Missing the point

After a slow start the hot weather has finally arrived again. I don't know what the max temperature was today (somewhere around 109?). I can report that it was 96 at midnight so we're possibly not far away from the 100 at midnight that I rave on about at length.

I can't remember if I've specifically written about it but the heat of Phoenix carries a human toll; every year some dozens of people die of heat exhaustion and/or thirst (and that's not including the count, rather higher, of those who die crossing the border and perish in the desert).

You might expect more of a hue and cry until you realise that those who die are, for the most part, 'street' people. I vividly remember seeing a 'street' person fall over in Williams Street Melbourne, about thirty years ago. Everyone walked past, careful not to notice this old, unshaven, dirty (and probably smelly) guy gasping for breath on the pavement. I wasn't much better myself though I did call for an ambulance. My excuse? I didn't know what else to do. Poor enough excuse methinks.

I don't know if he died that day or not.

Today, as I drove to the office listening to KTAR[^] (I really must find an alternative to the obnoxious Ankarlo - alas Charles Goyette is gone) they ran a 'public announcement' to the effect that, now that it was the height of summer, there were drinking water and air-conditioned refuges available to those who needed them. So far so good, they do this every year. But what took my breath away was the continued advice to 'log on' to their website to find the locations!