I just returned from a trip to Idaho and Utah, with stops in a little bit of Montana and Wyoming. I saw a granddaughter graduate from college, which was wonderful, and saw Yellowstone National Park for the first time, which was an amazing experience. I then spent a week in Utah with my youngest daughter, Mary Susan, and her family, who had just returned from a two-year adventure in Portugal.
David and I also had to give back the beautiful, sweet golden retriever, Harley, we had doggy sat for two years. If they go anyplace again and need a dog sitter, we will claim ownership at the end and not give her back. They have been warned.
I also had a time travel experience in which I was thrust back into my childhood days without air conditioning. I don't know how my generations and generations stretching back to the beginning of time, however you reckon it, survived. The air conditioning in my daughter's house broke down on Friday and couldn't get fixed until Monday because a part had to be ordered.
That weekend had a severe heat advisory because temperatures were 95 degrees and above. People will tell you that it's dry heat out west and not as bad as the humid South. But don't believe them.
Ninety-nine degrees is 99 degrees. Plus, there are very few trees, so there is more sky. There is nothing between you and the rays of the sun.
It's hot. Kind neighbors loaned us a portable air conditioner, but that made the living room so humid and still hot that I felt like I was in a Louisiana swamp hunting gators. We also had several fans, but they were basically moving around hot air.
I tried to teach my five grandchildren some of my personal and family history. "I grew up on the plains of Kansas and didn't have air conditioning except for a little window unit," I told them. "I don't know how I did it.
" "No air conditioning?" they said, their eyes wide with the thought of how old I must be. "We had one little unit we gathered around," I said. They didn't even have a vocabulary to relate to that.
But one thing good about Utah is that it cools down a bit in the evenings. So after the sun set over the mountains, we would open up the windows and beg the cooler air to come in. We maybe got five degrees cooler.
The thermostat stayed at 79 degrees for so long I suggested that when the long-awaited repairman came on Monday he should check it. I prepared the sweaty bodies of my grandchildren for bedtime. "Now you need to lie real still and let the sweat saturate your pajamas, so the condensation will cool you off when an occasional breeze blows in the window," I said.
"Then you need to wait until you can wait no longer and turn your sweaty pillow over to the cooler side." We left the house in the afternoons to visit air-conditioned stores. In Utah, everything is directed toward families and kids, so we spent a couple of hours in a huge sporting goods store, Scheels, with a Ferris wheel, two bowling lanes and a laser shooting range for kids.
The next day we visited a cool furniture store with a huge play area for kids, a snack bar where the cost of food got deducted from your purchase and hundreds of comfortable couches and recliners to try out. Mary Susan did order a couch from there, so we didn't feel guilty about stealing their air conditioning for a little bit. Then back home to misery and heat.
When the repairman pulled up Monday morning, I almost hugged him. Mary Susan told him he was our hero. He apologized several times for the hot weekend.
I would have baked him cookies if the kitchen wasn't already 100 degrees. He worked a miracle, and cool air flowed. It was wonderful.
Then we immediately got used to it, and the heat and sweat were forgotten. I can't believe I spent 18 years of my life without central air in the house and AC in a car. I am so grateful to you, Willis Carrier.
I'm going to find you in heaven and give you a hug on behalf of a cooler mankind. Elzey is a freelance columnist for the Register & Bee. She can be reached at susanelzey53@gmail.
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