“Is it hot enough for you?”
Yes, it is. It’s hot enough to stay inside, squeeze a lemon and sip ice cold lemonade under the ceiling fan. It’s hot enough to remember being a teenager and tossing hay bales in upstate New York and be thankful I don’t have to do that anymore. Very few farmers do it that way now with today’s technology.
It’s hot enough to recall a summer in Arizona when my brothers earned extra money picking grapefruit in the citrus orchards. Even with the desert’s nearly nil humidity, in that heat I preferred an afternoon at the swimming pool over cash.
Is it hot enough for you?
Well, my son-in-love didn’t think it was too hot when he signed up for the annual July New York City Triathlon. To prepare for these grueling races, he runs up and down the hills of Arkansas, pedals vigorously on his bike and cools off with laps in the pool. He practices through the chill of winter and the heat of summer so he has the endurance to participate in Triathlons. He didn’t think it was too hot to take his four children and my daughter to NYC for walking tours of the city in the days before and after the race.
The kids whine, “It’s hot!” as they strolled down the streets of New York exploring the stores, the sites and the history.
“We walked nine miles today,” my daughter reported the day before the race. The kids complained about the heat until they saw a street performer doing gymnastics and invited an audience member to join them. One granddaughter raised her hand, tucked in her shirt and copied him in movements and somersaults down the sidewalk. It wasn’t too hot to move then.
But weather predictions looked too hot for NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio. He asked the directors of the triathlon to call it off. The directors considered all the racers coming from around the city and the nation. They decided the predicted heat wave was hot enough to call off the race three days before the event.
The decision came too late for the racers, like my son-in-love, who had already arrived for the race. Not everyone was happy to cancel a year of planning because someone else decided, “It’s hot enough for us.” Or, as my daughter protested the day of the cancellation, “It was cool today!”
The directors canceled this year but they still plan on holding it in July next year simply because these things have to be scheduled two and three years in advance. Other race directors joined the NYC-Tri in canceling long scheduled weekend races. According to Runners World, races included the NYC marathon training race, horse races in New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Even auto racing in Kalamazoo, Michigan was canceled due to concerns of drivers overheating.
Is it hot enough for you?
Well it is a deadly heat this summer as we realized with the news that former Arkansas football player Mitch Petrus, 32, died after suffering a heat-related illness. He reported feeling sick after working outside all day and in the shop. The official cause of his death is listed as heat stroke, according to the Associated Press. While the thermometer read in the 90s, the heat index that day rose over 100. That’s too hot and humid for even trained athletes on a day when conditions match the temperatures expected on the days of the canceled races.
Is it hot enough for you? Yes, it is folks, Hot enough for you to stay in the shade, drink plenty of lemonade and keep cool. Before you know it someone will ask, “is it cold enough for you?”