Fun and Games Dept

Some photos around the Desert Compound, testing out various settings on my iPhone 13 Pro.

Family time in the pool, as captured by Jamie.

I can’t believe the movie “Inception” is ten years old. It’s one of my favorite movies of the 21st century. We need to sit down and watch this again, maybe this coming weekend.

My husband put an appointment on the family calendar indicating it was time for us to go through his online accounts and rectify all the compromised and repeated passwords he was being warned about.

I’m so proud of him.

Since we are primarily a Mac-based family, he’s going through the list of accounts in Safari and following the links to change his password from something dangerous to something nifty. We are both smiles, with Truman stretched out at our feet.

There’s no hollering and Truman is able to take an apparently much needed nap.

We decided to go for a ride this afternoon. We headed toward Fort Huachuca and Sierra Vista to get a feel for the landscape in that direction. It’s a beautiful day, so we were riding with the windows down. We stopped for a cold drink at a drive thru in Benson. The car in front of us ordered over $100 in food with special requests for each of the burgers. These things happen.

We were smiling on the inside.

We had dinner with Homer and Matt tonight. They introduced us to a small Mexican restaurant on the other side of the 10. I had vegetarian Cuban Tacos that were excellent. The conversation was a delight. It was nice to be out and about to and visit with Homer and Matt for a little while. We have common friends in the blogosphere. It’s funny to think that we’ve both met people that maintained blogs at one time, even though we’re all from different corners of the country.

The more I get to know Tucson the more I like it. I already knew I liked this big little town, but getting better acquainted with our surroundings is a good feeling. Even if we have to maintain our social distance or make sure we’re all vaccinated.

I didn’t take any photos. I’m deficient at my attempts at being a social media influencer. I don’t even know if people still read this blog as I never look at the traffic stats, but it’s still fun to write in it like it’s 2009.

It’s finally happened! ABBA as announced a new album, “Voyage”, due out in November. Going along with the new album, “ABBA” will be performing in a specially constructed venue in London. I put ABBA in quotes because the performance will actually be by ABBAtars, holographic representations of the group with younger looking features. They’re wearing their motion capture suits in the picture at the top of this page.

I would love to go to London to see this show!

Two songs of the upcoming “Voyage” album were released today. The first, “I Still Have Faith In You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down”. I enjoy both songs and even though it’s been 39 years since the release of their last single, “Under Attack”, these new tracks solidly sound like ABBA. They sound as great as ever.

I can’t wait for the entire album to drop.

During our travels yesterday, we stopped at the Sunset Point Rest Area on Interstate 17 between Phoenix and Flagstaff. We did the same thing 18 1/2 years ago in March 2003.

So, we’ve lived in Arizona for five or so months and I finally found my “favorite road” to drive (thus far). We’ve been around a good portion of the southeast corner of the state, and State Route 188 has been deemed my favorite.

When we lived in New York, it was NY Route 177. When we lived in Chicago, it was Illinois 26 (especially south of Interstate 80).

State Route 188 here in Arizona runs from US 60 just west of Globe to State Route 87 south of Payson. The road is wide and open, with the speed limit as high as 65. Like favorite NY Route 177, Arizona State Route 188 runs through very few towns; one basically has to slow down to pass through Roosevelt and to go over the bridge near Theodore Roosevelt Dam. Much of the route passes alongside the Roosevelt Reservoir.

It’s open, with gentle curves, interesting desert scenery, and I find it a pleasure to drive. I look forward to doing it again soon.

I don’t know if it can be attributed to middle age or if it’s a result of pandemic and the general chaos of society, but I have really lost track of time. Moving from the Midwest to the Desert Southwest probably contributed to this as well. When I was in North Carolina last week I was surprised to see some maple trees starting to change their leaves; in my mind it’s somewhere between January 2020 and May 2021 and I’ve found it very hard to discern the current season living here in the desert.

This morning I was in the mood to throw on a t-shirt and a pair of camo shorts for work. Even though I’ve worked from home for over a decade, I still like to put on fairly decent clothes when in “work mode”. Today’s agenda involves writing a bunch of code and doing a few end of the week odds and ends. In a swing of incredible events, my calendar today was clear of calls. Hence, an Atari t-shirt and camo shorts. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m also in my bare feet while working today.

My work week flew by but I’m still ready for the weekend. I need to relax from this jumbled up timeline.