The HAWK!!!

I just came back from a trip to the downtown area of Phoenix, on a day when the mercury did not go up in it's normal fashion. What I'm trying to say is, it was frickin' cold! I saw things that I've never seen before and had a hard time getting my 64 year old mind wrapped around it. The thing that stands out most in my mind, was a homeless woman, who I originally thought to be an alcoholic by the red tone to her face, wrapped up tightly in a blanket, sitting on a bus stop bench with clearly nowhere to go. Then I realized she was red because of the severe cold. For us it was blistering cold. My car temperature read it to be 51 degrees, but I passed an outside temperature reading of 48 and that was at 3 PM. Here is another look that you folks in the rest of the country except Florida and Southern California, have probably seen, but here in the Valley of the Sun, we've not had a chance to enjoy until today, are the people that wear a baseball cap and a hoody over it, creating the look of a duck-billed platypus walking down the street! Now that's a fashion statement.

Arriving at my appointment, I opened the door to my car and immediately the wind grabbed the door and sprung it to it's widest possible opening without breaking the hinge. Being from Chicago, a flashback came over me and without warning, I belched out the words, "THE HAWK" is back and after me! The hawk is the name given to the wind coming in off of Lake Michigan, that holds the city hostage for most of the winter months. Not a friendly wind by any means, it waits in unknown areas just waiting to pounce on unsuspecting tourists and take away their breath and hats, all in one smooth gasping motion. No, the HAWK was not a memory of passion, but of terror!

My next stop was to go to the grocery store, but I realized it was far too cold for anything but huddling under a blanket and out of the severe elements. Do you think I've been here in the sunshine too long?