Last summer I drove my brother back to the monastery where he lives near
Mt. Shasta from Santa Rosa, California.  By the time we hit the central
valley around noon the temperature was 106 degrees.  We stopped at Walmart
to wander around and cool down and I bought a 9" wide circular
thermometer.  (It was a deal!)  Being brothers (and being a Buddhist monk
doesn't change that) we decided how hot we could get the inside of the
car.  We closed the windows and the temp climbed to 118 degrees.  We
turned on the heater and buried the thermometer at 128 degrees.  This did
drop the needle on the temp gauge.  We drove like that for about three
minutes, until it got too weird feeling.  The sweat would have been
flowing if it didn't evaporate almost immediately.  We opened the windows
and felt the wonderful relief of a cool 106 degree wind coursing over us.
(We also ate 18 donuts in an hour once, but we were young, only in our
30s.)  Jeffrey Olson, Seattle, Washington, where it continues to rain...