Looking on the bright side . . .

After all my ranting about how miserable I am living in a house devoid of central air conditioning, I feel compelled to mention the benefits.   Just as I used to say back in the days when living without AC myself only a theory, having air conditioning does keep people indoors, especially when it is as hot as it has been this summer.  But in our search for every available breeze, we’ve spent many many hours outside.
As soon as the sun starts to go down it becomes cooler outside than in, and I find myself sitting on the patio doing nothing, which I would not be able to give myself permission to do if it were comfortable enough inside to do housework.  The house is suffering, but possibly the downtime is good for me.  Shortly after we moved here we bought a dining set for the patio, and all family dinners are eaten outdoors (frequently cooked out there as well, since it’s more than I can bear to turn on the oven when the kitchen is sweltering).  Afterwards, some of us tend to linger around the table.  John sits outside most nights for an hour or more, usually with the little kids playing nearby. 
Even though our downstairs den is nice and cold,  we have only one t.v. ( a conscious choice) and no cable (another choice), so everyone has to take turns with the VCR/DVD.  That means our two little kids can’t veg all day in front of the television (something I recall doing a lot of in the summer as a child) but are mostly outdoors from the moment they wake up until well after dark,  exploring, pretending, looking for bugs, playing with the dog, swinging from a rope Jake hung from a tree.  These are all good things.