Heat: 1 Cold: Zero

I don’t FB but if I did I know the  first Like I’d give would be for Heat. Just Heat.  I hate being cold–not so much that I hate it as that it doesn’t agree with my body. Never has. When we were kids we camped all the time along rivers–even if they were not swimmable we still swam. Many of them we hooked up ropes on trees so we could swing and jump in. Great fun.

Bring the Heat
Full sun, zero wind, not yet noon: Bring the heat.

Middle of Summer we’d be camping and swimming and the water would sometimes only be warmish. I clearly recall several times feeling freezing in the water and everyone around me telling me my lips and ears were purple–I had no idea because I was too cold to feel them. And it was summer.

Numb when we went sledding out back or on the golf courses—add in the speed generated from snowmobiling and I often couldn’t convince my mouth to form words. One winter in Ames while helping a friend jumpstart a car I actually suffered frost-bite on both ears. As I recall no one around me felt impacted–yet I suffered frostbite. To this day my ears flake, peel and numb up whenever the temps drop below the freezing point.

Waking up every day and simply knowing it’ll be sunny with maybe a wisp of a cloud, warm-to-hot and dry is the single best memory I’ll take with me from Southern AZ. Walking the dog in the middle of winter with only a light jacket, gloves and cap—perfect. Never wearing tights for a middle of winter run–indescribable. Yeah, adjusting schedules and alarm clocks to get in a dog-walk or workout before 8:00a.m. is a hassle…..but nothing like the probability of bundling up beyond recognition and dodging ice patches two-three months every year.  Like: Heat. Yum.