Here's what it was like for me living in that desolate desert: " it was too hot: one hundred degrees by 9 a.m., one hundred ten by noon. Even the weather forecasters spread rumors to make desert dwellers feel cooler in hundred-fifteen degree weather: “It’s a dry heat, with low humidity, so you barely feel it. You get used to it.” You have got to be kidding! When I fed the horse or got the mail, the scorching sun bit my skin as if I had collided with a prickly pear cactus. At the same time, residents were asked to avoid using excessive water to prevent drought conditions. Even after a short shower, perspiration poured from overburdened sweat glands.
To open windows was to allow the sour odor of urine and manure from the dairy farm to drift in. The neighbor’s chickens, crossing under the chain link fence for horse feed, caused yet another stench. So I applied sun-shield film to the panes, closed the drapes with their sun-repellent lining, and holed up in the trailer cave. The ineffective swamp cooler churned its clanging blades while spraying a mist of warm water.
In an effort to conserve my low energy reserves, I watched Good Morning America and Days of Our Lives, and read Jackie Collins’ “Valley of the Dolls” and Sidney Sheldon’s “Stranger in the Mirror.” I was indeed a stranger unto myself, sitting and smoking, and choking back tears. I missed the real challenge of college and the fantasy of rescue. I wasn’t a strong heroine able to flee from inner demons and Todd was no knight in shining armor slaying dragons."