There is nothing like the feeling of the dogs waking you up at 3AM to go outside, and you open up the front door, and, wham, smacked in the face with 97 degree temperatures. Finally the cool of the evening. It feels like the keep warm setting on your oven.
I know it's hot everywhere west of Pittsburgh right now, and many of you are dealing with oppressive humidities as well, but you also are expecting rain at some point which will cool things down. Here in the desert, we call this summer, and we enjoy it from June to October.
In normal years, the desert clears out from Memorial Day until Thanksgiving. The snowbirds go home, and the Coachella Valley relaxes with no traffic, no crowds, and no hope of a break to the heat for months. We twelve monthers love it. This year the crowds have stayed, hoping to avoid the Covid-19 virus in their big cities.
Here are a couple, having their picture taken, next to the thermometer, yesterday, at Death Valley National Park. It was the fourth hottest day ever recorded there, which is the hottest place on earth, and we may break that today. Fingers crossed.
I have friends call me, on and off, all summer and ask how we are doing. I tell them the same thing, it's hot, but we have air conditioners, just like the rest of America, and we get all our running around done before 8:30 AM. Surprisingly, if you live here all year around, you can actually tell the difference between 114 and 104. It seems crazy but there is a difference.
It is similar to when we lived in Chicago and you could feel the difference between 0 degrees and -12 degrees. It sucked either way, but you felt better about your day knowing it was only 0, or in our case, 104. You enjoy the little wins.
I also get asked, occasionally, why don't we have two homes and get the hell out of here in the summer? My response is, that this is our home now, and it is a pain in the butt moving around twice a year, and besides, we have the two crazy dogs and mother-in-law with us and moving is not easy peasy. Plus the heat doesn't bother me that much.
This is why we moved in the first place, and I don't need to be anywhere near that mess ever again. Like I tell anyone that asks me why live here, I simply remind them that, you don't have to shovel sunshine.
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