Our weather has turned very warm, 82 degrees today, 75 degrees at 11:30 pm. If this was as hot as it got, this would be a great place to live year-round. But no. By July it will be 20 to 25 degrees hotter, too hot for me.

Here's another kind of heat:

Atomic cloud from the 1950s or 60s:



Miss Atomic:



The current administration has 'killed' Yucca Mountain, which was supposed to be a repository for atomic waste, keeping it contained for many decades out in the middle of nowhere Nevada. Most of the state belongs to the federal government, used for military training exercises, so Nevada has a lot of nowhere.

Nevadans are opposed to Yucca Mountain, of course, because they are still glowing in the dark from the atomic testing in the 1950s and 60s, and they don't have any nuclear waste of their own, so it's a matter of other states dumping their waste here.

From all the controversy and lawsuits, you'd think Yucca Mountain hadn't even gotten started, but a lot of it has been built: there is a train going in there, and over $10 billion has been spent. It wasn't all taxpayer money, though, according to a relative who works at a nuclear facility, the nuclear industry provided a lot of the funding. Even if they don't end up using it for nuclear waste, surely it could be used for something, but for now, it's supposedly just sitting there.

Meanwhile, contrary to earlier predictions by the folks at Death Valley, this year is going to be the third best in 20 year for wild flowers. The other comparably good years were 2005 and 1998. Seems that the weather there has been relatively cooler and the rains came at just the right times. There was an article in today's paper, and I'm trying to decide if we should make the 200-plus mile drive (roundtrip) just to see them when we're planning a 900 mile drive this weekend. I just wish the person who wrote that news item hadn't waxed so poetic, describing it as smelling like a flower shop, and vast alluvial plains covered with flowers, and acres of broad-tail cactus in lovely pink bloom.

These were taken in March 2008, supposedly worth the drive, but this year is supposed to be even better. I guess the pictures don't really do it justice, but
I think there was some bait and switch involved, and it wasn't all that breath-taking. I'll be in big trouble if I talk Mr. Troutbend into going up there and it's less than spectacular.