...hell frozen over.

I went walking this afternoon in the Tonto National Forest, which is only a mile down the road from my daughter's house. Near Phoenix. In Arizona. It's certainly a different kind of "forest." A forest of cactus. Big cactus. Much of it 30 feet tall. And all kinds of trees that one doesn't find in Minnesota. The air is awfully dry. Plays havoc with my nose. Dries everything out. But they have a wet season down here, too. Floods a couple months ago. Anyway, it's such a different kind of world. Which makes it fascinating. The weather is nicer here than in Minnesota at this time of year. But over the course of a year, I'll take Minnesota over Arizona. It gets terribly hot here in the summer. Like 115 degrees fahrenheit. And it "cools" off to 90 degrees at nighttime. But everything is air-conditioned. I don't know how the early settlers survived in the heat. Contrast that with 30 below zero in a Minnesota winter. A range of 145 degrees between an Arizona summer and a Minnesota winter. Folks down here say it's a dry heat. But 115 degrees, even when it's a dry 115, must be like hell. And I suppose some people would say that 30 below zero is hell frozen over. --Jim Broede