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Monday Night Flashback Open Thread: Hot Time in the City

Happy Hot Monday, Friends! I’m just guessing that it’s hot by you, because I don’t remember what it feels like when it’s less than 90°F outside.  My question for you is this – how do you cool off? How did you cool off as a kid? When we lived on the east coast, we went “down the shore” and to a man made lake not too far away. When we moved to Indiana, we started going to the Indiana Dunes (did you know there were dunes in Indiana?) – my parents still live six miles from Lake Michigan. Now that we’re in landlocked central Indiana, we go to the pool down the street.

Are you a water person? How do you cool off when it’s too hot to walk barefoot? As always, feel free to digress, and just dish about life instead.

27 replies on “Monday Night Flashback Open Thread: Hot Time in the City”

It’s supposed to get up to 103 here today (which the internet tells me is 39.4 Celsius). I am really glad that I work in an air conditioned building. Less glad that I have a black leather interior on my car. Lots of water to drink today.

Man, I got pissed today. The BF had to go get a physical and a tuberculosis shot for the substitute teaching job he got, so he went to the pharmacy (especially since he doesn’t have health insurance). The doctor he saw flat out refused to give him a physical. Why? Because he’s fat and he has diabetes, and thanks to the lack of health insurance, he hasn’t gotten that checked out in a couple years.

From what he said, she basically took that entire time filled with genuine concern (read: concern trolling) for his poor fat diabetic self, with nice gems of “your blood sugar is probably on the fritz” and “your eyesight is probably declining because of TEH DIABETEZ” (he’s still wearing the same glasses from 5+ years ago) and “you could go into a coma at ANY TIME.”

It pisses me off because I see absolutely no reason why she couldn’t have just given him the physical, and he called me after the appointment telling me he was having bad fat guilt. This is from someone who is usually completely unfazed by people who try to fat shame him. I was fucking furious. I mean, yes, diabetes is nothing to mess with…but he doesn’t have health insurance. And you don’t have to fucking fat shame someone into doing it…and you certainly don’t deny them the physical they need!

I tried to encourage him to just go somewhere else, but now he feels like he should go ahead and get the blood work just to feel better about it, because the way she talked about it, it sounded he was going to suddenly drop dead at any moment unless he did.

Rage!

That sucks so much. My mister has had similar problems and usually avoids doctors because “They’re just going to tell me I’m too fat.” Tell him to get the bloodwork if it will make him feel better, but get it from someone else as part of a physical. He does not need to see that doctor again, because she is an a-hole.

Blood sugar should be something that can be checked quick and easy if she was so omg concerned. There are home testing kits fer crissakes. You don’t have to do full on bloodwork. If his blood sugar is off the charts too high or low then bring out the supah concern. Any chance you know someone with diabetes and health insurance that would let you have a lancet, test strip, and use of their meter for five minutes?

But yeah, go somewhere else. Fat shaming doctors are not good.

That’s actually a really good idea. Sadly we don’t know anyone who has that. I keep trying to tell him he should just go to a different place and get his physical, and he can ask them to do the blood sugar testing while there, but he seems to think her advice was the better way to go.

I am such a water person. I love swimming and kayaking and fishing. Oceans, rivers, lakes: all are wonderful. I’ve been a lifeguard for years (awesome way to pick up extra spending cash).

Related to that (since I have also made a career out of aquatic environments): it is much less fun to spend summer doing field work when it’s 90F+ and 95% humidity outside, and I’m hiking miles through mountainous terrain in rubber pants (waders) to cold water streams that I can’t actually sit in when I get there. This is when I miss winter and fall the most… THERE IS NO ESCAPING THE HEEEEEEAAAT!!!

I love the water. I learned to swim before I could walk (Thanks, Ma!). In an ironic twist, I married a man that cannot swim and has no interest in being near or in the water.

Tomorrow is my day off, and as long as it doesn’t rain, I plan on spending the day at the little lake in our development. Once I get my laundry at least started.

If you live in Austin, Barton Springs is the place! It’s always refreshingly chilly. I spend 2 hours there 90% of my Saturdays May-September. Unless it was just flooded by recent rain…

I know all too well how hard it is to find relief in Central Indiana (where I grew up and where I’ll be in a few days for a trip back home.) Let me know if you crack the case on that one. Despite living in TX now, all of my most epic sunburns have come from the July sun in IN!

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