Mid-September here in the Valley of the Sun is a hot, dusty, dismal time. The calendar says that “Arizona winter” is but a few weeks away, but that seems like forever. The excitement of the monsoon season – listening for the dew points and humidity levels, seeing the build-up of thunderheads over the surrounding mountains and wondering where they’re headed, checking out the radar on Accuweather.com – is over, replaced by bright blue skies and a searing sun that stays so even as its sinks lower into the west earlier each day. It may be September, but don’t let the calendar fool ya – it’s still summer.

Don’t believe me? Check out the extended Accuweather forecast for the rest of this month.

Without any cloud cover to hold it back, the pool, which was beginning to shows signs of a slow drift towards 80 has jumped back into the game with a consistent 84-86 degrees – perfect weather for swimming.

It’s been a very hot summer here in Phoenix, actually one of our hottest on record. Look at these daily temperatures for the months of June, July, and August. Never mind that the thermometer hit 100 for the first time all the way back on May 21st!

My two previous posts on thunderstorms aside, it really wasn’t a very interesting monsoon season this year. Most of the action – and the rain – slid to every other side of us. Now, at least until the heat gods flip the switch (usually the 2nd week of October, uncannily so) all your eyes can do is, as Bruce Cockburn penned in his song “Pacing The Cage” “scan a bleached-out land, for the coming of the outbound stage”. (A great tune that Jimmy Buffett did a fine job on as well, BTW…)

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Hope the folks in beautiful Bermuda – one of our all-time favorite places on earth – are battening down the hatches for Hurricane Igor, because he looks to be one bad hombre. The worst thing would be if it passes slightly to the island’s west, leaving it in that upper-right hand quadrant you just don’t want to be in. We’re keeping the good folks there in our prayers. Sure wouldn’t want to be any passenger on a cruise anywhere in the Atlantic this week, either: that passage can be rough enough in favorable conditions.

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Finally, speaking of weathering things, today the catheter was removed and I’m free of tubes, velcro, and strips. Still lots of swelling (I won’t go into the gory details) and some discomfort, but the doc tells me the pathologist’s report came back showing no sign of cancer spreading beyond my prostate to any of the surrounding areas. Which, I’m told, puts me in that much-desirable category called a “cancer survivor”. Being lifted on the eagles’ wings of all your kind thoughts and prayers makes me both humble and very forunate indeed; hope y’all didn’t mind coming along for the rise, at least vicariously.

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Pool temp: 84 degrees