Important Safety Tips

Apparently it's possible to get too much sun and too much heat down here in Houston-land. Who knew? Okay, I just forgot. I figured it out halfway thru my first summer here (after making myself ill several times), but last summer I was in much cooler climes and forgot I guess.

So today it hit triple digits and I went for a walk in my park. I was under the trees. I had 3/4 of a bottle of water.

Not enough. About 2/3 of the way thru my walk, I was feeling kind of ill and tired and like I didn't know if I could make it to the car but knew that I had no other options. And I felt silly. I'd drunk a lot of water — I could hear and feel it sloshing in my stomach as I walked. But it wasn't enough.

When I got into the car, my face was brilliantly red (about as red as my hair is currently) and I thought I had a world-class sunburn, despite my having sunscreen on and being under the trees. And no color on my non-sunscreened arms.

After about 10 minutes in a highly air-conditioned car, my face was almost back to normal and I was feeling a little better. A large iced tea helped. But I stayed queasy most of the evening, despite the tea and two or maybe three more bottles of water. Ugh.

My BFF chewed me out. So from now on: carry my sun hat in the car; carry a couple of extra bottles of water (I have a small cooler and can put blue ice in with the water); don't go for a walk in triple-digit weather.

Now that I've learned that lesson, I'm heading back to cooler climes for a couple of weeks. Of course. But I think I'll remember this time when I return. I really hate feeling that ill.