It’s been so damn hot for far too long. I know, I know, it’s a dry heat. I don’t care – any heat sucks the energy right out of me. Makes me long to take a siesta, though if I dare do that I won’t sleep that night. Makes it hard to want to do anything productive at all, much less the gazillion chores that need attending to, and the big looming deadline for the third book in the Mangas County Mysteries series. I’m moving along on the rough draft, but I’m really sweating over it. Not literally – in a dry heat it’s too dry for sweat to happen.
Bee blossom (2019)
Miles of cowpen daisies (2022)
Same view, no wildflowers, no grass (2025)
This is normally the time of year when fools (like me) imagine New Mexico starts looking like Ireland during the monsoon rains. It wasn’t so long ago that August and September were the months of lush green blanketing the landscape wherever it wasn’t covered with wildflowers… so many wildflowers! But now all I see is a few plants struggling, many dying or dead. Thirsty, hungry wildlife desperate to find anything to eat. Bees… what about the bees? I put out water for them and the butterflies and any other critters that need a drink. Such a small thing for such a big problem.
Okay, enough of that. It doesn’t make it any cooler to think about climate change. Maybe it will rain someday soon, and grass will dare grow, and maybe it’ll do it without flooding and washing away the bottom of my dry, dusty valley.
So yeah, I’m supposed to be writing right now. I mean, working on the rough draft of the book, not writing a blog. That’s why just for kicks, I decided to see what Google AI says about that, if it said anything.
But wait!
“Mangas County Mysteries” refers to a series of mystery novels by Lif Strand, set in Mangas County, New Mexico. The series follows Special Deputy Jessie Torres as she investigates crimes amidst the challenges of wolf reintroduction and other social issues.
Well that was a surprise! Not only did AI have something to say, it actually said it correctly! I’m impressed… but not too much. After all, even a broken clock gets the time right twice a day. Unless it’s a clock set to military time.
And with that, I will get back to the manuscript, dry heat or not.
Great read again Lif. Thank you. Keep them coming
Thank you, Jo Lynn!
Great read again Lif. Thank you
I was just sharing with out of state visitors that our mountains and hills should be bright green right now, and it should look like Ireland! I’m with you on the heat and dryness. It’s much hotter this summer than last, and the overnight lows are much higher—maybe even ten degrees higher. So sleeping in the cool air of the night is no longer what it once was.
I definitely am not a fan of warm nights when it comes to sleeping!