Thanks, taz!

I should have signed up a long time ago.

Gosh. . .I hope it passes. I know that a lot of us would send cool air if we could.

Is the A/C thrift a matter of the bill, or shortages of electricity (due to the heat wave) there?

Take care of yourself, Taz. Good idea about using the AC for sleeping. I's easy to over-heat.

OH! And "HI" to everyone including sueinnyc.

*mists taz with rosewater*

Do you have a bathtub? If not, can you get a bathtub?

I choose to be jocose, but it's a loving jocose. I've had some bad, bad hot days in my life. Excuse my provincial self, but is there a place you can go that has the A/C and hangout for the worst of it?
Are the Greeks too tough for A/C?

And happy this that and the other thing to all of you. Be careful out there, as the dude says.

Combo, danf; electricity is expensive, but we can afford it - but I just feel awful about using it. It heats up the (immediate) outside even more, the country is groaning under the electric and water demand, and... well... it's basically a part of the whole problem that is causing it all.

We have a bathtub, divino, and I do take cool showers, but it's been blistering, 24 hours a day, day after day - too constant to escape. The Greeks aren't too tough for AC, but until quite recently it's only been very rarely that it becomes so hot that air conditioning is really a safety measure. People are buying them left and right these days; everywhere you walk on the streets, you see boxing and packaging for new AC units out by the dumpsters.

Some places are air conditioned - shops, some cafes, etc., but that would require going outside, which is something I mostly avoid. I haven't gone further than four blocks (for groceries) for the past several days.

I did use the AC to cool off the whole house the other day because we expected a guest, and I needed to clean (except for washing clothes and dishes, I haven't been able to do anything without melting)... It was the best day I've had in weeks.

I've been checking the weather in Athens lately and worrying, Taz--it looks not only wretched but dangerous. There's always this terrible sense of helplessness when one reads about natural or meterological disasters afflicting other parts of the world (your heat, England's floods, the heat and fires out west). I wish I could carve off a big slice of a Minnesota January day and send it to you, express, packed in dry ice.

I am shameless about using our AC. I must have AC. We're on the third floor of a brick rowhouse and I get crispy round the edges without it. I say make whatever other sacrifices you may in terms of conservation, but use your AC. To me, AC in weather like this is as important as heat in winter. Barring that, you could always curl up with a frozen water bottle. (Where's an ice bra when you need one?)

Luck, love, whuffles, welcomes, and an early ice age from me, too!

Our AC went out last week. The system was over 20 years old, so I guess it was an accident waiting to happen. Luckily, it wasn't unbearably hot, but still pretty uncomfortable.

We were apologizing to the AC install guy because the house was kind of a wreck. He said, "This is nothing. Last week we went to a lady's house whose AC was out for two weeks and the woman started apologizing before we even walked in the door, saying, 'mama don't work when there's no air conditioning.'" Judging by the terrified, bug-eyed look on on the poor guy's face, mama must have really let things go. I think he was having a flashback.

On the subject of broked things. You'll be pleased to know that I have now finished Harry Potter. So I can rejoin the human race and do other things.

Mainly I just close rooms off and turn on lots of fans, but at night I gotta have the AC. However, I have R38 insulation, and the very latest in energy efficient windows, HVAC systems, and refrigeration!

*whimper* When the revolution comes, just shoot me.

Also, sueinnyc I know it's supposed to be sue in nyc but I'm pronouncing it sue inny c. I hope you don't mind :-)

I'm concerned about Sprog No 2 who is heading your way on Friday, although they will be going straight to Pelion and the village of Zagora for 3 weeks.

I'm sitting here in a FLEECE dressing gown cos of how cold it is at this time of the morning. This dressing gown should have been retired with the winter clothes last month but there you go!
My trick when I lived as a poor student in Madrid in this kind of heat with no AC was to buy an old fashioned lawn (very fine cotton)nightdress, shower in it in cold water and go to bed soaking wet. By the time I dried out I was comfortably asleep. The next morning there was no evidence that water had been used!!

... I'm pronouncing it sue inny c,
Hah, me too. Now we need to know - does sue have an inny?

EEEE, taz! Do you have access to a swamp cooler?

Wilder, if forecasts can be believed, after today (Wednesday), high temps are supposed to drop 10 degrees - which will at least put us under 100 degrees. Freemeteo is the most accurate online weather site I've found so far; here is Volos, which is the closest city to Zagora; you can use the tabs to go between the forecast and the current temperature.

*dreams of January in Minnesota*

oops... no, brujita, I haven't seen those here; but I will be using the AC today. Up to 100-103F I can usually hang tough, but if the day progresses as predicted - with a high of 113F - no way.

if the electricity doesn't crash, that is

urgh. Now I find out that we have to have guests... "have to" because one of our close friends is going out of the country on a project, it's de rigeur that we must see her together with other close friends before she leaves (tomorrow), and if we do it at anyone else's place, they aren't going to have fans or air conditioners, and I will die. But this means going out to buy things and cleaning and cooking. Why couldn't this happen tomorrow, instead? Damn you, Murphy and your stoopid law!

Oh, yay - a reprieve! We're going out for drinks, instead. Somewhere air conditioned. Thank you, Anti-Murphy. it's now 111F, apparently... and the AC? It is on.

Thanks a million for the weather tip. I'll be checking on him daily. Apparently the only place mobile phones work is on the beach. I'm so excited for him, this is the longest he's been away from us, and travelling alone! (Well that he's done since he was 6 and he feels so grown up.)

*whooshes nice cold air and thunderstorms from the southern appalachians all the way to Greece for taz*

Fortunately it's been very bearable in Toronto this summer - I can handle cold, but heat makes me postal. I feel for you, taz.

Yeah, I hate the heat too. But then, we have been having the coldest temperatures for over 100 years here for the last couple of weeks and that hasn't been fun either. I think there is only about two weeks out of any year where people don't bitch about the weather and even then they note that "it won't last".