August 2, 2006

As you might have heard yesterday I am planning a very special Steve Dahl Show for today. I’ll be doing a tribute to all o the heat-related death victims of 2006. I’ll be reading their names slowly and dramatically with the sound of a window air-conditioner on in the background. It should be a very moving experience. I still haven’t decided whether or not to add Grover’s name to the list. I suppose that was a different kind of heat that he couldn’t handle.

Today in the Sun Times they say that a study of the 1995 heat wave that killed over 600 people (now that would be a great tribute show) revealed that there were more deaths in areas where there were only liquor stores and currency exchanges. They deemed that those types of establishments weren’t “inviting” to the elderly so they didn’t go in to cool off. Do currency exchanges and liquor stores even have air-conditioning? They want you in and out not hanging around.

I’ve been staying pretty cool at the casa. My house was built back before zoned air-conditioning and it’s impossible to split the upstairs from the downstairs.Of course, that drives me crazy, especially because the basement is always freezing and the upstairs is always hotter than Hell. One night I was Googling for a solution and came across Powerzoning. The guy who invented it came to my house and they installed it, and by God it works.

They install a couple of extra returns in the basement to suck out the cold air and re-distribute it to the upper floors of your home. It only cost like $1400 and not only is the rest of the house more balanced temperature-wise; the basement isn’t so cold that it can only act as a walk-in freezer. You end up having a few new 10 inch ducts in your furnace room, but the house is much more livable. Now I’m sleeping in the nude only because I want to.