I have central A/C, but it’s not sized for a 120 degree outside temperature. I bought one of those portable A/C units where the exhaust hose goes to a flange in your window (we’re not allowed to have air conditioners hanging out of our windows) as an auxiliary unit for the hottest days.
When we had that 4-day heat dome 2 years ago with a high of 117 degrees, my electricity bill was only $15 higher than the previous July. Thank God for a municipally-owned electric utility – private equity ain’t going to gouge me on a power bill.
NE had a week of over 90 this spring, and that is just NUTS. We moved from the middle of country where 115 (not heat index) was getting to be normal. Thought the north east would keep us cooler.
We went from no AC to a portable and a small window unit in my home office. This is getting crazy.
I thought I’d get Irish citizenship to retire there as a political escape hatch if need be. Instead going north might be a necessity because of global warming.
Just became a dual citizen this year! Now looking for any of those $1 houses on Irish islands so we can have even MORE projects than we have on this house. LOL.
Edit - Also if we continue to screw up the Gulf Stream, then Ireland will become VERY cold, so there is that.
I was thinking south of Spain. Because the rains fall on the plain.
I just became a dual citizen about two months ago as well.
Depending on how the family here and in Ireland roll will retire several months per year together.
adding, actually I have been a dual citizen all along. I just received my Irish/EU passport recently. Now the Irish government is aware of me as a citizen.
according to family lore, my Mom’s Mom ( my grandmother, I never knew her ) was placed on a boat by herself as a 6 year old and sent to America. Does this fact give me a chance to get Irish citizenship ??
Just asking in passing, not wanting you to do any digging into it, that is totally on me, just wondering if you know anything about it off of the top of your head.
If she was from Ireland and you can find a birth certificate (the most common type of verification that Ireland demands). I have a couple friends who were/are in the same boat, as it were. They tried various ways to find a birth certificate, but unless your grandmother was from a large enough city or where parish records were well kept, it can be difficult to get this information. They are still trying, but at this point it looks like they will be unable to get the documentation that Ireland requires.
You need your grandmother’s birth cert. You might be able to have that made to order in Ireland because a lot of birth certs were made afterwards to order. My parent’s were.
You need her marriage cert. You need your birth cert.
Yes you can and you might want the 100 Eur package that includes a passport card for your wallet. Traveling in the EU you only need to carry that. The passport otherwise is 75 Eur.
Good luck. Do not be shy about asking the Irish consulate or government by email what you can do to get those few documents. Do not worry about using an American marriage cert of your grandmothers. I do not know if the US will reissue such a cert. Probably.
You can visit the Irish passport service online to glean the finer details of how this is done.
You can not go to AAA to get a passport photo. AAA wont issue a digital file. Instead I went to CVS to borrow their blue screen and had their employee use my phone camera to take the shot to spec from the Irish passport website. You need several shots and see which works. Many might not. It is finicky.
This is easy.
You also need a professional to say you are who you are. My dentist was always in to take a phone call so I worked with him. You need a cop or notary to say your US license is you by signing the photo copy.
This really is easy and inexpensive compared to anywhere else on earth.
I read a piece recently that posited the move to the Sunbelt (and similar) would not/could not have happened without the large scale deployment of air conditioning. (I happen to think there were a couple of other factors, including the non-union ethos of the South and West and the wider availability of transport infrastructure), but I’m willing to go along with the idea that “air conditioning”, invented in 1902 but which came to the masses only in the 50’s, had a major hand in it.
What old-line manufacturer wanted to relocate from, say, Albany to Biloxi when it meant sweating through your clothes 6 months a year in intolerable heat? At least in Albany you could bundle up against the cold.
Lots of mfrs would simply move overseas and get far lower labor rates AND fairly reasonable shipping costs, so the savings are real. Plus, access to a far wider AND faster-growing international market because production costs are far lower than anywhere in the US. The main point is simple: The cost of AC becomes practical for a large building (if it works for movie theaters, it works for anything similarly sized or larger). Employees will “vote with their feet” by changing employers if one offers AC in their facilities and the other(s) DON’T.
{{Once central air was introduced to cool off homes, the Houston housing boom got hot.
“You get a 50 percent increase in population from 1940 to 1950 in Houston,” Scovil says. “It’s pretty substantial.”
A couple other big milestones: What was the Sharpstown Center became the first air-conditioned, enclosed shopping mall in 1961. Then in 1965, the Astrodome became the first air-conditioned stadium in the world.}}
Well, we, here in coastal, Northern California, Sonoma County, held off for many years, never, initially, felt we could afford it, and later, by the time the kids were out on their own, I had added ceiling fans, then a whole house fan, and usually an evening cooler, coastal breeze would take the edge off, but after a week or so everything warmed up, the fans didn’t help so much… Last year we had plumbing troubles, the asbestos wrapped ducting had to come out, new ducting came in, and then a couple hotter weeks led to calling in my Heating & A/C guy for an estimate, and it was fit into the budget, a heat pump version, and we’re adjusting to it… Pretty much leave it at 78°. Strangely, I’ve added a litght shirt jacket at times, as it feels colder than it actually is… Maybe it’s the humidity, or lack of it I guess…
Not going back, haven’t used the ceiling or whole house fan yet as the air handling/circulation seems to have eased the need… supposed to break into triple digits tomorrow, but we’ll be off to a wedding & reception on a coastal ranch, there will be alcohol involved, maybe keep me cool, or I’ll think so at least…