Desert Oracle Radio, the voice of the desert.

Night has fallen on the desert.

A cool springtime in the Mojave Desert.

The hummingbirds are lingering on the branches of creosote and catclaw, looking around for the

flowers.

Where are the flowers?

Well, that's always the guessing game up here, isn't it?

Sometimes they're evident by the end of March.

Sometimes it's the beginning of May.

Varies by terrain, by altitude,

by a hundred little differences from spring to spring in this forward motion of our lives.

Spring forward.

I saw my first rattlesnake of the season walking in the hills at sundown the other day.

I was walking in the hills, anyway.

But the snake was not moving.

Before I got close, I knew it wasn't the way I prefer to see such creatures,

because it was already chilly out 55 degrees or so, chilly and overcast,

with the last muted rays of sunlight fading fast.

There was a motorcycle track right over this snake of maybe a foot long.

It was dead just for crossing the six feet of sandy dirt road next to where it woke up.

But kept walking, troubled by the likelihood that the death was intentional.

Remembering talking to this kid who lived behind my place up in Reno many years ago,

...