How to survive in the desert

6.17.08

And the summer heat I now understand. Soak it in. Try to pinpoint the exact origin of all the waves of dry, hot air which assail your legs, or back or face. Do not be afraid of what the brutal rays of direct noon-time sun will do to the top of your head. Your body knows its way around. Just breath the arid breath deeply and smile a little as you watch half the sky slowly become consumed with towering, afternoon thunderheads. The flattops have them trapped, of course. You may or probably may not see a single drop of water, but know that the oven weather is defeating itself even as it works overtime to melt the last tenacious fields of snow in the high country, it is creating it’s own demise in the form of a refreshing afternoon cloudburst which will break its strangle hold on the hard packed earth.