Saturday, November 25, 2006

Tom Petty's new song, Ankle Deep (Highway Companion) says "Took all Winter to get through the Summer". While most of this last summer passed, melted, and slumbered by before this blog was started let me assue you that it is warm out here in the Saraha desert. Such thing as a cold desert exists, but I do not live in it. Days typically warmed up to well over 120F, and only a very foolish person would go around working in the direct afternoon sun. Lunches stretch out into afternoon naps, then to everyone moving slowly until we find a little tea to wake up lazy bones around 5pm as the suns rays have passed their zenith and come angleing in just a little more obliquly. Even as late as 7 or 8pm the temperature would stay well into the upper 90s. My area has a strange periodic weather pattern of heavy cotteny clouds that move in for a couple of days a month. Like a blanket over the land streatching as far as can be seen they trap the solar radiation down and keep the us warm all night long. Most days found me drinking well over a gallon of water, which most people in my town considers to be excessive and a little crazy. But, as long as I stay cool being the water guzzeling forigner is a rap I can deal with.

I sleep on a sorta thin ponge wrapped in a funky vein and tropical leaves pattern. "Ponge" is a term used to describe generally any longer bench like sitting cushion. Not a pillow. They can be made entirely of synthetic foam, or can have different amounts of natural fibers mixed in. I think mine cost about 8$US, and it moves easily out into my walled garden every night which seems to be the coolest place in my house. Other people sleep on their roofs, but, thats not for me. Hot summer nights open quickly to even hotter summer days as soon as the sun climbs over my 10' garden walls.

Now it is the winter season. The mercury is falling in my electric guage, and highs are currently in the 60s. I try to wear darker colors and spend time laying in the low sun as much as I can, not unlike a lizard sunning on a rock. I am told that it will only get colder from here on. The problem really isnt the low temperaturs, its the lack of external heating sources anywhere. Without a heater in my house, the shade of my inside rooms is no longer a positive trait. If the high is 60, then my kitchen might never warm over 50. I wear a lot of layers and think of my friends who are even much colder than me. I think it might take signifigantly less time than the entire winter forcasted by Mr. Petty, I am ready for summer right now.

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