A Tale Of Three Town's Temperatures

I was on my way to Wal-Mart, not to get gas, but to get milk, and, even though there was no gas involved, I called my mom.

I'd not called for a few weeks, so my mom answered the phone with "Howdy Stranger."

I was being a bit overheated waiting for the vehicular A/C to cool me down. My mom asked what our temperature was.

I told my mom it was currently 107, because that was what I'd just heard on the radio.

My mom matched my 107 and said it was HOTTER in Phoenix, well, Sun Lakes, which is a suburb of Phoenix.

When I got back to my abode and checked my computer based temperature monitoring device I saw that that device was indicating the radio was correct regarding the Fort Worth temperature.

But, when I checked my mom's Phoenix temperature, via my computer based temperature monitoring device I saw that Phoenix was actually way chillier than Fort Worth, at only 104 degrees.

Now looking at this temperature data for both towns I see a problem. The temperature in F-Town is 107, with a wind speed of 5 mph and a humidity of 20% making it still really feel like 107. Meanwhile Phoenix, with a temperature of 104, also has a wind speed of 5 mph and also a humidity of 20%, yet really feels HOTTER than Fort Worth, at 108 degrees.

So, my mom was right, after all, it is hotter in her AZ zone. But, how is it that in Phoenix having a lower temperature than Fort Worth, with the same wind speed and humidity as Fort Worth, somehow feels hotter than Fort Worth? This is very perplexing.

Meanwhile, up in Tacoma, where my nephews David and Theo live, along with my niece, Ruby and their caretaker poodles, Blue and  Max, it is a very chilly 73 degrees, with a wind speed of 8 mph and a balmy humidity of 47% making it really feel like 78.

Cut Off From The Temperature I Ponder All That Is Unnatural In My Favorite Natural Area

Most days I seem to find myself being fairly productive in various ways. Then there are other days, days that don't happen all that often, when I do not seem to be very productive.

This has been one of those very unproductive days. So far.

I had a long list of things I was going to do today. I've only done two things on the list.

And then this afternoon tragedy struck. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but my number one interest is the temperature. I monitor the temperature more religiously than I monitor anything else.

Around 2 this afternoon my Flock browser informed me there was an update to the Forecastfox Weather Plug-in. I figured this must be some sort of necessary improvement, so I clicked to do the update.

About 5 seconds later the Forecastfox Weather Plug-in was generating a connection error message. I tried all sorts of things to fix it. Uninstall, re-install, delete the temporary Internet files.

Then I Googled "Forecastfox Weather connection error" to learn I was not the only person vexed by this problem.

Around 4 I needed to get some outdoor action. I had to check the temperature via a more primitive means than I have grown used to, to learn it was 100 degrees.

I decided to to go Village Creek Natural Historic Area. I was pleasantly surprised at how much more pleasant 100 degrees is in the late afternoon with long shady shadows and a good breeze blowing.

A few things have always perplexed me about the Village Creek Natural Area. It's the natural part. Like the picture above. That is a part of the natural area where the paved trail crosses under power lines, with a broad swatch cleared through the natural trees for the power lines. The broad swatch creates a sort of tree canyon effect. That really is not very natural.

And then there is all that pavement. Not very natural.

And the viewing platform that looks out over the dried up Village Creek Bayou. The deck is made from planks made out of recycled plastic bags.

Anyway, I miss looking at the lower right hand corner of my browser and seeing the temperature. I think I'm experiencing some sort of temperature information withdrawal.

Hot In Fort Worth Cold In Seattle

The above is from this morning's Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Those are tourists on the deck of a ferry in Seattle's Town Lake, known as Elliott Bay. Elliott Bay was not built by the good ol' boy network that runs Seattle, because Seattle does not have a good ol' boy network that runs it. Elliott Bay is not the result of a bizarre public works boondoggle that the public did not vote for. Elliott Bay is provided by Mother Nature as part of Puget Sound, which is part of the Pacific Ocean.

This morning's article in the P-I was lamenting the unusually cold summer the Puget Sound area is experiencing. Apparently yesterday was very foggy until sometime around noon, when the sun managed to burn off the fog.

Two years ago, at about this exact date, I was up in the Seattle zone realizing I'd made a HUGE mistake in planning to stay for an entire month. At this point in time I still had 17 days to go before my scheduled escape back to sanity. I was so disgruntled I tried to get an early flight back, but in my confused, disgruntled state I was not thinking all that clearly and did not realize how easy Southwest Airlines would have facilitated my escape, til I told my Phoenix sister of my desperation when she called the day of my escape to ask how happy I was to be escaping.

The summer month of 2008 I did not bring cold weather clothes with me. I only had one pair of long pants. No sweat pants. No long underwear. No long sleeved shirts. No coat.

After about 2 weeks of watching me shiver my little sister took pity on me and came home with a coat she bought me at Costco. It is a wonderful coat. I wore it to bed nightly to help stave off the shivering. It helped.

This morning in Texas it is 80, heading to a high of 105. My air conditioner is currently keeping the interior temperature at 82. In Seattle the temperature this morning is 58, heading to a high of 75, 7 degrees colder than my air conditioned temperature.