Thursday, July 16, 2009

It's like a sauna in here

We are several days into the usual 110+ mid-July heat wave. Certain things separate the 110+ range from the standard summer 105 degree heat. Mornings are hot and breathless. Cold water comes out of the faucet warm. Shallow water in the swimming pools is warm. You drive home with the a/c on in the car and sweat rolling down your face anyway. This is probably the moment to point out that there are places hotter than Las Vegas. Why, I've met people who moved here from Phoenix because it's cooler. (Phoenix does get more rain than we do, however.) On the other hand, residents of Las Vegas do have a strange relationship to heat. People brag "it was 120 by my car thermometer!" They make nervous, superior jokes about not having to shovel snow. When they do complain, they do it lightly and without expecting sympathy.
The vegetable garden is being nursed carefully through this. I hand-water twice a day and the shadecloth is still up. The desert plants have gone dormant; the rosebush is not showing as much dieback as usual, the hibiscus, though stressed, is blooming. Everything looks fine, but it's not July that kills plants, it's August. In the meantime, some clouds, small and not very dark, appeared yesterday. I don't expect much from them or the ones we'll see today. But perhaps over the weekend, or next weekend, if we're lucky and good, we'll get some rain.

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