Yes. The wind is the song of the desert, and on oh-so-many solo traverses, my only companion, except the rocks, which typically don't speak with sound. AEolus is always chatty, sometimes too much so, using everything just barely nailed down as vocal chords. People who wonder why trailer homes in the desert have old tires on their roofs have never spent a night in a trailer on a windy night. Their placement is not random, as it would appear to the casual observer, but tossed in the middle of the night with a specific purpose: to stop a particular part of the metal roof from moving up and down, up and down, up and down, with every expression of AEolus's restless spirit.

The ancient ones of the Canyon Country, according to the archeological evidence, had no teeth by the time they were thirty years of age. Spend a windy week in the desert and you'll know why: there are gritty bits of Silica Surprise in everything you eat.

(Ever read Barry Lopez's "Desert Notes"?)