Lizards – adesertviewwithstace

Our heat here in AZ has been so extreme this weekend we continue to set records, yet I can look outside my window to the tee box on the 9^th hole of the Dinosaur and see 4 men happily waiting their turn

Just like the Superstition Mountain we live next to, the game of golf seems to have this pull, this energy, this drive that makes a grown man go outside in 110 degree weather to “play”.

I can hear all of you golfers now “Just get an early tee time.” It was 95 degrees at 5:30 this morning with an expected high of 117! No joke. (6/20/16)

The way our little house sits on the hill we have spectacular views all around. The mighty Superstition dominates the North and East views. But if you look out to the South you see golf, the tee box for the 9^th hole. If you look out to the West you see the 11^th hole tucked into the mountain.

Living here I’m finding there are golfers for whom excessive heat is not going to stop a good round of golf. Blasts of hot wind, heat radiating in waves on the concrete, doesn’t matter. Its golf. And right now its CHEAP golf on some of the best courses in Arizona. When you normally can pay well over $150 a round during peak season, a $35 tee time can entice a serious golf lover to go withstand oven like heat to start a round at noon.

$15 will get you a tee time round 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Just go to http://www.GolfNow.com.

I love golf. It’s a great sport. I just have no idea why anyone would want to play in this heat! But I see them. They are out there.

Now I’m not a golfer. I don’t think what I do out there classifies as actual golfing. I’m told if I “practice” I will get better. If hitting one or two balls 10 times or more at a hole that I never get it into isn’t “practicing” then I don’t know what “practice” is. Just the word “practice” makes me giggle. Practice. I repeat the word “practice” about nine times like I’m Allen Iverson…not a game…we talking about practice. I belong in the cart.

Most courses are beautiful and quiet. Like being in a park. Usually lots of nature too. I have even seen alligators! ( No, not out here. In South Carolina, another home of some amazing golf courses.) An alligator laying by the greens is not enough to stop a golfer! Especially in the South where they are common.

I guess it’s like us out here in the desert with lizards and snakes, it just comes with the territory.I have seen deer, quail, squirrels, roadrunners, lizards and more bunnies than necessary out on our “home course” Dinosaur. Like a ridiculous amount of wild bunnies. I’ve counted 9 and 10 just hanging out by a fairway. They just kill me. After years of golf course living they still have absolutely no idea how to navigate any oncoming cart traffic. Confusion every time.

Javelinas usually don’t get to roam on the courses but it wouldn’t surprise me to hear someone tell they saw one or two.They wander through my yard. I’m sure they find their way onto the grass. My husband seems to see coyotes quite often. But coyotes and Javelina are not going to stop a good round of golf any more than an alligator is. Be serious.

Planes were diverted yesterday. Couldn’t land. It was too hot. I’m not making that up. It is illegal for planes to land or take off once the temperature hits 120. Something to do with the effect the heat has on the equipment.

4 hikers died this weekend on our trails due to the heat. The news reporter said one of them was a personal trainer. This heat is serious.

I can just hear the argument that its actually SAFER to be a golfer:“ Golf courses have carts. No hiking except to find your ball. Golfers aren’t walking the whole round. The carts have coolers with ice and beverages. The carts give shade.”

Its 110 degrees outside currently. Just saying.

Sure, you could also argue that the colorful clothing golfers wear make it much easier to spot one in distress when he flops over on the green holding a flag! I see you guys from a good seven iron away. I see those neons. Golfers are much easier to rescue. Rarely is a helicopter required.

For some even the worst round of golf in this heat can produce an inner happiness that a walk through an air-conditioned mall just can’t provide.

Don’t believe me? Ask a golfer.

I’m born and raised desert. Born in Las Vegas raised in the deserts of Southern California. I am one of a handful of people who can actually say they lived in Baker CA.

Not Bakersfield.

Baker. “The Gateway to Death Valley” is what the sign says if you stop there for soda or gas on your way to or from Las Vegas off the 15. Baker has a huge thermometer telling you it’s hot. Not much else to see. Death Valley is the obviously more famous attraction.

Our family lived there for a couple of years when I was in 2^nd and 3^rd grade. My father worked for the phone company. They housed roughly 30 families out in the middle of nowhere Baker so the workers could go to the different mountains and probably set up the stations and towers most of us use for phone services today. Or I could be entirely wrong and whatever they worked on 40 years ago has been replaced by a tiny machine. Truly no clue. None the less it was why I lived in Baker in the 70’s and was really the start of me being a desert kid. I remember catching lizards with some of the other kids and bringing them home to mom hoping to get to keep them as a pets.

From there work moved my father and everyone else in our Baker compound, ugh I probably forgot to mention, the houses where we were lived were all built in this community type style fenced in as a group. It became a minimum security prison later or so I was told! Any way they moved everyone to the High Desert. Victorville, Hesperia and Apple Valley. Dad built our house in Hesperia.

One of my chores growing up was weeding. Mostly tumble weeds but the usual prickly bad guys were there too. In oversized gloves dad had already used countless times that were full of thorns I would be sent to a section of fencing to clear along. Oh man my dad would get mad if I just broke the top of the weed off and didn’t try to get the root and all. I am not lying he would check. This is the same man who would say “Good afternoon.” to me at 9 am on a Saturday and scowl because I had slept in so late.

I lost part of my pinkie finger in an accident at the dump due to yard work. It’s a long story I will write at another time when safety becomes a topic.

What took me way too long to get at is I’m by no means a professional desert anything. I am not a plant/cactus expert, nature guru, whatever nor am I claiming to be or even in school to become any of that. No, I have just lived and done yard work in the desert a really long time so hopefully when I say it’s hot out or don’t touch that or you probably shouldn’t it’s with some old school desert credibility.

Here in AZ we have plants and animals that only live in this desert. I want to share some pretty awesome stuff with those of you who may never make it to this part of the world. Or maybe I can inspire you to come see it and experience it yourself.

In the roughly three weeks we have been in our new home I already have stories… and its with that I bring you this blog.

Tag: Lizards

GOLF?

Desert Cred

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