dry heat | meanderings

H is for Heat

I live in the Valley of the Sun–aka Phoenix, Arizona. Heat is our first middle name. Our second middle name is Wonderful Winters.

Today was our second day in the high 90s. Mother Nature blew by the low 90s and gave us 97 degrees. A friendly reminder of what is ahead for us. Sweat and high electric bills.

Summer. Triple digits. Triple yuck.

At least I don’t have to shovel heat. I don’t slip and fall on it. It doesn’t take up room in parking lots when we get a lot of it or make ruts in the roads because it wasn’t plowed correctly.

The sun will soon be the enemy, relentless, mean, blinding. Already I can’t be directly in sunlight for too long, pasty white girl that I am.

We talk about heat, complain and joke about it. Endure it. Survive it. We wonder at the start of summer how hot it will get and for how long. We pray for days that are not hotter than average. I don’t think “average” has been recalculated for quite a few years because it’s almost always hotter than average. it’s rarely cooler or colder than average around here.

Here’s a post from a few years ago chock full of hot Arizona memes. https://tamunroe.com/2015/06/22/its-a-dry-heat/

Laugh. Enjoy. Shake your heads and ask “Why?”

If you live here, remember it’s not too early to put those oven mitts in your car.

This is my tenth summer in Phoenix, Arizona. I traded the moderate (mostly) summer temps of Southeastern Pennsylvania for the front porch of Hell itself.

But yes, it is a dry heat. Today’s humidity is 13%. On Thursday, it’s expected to be cloudy with humidity of 26%. That’s getting up there and it’s noticeable. And then you really start to sweat.

Summer is our winter. We avoid going out in the afternoon if at all possible. Even though the kids are out of school, you won’t see many in the parks before sundown. I can’t imagine not being able to send my kids out to play. People with pools wait until the evening to use them. Sometimes the water is even too hot to get in.

But, at least we don’t have to shovel sunshine.

A friend born and raised in AZ posted something this on Facebook recently: “Turn your hair dryer on high and point it at your face. That’s what it’s like outside.” It was a breezy day.

I’m a white girl of Northern European descent. I don’t have the genes to enjoy the sun. It’s like little needles being shot at my skin. I pity people I see working on roofs and on roads this time of year. And police officers in their body armor. Of course, not everyone is as sensitive to the sun or physical discomfort as I am.

Besides extreme sunburn and heat stroke, there are lesser dangers from living in extreme sun and heat. A car can be as dangerous as open flame. Opening a car door can hurt! So can touching the steering wheel and gear shift knob. The metal of seat belts are hidden dangers that you learn how to avoid. Some folks drape a towel over the steering wheel and know, especially if you don’t have one of those window shade arrangements.

Or we just do this. Seriously. We do. Or use those gloves we wear twice in the winter.

So while the rest of the country is enjoying their beaches and lakes and barbecues in the parks, we here in the Valley of the Sun entertain each other with memes posted on the internet.