Ponderings and Musings

My husband and I have been putting up Christmas decorations. Like my father, I will not allow the lights to be lit up until after Thanksgiving. Since we are traveling to the Northeast for 10 days at the beginning of December, Earl wants to get the decorations up early so things are nice and festive for the rest of the family here at home and for when we return to the beautiful weather of the Sonoran Desert.

The photo above was taken just as I started this blog entry. I am sitting on our back patio enjoying the weather; it is 21ºC (approximately 68ºF) and quite lovely. I’ve been seeing photos of Buffalo being buried in snow. The warmer Great Lakes at this time of year, when brushed by cold air masses from Canada, make for some really great snow making events. My hometown in the Lake Ontario Snowbelt is also seeing some snow, though not as much as is coming off Lake Erie farther to the west. Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes and has a habit of turning colder and possibly freezing earlier in the season. The Lake Ontario snow belt will get theirs soon enough.

It probably wasn’t as cordial as I could have been by mentioning on Facebook the warm weather down here in Tucson. I do miss snow events like they’re seeing back East, but maybe a day of it per winter season.

Otherwise I’m quite happy writing a blog entry from the back patio while wearing shorts in mid November.

Some days it just feels like you’re represented by the woman in blue.

I don’t want anyone else to get my accounts over on that hellsite, so I locked down my account and decided to just keep it real.

We are at the local Starbucks this afternoon. I’m enjoying an unsweet black iced tea while my husband has the same with just a touch more lemon. It’s been a long time since I’ve written a blog entry whilst in a Starbucks; I still enjoy the experience.

There is a smattering of iPads, MacBooks, and PC laptops amongst the audience here in this Starbucks. The wifi is very slow. I ended up using my Personal Hotspot on my iPhone to connect as speeds were below 1Mbps when I was connected to Starbucks’ wifi.

There’s a lot of Christmas decorations up in this store because it’s the first week of November. Christmas in the desert is still weird to me, because I’m wearing shorts and the sun is shining brightly. It doesn’t make it any less valid, it’s just different. I’m still used to being under grey skies and in waist deep snow.

One of the amusing things about living in the desert this time of year is the number of people wearing toques and heavy jackets even though it’s 22ºC/73ºF outside. It’s quite pleasant and standing in the sun is still a warming experience.

I spent a few hours working this morning to try to catch up to the chaos left behind by the work week. I’ve been having too many chaotic days at work for the past few months and trying to bring calm to that chaos can occasionally be a challenge. Working a few hours on a Saturday morning, purely for my own sanity, helps keep me grounded.

And now I shall enjoy my iced tea.

The date stamp on this photo is 15 years ago, but I suspect the photo was taken a few days earlier when we were in Dublin, Ireland. I think this photo was taken in a pub in Temple Bar.

I do enjoy my Guinness.

A year or so before I began my personal aviation journey, I was in the habit of watching airplanes and driving by small airports in the region. I browsed through Apple Photos to see what I was up to a year ago, and this is what I found: a photo of a runway.

I wish I could say I’m excited about the impending holiday season. I don’t even really get excited about Halloween anymore. Perhaps I’m becoming a cranky old man.

While the holiday experience is enjoyable, there’s a certain magic in the air that seems to be missing, at least for me. The coziness of the holidays has been replaced by Black Friday Sales, Online Tuesday Sales, 24 hour shopping experiences on Thanksgiving day, electronics, electronics, electronics, and trying to figure out what to buy people who don’t want to tell you what they want so you have to guess.

I’m not that perceptive in that area.

Halloween is in full swing. I doubt our carved pumpkins will survive the desert heat to make it to Halloween, but we went through the motions and I’m filling up on roasted pumpkin seeds.

Fiber makes the holidays better.