Prudent Prepping: Summer Has Arrived

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping.

If the saying goes 'Spring has sprung', then this year I'd have to say that Summer crashed the party. It's been over 95° for the last 4 days, and over 100° yesterday and today; on Monday we had two short power outages just far enough apart that all the digital readouts weren't reset when the second one hit. After that, it was decided to just wait it out.

Beating The Heat 

Honest, low humidity

I know that the San Francisco area is supposedly known for mild weather, but that's only close to the water. I'm over a set of hills on the hot, inland part of the Bay Area, and we have to plan and deal with the weather differently than those close to water. Fortunately for us, our humidity really is very low, so all that 'well, it's dry heat' really is true compared to most of the country. (I'm not talking about you, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona!) Today, even though it's 104, the humidity is 9%. This is much lower than normal, with 40% being closer to average.

First, stay out of the sun. As stupid as it sounds, don't go out if you don't have to.

If you do need to be out, wear a hat with a wide enough brim to shade your whole head.

Wearing light colors will help keep you cooler than dark shades.

Most importantly...

Drink Lots of Water
From the CDC:

Drinking water before, during, and after physical activity is one way to keep your body’s air conditioner working. Keep these tips in mind to help your body stay cool:

• Top off your tank a few hours before you hit the court, the field, or your own backyard by drinking about two cups of cold water.
• Keep a water bottle handy to guzzle during water breaks, halftime, or time outs. Try to drink about 10 ounces — that’s about 10 large gulps from your water bottle — every 15-20 minutes.

Our very own Lokidude wrote about make-your-own sports drink in this post, so you can save money and flavor the mix however you want.

In The Heat Of The Night 
Running the air conditioning can be expensive. Last year at my old place, the jerk roommate cranked the thermostat down to 68 during the day one month. This practice stopped  when the electricity bill came and it was $500!

There are plenty of alternatives for keeping things cool, such as fans, closing off windows in south-facing rooms with heavy drapes, or making a makeshift swamp cooler, like this:



Even with this using electricity, compared to your air conditioner you're saving money!

Recap And Takeaway

• If it seems like it's too hot to be out in the sun, it is.
• Nothing was purchased this week, other than 2 cases of water to take with me to work.

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NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.