If You Can't Stand The Heat by Patricia Forsythe


 
You know that old saying ‘If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen’? Well, I think the people in my home state need to revise that to say ‘If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of Arizona’.
We’ve had weeks of record heat this summer, almost 120 degrees in Phoenix on some days. The airport was closed for a while because in hotter air, planes have a tougher time taking off – or possibly the tarmac was in danger of melting, bogging down planes that were trying to fly. The alternative might have been taxiing from Phoenix to Albuquerque, hoping for cooler air.

Here in Tucson where it’s a few degrees cooler, even desert plants that have evolved to take the heat are shriveling up, ready to throw in the towel. My poor lemon tree, which used to produce so much fruit I was tempted to have a talk with it about birth control, looks ready to drop its unripe lemons and faint dead away.

However, our monsoon season has finally arrived and, even though we haven’t had a real rainy season in more than a dozen years, we are ever hopeful. Sharp-eyed Tucsonans on the east side of town have spotted actual rain clouds and experienced real rain. Those of us on the west side are still waiting. Keep your fingers crossed!

Patricia Forsythe is the author of many romances, both traditionally and electronically published.  Her most recent releases are the Oklahoma Girls series. At Odds With The Midwife was released in November 2016, The Husband She Can’t Forget in February 2017, and book three, His Twin Baby Surprise in May 2017.  She hopes there will be many more Harlequin Heartwarming books to come.

Comments

  1. I can't take the heat, which is why I vacated Arizona for Alaska in early June. Hope the monsoons make it in time to save your lemon tree. We've hardly seen the sun. Wish we could arrange to ship some clouds your way.

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    1. Thanks, Beth! It's actually been raining all night. Jackpot!

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    2. Darn, Beth, one of my goals was to meet up with you. Are you coming back?

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    3. Oh, yes. We spend about half the year in Arizona. We'll return in September. Enjoy the rain.

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  2. We've been hot here in Charlotte too. but with the humidity, it's much different than what you're experiencing, Patricia. Although I'm not a fan of the high power bills during this time of the year, I'll take it over the cold. I love Tucson!

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    1. Oh, I'm familiar with that humidity since I was recently in Alabama and Texas. You're right about the power bills but I try to remember that at least my winter heating bills aren't overwhelming.

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  3. Patricia, I'm sorry to hear about your heatwave and it's impacts. I wish we could send some of our rain your way, since we've had one of the rainiest springs/summers on record. Although it's great for our sod/gardens, there's been flooding, including the Toronto Islands which had to be evacuated, and farmers are struggling because of the waterlogged fields.

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    1. Wow, it's always something, isn't it? As my mother would have said, "Too much or too none."

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  4. I still love AZ anyway. But at last we've gotten a few days of sun here in TN. Oh, and that humid heat. Congratulations on your most recent releases. Many more!

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    1. Thanks, Leigh. I love AZ, too, but I envy the green of places like Tennessee.

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  5. So much extreme weather in regular news this summer, and starting pretty early, too. I'm not complaining about Northeast WI, though, not given what's going on elsewhere. Friends in Phoenix have told me about staying inside and just getting through it. I haven't been to Tuscon, but I hear wonderful things about it, including its wonderful arts community. It sounds like you have a terrific writing career! Congratulations.

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    1. Thanks, Virginia, and good luck with all of your future releases.

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  6. Patricia, Lol about your poor lemon tree! I've always wanted to visit Tucson, but I think I'll wait until spring or fall? We are having the nicest summer here in the Pacific Northwest that we've had in years - not too hot and we haven't had any rain for almost 30 days now. (I'm enjoying it while I can because if it doesn't rain soon we'll have to start worrying about forest fires.)

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    1. Yes, Carol, come between October and May. That's when we shine!

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  7. Hi, Patricia. Like Carol said, we are having a nice summer in the Pac NW. After living here for so many years, I don't think I could take the heat you're having. But then when we have a rainy stretch, Arizona looks pretty good! Is there a perfect place to live year 'round?

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    1. I don't think there's a perfect place, Linda, but the Pacific Northwest is perfect to many people. So beautiful, but too much rain for me.

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  8. Hi Patti,
    I'm in Colorado Springs right now, and last night I texted my husband a picture of me and the cousins sitting around the fire. He responded with good news from Arizona. His text read "At least it only got to 108 today." hehehehehe

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    1. That's funny! It's cooler here today since it rained, yes rained, last night!

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  9. I sure hope you get some relief soon from that exhaustive heat, and that your lemon tree comes back. Here in NC we've been getting some rain nearly every day. Everything looks so green. I wish I could send even more clouds your way. ( :

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    1. Thanks, Laurie! We would take all the rain we can get.

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  10. After a few hot days (30 degrees Celsius), we're coming off of four solid hours of deep, penetrating rain accompanied by mild thunder and lightning. Not complaining, at all. Some Canadians say they cannot get enough heat and sun; the rest of us stare at them. I am the rest.

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  11. Patti,
    We on the East side truly got nice soaking rain most of the night and into this morning. Hope it comes your way. It's blessedly cooler this morning than for the past 47 days of extreme heat. My neighbor's lemon tree looks sick, too.

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    1. Yes, we got rain all night. Do you think we obsess about it too much? Nah.

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  12. It's funny how one can be 'area-centric' as we're still dealing with high waters and Frankenstein-like weeds due to all the spring and early summer rain here in eastern and southern Ontario. As much as I'm hoping for a 'real' summer day with temps in the high 80s, I don't think I'd be able to,adjust to temps of 120! While you're trying to stay cool, Patricia, we're pining for some heat.

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  13. We're enjoying sauna like weather here in the Deep South. High humidity and temps in the 90s. Which doesn't seem like anything compared to your 120! But some days I wish I had gills. lol

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  14. Hi Patty! This weekend we were watching the monsoon clouds build up and my husband predicts this will be a really heavy monsoon season. Unfortunately, with monsoon storms, we have lightning and with lightning we have wildfires. There are 3 actively burning fires around my area now. But that's a topic for another time. Growing up in Texas, I'm also familiar with the humidity and I will definitely take the "dry heat" any time over that. Of course, I live outside of Tucson, where it's several degrees cooler than Tucson. But I did live in Yuma for 8 years where we had massive heat and often humidity to go with it. It would get so hot that the flue holding the rear view mirror in my car would melt and the mirror fell off. The beautiful thing about Arizona is that we are surrounded by mountains and when we just can't take it anymore, we make a dash for the mountains and enjoy much cooler weather for a few days. I love Arizona, heat and all.

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  15. I can't imagine that kind of heat! I'm in Canada, and today we had a cool, rainy day. We've had our fair share of heat, but I don't think you'd see it as "heat." LOL! You mean something completely different with that word!

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  16. I just got home from a week out in Phoenix!! It was definitely HOT. So hot that it made 80 degrees in Chicago feel like heaven!!!

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