A heat wave is arriving for much of the country - at least the middle and soon the east coast I’m guessing! A week of temps mid to upper 90’s.
BESIDES AC, how do you keep cool in the heat? Do you hibernate? Not cook? Find water? Dress differently? Any devices or routines that help you stay cool?
I love being outside so I try to do that early morning or in the evening. I just can’t take hot sun beating down on me.
My biggest way to beat the heat has been moving to the upper midwest. Cooler and much less humid that the DC suburbs where I spent 38 summers. Of course this weekend it will be unusually hot here, so I will mostly stay in and do inside projects.
–Dress in lighter clothes/lighter colors especially when doing outdoor activities.
–When possible avoid being outside and active during the hottest part of the day.
–Stay hydrated. I drink a lot of water and often make a 1/2 water/ice 1/2 powerade mix in a water bottle (I find powerade/gatorade too sweet so prefer to dilute it).
Yes same with early morning and late evening - I CANNOT stay inside all day!
I have windows that provide cross-ventilation and fans that I set at low and aim at an angle toward the ceiling to provide gentle air movement. Almost always, this is enough without turning on the AC. Yesterday was oppressively hot and humid here in Brooklyn so until the rain broke the heat last night, I ran the living room through-the-wall AC using fans to push the cool air into the kitchen. I didn’t go outside at all. Today it’s warm (will be hot), breezy and dry so I’m good with the windows open again.
I don’t use AC. Open windows. Next week one day it is going to be 100+ here (I am in the city) so I might visit someone on the coast. Today is breezy and lovely and the hot air in my apartment cleared out nicely. Tepid baths and hydration can help keep me safe.
I don’t. I b!tch and moan, stomp my feet, shake my fist in the air swearing never to move anyplace hotter, and sometimes all simultaneously.
Considering I’ve already been miserable the last couple of weeks, I’m really not looking forward to next week. I already run at oh dark thirty, so there’s no getting out there at a better time.
I count down the days until October when I can hope for a little relief. November is better, but that far away seems even more depressing.
On the bright side, my office is cold. It makes coming to work more appealing. My house is 115 years old and only some rooms have A/C, most of which stay closed so an elderly cat doesn’t pee on the furniture. It’s pretty toasty. Fans in all open rooms run 24-7. We have a portable AC we can put in our bedroom - we bought it for older S when he lived on the third floor of a frat house under a black metal roof. His room was 89 degrees in the fall! He obviously hasn’t used it in year, so we took back ownership of it. We get it out if we get really miserable, which I suspect will be this weekend.
I am allergic to everything outside, so opening windows in a no go. I’d probably die in my sleep, and the overnight temps really aren’t any better anyway. . Of course one day, I may melt into a puddle of goo during my workout…
I play pickleball 3 days a week. If it’s tolerable, we start at 8 instead of 9. If it’s going to be miserable by 8, we can choose to play inside and pay.
I also do a fair amount of bicycle riding. We will try to pick places that are shady and maybe a little north when it’s hotter out.
We try to avoid turning on the oven or the stove when it’s really miserable, and grill/eat salads/microwave veggies.
Honesty is the best policy, right 
The first part of your post made me laugh out loud - thanks for that!
I was thinking biking this morning! I currently don’t have one though! 
When it is so hot outside, all food prep requiring heat happens outside in the early morning or late at night. I even boil water for tea on our west-facing deck. Salads or cold soups are on the menu during the day.
Minisplits are on full speed. Cats get dunked into the kiddie bathtub if they look too miserable (they sit in the sunniest spots no matter how hot it is!)
Love salads in hot weather and visit our subdivision pool.
We do salads and quesadillas. Open all tbe windows at night, close them all in the morning,shut all interior doors (keeps the coldest air in the middle of the house) and close all the blinds. Do a lot of stuff in our basement, including thinking why haven’t we ever finished it! Once the house temp is over 80, we turn the AC on to 75. My biggest problem is sleeping when it is hot and the windows are open; lots of whining helps!
One strategy for beating the heat is intentionally choosing to live in the mildest climate region of the continental US, where I can comfortably spend time outside all year round. Highs are expected to be in the 70s during each of the next 10 days for which weather report is available. Nevertheless I have additional strategies for “beating the heat” including:
Cold watermelon 
I wish I had a tad warmer weather. Most of my heat and sun come in the late afternoon. If I’m home and remember I close the curtains in the bedroom and put don’t the outside sun blinds.
I don’t think I could handle 90’s and 100 degree heat. I’m incredibly lucky to live in a temperate climate.
We live in a lake community. Great to go for a quick dip to cool off. While it will be hot there, there usually is a nice breeze, and there are lots of trees. And if it gets too hot, we just come home.
Lots of ice water! And lemonade.
Remind myself that I prefer being hot to being cold! I know, one can put on more clothes but one can only take off so much. Doesn’t matter. I live in the South and we keep the a/c on 24/7 this time of year. Also the dehumidifier - - “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” I love the outdoors, though, so go outside first thing in the morning and get outdoor activities done, work up a sweat and then take a nice cold shower and stay inside until evening. I do indoor activities that others do in the dead of winter. Lots of reading, crafting, etc.
This was timely! But I had to laugh…
A Consumer Reports survey in 2021 said people with central air set their median temperatures to 72 degrees. No respondents selected temperatures warmer than 76 degrees.
They certainly didn’t ask us. We keep ours at 79*, down from 80* when we had our old A/C. That one even at 80* couldn’t keep up and ran 24-7 in the summer.
