It's getting hot in here!

No one is shocked that the Middle East is hot, right?  And so any post on the weather is going to be trite by definition, but humor me anyway, okay?  Just this once!  And then I promise I won't spend another whole post on the weather ever again.  Done!

While we were off enjoying the cool German spring, the weather here in Qatar changed dramatically. Our spring of balmy days and cool nights was chased away by a thick, unforgiving, often impenetrable HEAT that appears to be here to stay, at least until next winter.  And by until winter, I mean through next November or so. Which means we in nuestra casa nueva are doing a fair bit of readjusting.

• Our first day back, J ended up dizzy and lightheaded at school, followed by "pins and needles" all over his body.  Umm, I may be able to recognize the signs of dehydration but he certainly wasn't.  So now we spend our days discussing water intake, reminding ourselves to drink, counting the number of water bottles or cups we've had, etc.   When the outdoor temperature doesn't dip much below 95 during the day, all the water in your system evaporates much more quickly than we are used to, particularly when any previous temperatures that high were always accompanied by equally high humidity, in our experience.  Humidity levels here have flatlined at zero, and it's actually possible to feel the moisture leaving your body when you step outside in the middle of the day...
• so we don't step outside much.  Before we left for spring break, the boys had been enjoying playing and riding bikes outside every afternoon and evening.  Now that is pretty much impossible.  It's just too hot for any strenuous activity at all and the sun is too punishing to spend any time out of the shade.  Our only options are going to the pool (which, finally, is the right temperature for the climate, thankfully), waiting until sunset to go outside (which happens only a half hour or so before bedtime most nights), or visiting one of the innumerable and yet expensive indoor play areas (neon and noise-filled caverns of manufactured fun)...
• which has led me to sign the boys up for swim lessons yet again.  One of these days (most likely after we get back from our summer hiatus), I am going to have to spring for private, intensive, frequent lessons so I can feel more comfortable living next to the largest pool in Doha but for the time being, weekly group lessons at our company's rec center will have to do, though J had a complete freak out at his first lesson and will probably rebel and not go again.  E loved his, so at least one of them will be safe.  We did find out that J can stand on his feet with his head above water for almost two-thirds of the pool, so there's that...
• and speaking of our hiatus, I have recently learned that school will be starting two weeks later in the fall than we had expected (don't even get me started on the...fluidity of the academic year calendars here--that's a whole other post!), so now we will be spending longer in the US of A than we had originally planned, all in the hopes of avoiding as much of the endless summer heat here as possible.

And ohmygoodnessgracious, is the summer heat going to be...HOT.  Already, in April, it's been up to 106 and 108 degrees Fahrenheit (which is 42 degrees and more Celsius, I have trouble converting).  I remember a long time ago, during one of the wars in Iraq, the news that the soldiers were tromping around in 135 degree weather seemed completely unreal, like something out of a really bad fairy tale.  And yet...here I am, and it suddenly feels oh so real!  And kind of scary!  I see long hours of air-conditioning in our future.  Don't worry, I have already contributed to more than my fare share of environmental decline and global warming by being employed by an oil economy and driving an SUV and having all my food imported from a gazillion miles away, so continual air-conditioning is just the icing on that cake.

Sigh.  We are going to have to change our lives a bit more it seems, just when we were starting to feel a teeny, tiny bit settled.  Water bottles for all, charts to encourage fluids, lots and lots of cool meals (there will be many salads in our futures, I believe), and spending much time indoors and at the pool in the evenings.  We have gone several times just after dinner (or during, we have had pizza at the pool!) and it's been so very nice once the shadows cover the pool and the sun subsides a bit.  Life in the desert; full of surprises and changes!