WDM, IA - Heat and the Google Camera

As the weather and news reports say, it has been hot around here this summer. And, even hotter in other areas. Oklahoma, Kansas, all are setting 100-year records. And, then this massive heat dome moved east into the Mid-Atlantic states and New England. They’ve been suffering through temperatures in the low 100’s. In at the 14 years that we lived in New England, we never had to endure weather so extreme in the summer. Now, on the other hand, winter is a different story - we did have some snow storms.

We like to walk about 4+ miles a day and in weather like this, it is extremely difficult. We have mesh wicking shirts and running shorts and we wear hats but, unless you’ve got an air-conditioner strapped to your back, nothing you can wear can make this kind of weather seem cool. Of course, as a ‘lady’ I do NOT sweat, I merely ‘glisten.’ But I glisten buckets full.

An article in the newspaper a few days ago was headlined: ‘Healthy seniors sometimes ignore heat warnings.’ The gist of the article was that ‘old’ people should be extra cautious in weather like this BUT, no one wants to think of themselves as ‘old’ so no one thinks the warning applies to them. Me - at the age of 65, I think the warning apples to those in their 70’s or 80’s. Those are ‘old’ people. Me, I’m in the prime of my life.

However, Gary and I do want to be comfortable while we walk so we have been walking in the malls in the area. Much more comfortable. Of course, there are more ‘obstacles’ - oh, yeah, those are the shoppers - the ones who keep the malls open.

We walk in the malls, we have been known to eat cereal for dinner, we wear hats as we walk - man, are we ever ‘old.’ Maybe that article DOES apply to us.

And, by the way, as we were driving to the mall, we saw a fast-moving small car darting in and out of traffic with a strange tower on its roof. Why, it’s the Google Maps car, mapping our area. I kept trying to catch up with it so Gary could take a better picture with his phone-camera but this little car was moving too swiftly. The driver must be paid by the mile.

I rely on Google maps when planning our trips. Can we drive our RV down this curvy mountain road? Can we drive our RV into this gas station? Can we park our RV in this campground? Can we negotiate that corner? All of these questions can be answered on Google Maps. I also use them to plot distances between stops. When we get to an area where we will stay for a while I search Google Maps for the nearest grocery store, the nearest Barnes and Noble, the nearest library, etc. (Now, I use our iPhone to find the nearest ice cream shop.) But Google Maps is great when I’m at home, online and am writing down addresses for a town. When we get into the car, we’ve got the addresses to key into the GPS.

Thank you, Google.