Welcome to Palm Springs were there is 360 days a year of sunshine.
My wife and I moved here 10 years ago. Above is what attracted us to the desert. We moved here from the East Coast, New Jersey to be exact. We made a list when we were making our move of all the things we would not miss, that list ended up with over 100 items on it. You see both of us have issues with cold weather and after my car accident that left me disabled the winters just were to much on every joint in my body. My doctors told me if I wanted a semi decent quality of life, my best bet would be to move somewhere warm and dry. After we took a vacation here we were hooked, within 3 months we had signed the papers on a new home in the desert.
Now you are not considered a bonified resident until you have spent a couple of summers here. If you only spend part of the time her you are a snow bird and trust me we have plenty of those here. Now if you have spent a couple of summers in the desert heat you then become a desert rat. I don’t know who came up with these names but it is what it is and we are now desert rats. Kinda makes us sound dangerous, desert rat.
I even googled it only to come up with nobody really having an answer for it besides that it pertains to a kind of person living in the southwest corner of the country. No matter, what some call us is crazy, especially in the summer. Today being the first day of summer what we got was a nice sunny 124 degree day. Remember it’s a dry heat.
Those of us who live in the desert are not surprised to see this kind of temperature, although that high it is usually an August thing. In fact we got a full couple of weeks were the temperature will remain in the 110+ category. You got to remember it is a desert that we live in. Some people just don’t get it. We read about four heat related deaths in the area today. People going out and hiking and biking in this weather. You just don’t do that when it’s hot, not even in a dry heat. What part of hot don’t these people understand. You don’t exert yourself when it’s this hot,and I am telling you it is HOT. You drink water and then you drink more water, but you do not under no circumstance think you are super human who can withstand mother nature. This is the reason air conditioning was invented, in this heat we use it. It’s hot, really hot. Not just hot, hot we are talking fry your brains out hot. This is the time of year when it seems like everywhere you go it is a ghost town. You only go out in this kind of heat if you really gotta.
So people always ask me well what do you do on hot day like that? Same as I did on the east coast, I sit in the air conditioned house or I swim in the pool, remember it’s a dry heat. Yes today was hot and I mean it was really hot but like all good desert rats we survived it just fine. You see I don’t mind my deserts heat, it only gets extreme for a couple months out of the year and then the rest of the time it is just beautiful.
So what does a smart desert rat like me do when it stays this hot. Damn right I head to the east coast for a vacation. Happy Summer, my next post will come from the east coast.
