AZ: It’s Hot

I gotta get this bit off my chest, before I start getting serious about writing anything else about my return to Arizona.

It’s a humble admission:
I severely underestimated the summer heat.

This is what I used to say: I mean, duh, of course it’s hot. And, I’ve lived here just fine before. I’ve even trained for this heat. I’m already acclimated, just look at my skin! How bad can it be?

Cute.

Lemme tell you right now. BRUTAL. Edge of record breaking numbers of extreme heat warning days in a row. Nights that never cool off. Incessant.

Like you can’t wear any jewelry kinda hot. Metal literally burns almost immediately I remembered quickly in June. Uncivilized!

Like you open your front door and your eyelashes curl on their own a little bit. That was an afternoon, for a package, in July. Scorching.

Like your body feels like you just magically appeared in an oven. Oppressive kinda heat from a walk, just around the square, in August.

The kind of heat that grounds you, that lays you down for naps, and that makes you organize your fitness, your business and your entire life around it’s cycle. Respect.

It comes with relentless access to the sun, along with overcast as novelty, and a strong practice of shade-chasing and preservation in the community: we are all burning together.

Yet summer, in this here desert, it’s not for everybody.

So to my close circle, those who have kept me company by listening to the inferno stories I’ve shared all summer, thank you for helping me keep my cool. Turns out it’s perfect for me.

I see signs of fall again now. Maybe I start sharing about something else. 🌵