As I was cycling Uptown in my black dress under the beating sun, struggling a little to breathe in the heat and humidity, I wondered if every blog for the next six months will start with a remark about the weather. Maybe, maybe not, but today it was hot in a whole new way. It was that choking heat, the kind that makes you slow way down, reminds you why everything’s a little slower in the South. You have got to slow down or you can find yourself in real trouble. I panted my way to Tulane to volunteer for the Shakespeare Festival. After toweling off in the bathroom and tearing some tickets, I enjoyed a really funny first half of the play. I stepped outside at intermission to cooler temps and wetter air, and that was the rule for the rest of the day as I pedaled over to the snoball shop, down to the Treme, back Uptown to watch the Lakers lose a tough one, and then back home. I snapped this picture of the sunset behind the power lines on Constance around Valence. The sky was a brilliant set of pinks and golds tonight, simply beautiful. I took lots of pictures, trying to get one that would show how lovely it looked, how nice it felt to just spin the wheels under that sky as it slowly snuffed itself out. But the thing is, you just have to be out there to see it. It’s like the weather that way. You have to bike through heavy heat like this to understand why we all go on about the weather like we do down here. And to know the pleasure of a cold shower at the end of a long, hot day. Yes, it was another good summertime Sunday in New Orleans.