Blog for August 10th, 2026
Beat the Heat!
What a trippy, whirlwind type of a week it has been for us this week! Started with hosting a zoom meeting, as I always do on Monday. Then zoomed with a new sponsee that lives 1200 miles away from me. It was our first time doing some recovery work and she is so easy to talk with, and it went great. I started working on creating new lessons for the class I teach, and I kept getting interrupted, so guess what, a week later, only two lessons are ready and I did those this morning!
On Wednesday morning we got up early in order to beat the heat and go get our grandson who is living about one hundred and fifty miles from us now, for his seventeenth birthday. The temps have been an average of one hundred and eleven and one hundred and thirteen, ugh! So, we spent the day with our sweet boy, eating in the resort, arcades, movies and his dad came and his dad’s girlfriend for dinner and the movie. Afterwards, I took him back home to his sisters, my beautiful granddaughter, and visited for a while, finally got back to our room and rested and got up early again to head home. Boy, I was tired. At least the hotel and room were nice and cool, it was a great way to beat the heat for a bit.
Meanwhile, I took my old videos to a guy who takes them and puts them on a USB, we picked them up on our way home and I have spent a lot of time watching them and renaming them. Wow! So many memories. Now I’m dreaming of my mom and sisters about every night. I miss my family so very much, but the whole process has been such a gigantic blessing. I am grateful to the guy who knows how to transfer them.
Then, the day we got back and unloaded (we’d stopped for groceries too, we shop early in order to beat the heat). I was wiped out, ready to sit and finally work on my lessons, but then, the cooler went out and the temp in the house seem to reach about 120. I fell out. I fell asleep against my will. I got up after about an hour or so and it was unbelievably hot in my house. I think it was cooler outside in 113-degree heat! At this point, the heat had beat me! It had beat the living tar out of me, knocked out all my spirituality, sense and caring about a Damm thing!
So, I had Pollo’d with my kids and told them of my plight, and my son hooked me up with a friend who is a desk clerk at a new hotel, nice, clean and serene. I ended up in the lobby with my laptop, and tried to work, but it was time for a regular meeting I attend every week and boy did I need a meeting. So, not much work had been done yet again. The sad part is, I was so overheated and disturbed about the cooler breaking again in this horrible heat, and my husband didn’t seem to mind. I couldn’t believe it! I went off, I mean that in more ways than one. I got cooled off, and I mean than in more ways than one. I was just trying to beat the heat!
Once I cooled down and got my bearings, I texted my husband to come hang there so we could do our meditations, but meanwhile, he had gotten a hold of our friend who fixes coolers and he came and fixed it. It only took him a few minutes. Imagine that! So we came home about an hour later, the sun was about down, and the house was cooling off. It was wonderful. I apologized to my husband too. The meditations helped, so did the cool lobby and the cooling house. Seriously, I’m just trying to beat the heat.
The next morning, I had to go to my back to work in-service, and I really didn’t mind, I took my laptop and thought, oh, that place is nice and cool and two good meals there. But meanwhile, my husband’s home oxygen concentrator had broken down, and I kept trying to call the place to bring him another one, they never answered. This was not good, finally just before two pm, I found out they would close at three pm, so I called him and said be ready, we’ll drive over there (the next town over is about thirty-five miles) to talk to them in person, it was Friday and they would be closed for the weekend. So, we got there about ten minutes before three and it turns out, the website is wrong, they are open until five! Ugh! But hey, being in an air-conditioned car was a nice way to beat the heat too. They said they’d bring a new one in the morning, yay!
After we left there, we went to my sisters-in-law’s house to wish her happy ninetieth birthday! Yep, ninety years old. Amazing. We had a present and card for her and knew our niece and her kids were there so had a very nice visit. We knew they planned a party for Sunday, but we wanted to see her on her actual birthday. I’m so glad we did. Plus, it’s a few degrees cooler over there than it is at our house, just trying to beat the heat. Then I asked my husband if we could go to one of our favorite meetings over there, since we know it’s a nice cool, air-conditioned place and it was a great meeting. One of our long-time friends took a one-year cake, he is finally doing good and has an ear-to-ear smile that wouldn’t quit, he said, “after thirty years of trying to stay clean, he finally found the Lord and turned his will and his life over to Him”. Wow! That’s the second time in a week I heard that from a long-time member. We were still beating the heat. He just beat the heat of Hades! Yay!
We also like to beat the traffic, so we took the road less traveled, it was the cool of the evening, not near as much traffic as that crazy freeway on a Friday night. We had a nice, easy-does-it ride home and enjoyed the stress-free drive by little farms and such. We were still beating the heat.
But guess what- I got up early the next morning and cleared out the area where the oxygen concentrator occupies and seen the hose was smashed under a leg of his big recliner chair. I pulled it out and fixed it, it’s working perfectly, yay. I called and cancelled the order for a new one. Meanwhile, even though we have been in record breaking heat, the cooler, along with our fans have been working and keeping us comfortable in our house. I even felt like doing some much needed cleaning, unpacking and I cooked a good dinner, which we invited our friend that fixed our cooler to come eat with us. He will not take money from us, so I always buy his meals if we go out to eat. Even he said it was nice and cool in our house. Yes, thanks to him.
Then Sunday, we went to the family BBQ party for our beautiful ninety-year-old sister, she still has all her faculties and is still as sweet and kind as the day I met her, some forty-five years ago. It was so good to see family we do not ever hardly get to see, just being one big happy family, like in my video’s that I watched this week, reminding me how precious life is, how blessed my husband and I are and how much love we have, in us and around us. Sunday “Just for Today” was about the power of love, and I got to see it in action this week.
I’m not saying life is always easy and fun, but with my God and NA, working my steps, working my program, I can clearly see the blessings and benefits that have surrounded us all of recovery, heck, all of our lives. And some more good news, the temps are dropping, there is a cooling down period that is upon us, so yes, I think we’re going to beat the heat, one more time! Now, I’m going to work on lessons. Whoo hoo!
Question of the Week: How are you beating the heat this summer?
