Don't Take Air Conditioning For Granted!

Before we moved out here, Brandt warned me that many places don't have air conditioning in Oregon because "it's not really needed." We were both a little worried and our fears came true this month. We had a two week streak with the weather constantly in the upper 90s. Now that's not terrible summer weather in Kansas but air conditioning exists. All of the apartments we looked at didn't have AC and the reps told us we wouldn't really need it. Wrong.

My parents' house is old and has two former sleeping porches. These always fascinated me because they're on the end of the house and have windows covering all the walls on three sides. My parents explained that people would sleep in there during the summer before air conditioning. I thought that would be terrible and was thankful for modern technology. I never thought I'd be wishing for a sleeping porch in 2014!

We have been sleeping at night with all of the windows open, the sliding porch door open, and even the porch door in the living room open. We bought two box fans and had all four of our fans going all night. We put up my blackout curtains and I closed those and the windows early in the morning to keep the cool night air trapped as long as possible. Afternoons were uncomfortable and evenings were unbearable.

We tried facing one box fan inside and another across the apartment facing outside a window, to create air flow. Brandt stopped cooking because of the heat it generated and switched to the crock pot and sandwiches. I bought Popsicles to keep us cool and froze treats in the dogs' Kongs. We even tried putting a bowl of frozen water in front of a fan to blow cool air. A few days we just had to leave the apartment. We used our gift cards and had dinner out. Another night, we loaded up the dogs and drove around in my car so we could all enjoy AC. I've also been taking the dogs to the park as the sun is setting so they can roll around in the cool grass.

We've been assured that this is "unusual" weather, even for the summer. Today it was in the 70s and absolutely wonderful. A little chilly for me, but much preferable to what we've been living through.

On a bright note, I have four interviews in the next week and a half! I have two more tentative interviews, one of which should be this week. I had a nanny interview this morning but since I'm looking for full time employment, I don't think they'll hire me. They were two cute little boys though! I'm hoping that these interviews coming up are more fruitful than the others I've had. I don't have my heart set on one in particular, they all have different perks. One pays better, one's closer, one has more writing that I'd like to do, one has better benefits, another I'd be able to take the TriMet into town and not worry about driving, etc. I'll learn more about them and hopefully one will be a perfect fit!