3rd World Xavier

It's sweltering. It's criminally hot. I go to the Holiday Inn to get a taste of air conditioning, and then return home. I had not realized I had gotten so old. When I was a young man, a week or two in the equatorial Philippine heat did not bother me at all. I did not even wish for the rainy season. Instead, I wished for more time in the tropical wonderland. Yes, the heat and humidity was oppressive, but it was not as though air conditioning was a life support system.

If anything, this unrestrained and unrelieved heat has been showing me I am no longer a young man. In the PI, every building was constructed for optimal ventilation. Electric fans circulated island breezes through an intoxicating variety of flowers throughout the business area. If the one was not yet acclimated to the heat, a San Miguel and a pretty girl was always ready to help the process along. Jeepneys were open air rides about the communities. Once home, a person had the same system of constantly moving air to maintain equilibrium.

For two days, I've been studying my ass off during the cool less hot night hours, and today I must start to turn my biological clock around. I do not have the ventilation necessary to manage the ambient interior temperature, and my body can not take the strain. Inside the house is hotter than out in the yard. I find myself making more and more typos as my forehead drops sweat on my keyboard. Getting old is Hell. Today is Sunday...........When I come home on Tuesday.........