It is amazing what I am doing to keep my house reasonably cool during the ongoing heat wave. I open several windows only past midnight and keep them open through the morning. To do this, I go to sleep ever later. I open all windows and doors in the morning and keep them open for at least an hour. For this reason, I get up ever earlier. Although the continuous fiddling does not bring the temperature down by very much, it keeps it from rising precipitously. I feared only recently that the temperature in the house would rise to twenty-eight degrees Celsius, and perhaps beyond, but that has not happened yet (“Praying for a Storm, Again,” June 19, 2012). The highest temperature so far has been twenty-seven degrees and a half. And I am pretty confident that this half a degree in question is my own doing. The heat wave is expected to last another day or two, and it is my hope that my reward will not be spoiled in the meanwhile. That half a degree means quite a bit to me.

Addendum I (June 26, 2012)

It started raining about an hour before midnight. Well, it was only drizzling, but the temperature dropped appreciably. It is about an hour past midnight right now, and the temperature in the house has dropped to twenty-five degrees Celsius. Hooray! I have stayed up just to cool the house. But the joy is hard to describe. A real blast. After several days at twenty-seven degrees and a half in mid-afternoon, this is pure bliss. Although the stone walls cannot be cooled all that quickly, tomorrow morning I will have another opportunity to drive the temperature down. As far down as possible. And I am eager as hell. Half a degree by half a degree, I am finally getting somewhere.

Addendum II (June 27, 2012)

By this morning, the temperature in the house has dropped by another half a degree. Twenty-four degrees Celsius and a half! I am nigh ecstatic, of course. But I am also fully aware that this is the lowest temperature I am going to get this time around. For the next week or so, the house will get only warmer no matter what I do. Alas! But this morning’s temperature is still an achievement worth celebrating. The very last half a degree for the time being. I feel like patting myself on the back.

Addendum III (July 1, 2012)

My battle is lost. It is twenty-eight degrees Celsius in the house just before the sunset. The air out there so hot by now that cooling down the house at night is out of the question. It goes down by half a degree, all right, but that is all. Luckily, I will be on my way to Zagreb tomorrow morning. There will be many more heat waves this summer, but the worst part of the current one is beyond me. To wit, my beloved has air-conditioning in her apartment. The way the weather has gotten, I will have to think about air-conditioning for my house, as well. All my clever tricks notwithstanding, climate change is climate change. No tricks will do. For the time being, at least, a silent bow to stupid technology.