Dispatch: Week of July 12
Gem and Mineral Show returns to Joshua Tree, plus Route 62 construction underway
Hello from California’s high desert. We are under an extreme heat warning through early next week, with high temperatures expected to peak this weekend. Palm Springs is looking at a high of 119 degrees on Sunday, and all-time high temperature records are expected to be set by the end of this heat wave.
Make sure to start hydrating now, even if that means one extra glass of water before you go to bed. Plan any activities for the coolest parts of the day (morning and evening), and take frequent shaded breaks if you have to be outside during the hottest parts of the day for any reason. This will be a serious heat wave, and after the otherwise mild summer we’ve had so far, we will need to be prepared and look out for each other.
And now, onto this week’s news:
In local news:
The Yucca Valley Airport closed today, July 12, and will remained closed until August 11 while the runway is repaved.
Yucca Valley’s Summer Music Festival concert series starts this Saturday, July 15, with a performance by “Cash Up Front,” a Johnny Cash tribute act.
The free concert series runs every Saturday through August 12 at the Yucca Valley Community Center Softball Fields. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. and the concerts starts at 7 p.m.
Yucca Valley is installing a “mini water park” every Friday morning in July to help residents under 8 years old beat the heat.
The north lawn of the community center will have slip-n-slides, wading pools, sprinklers, and water play areas available from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m.
Basin Transit, with the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Desert, is hosting a ‘Pack the Bus’ school supply drive to collect donations on Saturday, July 29.
The donation drive will run from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. in the Walmart parking lot in Yucca Valley.
A reminder to parents: school is back in session on August 21 for all Morongo Unified School District locations.
The famed Gem and Mineral Show will officially be back in Joshua Tree this fall after a short hiatus.
The Gem and Mineral Show will be held at Joshua Tree Lake RV and Campground from September 28 through October 1. It is a location change from previous years following the old campground’s sale to new ownership.
On Monday, Caltrans kicked off a $4.9 million project to repave and resurface portions of Route 62 east of Twentynine Palms.
The construction will run through December and will result in single-lane closures from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. Mondays through Fridays. Delays are expected to be around 15 minutes each.
In state news:
Several homes in Rolling Hills in Los Angeles County were evacuated earlier this week due to concerns of landslide damage. Just a day after the homes were evacuated, several slid down the hillside.
Hotel workers across the state are back at work after the strike over the Fourth of July weekend. Union leaders are still fighting for wage increases, and have said another strike is possible.
Tulare Lake, the so-called “ghost lake” that reemerged during this year’s wet winter, is receding at a slow enough pace that experts think it may stick around for the rest of the year.
Southern California Edison and two other companies paid $22 million to settle U.S. government claims that they caused the 2016 Rey Fire near Santa Barbara.
In other news:
All-time great Megan Rapinoe announced she is retiring from soccer after this year’s World Cup competition.
Rapinoe is a two-time Olympian and has won two World Cup championships during her tenure. She was also heavily involved with the fight for equal pay for women’s sports.
The World Cup competition starts on July 20 and runs until August 20.
Meta (formerly known as Facebook) launched its highly anticipated Twitter competitor Threads last Thursday. The mobile app will link directly to Instagram but primarily focuses on text-based posts like Twitter.
Pupdate of the week: Oliver and I drove down to Murrieta this morning for a visit to the VCA specialists. He is getting up there in age, and the wonderful Dr. Colburn at Companion Animal Clinic suggested it was time for him to see a cardiologist. I’ll keep you all posted on how he’s doing. Alice, on the other hand, is exploring every inch of the house to find which section of tile floor is coolest.
Trail tip of the week: This is not the week or weekend for hiking if you can avoid it. If you must, the same rules apply: hit the trail before the sun is up or after it goes down, drink a borderline ridiculous amount of water and alternate with electrolytes if you have them to counteract salt loss from sweating. Stick to the shade and keep it short.
Read of the week: I really enjoy most things Jenny Offill writes. Her novels are always a bit of a journey, with information revealed in fits and starts throughout until you’re left unsure of what you just read near the end. Last Things is no different, and I loved it just as much as her other works. The story is told from a child’s perspective as her parents’ marriage — her mother an ornithologist and her father a science teacher — degrades. It’s an exploration of which things are built to last — marriages, family, sanity, animal species — in an ultimately hopeful message that whatever we want to last, will.
Watch of the week: Season two of ABC’s Claim to Fame is off and running with a cringe-inducing first episode that will have you hooked if you haven’t already tuned in. The reality show competition features relatives of famous people who must guess who the other contestants are related to before their own “claim to fame,” if you will, is revealed. It is exactly what you want from summer reality TV — messy, fun, and just enough of a game to keep viewers entertained. You can watch if Monday evenings on ABC or Tuesday on Hulu.
That’s it for this week! I hope you’re able to sneak outside in the morning or evening this weekend before things really start to heat up.
- Megan