Today I’ve been thinking about things I’ve said that I never thought I’d say while living in a desert. I grew up in the SF Bay Area where the weather was mild and it rained in the winter. Here where I now live in Northern Nevada, it’s high desert which before I moved here brought to mind vast dry, hot stretches of sand, cactus and tumble weeds.
The reality is a bit different. So here is a short list of things I’ve said since moving here that I never thought would need to be said in my new desert home:
- It’s too wet to mow the lawn.
- I think we need another snow shovel.
- Yes, I’ll need a pair of snow boots.
- It’s rained every afternoon this week.
- Unless an earthquake is above 4.0 it shouldn’t be reported in the news.
- I think that new housing track is in a flood plain.
- The hurricane path will go just to the east of us.
I know, but when you go to the National Hurricane Center’s website, you’ll see that hurricane Hilary ends as a tropical depression just to the east of where I live sometime tomorrow. Now we don’t expect there to be much impact on us, just colder than normal temperatures and maybe a little rain. One thing about the desert is that rain doesn’t really soak into the ground that fast so flash floods are common here when it does rain.
There’s a lot of local press hype about Hilary, but I doubt it will do much here in the north except get us wet and make me haul in a few tools. Southern California and Southern Nevada are getting lots of rain and I expect to read a lot of stories about flooding in the southern desert areas. Here I expect to read a lot about how the press is over reporting the event – a common theme on the Next Door social media platform.
There was an earthquake here a few weeks ago. I didn’t feel it, but there were news reports of it being something like a 3.0 on the earthquake scale. Sorry, but my California brain doesn’t even register that as being important. When it gets closer to 5 or 6.0 then call me, because then I’ll be impressed about how strong it is.
I’ll just say this – unless the weather, flood, earthquake, wind storm, wildfire or other natural disaster interferes with me cooking a pizza on Sunday, it’s just something to read about before bed.
Andrew's View of the Week 
It’s been a wild ride for us here in SoCal, Andrew, but it passed through. I have never experienced this much rain. And then the earthquake, too! LOL! I think no matter where we live there are going to experience changes that require us to be resilient in ways we barely yet understand.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, the changes are going to be real interesting.
LikeLike
I had to chuckle over your line that the media overhypes the weather. Ya think? Here they go ape over snow and I want to yell at them, “It’s winter in Pennsylvania, of course we will have a lot of snow!” My wise hubby says the media goes berserk because with news on 24/7 they have nothing else to report on and it’s their job to try to scare the wits out of us.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The more they overhype, the more people click, the more money they make. Sad.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you will be OK my son will be at Burning Man wonder if they will see any rain to cut down on the dust 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Likely this is all the rain they’ll see. There might be a few thunderstorms, but I doubt there will be much. The problem right now is that the rain in the last couple of days has flooded the playa and they’ve delayed opening the gates until it drains out. Likely sometime today I’d think.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, my son delayed going until this weekend.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I envy you the rain. We’re in severe drought and half the province is on fire – rain would be a godsend. Ironic that the “desert” is getting more rain than the “raincoast”, but I guess you’re used to drought and fire from living in California, too. 😉 Enjoy your pizza!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The world seems to be upside down this year! Fire and drought are normal here, summer rain is just wrong.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good list of ‘nevers’ Andrew, but I doubt any of us every thought we’d say ‘The hurricane path will go just to the east of us’.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is one that still is hard to think really happened.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thought of you while looking at maps of storm tracks. Looked like it would miss you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It mostly tracked east of us, so we didn’t get much in the way of winds, but it did dump a good half inch of rain overnight – which is a lot for here. Looks like we’ve got another day of cloudy skies and then everything is back to normal.
LikeLike
Good day – we have had a wonderful summer here actually. It has actually been more like autumn on our side of the province. Not too hot. Rained quite a bit, but small doses at a time – not violent. And fortunately, no fires here. The world is definitely changing. You may need that shovel more than you think. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
It does feel like we’ve had an early autumn this year.
LikeLike
You have strabgw bedtime reading Andrew. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I suppose we never know what the future holds for us, do we?
LikeLiked by 1 person
We don’t.
LikeLiked by 1 person