Last week I bored you with my trip to Vegas. This week I’m going to bore you with the drive home. Then we’ll talk books and time travel back to March 2020 for some more early pandemic memes. But first: welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer, and the What’s on Your Bookshelf Challenge, hosted by Deb, Sue, Donna, and Jo. Grab a drink, pull up a seat, and let’s get to it. Writing News Books Finished in the last month I haven’t been reading as much as usual, so the list of what I’ve read since last month’s What’s on Your Bookshelf post is embarrassingly short. Currently reading Joshua Tree forest between Wickenburg and Wickieup, Arizona As you’ll know from last week’s post, we drove to Vegas for my birthday. I was expecting a long, boring slog through the desert. What I got was a long, interesting slog through the desert. Two deserts, in fact: the Sonoran, where I live, and the Mohave, where Vegas lives. I don’t know where the official dividing line is between the two deserts–and I’m too lazy to look it up–but there’s a transition zone north of Wickenburg that includes the iconic plants of both deserts: the saguaro (Sonoran) and the Joshua tree (Mojave). In fact, there’s an entire forest of Joshua trees! In case you were wondering, a Joshua tree isn’t actually a tree. It’s a U2 album. It’s also a type of yucca. I know, I know, in the age of fake news, we drive on parkways and park on driveways, and yuccas are called trees, dogs and cats are living together, mass hysteria… Oops, had a 1980s flashback there for a minute. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah, Joshua trees that aren’t trees but yuccas. Yucca brevifolia to be precise. According to the National Park Service, they’re a member of the agave family. No, I don’t know if anyone has tried to make tequila out of them, but probably. Humans will make booze out of anything. Let’s look at some more of these weird not-trees: Until this trip, I’d never seen a Joshua tree in bloom before. That bud kind of looks like an artichoke, doesn’t it? As you probably noticed from some of the pictures, this particular patch of desert also includes some cactuses. And me being me, I had to take pictures of them: I also had to take pictures of other weird plants in the area, like this one: And since I made a U2 reference, you know I have to throw in a video. Here’s the first track on Joshua Tree and my favorite U2 video. This appears to be a long version with some extra footage at the beginning. It’s also a great song. Crank it up! And check out all that 80s hair in the audience. And Bono looks so *young*. 2020 Covid Memes, Episode 2: Toilet Paper Now that we’ve had our obligatory visit(s) to the 80s, let’s twiddle the dials on the Wayback Machine and set our destination for March 2020. COVID sucks, but it spawned some of the funniest memes I’ve ever seen. Last week we explored the quarantine variant. This week we’re going to revisit one of the weirdest parts of the early pandemic: the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020. Humans are weird. And have interesting priorities: Some people got a little desperate: I’m not saying toilet paper was hard to find, but… Damn right we did. And we liked it. I toilet papered my friend’s car once. If I’d known then what I know now… While some folks got desperate, others embraced the profit potential: I’m not saying toilet paper was expensive, but: And with that: Have a wonderful weekend! May your toilet paper always be soft and plentiful.