Mobile, Alabama: My New Home Sounds

In my Birmingham sphere, I heard these sounds:

• Wail of the fire engine and EMT truck from the next corner
• Ringing of the bell from the Orthodox Church
• Rumbling of the train on the track on the other side of the highway 
• And always always always the whirring rolling thrumming of the car and truck tires on the highway pavement above me

In my new place in Mobile, it is quieter except for two constants. 

One is the nostalgic, soothing heartbeat of an ordinary, inexpensive, battery-operated wall clock my mother gave me a couple of years ago, which had been hanging on a wall of her petite dining room. 

 

tick   tick   tick   tick   tick   tick   tick   tick   tick   tick

 

And there's another sound, more assertive:

Dock

Donk

Dunk dunk

Dick

DUCK

Dick

Dack duck

That is the drip onto the top of my window air conditioner/heater from the window air conditioner/heater on the floor above me.

My dripped-upon window unit. Mobile, Alabama. September 2021.

Omnipresent.

It's not a bad sound. It's just a never-ending sound. 

Kind of like the constant humming of the white-winged doves in Alamogordo. 

 

Nesting white-winged dove in Alamogordo, New Mexico. March 2013.

As we enter fall, I'm sure the drip will cease as the air conditioner upstairs eventually goes dormant.

Occasionally, a lumbering plane flies low and loud across my horizon. Not anything like the sonic booms of my Alamogordo apartment, but so low and loud - a rumbly loud - that sometimes I wonder if the plane is about to plow into a neighboring building.  None has, yet.

Birmingham, AL: No AC

 

Fans in Rustavi, Caucasus Georgia. June 2012.

June 2021

 

I don't have AC in my Birmingham apartment, which is an interesting state of affairs when one lives in the South, and it is nigh on summer. 

The mental game

I am playing a mental game between now and when I leave Birmingham at the end of the month.

Every day that passes in which it is tolerable enough to sleep and during which I don't sweat in place - that is a day that has been stolen from Birmingham's God of the Furnace, Vulcan. 

The daily theft deeply satisfies my humid resentment toward a landlord who treats their tenants - the very same people who butter the landlords' bread with their rent payments - with contempt via malfunctioning, geriatric heating and cooling systems and shoddy installation and insulation, so that the tenants live with inadequate climate control AND pay extra because the machinery is energy-inefficient and the insulation is so poor that the tenant must also offset the influx of cold air in the winter and the egress of expensively-cooled air in the summer. 

Not that I hold a grudge. 

Fans

 

Other sweaty times and sweaty places

Not having AC in Birmingham takes me back to July in Rustavi, in Caucasus Georgia. Where it was so miserably hot and sweaty in the concrete vertical village, with screenless windows, and the sticky dilemma of what to do at night to sleep: 

1. Open the bedroom window to catch a breeze and invite the apocalyptic-sized grasshoppers inside; or
2. Keep the window closed, shutting the Satanic grasshoppers out, but sweating on the sheets?

A summer weekend in the country - in Gurjaani - the heat squatted among us, an uninvited guest: 

Even in the country, the heat was oppressive. It drained the energy from everyone. Many of us took frequent, short naps like dogs and cats. The heat pushed the odor of the outhouse into full bloom, and it wafted throughout the courtyard.

When one looks at photos of Tuscany -- the pretty scenery, the tables groaning with fruits, cheese, baguettes, and wines, the convivial gathering of smiling people, the grape arbors sheltering all beneath ... you don't think of the prosaic realities that accompany such beauty - flies that crash the party, fruit that over-ripens before your eyes, the aroma of super-heated humanity, the rationed water that means bathing is not a daily or every-other-day event.

 

In Nazret, Ethiopia, with its screenless windows, one can open the windows for breeze-catching until 6:00 p.m., and then you've got to close them firmly to keep out the bimbies - the mosquitoes. 

In Alamogordo, New Mexico, it was hot hot in June, until the rain came. The onset of the monsoon season, smack on time, July 1. 'Course, in Alamogordo, I had functioning air conditioning. Not like here in Birmingham. 

 

Cultural Lessons in New Mexico: Air Conditioners vs Swamp Coolers

And now, for the weather

Missouri is hot and humid in the summer. So hot and humid that back in the day, before air conditioning, when there was a British consulate in St. Louis, the British staff received hardship pay.

New Mexico is hot and dry in the summer. Between 8 and 10 degrees hotter than Missouri (during the day). 

In Missouri, we use air conditioners to cool (and dry) the air. The air conditioners rely on electricity and (in older air conditioners) freon to work. (In New Mexico, I notice air conditioners are often referred to as "refrigerated air.")

Swamp cooler. Credit: Allied Swamp Cooler Repair

In New Mexico, swamp coolers are common. They rely on electricity and water to work.
 

St Louis Weather

US Geography / US Weather / Missouri Weather / St Louis

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Avg. High

37°

42°

54°

66°

76°

85°

88°

87°

78°

68°

54°

41°

Avg. Low

20°

25°

35°

46°

56°

65°

70°

67°

60°

48°

37°

26°

Mean

28°

34°

45°

57°

66°

75°

80°

78°

70°

58°

46°

34°

Avg. Precip.

1.8 in

2.1 in

3.6 in

3.5 in

4.0 in

3.7 in

3.9 in

2.9 in

3.1 in

2.7 in

3.3 in

3.0 in

Degrees in Fahrenheit

 

Alamogordo Weather

US Geography / US Weather / New Mexico Weather / Alamogordo

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Avg. High

56°

62°

68°

78°

86°

95°

94°

91°

86°

77°

66°

57°

Avg. Low

28°

32°

38°

45°

54°

62°

65°

64°

57°

47°

36°

28°

Mean

44°

47°

54°

62°

70°

78°

80°

78°

72°

64°

51°

44°

Avg. Precip.

0.7 in

0.5 in

0.5 in

0.3 in

0.5 in

0.9 in

2.3 in

2.4 in

2.0 in

1.3 in

0.7 in

0.8 in

Degrees in Fahrenheit

The above info is from Country Studies. 

Humidity specifically

In July, Missouri typically has a relative humidity level between 50 and 80%, depending on time of day. 

In July, Alamogordo typically has a relative humidity level between 32 and 62%, depending on time of day. 

Generally, humidity is lowest during the hottest time of day. 

The humidity factor is important because swamp coolers work best when the air is dry. Too much humidity and they just generate hot, wet air. 

In Missouri, then, swamp coolers won't work. They won't work in the swamps, either. 

What the hell is a swamp cooler? 

Otherwise known as "evaporative" coolers, here is a really good explanation of swamp coolers. Complete with a moving graphic that shows the process.

As with air conditioners, swamp coolers will reduce the interior temps by, at most, 20 degrees. The drier the air, the more effective the cooling capacity.

With a swamp cooler, you must have a couple of windows open to create air flow. This is counter-intuitive, but that's just the way it is.

Swamp coolers are far cheaper to run than air conditioners, and they don't require the freon, which we know messes with the environment. 

On the other hand, swamp coolers do require water, which is an issue in some places. Per the link above, they can require between three to 15 gallons of water per day.

In New Mexico, there's the monsoon season in July and August. So you guessed it, that's the time of highest humidity, making the swamp coolers the least efficient during part of the hottest time of the year.  A nice quote from the linked site:

   "They only get 7-8 inches a rain a year, unfortunately it all falls in about 45 minutes".



Which is better? 

As you can see above, both have their pros and cons. In the places I looked at to rent, one has "refrigerated air" and two have swamp coolers. 

Being frugal, I'd prefer the swamp coolers. I'm told that where I might pay up to $200 for a month's worth of "refrigerated air," I'd likely pay less than half that with a swamp cooler. 

The trick is if the owners properly maintain the swamp coolers, as they do require more maintenance than air conditioners. But maintenance for a swamp cooler is sort of like cleaning out the gutters or getting an oil change - somewhat tedious, but not expensive like it can be for an air conditioner. 

So, my first culture lesson as new New Mexican. Swamp coolers.