The Times They Are A-Changing

Today is the first day of the new daylight savings time. This is supposed to happen at the start of spring and a lot of people feel inconvenienced because it is coming earlier than usual (and earlier than expected, which will make a lot of computer consultants well-paid but irritated tomorrow). But here in the desert, the timing is just about perfect.

Today the weather is mild and pleasant, with a light breeze. Shorts weather, very comfortable. I've turned off the climate control and opened up every window in the house. In a house this size, that's a project in itself.

The cats love it. They get access to windowsills they don't ordinarily get, and they can sniff the fresh air outside all day. Both of them are pacing from window to window trying to figure out which one is best. They all are, kitties. They all are.

It's loud, because we're right up on a major street and living across the street from a white-trashy neighborhood where people seem to enjoy revving automobile and motorcycle engines and leaning on car horns; I can hear people shouting at each other from time to time. Mostly, though, that's not really much of a factor. Aside from the noise, it's really very pleasant to have the windows open. If I turned on some music it would pretty much take care of that.

The grass is coming back alive and the flowers that the dogs haven't dug up yet are also starting to bloom. I'll go outside in a few minutes on poop patrol to pick up after the dogs, wearing sandals and shorts. It's nice to have winter gone and summer not yet here; while poop patrol is never pleasant, it's at least nicer when the weather is good and there's a breeze.

Speaking of the dogs, yesterday, The Wife and I took the doggies for a walk along the aqueduct. They loved it. There are ducks and loons that like to hang out on the water. The Wife thinks that the desert is beautiful. I do too, this time of year. From the nearest access point to the aqueduct, we can walk by old cherry orchards (mostly dead now, unfortunately) and see the almond and cherry trees in bloom, and the intense green of the spikes of recently-watered Joshua trees in bloom. The juniper bushes have berries and the sagebrush is not yet dessicated and there are even still patches of green grass out.

A mile up the aqueduct and then back to the car was much more tiring than I would have thought. Walking two miles does not seem like it would be very challenging, particularly along the mostly level path. But by the end of it I was feeling it in my legs, and both The Wife and I slept quite soundly last night. We're hoping for similar results again today after repeating the walk, this time going a different direction along the path.

We finally used a gift card we got for the holidays last night, getting a new digital camera (the old one finally stopped working about a month ago) and a scanner for The Wife's computer. Today while we're out on the aqueduct, we'll take some pictures and I'll post them for the Loyal Readers to view and see what the desert looks like when it's springtime here. By the time The Wife gets back from her girly event (a stamping party) the gentle breeze may be more of a steady wind, so we'll need to go quickly before it kicks up into the semi-nightly windstorm we expect to see most days here in the desert. But for now, I'm going to enjoy things just the way they are.