Solar

The thing I love about Florida is the constant warmth. We turn the A/C down at night, to a brisk 70 degrees, and also use the ceiling fan. This keeps us from suffocating in each other's body heat. When I wake up in the morning, I'm usually freezing, and it's always so delightful to open the blinds, let in the sun, and patter out to the screen porch to drink my coffee. 

I like being warm. I don't actually mind being hot. Sometimes, I do, yes. I'm not weird. Being sweaty and humid is sometimes no fun. But if I had to choose between being slightly too warm and slightly too cold, I would choose warm every time.

My favorite thing is to go outside after being stuck in over-conditioned air for a long time. The way the heat seeps into you and melts out the stiffness. Finally your body is turning back into flesh, after being stone for so long.

Even better than heat is sun! Bright sun! Bad for my eyeballs and fair complexion, but so lovely to be near. I love how the sun pours through the windows and puddles on the floor. My day gets instantly better once I open the blinds and let in the sun. Cloudy days here are terrible. Florida should never be cloudy. Sometimes, when that happens, I make the room very cold and bundle up in sweatshirts and slippers and sit by the lamp, and pretend I'm back in New York in winter. 

It's getting dark now, already, and it's only the afternoon. The light is fading and has changed color, no longer brilliant white but pale ecru. It makes me feel sleepy and a little bit sad. 

That's why I think I'm solar-powered. I flower under the warmth and heat, and shrivel inside myself when it's dark and cold. The tricky thing is figuring out how to store it all... absorb as much of the goodness as I can, to tide me over on the cloudy days.