I don't know about y'all, but it's about 500 degrees here in Texas. What do you do to beat the heat? (other than taking trips to Canada). Any fun suggestions?

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000

Answers

A good thing to do is keep your hair wet -- it's amazing how that cools you down -- and keep a cold wet towel around your neck. I don't know how fun that is, but it works.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000

Back in Misery, I mean Missouri, I'd take a shower 3X a day. I moved out to San Diego for work, and the weather is great, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you can afford a gazillion dollars in rent or mortgage. I knew I had gotten soft out here 'cause, back in MO, if it gets up to 65, you put on shorts. Here, if it is 65, it is cold and you put on a heavy sweater.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000

Taking a cold shower and using Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile soap worked for me in Panhandle Florida. The peppermint keeps your skin feeling tingly and cool long after the shower.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000

You could try ordering snow from one of the big on-line snow retailers: www.snowsnowsnow.com or www.everyflakeisdifferent.com

Disclaimer: this isn't something I've tried myself, but one of my friends swears by it. Both services are locked in a price war at the moment, so it's a good time to strike.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2000

Well, I'm *in* Toronto, and we've had a few scorchers here lately (Gwen did not escape hot weather entirely be visiting the Great White North) - anyway, to keep cool I usually try to keep my feet in water (kiddie pools are great, and you can also dunk your head in from time to time too, provided the kids haven't put anything too unsavoury in the water).

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2000

Hot? Y'all call that hot? I had to walk to school in heat 500 times hotter than that (500 times Fahrenheit) and it was uphill both ways! You people don't know from hot! I wore shorts last night and got frostbite on my knees!

Pale Blue, I think the snow sites' servers must be down or something. :(

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2000

The servers are down? Mmmm . . . either that, or, um . . . something else.

In that case, I have another idea. Have you tried self-hypnosis? If you have something sparkly on a chain, hold it at arms' length and swing it to and fro. If not, you can mimic the effect by fixing your gaze on something bright and running from side to side. Whether swinging, or running, keep chanting, "it's freezing, its freezing" to yourself.

Could work.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2000

I'm an expert on this. The most miserable time to be hot is when you're trying to sleep. Stick your feet out from under the covers and in the path of a fan. If your feet are cool, you'll feel cool.

Now, from the animal environments/heat transfer part of my brain: if the humidity's not outrageous, wet down the part of you that has a lot of blood vessels for the surface area. Hands, ears, etc. The evaporative cooling effect will feel great. I do this whenever I'm running my dogs in the heat, just keep a spray bottle and spritz their ears, inside of their legs, any place that will let the water dry fast. If it doesn't dry, it doesn't cool.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2000

RIGHT ON, sarahjane, with Dr. Bonner's Peppermint Castille soap! That stuff rocks. I've also used the almond 'flavor'. And such engaging reading whilst in the shower. :-)

I grew up in extreme southern Louisiana, just 30 minutes east of New Orleans. I know hot. And you might think Denver, my current hometown, is some frosty alpine retreat, but every summer we hit 100 a few times - at least it ain't humid. What I've found to be effective is to keep your face cool. As your face goes, so goes your body. You can use a little mist bottle or a fan, or both, which works particularly well.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2000

Prescriptives has a powder that is called "Magic Powder." You dust it on your face and neck and it feels like water, but it is dry. It rocks. My office used to get so hot and sticky and I would bring that in and use it and be able to function. Now I have learned how to break into the "locked" thermostat and change the room temperature, so I keep the powder at home and use it when my husband decides to save electricity and turns off the AC.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2000

I've tried peppermint shampoo (does strange things to hair), but not the soap. Where can I find some? The only (I guess one could call it) "trick" I have is to keep some noxema in the fridge. It's especially wonderful to use as a lotion if you screw up and get a sunburn, but it's also nice just to wash your face with it at various points of the day. (my skin keeps waaayyyyy clean in the summertime).

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2000

Dr. Bronner's is sold at most health food stores. It comes in opaque plastic bottles of varying size (they sell this stuff by the gallon and in bulk where I live, but you can also start out with like a tiny 8oz. bottle) with wax paper wrappers covered in the weirdest text you'll read in your life: one soap! one life! one god! one love! The peppermint label is blue.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2000

Dilute! Dilute! OK!

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2000

You could always take one of those frozen gel packs (that you use in coolers) and wrap it in a face cloth or hand towel and take it to bed like it was a hot water bottle, except it would make you and your bed cool.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2000

All brave! All love! Who else but god!

You can get PDFs of the Dr. Bronner labels here: http://drbronner.com/sto ry.html#labels

And back on topic, places you might be able to buy Dr. Bronner's online: http://drbronner.com/getsoap. html

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2000

Bwa! I had text from the Dr. Bronner's soaps as my sig file for several months. I was pleased that more people wrote in knowing what the hell I was talking about than didn't...hmm, that probably goes under the 'dork' thread too--'finds solace in odd pop culture symmetry with strangers'.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Hey Gwen, contrary to popular believe this part of Canada gets damn hot and muggy at this time of year. Real nasty. But this year has been uncommonly cool. We had way more rain than usual so it has been really decent.

I've actuually experienced days that were so hot I literally couldn't breath in my apartment. Of course now i have air conditioning so I doubt I'll be experiencing that kind of pain again in the future.

Wet towel on the head has been my favourite method in the past.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

It was pretty humid one day that I was there. Then that one night it got so cool -- it freaked me out. But throughout the whole week there was a nice breeze.

I need to update my freaking diary.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Rent a box at the Post Office. When the day is hot, go to the Post Office, open your box, and stand there with your face close to it and enjoy the breeze as cold air that the clerks are hogging back in their private part of the building flows out through your open box. Repeat as necessary.

-- Anonymous, August 31, 2000