Confessions of a Heat Wimp

SE Michigan has moved suddenly from pleasant days in the 70s to 90+ scorchers. This kind of heat knocks me on my can. I want to sulk indoors all day, venturing out only toward dusk. If I do leave the house, it's usually in my car with the AC cranked. Just last summer I bought my first car w/ AC, and I seem to be making up for all my years without artificial coolants. No AC at home, but the trees around out house and some window fans (plus lots of ice water) keep the indoors pretty tolerable. My fantasies about moving back to UP aren't all about getting close to good trout waters--you don't get many days over 90 there. And nights get pretty chilly even on the hottest days.

Last summer, Kristine and I visited Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada for a couple days. They say the name refers to the fire-red rock formations, but I think that's just a ruse to maintain the flow of tourists in summer. We went there in late July, and it was well over 100˚ when we arrived in the afternoon. At night, the temperature fell only to the upper 80s--not great conditions for tenting. We took very short hikes around sunset and sunrise, otherwise it was short excursions from the car. The place is beautiful, and I really would like to see it again, say around Thanksgiving.

Never really mind the cold that much. You can always put on another sweater. But for at least a few hours a day, there's no escape from heat. All you can do is get yourself into shade, or into AC, and wait. Maybe I can look at these summer days as an opportunity to overcome my impatience, a trait which mixes poorly with low heat resistance.
I guess I could try to cool off this way, at least if it's legal in Michigan. No worries about losing $2 flies in the trees. And no tangles of line left behind to trap birds and vex river cleaners. You still would need to pack out your beer cans, though, and I think I'd need quite a few before I could grope in the dark for one of those big uglies.
Speaking of river cleaners, here's a photo of the crew from the cleanup last Saturday. I'm the tall guy in the blue T-shirt in the back row. Kristine is next to me in the white shirt and blue bandanna.