BUT IT'S A DRY HEAT

It's time to address the issue of the heat in the Great Sonoran Desert, specifically in Phoenix, Arizona, where I live.

I walked the three blocks to our mailbox today to mail a disc back to Netflix.  And I walked back.  So that's about six blocks.  It was 105 outside and I was warm when I got back to the sanctuary of fans and air conditioning in my house.  But it really wasn't that bad (he said).  

Now let me point out that the relative humidity at the time was (wait for it) . . . 4 percent.  That's FOUR PERCENT!  The big black grackles striding around in yards and streets were doing a lot of complaining but I wasn't.  I noticed several were near my front yard where the sprinkler had been running.  One of them let out a blood curdling scream as I stepped outside.  He must have thought I was going to scare them away from the moisture.

Phoenix gets an average annual rainfall of about 8 and a third inches.  That's annual, as in the whole year.  The wettest month is March with 1.07 inches of rain.  The dryest month?  You had to ask, didn't you.  This one.  June, which averages 9 one-hundredths of an inch.  That's why we're all waiting for July and August.  Nearly an inch falls in each of those two months when the curiously named Monsoon Season blows in.

Now most people think of the Monsoon as a drenched period of time when it rains constantly.  Actually that's not true here.  The monsoon means that the wind direction shifts from the southwest to the southeast.  That brings in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, apparently.  But it also can bring the mighty Haboobs, which are humongous dust storms. Actually the start of the monsoon season in Phoenix usually brings the dust storms first and later on the moisture.

The National Weather Service, in its infinite wisdom, decided back in 2008 that the monsoon season will start every year on June 15th and end on September 15th.  Never mind low pressure and high pressure systems.  Before that the local t.v. weathermen used to tell us that the season began when there were three consecutive days when the dew point reached 55 degrees or higher.  (Actually some of them probably still tell us that.  Take THAT, National Weather Service.)

Well so much for our science lesson for today.

I'm sure that many of you have been criticized for keeping cluttered, messy areas where you spend most of your time.  Yup.  Me too.  But I stopped all that (well most of it)  (O.K. some of it) when I posted a sign in my room.  As the old Catalyst's public service for today, I post a picture of it here for all of you to see.  I can't give you permission to print it for your room because I bought it at an art sale.  But what you do on your own time is between you and whatever you're calling your moral conscience these days.

Of course you could do the right thing and contact the artist at LynnKessinger@gmail.com to purchase your own copy.

CATS AND DOGS

Stuff I might never have seen if I didn't check Facebook now and then.

FEVERISH FRIDAY

My thermometer.  Outside my front door.  At noon today.

Today's forecast high temperature: 113 degrees Fahrenheit.

But never fear, dear friends.  Sunday night the low temperature is forecast to be only 79. Positively chilly.

Of course there are some advantages to this weather.

That's the late and legendary Ann Miller singing and dancing a song from the movie "Kiss Me Kate."

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My neighbor, whose house I'm keeping an eye on while he's away, had his yard crew come this week and trim a palm tree or two in his back yard.  They piled the spent leaves in front of his house and left.  A day or two later I heard a terrific racket outside and went out to investigate.  It was a truck with a wood chipper behind it.  This crew was trimming some trees and disposing of the wood.  They were right next to the fallen palm tree branches but do you suppose they touched them?  Uh-uh.

So today was trash pickup day and I went out yesterday evening and put as many of the branches in his trash can as would fit and put it out to be picked up.  Thankfully, it was.  But that still left a bunch of branches on the ground.  So I went out this morning and piled them into his trash can to wait for next week's pickup.

For those of you unfamiliar with palm trees, the branches have many sharp barbs along the edges.

They are fierce and can hurt you.  So a pair of heavy gloves and carefulness is necessary to avoid being wounded.  I had both and wasn't.

Oh, and I've always heard that scorpions love to hide out among the leaves.  I kept a fairly close eye out for them but didn't see any.

It's all just life in the desert.

Oh and for those of you keeping track, it's 12:53 p.m. right now and the temperature is up to 106.

Enjoy YOUR Friday!

SHE'S WATCHING YOU

Our sweet little Muggles has her green eyes focused on you.

Beware!

By the way, the space station passes over Phoenix again tonight:  June 5th, 8:51 p.m., passing from west-southwest to north-northeast, easily visible for about 6 minutes.

SUMMER FOOD

When our neighbor left for his home in Canada the other day he asked us if we'd like some shrimp and ribs.  He said his wife was worried about the food spoiling if there was a power outage.  Well, of course, being neighborly, what could I say but YES!

Last night SWMBO prepared a shrimp cocktail to take care of some of the seafood.

To accompany, some hummus and some homemade guacamole.  

I love friendly neighbors.

I love summer food.

I am a happy camper.

SKY WATCHING

SWMBO and I just saw the Space Station pass over once again.  This was a long pass...in a clear sky for about 6 minutes.  I must be getting old.  I find this amazing and fascinating.  Years ago I was stunned to be able to see the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper.  We now live in an area of very lightened skies from all the ground light.  But we can still see the Space Station passing over us at a height of more than 200 miles.

Amazing!

AIRPLANE FOOD

Some of you may recall my mention in a recent post of when SWMBO and I took a couple of tasty sandwiches from local sandwich shop Duck and Decanter on an airplane.  Here's that mention from May 30th.

The sandwiches are so good we once stopped there on our way to the airport and got our own airline food for our trip to England.  When we opened the bags on the plane we were the envy of the place.  We each had picked a sandwich called The Whole Thing - imported ham, oven roasted turkey breast and Italian dry salami.  The smell of garlic filled the airplane cabin and had mouths watering everywhere. 

Anyway today I was reading the Prescott (Arizona) Daily Courier and was struck by this article written by Judy Bluhm.  Maybe we started something!

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In other news, I'm still waiting for my new computer to arrive.  (Tick-tick-tick)

UPDATE:  The new computer arrived shortly after I wrote this.  Looks good, runs great.