Extreme Hot Hits ...

...my living room
...my bedroom

It's been incredibly hot this week and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. I know it's July but this is getting out of hand.

We're at the point that the computer is not working properly due to excess heat. We already serviced it, only to find out that nothing seems to be wrong with it....except the Paduan heat. The dog can do nothing but pant and sprawl out across the tiled floors in the hopes of keeping his naturally hot doggie body temperature as low as possible.

On that note, when we went to take the dog to the vet 2 days ago, by the time the vet saw the dog, he was suffering from a doggie fever caused by the heat and excitement of waiting around too many other dogs. His temperature was 2°C above normal. The vet then promptly refused to administer the routine shots we had come for. We are hoping for better results tomorrow morning when we do the same thing again, but this time in the morning by appointment, which was a small feat to get from this particular vet.

Fans are distributed throughout the house and rotated as we move through the spaces and rooms. At night, 2 are blasting on either side of the master bed. I have given up on wearing clothing at night. Nothing is cool enough! And forget sheets. They just absorb the sweat!

The lights are kept low. Blinds are kept down all day. We even shut some doors during the afternoon to keep more heat from seeping in. The windows are only open wide from about 10 p.m. to midnight, when the heat finally wanes.

Our terrace walls are so hot during the day and much of the evening that we could roast meat on them for a barbeque.

The sky is white from haze that appears as early as 9 in the morning now.

We average 2 or 3 showers a day to try to stay cool and sane. The dog is having one a day as a "refresher", otherwise we think he might explode.

We are starting to invent any and every way to stay away from home at night when inside is hotter than outside: open air film festivals, air conditioned pizzerie or restaurants, bars with outdoor seating and late-night superstore shopping with climate contol.

Luckily, in a couple of weeks we will escape to the mountains while other friends and fellow Paduans will hit the beaches.

Meanwhile, the dog days of summer have our dog a pezzi (literally "in pieces").