In a recent post about my travels, I described how I liked to converse.

[cachukis]

This evening, in a KOA along Route 66 in Tucumcari, NM, I struck up a chat with my neighbors from the east side of Galveston Bay. They live on a canal and have shrunk their downstairs living space considerably, wary of tidal surge. They are heading to Colorado to visit their daughter while escaping the heat.

I told them a bit about our travels and how I wished to avoid Phoenix. He wondered why and I told him that it was too hot. He recited a tale of how his air conditioner couldn't keep up demand as he visited friends earlier this summer.

I relayed why we rode through the desert to get to manageable temps. I was struck by his defense of Phoenix and Texas as good places to visit. The heat factor did not come into his purview.

When I reiterated that 110° was too much, he agreed.
I sense it never occured to him that I was managing my passage home with the least discomfort in spite of his own desire to escape his own.

The dichotomy of retinal refraction is wonderous.

[elleng]

1. Thanks. Keep writing, cachukis.

[cachukis]

3. As an aside, Tucumcari is working to get stopovers. The city of 5800

sits midway between Gallup and Elk City, a prime rest area for RVers. Not much to do otherwise. Route 66 is gone.
I suspect most of mid-America is befuddled at how to renew its importance.
Maybe melting Greenland is it's best hope. Oh wait, it was 95° when we arrived. Thankfully my AC works.
Maybe wormholes?

[marybourg]

21. They've been working on it for 35 years, that I'm aware of.

Their tag-line used to be “Tucumcari Tonite”!

[brush]

2. "The dichotomy of retinal refraction is wonderous." How apt.

“it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair.

Sub in what ever word for "salary" that applies.

[cachukis]

4. Love that quote.

[former9thward]

5. People in Phoenix have air conditioning and it works.

Mine is set at about 72 right now and never has a problem. Interestingly I will be in Tucumcari tomorrow night. It is always my first stop driving to Chicago.

[cachukis]

6. Talking about RV's. Great rest stop here. Have a friend who went

to Carlsbad, NM and with 2 AC's in his Airstream, couldn't get it below 83°. Everything in an RV needs to cool off.

Think about those in Phoenix who don't have that luxury. Enjoy being cool.

[cachukis]

9. Since I'm here in Tucumcari, what should I look for as a remembrance?

[Snooper9]

7. Phoenix is a true dry heat

Like you're in a broiler where you don't sweat...

Prices are good if you want to retire there, but-
Wood Cabin in Pagosa Springs sounds better

[cachukis]

8. Know the dry heat. My sinuses and skin respond poorly.

Read NYT article today about those without remedies.
Not a place I want to go. Summer is just beginning. If it's 90 days over 110 what will it be by 2030? Indoors?

[Snooper9]

11. To start, solar panels for sure

radiant barrier, and a good Carrier A/C system (18SER) 3 ton - should work on a 2300sqf house there

[cachukis]

14. Perhaps you are missing something.

[Snooper9]

18. HOT VERSUS COLD: THE DICHOTOMY IN SPHERICAL ACCRETION OF COOLING FLOWS ONTO SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES

ABSTRACT
Feedback heating from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) has been commonly invoked to suppress cooling flows predicted in hot gas in elliptical galaxies, galaxy groups, and clusters. Previous studies have focused on if and how AGN feedback heats the gas but have little paid attention to its triggering mechanism. Using spherically symmetric simulations, we investigate how large-scale cooling flows are accreted by central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in eight well-observed systems and find an interesting dichotomy. In massive clusters, the gas develops a central cooling catastrophe within about the cooling time (typically ?100–300 Myr), resulting in cold-mode accretion onto SMBHs.

more-

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/780/2/126

[marybourg]

23. Or - perhaps *you* are.

[cachukis]

25. Are you saying living in 110 dry heat is something I should not miss?

[marybourg]

27. No. You can miss whatever you like.

But you seem not to get the idea that other people have other ideas about what they want to embrace, or miss. And that their ideas are just as valid as yours.

[cachukis]

28. I have no problem with that. I merely mentioned that I decided

against travelling through Phoenix because of the heat and thought it ironic that my next door neighbor was curious why I wouldn't go through Texas as well. He was escaping the heat near Beaumont to visit his daughter in Colorado.
As a person who reads a lot, I discovered that refrigerator semis were being used to store bodies that didn't survive the high temperatures.
We are older and having breakfast on my picnic table here at 79° was quite pleasant.
In my youth, I was surprised that 16° in Heavenly Valley during a ski visit was quite mild.
I played golf two years ago just east of Phoenix and 98° was nothing compared to the humidity I live with in Florida.
Drove north through the Mojave Preserve at 117° to Kingman. Didn't want to spend the night there.
Plugging into the energy grid for AC is normal, but when everyone needs to plug in, there will be a greater reliance on what's causing the heat in the first place.
We leave our AC on in Florida at 78°. I must be foolish thinking my lower consumption of energy will not matter because someone will keep their homes cooler.
But 78° it will be for us.

[marybourg]

30. Re-read your #17.

[cachukis]

31. I don't think you were in the discussion at that time. I did not mean to insinuate that

your perspective was disingenuous, but I sensed one or another was. Just a sense without being accusatory. That is all.

[marybourg]

33. Your attitude wasn't directed at me, but at any DU-er whose

perspective on where they find acceptable weather differs from yours.

The entire thread was a put down of those who are fortunate enough to live in warm climates and are now suffering from an extended adverse weather event, just as those who live in colder climates have recently suffered storms, floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, feet-deep snow, etc., etc.

[cachukis]

34. Wow. I don't understand how you equated my desire to avoid the

heat on my travels with dissing people's choices for their habitats. I have no problem with people living where they do.
I did get a response about getting a 5 ton unit as a solution to warm weather.
I have lived in Florida for 44 years and know a little bit about AC. A 5 ton unit is overkill for a 2500 ft home.
How that related to me in my travels wanting to avoid Phoenix is a stretch.
On the other hand, my last week in 110° plus environs allows me empathy with those who deal with it. I will recall getting out of the truck to be buffeted with toaster oven insight.
I live in Florida and am very aware of the impacts of our changing climate. No where did I suggest that people who live in higher temperatures should feel bad about their circumstance. I am going to avoid excessive heat. I am going to avoid hurricanes.
I am also going to avoid trolls. When someone equates Black Holes with me travelling in an Airstream I am suspect. That was my point.
If you choose to feel badly about my response to heat, please accept my apology. Enjoy your summer.

[marybourg]

22. 5 ton.

[marybourg]

24. You sweat. But your sweat dries almost instantly, producing a cooling

effect which is what makes a dry heat more comfortable than a humid heat.

[barbtries]

10. what is a KOA?

thanks

[cachukis]

12. Kampgrounds of America.

[Snooper9]

13. you're too fast :)

What is KOA in medical terms?
Abbreviation: KOA = knee osteoarthritis.

[cachukis]

15. Please.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. I lived in Tucson 1962-1968, when I was in high school In Phoenix

1983-1987, as an adult.

I have always disliked hot weather. And please, don't go with the "It's a dry heat" bullshit. It's still fucking hot. Turn a hair dryer on your face for twenty minutes and you'll get the idea.

Oh, and I've lived in a bunch of climates: northern NYS, Tucson, the DC area, Minneapolis, Denver. You get the idea. I currently live in Santa Fe, NM, and at 7,000 feet I don't normally need a/c. Except for this year. I got a/c several years ago, and honestly used it less than six weeks in the summer, and not even every day of those three weeks. This year? I've been running it since mid-May, every single day. It's not cooling down as much overnight as it used to, and I'm extremely grateful for a/c.

Trust me, I'd be willing to move farther north/to a colder climate. Cold weather isn't that bad. You can dress for it. As my ex said when we were living in Phoenix, the only way to dress for the heat is to wear an air-conditioned car.

[cachukis]

17. Reality. I'm thinking some of the responses are less than genuine.

[cachukis]

19. I'm laughing at No 18.

[ITAL]

20. Some people just aren't as bothered by the heat

And some are extremely bothered by cold. My Mom for instance...I grew up in Texas and she loved the summer. She'd complain every now and again if we had a streak of twenty-five or thirty straight 100 degree days, but that was it.

On the other hand the second it got below about 50 degrees she complained. Didn't matter how many coats she put on she'd never get warm and whined for the next couple of months till it started to warm again.

[llmart]

26. And that can all change as you age.

I used to despise winter when I was younger and couldn't wait for the summer months. I grew up in a cold winter climate. In my 30's I moved South. I loved that we didn't get much snow and no blizzards at all, but it took a couple of years to get used to not seeing the kids out playing in the summertime. Overall, in my younger days I liked the tradeoffs of no snow and hotter summers. However, I moved back to a colder climate state years later and I did not want to. Now, the older I get the winters don't bother me that much. The winters are also much milder and for the past three years we're lucky if we get two accumulative snows a winter. I'm not one of those senior citizens who wants to move to Florida. I go once a year to visit my son who lives there, but I have never liked the state. I like it even less with the politics of it now.

[cachukis]

29. We are retired school teachers and have been very frustrated by the

politics. We sold the big house and bought a condo in our neighborhood to keep our docs and friends. We stay for winter and now travel in our 1970 Airstream to cooler climes in the summer.
My wife grew up in Chicago and I moved south from New England in 1979.
We like the low 50's at night and the high 70's during the day.

[llmart]

32. Best of both worlds for you.

Those are my ideal temps too! That's pretty much what Michigan summers are like and it's fine by me. Our winters aren't really so awful these days and having grown up in a snowy area of Ohio, I still love some snow in winter, especially that very first snow or the ones that are big, fat flakes but it's not below zero outside.