I was out driving today and took a quick and amateur sample of my fellow drivers. Of every ten cars only one had their windows rolled down. It was probably 85 degrees today so I'm assuming those with the rolled up windows had their air condition on inside.

Of the establishments I entered today, a restaurant, a library, a pharmacy, and bank, all were uncomfortably cold inside. So cold I'd have preferred to just go back outside and forgo my business because I didn't bring a sweater. Should I really have to carry a sweater around with me during the summer?

People take air conditioning too far. I mean sure it's no doubt be a great boon on those dog days that feel like the sun has a personal vendetta against the entire human species and the chance to escape inside to an excessively cool interior that might as well be decorated with elaborate ice sculptures is one of those singular memories from summer, remembered for once not with images but with sensory satisfaction.

But I mean come on, please roll down your windows and maybe invest in a fan. There are ways to cool your houses naturally that don't seep energy from the overpressed summertime circuits. And they feel better too. Sit in an air conditioned room too long and it feels no different than a morgue.

There are ways that the environment can work for us if we'd only spend the time looking and maybe even sometimes say no to the easy answer. But what's happened is we've become too reliant on technologies that hardly existed 50 years ago and so we mistakingly circumvent the environment instead of take it by the hand.

Sweating a little is not such a bad thing.