I'll take the dry heat.

I headed to Fort Lauderdale, Florida this week for work. Our customer put us up in a nice hotel, right on the beach.

The view was pretty nice, the water clear.

Not that we really enjoyed any of it that much. We spent the whole time working, and didn't even have a chance to head down to the beach. Which is unfortunate, because "Jason" and "beach bum" are nearly synonomous. :) Actually, I think the engineer I went with would have enjoyed some time at the beach, but we just were too busy. Confidentiality prevents me from spilling the beans on what we were testing, but it was a weekend of testing, stress, and not a lot of engineering success. We also had a couple dinners with customers and investors.

Which was totally relaxing, since "Jason" and "social butterly" are also synonomous.

Not.

The guy I went with lived here for a while, so he took the scenic route around town. I thought that Scottsdale was an obnoxiously wealthy place. Let's just say that this joint takes conspicuous consumption to an entirely new level. Along Las Olas Boulevard, we spotted huge houses. And parked next to the houses were boats that were even bigger. I can't even imagine the keeping up with the Joneses that goes on in these neighborhoods.

After feeding my ulcer with a few days of stress (no, I don't really have an ulcer, but after that trip it won't suprise me if one pops up) we hopped back on a plane for the flight home. We dodged tropical storms and thunderclouds most of the way back home, some of the biggest clouds I've seen on a flight. The captain kept telling people that he was actually serious about the seatbelt sign. The flight was actually very smooth though.

Finally, we dropped through the thunderstorms into the promised land, as evidenced by the rainbow. Think there is a pot of lost Dutch gold at the end of that one?

Even at 20% relative humidity and probably 100 degrees when we landed, it felt wonderful. I can't even fathom how people in Fort Lauderdale live in that humidity. A couple people even asked while we were there "So isn't the weather so much nicer here that out in Phoenix?"

Ummmmm, no. I much prefer walking out into a blast furnace compared to a pressure cooker.

I'm honestly hoping not to have to repeat that trip anytime in the near future.