Stepping into the summer evening, I was met by the moist coolness of air that is the epidural equivalent of watermelon after a hot summer day. This is the break from the oppression of Apollo that people in Nashville can only dream about from now on into September. Natural relief anyway. It’s still the case, I assume, that any suburban home in Davidson County will produce mild hypothermia after you have been in its conditioned air for a couple of hours. At least that is how we rolled in the 80’s thanks to cheap and plentiful energy from the TVA.
Consolidated Edison was not, one can assume, quite so lenient in their schedule of fees given that nary a bit of air conditioning seems to be found in a residential building in any of the five boroughs. Well, the four outer boroughs anyway. I bet all the co-op boards south of 110th street have figured out how to write off an installation of central air. That the recent increase in temperatures have driven so many Gothamites to resort to using the deamon AC, and that their very pricey real estate is threatened with liquid devaluation, is enough to make most New Yorkers truly believe in the threat of global climate change.
Down in the mountains, we can still afford to be deniers. There are still nights that are so soft and sweet that they melt on your forearm and bathe you in honeysuckle. Because we get this relief, and still have reliable access to 4G data networks, we can maintain a cultural complacency in the face of Albert Jr.’s clamoring. After all, who would not rather spend time with the windows down and “Slow Turning” on instead of another depressing episode of “Living on Earth”?