Thank you to those of you that have reached out to see how we are faring here in Palm Desert during this recent heat bomb. We are just fine. We had a little drama with my mothers air conditioner that needed to be replaced a week ago but luckily she was able to stay with us while they took three days to do their work. Trust us, we feel way worse for those poor guys working in the attic above her garage for three days.
So, how hot did it get here late last week?
Well, we officially tied a record for the hottest day ever at 123 but at one point it topped off at 124 and Death Valley reached 127. If you notice on the middle picture above those are the top three hottest temps ever recorded in the Palm Springs area and we have been here for eight of the ten times they were set.
You have no idea what it feels like to open the door and step outside when it is that hot. Well maybe you do if you've ever opened your oven door.
That is the approximate desired internal temperature for rare steak or done chicken. I've always wondered what it felt like to be a rare steak and now I know.
Seriously, it is just nuts to be out in that heat and I did that a couple of weeks ago. I decided to play golf at one of the local courses here and surprisingly I was the only one on the course, and I teed off at seven AM. I had a miserable front nine, mostly because I hadn't played in four months but recovered on the back nine, however for the last four holes I was light headed, nearly passed out several times, almost threw up twice, and still finished bogey, par, par, bogey.
It took me only 2:10 to play eighteen holes and yes I played every shot and drank two containers of water and I still have no idea how I made it the two miles back home. And it was only 104 degrees at that time. Nothing like playing golf a mile from the sun.
(A picture from the Walmart parking lot in town.)
We know that summers are retched here but honestly if you get your running around done before ten o'clock it isn't too horrible. The poor dog has to go outside in the heat forty three times a day to pee but we've put a cover over her dog run to keep it cool, and by cool I mean under 100. We keep our AC set during the day at 81 and at night we bump it up to 83-84 and if we didn't tell you what it was set at you would never think it was that high. The fact is that when it is 120 outside and you come back into a house at 81 that is almost 40 degrees cooler so it feels pleasant.
Think about what you keep yours set at relative to the outside temps and we are better than you most likely. Many of you only have a twenty degree difference between outside and inside. Fans keep the air moving also and that helps to keep it feeling cooler so we are basically OK here.
And we don't have to shovel sunshine.
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