heat

Hand

Originally uploaded by slack13

The past couple of weeks D.C.'s weather has officially gone from "pleasantly sunny" to "muggy as hell."
It hasn't been as abrupt as that - the first hints of the humidity showed at times, but the next day or so the air would clear and it would just be beautifully sunny, the type of weather that cries for you to go outside and revel in it.
The last couple of days, however, the weather has turned into the type that screams at you to stay inside, and turn on the AC while you're at it. I lasted until early June before even installing our window unit (although we did break down and buy a fan a week or so earlier). Today marks the first time I have needed, and I mean needed, to turn it on two days in a row.
When Kirsten first started to complain about the sultriness of the weather, I was able to laugh it off. After all, I'd just returned from New Orleans. Nothing here in early June could compare to New Orleans (and I don't think, even now, it's reached New Orleans-in-May levels). Now, however, the New Orleans trip has worn off. Even the four years in Mississippi and time spent in New Orleans never prepared me for the onslaught of stickiness summers below the Mason-Dixon line bring. A childhood of the dehydrated air of Montana ensures my body will never accept the continual oozing of sweat from the pores. It'll only be worse, much worse, in mid-July after having a two-week humidity-free vacation in Montana.



A few weekends ago, the weather was less humid and merely brain-meltingly hot. This happened to be the weekend my brother and sister-in-law were in town before leaving the country for a Peace Corps stint. The weekend they decided it would be a good idea to walk from my house to Georgetown, then down to the mall. I wasn't prepared for a three-mile walk with the 90+ degree sun beating down, and the concrete soaking it up and then spitting it back to bake us from below.

Awakening
Originally uploaded by slack13

The next day was a little better. We drove to Hain's Point, where we watched the planes take off from National Airport and clamored about on this big silver guy trying to claw his way up out of the ground.