I Am Full of Extra Special

I really did not want to wake this early today, yesterday was such a success at sleeping. But here I am, with some extra special coffee, espresso, and some extra special water, Gerolsteiner. It appears that I am full of extra special stuff, this morning. Max is awake for once, and the cats, also. The apartment is so quiet this morning, that I can hear Miss Georgia scratch her ear.

It is still, quiet and muggy outside. It looks to be cooler and rainy very soon. September is a borderline month, and also a bipolar month. Extremes everywhere you shake a stick, all trying to stabilize. Frenetic cool, and still heat are the norm.  For many, this month is very much a, "I hate you, don't leave me"* month. Too much like summer for the cool weather fanatics and too much like winter for the summer lovers. Wasn't it sometime in the fall that the French Revolution executions started? Just too much uncertainty and heat, you know.

Those were the days without air conditioning, and the-less-clothes-the-better way of life. They had shorts, but they layered about 50 lbs. of wool over them. No ice cubes, no buzz cuts, no electric fans. Ben Franklin had discovered that lightening was electricity, but no one understood it. Much like today, only now we have engineers who have come up with air conditioning, little boys with not much hair, and the effects of a device that moves the air.

They had days by the pool, back then, but no one swam. Not in France, with all that clothing on, and all those servants tripping around. Everyone who was anyone wore wigs: big, heavy and powdered. Needless to say, they were hot. No one wanted a tan. In fact, it was pretty much a dead giveaway that, if one had a tan, one was not top drawer. Of course, they all smeared themselves with oils, but they put powder on top, like a doughnut. And more makeup on top of that, that frequently ended up killing the user. That's right. No organic makeup. And the men wore makeup as well as the women.

The men also wore hose, and high heels, but I digress. No, short of sleeping in the nude, these people really suffered in the heat. Only the Japanese didn't suffer too much, because by then, they had discovered kimono and wore cotton, and took a lot of baths. But we are talking about France circa 1789. Everyone drank wine, which makes you hot. No one had a margarita, back then, or a cold one, just off the ice. Only the King had running water, so he could bathe all day, if he chose.

No one had any idea that electricity could be harnessed and run into houses. Well, maybe Ben Franklin did, but he was ahead of his time. Roman baths had gone out of fashion. That's a ginormous bathing pool, full of hot water. One felt cool after one got out of it. But they immediately reapplied the hot makeup and stuck the wig on and the 50 lbs. of wool...so much for that.

No one had deodorant. That's why they all wore so much perfume. Just the thought of that body odor, is enough to send one into a coma, isn't it? The didn't really even have soap, as we know it today, to wash their clothes. And clothes, particularly women's dresses, were passed down from generation to generation. My skin is starting to itch...

Anyway, back to my extra special coffee and water on this ordinary day in late summer. The air is cool inside the apartment, and I will wear shorts and a tee today, to stay cool. I don't often wear makeup, so don't have to worry about that, and my hair gets hot sometimes, but it's much shorter than anything seen in the Old Days.

Sometimes it's a struggle but I tend to bathe everyday, which keeps me cooler, as well. I have about five different kinds of soap available to me. Oh, and electric power to run into the apartment, when I remember to pay the bill. Which means, I can take a shower anytime I want, day or night. I don't have a formal bath, but my makeup won't blind me. And I have deodorant, that I use everyday, come hell or high water, rain or shine, God willin' and the creek don't rise, don't get in my way about it.

*I Hate You, Don't Leave Me is a text book of borderline personality disorder, and a good read all around.