Going mad in the summer heat

Hey guys, here we are again. Life has been interesting to say the least lately. The daily highs are usually 115, give or take 5. But it is a dry heat, so it isnt quite as bad as it seems... or so they say. This first picture was from a real treat at work. That is a big glass sculpture hanging on the wall. It needed to be dusted and I was lucky enough to be the one to get to do it.
Most of June has little precipitation and thus, not much for sunrise or sunset views. However, it is now July and (believe it or not) monsoon season. This was how I got to start one of my work days. Seems like it is usually pretty hard to have a bad day when you begin like this. Work as been fairly uneventful lately but I am looking forward to a break from work and the heat at the end of July. I will be heading to Denver to visit my sister and go back to school to get my next level of certification for rope access. So that should be a grand ol' time.
Since it is just too damn hot to be climbing around Phoenix these days, my weekends have been spent up in Flagstaff. It is one of the coolest places I have been. It is a really neat town and there is endless camping, climbing, outdoor fun all a stones throw away. This picture above is from my 4th of July. Pleasant as the day may appear, it was a monsoon, and there was plenty of thunder, lightning, and rain to top it all off. And by the way... if you have never experienced a monsoon in the high desert... you are missing out.
One night when it was raining and we couldnt climb we decided to go to the Grand Canyon. It was my first time there and it was so beautiful. We didnt really get to explore the area that much but I have a feeling I will be back there for such things at a later time.
This is a place called Oak Creek. This is on the road that passes through Sedona to Flagstaff. It is a basalt cliff with tons and tons of crack climbing... my favorite. Escaping from the triple digits in Phoenix and hiding in the ponderosa forests of Flagstaff is my only link to sanity these days (more like a climber's trail than a road, haha).
So that will about do it for now... seems like I always have more to say until I try and write one of these blogs. I figure the next time I get around to doing one of these will be in August, when the heat will be cranked on full blast. So stay tuned to see how fried my brains get down here in the lonely southwest desert.

With much love,
Dan