Coffee heat rising

“The Sound of Freedom”…

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Yeah. This morning the weather conditions are perfect: we’re being serenaded nonstop by the “Sound of Freedom,” as my mother used to put it while she perched on her back porch over morning coffee.

Noooo, muther, I used to think. That’s the sound of World War III, comin’ our way.

It never seemed to register with her that those fighter jets weren’t up there for pretty. They weren’t up there to amuse the locals.

They were up there to practice blowing civilization back to the Cave Man Era.

They’ve been blasting away all morning. They start as dawn cracks.

It’s almost 8:30, and we’re still getting ROOOOOAAAAARRRRRR ROOOOAAAARRR ROOOARRR from the air base near Sun City — a good 20 miles away. The racket whams through your solid block walls: there’s no escaping it.

{oh, this is nice: WordPress refuses to insert a link. Check it out: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/glendale/2019/05/17/late-night-f-35-flights-luke-air-force-base-common-during-summer-months/3694405002/}

Really, if my son weren’t here I wouldn’t live in the Valley on a bet.

Dunno, though, where you’d go to escape. Anyplace within 40 or 50 miles is gonna be shuddering with jet engine noise. And the racket no doubt is with us forever…at least for our foreseeable lifetime.

Yea, verily… If my son weren’t here, you can be sure I’d be somewhere else. WHERE else, though, remains a bit of a mystery. Might have to move out of the state. Tibet, maybe???

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Speaking of morning rackets:

yappa whine
yappa whine
yappa yappa yappa yappa
yap yap WHINE!

Get off duff. Put computer down. Let the dog out.

Let more noise in: rrrrooooarrrr roarrrrrr rrrooaaar…

Any question why the Old Bat is a crabby harridan?

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LOL! Where could one go that would be quieter?

In theory, the ranch should be, if only it were still accessible to its former owners. But…it’s not.

The ranch sits on the edge of the Mogollon Rim, overlooking the Valley. The West Valley, where Luke Air Force Base reigns noisily supreme. So you’re not gonna get away from much airplane racket up there.

That notwithstanding… {sigh}… I do so miss the ranch. It was beautiful.

Wonder what Ruby would make of a cow? Probably not much, before one of them booted her into the middle of next year.

A ranch dawg, she ain’t! 😀

R-O-O-O-O-A-A-A-A-R-R-R-R

Tryin’ Again…

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Believe we’ve lost several posts since the last time I was here scribbling. And…well…I am NOT in the mood for struggling with the Internet just now.

So let’s freakin’ start over.

Today is Sunday, March 16.

It’s 3:40 in the afternoon. A rather stuffy and damp afternoon, one with high clouds lurking overhead.

Ruby and I are just back from circumnavigating the park. Enjoyed watching teams of young people playing soccer and volleyball. Nice way to spend time…

Contemplated the potential joys of inhabiting some other neighborhood.

My cousin lives in an outlying suburb called Fountain Hills. A little higher in elevation, it’s a bit cooler than the more central parts of the Valley. It’s practically within walking distance of the Mayo Clinic.

Would I like to live there?

I might, if my cousin were just a shade friendlier. For reasons I cannot imagine, she visibly dislikes me. Dunno what on earth I did to piss her off permanently, but she’s openly hostile to me whenever we’re within hollering distance. So…that does nothing to encourage me to move to the far northeast side of the Valley.

How about Sun City?  Way to Hell and gone on the west side?

Ugh! Nothing feels more repellent to me than the Old Folks’ Ghetto. Make that the Whitey-White Old Folks’ Ghetto.

My mother loved the place after she and my father came to light there. But…I never could see the charm to its visual and social monotony.

How about back down into the historic central part of the city?

Well. Yeah: I did like living there. Thirty years ago… However…today? Maybe not so much.

Social-stratum-wise, it’s about the same: a popular destination for the young, the affluent, and the upwardly mobile. But…but….

First off, it’s noisy. The upscale neighborhoods are bordered by large, incredibly busy commuter roads. So every morning and every evening you get roar roar roar from seven-lane roads that don’t let you turn left. A major regional hospital occupies a large corner to the north, and another one stands to the southeast: ambulances shriek past at all hours of the day and night. And Sky Harbor Airport calls jet plane traffic to the south and east, roar roar roar roar roar — also at all hours of the day and night.

So…even though it’s a pretty and a historically interesting neighborhood, it’s less than perfectly ideal. Especially given the crime rate, which is pretty breathtaking.

Not that we don’t have a healthy crime rate up here in Sunnyslop. But with only one regional hospital we do get lots less siren music.

Ohhhhh my…. WHERE would I go if I could escape from lovely uptown Phoenix?

Hm.

Just about noplace in Arizona. It’s much of a sameness, all across the state…when you come right down to it. Loved living on the ranch, but it probably wouldn’t be safe for an old lady: at this age, you need to be closer to medical and social services than thirty miles out in the middle of nowhere.

So…. {sigh}…  I’m probably about in an ideal location, given my age, my health, and my social status. I do like it here, even though there are places I’d like better.

La Maya and La Bethulia have moved to the area around Monterey, California. It is beautiful there. And cold. And foggy. And expensive. No way in Hell could I afford to live there.

SDXB’s relatives live in Seattle. It also is quite lovely. And a bit too expensive for my budget.

I do love New Mexico. But…I don’t know anyone there, and at this age you may be sure I don’t wanna start all over.

Back to the San Francisco Bay Area? All my relatives in those  parts are long gone, left for the Other World many a year ago. No longer knowing anyone there and without a job there, I can’t imagine much of any point in moving back.

So I feel like I’m kinda stuck here, trapped by inertia. There’s noplace else to go to that makes sense, and I sure don’t wanna work hard enough to create any such place.

Arizona: Garden spot. I guess.

And Speakin’ of Colder Than a By-Gawd…

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😀  What an insane afternoon!

We’re back from the late-day perambulation of the park. EGAD, but it’s cold out there! Overcast, windy, and…well.. more than “crisp.” Colder than a by-gawd, as my father would have said.

Ruby has patrolled the neighborhood streets and inspected the park. Clouds have blown up during the time we wandered about: it’s dark gray out there now.

Wunderground predicts an 84% chance of rain…I’d say that’s a conservative estimate. Supposedly 52 degrees out in the backyard just now…but again: I’d say, “conservative estimate.”

We’ve managed to repair to the Funny Farm, and Ruby has taken up her position at the foot of the bed.

…. uhhh….

Well, no: She’s taken up her position at the chow bowl, having rousted the human and demanded a pile of Dawg Food.

😀

{sigh}. I hope the stuff races through her forthwith, so we can get her out into the backyard before it starts to rain. Which will happen…soon, I imagine.

Well…what if?

What if we lived in Fountain Hills, a suburban locale I covet?

It would be colder there than it is here. And no doubt windier.

What if we still lived downtown, in the antique and very classy central-city neighborhoods?

‘Twould be no warmer there than it is here, but a WHOLE lot noisier. We’re comin’ on to rush hour, so would be serenaded with traffic noise and ambulance sirens and fire-engine sirens and…gaaaaaaahhhh!

On the other hand, we’d be closer to M’hijito’s house, so it would be easier for us to pester him. 😀  😀  😀

How’s about Sun City, the garden spot where my parents took up residence for their retirement?

Well…they STILL hate “minorities” out there, even after all these years. A friend of mine — a fella of the dusky persuasion — bought a place in Sun City. He was hounded out in less than six months.

Though I myself am of the paler persuasion, you couldn’t pay me to move out there. What awful people!

So…here we are, Ruby the Corgi and I, loafing on a bed in lovely North Central Phoenix. Ruby has enchanted a number of the locals, having strolled around the park and cutied them into submission. The skies have clabbered up and turned threateningly gray. Ruby, unconcerned, snoozes. I scribble.

What can  we say? Other than arf!

Augh!!

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Dunno if this will go online or not.

Everything I just wrote has…CRASHED.

Why? I do not know.

Get it back? Not as far as I can see.

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Dayum!!!!!!!

Let’s try to get today’s half-baked effort at a post — which has kindly been disappeared — back online.

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So, this afternoon it was off to the park with Ruby the Incredible Corgi.

My goodness, that dawg does love the park. Believe it’s the grass she worships. It certainly isn’t other dogs, whom she wishes to exterminate. Probably not other humans, whom she tries to seduce by emanating cuteness. Surely not dragging her human around there, a task that has gotta be a nuisance for even the most human-suckered hounds.

Whom gnows?

Seriously: it IS very funny how she seduces humans. The poor critters think she is, bar none, the cutest most adorable sheerly loveable critter they’ve ever seen. If she knew how to persuade them to donate funds to our credit union account, by now we’d be loafing on the beach in Tahiti.

Weather: gray, depressing. But not yet raining. My guess: unlikely to rain. Not very soon, anyhow.

Politics: stupid as iusual.

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Hit “publish”

If this doesn’t work, i fukkin; GIVE UP!

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Okay, we’re on Effort #3 to go online.

Hope for the best. I guess.

Re-Battening Down the Hatches…

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{chortle!} We’re told another terrifying storm is on its way, due this evening. Yesterday’s terrifying storm has come and gone. Nary a shingle blew off the roof.

Hmmm… This is innaresting: the villains who have taken over the Republican Party want to dispense with Social Security and Medicare. You won’t mind covering your parents’ medical bills in their old age, right? 😀

What a fukkin bunch!!!

Honestly, sometimes I can NOT believe I used to be a Republican.

A Goldwater Republican.

Yes. Afraid so.

Tellya something: Barry would not put up with the BS emanating from the party these days.

Boyoboy, do I miss Barry Goldwater. Used to work for him on a volunteer basis. In those days, I was a bit young to extract money in exchange for work. But I sure as Hell wasn’t too young for political enthusiasms. 😀

 

Doggy-Walk-a-Rama

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Just shading on to 6:00 p.m. Here we are, Ruby and I, back at the house after an hour’s traipse around the park. This afternoon: a PERFECT time for that journey. Skies are working on overcast. Breeze is cool. The park is chuckablock full of young people playing and practicing sports. Too much scenic fun!!!

Ruby trots right along at this time of day. At any time of day, really. But it’s especially fun late in the afternoon, because the park is over-run with young soccer players and baseball players and football players. It’s a nice, big park, all grassy: great site for hordes of practicing young athletes.

So despite the spavined hip, I managed to get in a little exercise. Ruby has returned home looking quite pleased. Skies are filling with clouds: looks like we probably dodged the rain showers by about an hour.

Our old park, the highlight of the mid-town Encanto neighorhood, was really quite lovely, too. Graced by a golf course and a couple of spacious lakes; surrounded by one of the most upscale housing tracts in the Valley.

Our houses here are neither historic nor mansion-like. But they are handsome, well maintained, and pleasant. The neighborhood feels relatively safer than Encanto; fewer stoned transients lurking around.  Not that you don’t see the occasional bum over here…but the place isn’t overrun with them.

Just now the sky is coming on to spectacularly gray: reckon it’ll rain within the next hour or two. Hm…let us check the honored Wunderground…

hmmmm… Overcast. 74% chance of rain.

Speaking of Gnus: holeeee sh!t!

Lookit this!!

See that exploding tanker? That, right there, is the kind of ship my father sailed. He was a tanker captain and pilot.

And in the holee crap! department, we have this little astonishment. Amazing that the woman got out of there in one piece.

Man, give me 110 degrees any day, over 110 mph.

And speaking of the Gnus of the Day: The Republicans are at it again. Planning to take your Social Security away from you. Two trillion bucks? Hey…who needs it, eh?

Dayum! I cannot believe I used to be an active Republican. A Goldwater Girl, even. Never again, of that you can be sure.