Hi GW, compared to the last few days it looks like you have a relative "Heat Wave" coming with 24-degrees for the overnight low and a high of 47 tomorrow as forecast by NWS for locations near you. Stay warm!
I would even like to live where you are for the winter months.Winters are really nice in Borrego Springs, CA and the small town (3500 people) swells at this time of year. We hit freezing temps just a handful of times for overnight lows otherwise it's really nice weather with rainfall or high winds being the most exciting events during winter. Summer is "low desert" hot but very dry with the exception of our Monsoon season when we get very active thunderstorms and flash flooding that actually provides most of our rainfall to recharge the aquifer where all our water comes from. I was born, raised and had my career in San Diego and retired to Borrego about 8-years ago and love it out here. I live here year round and have learned to cope in the summer heat better than expected. The dry conditions make it much less brutal than in more humid climates.I am so thankful that I don't live in the Midwest. I keep telling myself that it could be worse but the older I get, the harder it is to bear the winters even here for me. Now I know why so many people retire to Florida.
Hi GW,
But all kidding aside if you select the right plants you can have a fairly inviting landscape. When I bought this little house it was 5-years old (built in 2006) and it still hadn't been landscaped, it was just dirt. It was actually a fun project get a yard in place (see below). 
That is great, I bet the night sky is amazing too.Hi GW,
When I was working in San Diego the company opened offices in Phoenix and Tucson, AZ. I always hated the heat and I told the guys, who elected to move over there to start these new branches, that they were crazy due to the intense desert heat in summer. They all told me, "yes but it's a dry heat, so it really is not that bad" but still I didn't believed them until moving to the desert myself. They were right.
On the "Do people have lawns?" question, well very few people have lawns, due to the cost of water to keep it alive through summer. Water is expensive down here and it takes a lot of water to keep non-native plants alive in summer. Instead of mowing the lawn down here we rake the dirt
Images below show the house from the street and another shows the neighborhood. As you can see it is 100% lower desert terrain down here and it's not for everyone. Personally I truly enjoy being away from the city, whether it's mountains or deserts or anything in between, I love the peace, wildlife and beauty and pretty much zero crime out here.
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You got that right. Borrego Springs is a certified Dark Sky Community, we have ordinances about using outdoor lighting and things, see link below for more info on this:
I originally planned on retiring to Grants Pass, OR, bought a house, rented it while finishing my career, love the country up there. Long story short, I ended up deciding to move down here, just wanted to stay close to home (2-hrs from San Diego), as long as I can remember this was a place where family and friends would escape to and enjoy.
Sorry I missed this...Yes I am using a set of ProPolar NDPL (Neutral Density w/Polarizer) filters for the DJI Spark. As you know that polarizing filters helps remove the sun glare from objects/surfaces to reveal more deep color, especially in foliage, seeing into water and deepening the blue sky. .
