A Weather Related Update and Story

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the quasi-regularly updated site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. You've probably guessed it, it is time to post something on this blog.

I've lived in Kansas all of my life, but I am not a fan of the weather. Especially when it's the summer.
I really hate it when it is 90+ degrees outside and sticky and humid. My shirt just sticks onto my back and I hate that feeling. Then again, I know some people who actually enjoy this type of weather, as it reminds them of home, where it is always like this or those who enjoy hot weather. Those people are, in my opinion, very strange. What even sucks more is when the AC goes out.
I don't mind the severe weather like thunderstorms and lightning and torrential rain and hail. I guess I like seeing stuff like that outside my window. I get a kick out of shows that show video clips of natural disasters. Especially when they show a tornado blowing through a neighborhood or a volcano spewing out molten lava onto houses.

Then again, I once spent a summer at Harvard University when I was in high school. This was in 1999. If you've ever read the materials they send out (describing the university and the housing), one would think that such an august establishment of higher learning would have excellent housing. At least dorms with heating and cooling. Nope.
Since this was a historical university and since I was just a high school student, the dorms were the freshman dorms. The ones without central air, as renovations would be too costly. And besides, it rarely gets "hot" in Boston. All a bunch of lies. It regularly was in the lower to mid nineties, thereby making the dorm room temperatures get up to the upper eighties or low nineties. The guys in Wigglesworth A, Room 101, "appropriated" several fans from the Harvard Rental place. This dropped the temperature to a bearable level. When combined with open windows and other means, it was somewhat pleasant. This is all relative, as somewhat pleasant was something like near eighty.
This made studying inside the dorm a nasty thing. You could read something mundane as a book on political science (not the most exciting material) and five minutes later, be as sweaty as a jockstrap worn by a 300 pound offensive lineman. I spent as much time outside the dorm as possible. Preferably in a building with blessedly cold air conditioning.
Which reminds me, not that many buildings on campus had air conditioning. The newer buildings like the School of Government and the Law School had AC, but the other much older buildings in Harvard Yard did not. Some did, but it worked..well...like a Russian Roulette game. Not fun. Even though the weather and building conditions sucked, it was an educational and fun summer for a kid from Kansas.

That's all for now.