Coffee heat rising

Life in the Desert

Someday in My LIfetime…?

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Waiting…and waiting…and waiting…and waiting…for the exterminator guy to show up.  Nice long rivers of bug shit are streaming down the west wall from the attic. That would be, as we know, TERMITES.

So I need to get somebody to get up in the attic, spray nauseating toxins around up there. Then hire a carpenter to come repair the (possibly considerable!) damage.

Termites — the wood-eating variety — are a relatively recent import here, brought into the Valley by the whitey immigrants from around the country and around the world. I can recall when they first showed up in the toney Arcadia District, over on the east side of town.

Now they’re all over the city: every part of town has them.

Hope I’m not confronted with a lot of expensive repair work. This is the second time I’ve had to get an exterminator in here to beat them back.

Speaking of attics, a crew of guys is on the roof across the street, strolling around up there as though they were taking a Sunday walk. Looks like they’re totally reroofing the house.

Ohhhh goodie. That’s all I need: to have to get my house re-roofed!

Wonder if the homeowner’s insurance will cover it? Heh…we’ll soon find out.

My son really wants this house. If I’m to pass it along to him, somehow I’ve gotta get the bugs out, repair the damage, and keep the critters out.

LOL!!!  In the Washington Post Outspell game I’m killing time with just now, two words came up, linked:

CHEWER
and
ROOF

What are they tryin’ to say to us?

😀

Urk! Southern California Redux…

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At 3:25 in the afternoon here in lovely uptown Phoenix, it is SO SMOGGY out there that the sunLIGHT shining (or attempting to shine) in through the front windows is ORANGE.

No kidding. I’ve seem some dim days here, but this one takes the sunny cake.

It’s very much like a smoggy day in (un)lovely Long Beach, California. Wunderground tells us it’s 106 out there, with air quality at “moderate.”

LOL! If this is “moderate,” you surely don’t wanna see “gawdawful”! 😀

Y’know, this is why my parents moved here from Long Beach. The smog there kept getting worse and worse. When they learned about Sun City, then a suburb of Phoenix, they thought they’d found Heaven.

And by comparison, it was — at the time. There was hardly ever a smoggy day, and even then, the haze was light and the stink undistinguished.

Today’s haze hereabouts, we’re told, is from the wildfires in California. Truth to tell, though, it’s probably from fires on the outskirts of Maricopa County: one about 5 miles north has taken out some 300 acres (so far). And fires in nearby southern California are supposedly visible from space.

Welp, I need to try to figure out how to get into my bank account online. The credit union declines to let me have access.

Boyoboy, am I tired of all these fine modern conveniences….

Sentimental Journey…

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Oh, my goodness! You cannot begin to imagine how much my mother would have loved my son. How smart she would have thought he was. How right on in his moral compass and opinions.

And how I would have loved for her to meet him.

Those thoughts (among one helluva lot of others) drifted through my dainty head his morning, as I cruised around the west-side housing subdivisions, sightseeing.

Sun City, where my parents betook themselves for their retirement, is over on the west side. The tracts have continued to grow, crawling across the desert like a hungry fungus. The parenta would be just AY-MAZED if they could see the place today.

But equally amazing is the other growth out there.

The Sun Cities are now HUGE. And whereas the original neighborhoods consisted of little brick bungalows, now the newer parts are built up with standard plaster-and-tile tract houses. Interestingly, though, they’re pretty well designed, Result: even though the houses are eve-to-eve (that would drive me nuts!), they’re rather attractive, and the entire development is more than pleasant enough. I think my mother would have liked its new incarnation.

There’s much more shopping and things to do out there now. Back in the day, my mother had to drive in to Phoenix to shop for anything other than groceries. Now, it looks like just about anything you want can be had without having to drive around much.

The newer chunks of Sun City run right into similar, older tracts, built of brick and mortar.

Would I like to live out there, now that I’m old?

Probably not…for the same reason I’ve never coveted the Sun Cities: It’s segregated housing. Only people of the desired age (and, we might add sub rosa, the desired color) need apply. That’s just not how I wanna live.

A Black friend of mine bought a house out there a few months ago.

He lasted…what? about three weeks.

No kidding: so much hate greeted him that he turned right around and moved back to the East Valley, whence he came. Charming, hm?

That notwithstanding, today it was kind of entertaining — in a blandly monotonous way — to drive around and inspect the houses and the neighborhoods.

But I’m mighty glad I don’t have to live there anymore…

Here Come De Rain!

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Welp! Here we are: barreling toward the close of a balmy day in lovely Arizona.

Lively thunderstorms blast back and forth across the northern sky.

Shoot out the back door: water the potted plants. It’s 108 out there. Skies full of fat, dark thunderclouds. Saith Wunderground: “gusty winds will push south across the Phoenix valley and western Maricopa County through early this evening. Expect northeast wind gusts up to 30 to 35 mph.”

LOL! It’s mighty gusty out there just now, that’s for sure.

Hereabouts, Wunderground seems to be the most reliable of the weather-reporting news sources. Why that is, I dunno…its reports must be directly emitted by the Weather Service. Whatever: It’s rarely wrong. Just now, saith that worthy source,

If you are on or near Lake Pleasant, Horseshoe Lake, and Bartlett
Lake, be prepared for gusty winds and move onshore and get indoors.
Remember, lightning can strike out to 10 miles from the parent
thunderstorm. If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be
struck by lightning. Move to safe shelter now! Do not be caught on
the water in a thunderstorm.

OOOOKAYYY… “Get the Hell inside” seems to be the gist of this communiqué.

By and large, it’s been hotter than the hubs most of the day: upwards of 108. This evening it’s supposed to cool down to a chilly 98, with a balmy 23% humidity.

Gosh…lightning can strike TEN MILES away from its thunderstorm? Who knew? 😮

Arizona Magnificence

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Oh, my. How is it possible for the sky to be so magnificent? For the air to be so charged? For beauty to be so beautiful?

Yep. this is one of those incredible, awe-inspiring, can’t-possibly-be-real monsoon afternoons.

A great wind blows through, laughing and celebrating. Vast, miles-high piles of white and pearl-gray clouds loom upward, ever upward, then scud ahead of the fierce winds. The palm trees bend before the wind. The ringy-dingies clang and chatter with each gust that blasts under the eaves.

Ruby loafs on the bed in front of the open drapes, not impressed. The human dares not scarf down another glass of wine, lest she and the dawg need to flee.

What an afternoon!

And yes, it is magnificence. That’s really the only word you can assign to an Arizona monsoon: magnificence.

Why on earth would anyone else want to live anywhere else…on earth?

Heah Come De Rain!!

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Wow! The Ruby and I just dodged inside in the nick of rain-time!

Failing to realize how fast the storm to the north was barreling our way, I fired up the ‘Cue and stacked my dinner on the grill.

Not one of my smarter moves.

Pressed for time, we got the chow inside — Ruby darting back and forth through the wind and around the lightning and thunderclaps.

Bolted (heh!) dinner.

Back outside: the grill was JUST….BARELY cool enough to close and cover with its plastic veil.

I hope…

But oh my… SO hot! SO humid!! So windy!!!

Something evil this way blows….

….

…and now the wind has stopped.

All is still.

Thunder rolls in from the north.

When you are a small dog. you hunker on the human’s bed and pretend you have no clue anything is up. When you are a small dog’s human, you hunker on your bed and hide under the covers.

😮

And the thunder rolls again…