The Vegas vacation, part 2.

We arrived at my youngest brother’s place and my son, Dad and I were left there. My Mom took the rest to her place. I sat outside and had a beer with my brother and his sweet wife. My son kicked stones around the yard, there is no grass there. We chatted and I noted how much clearer the sky was, compared to Maryland. I could see the stars at least twice as clear.
I pointed out Venus, trailing the crescent moon, and my sister in-law grabbed her son and made a point of letting him know it was the planet. I guess they had pondered it a night or two before. That was kind of cool. We crashed shortly afterwards, but I didn’t sleep well. The smoke alarm tripping for no good reason was not helping. My brother came into the room asking me what was happening. I told him the alarm went off, then stopped. I learned later that they have had other electrical problems in the house.
In the morning, my brother and his wife had to go to work, so I made eggs and had my son help with toast for everyone. I couldn’t find a plastic spatula to go with the no stick pan, so I flipped the eggs like pancakes. My Dad was impressed that I could crack eggs one handed (and not break the yoke). I can’t think of where I learned that, I just know that I can do it.
We spent the morning watching the sun heat up the desert around us.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=adobe+grande+street&sll=36.330339,-115.220833&sspn=0.115336,0.225906&ie=UTF8&ll=36.325222,-115.223966&spn=0.230687,0.451813&t=k&z=11&om=1
That photo was taken before the houses were built, but trust me, the whole gated community is there now and thriving.
Later that day and the next, I went outside and noted a few things. I never hear dogs bark. I don’t see kids outside playing. I don’t hear other families even talking outside. It’s too hot. Everyone is inside. The temp is 105-110 F during the day (up to 130 F in July and August). There are few bugs and fewer birds than in a cat house. My brother confirmed that this only goes on for 3 months out of the year. I was then sure, that no matter how much my mother nagged me, I would not be moving here. It is her dream though. She even tried to trick my son into saying he would like to move there.
We all went to my Mom’s place, about 15 minutes away. I got to see my next youngest brother, who I think doesn’t really like me much or anyone, but we had a pretty good time talking and joking. I do love him and wish he would realize that. I miss him actually, even though we were not too close as kids, he was always my brother. To this moment, I can say honestly, that I would die to save him, if it came to that.
I cleaned up a Trojan on my Mom’s computer and removed the MacAfee software that was generating pop-ups on her computer. It’s sad that a product that you PAY FOR starts spamming you! They do.
My Mom fixed up my older brother with a friend she works with. It’s a bee’s hive of a thing to do, but they seemed to really hit it off. We headed back to my brother’s place and we were having fun goofing on my older brother’s fixed date. We got to meet her later and she was fetching, to say the least. She managed to tolerate my family and I think assimilate, or rise above our crude behavior. If he can, I hope my brother works out a way to keep her.