EMPS: Frozen Cure for the Summertime Blues

Now is the summer of my discontent...

Okay, that's an overly dramatic paraphrase, but that's how I've been feeling recently. Although I supposedly qualify for a new benefit year for unemployment benefits, they still aren't in place, and none of the avenues for (re)applying for them actually work. I've had no income since the end of May other than my small paychecks from St. Michael's. I had a supposed job interview yesterday, but it turned out to be a "cattle call" "reverse interview" to recruit commissioned insurance agents. Sorry, but I'd be terrible at that! And today I had a rather prickly conversation with a recruiter of people for medical industry. It turns out that billing coders need specialized knowledge that I don't have - which helps to explain why I've been unable to break in with any sort of accounting position. I just don't have the grounding in insurance codes and medical regulations.

And it's hot. 101 degrees, as seen on my car thermometer above, isn't a remarkable temperature for Tucson in July. Given all the recent days at 107 to 109, it seems a bit cool - until you realize that the photo was taken at 7:30 in the evening! The monsoon has started, so it's not "a dry heat." It's been relatively humid, and so far we haven't had much rain to cool things off.

So when Carly asks for things "Seen In Summer" for the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot, I inevitably think about the worst part of summer in Tucson as well as my personal malaise. But I also think of something I see pretty much every time I drive to and from the dog park. You see, there's a Dairy Queen on the way....

...and I've wanted to photograph it for a while now. Every evening in this hundred degree weather, people line up to buy ice cream.

It's mostly an evening thing, according to my observations. I'm guessing that most Tucsonans spend the day in their air conditioned offices and houses and stores, and emerge at night once it starts to cool off. At the dog park, there definitely seem to be more and more dogs around at dusk. It makes sense; I've been worrying for a while now about taking Pepper out in 100 degree weather. After all, her breed is meant to be herding reindeer in the frozen north!

I love ice cream. If carbs, calories, cash and crowds didn't argue so forcefully against the practice, I'd eat ice cream every day. I'm especially fond of Dairy Queen's cherry sundaes and their chocolate-dipped cones. But every night, no matter how tempted I am, I see that line out to the edge of 22nd Street, and more cars making their way around the DQ building. That's when I say, "Not today!" and keep driving past.

But once in a while, say on a Wednesday afternoon with no dogs in the car, I succumb.

Karen