Many people might have thought that Dino City would do well in the heat, particularly when many thought of the Mesozoic Era as a sweltering sauna and that all Dinosaurs lived in hot and humid climate. It raised the thought that Texas's hot and humid climate wouldn't be too bad for the Dinotopians. To a degree, this wasn't entirely wrong, but that didn't mean that it fully applied to all Dinotopians or to those that lived in Dino City. Many of the Humans that also lived in Dino City also suffered from the heat and presented some of its own problems that were there for many points of conversations.
"Do you know about what the power companies will be doing?" one older Human woman asked to William Tarr as the two of them looked through the fruit stand at Glen Rose's supermarket.
The person was one of the other residents that had remained in their homes when Dino City was built up and didn't move into the new apartments set up at the Skybax Heights that were built in Dino City or into one of the homes that were built for Dinotopian residents. And like him, before his marriage to Cadence, had remained Human. Things like the July heat were bound to come up.
"I mean all this talk of blackouts," the person grumbled, "but it's hot... hotter than it's ever been around here."
William nodded. It was hot, and hotter than what their region of Texas had been, and the high humidity didn't help. Cadence had set up a plastic pool that was small and would normally for little kids. In theory it was too big and deep for Human infants, but his and Cadence's hatchlings were big enough that the real risk of drowning wasn't there. And they enjoyed splashing in the pool while toddling around Cadence's feet and even his own when he had the time to be there. However, the heat often proved to be enough that even the small plastic pool had the water turn warm, and he and Cadence had to bring them inside. More recently, there were reports that various power companies would provide blackouts in various parts of the state to avoid having their power stations become so overwhelmed that they burn out.
"Yes," William nodded, "and it's frustrating... but the power company seems to have excuses for everything. Not building new power stations, not improving what is there to handle the power needs, and so on. Makes me worry that my hatchlings my cook inside the house because of it."
"Can't you or the city council do anything?" the person asked, "as all this heat isn't good for me..."
"I'm afraid not," William sighed, "I can send letters in requesting these companies allocate more funds to Dino City. I've even added that Horizon might agree to help with the instillation costs for new energy plants, green or otherwise, but those companies are largely independent and seem to only take the governor's opinion, seriously. And he's seemed to think that its fine, knowing full well that the governor's mansion and his own family won't be touched by this..."
"It's enough to make one vote Democrat," the woman gave a shudder.
William only chuckled at the joke, noting that the intense and sustained heat could affect a great many things. But a part of him could understand it. There were many things that he still disagreed with the Democrats on politically, but there was an ever increasing sign that they at least cared about people. They might have the wrong answer to most problems, but they at least looked to try and help. And the more the Republicans either ignored problems or went out of their way to chase things that they made up, the more they risked losing… if not now, then in the future. And after finding himself elected Dino City’s mayor, he also found himself having to pay more attention to these things, and this continued heat wave would only add to those problems.
“Hopefully this will only be short lived,” was all William could manage for the moment, and that was the best he could manage.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Others did their best with the heat in other ways, and at times it involved trying to find cool areas, even when outside. There were also all sorts of other treats that were there. For Andrew, Jen, Luke, and Marjorie it often came to simply being in one of the small parks in Dino City and enjoying the shade, even in the evening, and having some sherbet.
"This is good," Jen smiled relishing the orange flavor as she licked at the orange sherbet on top of the cone, "and quite relaxing after how hot it's been."
"Even in the evenings," Luke spoke up from the bench opposite the one Andrew and Jen were seated on, but the long necks for both pairs of Sauropod Dinotopians was enough that the distance wasn't too bad. They'd only need to move their head "back" when moving to lick at the deserts that they had and were licking to make sure they didn't melt in the evening heat. "It feels like it's still around ninety degrees."
"A lot of that is the humidity," Andrew commented and remembering his time in Alabama before Tyra became Tyra and Dinotopia got started, "this part of Texas has a warm humid climate that isn't too different from what I grew up with in Alabama... and is very different from Lyre/Animalia."
"Which is a drier heat," Marjorie nodded, "though, I think it's worse now than it would have been for you while growing up. It's almost enough to make one not want to work with exercise classes that both new residents and Glen Rose residents sign up for... and even some of the tourists sign up for from time to time."
"Thankfully most of them are inside and these sorts of blackouts haven't hit Dino City, yet," Luke commented to his wife, "though... I get the sense that most of the people that come in for your classes and sports tournaments do so because they like watching you bounce."
Marjorie looked down to her generous bosom, presently held in a light grey tank top with a green Sauropod on the front. She wasn't quite as big as Jen, but she was at least in the conversation regarding the "biggest" in that specific department, and to a great degree, Luke was very attentive and gentle when they made love, which made her happy.
"I'm sure they are," Marjorie smiled to him, "but YOU are the only that I'll share them with... well... at least until we have hatchlings. Then, I suppose I'll have to feed them... but a part of me doesn't want to get egg heavy when it's so hot. Shoot, it was pretty warm even in the spring."
"A lot of that would be global warming," Jen said slowly and with a heavy sigh, "it's changing many things... and could present its own problems if this continues. We'd need some measure of heat to incubate the eggs when they're laid... but if things get too hot, they could also cook..."
Marjorie shuddered at the thought of laying eggs that Luke might sire in the future, only to see heat kill her hatchlings before they could hatch. She'd seen Heather and Tyra with their children and Cadence with hers. And while she enjoyed being mobile and providing some measure of exercise and some competitive sports for Dinotopians to engage each other in, a part of her DID want a family. Which made the potential of losing hatchlings to the heat scary.
"Hopefully people will find a way to figure things out," Luke commented as he rubbed Marjorie's shoulder with one hand and taking a bite out of the cone as he was getting down to the cone.
"Hopefully," Andrew agreed from his seat, only to then hear a sort of "bzzzzt" and the park's lights went out, and as he looked around, he noted that included the lights in some of the houses and buildings in the area and then grumbled, "nuts."
"At least they waited until evening/night to turn our power off," Jen grumbled, "not as warm as it was earlier in the day."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Others didn't have the full advantage of being a type of Animalian that was suspected of living in hot and humid environments. It was something that made the heat extremely tough on Dory. The Doedicurus Animalian might not have evolved for the coldest temperatures of the Pleistocene, but it was evidently obvious that the heat weighed on her heavily, particularly as unlike the Turtle Animalians, who could somehow remove their shells without issue, Dory couldn't remove the heavy plates that protected her head and back. They now seemed to hold in heat and the high humidity made it worse. Which in turn made things harder for training. But she and Walter managed, and she was glad to have him with her when she trained, it then made a lot of things worthwhile.
"You really want to do this?" Walter asked her after their last training session and as they made their way to the pool area in the Dino Dome.
"Yeah," Dory answered, "the water's relatively cool and would let a lot of things just relax after a hard training session... it'd make a lot of things feel better than just going out into 100-degree heat."
Walter agreed with that, to a degree. He was able to adjust to it fairly well, but he knew that to a degree, things were a bit oppressive with regard to the heat. And as they arrived in the pool area, they found that they weren't the only ones with relaxing there. There were a few other Dinotopians and even a fair number of Glen Rose's residents that were also there to beat the heat. Some of that made sense to him, as outdoor pools could be cooling, but they could also collect and hold heat fairly easily as well. They slowly made their way in, and Dory felt a great deal of relief as the cool water touched the fur on her legs. It felt even better when they got deep enough that she wouldn't have to get into the fetal position to submerge herself. Though, when she lifted her head out of the water, she found a couple of Humans swimming toward her and Walter, calling for someone to help her as they did so.
"Are you okay?" the first Human asked with semi nervous eyes.
"Yes, why wouldn't I be?" Dory asked while looking over to Walter for a moment.
"We saw you just drop down into the water!" the second Human said pointedly.
"We thought you fell... or tripped," the second Human added, "and that all your armor would have you sink..."
"Oh..." Dory gave a flick of her ears and shook some water around, "I didn't fall. I just lowered myself in... get some of the heat off of me."
"Yeah... it has been hot," the first Human nodded, "but all that platting..."
"Oh... it has some weight," Dory chuckled, "but it's not something that makes me incapable of swimming. Doedicurus may be an armored mammal, but much like an Armadillo, it's not going to completely make me sink and my lungs are strong enough to help me float."
"But you're a lot bigger than an Armadillo, and they don't swim all that well," the second Human argued.
That only made Dory chuckled, "and after my conversion... I didn't become all that sleek for the water. But I'm still buoyant. I'm not going to just sink like a rock."
"Not to mention that this part of the pool is shallow enough that we can still stand," Walter added, "though... I do appreciate you having concerns for my wife."
There were a few chuckles that were then shared in this.