonardo de Caprio and Marcus Mumford are still keeping the DB respectable and making your average male enjoy taking their shirt off again.

– In fact I was walking down the Lakeshore walkway where the topless Channing Tatum’s usually jog, and then I see this finely bearded, trendy sunnies wearin’, fixie bike ridin’ hipster gent with his shirt off and his respectfully haired craft beer belly having a little bounce as he pedalled by. I felt like high fiving the guy. He was kind of like the peoples champion.

– I firmly place all blame for my waistline diameter on Austin Beerworks Firebird American IPA.

– One of the best parts of summer is when the sun stays out that little bit longer and you can enjoy a grill and a game of Cornhole until 9pm when the dark sets in.

– How the heck did those who settled Austin in the 1840’s survive without air conditioning? Especially when everyone appeared to wear long shirts and pants. They must have stunk to high heaven but I appreciate their hardiness to settle the foundations for my adopted home away from home.