Like most of you, the coming summer weather has me fired up given the frigid, lousy winter we just suffered through with ice storms and record cold, leaving us and our pipes frozen solid for the better part of three month. Global warming, huh? It feels more like a return to the ice age to me.
Anyway, sometimes the chill of the winter lulls us into a false sense of security when it comes to how hot it can get here in Warren County. Yes, global warming only works in the summer around here. You know how it is. That first hot day leaves you wringing wet with sweat and feeling like you’re about to have a heat stroke. Then, much to your chagrin, you notice it’s just 75 degrees. Highs around these parts get up to triple digits during July and August.
As the father of ginger children (red hair, blue eyes, and light skin), I am very in tune to precautions that have to be taken with them. Both of them have felt the bite of the sun on occasions and they both know to slather in sunscreen before they spend any time outside. Those of you who have known me a while and have read my column know I had a defining sunburn during my sophomore year at band camp where I forever got the nickname French Fry.
Even today I realize I have to take precautions given the rather large honker I have which protrudes out from my face like a sun dial. Therefore I generally think about it before I spend any amount of time outside. Cover the arms, ears, back of the neck and nose with screen or I’ll look like Rudolph for a week.
However, given my advanced, um, maturity, seeing I just turned 50, there’s something I forgot to cover that has never been that big of an issue before. Saturday I was out at the Back to the Strip Car Show at the Warren County Fairgrounds. I had meant only to stay a few minutes but then I started making video and those few minutes turned into a couple of hours. Anyway, it was toward the end of my visit I began feeling a stinging on the top of my head. Had I been stung by a bug? What was going on?
That’s when it hit me as I felt the source of the stinging – there was nothing there. It was my bald spot, left bare to the sun atop my head.
Frankly, I’d never really given it much thought since it’s out of sight, out of mind, at least to me. In the past, my hair had served as a shield but now, given my shorter hair style and the possibility I may have a legitimate bald spot atop my head, the sun can wreak havoc on my skull.
So, there you go, the rest of the summer leaves me with two options – wear a hat or screen my dome. Either that or go to the Hair Club for Men.
Standard reporter Duane Sherrill can be reached at 473-2191.