The desert is so beautiful. I’m still getting used to the aviation experience in the desert heat. The desert is beautiful, but her airspace is quite bumpy.
Fun and Games Dept
Tassels.
I’ve been watching episodes of the 1970s version of “Match Game”. I do not remember Penny Marshall being on the panel, but there she was in 1974. She was in a show called “Friends and Lovers”.
Few Words.
I wrote this on Facebook this morning. I don’t do much on Facebook these days, but it had to be said.
When I was a kid, at this time of year the side doors at Lura Sharp Elementary School near the gym and auditorium were often wide open to let the breezes blow through that majestic building as students and teachers made their way to the end of the school year. Inviting the spring weather into the building reminded us that summer vacation was just a few weeks away and it added that special element necessary to get us through the last chapters of our books and our final exams.
I understand that Lura Sharp Elementary is configured a bit differently today, and that gates and buzzers and ID badges and reinforced walls and bulletproof glass and all that are necessary because our schools are no longer safe for our students, teachers, and administrative personnel. I keep hearing “times are different”. Yes they are, and it makes my heart ache.
I hope the time comes when we start addressing the actual issues and not just the symptoms. Children should never feel unsafe. Our elected officials, on all sides of the aisle, are failing us. When nothing was done after Sandy Hook is when they gave up. We knew this would happen again. And I can’t even begin to count the number of times we’ve lost children to an active shooter in a school. No one wants to talk about solutions. “More guards!” “More barbed wire!” “More gates and buzzers!” Again, addressing the symptoms, not the problem. Oh don’t worry, there’s always tweets of condolences but in a few days time the politicians will start grandstanding and blustering about something idiotic again. Then it’ll be more students in another school, rinse and repeat.
Our children should never feel unsafe.
Jinx!
Jinx has decided that my eccentricity is a good eccentricity and now actually comes up and socializes with me from time to time. She made this decision over the weekend. Her brother Lucky has always been quite friendly and always has a dog smile on his face when he sees me. It’s good to see Jinx warming up to me a bit.
Cinema.
It’s been over two years and at least two time zones since we stepped foot in a movie theatre. Our favorite theatre chain in Chicago, Arclight, has closed. We always liked Arclight.
Not too far from us here in Tucson in Galaxy Luxury+ Theatres. Many rating apps in Tucson rate the Luxury+ experience as the best theatres in the city, so we decided to venture down to the movies to see “Downton Abbey: A New Era”.
The theatre is very comfortable. Reserved seating. Reasonably priced tickets. Moderately priced concessions. Barcalounger style seats with plenty of room and a convenient tray that swings aside. And most importantly, Maria Menunos!
We haven’t seen Maria Menunos in the pre-movie clips in a long while. In fact, I thought she’d given up the silver screen and was now only to be found on our gas pumps, but there she was looking lovely and bright and cheerful during the pre-movie clips.
I have been very much looking forward to this second “Downton Abbey” movie and I was not disappointed. Seeing the Crawleys and their staff do their thing on the big screen felt very comfortable. I shan’t give away any of the details of the story; I rated the experience a 9/10 and I liked this movie a slight bit more than the first movie. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I may go back and see it again.
In Luxury+.
Memories
Jamie found an older roll of film and had the pictures developed earlier this week. This may be one of my favorite photos of recent times. My best guess for the date is right around when we moved to Chicago in 2017.
Beer.
There’s a craft beer place here in Tucson that I really enjoy.
Arizona Beer House on S Kolb is an open air experience (a natural, here in the desert) with a food truck or two in the parking lot. The space is very comfortable, with plenty of beers to choose from in cans and bottles or on draft.
I just have to enjoy in moderation or with someone in the family or a friend, since it’s a not a reasonable walk home. To get anywhere in Tucson from our house is either 20 or 40 minutes; this location is a 20 minute drive.
I’m good with that. It’s worth it.
Socialization.
Four out of five of us went to a friend’s house for a pool party yesterday. Earl agreed to stay back to take of puppies Lucky and Jinx. Chris and Mike were thinking of bringing them along for the party but the hosts have several dogs that aren’t particularly hospitable to other dogs, so Lucky and Jinx didn’t get to socialize.
But we did.
Joe and Aidan have a wonderful space not too far from us. Their home is cleverly decorated and they have a desert friendly jungle in their back lawn. We were very comfortable and enjoyed time in the shade, some time in the pool, and some time in front of the spread of food.
We got to chat with Matt and Homer and other party guests. It’s always good to see Matt and Homer, they have become very good friends since we’ve moved to Tucson and I enjoy their company very much.
It turns out one of the other guests, Jamie, is from Rome, New York and our paths have most likely crossed many years ago back when I was a club DJ. His partner is from Chicago, so we had much in common to talk about.
We had a very nice time in the desert sun, and I’m not sunburned at all today. It pays to stake claim to the shade whenever you have the chance.
So Busy.
We have a very big software migration project coming to fruition next weekend. The requirements have been all over the place, some of the testing team has been quite cranky, and the migration date has been pushed off a number of times. It looks like things are a “go” for next weekend. Of course they picked the weekend our friends Jeff and Mark in town for a visit.
I’ve been working many extra hours over the past few weeks, trying to keep up with all the demands of the job. I’m tired. And as I discovered when we first moved to Chicago, the business world in the United States is all about the Eastern Time Zone. Folks on the East Coast forget that a meeting at 8:30 AM there is a meeting at 5:30 AM here. Oh well, I guess.
I was playing around with a cheap webcam on my old Mac mini in my office and just took this photo. The workstation behind me in the photo is where I do all my day job work. I’m not particularly a fan of Windows 10 and there’s many times when I think, “I could do this much faster on a Mac”, but I don’t have that choice. My employer is in love with Microsoft.
It could be worse.
