Category: Deserts
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Like Living in a Holiday Greeting Card
[Photo is mine.] Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow. –Lyrics by Sammy Cahn I’ve never lived inside a greeting card before. You’d have to be really really thin, like Wiley C. Cayote after being flattened by a road paver. Never fear. My readers know that and that the title of this post…
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Adirondack Angst
[After the shovel and before the car door incident. Photo is mine.] Once upon a time not so very long ago, there was a man who lived in a house, with his faithful and patient wife, in the Great Wilderness known as the Adirondack Mountains. These mountains are located in the far reaches of upstate…
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Joshua Tree Diary: The Road to Wonder Valley
[Amboy Road…to Wonder Valley. Photo is mine.] I’m driving from Joshua Tree to Twentynine Palms. I turn left on Adobe Drive. Ahead of me is the largest U.S. Marine Training Base in the world. I don’t go there. I turn right on Amboy Road and pass the RV campground where we spent a week in…
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Joshua Tree Diary: Christmas in the Desert
[Desert view outside Joshua Tree. Photo is mine.] This is where it all began, right? I don’t mean California…I mean the desert. The Nativity story is set in the desert; much like the one I see from my bedroom window. Very much like it, except that desert, with the Star, is half a world away.…
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Joshua Tree Diary: Baby Steps and First Things
[On the way to Hidden Valley] I’ve been coloring. We’ve been coloring. You know those adult coloring books that are so popular now? Well, I’m not a bit ashamed to say that Mariam and I have been working separate pages in a book that I bought at a 7-Eleven for $5.99+ tax. [Occupying time in…
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Joshua Tree Diary: The First Days
I looked in the mirror late this morning and decided I would need a haircut sometime in the next few weeks. Trouble is, we’re a few miles from the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base (the largest U.S. military base in the world, I’m told) and nearly all the haircut places offer a “military cut”. Well,…
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Hotel California
Okay. I ripped off the title of a song by The Eagles for one purpose only: to get your attention. The more accurate title should be A Hotel in California. But that sounds like a chapter in an in-flight magazine for American Airlines. Tonight is our last night here, at the Standard Hotel, on Sunset…
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My MRI: The Awful Truth
I have lower back pain. I’ve had it for years. Many of my readers will be saying: “What’s he complaining about now? I’ve had it for years.” Point taken. But, I moved to the North Country for a reason…I wanted to hike and climb more mountains. Now, this back pain makes those dreams a bit…
patrickjegan 