Moist heat

What can you say when it is so hot and the air is so laden with moisture that it is oppressive and heavy to breathe? Shocking compared to having worn a winter sweater only last week. It saps my body of energy and rather than hibernate in winter I seek summer hibernation from the heat. Of course it doesn't help that I can't sleep at night. I wake up because of the heat and can't cool off. The mosquitoes bite me so fiercely I showered a second time last night to get some relief from the itching. I must be very sweet to them because I think I brought at least a half dozen in on my ankles alone when I stepped out on the deck to let the dog back in. Soon enough the cool air will return and I will be very happy to greet it warmly. A few trees have already begun to change to their fall colors from the chilly weather last week yet they too must be suffering in this temperature inversion. When I walked the meseta last year it was supposed to be unbearably hot. It had been for friends who had walked on ahead while I took a side trip to the sea with some other friends. Then when Chantal and I began to cross the flat plains of northern Spain the weather was merely summery. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for those who walked it in the high heat. My blood must be thick to appreciate the chilling winter here more than the hot summer but I can't imagine, anymore, living without some sort of cooling conditioner for long hot summer days. I was happy to go to work to get out of the heat. Somehow, though, when you spend every day in it, exerting yourself against the weather and other elements while walking, all seems to be a part of the daily effort, neither excessive nor impossible and while perhaps unbearable for the moment, like mosquito bites on my ankles it passes easily with cool water and a little soap.