Transmitting from the Mahadi Wilderness in Joshua Tree, California, now is the time for Desert Oracle Radio, the voice of the desert.

Night has fallen on the desert as much of the American desert enters desert spring.

Now if you're shivering up in Moab, you're probably thinking 10 degrees is hardly springtime.

Relax. The lows should be back around the mid-20s shortly.

Now down in Enza Barago, it's already wildflower season. The days are just about perfect in Tucson. And up here in the high desert, the Mojave

wilderness, we have not yet put away our one coat. The one coat we all share for a few months

sometimes when the winter cooperates.

Now we don't have groundhogs out here.

What is a groundhog?

Back where I'm from, they used to cat dog. Anyway.

Back where I'm from,

they used to catch a nutria digging holes in the levee,

and they'd wrap some martygraw beads

around the poor invasive species

and prop it up for the TV reporter. They've called this wretched, roly-poly

South American rat, the Cajun Groundhog. They named it something like Curly or T-Boy or

T-Joc or who knows, just an outrage against nature.

If you've ever wondered why grown men in Cajun country are often called T something,

is from Petit.

So if you come across a 300-pound, seven-foot-tall, middle middle age guy who works on outboard motors or whatever,

and everybody's calling him T-Beb, well, that just means petite baby.

And they will call him that until the day he dies is just the way of things.

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