Nau speak: Vegas: Summer nights and nostalgia part 1

It's pretty mind-boggling sometimes to stop and consider the passage of time, how quickly it fades away from the now and slips into the past. Everyone is always in such a hurry to grow up, but then once you're actually an adult it feels like there's never, ever, enough time in any given day and you find yourself missing the easy days of childhood when an hour felt like an interminable eternity of time stretching out endlessly before your impatient eyes. How nice it would be, to be like Kurt Vonnegut's Trafalmadorians, the odd plunger-shaped creatures from his eponymous tome "Slaughter-House Five" (which if you haven't read by now I absolutely recommend) who are capable of viewing all time simultaneously. It's not a difficult read, as his writing style cuts to the point without dithering on about the multitude shades of green in the field of grass ahead, unlike a certain J.R.R. Tolkien who's culturally valuable but extensively and excessively over-verbose books about Hobbits and things could pose a serious health hazard were they to fall off a shelf...but I digress.

This summer has been no less slippery than the last, sliding through my fingers like lubed up grapes. What were you expecting, a metaphor about sand? I'm sorry, but between the heat outside holding pretty steady at around 114 degrees Fahrenheit almost every day straight for the last couple months, and my pets and I suffering from the 90-100 degree heat of our tiny Daewoo airconditioner's failed attempts to cool off our small studio apartment, I've had just about enough of the desert for the time being. Most of my days are spent inside, either in the dark or under bright fluorescents that tinge everything an off-shade of yellow, so the predictably sunny weather has not been something I've gotten much enjoyment out of. If anything, it's predictably unpleasant opening my door to what feels like a hair-dryer stuck blasting its arid wind in my face. Is it possible to get Seasonal Affective Disorder in the summer? I know I'm invariably getting less vitamin D now than I was in the winter, when it was actually enjoyable to go outside. All this complaining having been stated, this should be our last summer in Vegas for some time, so I suppose it's good to get this off my chest and also to record why I feel so thoroughly done with this place for now. Surely, in some cold, distant future I may look back upon this desert town with a glimmering sheen of nostalgia and forget that the heat literally bakes the decency and enjoyment in life out of people. I'm here for you, future Nau. Remember, Vegas is an arid, strange place full of strange, dehydrated people. And when that nostalgia still makes you pine for the city, this post is here, to remind it wasn't always scorched misery. There's actually some beauty to be found here, if you know where to look...and only venture outside in the safe darkness of night, devoid of the sun's merciless glare.

The photos in this post were kindly provided by Antho,who is more familiar with the city's mercilessly heat than anyone else I know after spending the last year pushing carts in an asphalt paved parking lot. If he's still able to find some beauty after that ordeal, there's surely something redeeming in this city, somewhere, when you take the time to find it.