Life In the Desert

My poor neglected blog. When I began this blog 5 year ago I was desperate for something to keep me sane during the hubby’s deployment. Now I’m back again desperate for something to keep me sane during our last 6 months in the desert. This has been hard.

Things no one tells you about living in the middle of desert:

1.       Driving 45 minutes to the nearest town doesn’t sound bad until you’ve actually done it. Over and over and over again. Before we moved here I thought, “3 hours from Las Vegas, 2 hours to LA and a little less than an hour to another town? No problem. We’ll be in LA and Vegas all the time!” Ha. There comes a moment when you decide it’s no longer fun to drive for hours to get basic things.

It is a long drive home.

2.       You miss green. Seriously. I miss green trees, green grass, green shrubs….basically any sign of life.

3.       Your tiny oasis can become a tiny hell. When you’re stuck for years in the same very small place what was once I nice getaway from the world becomes a prison. You see the same faces, go to the same handful of places and do the same things daily. People can get catty and rude because they feel as grumpy as you do about being stuck in the middle of the desert. We all seem to take it out on each other and it’s not fun.

4.       The wildlife. There are tortoises. And wild donkeys. And coyotes. And snakes.  The donkeys wander around the neighborhoods, the coyotes look like they’re all on death’s doorstep and I still haven’t seen the tortoises.

5.       You find out quickly who your friends are. The people who will drop anything to help you when there is a problem. I’ve only managed to find a handful of those kinds of people but knowing that I’ve got them makes all the difference.

It’s been a hell of an experience living the middle of the desert and one I’m sure I’ll never forget. It’s been lonely, it’s been depressing but it’s also been eye opening.  I think I’m a better person for it as well.