Shade

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Most of the rest of the continent has been dealing with unprecedented killer heat for the last week or so. Here in the high desert, it’s the usual summertime killer heat. I don’t do too well in heat - have been having increasingly frequent heat-exhaustion episodes and occasional heat-collapse. In the past, I attributed my ability to survive here to the invention of, and access to, air conditioning. 

Now, I’m developing other strategies. The whole 
world looks different when you no longer live in an air conditioned building. Some part of my brain is on constant alert for shade. Especially shady parking places. I’m starting to accumulate a mental file of reliable spots. I have thermometers in the van and the difference is: 
Outside, ambient temp- 97 degrees F
Inside with no shade- 120+ degrees F
Inside with shade- 85 degrees F

This morning, I left my nighttime parking spot and moved to a Starbucks parking lot with a shady area 
big enough for my van (8ft x 20ft.) I sat there for 
awhile, sipping my coffee, watching magpies and squirrels work their territory on an island of greenery, in a desert of asphalt. Then I looked to the left and, whoa! Is that a free electrical outlet? This parking spot just went way up in the rankings.

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Anonymous said…
Cue "The Things I Notice Now"...
4:51 PM
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