I Thought I Liked It Hot

I like summer. I like heat. I love the sunshine beating down on me. I am a Jersey gal born and bred – hazy, hot and humid is in my blood. I turn on the a/c only when the temperature exceeds 90 and the humidity is up as well (or when I see the cats or my husband are suffering). I thought being in Arizona would be no sweat, play on words intended. After all, it’s a DRY heat.

I may have to update my profile a bit. After only 5 days in Arizona I have learned to:

– park the car in the shade whenever possible, no matter how sparse the cover
– tell the difference between temperatures over 100 and under 100
– carry a full water bottle with me everywhere I go
– stand in the shade whenever possible
– understand that 103 degrees is too hot for swimming

 
I walked out of the airport to wait for my ride and the air was the proverbial wall of heat. The first errand, before we even reached the hotel, was to buy gallons of water and a water bottle. The very next errand involved buying protection for the car: cloth seat covers and a leather steering wheel cover. We tried for Rx sunglasses for my son but we didn’t have the Rx so we ended up buying clip-on shades for his driving glasses. We became skilled at searching parking lots for nearly denuded trees that cast even a sliver of shade. We noted the position of the sun, east and west, rising and setting. The sunroof was closed and covered (my sunroof at home is open unless it’s raining). The car a/c was on full blast all the time.

Even the birds in Tempe have the brains to shelter from the sun. We came out of one store the other day and started laughing. There was a flock of pigeons gathered UNDER the car next to us. No fool THEY!

There is a lot to love about Arizona but I’m not sure that Tempe in July is the best tourism ad. We were hunting for a place to live for my son, and then buying supplies for him and for wherever he ended up. We spent a good part of both Thursday and Friday parked in the Chandler Sunset public library – free wifi, a/c, water and bathrooms. 🙂 What a fantastic library! It is everything a modern library could be. I was so envious, because I live in a town with a much older library, which is also much more constrained in square feet. I’d be thrilled to have a library at home like the spacious, well-equipped Sunset library. We could spread out our maps and check room and apartment ads against the areas we’d been told to avoid and told to seek. Even so we would have to go out to the car and drive to view apartments, get lunch, meet prospective landlords and achieve other objectives (found a congregation so he’ll have some place to go for the upcoming holidays – even met someone from that congregation). Once we found living quarters, we were hunting for furnishings. We have also learned which phone gives the best directions. I regret to say that while my phone would get us to the right place, she’d often have us in the back of the building with no access. 🙂 We did quite well, however, figuring out how to circle about to get where we needed to be.

Everyone assures me that Tempe during the “season” is idyllic – I’ll love it. I was quite willing to believe that until we spoke to Luisa (a native Arizonan) yesterday. SHE told me that in February, when I hope to return, the temperatures can range from 50 to 70. Fahrenheit. I’m sorry – that is NOT idyllic – that is COLD. *unhappy expression* I do hope she was exaggerating the low end of that, although 70 is not warm enough for me either. I guess I’ll find out for sure come February. There are also wonderful mountains on the horizon, and in some cases, right at the end of the street. 🙂 The one at the end of the street is at the other end of the street from ASU.

In the meantime, the heat produces wonderful wonderful cacti! I’ve been having a GREAT time seeing all the variations. Cacti are SO fascinating. Many of the yards have well-done gardens with assortments of different species. I’ve seen flowers also that I’m not sure I’d find in NJ, and definitely the trees are different. I’ve been taking pictures and I hope I can research them to find what exactly I’ve been seeing. And may I add – I’m very very grateful for the shade from those trees!