Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Writer waits for fall weather

I dont know about you but 104 degrees boils my body and my brain.

In the past journey of my writing career, I have written many pieces on the heat and how it effects the older population.

Most of them recommend that we dont get out much in the heat so we can avoid heart attacks, strokes and other potentially deadly health risks none of us like to think about.

I look around Gurdon in July and the first part of August and realize people must be taking this advice pretty seriously.

You dont see a whole lot of people outdoors.

I love the park. The couple of times a week I go out there for a walk in this heat, it is almost a certainty I will have the place to myself.

The fact that I am out there twice a week these days instead of for a nice walk every day about 5 p.m. tells you that the heat is slowing me down as well.

But like many problems and irritations in life, waiting something out that is bothering us is sometimes the best way to go.

In all likelihood, the extreme heat around Gurdon will not end with the first week of August, but the football players will be practicing for our fall entertainment.

And bless their hearts, they have been voted to beat Prescott and the rest of the teams in their new conference this year. Coaches were asked their opinions to get these predictions. So we are all waiting to see how much the coaches really know. In the meantime, it feels good to be part of a city that was voted number one!

Whether it is heat or maybe a job you are getting a lot of heat in, waiting something out is not always the wrong solution. It just might be the only logical one.

We as a town can wait out the killer heat until football season gives us something else to think about.

In other words, as one friend here, Ellis Stafford, has said to me on several occasions these past couple of years, it is many times better to wring out a towel and keep walking across a desert in your life than it is to throw that towel in and throw up your hands.

Indeed, whether something else to think about, such as football season, is a solution to a heat wave or just to the summertime blues, I have to tell myself sometimes that this too shall pass.

Personally, I believe my journey will be more fun once I start following the Go-Devils team this fall.

After all, real hope for a brighter future in our community, and in society in general, lies in how hard our youth will fight for victory and positive results  whether on the sports field or on the academic scene.

Until next time, this is John, a bit overheated like you probably are, but still on his journey.