Good morning and welcome to the desert portion of our midweek meal. Every winter I like to take a couple of weeks off at the end of December to regenerate and recharge my batteries in preparation for the new year. Actually, that’s not completely true. My in-laws have a condo on the golf course at the Palm Valley Country Club so I like to go down the Coachella Valley and live the life of a very active veal.

Palm Desert is nestled in the foothills of the Santa Rosa Mountains. For 8-9 months of the year it has near-perfect weather. In the summer months I believe hell is cooler. There are 350 sunny days a year, the average temperature is 73 degrees and it rains less than 3.5 inches. Yes, this is why before I go to sleep I say my prayers and thank the big guy upstairs for the rye bread, corn beef and chocolate rugulah at Sherman’s Deli, with two convenient locations in Palm Springs and Palm Desert.

Life can be quite strenuous in the desert at holiday time. We have to decide what movie we want to see that day, what restaurant we want to visit that evening and here comes the stressful part, what time should we make the reservation. I know a lot of you must be thinking, “Is he kidding, he thinks this is stressful.” Well, actually I am kidding. The stressful part is selecting the restaurant. We are very fortunate to be able to fly into Palm Springs, drive 20 minutes east and without carrying any tablets down from the mountaintop see the desert just the way Moses did.

As you can see from the photos, there is some color in the desert sky. Now here’s more of the rigors that come into play in the desert. To take sunrise shots here on the coast, I head down to the lighthouse, go down to the beach and head into that 52 degree water. In Palm Desert, I wake up, walk about 100 yards to the back nine fairway and vavoom, there’s my sunrise shot (this would be photos #1, 3 and 4).

Ah, the desert. Palm trees, luscious green fairways, beautiful lakes, cascading waterfalls and roadrunners not being chased by coyotes. Throw in some exotic clouds, fruit trees teeming with oranges, tangerines and grapefruit and mountains that change color throughout the day and that’s the lower desert. When the winds blow it reminds me of Hawaii without the ocean. And pineapple and papaya. And the chocolate covered macadamia nuts. No wonder Bob Hope loved this place.

Shots #5 and 6 are sunset shots taken on this most recent trip. The sunrises in late December were as weak as Coach Isiah Thomas’ excuses for his New York Knick’s team’s play but I did go to three movies (of which “Charley Wilson’s War’) was my favorite and watched another half dozen or so on DVD. I highly recommend the first half of “Balls of Fury” if you love movies about ping pong, but then again, who doesn’t.

So that’s our desert menu. There have been two tremendous sunrises the past two days but because of the ongoing writer’s strike I have not captured them the way I would like. Anyone who knows me knows that I HATE MISSING ANYTHING and I’ve definitely have not been on top of my game the last two days. I can only blame Rudy Giuliani, the Laker Girls and myself.

Shot number two is my favorite desert sunset-the whole sky turned completely blood crimson red. I hope you enjoyed this change of location as on Friday we will return to the stormy central coast. So enjoy the desert sky, the palm trees and the colors and maybe next time I’ll even throw in some sand.

O