Chris Baskind recently shared five unusual ways to stay cool, all of which I found to be effective strategies that don’t require air conditioning or other wastes of energy. If you’re suffering this summer, try some of those tips.
I’ll add a 6th, a simple trick I learned last year. It is something of an addendum to #2, Cool that pulse point.
photo: capnkiddd/flickr
Desert heat. Photo senoranderson/flickr
I was doing some volunteer highway litter clean up for a small desert community I was living in when I found myself as one of two people left standing in the June heat near the end of a long day.
My company was a sharp old lady who has spent most her life in the desert. She has to be in her 70′s, and she fixed me with a look that got my attention, and then grinned.
“They’re all scared that I’ll keel over any minute, but I’m as cool as a breeze. Know how?”
“No,” I replied, hooked.
She pulled out one of those cooler freezer packs that she had tucked in her waistband right up against her abdomen. “I keep my core temperature down with this. Right up against my lower belly.”
Her grin was infectious and she was right. It works.
Do you have any clever tricks you use to keep cool through the heat waves?
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4 non-facebook comments
Hilarious… and so smart! I will definitely use that one.
I’ve always been a fan of wetting a bandana and putting it on my head. Instant swamp cooler.
I hang out in a movie theater and catch up on all the latest flicks. Or for an instant fix, I run into the little floral hub in most grocery stores.
I love montreal for its abundance of great free things!
One of these great things are free out-door public pools. 20 minutes in the pool and you lower your core temperature enough to regain coherence and clarity.
other more nerdy tricks to keep cool when the heat’s packing:
the neck slug: similar to the wet head bandana: take a rag, soak it in water, roll it, and wrap it around your neck. the evaporation from the rag to the air will actually create coolness, the more towel-like the rag (we’re looking for high water-holding capacity here), the better. if you’re having trouble sleeping at night, just keep the rag open on your body to keep cool.
solar screen: ok, this stuff is really weird and probably not too good for us, but you will be significantly less hot if you wear sun-screen. why? think about all those UV rays that don’t make it to your skin and how much heat they represent.
Andrea: Yes, the geeky white sunscreen that uses the physical barrier of zinc is much better for the body. Us redheads use it a lot of bugger all if’n we look like geek vampires in broad daylight! ;-)
I read this posted by Molly, a friend of a friend, on a thread on facebook this am:
“Seriously…underwear in the freezer. Got me through a summer of 100 degree days in a tiny, non-air conditioned NYC apartment with almost no windows. Nothin’ like slipping into some chilly briefs to cool ya down.”