The Heat

Today was supposed to be a food bank day. It's just going to be too hot to even try this week. The food bank I would normally go to this week is just too far away so I will have to get creative with meals until next week.

With all that said, being on the street in this kind of heat can be a real challenge for most homeless folks.The shelters will be full of people staying in out of the heat as will the Day Resource Center. The various branches of the library will see some of the homeless show up too But not all the homeless people can or will go where it is cool and at some point even the people who are indoors will have to return back outside for a time.

Take me for example. Right now as I write this I am sitting in a branch library where it is comfortable but I will have to leave here when they close which will be at 6:00pm. It's a guarantee that the temperature then will still be in the 100's and I will have a 2 or 3 mile bike ride to camp. My only saving grace at camp is that I have a clean stream running nearby to cool off in. Even so, the temperature at camp will not cool off enough to sleep until sometime after midnight.

Yesterday I went through about a gallon of drinking water ( no not creek water ). I have to haul drinking water from a clean source about 1/2 mile away and at 7+ pounds per gallon you can imagine that I do not haul much water at any one time. Water is extremely important as you may imagine and keeping plenty on hand is a real chore.

About the only options in this kind of heat that people like me have are to find a cool spot, a shady spot if we are outdoors, plenty of water and lots of patience. Which brings to mind another problem when the heat gets like this. Peoples tempers get short. Many times behind alcohol but just the heat alone without alcohol can cause real issues among all of us who must be outdoors. There will be arguments and sometimes even fights. It will not be pretty.

Somehow many of us make it through the heat. Some will not do very well. There will be heat related physical problems. There will heat related anger issues. There will even be several people who will drink a few beers with unpleasant results. It's not fun but that's the way it is.