JUST SO HOT

Dear Spike:

It broke 90 today. Maybe hit 95 in some parts of the city. Whatever, it was hot. And summer only just started.

Seems like just yesterday that everyone was complaining about the cold, wet spring we'd been having. Heck, it practically was yesterday — well, it was last week, in any case.

Last week!

"Oh my heck," they were saying. "I just don't know why summer isn't here yet."

And then, this week: "Oh goodness gravy, it's just so hot!"

Here's the thing about Salt Lake City: We're sitting at about 4,300 feet altitude, so winters are pretty damn cold. We're also sort of in the middle of the desert, so summers are pretty damn hot.

And there's really not that much in between. A bit of a wet fall, a wetter spring — neither lasts too long.

None of it's intolerable. The cold stuff comes along with an awesome snowpack in the Wasatch Mountains — almost 800 inches this year, in the canyons. I went snowboarding on Memorial Day in a foot of powder. The warm stuff opens up those very same canyons for hiking an biking and camping and bird watching. It's all minutes from our front door.

Don't complain. It's silly. It doesn't change anything. And it disrespects the very forces of Mother Nature that hold us here.

It's supposed to drop back into the 80s for the rest of the week. Nice stuff.

Don't get used to it.

Love,
dad