It is hot.

This is my first summer here in Arizona, and I’m just getting used to the heat. Today’s high is going to be 110.

I’ve always heard Arizonans talking about the “dry heat” and how it’s much more bearable than a humid heat.  And until this month I’ve never truly understood that.

I was swimming at the YMCA last weekend and I made the mistake of leaving my black flip-flops exposed to the intense sun while doing laps.  I jumped out of the pool and sat down and gathered my things, and realized that my shoes were too hot to wear…so I thought I’ll just run barefoot to the locker room.  MISTAKE.  My feet were sore for a couple of hours.

I’ve also realized that the tap water here comes out warm.

I break a sweat on the walk to my car before work.

It’s summer vacation, and I don’t see a single child playing in the neighborhood around my house.

But things are different here than they were in California.  The people have adapted their lives to the heat.  I am only really exposed to the heat on the journey to and from the car to an air conditioned building.

Still, I miss the thought of a sweater on a cool summer evening in Southern California.

As always, here’s a picture of a kid using the naughty finger to help you get through your Monday.

This is a challenge. I challenge you to make next week a good one. Try to focus on these words this week:

I was 18 when I bought my first car with my own hard-earned cash.

I had just moved out of my parent’s house, and I was living in a ridiculously cheap apartment. I was working for the mouse, and I was making barely any money.

I found a little 1987 Hyundai Excel for sale on the street outside my apartment.

When I think of the ugly gray car I get shivers up my spine (the same way I feel when I think of Bill the Janitor at a school I used to work at). It was really tore up, and the previous owner had a laugh now/cry later sticker on the back window.

At the time, price was really important to me, and this car was going for $300.  Cash.

I showed up for a test drive and the car was a manual transmission.  I wasn’t going to let a little thing like a stick shift stand in my way of driving this beast, so I bought it any way…and grinded the gears all the way home.

I practiced driving that car in the neighborhood, and finally chanced driving it to work about a week after buying it.  I remember being embarrassed pulling into the parking lot (but significantly less embarrassed walking into the parking lot).

There was also an incident one spring evening where an unusually sudden rain sweeped across Garden Grove, and I had to run down and move the car (the passenger side window would frequently fall).  When I jumped in the car, I heard a hsssssss in the backseat.  When I turned around, I saw a cornered alley cat that had taken refuge in my hunk-of-junk.

The car lasted about 8 months; and the last month it sat un-drivable in my parking spot.

Even though it was a complete piece of shit, I can still fondly remember the great feeling of personal independence when I made that purchase…and then I stalled in an intersection two minutes later.

I just finished the new David Sedaris book When You Are Engulfed In Flames.

I think that my love for books is similar to other people’s love of music. When I start reading a novel by one of my favorite authors, I just kinda feel comfortable and good.

This new Sedaris is not nearly as good as Me Talk Pretty One Day, but it still had some good stories in it.

From the story “Solutions to Saturday’s Puzzle”

On the flight to Raleigh, I sneezed, and the cough drop I’d been sucking on shot from my mouth, ricocheted off my folded tray table, and landed, as I remember it, on the lap of the woman beside me, who was asleep and had her arms folded across her chest. I’m surprised the force didn’t wake her–that’s how hard it hit–but all she did was flutter her eyelids and let out a tiny sigh, the kind you might hear from a baby.

Under normal circumstances, I’d have had three choices, the first being to do nothing. The woman would wake in her own time and notice what looked like a shiny new button sewn to the crotch of her jeans. This was a small plane, with one seat per row on aisle A, and two seats per row on aisle B. We were on B, so should she go searching for answers I would be the first person on her list. “Is this yours?” she’d ask, and I’d look dumbly into her lap.

“Is what mine?”

Option number two was to reach over and pluck it from her pants, and number three was to wake her up and turn the tables, saying, “I’m sorry, but I think you have something that belongs to me.” Then she’d hand the lozenge back and maybe even apologize, confused into thinking that she’d somehow stolen it.

If you want to borrow this good read, let me know.

This is a challenge. I challenge you to make next week a good one. Try to focus on these words this week:

Remember how I give 2.5% of my paycheck to a charity every-other week?  Well this week I donated to Jumpstart.

Jumpstart pairs motivated college students with preschool children together.  The college students help raise family involvement in early literacy activities with their children, and as a result these children enter elementary school more prepared and with greater support from their families.  This organization also helps their volunteers enter careers in education.

And I’ve been really slow in updating the Benevolent Blogger page, but we’ve added a new person: Gayle from So…What else, what else, what else?

Every Wednesday I share a handful of links from the World-Wide Web in a little ditty called ‘World-Wide Wednesday’

Space Invaders - A-d-d-i-c-t-i-n-g.

Firefox Download Counter - See how many people are downloading the newest version.

This will make you feel small - Tiny, actually.

Bomomo.com - This is one of those pointless things that you can spend hours fiddling with.

Wi-Fi Detector Shirt - Who wouldn’t want to see the signal strength of the wi-fi on their chest?