Why Desert Hot Air? Because It Is HOT Here!

Someone wanted to know why I call my blog Desert Hot Air.  Of course the obvious answer is that I fill my blog with hot air from my brain.  But also I live in (for all practical purposes) the Desert.  If we are to be technical, my friends, this area is actually only SEMI-ARID, NOT ARID.  The difference is that here (Midland area) we receive between 8 and 16 inches of rain each year, whereas a true desert receives less than eight inches in the same time period.  Big difference I suppose...I guess if you lived in the TRUE desert and accidentally stumbled on the SEMI-desert you would suddenly be in paradise.  This year the draught is the great equalizer, for the same traveler who escaped from the desert into the Permian Basin, where I live, would have 200% percent of zero rainfall instead of only 100 % of no rain.  I am sure this would be most welcome news to the weary traveler. 

One of the things I love about the (semi) desert is that in the summer, once the daily temperature average soars to over 90, then nature treats the human eye with a very fascinating display of power, in the form of huge whirlwinds, or dust devils, if you will.  Now, growing up in Central Texas I witnessed many dust devils as a child.  One day, I had the big brain storm that I would be mounted on my bike at the ready, and I would ride into one the dust devils if it should dare to come close to me.  I am sure I was not yet in second grade, because I still lived in the old farm house.  Anyway, my efforts were soon rewarded as a nice-sized dust devil, about as big as a seven year-old boy, formed right in front of me.  I immediately dashed off in hot pursuit as the dust devil raced away from down the road.  Believe it or not, I actually caught up with, and entered, the dust devil.  It was great, for about two seconds.  Then my eyes, nose, mouth, and ears filled with dirt and leaves and what all.  Next thing I know I crashed into some kind of flowering bush.  The pain of the scraped knee detracted only a little from the choking, coughing, and spitting fit in which I was engaged at the moment of the crash.  I was actually not injured badly.  And it was fun, for all that.  I repeated the quest, sans the crashing, a couple of more times before I...ahem...outgrew the sport.

The dust devils in Central Texas are generally small.  Not so in the (SEMI) deserts west of Abilene.  Nature uses the wind and the dust in creating some truly spectacular dust devils that have to be seen to be believed.  Many of these dust devils are fifty to a hundred feet in diameter.  They can literally swallow a big rig.  But the truly enchanting thing about them is that they seem to last for many minutes at the time, and the tops of these whirling dervishes reach up to the half-mile level in the sky.  I sit at my lonely outpost and observe these mighty wonders, sometimes being able to see a dust devil several miles away.  Like I said, the duration of these little beasts is amazing.  Sometimes they move along at break neck speed; other times they remain in the same locale for several minutes.  I have seen several of them linger for nearly half an hour before dissipating.

So the desert hot air creates these beautiful and amazing sights, inspiring wonder in children, even old kids like me.  And the hot air from my brain also twists and whirls, creating (I hope) the whirling dervish that may entertain you or inform you.  Maybe it will even make you angry, or make you angry at me.  Sometimes I am just a blow-hard, sometimes, I hope, I am entertaining and informative.  And, sometimes I hope I do make you angry, or even make you angry at me.  But maybe I bring something to your attention that you might have otherwise missed, or maybe I just make you think, or even just give you a moment of laughter.  It is the desert hot air, both from me, and from my beloved Desert, that inspires and creates, and lets me write for you.  I appreciate my readers very much.  Thank you all!