Lousy second storey studio apartment currently; long sides of the building face east and west. So, the sun comes up and through my itty bitty kitchen window...heats that long side of the building...pounds down over the peak through the middle of the day thoroughly heating the entire structure...then, about 3 or 4 p.m. it starts boiling through the big glass window that comprises most of the west wall, along with the door. If it's 90 degrees outside at 6 or7 p.m., it'll be 120 inside the apartment.

I'm in Hell.

I've got a heavy white curtain covering the big window; it helps a lot---a LOT more than the nasty plastic white blinds that were here before. All along the front of the window, outside on the common balcony that allows access to all the second floor apartments, I've got potted plants (including fruit trees in five gallon white buckets!) that I keep really well watered especially if I know it's going to be hot. The cover most of wood siding below the window with their pots and much of the window with their foliage. They also make a huge difference...and I've got more mint and several kinds of sage than you can shake a stick at.

Reversible fans in both windows to create a draft straight through, from which ever side is coolest. It's pointless, however, if it's over about 80 degrees outside; the building is already so damned hot there's no catching up even if we weren't also dealing with the heat from the downstairs apartment---with it's own GINORMOUS heat sucking window. >:-(

The only other thing I've found that works is to fill the tub in the morning with cold water; near as I can tell, it draws heat. Besides, I dip the dog in it periodically (remember the 140# black LSGD?) and the cat sprawls out with his back up against it and his belly up against the base of the toilet.

Everything wide open at night with all fans running on high, just trying to cool the bones of the building before the next assault.


Also, I keep eight gel ice packs in the freezer to rotate strategically on my body. I eat melon like it's a food group and drink electrolyte drinks cut 50/50 with water. But then, I should mention that I have this weird body that is highly prone to heat stroke...it's vitally important to me that I not get overheated---I *will* end up in the hospital not being able to tell you my name and only knowing that that is some how a REALLY BAD THING. Oh, yes---this year I discovered cell salts, able to purchase them off the shelf in the hooby heeba section of local groceries and at food co-ops. Marvelous little tabs!

My low-tek hippie heat approach; get naked, get wet, stay calm...and wait it out. Eventually that burning orb in the sky will slink below the horizon and I can breathe again...and pretty soon the rains will come back! :-P

I really think heat tolerance has a lot to do with mindset and attitude. I've had summers where I might have AC in the house but not in the car, or vice-versa, or AC at work and not at home, and the contrast is so strong it makes for a living hell the moment you step out of the AC environment. You can't stop thinking about how miserably hot you are.

This past summer has been a hot bugger. I've been steam-cleaning carpets. The water gets heated up to 205 degrees F... then pumped into a set of four jets on my cleaning attachment at 700-900 psi making a billow of scalding steam which is conveniently located right in front of my body for hours on end. Because the door has to be left open to run the hoses in, most folks just turn off their cooler and let the place heat up. I even get some customers who crank up the HEATER because they think the carpets dry faster that way.

Then when I'm done I go back out to the van, where a 4 cylinder engine has been burning away right behind the driver seat. The driver seat, sitting in the sun (doors and windows have to be shut for liability reasons) so imagine a hot car in the sun, sitting there for two hours, WITH A RUNNING ENGINE TRAPPED INSIDE... and you'll realize that I get no relief from the heat between jobs.

The cleaning van has no AC, it broke this spring and my boss hasn't fixed it.

But, I also have no AC in my own private vehicle, or in my apartment. I come home and 95 degrees feels like a cold water bath. I drink anywhere from one to one and a half gallons of water per work shift, then more at home.

And you know what? It's really not as miserable as it seems. You forget about it after a while. The sweat doesn't bother you so much, you just get into working on what you're doing and you forget about it. I find that if I spend time getting my head and arms wet in cold water at customer's kitchen sinks when they're not looking, it helps me cool down but that only serves to make me realize once again, how bloody hot I get quickly. It's actually easier to just get hot once, and stay that way, and eventually you forget about it.

It's all in your mindset, really. Roofers deal with worse than what I do and they survive without taking breaks to put their feet in ice water, or meditating about their ancestral genetics of heat tolerance. Just git-er-done and stop bitching about it

It the mid east, I can understand why they wear the dashis and headwear. It keeps you cooler. When it gets to be 140, yes, 140, you stay inside and close the drapes. We had to do that when the power went out for two freaking days. Least when the air is dry, you can wrap wet towles around you and cook off.
Most importantly, stay hydrated.

lol - given that my AC is the mountain breeze, this one is not so hard for me. I alternate between soaks in the hot springs and dips in the cold river, which also serves to keep my beer cold - cold beer, now there's my favorite heat cure. :)