Most of my readers live in the desert where I live, so this isn't exactly news, but in the desert, it's hot. Not right now of course - right now we're in that unnaturally state between winter and summer where everything seems to be turning into summer, until the wind picks up and suddenly it's winter again for a week before all that cold air blows past and the heat can settle in again. Other places may call this time of year Spring but in the desert, we know better. There are only two seasons in the desert: hot, and not-as-hot. Everything else in an anomaly.
Well, 35 degrees at night in the winter isn't exactly 'not-as-hot', but it is definitely warm compared to the rest of the world. And our hot is, thankfully, a dry heat. My family went to Ohio a few years back during summer break, and the heat was sweltering. The people there were amazed we lived in 100-120 degree summers, but I'd take my dry heat any day over their humid, muggy 80.
Our summer nights, though, are a mystery. I always read about the Sierra Desert, and how a man could be burned alive during the day and freeze to death at night. Our desert doesn't work that way. My mom says it has something to do with our mountains and air pressure keeping the heat from rising, but we tend to only loose ten degrees at most on a summer night. The heat isn't as intense, but our nights are still warm with a warm breeze, and I never sleep with more than a sheet.
Which makes this anomaly-period somewhat annoying. I'm gearing up, getting ready for the warmer days ahead, and wake up with frozen toes and a slightly runny nose because I forgot to grab a quilt before going to bed. It feels very backwards. Sure, I'd love for it to be cooler longer, but I'd also prefer to expect what's coming so I can dress appropriately. No sense in wearing a scarf to school in the morning just because it's a little chilly, when it'll be back in the 80s by noon.
During the winter, I think our little desert is exotic. I'm no sure exactly what it is, but everywhere else has snow and trees and green grass, and I see our sand dunes and think that we're so amazing and I'm so proud that I happen to live somewhere that so few people really understand. Then it's summer again and I remember why I want to live in Antarctica so bad.
There are positives to living in a desert - I just can't really tell you what they are. Obviously there has to be some reason why people would settle down here as they were exploring the west. Maybe it's a sign of overpopulation, that we have to put people down wherever we have space for them. But either way, I think it's fitting that someone like me, who celebrates anti-conformity and originality, would be born in a place like this.
I'd still like to move to Antarctica.
3 comments:
I know it's July and you posted this in March but whatever. I wouldn't recommend moving to Antartica because Capt. Scott tried that in 1911 while on his way to the South Pole, and all his men died. Also, there are leopard seals there. 'Nuff said.
Captain Scott tried to reach the South Pole (which he did, but he ended up not being the first), and died on the way back. I just want to live somewhere on the continent of Antarctica, preferably on a shelf so I can see the ocean, one one of the many self-sustaining research bases. They need, like, hundreds of people there to make sure the scientists can live comfortably for months at a time to do their long-term research.
Well, alrighty then. Just don't get eaten by a leopard seal.
Post a Comment