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Tucson Heat
Mon Aug 25, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. Today, Jeff Rice gives us a slice of summer
life in Tuscon.
Mornings are the coolest time, of course, but everything is relative. The
day wakes up with the heat still running through its veins. By about 9 a.m.
it begins to feel its hangover. The sunlight is suddenly painfully bright.
It will be 100 degrees long before noon.
The motel is along the miracle mile, a skid row lined by tall, fraying palm
trees.
The place is empty except for a cheerful man who has been here since March.
It was cooler when he arrived, but the weekly rates are pretty good in the
summer. He has settled in and he doesn't go out much now.
"No need to open the door. Get some take-out. Get a few drinks."
He came here all the way from Las Vegas, he says. He is vague about why.
"I escaped Las Vegas and I came here because there was a very nice vegetarian restaraunt over
here. I packed my saddle bags and rode right over"
I'll give him that. Why press him? Why would a sane person be here in the
summer anyway? It is 110 degrees in the shade and you can get a third degree
burn by tripping and falling on the sidewalk.
The vegetarian food... Good enough for me. Like Humphrey Bogart in
Casablanca who said he came there "for the waters."
The man is grinning and joking. His eyes are watery and red, but bright,
like he is so happy he is almost crying.
When you want to go, when the mood strikes, you get up and go. And you know,
you're going for a good time, heat is a small price to pay.
Jeff Rice usually reports in from a much cooler Boise, Idaho. The Weather Notebook is funded
by Subaru of America, and The National Science Foundation.
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