"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 116 ~ Porch Cobwebs

It's been too hot to sit on the porch and our furniture reflects it's lack of use...

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 111 ~ This is an everyday view

Dropping my son off for soccer practice (in the 100 degree heat) this evening, I notice that the view across from the soccer fields is this.  A view of dirt and cactus and scrub and SUN.  

Crap.  I really live in the desert.  And it's 42 more days until Halloween.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 110 ~ I.Rolled.My.Window.Down.

It was so "cool" this morning on my way to drop the kids at school, I rolled.my.window.down.  Yay Fall!  It takes until 8 am to turn on the A/C (instead of 6 am).

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 109 ~ Yes, Sun, Please Hide...

...because it's five days until Fall.  And we, in the "it's still 100 degrees" states are not feeling that fall feeling (although I DID make pumpkin bread today...I just had to pump the AC down to account for the oven being on)

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 107 ~ All That Remains...

...In our summer garden.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 102 ~ She's (still) screamin'...

...for ice cream (apparently we left it off the grocery list this week).

Summer sure isn't over yet...

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 87 ~ Condensation, Revisited.

So....remember waaaay back to June 4, 2013 (Day 4) when I did the experiment about melting ice in a glass with NO condensation???  Well at 101 degrees and NOT a "dry heat" here is what that glass looks like today.

(P.S.  The original Day 4 post was my sister, Lauren's favorite...)
(P.P.S. Yes, I realize this condensation doesn't compare to a NC summer)
(P.P.P.S. I am NOT using a coaster...for this experiment only, I promise :) )

"100 Degrees until Halloween" Day 80 ~ Watering the Cactus.

It's so hot...you have to water your cactus.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 77 ~ It is hot. And that is all.

Record breaking heat (for August) here.  In a desert, you KNOW that can't be good...Just pant and get through it.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 74 ~ Follow Up (Yellow)

One from my small but mighty group of blog followers (thanks Hilary Lustig!) asked if we could eat the yellow cactus fruit from yesterday's post.  (This project is making me realize how little I know about the desert considering I have lived here since 1996.  Is this thing called a fruit????  CAN we eat it???).  So I plucked it right off the barrel cactus in the front yard and sliced it open.  It smelled peppery (not sweet, like I was expecting) and did not look appetizing.  I suppose you COULD eat it...but I didn't chance it.   (Doesn't the poor thing look parched?  The interior skin looked dry and desirous of some water...)

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 73 ~ Blue

I've always admired these adobe homes on Ft. Lowell and today, with the cotton clouds above, I couldn't resist the picture.

(No rain in sight... 105 degrees today.  102 degrees as I write this blog at 6:18 pm.  11% relative humidity.  Yup, it's a dry heat.  A really, really, dry, horrid heat.  Bah.)

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 72 ~ Light Pillars and a plane!

This was a bright spot in the evening hopeful monsoon action.  It was thundering, and overcast, and the wind was blowing...and then, nothing.  nada.  nichevo.  But this was a cool moment nonetheless.

(Like Richard Scary's goldbug...can YOU find the plane?)

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 52 ~ Ho.ho.ho.

Christmas in July!  (And all other months of the year).  Who can tell me where this is in Tucson????

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 47 ~ Dog's Head In Puddle, happily.

Back home.  Sigh.  And look at this poor puppy.  He's so hot, he thinks this big puddle (caused by the mister) is a great place to lay his head...he's right.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 43 ~ Sunrise

Thing are really heating up in our household!

We are off and running these last few weeks of July (school starts for my kids Aug 5th-- an ABOMINATION to this East coaster).  In any event, the blog and project will take on all sorts of new sights of the summer starting Monday.

First new sight for this lazybones is sunrise!  I was up at 5:00 am to drive my daughter and her grandma to the airport for their special trip to Washington, DC.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 38 ~ Nanny Nanny Boo Boo...

And a big outstretched tongue.  That's what I feel the monsoons are doing to this Northeast side of Tucson.  Oh, and by the way, this is the 38th day in a row of reaching 100 degrees in Tucson.  Tomorrow, IF we hit 100 degrees it will be record breaking...stay tuned!

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 36 ~ Out of Order.

One example of Ventana Canyon's (or a really pyrotechnically skilled neighbor's) fireworks...(taken, clearly, on Day 34, not Day 36).

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 34 ~ Nightly visitors

Happy 34th day of the photo project (or to the rest of you, Happy 4th of July!)

When it heats up, we start getting nightly gecko visitors on our kitchen window screen.  It started with just one and then word must have spread because now we can have up to five.  I just thought "aw, the geckos like hanging out with us."  Then I watched a bug come flying up to the screen and like that, boom, gecko got his dinner.  Ohhhhhh, so that's why they hang out on on our window screen.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 29 ~ This Guy...

I want to be this guy...napping in the shade...Where I am the garden gnome in this scenario, I am imagine this is a place with air conditioning.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 28~ Red Sky At Night,

Sailor's Delight.  Red Sky at Morning; Sailors, Take Warning.   My "whole life" (i.e. before age 22 when I moved to Tucson, AZ)  I actually thought that was real advice having to do with sailing. (P.S. Sailing also feels real when you live other places than Tucson, AZ :) )   Turns out, this expression has to do with weather.

Red sky at night in Arizona means nothing but HOT and (hot) clear days ahead.  In any event, I felt SO lucky to be in Vail, AZ doing a senior shoot when this sunset occurred.

28th day of over 100 temps in Tucson.  Tomorrow's predicted high?  114 degrees.  Last time we hit 100 degrees this many days in a row in June?  Never.  Record. Breaking.  Just ask my favorite weatherman @jeffbeamish and I am sure my photo project is not to blame.  Really.