…But It’s a Dry Heat.
Image via Wikipedia
There is not much to dislike about a Las Vegas summer. It is hot and bright and holds all the hope that the 4th of July will be suitable for framing. When I reflect back on the summer’s that have gone by during the 14 years that I have lived here, I remember laughter and cool drinks in casinos, at pool side, and on the patio of a nice restaurant. Hikes and kayak trips with nothing but time and the outdoors in front of you.
But when you start a Las Vegas summer it is not like the memory evolves after one is over. Instead, it is a windy and often cold spring that you wish away to summer, only to be greeted by the heat you so wanted to feel on your skin to be spoiled by summer monsoon humidity. When the beautiful 110 is wrapped in 90% humidity it seers itself into your skin and fills your lungs with what feels like hot, heavy liquid. Days like that seem so long and uncomfortable. But it doesn’t seem to deter me from calling out to the weather and asking for triple digits. I guess the only true gambler in me is one that will ask for heat and hope it does not come with humidity.
Every building in Vegas is hooked to a life support system of sorts. Not unlike you see in the CCU of any hospital in America. It has a big unit with all sorts of wires and tubes coming out. There are portable ones too…sort of like the Barney Clark portable heart. Those are housed on big chassis with four wheels. A person literally lives in the building or in the chassis and cool air is pumped in to make them comfortable. To help them stay alive. But there are occasions when you go from a building to the chassis, or visa versa, that you are unsupported and have to deal with the weather unaided. At this moment I am inside and it is cool enough in my building that I am actually a bit cold. Outside it is 98 degrees and there are thunder heads around. I know that could mean a skin poaching if it is too long a journey from building to chassis.
But I love it. I really do love it and would not trade it for the weather anywhere else I have lived or traveled. Come and visit. Lose the coat!
Posted on July 7, 2011, in Hiking. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
Love the imagery of buildings on life support, it just feels vivid. I have been outside more this summer, I resolved to embrace the heat and it has been good (humidity aside). It is sad to see the days getting shorter little by little.
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I hate the shortening of the days. In Seattle growing up, the days never got dark in summer until pushing 10 pm. But then at 3 in the dead of winter i it could start feeling like dusk was arriving.
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