The past couple of weeks have been one of those brief idyllic periods in Fairhope when it is neither too cool nor too warm to leave the windows and doors open. It’s been so pleasant to have the fresh breezes and to hear the birds singing (as well as roofers hammering on a neighbor’s roof, lawn service workers using their gasoline-powered blowers, etc.), but now it seems to be over.
Today it’s hard to realize that it was only a couple of weekends ago that I felt it was finally safe to remove the winter blanket (heavy electric) and put on the summer one (lightweight cotton thermal), but Friday was quite warm, and yesterday it was so muggy that I finally threw in the towel and turned on the air conditioning. Even though I set the thermostat at 80°, the compressor immediately came on and cranked its little heart out all day.
Last night, when it was 86° in our bedroom and (nominally) in the low 70s outside, I tried opening a window, but there was no discernible difference in temperature, so I ended up closing it again and reluctantly nudging the thermostat down to 78°. Twelve hours later, the temperature in the bedroom is down to 84° (thank goodness for ceiling fans!).
We’ll probably have a cool snap sometime before summer really sets in (traditionally, the first weekend in May is chilly, but that didn’t happen this year), but I doubt that it will last long enough to make it practical to open the windows again; for that we’ll have to wait for those magical few weeks in the fall when conditions are “just right.”
One reason I hate closing the windows is that we lose the benefit of any breezes that may be going (though this becomes less and less of an issue as the season progresses). The conditioned air, though drier and thereby “cooler,” is stagnant; even with ceiling fans circulating in almost every room, it’s not the same as having cross-ventilation between windows.
We’ll adjust, though, and I have to say that when I came home from my walk today, dripping with sweat (79° out, with humidity to match), it was really pleasant to step inside and feel a noticeable chill!
WalkThoughts 
I discovered your blog and saw your comments about your father and his Rotary meeting in Japan in 1978. I was a colleague of Glen’s at St. Maur International School. It would be interesting to get in touch with him. Could you send me his email address?