Tag Archives: comfort

Comfort and luxury

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I’m lying down stretching. It’s 36° out but that doesn’t matter because I’m in an air conditioned trailer. It’s a very comfortable temperature and I’ve got just enough space to lay down my yoga mat and spend some time working on my flexibility and mobility.

How lucky we are to have the comforts we have today. Convenient transportation, good dental and medical services, and cool air to ward off the laziness hot summer days can inspire. Compare this to what our ancestors had to deal with. An infected tooth could have meant death. A rock cave would be the only respite from the summer heat, that didn’t involve getting wet. A half day car ride would have been days of riding or walking across bump terrain.

Now, I can just turn up the air conditioning, stream some music, and stretch in comfort. Even at a camp ground, ‘roughing it’, I am lapping up the luxury of modern conveniences… and feeling lucky to have the comforts I do.

Fog and moon

A couple days ago some fog rolled in. Coming home from a dinner, my wife and o say a large coyote wandering down our street. Thankfully our daughter has already brought our cat in for the night. As we got out of our car the coyote was strolling past our driveway and I let out a little shout to ‘Keep going’, spurring it into a faster pace as it went by.

Last night I had a hot tub and the fog was still around. It was eerie seeing the bright moon through the misty fog, and it made me think about what life was like living in caves a couple hundred thousand years ago. No doors to keep out the wild animals, and all kinds of superstitions around the weather and the meaning of different events.

Back then, life was short and ailments like a tooth ache that today could be fixed with a root canal could end up being a fatal and unrecoverable infection. A bad winter could mean starvation. A pack of wild animals could wipe out an entire family. The world was a harsher, more dangerous place.

Today we sit in the comfort of our cars, our homes, and even our hot tubs. We are protected from wildlife, weather, and even other people. And when we look out at the moon on a foggy night it’s not nearly the same experience as our great ancestors. No, to us the fog and moon are an enjoyable sight, a moment to contemplate the hardships of a time long gone… from the comfort of modern amenities.

Heat wave

It’s supposed to get to 41°C (105.8°F) today. Yesterday was already a scorcher, but today will break records. I think our new above ground pool will get some use today after work, and I’m thankful that we have small window air conditioning units in our bedrooms, that we put in for just a few months a year.

Our district wisely cancelled school for students, because almost none of our schools have air conditioning and wearing a mask in a sweltering hot room with many others would be unbearable. I know my office will be uncomfortable, but I’ll probably move myself and my secretaries to a room that isn’t south facing with windows being in the sun all day.

I wonder how many more of these heat waves we’ll be getting in the coming years? Is this a blip or the start of a pattern? Global temperatures are rising, and we might have to get used to this… not that 41° is something anyone gets used to… it’s a temperature that you tolerate, moving from one artificially cool space to another.

Stay inside and stay cool.