Ramblings of a Crowe

Hot...

It's hot...too hot....I hate it...

I'm still complaining about our broiling summers, despite the fact the temp has actually dropped below 90 for today. I'm surprised, but then again, there isn't any cloud cover to keep the heat trapped in tonight, and for that I'm thankful. As desert ecosystems tend to go, nights are often surprisingly cool, occasionally downright chilly...if there's no cloud cover.

The heat only peaked at 100 today in town. Out in the Hanford area (the heart of no where), it reached 102. However, I'm dreading the next couple days, as the forcast predicts for us temp over 100, and worse, bordering 110 degrees. Tomorrow is expected to be at least 103-105....but Friday and Saturday will be the killers...with temps predicited at about 106-110 or more (take into consideration that our average humidity during the day is between 20-25 percent, occasionally it will drop even lower, depending on the heat index).

I keep telling myself there's only about four more weeks left of the summer hell. It doesn't bring me much relief though. Not when I sit at work where we have no central airconditioning, but instead two large swamp coolers that only drop the temps down about 10 degrees from what it is outside. Not that it helps much, since the coolers add an oppressive, sufficating humidity you'd only find in the most crocidile infested bayous of Louisiana...The irony is, the hotter it gets outside, the more humid it gets inside, and I'm left with the delema of pondering which is the worser of two evils...broiling to death or being steamed....

I find if slightly amusing that in many places, summer is revered for the clear skies, bright sunlight, heat, etc. Commercials on television show people boating, fishing, bbqing, etc...But I wonder where these people are? Not here. As I drove into town today, I noticed how bare the streets were. Rush hour had barely ended and the traffic was practically non-exisitant. There were a few people on the water of the Columbia. Young kids, with coolers full of beer and no fear of heat stroke or skin cancer....foolish people who enjoy the pain of sunburn and exhaustion and dehydration....Everyone else had gone home, or was rushing home to escape the miserable weather. I wanted nothing more than to go home, but I had nearly an hour to kill before I had to pick Hunter up from his Tae Kwon Do classes, so I went to the nearby Best Buy to look at DVD's, instead of waiting in my car like I usually do. No way in hell I was sitting in the car for an hour outside...You know it's hot when the crows have come down from the trees to sit in absolute shade and you can see them all PANTING...

You think I'd be used to desert life. Having been desert born and bred. I've seen 28 of these summers and as a child, I imagine I didn't mind them much. Grandma had a swimming pool. As I got older, however, I came to hate them, as I do now. I want nothing to do with the heat and from the months of June to Sept. I will refuse to spend anytime outside between 12pm and 8pm...Sleeping is nearly impossible of occasion...Which makes me incredibly irritable.

Despite the heat, I do love where I live. I love the summer sunsets and the sunshine. But I only love the sunshine when it's not bearing down on my town. High 80's is pleanty hot enough for me, but unfortunatly we only see that for about two months in the spring and and three in the fall. I imagine that's why I love those particuar seasons so much. Fall and spring...they make me happy.

I can tell fall is around the corner. It's in the air. I can smell it in the mornings. It's sweet and nostalgic, bringing back memories of the times when I was leaving for the first day of school as a kid. Today, I could almost hear the school bus coming around the corner. I can't wait until the first frost hits, and then the leaves suddenly change. It's amazing, to wake up in the morning and look outside to a world full of crystaline white as the dew has totally frozen on the grass and plants. It's beautiful. The mornings are so chilly you have to wear a jacket or sweater, but the afternoons warm up nicely and it's still okay to have a short sleeved shirt or tank top on. That's what fall is like around here.

Only four more weeks (give or take a few)....

(This is what Washington State looks like on the east side. It's a big joke around here that they call WA "The Evergreen State".)

(Sunsets here are beautiful...We can thank all the dust in the air for that, so I suppose it's not all that bad...)

(My poor dog...I really feel for him with that fluffy fur coat he has on. He seems to manage though, by digging large holes under our arbovite and laying in them.)

Posted by Zoso at August 11, 2004 09:17 PM