I CAN'T STAND IT THIS HOT!!! (this will be a short thread,timewise, no doubt)

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (759 of them)

another charity without air conditioning here, it's actually too hot for me. i must admit that i was surprised that big departments stores (selfridges and debenhams) don't have it either, and are just too hot to shop in!

― colette (a2lette), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Our old office had air conditioning that our office manager insisted on having on ALL YEAR ROUND. Brilliant for the three days it was actually hot enough to warrant it, horrible the rest of the time.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:10 (eighteen years ago) link

I'll try the dried lemon peel. I've got tilt and turn windows so screens would be no good even if the tiny scottish summer justified getting them. I remember seeing curtains made out of fine chains that were supposed to deter insects, they look pretty cool as well.

― leigh (leigh), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:18 (eighteen years ago) link

Man I am totally moving to the UK and opening a window screens store.

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:18 (eighteen years ago) link

okay first it was archel with her hand-crank washer now I hear about "tilt and turn windows" and "curtains made of chains". wtf?!?

the uk be leaving me perplexed today.

― Ms. Misery TX (MissMiseryTX), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Ha we brits like to suffer.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:26 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't even know what a window screen is! Can you still see out? I need to see out of my windows.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:27 (eighteen years ago) link

We're getting a break here today - only 33 C predicted for the high. The sun was intense on my walk to work, but the breeze was cool. Supposed to hit 41 C on Friday though, and stick there for several days. This is our typical summer weather, and I chose to move here, so I shouldn't complain, but it is such a relief when it's over.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:27 (eighteen years ago) link

our heatwaves don't usually last that long and the Summer is cooler generally so window screens would be un-necessary most of the time i guess.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Whatever, you people are all nuts. Even when it's not a HEATWAVE OH NOES you might still want to open your windows for a little air and not have the entire local population of insects circling your bedside reading lamp!

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Window screens are for buggies! You can see out of them, they are basically just metal mesh in a frame that goes on the outside of the window, so you can open your window and get the breeze but not the bugs. That and A/C are pretty much the only reasons the southern US is habitable.

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:31 (eighteen years ago) link

But all our years of temperate climate means we are not going to do very well in the End Times, I suspect.

xpost

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:31 (eighteen years ago) link

screens don't have much to do with heat. they're to keep bugs from flying in (or pets/small children from getting out, i suppose).

xxxpost

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:32 (eighteen years ago) link

ah but because it is not usually hot there are usually no bugs either.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:32 (eighteen years ago) link

exactly

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:33 (eighteen years ago) link

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:33 (eighteen years ago) link

All this UK problematic and screenless windows talk is explaining maybe why my UK-born mother-in-law refuses to open their house windows over here. Let in the cool cool breeze! Air out that nasty stale smoke! This is why the god of architects gave us windows! And screens? They keep the bugs out, whatever the season. We have our windows open the 3 seasons of the year the A/C doesn't run. (xposts)

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:34 (eighteen years ago) link

Tomorrow is set to be the hottest day on record in Scotland - 35˚C. There are wee beetles coming up through the cracks in my floorboards to celebrate.

― stet (stet), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:34 (eighteen years ago) link

the only bug problem i'm having so far is the 50 or so fruitflies that have amassed in my kitchen regardless of whether or not the window is open (and the kitchen is small and relatively clean).

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:35 (eighteen years ago) link

Archie, screens look kind of like this, from the outside:

http://www.crystalclearwindows.com/windowscreens/window%20screen1.jpg

From the inside you can see through them perfectly -- some kinds of screen are silvery metallic (woven of fine wire) and some are woven of nylon thread or something and look vaguely black, but at most they cause a slight blurring or color shift to your outside view. The weave is fine enough that from more than a few feet back, you don't even notice.

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:36 (eighteen years ago) link

ah but because it is not usually hot there are usually no bugs either.
-- Archel (slightlyfoxe...), July 18th, 2006 10:32 AM. (Archel) (later) (link)

Seriously? I am envious. Hotter-than-normal winter + mysterious hole somewhere in my house = house is being taken over by very large beetles. :(

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:37 (eighteen years ago) link

And what's this nonsense about only heatwaves bringing bugs? Are there not moths and other flying things between spring thaw and winter frost?

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:38 (eighteen years ago) link

the only bug problem i'm having so far is the 50 or so fruitflies that have amassed in my kitchen regardless of whether or not the window is open (and the kitchen is small and relatively clean).

Same here. :-((((

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:38 (eighteen years ago) link

I dunno, I just like my sash windows that open up a giant expanse of air without anything in its way.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:39 (eighteen years ago) link

not really - at least not a significant amount here at least. (xpost x2)

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:39 (eighteen years ago) link

been in my first floor flat (in a 3 storey house) since October last year but I didn't really notice any moths at all until the other day. it's a pretty old house but perhaps the height gives us an advantage. we do have at least 1x mouse though.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:40 (eighteen years ago) link

we got sticky paper for our fruit flies. now we have a giant column of dead flies. yum!

― emsk ( emsk), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Stevem - all fruitflies need is a bit of water to go on and on and on. Spray some bleach water around to do them in.

Seattle is similar in that there just aren't that many flying bugs about normally. The seabreezes or something blows them all inland.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Okay, no moths. BEES?? What about stinging things: wasps, hornets, bees? Or ladybugs (or those false Japanese beetles here that just LOOK like ladybugs and then hatch throughout your house in late winter)? Or flying ants? Srsly, you don't have a mosquito problem??

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:43 (eighteen years ago) link

How awesome is it that our office building A/C is broken on the hottest day of the year?

― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:44 (eighteen years ago) link

i can't believe brits haven't heard of screens.

― gbx (skowly), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Awesome if they are sending you home with pay.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:47 (eighteen years ago) link

Stevem - all fruitflies need is a bit of water to go on and on and on. Spray some bleach water around to do them in.

we've been candle-burning some eucalyptus but your solution sounds a bit more economical thanks.

Laurel, in London at least bugs are really not a problem 3/4 of the year unless you live in a festering hellish recess (which many do actually given London rent rates, but still).

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:47 (eighteen years ago) link

Awesome if they are sending you home with pay.

Ergo, not very awesome.

― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:48 (eighteen years ago) link

We don't get wasps or bees except in summer (and they don't tend to come in the house). Don't get mosquitos in urban areas much.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:50 (eighteen years ago) link

We have vicious kamikaze moths who dive-bomb you when you're reading in bed. Also moths who crawl on the tv screen, interfering with my viewing pleasure. My husband doesn't seem to mind them, so it's my job to punish them with DEATH.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:52 (eighteen years ago) link

I hate -- HATE -- the sound of chitinous exoskeletons and wing cases and antennaed little bodies being flung against light bulbs and lampshades and making those horrible flicking sounds. Not to mention the swooping shadows they cast. ERRREUUUEGHG. SCREENS, PLEASE.

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:54 (eighteen years ago) link

First Half of 2006 Is Warmest on Record

― Juulia (julesbdules), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:57 (eighteen years ago) link

liking london on the seemingly-no-bugs-whatsoever front. althought it seems abnormal and slightly scary. what is it that keeps the bugs down and what is it doing to you?

― Ms. Misery TX (MissMiseryTX), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:57 (eighteen years ago) link

I always just assumed it was the coolish climate which inhibits breeding.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:58 (eighteen years ago) link

How awesome is it that our office building A/C is broken on the hottest day of the year?
-- Jesus Dan (djperr...), July 18th, 2006 10:44 AM. (Dan Perry) (later) (link)

Bummer, that happened to me last summer (I was working at Target, too). :/ Are they at least trying to fix it?

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 13:59 (eighteen years ago) link

xxxpost

thanks julia! that was the kind of info I was looking for yesterday.

― Ms. Misery TX (MissMiseryTX), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 14:04 (eighteen years ago) link

Are they at least trying to fix it?

Yeah. I'm sure it will be all set once 4:45 rolls around.

― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 14:05 (eighteen years ago) link

liking london on the seemingly-no-bugs-whatsoever front. althought it seems abnormal and slightly scary. what is it that keeps the bugs down and what is it doing to you?

We have a mild, wet climate with only a couple of months for the bugs to enjoy themselves, and sometimes it does get a nuisance - for example, there is one day every July when the flying ants swarm and that can be quite unpleasant! But we don't have many big bugs beyond moths, we don't have a lot of mosquitoes - insects in general are vastly less common over here, that's all there really is to it.

Once when I was in Italy, reading in bed with the ceiling light on, I put the book down, looked up and the ceiling was BLACK with mosquitoes. Holy fuck.

― Earwig oh! (Mark C), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 14:10 (eighteen years ago) link

First Half of 2006 Is Warmest on Record

In what parallel universe?

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 14:18 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, I hear appalling things about Florence in the summertime. If I ever go, I'll pack my own mosquito netting.

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 14:19 (eighteen years ago) link

In the parallel universe of AMERICA.

― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 14:20 (eighteen years ago) link

I am sad that the UKers never had the pleasure as kids of tracing rain drops along window screens and forming little boxy patterns.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 14:20 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't have a window screen in my bedroom, but that's my landlord's fault and I've been too lazy to call him about it.

Meanwhile, I am overjoyed that it is only 82F today. Last night we had to call off band practice after an hour and a half, because we practice in a house where all the windows are boarded up so that noise doesn't escape. It was pretty miserable, obv.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 14:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Another charity worker with a hellish hot office. Tomorrow I am "scheduling" "meetings" rather than melt into my chair for another day. My car was like a little mobile sauna on wheels on the way home.

The radio this morning was full of "YOU'RE GONNA BURN, BITCHES! HOTTEST DAY EVAH!" but all I can see out the window is clouds.

Onimo, it may be cloudy, but it is also warm and sticky and you can get burned through clouds (as I found out on Sunday).

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 18 July 2006 14:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Skipping 659 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.