Cooling off

Today, we had to go to Vegas to do some real estate. Started as a real nice day here in So. Utah, @ 0700, and about 70F. Drove down to Vegas.

BTW, no mention of the "Dying for work" hysteria on AM radio, who are always ravenous for schmaltzy news stories.

Took some regular precautions. 100% cotton Costco Hawaiian print shirts, and three welding caps, put in the ice chest with meltable ice. The welding hats did okay until about 2 pm when it hit 106. Then it got hot.

We went to our last job, which concluded with 111F on the truck thermometer, verified by AM radio, and a 125 reading on a portable sender I wear to record actual highs and lows.

I took my cotton shirt, and put it in the cold pool shower water, and put it on. Like hitting you with a quart of cold water, it makes you want to scream, and lasts about an hour.

Got me to the finish of the job, as I was feeling just a bit puny then.

What do you use to cool off in temp extremes in the shop or out on the job? I know sometimes there's nothing to do when it's hot, and you have to wear khakis and leather, but that's now left to the young who need to prove their points.

Cotton Comeaux welding caps soaked in ice water, and cotton shirts dipped in cold water do it for me, although, frequently the electricital flow gives one a jump start.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B
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I couldn't take the heat as a kid, so i moved to Minnesota. Now i can't take the cold so i move to Florida for a few months a year. My comfort range keeps getting smaller, no way will I work in over 85. I will work outside down to 20 but only for certain jobs where its not a problem to dress for the occasion. Turning into a wuss as I age.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

Built a board fence here this summer. It was little, only 12 posts, to hide some stuff from view (live in a g.d. poa). Luckily, we had a bunch of mid 90 deg days, no 100's then. Still, using one of those old two handle post hole diggers in caliche and tree roots went pretty slow. I just take a lot of breaks, drink a lot of water, and sit in the shade between holes. Shorts, hat, and a light cotton t-shirt split at the neck. Now that it's in the 100's, I'll do outside projects in the early morning or wait until October.

Pete Keillor

Reply to
Pete Keillor

My truck boiled over last week. It was close to 100, and I had to run the heater wide open to get it home. I was so sick I could barely stand when I got home. So much for it being repaired properly. I have driven less than 500 miles since it was in the shop.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Copy that, Karl.

It was 108 here yesterday. But with a high cloud cover, so the direct glare wasn't so bad.

I'm managing to get an hour or two of work done on my boat in the evenings. And half of that is setting up / cleaning up.

It going slow, but slowly getting done.

Richard

Reply to
Richard

More pictures when it's done? :)

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

That kind of weather usually triggers my heart arrythmia and I pass out - if I wake up, I usually feel better.

Reply to
Josh

Unfortunately farming means you do what you have to do when you have to do it... :(

Much can be done very early, but some things just take what they take.

At least field work these days (if there were any; we're in part of the 'exceptional' drought category area so there just isn't any of that going on; they released the CRP (Conservation Reserve) grass for emergency haying but it's all burned up to the point there's no value in it and there wasn't any growth anyway) does have a cab rather than the old days of a kid when didn't even have the umbrella...

I have been knocking off during middle of afternoons for the most part when we've been 105F+ (and we're far enough west and high-enough elevation that we've not been the hot spot in the state for more than one or two days this summer so far). Our normals this time of year are mid-90s and that feels very comfortable when we get a day or two like that after the stretch of very hot...

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Reply to
dpb

I used to just keep swinging steady all day, but now that I am feeling middle age (and been busted up or sick a couple times) I try to plan tasks in the heat for fifteen minutes of hard work, and a few minutes of down time. Even on an absolutely miserable day a few minutes just standing there makes a difference. Then I grew up in the heat of the desert, and one of my favorite times to go fishing is on summer afternoons from when the temp breaks around around mid afternoon until dark. If you are not an outdoors person you won't be tuned to feel that temperature break, but if you are out all day it almost feels cool for a little while when it does. It's a fairly sudden drop of a few degrees in the afternoon. Its still HOT, but...

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Pretty much what I do. Though I tend to work more at night in the summer than in the daytime. Here in the Central Valley..lots of folks come out at night and do their yard work and whatnot. Say a guy mowing his lawn last week by headlights of his vehicles. Electric mower do didn't keep many people awake..though most here tend to work at night this time of the year.

Gunner, back from 3 days in a much cooler LA

1:40 am at 92F

"In my humble opinion, the petty carping levied against Bush by the Democrats proves again, it is better to have your eye plucked out by an eagle than to be nibbled to death by ducks." - Norman Liebmann

Reply to
Gunner

A "cool tie" works pretty good. It has gel beads that cool take a while to thaw. You wrap it around your neck, theory is it cools the blood from your carotid arteries and neck veins before it reaches the brain.

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Reply to
G. Morgan

Have you tried a Cool Scarf, the round tube bandanas full of water- wicking polyacrylamide crystals? Soak 'em in water for a couple hours, tie 'em around your neck, and they cool the blood in your neck which cools your entire body from the inside. They work GREAT in dry heat like Taft.

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What're you doing in LousyAna? Oh, you meant HelL.A., dincha? Never mind.

All I can say is FTN! I attended to tech school in Phoenix, AZ. in the 70s. It was 10pm before it cooled down to 80F there, so we swam in the pool and drank beer until then.

-- The business of America is not business. Neither is it war. The business of America is justice and securing the blessings of liberty. -- George F. Will

Reply to
Larry Jaques

I used to keep two in rotation in the ice cooler. I used to do a lot of attic work in Houston!

Reply to
G. Morgan

I've never needed to ice mine. They work just fine with tap water. After they appear to lose their cool, simply rotate them 180 degrees axially so the outside of the band is inside. The warm section now outside can cool and the cool reversed portion will be against your neck. One band cools for 4+ hours, until it starts drying. Rinse in cool water to recharge and give it another 4 hours.

They're the cheapest, most functional body cooler I've ever found.

-- The business of America is not business. Neither is it war. The business of America is justice and securing the blessings of liberty. -- George F. Will

Reply to
Larry Jaques

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