LFTR – Joshua Tree CA – Shaving your legs while visiting the desert.

I’ve really enjoyed my time in Joshua Tree CA. I kept asking everyone I met, ‘What is different about living in the desert than other places or do you guys have any local colloquialisms?’ Mostly I got blank stares back from people. I did learn that the air conditioning units are on the roof in this area instead of on the ground, so that was different. No one knew exactly why the units were on the roof but everyone agreed that there must have been a good reason for it. I personally learned a couple of things.  When you are walking around in a wild area taking pictures of beautiful flowers be careful when backing up because chances are there are other plants with thorns, quills and prickers that love nothing more than to stick themselves into your ass. Well I took this lovely picture but unfortunately in the process backed into a short haired prickly pear cactus.

So when I backed up into the cactus,  about 100 hairlike thorns stuck in my pants at my lower calf. Instead of taking the time to pick them out of my pants right away, I decide to wait. Big mistake! I waited too long and many of the thorns worked their way from the pants into my calf. So my cousin helped me by taking duct tape to pull the thorns from my pants. She then took tweezers and plucked the embedded thorns from my calf. As she was plucking thorns, I was surprised that they were easily removed without blood shed or much pain and came out fairly easily. Every now and again, she’d hit a real hair and pluck that out which really hurt and made me jump when she did. I have learned that when I’m in the desert I should always shave.  I do realize that not backing into prickly things might be the key here, but I think I’m a little too A.D.D. for that. 🙂