I was sitting in my mom’s kitchen last week, and couldn’t believe how hot it was in her house. She refused to turn the air conditioning on until July, because of how expensive electricity was. She told me that if the temperature got to eighty in the house, she would turn the air conditioning unit on. I wasn’t worried about the temperature, but it was so humid inside. She was cooking and had steaming pots on the stove. Her hood vent wasn’t working, and all the steam was going back into the kitchen. She laughed and said the ventilation system just pushed the air into the kitchen anyway. Dad had never put a an outdoor vent in the hood. I told her that if I didn’t have air conditioning, I would be a drippy mess. Mom just laughed and kept pouring boiling water over her jars. I asked what she was cooking, and she told me she was making spicy mango jelly for my dad. She was a better woman than I could ever be. If my husband didn’t keep the air conditioning running so well, I would never have made jelly in the house. I talked to her a few more minutes and asked her if she wanted to come over for dinner? She said she would ask dad when he got home from work, but she was going to say yes. I made sure to make something special for them, but I was glad I had air conditioning and a working stove vent to keep me cool when cooking.