IN MY SHOES: How Arizonans Weather The Heat
The Arizona Republic’s Karina Bland, who moved to the state as a teenager, offers her personally-tested tips on dealing with triple-digit heat:
In the car, we drive with just two fingers on the sizzling steering wheel and our elbows cocked outward so that the air-conditioning can blast right up our shirtsleeves.
We clench 32-ounce ThirstBusters between our legs - even though our cars now have at least 12 cupholders - as we travel through the haze coming off the asphalt, not because we're so thirsty, but because it keeps us cooler. …
Against conventional wisdom about light-colored clothing being cooler, we wear black when it's 112 degrees so no one can tell how sweaty we are. …
We take two showers a day, one in the morning and one at night, switch to sweat-proof mascara and cotton underwear, moisturize with sunscreen and pull our hair into ponytails, twists or top knots - and leave it there all summer.
We drink gallons of cold water and venture out only in the evening hours, like vampires. We ride bikes at twilight, do our grocery shopping after dark and mow the lawn by porch light. (Just don't use the weed whacker in the dark. Trust me.)
We judge a good parking space not by how close it is to the mall but by the wisp of shade thrown by the pitiful parking-lot tree.
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