Travels with Tosh — A Journal; Ep. 38

Travels with Tosh — A Journal; Ep. 38

Thursday, 28 November 2024

The weather is changing here in the desert. That can be a surprise for people who have never been here before.

Where as overnight lows have been in the 70s, we frequently have them dip to the mid- to low-40s, and we can even look forward to temps much lower as Winter progresses.

There are more days with clouds than I have seen in months, including days like yesterday that were overcast. Combine the sky cover with the strong wind that almost always blows, and lower temperatures, and living “in the desert” takes on a completely different tenor.

I, of course, understand that, Tosh, having been here and done this before. A couple of days ago, I was standing in for another volunteer who had a medical appointment, when a person came up to the window and asked something about the weather. I think the person was a first-timer from Canada — many Canadians come here to get away from snow and ice — and I had to tell them that we might get shocked, as the temperature was going to dip into the 50s!

There was a momentary pause, then a big laugh, as they realised the silliness of worrying about “cold” weather here.

But even with clouds, the sun is out, which is not the same as many places in North America. Some are getting beat with snow and ice, some are burning up, and others merely hunkering down with the heating system working.

Me, I sleep in a tent that is open to the ambient air. I get a lot of dust over everything, and the zipper on the door of my tent stopped working because of the dust some weeks ago; I now have the door closed with binder clips and commercial-level safety pins.

I have said before that this tent is not going to make it out of the desert. I have two others I bought, just in case a backup tent is needed — I have already used the supports from one of them from the first strong wind that broke more than half the tent’s rigidity — and I fully expect to use one or two of them again.

Until then, dear Tosh, I read weather reports from other places and see that I am still wearing open-toed sandals to walk around, and appreciate my predicament.

“Cold” just doesn’t mean the same thing here.