Hot vs. Cold

A patient came in yesterday and told me that she would much rather live somewhere that has a hard winter than somewhere like St. George with a ridiculous summer. I straight up laughed in her face.

She has lived here he whole life and has never experienced winter. So I decided to fill her in.

Feet of snow. Feet
Not just feet of snow but Drifting snow
Wind chill
Freezing Rain
Scraping ice off of your car
Sweeping snow off your car
Driving on sheets of ice, turning a 30 minute commute into 3 hours
Slipping and falling on said sheets of ice
Heaven forbid the heat in your car doesn't like you, you'll be toting around blankets and crying

She said that she figured you could only take so many clothes off but could always put more on. Plus, you could build a fire. Again I laughed in her face. Unless I have a fireplace I don't know where I'm building this mystical magical fire that will keep me warm in the negative degree weather with the wind whipping tiny shards of ice at my face.



Been there, done that. I'll take the blistering, hell of a summer here. Why? Because I can drive easily, float in a pool, and I know that it will end in a couple months and not drag on for a half a year.

Which looks more pleasant to you?

Hello?

Yes, we're here.

I just took a little bloggy break due to this summer being a complete dud. I figured no one needed to listen to me complain about everything. It's been a hard little spell for us but, hopefully, it's all coming to and end. Chad starts school on Monday and that means that summer, for us, is officially over. Thank goodness.

And while school starting doesn't necessarily solve all our problems, it's the beginning of a new season and we are banking on everything working itself out. Keep your fingers crossed.

Let the FAILing continue

Recent Fails:

• Trying to take pictures of the moon
• Trying to take pictures of the sunset
• Trying to take pictures of the sunset again
• Trying to hike at Red Cliffs
• Trying to lay out in the sun and tan up a bit
• Trying to run
• Trying to swim in the pool
• Trying to rock climb
• Trying to take Rukia to the dog park
• Trying sushi in St. George... again

Friday happened to be a doozy. We drove out to Red Cliffs with the pup expecting to be able to hike a short ways to some awesome pools and cool off. It was a long drive in the hot car. We made it all the way out there only to find that they had shut it down due to flash flooding damage. We were hoping the rain would fill up the pools, not shut them down. Bummer.

So we drove back home and decided to go hang out in the pool. After 10 minutes the dark clouds rolled in and we rolled out. Back inside we went.

Later that night we tried a new sushi place. Chad's friend from church really liked it so we thought we would give it a try. Worst decision ever. We only got two rolls, since we had be burned before, and only managed to eat the one. We had Tums for dessert and cursed them on Yelp. While we thought we had learned our lesson before, we are really hoping that we have now, do not eat sushi in St. George. Just don't.

The dog park was a fail Sunday night, she tried to say "hi" to the anti-social aggressive dog. It ended in doggy tears and yelps. So we went to the park near our house and ran around outside, the three of us in the COOL night air. It was glorious. Rukia figured out how to pick up a Frisbee and we loved the breeze. Yesterday we were commenting on how nice it was outside, and how it was so wonderful that, while hot, we didn't feel like we were going to die. It was 98°.

Hopefully your weeks have been slightly more successful than ours and you are all enjoying your hot and sweaty summer :)

♪ I think I'm Paranoid ♪

Friday afternoon we had a knock at our door. Chad goes to answer it and it's a young guy going around from a carpet cleaning company. They're new in town and are offering a deal, they'll clean one room for free! Can he come in and take a look at our most high traffic area?

Yeah, sure, why not, right? So he comes in our doorway and briefly tells us about their magical foam cleaning that they do, someone can be here in 10 minutes to clean our carpets! Then his attention shifts to all of our electronics that we have out. And we literally had all of them out, in one spot, right in front of him. Chad's camera gear catches his fancy and suddenly he forgets all about the carpets and starts asking Chad questions about his photography. Then he wants to know what kind of dog we have. All the while, eyeing all of our stuff.

We decline the free cleaning and ask for a brochure that he said he had with prices and such. Except for now he doesn't have any. He doesn't have a brochure, pamphlet, not even a business card. So he leaves and goes to our neighbors house and we are sitting, looking at each other, thinking... he just cased our house.

So being the crazy people we are, we run around the house, double checking all the locks on the windows and doors and then came back and still felt pretty awful. We knew for a fact this little twerp just put us on his "To Rob" list.

So instead of feeling super paranoid the rest of the night, we called the police. They were here in less than 10 minutes, said it sounded a little fishy to them too, and went and checked it out.

Luckily they checked out, one of the guys going around had a business license, or whatever type of license you need. We were happy that they were legit and that we didn't need to be paranoid the rest of the night, although we may have packed up all of our things and took them with us when we went out to Subway that night. Because we've seen It Takes a Thief and know that 5 minutes is just long enough. Paranoid much?

Heat Induced Rage

Chad and I have come to a very important realization.

All the turmoil in the middle east? All comes down to one thing.

It's too freakin' hot. Waaaaaaay too hot.

Sand Dunes at Snow Canyon

We are normally very nice people. My patients love me, the nursing home folks love me, Chad's young men at church think he great, our primary kids seemed to like us too ;) All of our bosses and coworkers seemed to generally like us as well. We are generally pleasant people.

Except when it's over 100°. It's turning us into crazy, deranged, mad people.

We were driving home from the grocery store last week when I decided to loose my mind. We were in our car trying to get out of the parking lot. I am on fire, dripping in sweat, and outrageously jealous of everyone in their cars with their stupid windows rolled up with their A/C blasting. So I am slightly irritated when a small group of people decide that it would be awesome to stop in the middle of the road right next to the store opening and chit chat. I am dying here people, let's move it onto the sidewalk!!! And that is in fact what I decided to yell out my window, like a lunatic, to these people.

"Move it onto the sidewalk people!"

Not my finest moment, I generally try to avoid yelling at random people in public, but the heat...

Later that week we had to go to the post office. Which, let's just be honest, is annoying on a good day. Chad waits in the car for me to run in. It of course takes me longer than it should and as we are trying to leave, so is the car to our left, and the car to our right. The car to our right backs out first and before she can shift into drive, the car to our left decides to pull out in front of her and block us all in. Now we are in Utah, so this somehow turns into a 234 point turn. She's taking forever, cutting us all off, and we are hotter than you know what. So I, of course, reach over and start honking the horn. And Chad starts yelling like a crazy person out the window at her. You guys, she was right there. And unlike my parking lot rant, we couldn't just drive away. There were people going in and out of the post office, staring at the two crazy, red faced, sweaty people, yelling up a storm at the woman next to us, who refused to look at us (smart lady) and couldn't back out of a parking spot to save her life.

The heat people, it messes with you.

115°

It has been unseasonably hot here. Which means that it has been unseasonably quiet around here as well. Temperatures above 110° only allow for certain types of activities:

• Eating Sno Cones
• Lying perfectly still underneath ceiling fans
• Drinking outrageous amounts of water
• Hiding in your house from the sun

To top it all off we have no A/C in our car. Which means we are seriously not leaving this house, except for work... and to get sno cones of course. It also means we are back to the season of wearing as little clothing as possible. This is one of the reasons there aren't many pictures happening around these parts. Boringness + Nakedness = No Pictures. This actually really does cut down on the whole laundry thing though so there's one perk I guess.

We did attempt to go out last week. We thought we would take some pictures of the most awesome sunsets we've been having lately. So we headed out with the pup and after failing to get any good pictures, we were HOT. Because even though the sun was down and no longer assaulting us on all fronts, it was still over 100°. And while it may not be humid, "but it's a drrrrryyy heat", it's still over 100°, and that my friends, is too hot, no matter how you slice it.

So for now we will stick to the comfort of our house, do P90X like crazy people, and wait for the heat to cool it, at least a little, before we head back outside again.