Hot town, summer in the city
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 12/Jul/2010 13:05, 34 days ago
Joe Cocker's song has been running through my head lately. "Hot town, summer in the city, back of my neck getting dirt and gritty", although in all honesty, it's my legs that get gritty from all the walking we do. My neck, arms and body are just sparkling with an external layer of water. We don't have a fan and I walk everywhere so my clothes are usually soaked - the downside of being a volunteer and not earning money while paying car insurance on a car back home.All the persperation is not pretty and it's hard on my clothes. I have two tanks tops which were stained by the leather strap on my purse and not even Tide-to-Go will take that out so I've switched to plastic purses that don't leave marks. My favourite silk blouse rotted and tore as I peeled it off my skin one evening. And now I've noticed another blouse starting to wear thin from continual use. I need replacements! My wardrobe is rapidly decreasing and I had precious little summer clothes in the first place because how much do you actually need for super hot weather in Canada? You only get 2 weeks of crazy heat every year and even then it cools down at night. Here the temperature is the same all year round and the humidity gets even higher in the summer here. Last week when everyone in Ontario was complaining about the excessive heat I kept an eye on the Weather Network in both Toronto and Kingston daily to compare. The temperatures were the same, only the humidity in Ontario peaked at 49%. In Kingston, the humidity was 62% evey day and we have no air conditioning! Just one little fan. No air conditioned cars - we walk!And now in this heat I have to go clothes shopping. I've attempted a few times before but by the time I get to the shops I'm soaking wet and sometimes can't get my clothes off because they're stuck to me, so I can't try on anything new. I tried shopping online but I ran into problems finding shops (especially anything with roots in the US) that will actually deliver to me in Jamaica using a Canadian credit card. It's just not happening. And I tried to find somebody to go to the box stores in Fort Lauderdale with me but that didn't happen. Plus, going there is expensive by the time you add super economy air fare and budget hotel costs. If I could wait til mid-August when we go to Toronto I would so I could shop in the air conditioned malls, but by then all the fall clothes will be in the shops. They're absolutely no use to me at all. So shopping in Kingston, I must.I've decided to treat myself to a route taxi to Half Way Tree and maybe walk home. It's too bad all the shopping is in strip malls, not indoor malls. To stay cool I will pretend I'm walking through the Rideau Centre or Yorkdale... Come on, come on and shop til night. Despite the heat it will be alright.