The Heat Index

It is 102 degrees today – not a surprise.  It has been ridiculously hot this week.

But, you know – it’s a dry heat. Har Har.  Humidity would  no doubt, be so much worse!  Those two facts became very clear in my mind when I visited family in the mid-west.  The moment I stepped out of the airplane and into the walkway to the gate, I felt as if I walked into a sauna fully dressed.  All energy was sucked out of my body.  I wanted a nap and an air-conditioned Hotel room.

When I moved to the Sierra mountains, I assumed that cooler weather would be up here.  I was wrong.  Not only that, but it is occasionally humid up here also.  Summer storms make me nostalgic for the summers I hung out in my cousin’s basement.   Practicing our writing skills and deciding how much we liked certain boys.  We created a scale to measure exactly how much we liked someone.  We named it the ‘Really’ Scale because the unit of measure were “reallies”.

The scale was between Zero and ten.  You know, I really, really, really  like him.  That would give him a 3 on the really scale.  Not a great score, but you would probably go out with him again.  It was possible for a guy to change his score over time, either good or bad, so re-evaluations were often made.  We discovered that the Really Scale was fun for casual contact as well as dating. Passing a guy on the street, or in a store, we could communicate our rating to each other, by saying, “seven reallies.”  The casual rating was mostly based on good looks and general attitude.  The “hunk” factor.  Yes, mam’.   

What?  You thought only males judged and demeaned the opposite sex?   Good one!