A specific example: A family member came to visit and even extended their stay a few days specifically to make my kitchen #accessible, as in #functional, for me.

As mentioned, the kitchen has been my 'nerve-centre' for dealing with much of these past few years' cascade of #emergency issues that have been particularly hard on folks like me with no #HeatTolerance and also bonus #LungProblems during #ExtremeHeat and also #Wildfire events.

Much of its floorspace was filled with the strata of attending to and doing my best to mitigate these urgent problems, even those that relate to #lease restrictions and #SocialHousing not choosing to upgrade units to meet this new reality.

In many ways, this was not a big deal for me: I don't feel safe using the stove/oven (#balance and #tremour issues). My #arthritis doesn't handle preparing cold meat for microwave or toaster-oven cooking, so I eat frozen meals and graze from various pre-prepped options such as crackers.

20/x

#accessibility
#usability
#workflow

Apologies for digressing somewhat into the weeds: the point is that all of this figuring-stuff-out on an #AISH (provincial #disability pension) that has not risen since 2016, is expensive, time- and (personal)energy-intensive AND are all genuinely monumental accomplishments given my disabilities and lack of functionality in extreme heat.

My #mitigations don't even necessarily make things comfortable, they just make it less-likely I'll die from preventable consquences of #ExtremeHeat.

And this point is important, because I HAVE been successful in not-dying (yay! 🙂), but the mitigations are NOT SUFFICIENT for me to live a 'normal life' (my normal, under my normal range of restrictions/challenges) during the #FireSeason and #HeatSeason.

IOW, not a lot of extras get done during these extended periods.

10x

#chores
#housekeeping
#management

I've talked about some of this on Mastodon before, such as creating #coroplast and #blackout material #WindowBlocks to prevent the heat from our long 53°N summer days getting into my unit (circa 2021) or adding thermal window film to reduce heat even more (circa 2025) without simultaneously creating a dark and depressing #bunker-effect for the entire summer.

Doing all of this required various materials, time and of course, money. While all these (and other) mitigations were experiemented with and created/installed over several years, which spread out the up-front cost, the irony is not lost on me that these approaches have culmulatively cost as much as as least two in-window #AirConditoners would. 🙄

9x

#heat
#ExtremeHeat
#mitigation
#HeatMitigation
#LifeSafety
#cost

In light of the above--a combination of increasing environmental stressors that negatively affect my #disability management and day-to-day functionality against a background of ongoing pandemic--it should come as no surprise that my #SocialHousing unit is presently the very opposite of tidy.

Annual stretches of multi-month #physical non-functionality from #ExtremeHeat (and also often terrible #AirQuality) make it tough to keep up with all but the most basic tasks.

And for many #disabled folks, our disablities, chronic #MedicalConditions, necessary #medications, and so forth may already have made "keeping up with the basics" pretty challenging in the best of times.

And these are NOT the best of times. Not by a long shot.

7/x

#housekeeping
#chores
#DailyCare
#DailyRoutines
#RoutineTasks

Since those days, and the present ability to obtain #allergy-safe (for me) #silicone #ElastomericRespirators, the tool has sat unused among many items from those early desperate days.

As locals will recall, 2020 was when #Edmonton experienced the beginning of the #pandemic.

2021 was our first-ever #HeatDome.

2022 and thereafter to the present has seen long stretches of #ExtremeHeat and the switch from #SummerSeason to #WildfireSeason, adding frequently horrendous #AirQuality to the sustained heat.

#yeg
#ClimateChange
#wildfires

4/x

Extreme heat identified as "the most urgent and rapidly growing risk to health and livelihoods across the Southern African Development Community.

A key finding of the study is that extreme heat acts like an "integrator hazard" - a risk that multiplies multiple climate related challenges at once."

https://africasciencenews.org/extreme-heat-emerges-as-a-major-climate-and-health-threat-in-southern-africa/
#ExtremeHeat