I don't know how I feel about air conditioning. It's really nice to come from a hot, humid sidewalk into a cool, dry building in the summer, but I feel the pleasure is short-lived. Pretty soon, it's too cold, and then you've got to put your sweater on. Doesn't it seem weird to be carrying around a sweater on a 90 degree day? And yet I've often done just that when going to a restaurant or movie on a sweltering day. I think I even brought a blanket to the theater once.
When it's summer, I want to wear summer clothes. I know people have to adhere to office dress codes, but it seems so wrong to see a room full of people wearing suits and cardigans in July. I think the professional world needs to adopt shorts as acceptable summer-wear. Especially for men. Women, at least, can wear dresses and skirts, but there really aren't many hot-weather alternatives for professional men. Then we could shut off the A/C, open the windows, and enjoy the fresh air while the world is in bloom.
I was thinking about another aspect of this divorced-from-nature thing over the weekend, when we visited the farmers' market and got some strawberries, lettuce, and mozzarella. The lettuce, in particular, was overwhelmingly flavorful, and I realized that my typical experience of lettuce is one of texture rather than flavor. It's crunchy, sure, but what else can you say about grocery store lettuce, even the non-iceberg kind? By contrast, this local lettuce was robust and in-your-face. I wonder if the flavor was the result of the growing method (small farm, organic), or the freshness of the food (locally grown, therefore less time from field to fork), or the type of lettuce (not widely available), or some combination thereof?
I wish I'd gotten a CSA share this year. The Garden of Oddities is doing what it can, but there won't be any edible results for months. We went out to weed and mulch it yesterday, and it was fun to see things coming along. (That's probably my favorite aspect of gardening--the element of surprise. "Let's see what's happened since last I was here.") The broccoli has shriveled, but most other things are showing significant progress. The melons and gourds are peeking out of the ground, the brussels sprouts are getting bigger, and the tomatoes and mint are, if not actually growing, at least in stable condition. Hopefully they'll survive the 90-plus-degree weather predicted for tomorrow.
