i love the desert

 I LOVE THE DESERT

this is the sunrise from our compound we stayed at this weekend in the joshua tree area in the high desert of southern california on fathers day weekend with our younger son and his family

joshua tree is an eclectic and artsy area also

this is the sunset from the same location
each is equally beautiful and peaceful
it was cool in a temperature way and breezy when both pictures were taken
in between the two pictures it was hot like central texas hot
but it was dry and windy
which made it more comfortable
you dont sweat as much
i did notice you are much more thirsty in this weather

when i finished high school i attempted college but didnt make it through the first semester
luckily two older brothers encouraged me to move to the high desert to live with my older historian brother who was stationed there in the military


he encouraged me to take a couple of classes to see if i could restart my college career
so i attended the community college in the picture below
i got an a in both classes
this built my confidence back up so i spent 4 years there doing school part time and working before eventually moving to a 4 year university where i got my bachelor of science degree in biology

at the community college i also majored in biology and learned to appreciate the local fauna of the desert
this is where i learned to catch rattlesnakes for the college biology department
a skill that i used several times at the country n in texas

i have loved the desert ever since
i got my restart there also

i also worked as a teaching assistant in chemistry and in microbiology at the college
i also worked at the local hospitals as an emergency room technician
i also met my wife she at the hospital where we worked and we had a class together and i was her teaching assistant in chemistry lab

she winks and always says i gave her an a

maybe i did and maybe i didnt


on our way to the joshua tree area we decided to drive through the area we went to school and worked
the places where i lived when i moved there are gone
i told my wife she i want to eat at a del taco
when i was a poor single college student i use to go to del taco and order a bean burrito since it was cheap and had calories and protein for nutrition
so
i had a bean burrito and it made memories start to flow 


near where we stayed near joshua tree national forest  was this structure called transmission
this picture doesnt do it justice
click on the link to read about it

at sunset the sun would show through those hands onto mosaic tiles on the face 
you could see the light shining through the holes from a distance

there were always cars parked along the road with folks looking at the structure


this is my grandson nfn using his binoculars to look at the fauna and look for animals and bugs
the desert provided a giant sandbox for him to play in
he only got cactusized once the night before we left
i used my doctor skills to remove the thorns from his arm and hand


as we drove away from the joshua tree area you see miles and miles of these wind machines slowly spinning in the wind

these structures were a compliment to the hand skull structure we saw in the joshua tree area


then in the mountains in the distance you could see snow still on the top 

it all seemed surreal as we drove away from the area
like we had been in another world for a few days

now i remember why i love the desert

the organicgreen doctor