Coffee heat rising

Life in the Desert

Fuzzy Gray Day…

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High, flat, smooth-looking clouds coat the morning sky. The sun tries to blast its way through the grey blanket, with only half-way luck. Doesn’t look like it’s gonna rain…but…what the heck, this IS what we have the Internet for, right? Look it up on Wunderground…

hmmm….   80 degrees just now; 97 forecast. (WHAT are they smoking? It’s damp, cloudy, warm, and soggy out here on the back porch. And solidly socked-in overcast. Ninety-seven degrees will turn this place into a bathtub!) Looks like temps will hover in the 90s and then the low 80s for the next couple days. Ugh….less than perfectly balmy.

A dove in the palm tree off the back porch holds forth monotonously:  cuCOO cucooo…cuCOO cucooo…cuCOO cucooo…  Aren’t you glad you’re not a bird?

Yeah, it would be grand to be able to soar through the air on feathery wings. But all the rest of it?  Dodging cats and dogs, baking in the sun, soaking in the rain, chowing down on random seeds….naaaahhhhh!  Not so great.

The dawg has gone back to bed. Feeling a little under the (heh!!) weather, I may follow her.

Contemplating…do I want to follow SDXB out to Sun City, after all?

Except for the blasting jets from Luke Air Force Base, it’s probably quieter and safer out there: fewer criminals, less ambulance noise, far less traffic…

But…but…GAWD, I hated living out there with my parents!

Now, obviously this time I would be free of the parental reins.

Back on the other hand, though:  ugh.

  • The noise from that air base(!!)
  • The staggeringly incompetent medical care (with any luck, that has improved…I hope!)
  • The mile on mile on mile of ticky-tacky look-alike cinderblock houses
  • The hatred of anyone who doesn’t look like you…especially if their skin is darker than yours
  • The paucity of decent grocery stores to shop in
  • The endless drive to see your family in Phoenix — or for them to get to you
  • The ease of break-ins: a tabby cat could burglarize your home, with no problem

One could go on and on…every which way you look, some drawback lurks. A big one, IMHO, is the relatively low sale value of the houses. When I finally croak over, my son will be able to sell my house here in middle-class North Phoenix and retire to Tahiti on the proceeds. If he inherited a Sun City house, the selling price would barely buy him a submarine sandwich.

This house, on the other hand, because of its central location AND because the city ran that crazy light-rail up our western border, makes it possible — easily possible — to live comfortably without a car. We have three major supermarkets within walking distance, plus two computer stores, a hair stylist’s, a veterinary hospital, a major drugstore/pharmacy, two huge regional hospitals staffed by highly trained and experienced medicos…on and on and on. Because of that central location and because of the neighborhood’s overall quality, if and when M’hijto inherits this house, he’s going to be set.

He either can move in and loaf his way through life the way I’m doing, or sell this place for damn near enough to retire on. Maybe, by then, for altogether enough to retire!

😀

Wouldn’t that be neat? What a great inheritance to leave for him!

Summertime in Arizona

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Dog and I just returned from roaming loose around the ‘Hood. Ye GAWDS, but it’s hot out there!!!

Prob’ly not really that hot…Wunderground claims it’s only 90 degrees, in fact rather mild for this time of year. Humidity: supposedly only 9%…..couldn’t prove that by me!  Feels hot and damp outside just now, come 2:30 in the afternoon.

This is when I yearn to go back to the San Francisco Bay Area, where my relatives lived.

They’re all late relatives now — the ones who would have anything to do with us W.T. So there’s no one to call me back there, alas.

Actually, there’s still a cousin…she’s a nurse now. But she doesn’t live in the old neighborhood, and she never thought much of me, far’s I can tell. Dunno what I did to pi$$ her off, but she seems not to like me. My father — now long late — was exceptionally stupid about her: disapproved vocally of her conversion to Catholicism. As if that were any of his business, or anyone else’s business!

I hope he didn’t say anything to her…but given the unfriendly way she behaves, my guess is that he did. And you can be assured: whatever he said would have been passing nasty.

So, in reality: no one who would welcome me to the East Bay is still there. So there really would be no point in going back, even for a sight-seeing visit.

That notwithstanding…if I could get back there, I shoot back in an instant!

Ain’t a-gunna happen, though.

Strange Arizona Afternoon

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Saturday. 

Overcast and gray. 

Hot and humid.

Betcha didn’t know Arizona could get humid, eh?

Well…yeah, it sure can. Sometimes even damp enough for rain to congeal out of a clear sky!

That’s not the case just now: it indeed is overcast. Not raining yet, but feels like it sure would like to rain.

Ruby and I circumnavigated the neighborhood before the sky could make up its mind about that. So…gray and dank as it is out there, we at least didn’t get rained on.

This is the kind of day that reminds you of (un)lovely Saudi Arabia. Hot, gray, and dank pretty much described most of the summertime there!  How CAN I say how glad this human is to be back in the United States?!?

It is, though, the kind of day that makes me wish I were still dwelling in the San Francisco Bay Area, whither my mother’s family. My great-grandmother and her daughter — my great-aunt — lived in Berkeley, in a little Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired bungalow. So very pretty!! I do miss it.

But of course I can’t afford to live in the Bay Area…so forget that daydream. 😀

Some days I love living in Arizona. Others, I rather hate it…  Today is not a “love living here” day. 😀

But it’s not a “hate it” day, either. The sky is decorated with fluffy, floating clouds. A pair of black birds march around the back patio. Ruby, having marched all over the ‘Hood, is conkered out at the foot of the bed. A table fan blows tepid air at us. And I’d be asleep if I could be asleep. Which I can’t, not at this time of day.

Just invited my son to dinner, via email… He likely will decline: he’s less than thrilled with running around town after a full day of work. But it was nice to try, eh?

Chances are, too, that’s he’s put in a substantial numbers of work hours: Saturday notwithstanding. But chances are, too, that he’ll have something better to do with a Saturday evening than spend it with his muther. Oh, well: at least he’ll know I’m thinkin’ of him! <3

 

 

A Minor Miracle(???)

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Wow!  This morning the spavined hip hardly hurts at all. 

Well. Yeah: it does hurt. But NOTHING like it has!

So…jeez. Maybe there’s hope. Maybe this gawdawful thing will clear up.

Soon as I finish swilling a mug full of water (too lazy to fix coffee just this minute), the plan is to take Ruby out for a Doggy-Walk. If we can make it to the park (that’ll be a miracle…), she’ll be beside herself with doggy joy. She does LOVE the feel of grass under her little feet. So adorable!

Last time or two ago that we visited the park, some sh!thead pestered the bejayzus out of me. That’s why you need a German shepherd, not a corgi.

Unfortunately, I’m no longer strong enough or patient enough to handle a GerShep, so nowadays I have to take my chances with the f**king general public over there. That day I dodged around to the front of a neighbor’s home and leaned on their doorbell. Asked them to call the cops. That shed the sh!thead, anyway.

Godlmighty, but I’m sick of living in Phoenix. Don’t know where on earth we’d go, though, if we tried to move out of here. I’m afraid these little phenomena are characteristic of the society in general: America has become the Land of the Sh!thead. About the only way you can deal with that is either never to go out without a male in tow (a male human, not a male Chihuahua), or never to go out at all.

For the luvva gawd, I’m an old, ugly woman! It’s not like I was a nubile young thing. What about an old hag attracts sh!theads?

Ohhhh well. On the positive side, it sure is nice to be able to walk up the hallway without hurting like the dickens. For a change.

April 22

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Ungodly racket from the damn air base, way on the FAR side of Sun City. At least a good 29 miles away: roar roar roar roar ROAR. Don’t understand how people living out there can tolerate it, even for a few hours in the morning.

My mother used to sit on her back patio there in Sun City, serenaded by those blasting plane engines. She would simper over her morning coffee, “Ohhhhh, it’s the sound of fweedom!” 

Right, Mom, I dared not say: It’s the sound of World War III coming your way. 

Oh, well. At least we got Ruby’s doggy-walk out of the way, and before it has started to get hot out there. She’s gone off to the back bedroom, there to loaf. And…I suppose blogging is a form of loafing, too.

The (very sweet!) lady who inherited SDXB’s house by welfare-agency fiat is enjoying a fine predicament: The plumbing under the kitchen sink busted open and flooded the house!

Lordie! WHAT a mess.

So she and a daughter were trying to mop up, and trying to get the City to send a repair crew. One of those fine nightmares that none of us needs, eh?

Before SDXB came along and bought the place for a song, it was owned by some very flakey, very feckless folks who let the place go to rack and ruin. He fixed it up handsomely…and then practically gave it away as he fled our quarrel with Tony the Romanian Landlord.

Actually, he had lobbied me earlier to move out to Sun City. I’d lived there before with my parents, and wasn’t bloody well about to go back. So when things intensified here and I still refused to move out, he just sold up and headed west, leaving me behind.

Whatever excuse you need, eh?

Shortly, the Tony quarrel settled down, and now he and I are actually rather friendly — walked around the park together just the other day.

Must decide what (if anything) to do today. The dawg and I are in full-out Lazy Mode: it’s too damn hot out there to do much hiking, and without a car, I can’t even get to the grocery store without hiking through the heat.

Actually, I can: ask the guy across the street who drives an Uber. But…what? Pay someone to drive me 8 or 10 blocks? Gimme a break!

😀

There’s a corner shopping center much closer, I must admit. But the neighborhood over there is a little shadier: you’re likely to get hustled, and as a woman alone I don’t feel very safe in those conditions.

So…yeah: maybe I should have followed SDXB out to (un)lovely Sun City. But….no. Nope I truly hated living out there with my parents.

Been there.

Done That.

Ain’t doin’ it again. 

Hubs of Hades Central….

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Well…no. It’s not exactly hotter than the Hubs of Hades out there this morning. More like the outer fringes of that garden spot.

Dog and Human flew around the park, shortly after dawn: best time of day to be there.

Ruby dearly loves the feel of grass under her little doggy feet. The human loves the openness of the place and the young parents rolling their beautiful little babies around in strollers. What fun!  {heh!} Especially when you don’t have to get up at dawn to feed the cute líl things!)

So that’s always a pleasant excursion.

Contractors are working like proverbial horses, rebuilding a corner house that went to wrack and ruin in the hands of the previous residents. Rebuilding the pool. Installing a block wall around the back. Endlessly wrestling around inside.

It is, without a doubt, going to be converted from a “nice” house to a “wow!” house. It has even occurred to me to covet the place…briefly.

Very briefly. When common sense creeps back in…of course I would not want to live in a house that backs onto a public park and stands on the corner of the neighborhood’s main feeder street and a busy cut-through. Darn!!

That main mini-drag pumps commercial traffic through, plus all the local residential traffic, workmen’s cars & trucks…on and on. During the rush hour, drivers in the know use it as a short-cut between two seven-lane commuter roads, dumping a ton of traffic in there and serenading the locals with noise.

So. No. Pretty as the house is and kewl as the neighborhood is: not even faintly interested in buying it.

Lately, as I may have noted here (don’t recall exactly where & ain’t lookin’ it up right this minute), I’ve contemplated following SDXB out to Sun City, a senior citizens’ ghetto on the west side of the Valley.

But no. Don’t think so.

First off, because I happen to like the sounds of kids playing and teenagers carrying on. We get plenty of those, right here in the ‘Hood.

And second off, because I do hate the roar of F16s charging in and out of Luke Air Force Base: a serenade that starts every morning at 6:00 sharp. Luke is just a few miles down the road from Sun City.

LOL! My mother used to revel in  that racket. She’d sit on her back porch as the planes thundered back and forth, swilling coffee. “It’s the sound of fweedom!” she’d coo.

How could I have inherited a 160-point IQ from a mother who had damn near zero common sense????

Anyway, where it comes to that blasting racket, here in the ‘Hood we’re pretty well out of range. That’s one of the reasons I stay here.