Many years ago I saw a bumper sticker that I never forgot.
It was about this time of year when I saw it. And it read: "I'm not going to hell when I die, I live in Phoenix."
And I was reminded of it when I went out outside this morning at around 9 AM and it was already around one hundred degrees.
As I opened the door it seemed like a flaming blast furnace hit me in the face, sucking all of the oxygen from my lungs.
After I got into my car and cooled down for a moment I quickly got into acceptance, which is the credo I live by today. After all, the weather can be an interesting topic of conversation, but it's another one of those things we can't do a lot about. The only thing we can change is our circumstances, which means we get into the swimming pool or go into an air-conditioned room and continue with our day. And stay hydrated.
In my role as a businessman, I have a lot of conversations with people from the east. And when they hear what the temperature is they ask questions like, "how do you live there?" Or, "how do you stand it?"
My answer's always the same: "we live here in the summer just like you live there in the winter. When it gets too intolerable, we just go indoors."
I think one thing that helps me deal with the weather, besides acceptance, is that I arrived here July 25, 1982, at the Greyhound station in downtown Phoenix, when it was over 100°.
Knowing that I couldn't return to my former home in Orange County, California, I reluctantly accepted the fact that my new home in Arizona was just a hot place to live.
And once we accept things that are hard to deal with they become less of a problem.
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