It was after 11 PM last night when I heard the wind chimes outside on the back patio, something fairly unusual – typically whatever breeze there is this time of year dissipates after nightfall. So, being the kind of weather snoop I am, I just had to go out and see what was up. I open the door and walk out, and see a half-full harvest moon peeking in and out of clouds scudding from west to east above me. And that’s when I noticed it: a feeling so strange I almost had to do a self-check to see if I was imagining things.

No heat.

OK, there wasn’t anything about the air one could consider cool, either, but for so long you just get used to stepping outside and expecting the heat to envelop you instantly. And the absence of it was almost disorienting. But it sure felt good. It meant we could actually open our bedroom windows for the first time in, like, six months. It also meant that pool season would be coming to a close shortly, for once the nightly air temps drop into the 70s (as last night’s did) there’s nothing to hold up the pool temp and it begins to crash – much like Hillary did on Sunday.

It’s just the way it goes.

A month from now the heat god will switch the flip and we’ll once again be able to rediscover the joys of “Arizona winter”. It’s been a long, hot, and – for us here in the Valley of the Sun this year, a dusty, dry summer. Not sure what the winter season will bring but I can tell you we could sure use some rain.