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Tuesday, June 30, 2015

That Good Ole Monsoon Feeling

Early shade break
I know I've mentioned this feeling before, but it's a good one.  The morning is hot and noticeably humid.  No clouds in the sky.  The absence of even a breeze makes the heat stifling.  A long, arduous hike raises your body temperature, and you're perspiring.  You stop in the shade of a Yucca to get some relief.  A light wind picks up before dying almost immediately.  Then the wind freshens, blowing across your exposed face, arms and legs, causing your sweat to evaporate quickly in the body's efficient mechanism for natural cooling.  Somehow the physical relief is mental as well, generating an ever-so-temporary sense of well being.   Then the wind dies.  The feeling is gone.  Only the memory of the epiphany remains.
New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum (center right)

Past the Ocotillos

Rain Lily seed pods

Closeup of the pods

Circling before plopping down

Plopped

Shady respite

Not just yet, okay?

I believe this is a Fire Ant with a heavy load

I'm always on ant lookout when Becca lies in the sand

Two young women walking horses on Geothermal Road

3 comments:

Dr. K said...

I envy those young women with the horses--must be nice to ride them during the summertime.

Scott said...

I have to conduct my Breeding Bird Survey at the end of May and beginning of June. I try to choose days as pleasant as possible to conduct the surveys, but sometimes I just can't be too choosy because of a long stretch of consistently poor weather. As a result, sometimes I have to go out on days that are very warm and very humid. It takes me about 20 minutes to walk to my site, and I try to get there as quickly as possible because then I can start (and finish) the day's survey as close to sunrise as possible. So, I walk very briskly, during which my core body temperature goes way up and I sweat a lot to try to bring my temperature back down. Once I get to my survey starting point, I stand at the point for ten minutes, then move on to the next survey point, where I again stand for 10 minutes; you get the picture. What I've found is that it usually takes me 30 minutes (3 survey points) to cool back to normal and stop sweating like a pig after I work up a sweat on the walk over. Sounds like your experience today.

packrat said...

I was trying to be more poetic, Scott, but "sweating like a pig" sums it up pretty well.

:)

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