How Long Until the Collapse?

I know today's post sounds political, but it's not. Though, in all honesty, I wonder that same question when it comes to most things political in our current times. The true meaning of today's heading, is more related to me. Considering yesterday was going to be a nice day of relaxation, and yes, you caught it - was going to be.  

For those unaware, this desert state I live in has a 'wet' time of year, called 'Monsoon Season'. Somehow, some so-called weather-person calculated some weird formula, to determine an actual start time to this season, and presumably, an end time, though truth be told, I think neither really actually matter, nor ascribe to this reasoning. Needless to say, I think the season actually 'officially' started like June 20th or thereabouts. Yesterday seemed to be sort of our first real day of humidity, though, I personally saw no rain, or even hints of, though admittedly, it was cloudier than usual for AZ. The humidity was felt though. Since normally we are a 'dry heat', even a small amount of moisture is felt easily, and affects many, many things. The main one being, our air conditioning.

In AZ, many people have two types of coolers that are used at separate, effective times of the year, to help stay cool. Obviously, the standard air conditioning system most homes in the US have, is the most used in the summer. The other type is a an evaporative, or commonly called, 'Swamp' cooler. This one uses water to cool air that is then blown through the system. During times of high humidity, the swamp cooler is ineffective, and only seems to add to the 'sticky' feeling from the humidity. In monsoon season, using regular A/C works best.

Sometimes though, a home only has one type, as our hoe does, which is the regular A/C. Unfortunately, I am not sure if it is due to the age of our heat pump, or size, or what, but during times of higher humidity, it likes to 'freeze up' and stop blowing cool air. Usually, shutting it off to thaw out is in order, and can take up to an hour at times. An hour that leaves one open to the elements of heat, and humidity, normally during the hottest part of the day, as happened yesterday. It was an on going issue for me last year, and I believe I shall start getting back into the system I used last year. Basically, getting up early, shutting the system down for a couple hours, before the heat builds up of a morning, then using the A/C like normal through the hot afternoon, with an hour to "rest" come evening time (dusk'ish). It seems very much tolerable, and probably helps the system run better as a whole. I just need to remember to shut it off at proper times when it is a bit cooler, and be able to tolerate a little bit more uncomfortableness before turning it back on, for best results.

So, this morning, I was up early. Actually, I was up most of the night. Just not being able to get comfortable from the lack of cooler air (because humidity is up) and just not sleepy. I played on the computer to after 2am, before spending the next few hours tossing and turning, catching a few moments of nap time. I wonder how long until I feel the need to take a nap comes....

PeacE