The end of our third summer in Tucson, Arizona is around the corner. It’s been hot. It’s been hot for a while. Well, a long while. Since..let’s see…late April? That sounds right. Though I might be wrong. But I was just sitting here in a sort of daze. Work week ended. Ready to start the weekend. And I just realized that the end is near. The breeze is shifting every now and then to something more refreshing. The light bends more golden. It rains, and the drops make the most soothing clatter on the rooftop. Morse code for my soul.
Could it be? The summer’s winding down. FALL is heeeeeere. Just almost barely. But in another few weeks, ahhhhh. It is just too gorgeous a time for words. The nights start cooling down. This is key. Because no matter how hot it gets during the day, if you get some sweet relief at night – it cancels out the heat. A reset button is pushed somewhere inside and you can face the new hot day with a smile. And that’s how summer starts here. But somewhere along the line, the nights don’t get much better. You’ll still take ’em because the punishing, yellow, glaring orb – the light monster of the day – is gone for a few hours, along with his laser rays and pizza oven breath. But the night doesn’t soothe your heated brow with lusciously cool air anymore. She keeps your blood flowing close to the skin, making it hard to sleep even if you’re blessed with A/C.
Oh, but now is the teetering on the edge. And we’re all on tiptoe, eager to catch that first true touch of autumn. Soon we’ll be riding our bikes at every excuse. Especially at night. Headed to the Red Room or Plush or Sky Bar. Or the heart-lit homes of friends. We all turn twelve again. Which frankly continues for a few months more. There’s Halloween and the All Soul’s Parade (what ghoul shall I be this year??) and Christmas to look forward to. Which means lots of costumes and make believe and fantasy. Which means – in our bizarro climate – coming out of the summer hibernation and watching the sepia, scorched earth start to green again.
Just as soon as the angle of the Earth turns a little more. Turning, turning, turning back to life.
If we can just stand to wait a little longer.