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6/1/2024
Non sequitur redux…
It’s officially the second month of the rainy season here in Hà Nọi and my high metabolism adds another layer of enjoyment. I’m sure some of you can relate.
As though somehow I don’t know it (?), all my life people have told me I’m “skinny”. I want to go on record here and say it's not my fault. My parents are the ones who put me together. Metaphorically, they built the car and chose the model; I'm just the driver. Problem is, they put a high performance motor in an economy class chassis. What I mean is, I have the metabolism of a hummingbird; therefore, I consume a lot of food.
Metabolism is the chemical (metabolic) process(es) that converts food into energy. Because I require a lot of calories to maintain homeostasis, I eat a lot of food – but, because I maintain an active lifestyle, I need a lot of energy, which means I require more food, and because I have a high metabolism and I burn calories at a quick rate, it all becomes a constant game of catch-up. But, here's the real rub…most of the energy derived from the food is released as heat, so my body's ongoing digestive process is constantly generating a lot of heat. This means my hypothalamus has to work overtime to maintain my normal core temperature; which for me, is at or around 97.6 F. Imagine what all this might mean in a hot, humid environment. My hypothalamus is already working overtime to keep me cool and as long as I sit still, I don't sweat. Start to move around and my body turns on it's swamp cooler in order to keep up with the additional heat generated by muscle movement. Throw in a little environmental heat and humidity - say 93 F and only 67% humidity and the “feels like 119 F” jumps exponentially. That said, I've noticed, once the temperature hits a certain point, it doesn't matter what the numbers say…hot is hot.
NOVEMBER p.2, p.3, p.4, p.5, p.6, p.7
DECEMBER p.2, p.3, p.4, p.5 p.6, p.7, p.8
MARCH p.2, p.3, p.4 p.5, p.6, p.7
APRIL p.2, p.3, p.4, p.5, p.6, p.7, p.8, p.9, p.10, p11
May, p.2, p.2b p.3, p.4, p5, p.6 p.7, p.8