Hi all its, now around 90 sum degrees outside my office, and going up to 101, i think thats like 38 degrees C. mighty hot. my heart goes out to all of the people who need to work outside today. I feel your pain. putting myself through college doing all kinds of jobs in the summer sucked royal in this heat.
UPDATE:
I was thinking about this article remember Las vegas, when the though came to me. 101 isn’t just that it is hot but rather its the fact that humidity is hovering around 80 percent. Its like getting kicked in the face with a soggy boot walking outside at this point… that is all /
The three hottest jobs i ever had are as follows, just to give you a bit of a taste of what it was like.
3.) Working with my dad in a Bakery equipment company. the entire back end of the shop where we worked was not air conditioned, but welding, ovens firing and all other types of business was going on, it was usually sweltering and about 10 degrees hotter than outside. Most of the work was dirty and grity, paint fumes and cleaning supplies made the day a bit hazy
2.) Archaeology internship. Working on an island, digging up history was great but. being miles away from a restroom, next to a steamy river in 100+ degree heat is not a good recipe for health. The heat index was over 110 the day we had to pack everything up and leave the island. which meant back filling the holes we had been digging three people went down with heat exhaustion and 1 had a minor case of heat stroke… not a pleasant day. loved the work but hated those conditions. Now some people where wondering why i was wearing a flannel shirt over top of my t shirt through most of the days we were there? Heres a hint. real flannel draws the sweat away from your body and keeps you cooler, by keeping the sun directly off you. its a bit uncomfortable at the start but its worth its weight in gold by the end of the day.
1.) Construction laborer for a masonry restoration company. Brick and stone pointing, down on the ground with very little cover. hot hot work. had to keep plenty hydrated and try to stay in the shade when possible. mixing cement, cleaning machines, and hauling stone up to the guys on the swings. One job we were painting a steeple south of philly. So up 80 feet off the ground with the sun beating down off you and the steeple wall, shining off the fresh white paint you just slapped on the wood. good honest work but hard as a mother on those days.
The only part of that job which was hotter, but not my responsibility. Our boss was the one who went up onto the roof tying the swings into the atic. drilling holes in the roof and through ceramic tiles. he had a thermometer in his pocket one day and it was 140 in the attic and the tiles he needed to crawl over were 135. easy and this was on the days when it was only 90 degrees outside.
Tips
A couple things you can do to make the guys working in the suns day a little better. Number 1, do not tell them what temp it is nor how hot its going to get, they know. and frankly thinking about a number is not a way to stay cool. a small aside, the next person who says “whew its a hot one ain’t it” can be legally killed by a guy working outside for a living… especially if the speaker is walking to an air conditioned office. its just a natural law.
if they are working on your building buy them some ice water, let them come inside for lunch or breaks and make them feel welcome. One of the best days i ever had working as a construction laborer was when the nuns from the convent we were working on had us come inside for lunch and brought ice cold water outside for us to drink during the day. Now that is why they are in the express lane to the big guy when they go. People need to look out for each other on days like today. Iced coffee is always a welcome gift. Just think of it as Karma.
finally just give them a little slack on days like today think a normal roof can heat up to over 40 degrees whatever the temp outside is. They are black, sticky and miserable. so think when its 70 degrees the roof can be rocking 110, now raise the temp to 101… Be kind to your fellow humans today.
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One response to “Concerning the Heat”
[…] What a week is the understatement of the month. This week has quite possibly been one of the most tiring in my young life. If you hearken back to several posts i did over the summer, here & here, The place where I work has some minor amounts of trouble regulating the temperature. To provide a brief summation of three years of experience in this building. It is hot in the winter, unbelievably mind altering hot. It is cold in the summer. Freeze your ass off cold, bring a jacket and use a banned space heater cold. At first glance this would be ideal. This temperature differential is what places strive for. We are not allowed to self regulate, vis a vis the windows, which do open, as opening windows has a nasty effect on the system. But the problem is with extremes. 2 weeks ago the Outside temperature was hovering around 45 F during the afternoon. So the powers that be set this building accordingly and then apparently got drunk. It was almost comfortable in here at that point. a slight chill in the air, but its late autumn I can deal, i like the cold. Then as the temperature outside climbed into the 50’s and 60’s no one made any adjustments, hence the drunk supposition. So that by proxy raised the temperature in here well past comfortable but closer to horrible. Walking in on Monday the thermostat in my office read 95 degrees, I have servers in there i understand heat buildup, but this was off the wall. it has continues each day getting more stale, and the heat dissapating more slowly as I open the door. My work day consisted of a makeshift sweat lodge in which i came in sat down and proceeded to loose water weight for 9 hours. The elevators were less than pleasant. Students with deadlines don’t bathe frequently, heat makes everyone sweat. Draw your own rank conclusions. […]