Fun and Games Dept

Photo taken outside of Denver in July 2011.

It’s not the season for storms in the Desert Southwest of the United States. This year’s monsoon was most impressive, even to those that have lived in these parts for decades, and I loved every minute of it. Normally at this time of year we’d start settling down for winter, with lots of cold and snow on the horizon. It’s not like that here in Tucson.

I’ve already mentioned to Earl that I’m very much interested in heading up/over into Texas and other weather rowdy parts next spring. I’ve always loved chasing storms, and when I can’t fly in the weather I want to chase it around and see Mother Nature at her finest. Up close and personal. When the derecho came through Chicago back in 2020 I loved every minute of it, though the destruction was an unfortunate byproduct of my adrenaline rush. It’s scary to think that storms are just going to be getting more violent as climate change continues to march us toward oblivion, but we’re still at the point where I find these storms to be incredibly awesome.

We started watching “Storm Rising” from National Geographic. The show features extreme weather chaser Reed Timmer and crew; the first episode has them chasing tornadoes along around the Texas panhandle. My husband said he liked the plot of “Twister” better since it moved along with better predictability, but I loved the cinematography, the chase, and the science of this documentary series. I’m looking forward to further episodes.

And I’m looking forward to putting the plans together for my spring 2022 storm chasing adventure.

Mike and Chris have built some Alexa automation routines to turn the pool room into a meditative space. We simply tell Alexa we’d like to meditate, and the colors go to a calming blue/green, the heat comes on to keep the space warm, and nature sounds play from the speakers sprinkled about the room.

I’m still not jumping in the pool until my swimming “allergy” is figured out, plus I’m still feeling under the weather, but it was beautiful to spend time with the family in the calmness after the work week came to an end.

My mood has been a little uneven this week. The weight of the world, the chaos of work, the approaching holiday season; all these things can have an impact on my mental state and I should work to not let things bother me. Plus, the rash from my sudden “pool allergy” is subsiding but is still a little itchy. So much to scratch.

In the grand scheme of things I am most fortunate. I must remember this. But all of these concerns melt away when Mother Nature shares her beauty, desert style, with us. Tonight’s sunset was most rewarding, comforting, and centering.

My mood is now much better.

It’s hard for me to understand that it’s less than two weeks to Thanksgiving here in the states. We passed a house with Christmas lights hanging from its edges. It looked festive.

We are having record heat here in Tucson. High temperatures have been in the mid to high 80s for the past couple of days. It’s suppose to cool down by next weekend. The average temperature is in the upper 70s.

That’s still quite warm for this relocated northern boy.

We haven’t figured out how we’re going to decorate for the holidays yet. I’ve been joking that our neighborhood is probably an all white Christmas lights kind of place, so we’re going to wait to see what the neighbors do before we string up the Merry Midget lights.

I’m still looking forward to turkey dinner. Even if we eat it outside.

The sunset disappears behind the back lawn.

The view from the gazebo right now. It’s currently 73ºF two weeks before Thanksgiving and I am really getting used to this. This is one of the main reasons we moved to the Desert Southwest.

Having flights in and out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base nearby makes the experience all the more sweeter for me.

A quick glimpse of Niagara Falls as we flew toward Denver on our way home to Tucson.

This is my niece cat Skippy June Jones. She is one of two cats at my sister’s house but she is the more social of the two. Her sister is Peach Dot but she lives upstairs and wants nothing to do with her uncle. Skippy, on the other hand, is curious about her uncle but not used to the cuddles I tend to give cats. She’s rather stand in her sleek black coat and take a memo.

As I grow older and more solid in my ways, the more I realize that I’m at that stage of life where I want to live a “first class experience” to the best of my ability. I’m very fortunate to be where I am right now. I have the right job at the right time, we have the means for me to entertain a fairly expensive hobby as a private pilot, and we have been lucky to find a fabulous home in the desert with our chosen family. Not everyone finds their path and for the first time in over 50 years I feel that I am solidly where I am meant to be. It’s a great feeling. Many things have come together over the decades and now my goal is to enjoy this as long as possible.

When my husband and I plan travel I always push for first class. If I can’t be in the cockpit, I want to be as close to the front of the airplane as possible. I work hard and I am willing to delay my retirement a little bit so we can afford this luxury. There are two “first class” focuses in my life: airliner travel and computers. Since Steve Jobs’ return to Apple in the late 1990s and Tim Cook’s continuance and expansion of Steve’s vision, I’ve always considered the Apple computing experience to be the first class approach to technology. Many will scream in contrary to me about this, especially online, but I fully believe Apple still offers the best computing experience available to consumers today, and this belief extended to power users and full blown geeks like me. I try other platforms, often, but it’s like sitting in coach on a Boeing Dreamliner, the experience will get you there but will it be as enjoyable as it can be, that is the question.

I’m writing this blog entry from seat 1A on United Flight 6080 from Tucson to Chicago O’Hare. I won’t be posting this entry until right before bedtime for two reasons, there’s no Wi-Fi on this flight and my relatives don’t know we’re flying to see them this weekend. We’re just going to show up at their doorstep.

I’m writing this blog entry on my 2018 iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard setup. It’s a beautiful thing and since trading my 2015 MacBook Pro in for a gift certificate towards my new iPhone last month, I’ve pretty much adopted my iPad Pro as my mobile computer. It’s fills the gap of no laptop and works brilliantly in that regards. It’s thin, it’s light, and it does what I need it to do. If I’m going to do video editing or graphic related things, I have a Mac Mini at home. The integration is seamless and the experience is First Class.

My life is not a recipe for the life of anyone else. Everyone has their own path, their own goals, and their own future. I’m fortunate to be where I am today and to be headed in the direction I feel that is right for me.

It’s a First Class life and I couldn’t be happier.

We haven’t been to an Apple store since pre-pandemic times. When we lived in Chicago I always enjoyed stopping by the area Apple stores, especially the flagship store on Michigan Avenue. The vibe is always good, and the Michigan Avenue store had a nice “stadium” area where you could partake in “Today at Apple” and the like.

I’m in the mood for an upgrade to my Apple Watch Series 3 (from the original release), so we went to the Apple Store here in Tucson to take a look and see what they had in stock. Short version: I’m ordering my new watch online.

The Apple Store in Tucson is located in the La Encantada shopping “mall” in the foothills. I love outdoor shopping areas like this, something that would never work up north because of winter. Now that I think about it, there is an outdoor mall with an Apple store outside of Chicago, but I always went there in the summer.

La Encantada is where the luxury brands are located for the local populace and the facility is very nice. It was fairly busy when we were there; the Apple store was by far the busiest of the retailers.

Mask use was encouraged but not mandatory in the majority of retail outlets. In our travels, the only place where masks were absolutely required (with two security guards making sure everyone complied) was the Apple store itself. It was crowded, and it certainly made sense to control the number of folks in the store and to require masks. We waited less than five minutes to get in.

We took our first Apple store selfie in over 18 months.

After chatting with a couple of helpful Apple people about the new MacBook Pros and the Apple Watch Series 7 that was not in stock for the configuration I was looking for, we made our way down to the North Italia restaurant at the end of the way for a leisurely lunch. We both had salads and I had a glass of wine. Our server’s name was Karen and she was very pleasant and efficient. I’m still getting used to the fact that we can dine outdoors at a restaurant in late October here in the desert. We did the same in Chicago, but it was usually quite chilly.

It was a lovely afternoon and I very much enjoyed the experience.