Seniors don’t take the heat too well. When triple-digit heat waves hit a city like Sacramento you can bet there will be a lot of calls for help from seniors who don’t have air conditioning or otherwise don’t know what to do in really hot weather.

PG&E has a good idea--Cooling Centers--places where seniors can go to beat the heat. The problem is there are no Cooling Centers in Sacramento because PG&E doesn’t serve the city’s electrical needs. So how about SMUD? Do they have any cooling centers. Not yet. Maybe a few seniors should show up at the next SMUD Board of Directors meeting and tell ‘em to get busy.

In the absence of any local Cooling Centers, here’s a few things seniors can do to stay healthy in a heat wave.

1. Go to public buildings--like a library--and just hang out. Read a book. Look at a magazine. Best of all, it’s free.

2. Go to a grocery store. Get a cart and push it around for a few hours like you’re shopping. If the store has free WIFI, bring your computer and send a message to the family on how hot it is here.

3. Cal Expo has a number of cool buildings, but now that the State Fair is on, you’ll have to pay to get in. It’s always cool under the grandstand and you can play the ponies to your heart’s content.

4. Go to a movie during the heat of the day.

Other ways to beat the heat include staying hydrated, wearing cool clothes (that’s “cool” as in temperature, not culturally), no unnecessary activity, eat light meals and avoid alcohol and caffeine as they cause the body to lose more water.

I think bugging SMUD is the best idea of all. We could use a few cooling centers in Sacramento during the summertime.