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.