Comments on: Emily: Angry! A fiery furnace

By: Paula

Paula — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 02:40:31 +0000

Emily, congratulations!

FYI, the chubbier part of pregnancy is actually worse in hot weather (1 son, born July 27, is how I know this). With four and a half months yet to go…is it possibly a Christmas baby you’re expecting?

By: Becky M

Becky M — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:24:05 +0000

Yay!! Congrats on your preggers announcement!! I’m excited to hear what it is=) I dont think I would have made it thru this weather without our basement. I have a new appreciation for my basement and I think we will sleep down there all month.. Hope to see you two soon!!

By: Emily Grosvenor

Emily Grosvenor — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:07:58 +0000

I agree, this has been strangely illuminating. If I had known this would engender so much discussion, I would have written an entire column about it. There’s always next year…

By: Paige

Paige — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:38:57 +0000

I guess for me, part of holding out on AC is that I like the idea that the weather is so extreme every once in a while that everyone takes note and slows down their day and enjoys each other.

In the small PNW town where I grew up, we’d get on average 1 snow day per year. Even if school wasn’t canceled, a lot of parents would keep their kids home for the day – not out of fear, but for fun! Everyone would drive very, very slowly and stop in the middle of the road to chat. We were all bundled up and sledding and enjoying our hot chocolate. There was just a sense of real enjoyment and awe of the weather. Some East Coast transplants would sneer that where they were from, the world didn’t “shut down” with a couple of inches of snow. But I was glad my town completely changed when it snowed. It was so rare that we weren’t prepared for it but we enjoyed it.

I want to feel the same way about the heat this last week. And I’d be closer to, if I knew of a great watering hole nearby.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:19:08 +0000

This has all been very eye opening; I didn’t realize there was so much personal dignity at stake in the decision about whether or not to have AC! Wimp? Really? My policy regarding outrageous heat is that life is too short to put up with losing entire days of it being reduced to an immobilized, dizzy, nauseated wreck, especially in my own home. That being said, I hate AC and run ours as little as possible. The old rule was when it hit 90 outside we’d switch to AC, but a recent renegotiation initiated by my husband resulted in a revised threshold of 85. The whole time it’s running, I’m keeping an eye on the weather widget on my computer desktop, and as soon as it hits 79 I race through the house opening everything back up.

We’ve been in this house in Salem for ten years, and this week was the first time we’ve ever run the AC for more than six hours in one day; unbelievable. We’ve also gone ten years without having any maintenance done on it, so I’m pretty sure our carriage is about to turn into a pumpkin. That subject involves a whole other marital negotiation (I’m a fan of preventive maintenance, but my husband prefers crisis and drama and holding out to the bitter end, topped off by having the nerve to be surprised when something wears out and dies).

Congratulations on the baby. Connecting that to one of your previous topics (people talking bad about Salem), I remember trying to research this town before we came here and finding an abundance of silence, especially in the books that were geared more toward young adults. The Lonely Planet Guide to the Pacific Northwest barely mentioned Salem, simply offering the backhanded compliment that “It’s a good place to raise children.”

By: Emily Grosvenor

Emily Grosvenor — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:28:23 +0000

Thanks for the tip! DancingMooney, no one else knew until this post either. I’ve been a reluctant baby blogger…

By: DancingMooney

DancingMooney — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:24:12 +0000

P.S. If anyone is still looking for an A/C, we got ours at Kelly’s… we got lucky, they had just received a whole truck load of them when we called. Not sure if they still have any left, but it’s worth a try!
♥

By: DancingMooney

DancingMooney — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:20:00 +0000

Well, we finally broke down and got an air conditioner a day or two ago. It was hell before that. We also moved here for milder weather… not so cold in the winter, and not so HOT in the summer! I saw a question twitter from TheSquare up in Portland, asking if we’d rather survive another snowy winter, or this heat. I vote for more snow! At least snow is fun. Ha!

Congrats on the little one, I didn’t know!

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:03:12 +0000

We moved to Salem about 8 years ago, in July. Also a house with no AC. The first night it got too hot to sleep, I went out to Winco at 2AM (the only place that was open), bought a fan (a standing oscillating one because that’s all they had), put it together right then, and finally got some ZZzs.

We still have that fan; I’ve fixed it once and it’s starting to fall apart, but it’s been very handy.

And, I hate to admit it, but about 3 years ago I broke down and put an AC unit in the bedroom. Until these past few days I think I’ve only used it 2 or 3 days total.

By: Jodi B

Jodi B — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:24:47 +0000

Congrats on the baby! I would echo Salem Man’s sentiments about Salem being family friendly. Lots to do here for the younger set.
I was born with an air conditioner, being from So Cal..you couldn’t go 4 ft. without being air conditioned. Moving to Oregon, I resolved to tough it out because my husband thought that ac was silly. Two summers ago we broke down and put it in the house because our little guy was hot, cranky and sweaty during a summer heat wave. It was the baby that broke our resolve. When he was cranky, we all were cranky. So we did it. I just usually don’t go around telling people we have it. Not very “Oregonian” of me!