----LET ME TELL YOU A STORY---- I LIVED IN THE DESERT .. NOT IN THE CITY .. BUT, ON THE 'OUTSKIRTS' .. AND 100 TIMES MORE DANGEROUS THAN ANY CITY ... JUST OUTSIDE OF 'PHEONIX' ARIZONA ... THERE IS NOTHING IN THE DESERT YOU SAY? .. OLD DRIED UP 'BARREN LAND' .. DOESN'T EVEN HAVE ANY 'WATER'? NO RIVERS? NOTHING 'GROWS' THERE? YOU SAY? ..... here are some 'facts' about Pheonix, Arizona (as I saw them, just on the 'outskirts' of town) more 'poisonous' wildlife than anywhere else on earth .... no lights from the city .. it was so dark ... but, the stars were so close it seemed like .. I could almost touch them. (I admit to actually reaching out and 'trying to touch them' .. lol) *blushes* and has the most beautiful flower grows there .. that you have to look real hard to see .. but, don't try to pick it .. it grows on the 'cactus' .. which is the only thing on the desert ... 'BESIDES THE BIGGEST, LONGEST RIVER THAT RUNS THROUGH IT (IT RUNS 'ALMOST THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE UNITED STATES)' what is that river anyway? I forget the name of it ... 4 different states 'depend' on the water from that river .. and it 'literally' divides the 'golden state' ... from 'sin city' ... you can 'canoe' down that river ... and see both sides of what that 'river' FEEDS. But, unless you really 'knew' that they were there ... you would never even 'think' that such a 'essential part of LIFE' ... was even there. They don't even show such things on like ... 'some movies and stuff' .. you think the desert is a barren waste ... a hot, life exausting, God forsaken place. I begged to differ ..... Every night ... during the summer me and my family would sit out on the balcony and watch as the GREAT THUNDERSTORMS that only happen in the desert came rolling in ... WE could hear the storm LONG BEFORE WE COULD SEE THE BLACK CLOUDS .. THEY would go inside .. when the clouds started to become 'visible'.I would stay out there, however. I would stay there ... long after what most feel was 'safe'. For the power of that storm as it grew closer and as it would literally shake the ground in a powerful, silent groan, only 'deeper' and kept 'inside' those clouds. Some people described the sound being like 100 or more fighter planes coming over the horizon, (kind of like that movie about 'Pearl Harbor'), and it kind of scared them ... I just FELT pure, power that kept slowly building the closer that it got to US. My mom, knowing there was no use in trying to make me come in just then. Made me promise though, to come in when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck START TO rise .. she said that was when the 'storm' was getting too close and even though you couldn't see it ... the hairs were a 'warning' of the 'lightning' that was sure to follow and that meant it was getting too close. I promised. the cactus ... miles, and miles, away from that river ... but, in direct line of the SOURCE THAT FEEDS THAT RIVER, grows the most beautiful flower ... tucked inside 5 inch thorns that seem to 'jump off' the cactus if one gets too close. That is my story about Pheonix, Arizona ... as I saw it .. from the 'outskirts' of the city. (I'll give proper credit in a few minutes) I need some coffee right now .. lol.