But it's a fry heat ...

As in, you could fry an egg. On the sidewalk. In the shade. But it could be worse; I could be in Mississippi ...

According to the thermometer, it's 117 degrees. It's difficult to actually relate what that means. Spouting off triple digit temperatures is just a metaphor for "hot." I mean, really, what is the difference between 112, 117, 120? It's all just friggin hot ...

Except at night, when it cools down to 95 ...

The heat here is oppressive. Worse, the sun reflects off everything and becomes blinding as well. I keep flashing back to my first time here, which was five years ago. I was but an Airman 1st Class at the time and was here with some great folks. I'll have to dig out a photo ...

It's amazing to see what's still around, what's changed dramatically and the finished products of what was under construction back in 2004. My room is decent (at least it's a room and not a tent, or a rathole like I had in Afghanistan). In fact, the building I'm in is close to where I stayed last time. Ah, if these walls could talk. Then again, not sure I'd want to hear what they have to say ...

But this trip seems promising as well. I'm hoping to head out next week to Iraq to cover efforts to train their air force and help them rebuild. Great story. It'll also be my first trip to Iraq, so that should be fun ...

Deployments always give me a great chance to catch up on reading. And with all the traveling we'll be doing, there promises to be a lot of downtime in passenger terminals. Which sounds more impressive than it is. Out here a passenger terminal can be everything from a shack to a small room with wooden walls ...

So I'm reading "Catcher in the Rye" currently. It's one of those standard books that have always been on my to-do list, but I've never gotten around to it. After this will be the "Mark Twain" biography and after that I think I'm going to switch to movies and buy the HBO "John Adams" series. Heard nothing but good things ...

For the record, the temperature needs to actually be 158 to fry an egg. Note to Mother Nature: that's not a challenge ...