When you talk to the locals who are used to the heat here in the Valley of the Sun, they’ll tell you they can pretty much handle anything Mother Nature throws at them until it hits the magic 112 mark – there’s some mysterious deliniation between the typical Arizona heat and the “OK, I’ve had enough!” kind of heat. Well, everyone here is bracing for some serious heat coming here starting on Friday and running through Monday. The heat advisories have been up for days, and there are all sorts of hints and reminders being passed around, like:

* If your car is parked outside leave your windows open a crack so they don’t explode from the inside
* Avoid any kind of outside exertion whatsoever after, say, 11 AM when the heat starts building very fast
* Avoid contact with any kind of dark surface whatsoever
* Keep yourself hydrated even if you’re inside just in case you do have to venture outside

Carmelo and the boys came by a couple of days early because, as tough as they are – and those guys are tough, even they know that starting on Friday they’ve got “snow days”. In temperatures like that you can get heat stroke very easily, and it’s nothing to fool with. And I don’t use the term “snow day” for no reason – when the heat is projected to be like it’s supposed to be, businesses will suffer just as New England businesses do when there’s a big snowstorm and no one ventures out. The only difference will be the green grass, the blue skies, and the bright shining sun.

I always thought that Sky Harbor Airport starts grounding planes when the temperature passes 118 but I guess that’s no longer the case. Even if it temps hit 120 as they could in Phoenix the planes will still keep flying.

Me? I’ll be planning on staying inside and using the outside heat as an excuse to clean the house. A week from Monday we’ll have people crawling all over this place like ants replacing our windows so everything gets a good cleaning. As good an excuse as any, I guess…