…Dear God, for small favors…
See this amazing fiasco? I could be right in the middle of it, right this minute.
Rio Verde is a moderately upscale housing tract on the far east side, just north of Fountain Hills, another tract adjunct to Scottsdale. Some years ago, while I was enjoying a bug in my bonnet about the crime, the noise, the Tony situation, and all that, I did look at houses in Fountain Hills. In the process, I came across a very nice little house, comparable to the Funny Farm, in Rio Verde. At the time, it was a beautiful place: quiet, clean, tidy.
Not anymore, though: planes flying in and out of Sky Harbor roar right over the place now. They used to fly in over Mesa and Tempe.
That would be passing annoying…mighty glad I didn’t buy.
Even then, they were having water problems out there. For many of the houses, water had to be trucked in. And that is no small task…nor an inexpensive one. I remember thinking at the time…you’ve gotta be kidding! You have a whole subdivision out here that has no reliable water service? Seriously???
Yep. Evidently so. And that particular vulture is coming home to roost just now. Of late there’s been quite a fine fire crackling away out there: 2500 acres, with 1,145 people evacuated.
Just imagine! Where on earth would you go, with kids and dogs and cats in tow, if they upped and announced you have to leave your home?
Sooooo….one can grouse all one likes about the crime in the slum apartments across Conduit of Blight Blvd or the traffic noise or the laughable light-rail project or Tony the Romanian Landlord’s home for juvenile delinquents…but things could be worse. Lots worse!
It would be bad enough if I had to up and leave quickly just on my own. I don’t even want to think about how I’d handle moving kids and pets!
As for water, I’m extremely grateful that Arkansas doesn’t have any serious water issues. May it ever remain thus.
Yep. If you have to move all the inmates of a four-bedroom house (or some such), it would be one heckuva challenge.
It was something we had to address back in the 50s and early 60s, when we were contemplating nuclear war. At least you’ve got a shot of escaping a brush fire, given enough notice. Incoming missiles, though? The prospect made all our planned preparations laughable.
I guess if I lived in Rio Verde — which I prob’ly wouldn’t — I’d do what we used to do back in the day. My father had a flat of cans of water in the car’s trunk. We knew what we would throw into the car as we shot out of our apartment, and we knew what (futile!!) route we would take down the peninsula.
Planning an evacuation from a housing development wouldn’t be quite as pointless. You could select several routes of egress and figure which would be your first choice and which you would head for it if it were blocked. Because supplies would not disappear (as they would in the event of a missle attack), you could have extra water in the car, maybe a bag of dry dog food for the pooch, and a suitcase with a change of clothes, soap, toothpaste, aspirin, and whatnot. If the car was already supplied, it would just be a matter of getting everybody in the vehicle and heading on outta there. Later, once you were out of harm’s way, you could stop and buy whatever else you needed. Or head for your mother-in-law’s house and hope she has everything. 😉
The problem then would be traffic jams…but in that area, the Scottsdale police, the Highway Patrol, and possibly the National Guard would be out directing traffic. It might be chaotic, but probably not fatally so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNML7TtzfTY
check this out – you can use Venmo to pay at Costco
That’s interesting to know! I wonder if they make Venmo customers come up with two forms of identification…
Yeah: Costco’s new Thing with a Capital T is that instead of a driver’s license or some other form of picture ID, you have to present TWO forms of picture ID.
And…that is just about annoying enough and arrogant enough to cause me to do all my shopping elsewhere… 😮