Monday, July 26, 2010

One Good Reason I can Stand to Live in the Desert

I live in the desert. Let's hear a collective "duh" on that. It's hot and not-so-sweaty. Not-so-sweaty because the heat pretty much evaporates the moisture off your skin the minute you step outside. It's like the sun lives inside the earth's atmosphere. Or rather that the sun rises and sets within the confines of this desert. This time of year the monsoon sweeps in and causes the humidity to rise, so it can get miserable for people who aren't used to the glaring sun plus the humidity. Last year the monsoon didn't come at all. Yeah, no rain last year. This year the rains have made good on their promise to actually show up, and that means clouds. Lovely clouds to block out the relentless sun. Here is something else that the clouds do.



There isn't a place I've seen in this great country that can compare their sunsets to these. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in my mind they don't get better than this.

10 comments:

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Its sounds lovely, it's hot here today but not a very nice heat.

Take care.
Yvonne.

Stephen T. McCarthy said...

Yeah, MARJORIE, I'll admit that the sunsets here in "Airheadzona" can be pretty spectacular.

I can barely stand it here, and I attempted to make good my escape but found that unless I want to sell my house for less than I paid for it eight years ago, I'm stuck in this rut. (And believe me, it wasn't an expensive house to begin with. It was not one of those overinflated due to the housing bubble.)

But probably even more than the sunsets, the thing that really blew my mind upon moving to Phoenix was the lightning storms. Back in Southern California, we didn't have ANYTHING like these lightning shows. Wow! What incredible displays nature sometimes puts on: Lightning flashing brilliantly every 10 seconds and in multiple locations. Dang! And until I had moved here, I had NEVER seen lightning run HORIZONTALLY! That STILL blows my mind!

~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'

Cruella Collett said...

That is a very, very pretty sunset. Our sunsets are extremely dependant upon the season. During the summer we barely have sunsets, because the sun is up pretty much all the time. Then as fall creeps upon us, we get some pretty spectacular ones. And then during winter it feels as though we don't have sunsets again because the sun is gone most of the time.

I know one thing for certain, though. I am not able to capture them as beautifully as you can!

Denise Covey said...

Wow, fantastic pic of a sunset. Glaring sun, high humidity - sounds just like Australia..:)

Marjorie said...

@ Yvonne- The heat isn't very nice here right now either. Actually, it's like living in an oven.

@ Stephen- The night I took this photo the clouds did put on quite a lightning show. Unfortunately, I don't have to confidence yet as a photographer to capture the lightning shows. Otherwise the title of this post would have been "Two Reasons why I can Stand to Live in the Desert." I really do love the lightning, but it scares me a bit too.

@ Mari- Well, I'm glad you like the photo. Don't you get the "Northern Lights" up there in Norway? That I'd love to see and capture.

@ L'Aussie- I'm sure I'd die in Autralia. Or maybe living in this desert has perhaps conditioned me a little if I were to visit "the land down under" one day.

Lisa said...

Beautiful photo! We get some pretty great ones here, too, but I'm not sure they compare to yours.:)

Marjorie said...

@ Lisa- Believe it or not I've seen ones BETTER than this one, but they have all been here in this desert I call home.

Hart Johnson said...

It is gorgeous, Marjorie. I will always like a Hawaiian sunset best (the humidity and light do fabulous things) but that is pretty amazing.

Ella said...

Wow, this view is breathtaking! I love how you described and shared your view!

Marjorie said...

@ Tami- Hawaii huh? Well, I've never been, but I would love to one day. Like I said there have been absolutely brilliant red sunsets here, but I have yet to capture them. This one was orange, but it really did amazing things to the sky and I had the presence of mind to get my camera. Next red sunset is getting photographed and posted.

@ Ellie- I'm now determined to show everyone the red sunsets. They are better than this rather magnificent orange one believe it or not. One day I might even capture a lightning storm. THOSE are a sight to behold too.