Heat.

It was completely dark, and there was a cat. I was walking past and couldn’t tell what it was at first, and then I looked down and there he was, just standing there looking at me. Didn’t jump, didn’t move, just kind of looked at me curiously. I thought, man, this is great. Hey, buddy. I tried to pet him, but he ran off. Fair enough.

I go walking pretty early, sometimes around four in the morning, and it’s nice because you can still see some stars, and some cats too. Cats seem ready to go at that hour. They’re already out there running around doing whatever cats do before everybody else wakes up. Anyway, there’s a church sign where I walk that shows the temperature, and I looked up at it around 4:45 and it said 80 degrees. I was like, ooh. It’s gonna get hot today.

That got me thinking about when I was younger and doing roofing. Me and my wife roofed for a while when we were in our early twenties, and man, West Texas could get hot. I’d say once it gets around 99, 100, 101, that’s when it starts getting seriously hot. I remember one day we were up on a roof and the shingles were getting so hot they were starting to soften up,  melting, and we were fixing to have to wrap it up because you just couldn’t work up there anymore. Which was perfectly fine with me. I had no interest in roofing at 102 degrees.

Right when we were getting ready to stop, though, everything got completely still. I mean nothing moved. You couldn’t hear a cricket. No cars. No dogs barking. Nothing. Even the squirrels looked like they were just laying flat on the branches trying not to participate anymore. It was that kind of heat where the whole world seems to decide, nope, we’re done.

And I swear the sun started humming. That’s what it felt like. Like this low, steady hum coming down out of the sky and pressing into the ground. The sun was just kicking everything’s ass. I remember standing there thinking I needed to get off that roof, but it was so hot I almost had to just stop for a second.

Then all of a sudden it got just the tiniest bit cooler. Barely anything. I looked up, and there was this tiny little white cloud that had drifted right between me and the sun. Just one little cloud. And I remember thinking, thank you so much, white cloud. Seriously. Thank you.

Now, I thought I knew what hot was because I grew up with West Texas heat. My father in law lived in Yuma, Arizona for a long time, though, and Yuma is something else. I went out there thinking, yeah, I know heat. I understand heat. It’s hot, you find some shade, get some iced tea, try not to complain too much. No. Yuma is different. Once it gets past about 109 or 110, I don’t even know if my body can tell the difference anymore. It’s just hot. Like, scientifically hot. Spiritually hot. You walk outside and immediately understand that the sun has won.

Anyway. Heat. It’s gonna be hot today. Probably not Yuma hot, but pretty dang hot. Drink your water out there y'all and stay hydrated.

P.S. Does anyone think I should, like, put four spaces at the front of the first word of every paragraph? Would it make it easier on the eyes for reading?°❀⋆☮︎☮︎☮︎