Brutal Weather Everywhere You Look

Dan and Ellie, toward the end of their medical residencies in Portland, Oregon, began to notice that several years of Portland weather had caused moss to grow on their north sides, so they came to Tucson for a couple of days of dehydration. It was inevitable that we would have our first two brutally cold days of autumn (or is it winter?). It took all day for the temperature to creep up to 70 degrees F.

We went to the Desert Museum, and as we should have known, the cacti were huddled up together, and the mountain lions were hiding inside, nursing their arthritis. The javelinas were out, but even they bulldozed themselves into a heap to conserve heat. The desert fox could be seen through an indoor window, snuggled up to an electric blanket.

Only the prairie dogs seemed unfazed by the Ice Age. They sat on their haunches, as serene as a bishop holding four aces.

Our first winter vegetable garden, on the south side of the house, where I had stirred up every piece of pollen accumulated there over the decades, causing me to howl with sinus irritation, survived the vicious dark side of climate change, and the carrots are staring to show. (I do not know much about gardening, so I just planted whatever seedlings of seeds that promised to be something I would eat, if all goes well.

The Old Timers baseball team does not start its games now until 10:00, to allow the sun to dry out the infield, not from rain, but from the sprinkler system.

I read that the Twin Cities had several unusual tornadoes yesterday, not too powerful, but stall somewhat of a surprise in November, in Minnesota. Ah, well, we all have to share in the suffering. Here, too, we had to turn the heat pumps from air conditioning to heating.

(Don't you just hate these kind of weather reports?)

Comments

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