03 September 2020

The Evernighties Weekly Blog Challenge - Week 36

 


What do Like/Dislike About the Climate You Live In?

I live in the Mojave Desert. Over a hundred years ago someone traveled through this sandy desolate area and thought...let's build a casino out here! Lo and Behold, the mob sank a bunch of money on this foolish venture, killed Bugsy Siegal and now we have a pyramid, a castle and an Eiffel Tower exactly half the height of the original. Las Vegas now has a lot of people and Henderson is on the rise. 

On a side note, Paradise NV is the same but different from Las Vegas. Paradise (and its northern neighbor Winchester) were created decades ago, at the urging of Strip casino operators. It was a political move to prevent Las Vegas (the city) from annexing the Strip and thereby taxing the properties. 

The desert is very hot during the summer. We get temperatures 108 and above. I once went hiking when it was about 120, and almost had a heat stroke. I no longer hike when it's hot, unless it's up in the mountain. Usually it's very dry, like you're living in an oven with the hair dryer on high. But the fall, spring and winter months are fantastic! It's really cool and sometimes downright cold. 

The vegetation is the most beautiful I've seen. We don't have a lot of green stuff, like trees and grass, but we have desert flowers and colorful cacti. During the spring in Death Valley, a plethora of spring flowers bloom and it's so beautiful. 

Life in the desert has to revolve around air condition. There'd be no way to survive without it. Fluids in cars dries out and the batteries are only good for about 3 years. Rubber on the windshield wipers have to be replaced almost every other year. Tires go faster too. Animals can not stay in cars, even for a little bit or with the windshield cracked. It's just too hot. Vegetation dies so many people have either a rocky landscape or AstroTurf grass. 

People who move here at first have a lot of allergy problems because of the wind blowing dust up in the air. Las Vegas is sandwiched between mountain ranges so we have high winds. And when California is on fire (which it's always on fire in the summer) we get all the smoke. Masks have been a blessing for many people! 

Living in the desert isn't hard, it's just relearning a few things. I love living here. 

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