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

Night has fallen on the desert and there's no place to die like the desert.

The arid wilderness under the charging sky, as Jenny Lewis wrote.

We lost... guy, as Jenny Lewis wrote. We

lost another hiker

last year and his

bones were just discovered.

Paul Miller,

age 51,

when he

vanished.

I've had a few drinks with Paul because his missing hiker flyer was on the bulletin board next to my favorite bar stool at the saloon.

My favorite bar stool sort of tucked into the back there where you can occasionally read a book and enjoy a beverage.

Occasionally, in the miserable depths of summer, I mean.

Otherwise, it's always tourist season in there.

Until the next recession, or the next plague, or the super earthquake or whatever clears out the crowd for a couple of years. It's coming. Don't worry. Don't be a E of little faith, is what I mean.

When I hear this kind of news about someone of similar age, perishing on a day hike in the same desert where I go wandering alone each and every day, well, I guess it leaves me with a feeling of elation,

of celebration, because I'm still here for now,

until my time of dying.

Battlefield ethics, I guess, salute the ones who fell and thank God it wasn't you.

Not this time.

Not yet.

...