Yes, the sky is really this blue

When I was back in Pennsylvania, the weather was very nice - the two-month rain storm had abated, the temperatures were in the low- to mid-80s, with nice cloud cover (not too much!), not-too-awful humidity (not like July and August!), cool breezes, and nice cool nights. I mentioned to someone at my picnic reunion how ridiculously hot Arizona is, to the point where you really can't understand the heat unless you've experienced it. An old friend who has lived here backed me up on this. I mentioned that there's never any cloud cover, and someone scoffed at that. No, really, I explained to her, there's hardly ever any cloud cover, and this is for probably a good 250-300 days a year (other days, usually in the winter, are sunny, but there's a few clouds). In case anyone doubts me, I took a picture!

Seriously - that's the sky around here for most of the year. In case you think I'm just showing you a Blue Screen of Death and that's not really the sky, here's some context:

Yes, it can be achingly beautiful. But dang, it gets boring after a while. And, you know, really freakin' hot. Give me scudding clouds punctuated by bursts of sun and the occasional horrible downpour any day!