Fun and Games Dept

So the five of us, along with visiting friend Richie, went out to dinner in a restaurant for the first time in well over a year. We all have had our vaccine shots, and as of May 19 we will all be officially, fully vaccinated. We’re almost there, and since Richie was headed back to Chicago on Saturday morning we thought we’d celebrate with sushi in an actual restaurant.

Because I guess Desert Sushi is a thing.

The restaurant had just opened up a day or two ago (they’ve been take-out or delivery only all this time) and pandemic things were handled well. One door is marked for entrance, another for exit. There are blue arrows marked on the floor indicating which way you should walk if you’re moving about. Our temperature was taken upon entry and we were required to wear masks when not at our table. We kept our masks on when the server and like visited.

It’s not this difficult to do and I don’t have any issue with this.

I know the CDC announced that vaccinated folks don’t have to wear a mask anymore, aside from high capacity, crowded situations, but I feel like I should still be wearing my mask when in a public setting. While at this point I really no longer care what happens to people who decide to skip getting vaccinated, I still want to do my part in not spreading the virus around. As a fully vaccinated individual, I know I can still get COVID-19 and that the immunization provides my body with the knowledge of what to do if I get COVID. I won’t end up in the hospital. I won’t die. I trust the science.

But I don’t trust unvaccinated people to be wearing masks when they should be. Honestly, knowing someone chooses to remain unvaccinated makes me not trust them at all. For anything.

Before I get too much further into the weeds with this mini-rant, I’ll detour from that train of thought to say it was quite nice hanging out with family and friends in a restaurant for the first time in over a year. I’m happy science quickly brought us to the point of being able to do this.

Springtime is beautiful in our back yard. We’ve been inviting hummingbirds and other flying friends into the area with our various feeders. It was a tradition started by the previous owners and we are continuing the practice.

The Palo Verde tree is particularly enjoyable. I enjoy the sound it makes when the winds blow across the desert.

Marvel Studios Celebrates The Movies. Just take my money. These 5G shots were worth it.

My husband and I decided to go for a ride today. We enjoy spending time together in the car and getting to know our new stomping grounds; our first date, over 25 years ago, involved going for a long car ride together and it seems we’ve continued the practice for over a quarter of a century.

This keeps us young.

We drove down Interstate 19 to Nogales, opting to not cross over to Mexico but drive around Nogales, Arizona a bit before heading back using “back roads”. We came back home via State Routes 82 and 83. We stopped at Patagonia Lake State Park for a bit. It was our first visit to an Arizona State Park.

After we stopped in our home neighborhood for dinner, we decided to continue our adventure and drive to the top of Mt. Lemmon just after dusk. There are many places to get an awesome view of Tucson and the surrounding area.

The drive up and back took about two hours and some change. The twisty road is signed at 35 MPH and that’s a safe speed. Some folks like to go faster. I let them pass. I have a bit of a lead foot, but not while driving up and down a mountain on a very twisty road.

It was a wonderful day!

I’ve talked about this before and I shall do so again. One of my favorite memories, and feelings associated with the memory, is riding home from Grandma and Grandpa City’s house to our home “up north” via the back seat of my Dad’s 1971 Heavy Chevy. The four of us would be situated in our respective seats in the muscle car. The lights of Syracuse would fade behind us, the power lines running parallel to Interstate 81 would make a 90 degree turn to the west just south of Brewerton, and we’d cross over Oneida Lake and into Oswego County to make our trek home.

Dad would always have the radio on in the car. Always. In 1976 when we drove my great aunt home to Blackstone, Virginia after the annual family reunion, we listened to every Top 40 radio station from home to Blackstone in back. The radio was always on in the car and since it was an AM radio, we listened to 62 WHEN out of Syracuse. At the time 62 WHEN was known for their promotional vehicle, which was a Heavy Chevy. I figured we had to listen to WHEN because they had a Heavy Chevy and we had a Heavy Chevy. To my early elementary years mind, this made sense. I have always looked for patterns in life.

There are several songs I remember coming from the radio of the Heavy Chevy, but a few songs can actually take me back to one of those rides. I remember the summer time rides better than the winter time rides, probably because we didn’t make the trek as much in the winter. One of the songs that I can vividly remember hearing is “Love or Let Me Be Lonely” by the Friends of Distinction. The tempo changes, the groovy approach, and the moodiness of the track take me back to sitting in the back seat of the Heavy Chevy on Interstate 81. It’s a magical feeling. I have so many happy memories from my childhood. I have little to complain about. If this makes me boring, oh well.

Sometimes you just have to escape to Green Acres.

Living in the desert and in an area with light pollution ordinances provides an opportunity for night photography. I decided to climb up on the roof and play around with my Canon EOS Rebel XS with absolutely no idea as to what I was doing.

I need to put a time delay on the shutter, but I feel like I’m headed in the right direction.

I’ve been watching the clouds roll in late this morning and this afternoon. Since moving here nearly a month ago I haven’t seen much in the way of clouds. We had just a couple puffs of clouds over the mountains this morning and they’ve been building since. There’s little chance of rain in the forecast and as a weather buff, I’m interested to see if these clouds just go on their way later today. I might need to take a few shots of the sky from the roof tonight. I’m in the mood to try my hand at this.

One of the things I quickly discovered about Chicago when we moved there in 2017 was that the weather wasn’t too awfully different from what we experienced in Upstate New York. Now that we’ve moved to a completely different part of the country I’m looking forward to experience all facets of the weather here in the desert.

I find the change of scenery quite rejuvenating.

Jamie took a photo during family game night. We played “Catan”. Truman kept an eye on things. Chris won. We all had a good time.