It's a GOOD Life

[dancinghorse]

For anybody who remembers Jerome Bixby's story (which has been filmed in a version or two or three), today's weather in Tucson will strike a chord. For those who haven't read or remembered it, this is the story of the evil mutant child who has "disappeared" the whole world except for a small town full of very nervous, widely smiling people who make sure never, ever to offend Him. "It's a GOOD life!" they keep repeating.

Woke up excessively early this morning to find a silvery-grey light over everything. No stars or moon. No sun. No mountains. The world stopped on the immediate horizon. The air was full of faintly glowing dust.

Dust storm, a big one. It's still blowing out there. It's not the sort of thing you get from the movies--blinding sand and all that--but more of a dry fog with visibility of about a mile. Sometimes Tanque Verde Ridge is dimly visible, five or six miles away, but the mountains are gone: Rincon Peak, Mt. Lemmon and the Catalinas, the Tucsons, the Santa Ritas. In the past hour the dust has lifted somewhat and there's a weird buildup of clouds and dust above the shadows of the mountains.

It is also very, very hot. It's hovering between 100 to 102 here now, and was 98 degrees by 10 a.m. The evaporative coolers aren't working all that well--it's 83 in here--because we're getting an early moisture fetch from Mexico, and evaporation isn't as efficient at this dewpoint. Said fetch may bring a few thunderstorms later, but probably not much if any rain.

Early in the morning it was just barely tolerable--so after feeding and barn chores, I saddled up Capria and ponied keed and went for a slow ride around the block. Came back to find that the ones left behind had drunk about two-thirds of two water barrels (30 gallons apiece), and were clamoring to be hosed off. Ephiny parked right in front of me as I was filling the barrels, and got us both gloriously wet drinking from the hose spray. (She uses it like a WaterPik.) She's the biggest and darkest and feels the heat the most. The lighter they are, the better they reflect it--the black skin/white coat complex is admirably adapted for desert conditions.

This is lizard weather and butterfly weather. And, of course, dragon weather. I've given the horses a short break from work to help them adapt. Capria in particular does not drink enough water and will get sick, so I have to make sure she has plenty of fresh water available. I feed her dinner in a water barrel, which is a sneaky way to get water into her--the others all dunk their hay, but she never does. Pook is obsessive and will make hay soup. I never worry about him staying hydrated, though he hates to be hosed off so has to be sponged off instead. I fuss about overheating since he has so much body mass, though he never seems to be in any distress. He's smart and he was born here--and he hates cold. Heat is his element.

This of course is perfect weather to work inside, and both drafts are humming along. I've read a chunk of proofs and will finish them this weekend.

Oh--and--the Wild Hunt won. I ended up deferring the trip to town a day and spending the day writing instead. Said trip proved to be a complete waste of time. "It's not your transmission, it's your oil pan. We Don't Fix That." After sitting for two hours (reading proofs, so something constructive got done) for nothing. I still have to take the stupid car in and get the stupid thing fixed.

At least I finally got paid today. It's nearly all gone already, what with bills and backed-up commitments including the stupid car which will cost a stupid lot of money, but it's there, a mere four months to the day after the project was delivered.

One must remember. This is a Glamour Profession. It's a GOOD Life.

Comments

[larryhammer]

Visibility of a mile through low-slanting light made for a wond'rous bike ride to work this morning. It was like fog, without the moisture.

The humidity, however, is under 10% — the cooler ought to be working. Ours isn't exactly at peak efficiency either. I need to check whether the hoses have clogged again. I may need to replace the octopus.

Payment good.

---L.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

I think we had more humidity here--this corner of the county tends to get the southeastern moisture fetches that will miss the rest of the area. It was definitely hotter than yesterday. I've filled water barrels three times so far, and hosed horses off three times. Even Carrma stood to be hosed, and she never does that.

The lizards are loving it. There's one huge collared lizard over by Capria's pen, who comes out and does pushups, then flashes a bright teal throat. He's variegated brown otherwise, with a black collar.

Meanwhile the rabbit family has been staking out the middle stall in the heat of the day, and flopping at various boneless angles where the ground is damp from dumped water barrels. They sprawl like cats--I had no idea rabbits were that floppy. They barely crack an eyelid when I come through, though Pook can get Evil and flush them all out. Pook has a distinct streak of Hobbes in his makeup. They leave when he chases them, but come right back behind him.

Desert critters are made for this weather and do just fine in it. Some of them get all their moisture from what they eat--never need to drink at all--and others estivate or come out at night. At midday there's a fair number of birds, lizards, and bugs out and about. Snakes, too, sometimes, though I don't have a lot of those here; the house snake (a very large gopher snake) is mostly nocturnal. I see its tracks in the dirt in the mornings.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

I'm very glad I'm not there. For me 35% humidity is low and my sinuses start weirding out and cracking. I may have been born in the desert, and I still find 67 degrees to be cool unless I'm in the sun, but I like a wee bit more humidty.

Hurrah on getting paid!

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Humidity makes me lock up. I do OK in the PNW for some reason--but I'm not there for more than a few days at a time.

Dragon weather is challenging. Can be hard to breathe, between the dryness and the heat. If you're not used to it, it's a shock. It's been below 105 here today--my eyeballs haven't felt crackly--but it's definitely been over 100 (clothes hotter than body temp, and distinct essence of furnace).

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Rah, payment! Money is good!

And hope you have a LOT of body creme or oil in the house--use it!

(We know we don't have to remind you to drink water...)

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

It's interesting--after a while in the desert, the skin adapts. I always feel greasy and sticky when I go back to a more humid climate. We all find moisturizers that work for us, and use them regularly--but my skin tends not to be any drier here than it was in, say, New Haven.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I've never been in southern AZ longer than 2 weeks at a stretch--perhaps not long enough to adapt....

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

I suspect I ought to be living in a less humid climate. When we go to west Texas to visit Steve's family, no matter the time of year, I am always pleasantly surprised by how many of my little aches and pains disappear.

Btw, the planning for the big road trip is back on. If we do this, we will be in your vicinity at some point, probably in early- to mid-July. Do we want to make sure there aren't going to be conflicts with other stuff you are doing?

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Cooooool! Where will you be?

It's still a ways from Texas to Arizona--300 miles to El Paso from here.

I'll be in Santa Fe July 20th-24th, but here otherwise. (Auditing clinic with Oberbereiter Hausberger from Vienna, and maybe catching a bit of Spanish Market before we head home.) Couldn't swing both Santa Fe and Westercon, so Westercon is a no-go.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

The "big" plan is to fly to CA and pick up a one-way rental car, get a chance to spend a little time with Kit, Marty, Tad, etc., and then head down to San Diego to see my home town. After that, go east through southern AZ, on into NM to see old friends in Carlsbad, and then head to San Angelo, TX (where Steve's relatives live). After that, a long drive back to the east coast with some sightseeing along the way.

We expect to be on the road about three weeks, maybe a little more. AZ would fall about 1 week into the trip, and we can't start until at least the beginning of July because of some other commitments.

We can also take this over to my journal if you don't want to fill up yours with these kinds of details.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

What a great idea! Great scenery along that way, too. We're just six hours from San Diego.

Here or your lj or wherever--here is fine with me. We'll want to have a GEnie/lj/writers' dinner in Tucson, for sure.

[larryhammer]

Indeed!

janni and I will be at WesterCon July 4th weekend, but should be around for the rest of the month.

---L.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

Great, Larry. It's almost 100% certain we can't begin the trip until after that holiday weekend anyway.

I'll also be talking details over in my group on dm.net so that Kit can keep informed of our plans.

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

When do you think you would be coming? I am going walkabout for a few days here and there in June and July (in between tests) If I know when you are coming, I can work with the dates.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

Marty, I will answer you over in my own journal.

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

AND stopping by to see my guys, I hope?

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

We'll make a point of it. Joni is wussing, but I'm still working on her. It will definitely be Nancy and me, and maybe Shelley, who has Pook's Cousin Maestro (the bay Lipp, Maestoso Gaela).

Reply Hazy, Try Again

[starfall42.livejournal.com]

At first they thought it was smoke from wildfires, but it was really too thick and the wrong color. So it's just dust. The humidity got down to 2% in Phoenix.

Re: Reply Hazy, Try Again

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for the link! That's what it looked like, yep.

[smoemeth.livejournal.com]

Wow... when you can't even see Rincon Peak, that's serious.

When there's so much dust in the air like that, doesn't it make breathing difficult?

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

It's more that it catches and clogs your throat. Pollution alerts didn't go off--it wasn't that bad. It just looked awful.