It has been a very long and very hot, record-breaking summer here in the Valley of the Sun. But, believe it or not, there’s change on the horizon. Oh, not the kind of change people in the more northern latitudes are anticipating when we get to mid-September and shy of the autumnal equinox – we’re not talking fall-like cool weather by any stretch of the imagination. But a disappointing monsoon season of not so much rain and more than a little extra dust has ended: its days of puffy clouds and (relative) humidity replaced by bright blue hot skies and a return to dry conditions, and the long-range 6-10 day forecast is now showing a break in the heat, with daytime temperatures slowly falling back to the high ’80s and nighttime temps dropping to – believe it or not – the mid-’50s. I mean, can you imagine that!

Even though the pool has just started cooling off – it’s currently in the mid-80s from a high of 102 just a few weeks ago – the nights are still quite warm, staying primarily in the mid-’80s. So you get a air/water kind of synchronicity going there, which is quite pleasant. But once the temps break, that’ll be pretty much it for swimming, as the water will cool off pretty darned fast. With Tracey and I leaving for a Massachusetts/Bermuda vacation in just over a week, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if, by the time we return the first week in October, the swimming season will be behind us.

It has been a very log, hot summer, and everyone around here is looking forward to its end.