And they say dogs are dumb by KimB

Spring doesn't last long in the central valley of California. The summer is already announcing it's arrival with temperatures reaching the 90s.

We've made some adjustments to the house in hopes of avoiding the worst of the 115F heat to come. We added some fans, some new honeycomb window coverings on 3 windows that face west and get the full blast of the afternoon sun.

There's no other way to say it.... It's Just Hot!

As transplants from the cooler ocean side of California it always amazes us at how people here handle the heat, or rather don't. Both Allen and I lived in Arizona and we retain the old custom of "walk in any shade you can find."

It used to be a standard joke that you could tell people from Arizona because they would walk from one tiny bit of shade to another, even if it meant walking an extra 50 feet. When we get out of the car at a mall, we walk from one lollipop tree to next lollipop tree just for an extra 3 steps of shade.

For some reason, people here seem oblivious. They by pass any shade even if it's 1 foot away. They go out in the hottest part of the day. They run and jog and do parkour even when the trees are wilting.

The worst part is they take their dogs with them or rather tow the dogs with them. It's so hot the dogs are leaning towards any shade they see. When the owners stop at a crossing to wait for the light, the dogs are picking up their paws because the sidewalk is so hot. An owner stops for 100 pushups and the dog lies down, tongue hanging out, at the farthest end of the leash, to get to some shade. The owner just keeps doing pushups in the full blast of the heat of the day. You can almost hear the dog say to their owner, "Yeah, just keep on doing those pushups, I'm cool over here, you get all hot if you like."

The owners come dressed for heat. The standard attire here all year round consists of shorts and a tee, sandals/light weight sneakers. Hats are optional. Even most businesses recognize shorts as standard business attire. The dogs are not always so fortunate. Heavy coated Huskies and St. Bernard's get towed thru the worst of the heat. The local pet groomers do a landslide business in shaving long haired dogs for the summer.

There seems to be an inverse correlation between heat and sense. The dogs know to get out of the heat, the people don't. And they say dogs are dumb....

[Editor's note: This story was written by KimB.]



Spring in the Central Valley