Cool it

July has been unusually cool and low in humidity. Lower temperatures mean that my apartment's air conditioning hasn't needed to kick on as often, which provides some nice little summer savings.

One of the topics in a Cincinnati sportswriter's blog entry today was central air and his preference of not having it growing up. Either his miserliness is exceptionally strong or nostalgia is clouding his memory. In this part of the country air conditioning may not be as critical as it is in the South, but it's not something I would want to do without.

I didn't grow up with central air. In fact, I didn't live anywhere that had it until I moved into the apartment where I lived during my senior year of college. Funny but I don't have any rosy recollections of sweating like a horse while struggling to fall asleep at night or trying to hear the console TV over the loud hum of a window unit and/or box fan.

With the way my shared bedroom was configured, there was always the risk of kicking the fan if my brother or I needed to get up in the dead of the night. The only advantage these whirring machines had over AC was the lulling white noise they generated, but that hardly makes them equal.

I don't remember a lack of central air promoting more neighborliness because it got us out of the house. Having an above ground pool took care of that, I suppose.

So if some old-timers (or aspiring ones) wan to reflect fondly about not having central air, let 'em. Just don't expect me to join the chorus.