Pegged!!

     Missoula, MT is no different than any where else in the country right now as we are struggling to make it through this heat wave!  Kelli and I have only lived here for two summers, but during that time we had never seen the dreaded triple digits until today!  Well at least according to the temperature gauge in my pick-up, which read 101, we all know the level of accuracy in vehicles is not perfect but for the sake of argument I'm saying it was a hundred today!  It felt like 200 to this kid!  I find that when your gene pool consists of a portion of James river valley DNA, that one does not require thermometers to decipher the temperature outside, we simply use what I like to refer to as the sweatometer.  You see all of us that have this genetic make up have the ability to sweat our own weight in fluid on any given day.  It seems as though I sweat every single day of the year, the only change being the amount, though most days are rather mild, some are rather damp!
     Today was one of those days where my sweatometer was pegged!  I went to a job this morning around 10:00 where there was a pinhole leak in a copper line on a water heater.  Under normal circumstances this would be a relatively easy fix, cut out the hole, replace it with new pipe, and I'm done.  Well this water heater was heated by a boiler, sparring you all a lengthy paragraph on how an indirect water heater operates I'll just tell you that the boiler fed a 10 unit apartment buildings hot water and continued to run the entire time I was making the repair.  This meant that while it was already warming up into the mid 80's outside, it was nearly sauna temperatures inside!  Any water that ended up on the floor of the room evaporated almost at a visible rate!  I worked as fast as I could but murpheys law was in effect and everything that could go wrong did go wrong, making what should have been a 20 minute fix take nearly an hour!
     When I finally finished and stepped outside, the perspiration had completely taken over occupancy of every dry piece of fabric on my shirt.  I briefly thought about faking an injury just so I could spend a few minutes in an air conditioned waiting room!  This thought vaporized though just as quickly as the water on the floor and I headed down the road to the next job.  
     There are a few days every summer when I cannot wait to get home to take a cold shower and slip into a pair of shorts while I wait for the sun to disappear behind the mountains so things can cool back off.  I often find myself thinking during the apex of one of these days that I would make a really good eskimo!  But then who am I kidding, six months from now this blog will be talking about the cold weather blues and how I'm convinced I could make a pretty good Hawaiian!  So tomorrow I better just go prepared and take an extra shirt to get me through the afternoon!  I hope you all are able to keep your sweatometers in check during our little heat spell, and if your one of those lucky people who just doesn't sweat not matter how hot it gets, please don't tell me how much you like the hot weather, I may just let you read my sweatometer and give you a big hug around 2:30 in the afternoon!


Remember, you can only remove so many clothes to stay cool before you run out and are no longer allowed in public places, you can always put more on to stay warm:)