You have to be careful how you talk to my Mom. She’s very opinionated and demands respect, but she can also be hurt easily. But after hearing her broken record, “but it’s a dry heat…” I couldn’t take it any longer. I replied, “OK, Mom, I get it! It’s a dry heat. Enough already!”
As little interest as I had in Arizona, another reason was the high temps. Let me state that I am always cold. I love warmth. In the summer here in Chicago I only use the a/c if it’s really hot and humid, or if it’s warm and humid (which makes it feel hotter than it really is). A 90 degree day in Chicago is extremely hot because there’s usually humidity in the air.
So when I’m hearing temps of 105, 110, 115 and higher, I couldn’t even imagine how it must have felt. I had seen people fry eggs on the pavement on television. My Mom even admitted that in the summer they try not to go out in the hot sun. I could only imagine a vampire scene of people only shopping at night.
So as much as I like it hot, I couldn’t truly understand what her constant comment about dry heat really meant. But I learned quickly on my first visit. My thick hair normally took hours to air dry at home. It dried almost immediately in Arizona. My hair gets frizzy during Chicago summers. It was nice and straight in AZ. My hair never looked so good!
I also noticed that my lips and skin were very dry. I needed chapstick and skin lotion, stuff I normally only use in winter in Chicago. As a side note, I was also very dry during a trip to Keystone, CO in the summer (we went for a wedding). I think I felt worse in Colorado.
So I’m completely into the dry Arizona heat. It’s been so cold here in Chicago this winter that there is still snow piled around as it hasn’t been able to melt away since the last few snowfalls. It has warmed up enough for the huge icicles to fall off the eaves of our house and the noise is really loud and the dogs bark, thinking someone is knocking on the door or something. Even my daughter ran into the room I was in this morning asking me what that noise was.
I can’t wait to get back to Scottsdale, Arizona‘s dry heat.
