I started the month right with a walk out and back on the Lost Goldmine Trail out of the Cloudview Trailhead. Commenced hiking at 5:20 and finished up at 9:40. At a two mile per hour pace, I covered about eight miles. The highs this week are in the triple digits — today it is supposed to reach 115 degrees Fahrenheit — but it's that famous dry heat, dry, that is, until the monsoon season begins. But if one starts early, one avoids the high. It was maybe only 100 when I finished Monday's hike, and at the start, perhaps 85. Here are some shots. Look hard and you will see a baby rattlesnake coiled and rattling, good to go. (Left-click on images to enlarge.) The only varmint of the two-legged kind out there that day is the one depicted.
Heck, I had to put on a long-sleeve shirt to go outside this morning.
I actually like the summer here. The hotter the better. I'm sorry I missed the summer of '90 when it got up to 122 in Phoenix. Tucson can't hold a candle to Phoenix in terms of heat.
Imagine spending the summer in Tombstone in the days of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp.
I was in Tucson in '90 where it only got up to 118 as I recall.
Of course if you like real heat, you should take a summer vacation in Yuma.
Yuma is for wimps. Death Valley's high today is supposed to be 123 F.
Timothy,
Dirt? Are you a city boy? And "moved house" suggests you are British, which I hadn't suspected before. I'll see if I can gratify your interest in book pictures.
I grew up roaming the deciduous forests of the East coast. Compared to these, your arid desert landscapes seem rather shabby to me. But I'm sure the photographs don't do them justice.
And only in the West is there a sky to speak of, and light. But tastes differ in these matters, and to each is own.
At one point I considered enrolling in UVA's undergrad philosophy program, which seems to be quite good.
Excuse this somewhat unrelated note. Thanks for the picture of the "varmint of the two-legged kind out there that day". I'm always interested in the look of authors and philosophers whose texts I read. My wife repeatedly laughs at this.
Do you think that bodies express souls (in a sense)?
Right. And it is far worse than the humidity of the desert monsoon season. Not to mention the mosquitoes that you have and we don't. On the other hand, there is a Spring and Summer greenness in the East, Midwest, and South that can't be found in the arid West. It is also very difficult to grow vegetables in the desert. I grew fabulous tomatoes in the Midwest, but you should see the puny runts I grow here despite the daily loving care bestowed on them.
It is only natural to wonder what people look like in the flesh. I thought that was a pretty good self-portrait. One cannot tell that my right arm is extended and holding the camera. I took about a dozen shots of myself, but modesty forbade posting more than one.
"Do you think that bodies express souls (in a sense)?" Absolutely. Especially the eyes, the "windows of the soul." The eyes are the most spiritual of the body's organs, which is connected with the fact that light is the ultimate symbol of God.
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