"In the summer [letter carriers] learn to love the people who don't say, 'Is it hot enough for you?' " said Terry Gahagan, a letter carrier in Queen Village. "I joke, 'No, it's winter for me, I was raised in the center of the sun.' "
Pointing to his white hat, Stewart said, "We have these nice safari-like hats. The slits let the air circulate, so it helps."
Stewart also protects himself from the beating sun with a travel-size bottle of Coppertone sunblock and plenty of water.
Gahagan wets her black and blue bandanna to keep cool, and drinks water and Gatorade on her route.
Gahagan said that some little kids in the courtyard by Front and Pemberton streets invited her for a swim in their tiny pool.
"I respectfully declined," she laughed. "I didn't think my dignity or my boss would allow that."
Even though many find excessive heat - and in the winter, snow - bothersome, Stewart, a 10-year cancer survivor, isn't fazed.
"After all these years of doing it, you get used to the snow and the heat," he said. "The one thing I hate is the rain."
Bill Mosetter, 42, a letter carrier in the four-block-radius around the Piazza at Schmidts in Northern Liberties, agreed that rain is the pits.
"I try to think 'cool' thoughts," he said.
"You can always make yourself warmer in the winter," he added. "With this heat, you can't make yourself cooler. You just sweat."
Police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said he didn't have any data that showed the oppressive heat was affecting crime. No homicides occurred Tuesday or through yesterday evening, but Vanore said there have been nonfatal shootings.
"We can have the worst rainy day and have three or four homicides," he said.
