The visual symbol of “staying cool in the summer heat” has become shave ice.

But unless you’re actually sitting on the pre-shaved blocks of ice inside the walk-in freezer, it won’t help much.

It may be trite to talk about the weather, but in every interaction these days, it seems necessary to acknowledge our current situation, if only to establish connection, find validation or explain reactions.

It’s hot.

It’s so hot that just being in an air-conditioned room isn’t enough. Being inside an air-conditioned room with a tall glass of iced tea and a bucket of cold water for your feet isn’t enough. Driving around with the AC on full blast in your car isn’t enough. The surface of your skin might feel cool, but it’s somehow still hot in all the layers down to your bones. Just the quality of sunlight, the brightness, the whiteness, makes everywhere on the island look Ewa Beach-hot, a heat so emphatic that simply gazing out the window at the glare on the ground makes your eyes water and your neck sweat.

Night falls and it just gets dark, not cool. The wind blows and the trees move, but it’s no cooler. Morning comes and you can fry up Portuguese sausage and eggs right on the hood of your car.

It’s not just hot, it’s sticky. Crackers get soggy just minutes out of the box. Bread sweats in the bag and grows mold like a garden. Towels don’t dry on the towel rack. Pull the laundry out of the washer the moment it stops spinning or it’ll turn sour in there.

Sure, you can jump into the ocean or loiter in the frozen food section of your grocery store, but if you have to work, there’s no jumping or loitering. There are only stolen moments and small life hacks, like holding a cold can of soda to your neck and walking slowly back from the break room, or trying to answer the phone with an ice cube clenched in your back molars.

And what of those who have no air-conditioned corner to retreat to during a brutally hot workday? The crews working along the roads while the rest of us zoom past in our air-conditioned vehicles still whining about the heat. The police officers in full uniform directing traffic. The groundskeepers, lifeguards, valets, PE teachers. The teachers on campus who somehow ended up with the short straw and the un-­­air-conditioned classrooms. Poor things. So sad. We’d shed a tear of compassion, but it would probably sizzle all the way down our flushed, heat-red faces.

The duration of this extra-hot summer makes surviving the discomfort even harder. If it was just a heat wave, that would be one thing. Complain, go beach, take shower, pau. But it’s been feeling extra hot for extra long. One sweltering day oozes into the next with only a sweaty night in between, and though Labor Day has passed and schools are back in session, summer heat will continue well into the fall semester.

Try the shave ice. Might as well. At least your face will feel cold. That’s something.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.