After I made the dire mistake to post in this thread the temperature became 47 C. That's 116,6 F. The worst heatwave in 45 years. There are wildfires everywhere and the power grind is about to crash. The wind outside is hot like in an oven and I almost die just from stepping out of the house. Curse you deb4rockets.
When reading the thread title, my mind did go a bit dark to a Comics reference. I think Deb is male (not that gender matters), but people in fridgs... Fridging / female characters in refridgerators. "The superhero comic-book trope whereby female characters are affected by injury, raped, killed, or depowered (an event colloquially known as fridging), sometimes to stimulate "protective" traits, and often as a plot device intended to move a male character's story arc forward, and seeks to analyze why these plot devices are used disproportionately on female characters.... The term "Women in Refrigerators" was coined by writer Gail Simone as a name for the website in early 1999 during online discussions about comic books with friends. It refers to an incident in Green Lantern #54 (1994), written by Ron Marz, in which Kyle Rayner, the title hero, comes home to his apartment to find that his girlfriend, Alexandra DeWitt, had been killed by the villain Major Force and stuffed into a refrigerator.[2][3] " source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Refrigerators It was a common trope, but now with more attention called to it, writers are trying to be more conscious about it.
It is the humidity for sure in Houston. I have lived all over the USA and Europe and "hot" isn't the same everywhere..... the heat in Houston and Louisiana is a special type of heat where EVERYTHING slows down because it is like a sauna with no breeze. Houston is a great city, and they do a good job accounting for the heat... but it really is miserable without AC..... I always tell people that Houstonians are really really tough when it comes to tolerating hot weather because they have to...
I owned a Victorian house in Galveston in the early 2000's. When it was built in the mid-1800s there was no AC or even electricity for ceiling fans. So they had these breezeway windows over each door they could open to circulate air. Still, it's humid as **** down there and I can't imagine living here in the Houston area before AC. My wife has a masters in Victorian literature and I asked her wtf they did for the stink and she said lots of perfume/cologne. I have a pet theory that AC really helped Houston boom regardless of industry. I don't think people would have come here in droves to make it a top three city if they had to live in this heat/humidity.
Last summer our AC went out right as we were about to put our house on the market. It was miserable waiting for them to come fix it - 4 days I believe. In the middle of July in Houston. The company we used actually installed 2 window units free of charge until the main unit was fixed. That helped a lot. Then last August in our new house, our upstairs unit went out. We made the mistake of going through our home warranty. The seller included it for a year, so why not. Their guy came out and installed a bum compressor. Had to call them back and argue with them to come fix it free of charge. In the end, we ended up paying more than we would have if we hadn't used the home warranty. And probably would have got better service. If you own an AC repair company in Houston, how are you not a billionaire by now?
Plumbers, too. Of course, I think sprinkler repair guys have it the best. Sprinkler line breaks and they repair it using about $3 worth of pvc pipe and cement in about 5 minutes and somehow that's about $100-$200 for the visit. Of course there is some digging involved if they're really unlucky. lol. AC guys having to go into the attic or something to replace units in the summer is a nightmare. Of course the successful ones start their own business where they just dish out the work to peons.
I grew up in the 80s along the TX coast with no AC in the house. It's amazing how kids will just adapt to what they have. Nothing like a fan in an open window blowing right on you.
Well there's good Chicago and bad Chicago. One side can pretend they other doesn't exist and usually gets away with it for most of the year...
Don't curse me, karma's a b****. That being said, my heart goes out to anyone suffering and in danger. Stay safe.