It's getting a little warm around here

There are two things that are impossible to escape these days - the excessive heat and people complaining about it.

Granted, triple-digit temperatures don't come around these parts often. We may have a day here and there when it's 100-plus, but a stretch of three or four days is not typical, even for summertime in the South.

Even though 103 is a little unusual, you'd think the world was about to end based on some comments I've overheard:

"I can't stand it any more," one woman told a friend at lunch the other day. "I'm just miserable."

One guy blurted out something about global warming, and another guy just a few tables away actually poured water down his shirt to cool off. He mumbled something about taking his shirt off, but thankfully he didn't go there.

None of those folks appeared to have just come inside from roofing a house or cutting the grass on a 40-acre farm. They would have received a pass from me if that were the case.

Mark Twain was a wise man for many reasons, and he sure did hit one on the nose when he said: "Everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it."

We certainly have a passion to complain about the weather, whether it's cold, wet or hot.

It has caused me a moment of pause. Did folks who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s complain that much about being hot?

We probably did, but it sure didn't seem that way. We didn't avoid going outside just because it was 100 degrees. As kids, we'd play baseball all day and get home after sunset. We'd stop long enough to eat a sandwich and bring out the water hose between innings to drink a little and then hold the hose over our heads to cool down.

We sure didn't get a lot of breaks while working in my grandfather's garden on those nasty days. We went out early and worked. The only protection we had was a straw hat and that 9:30 break when grandmother brought us a Mason jar filled with ice water.

We finished work and headed in for dinner (not lunch), which came about an hour later on the farm. We'd cool down and head back out to the garden by 2 or so.

That doesn't mean we were real men and tough as nails, it's just the way it was - no air conditioners, so outside wasn't a bad bargain.

Modern conveniences have changed our perspective of hot. Complaints start coming when it reaches 85 these days.

Maybe we've just gotten a little soft through the years. By the way, would you mind turning down the thermostat a couple of more degrees and passing a cold soft drink? This office is a little warm today.

Mike Goens is the TimesDaily managing editor. He can be reached at 740-5740 or mike.goens@timesdaily.com.