I used to have, as did some friends, a page from ZAP Comix, Mr. Natural by R. Crumb, hanging next to my kitchen sink. It started out with Mr. Natural with a thought bubble that said, “Bitch, Gripe, Moan!” or something to that effect as he started to wash a huge pile of dirty dishes in a sink. The panels progress with Mr. Natural getting more and more into the task, whistling and the like and then the last panel shows the dishes gleaming and Mr. Natural saying, “Another job well done!”
That’s how today was, except that I never got beyond the second panel or so. I did the dishes but I’m not whistling. I walked my Daisy Dog, given name Daisy Buchanan, after dark this evening and the sweat still dripped down my neck because in Tucson in June it can be between 95 and 100 degrees after dark.
I love Tucson at one level, but 20 plus Junes in Tucson feel like enough at times. The day we married in June of 1989, it hit 117 in Tucson. It is not that hot this year, but I am still grumpy. It is too hot to be outside. At least I don’t live near Sierra Vista, Southeast of Tucson, where their water supply has been vandalized by someone who shot holes in the holding tank. Some homes have low pressure and some have no water what so ever. Screwing with a water supply used to be the kind of thing that you would get you shot out here in the desert West.
I have a bit of a headache that could be from a stiff neck that I think is related to the insistence of one of my cats, Itty Bitty Gray Kitty, on curling up in my hair and sleeping on top of my head after I fall asleep.
Or it could be from the air being so dry. I really, really want it to rain this weekend. I want the monsoons to start! I thought they would be building up after last weekend’s rain, but heat – rain – heat – rain cycle that builds the monsoon just hasn’t kicked in yet. Yes, we really have Monsoon rains in the Southwest. We are sub-tropical. So, please, don’t ever use the phrase, “It’s a dry heat” around an Arizonan. It would sort of be like going to NYC and saying, “Look at all the tall buildings.”
Actually Arizona is heating up more than many other places, according to recent reports of actual temperatures. Not all states are heating up equally, per climate change. According to MSNBC, “The state that saw the highest temperature increase was Rhode Island, followed by Massachusetts, New Jersey, Arizona and Maine”
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