The Florida Keys are perfectly situated geographically to enjoy the best weather in winter, no frost and much weakened cold fronts blasting down across the continent from Canada, such that they have lost much of their force by the time they get here. In summer, conversely the Keys enjoy a much milder climate than that suffered by mainland South Florida. Where heat and humidity builds inexorably over Miami and Fort Myers, in the Keys a gentle breeze usually wafts its way across the islands. Nevertheless it gets hot without air conditioning, and guess what...
That low budget unit (thank you Dean) installed by the previous owner of my home (Dean) in the year 2000 has bought the farm. It has stopped working. This is a dead parrot (to misquote John Cleese) my air conditioning is no longer functional, it has ceased to exist, it has evaporated its last droplet of humidity. My house as a consequence is HOT. Everything inside the home is hot and rather than present you with a tedious list check out the lovely leather couch ignominiously covered by sackcloth. Hot leather is hard to sit on:
And in the bedroom all the fans are going, all four of them, moving the hot sticky air around:
Each of the ceiling fans spins silently. Usually they are busy moving cold air down from the a/c vents. Right now I'm glad to feel any air at all moving against my sweaty skin. And outside the sun shines white, like pure heat:
Did I mention its hot out there? Hot and dry. The salt ponds across the street from the house are looking parched and this is supposed to be the beginning of rainy season.
You could cook an egg on the plaque put up by the Nature Conservancy to honor the Spottswood family for taking a tax break and donating 90 acres of mud to the county. I'm glad they did because I'm guaranteed a westward view as long as I own the house, uninterrupted by development. Meanwhile my water cistern has run out of water. It's been 18 months that I've survived without falling back on aqueduct water, but this drought has run me dry. My pumps are turned off:
And I had to switch the cistern off until it rains again.
Those are Dean's marks on the wood, and though he never used the cistern I love using rain water. And though they seem rather crude they work. I hope it rains soon. I never used to wish for rain in my previous lives because I lived in places where rain meant cold, mud and being stuck indoors. In the Keys most rain comes in the hot season and rain means refreshment and variety and a delicious smell of crisp ozone lingering in the air. Besides the rain comes and usually goes and usually doesn't linger in the form of endless drizzle.
We're not even seeing thunder heads building. Its just blue sky day after boring day. Which in the ordinary course of things suits me just fine but the aqueduct water tastes of chlorine and the jug water I buy costs money. On the subject of money I can't wait to get the bill to refill my hundred gallon propane tank which has sunk to almost empty:
Good Lord! It's all happening at once! Suburban will be out next week and my a/c company has promised my brand new $4,000 unit will be installed and cooling my house by next Tuesday evening. I can't wait, I have to admit we've survived without climate control, though cooking anything in the kitchen is out of the question, any exercise not involving swimming is impossible and I hate to think what the humidity would do to my books, clothes and furniture if we went for a long time without a/c. 
And still the drought persists, and the mud shrivels and my cistern remains as dry as an English sense of humour. Gotta be tough to hack it in the Keys. I need some whine with my cheese.
