This week is supposed to be another heatwave. Temperature records are
set to be broken. Again! 40°C is now the norm!
Aside from the existential horror this poses, the new reality we will have to
face. A world, where every couple of months, an invisible, and yet visible, spectre
will kill tens of thousands of our neighbours, family, friends, colleagues, etc.
And not to mention the ongoing extinction event, this recent heat wave has got me
thinking about my own behaviours, and lifestyle and how it is affected by the heat.
By behaviour and lifestyle I don't mean how it will have to change in the face of
climate change; a different diet and mode of transport, buying certain goods and not others.
No. I mean how the heat affects my day-to-day existence, habits, routines.
I have autism, and one of the ways it shows up in daily life is that I'm quite keen
on routine and have a very hard time adjusting to different circumstances, realities.
I don't like change. This is obviously contradictory to the ongoing heat wave.
The rapid change in temperature and an unbearable heat make my already broken sleep
schedule that much more disregulated. I like to take walks, both for health and to,
sort of "clean my mind". I avoid walks in heatwaves, as I don't have many forests around
where I live. Even if I had, I'd have to reconsider it everytime I wanted to go out.
I become sedentary in this heat. There is no other way. Just existing makes me sweat.
This all means that heatwaves pose a challenge to my routines, or rather, completely
break them. And while not world-ending, it definitely upsets me. I then have to spend
time readjusting to my old routines, only for a heat wave to appear again.
What to make of this? Heatwaves ruin my habits and I'm upset by that. That is
to say, they disturb me in some way.
I just needed to get it off me lol.