Summertime and Air Conditioners

So the high here today was 99 degrees F (37C). It's almost 10pm, and it's still 95 outside. We don't have an air conditioner-- only ceiling fans in the living room and the bedroom, and then a little machine that I have dubbed "a portable swamp cooler" for lack of an English word:

You put water in it and plug it into the wall and then it has a little fan thing that sends out cool, humid air.  In Portuguese, it's called a "climatizador." It's no a/c, but it's much better than just the fan. It's also cheaper than the Brazilian type of residential air-conditioners, which are purchased per room and which are like electric swamp coolers:

The picture above is of a really fancy Brazilian air-conditioner. Most are just little boxes, like this: 

The cool air only comes out of the little grades on the right, not the big grades on the left. But I tell ya, I'd give a kidney for one of those things some nights.

So yes. It's HOT. I mean, I grew up in the Coachella Valley:

Average summer temperatures are never lower than 105 degrees F. So the heat isn't news for me... it's just harder to deal with when the only places in town that have central air are the mall and Wal-Mart.

But this blog entry is to be optimistic about the Brazilian "interior's" summer heat. Here are some of the benefits:

*There are even more excuses for milk shakes and ice cream from a kiosk

*When you exercise, your extra sweat gives you the illusion of having exercised more than you really did

*Clothes are dry on the line before the next load even finishes

*You can wash and dry clothes at night

*Your sexy husfriend spends more time in just his underwear (don't tell him I wrote that)

*It's the short time of the year when nothing molds

*It's where birds come "for the winter" (for the Brazilians, that's something North Americans always say... "Birds fly south for the winter"... when I suppose we should say something like "birds migrate in order to always be in someone's summer")

*The beach will be ideal once your summer (aka Christmas) vacation starts

*You can get a tan just by walking to the corner bakery and back

*"There are fewer cases of the flu!" (Dr. Alexandre's answer to my question "What are some benefits of the heat and the summer?")

and of course,

*There are beautiful thunderstorms that always cool things down a bit!

What an amazing sky, né?

Can you guys think of any other benefits of the tropical summer heat?