Saturday, July 23, 2011

We could have no air-conditioning

There's this huge heatwave going on, and it's total insanity. The heat index is routinely over 100 the last couple of weeks. It's exciting if it dips below 90 at night. Apparently it's much worse in other parts of the country. Yesterday a woman came to work and was telling me she's from D.C. and the heat index was 134. It's impressive she was even able to leave the coolness and safety of air-conditioning to get on a plane to fly to New York. Everyone always thinks of South Florida as being so hot, but it's actually cooler there than it is here.

Yesterday when I got home from work there was an old lady in the lobby. She looked familiar but I couldn't place her. As I got our package (Josh sent away for special jelly beans, because he does things like liking things you can only find on special websites), the lady wavered. Like a drunk. Oh, or like a person about to faint dead away from say, a horrific heatwave.

Me: Are you okay?
Old lady: Yes dear, thank you.
Me: You sure?
Old Lady: Just a touch warm. My air-conditioner broke and it's cooler here.
Me: Yeah, well, heat rises and all that.
Old Lady: Yes.
Me: So is somebody coming to fix it?
Old Lady: Yes, tomorrow morning.
Me: Oh, okay. Bye.

Then I left because those jelly beans were fucking heavy. When I got upstairs the cold air felt so outrageously good. It made me feel bad for the lady, so I sent Alex down with cold water for her while I showered. When I came out of the bathroom, Alex and the lady were sitting on the couch talking. "This is Edith." And that's the story of how we wound up having a sleepover with an old lady stranger who it turns out is a neighbor. She taught us to play a card game called Hearts. We taught her how to click on links her grandkids send her via e-mail. Alex likes her. "She is SO CUTE! Can we adopt her?"

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's just too cute. Luckily you were able to help out the lady. I live in NJ so I feel you on the heatwave! Next week will be better (we can hope).

Anonymous said...

Hell yes you should adopt her! I'm a single mum to an only child and she somewhat adopted some other only kids of single mums as a 'big brother' and 'baby sister'. You can make a family that isn't biological. And it sounds like you need family that isn't Josh and his family...

Anonymous said...

Cutest post in a long time. So sweet that Alex rescued her from the lobby. =)

Lisa @ Lisa Moves said...

Glad you were able to help. We just moved into a 100 year old house in NJ, and while it has AC, its not exactly chilly in here. Its set at 76 but has been running continuously and hasn't gotten any lower than 79, and my kids are all sitting around in their undies. Enjoy your AC :-) I"m hoping Monday's high of 85 feels like the Arctic chill.

Anonymous said...

What a sweet and kind thing for Alex to do. And it sounds like you had some "free" fun together after all.
Kathy

Kizz said...

This made me laugh out loud. And I can't even explain to you how much I needed to laugh today. So happy you learned Hearts, great game, I'm kind of surprised you hadn't played it before. I bet you're going to be really good at it. And you might even get a thank you note from her grandkids now that she can click those links! Perfect trade off.

Anonymous said...

You may very well have saved that woman's life.

Definitely sounds like a relationship worth cultivating for all involved.

Nina said...

So cute!

The heat sounds horrible!