Air condition

As the weather rips us a new one on a daily basis, I start to think about air conditioning.

There is no question that controlling the interior environment has remodelled American life. People think nothing of moving to Arizona. One hundred fifteen outside? Barely a consideration. We can continue our lives and work unhindered by physical discomfort that would normally suspend any activity other than lying down and sweating. 

I am not a luddite. I am a person who gets cold easily; something about a lower base body temperature. Where most folks are happy in 65 degree air-conditioned comfort, I reach for a sweater and then a jacket. Where most folks are perfectly happy about the hum, I fret that there are small sounds that I can no longer hear and the low level monotonous noise is a constant low level irritant. And I don’t like the uneven blasts of cold air and the brush of the current across the small hairs of my skin.