Summer '11

I wanted to write something about how hot this summer '11 has been and dang! NRI Maamihad to say it all in her post and now it would definitely look like I copy-pasted it. But here it goes..

It has been 4 years since I moved to Texas and I only see the summers getting intolerable each year. Agreed, I am from chennai and that's where i lived for most parts.. but i have never sulked so much about the heat. And i sat down to write this post as to why I think I didn't crib back then.

A) Chennai perennially had just one climate and maybe i thought that was the only weather that existed until maybe i was 10years old.

B) We had ice creams, kulfi, mangoes and coconut water. Do you need anything else to beat the heat? I mean when your entire day involved in planning how to get to the beach with your cousins, steal an extra mango slice from paati(she had the skin peeled-ready-to eat and straight out of the fridge) and beg amma to make icecream ( hear you food bloggers - back then ammas and perimas made the best "paal-ice"- aavin milk, sugar.that's it. no fancy-schmancy ingredients and no 200$ Cuisinart equipments) why would you care about the "heat"?

C) May was supposedly the hottest month and we had annual vacation. we were all packed and sent out to some cousins house and we stayed indoors playing.

So when did I start cribbing about the summer?

As a teenager I used to crib that my school uniform was pathetic ( Terri-wool yea right) and the three piece torture made it very uncomfortable esp during PT periods. But come 11th and 12th those coveted PT periods were anyway in automatic-maths/phy/chemistry conversion mode so I was spared from getting an already brown skin look like tar.

High school and college also meant extra classes, tuitions, semester exams which were always during May and I didn't have the guts to say 'i don't want to study'. I just said ' Veyyil adikardhu irritate pannadha'. (boy, did i have logic or what?)

Now, coming back to reality this texas heat is killing. The sun wakes you up at 6AM which is an ungodly hour and it sets at 9:30PM by which time most restaurants close. And psychologically, I somehow don't feel hungry till it is quite dark outside.

Ants. Who would have thought of these? yes, expect ants to visit you every hour. i'm talking in hundreds.Spray ant repellents overnight and by next afternoon they are there. If it were an apartment i would call the leasing office and not bother about it cos it's their business .Not anymore.I have to study about ants, talk to people at home depot, go home and check what kind of ants they are (there are 26 apparently) and get the right product. Or don't have a fancy lawn or garden.

Which brings me back to the next topic- grass. I am now a sucker for all things home. i shop,read,plan,dream and spend my free time on home decor. My backyard grass is now brown and crunchy.I hate to walk on it and my friend's two year old came to me and said "your grass hurts my feet". People say there is nothing you can do about it but i don't want to lose hope. Maybe next summer ain't this bad but if all this global warming is true i really wish we can do something about it. (like not have a huge lawn and watering them daily thereby saving your county from a drought :( )

So all i have been doing this summer is setting up the house, cribbing about how hot it is and having truckload of friends drop in every weekend. It has been fun paying high utility bills and trying to recreate summer recipes. (like buttermilk and mango shake).

I hope the summer everywhere else is tolerable.

Feliz verano!