La semaine de la canicule - The week of the heat wave

This week was pretty hot and humid! I know that I grew up in New Orleans and I should be used to it, but really after 15 years in Vancouver, I can't handle the heat. Luckily, the heat is slightly milder. On Monday, I went to Montreal to attend green drinks. It was hot trying to find the place. At night when I headed home, it was no cooler. By the time I arrived at Sara's I was drenched in sweat. The next day I quickly headed home. The forecast was for more heat in Montreal and the temperature was going to keep climbing. I fantasizes about the coolness of the countryside. When I got home, it was not any cooler. There also was no cool breeze that I had gotten used too.

I spent the next few days trying many different techniques to staying cool, some more or less successful:

• going to the beer cooler at the grocery store - by the way, you get funny looks if you are in there too long. I don't recommend whipping out you iPad
• washing the car - True, it is a productive activity, but despite how much you splash water on yourself with the hose, you will still be hot from the physical exertion
• taking lots of showers - with the well now fully functioning, there is no shortage of water. It is great, cheap and limitless. One drawback,the hot water tank failed Thursday night and I did not even notice.
• singing and playing in the rain. Thursday night downpour came. I was so excited that I belted out a poor rendition of Gene Kelly's "singing in the rain". Gilles came home around that time and we started spontaneously playing in the rain. We turned in the hose and washed the other car. This was great fun and made me feel like a kid again. Unfortunately, the heat lingered. Yuck :-(

Well, today, all is better. I no longer need to fantasize of big dumps of snow. It has started to rain in Sutton and the temps are going down. Ah, sweet sweet rain, i never thought I would be so happy to see you!

For those that don't know me well, here is a bit of info. Gilles usually teases me saying that if I am 1 degree off my regular temperature, watch out. So with the temps rising, I wanted to do whatever could to get cooler. I became somewhat obsessed this week.

Living in the Eastern townships has linguistically advantages. Most people here in Sutton are bilingual. They have a unique tendency to start in French. Then, when they realize you too speak English. But then, a curious thing begins to happen, people pick and choose words that are more descriptive or more à propos. So, when I speak, I find myself wanting to switch back and forth and use the words I prefer. This may work in Sutton, but does not work as well with purist whether anglophone or francophones. I suspect I may start speaking this way in my blog. So, forgive me in advance and perhaps the "purists" may find a few words to their liking. One such example is "la canicule". Such a simple, cute term to describe a few hellish days.