“The Value of a College Education ”

There’s an old country song that has the chorus of “it’s too hot to fish, too hot for golf and too cold at home.” Well I don’t know about it being too cold at home but it is certainly too hot to fish, golf or do much else outdoors unless it involves cooling off in a pool, river, lake or spring. The scary thing about this current heat wave is that we are just in the middle of June.

As I write this column on Tuesday night we’ve had temperatures in the upper 90’s for the last week. A check of the 10 day forecast calls for 10 more days of the same. Well there is one day in there that we’ll get a cool snap as they are predicting a high of only 92.

Some folks say that the first real heat wave in June is always the worst, theorizing that our bodies just haven’t adjusted to the heat yet. They go on to say that the same type of heat wave experienced in July or August is just as hot, but our bodies are more acclimated to the heat. Others would theorize that this much of a heat wave early in the summer is proof of global warming.

Of course I have my own theories about the heat and I’ve expressed them before in this column. As a whole, most of us just aren’t able to handle the heat like we used to, you know, the so called good ole days. We’ve gone soft. And being a middle aged, overweight and out of shape fellow like myself doesn’t help with the heat. I readily confess that I purposely spend as much time as I can in doors under the air conditioning during these heat waves. But I find myself embarrassed when some of us bellyache about the heat on the way from the parking lot to our air conditioned offices.

When I catch me or my co-workers complaining about the heat on the way to our offices I always remind myself out loud, “It could be worse. I could be roofing for a living on a day like today.” In the summer of 1979 I helped put on a new roof in the middle of July. Simply put, that sold me on the value of a good college education.

If it weren’t so hot I’d take my hat is off to all the folks that have to make a living outdoors this time of the year. But I’ll keep my hat on for the time being to keep my head cool. So drink up folks, water that is, and stay as cool as possible ‘cause it’s going to be a long hot summer.

From the front porch: Uncle Bob said be careful not to argue with an idiot because somebody might be watching and not be able to tell the difference.