A week or so ago, I wrote that things felt chilly here, and that I thought maybe fall was upon us.  Nope.  Still summer.

It has been HOT here this week.  It’s been in the 90s all week, and before everyone from home hits me with, “Bah!  90s?!?  It’s August!  We do that in our sleep!”, I will remind you that no, in fact, you don’t.  When you go to sleep, it’s cool and pleasant — nice temperatures and not too humid, thanks to lovely air conditioning.  Most Americans venture out into the 90+ degree heat for only a few minutes at a time — until they get to their car, until they get into work, or a shop, until they get home.  (Hey, I’m with you — that’s how I like it, too.)  Inside, it’s 72-ish all the time.  If you really want to cool off, hit a movie or the mall — it’s often even colder in there.  (Last summer, when I was pregnant with Liam and suffering in the heat, I used to go to the mall and just walk around in the lovely, cool air conditioning.  Ah!)

This is 80, 85, 90 degrees 24 hours a day.  There is no respite.  Our houses don’t have air conditioning (or, if they do, like mine, it’s in a single room), the shops don’t have air conditioning, the movies and malls are barely air conditioned (if at all), only the most modern of trains have air conditioning.  (At least, if you’re riding the U-bahn, some of the stations are underground, so that’s pretty pleasant.)  Last night, in my air conditioned living room, it got down to 80.  That was the coolest room in the house.  Liam, in particular, feels about the heat the way that I do, and even Benjamin, who usually asks to be bundled up on the warmest nights, woke up at 3 in the morning and asked that I remove all of the blankets from his bed.  No one in the house got much sleep last night, and we aren’t due to see relief from this until Saturday.

I am hot, I am sweaty, I am not a fan of this weather.  I can live with it, but watching my kids suffer through it is really hard.  Benjamin gets so sweaty when he runs around and plays.  I’ve put all of our mid-day park trips and excursions on hold until the weather breaks.  Liam gets unhappy when the indoor temperature goes above about 75, so I actually can’t sleep at night for worrying about him in his 80+ degree room.  He wakes up screaming and sweaty and there’s little to do to comfort him, since holding him just makes him hotter.

Our living room air conditioner is set to 78 degrees.  It has not shut off in over 72 hours.  If things don’t improve tonight, we’re all going to have a sleepover around the air conditioner tomorrow night.  80 degrees might seem like a really pleasant sleeping temperature after the past few nights.

Ok, I get, it Austrian summer:  you’re not over.  Point taken.