Hot Hot Hot

I am not unacquainted with hot weather. Growing up in Salt Lake City, we had plenty of hot summer days. When I got married and moved to Omaha, I really learned what hot was. Summers there were suffocating. Temperatures around 100 degrees with humidity to match. Thanks goodness we had air conditioning there. The day Aubrey was born it was 107 degrees, and had been above 100 for about 10 days in a row. Stifling. Miserable.

I thought moving to a more temperate climate would make those hot days a distant memory. I love the cool, rainy weather of the Pacific Northwest. I actually LOVE rain. Summers here are generally pleasant, with a few days where the temperature toys with 100 degrees, and then back down to more pleasant temperatures. This week has been incredible, though. We have been over 100 degrees for 3 days in a row, and last week it was in the 90s each day. Today is supposed to be another scorcher--but down to 102. That should be nice.

Really, what do I care? I get up at 5:00 and run before the heat comes, and then I stay hidden in my air-conditioned house, and bake premium baked goods outside in my roaster oven. If I do venture out, it is in my air-conditioned car to drive to an air-conditioned store or the air-conditioned dental office. It's my own little paradise. But the kids are not so easily amused. They like to play outside in the heat.

I have always told the kids I would never buy a "Slip N Slide." This comes, I'm sure, from my parents refusing to buy one, always explaining, in very nice words, that they were a piece of crap and a waste of money. My dad would make things fun for us, though, by spreading out a big tarp or long piece of plastic and putting the sprinkler on it. We had fun--who wouldn't have fun with my dad around?--but despite the fun, I remember still coveting the neighbors's official slip n slides. And then I grew up and realized I was just like my parents.

So far the kids have been OK with no Slip N Slide. They actually haven't even asked for one for a few years. If somebody mentioned it while looking through the Sunday ads, one of the other kids would jump in for me and say, "No. They are a waste of money and will break within one day."

But desperate times call for desperate measures. On Monday, the kids started talking about a Slip N Slide. It was over 100 degrees, and the sprinklers were losing their excitement. I figured that if there ever was a time to blow $20 on a Slip N Slide, even if it only lasted one day, it would be worth it this week. Tuesday morning I began a search for a Slip N Slide. At the fifth store I went to, Big 5 ironically, they had one left. I handed over my $20, and headed home to the kids.

We got it all hooked up, and they spent 5 hours out there the first day. To my amazement, the thing was still in tact when we pulled it off of the lawn on Tuesday. Yesterday we hooked it up again, and within an hour, the thing had totally pulled apart on the bottom, making any water making it through the holes in the slide impossible. The kids didn't complain. They just put the hose at the front end and did without the fancy spray technology. 5 more hours of fun yesterday.

I must say I am very proud of my white-ys. 10 hours in the sun, and no sunburns. Let's hear it for SPF 50!