Summer Breeze.

Folks back east ask why we moved to the Desert Southwest. There are many reasons for our move. We are quite happy with living in Tucson and desert living is all that we thought it would be.

Being able to drive on Interstate 10 with the windows down, Yacht Rock Radio cranked, after sunset while it’s 85ºF in late October is one of the reasons we live here.

I worry I’m going to find 70ºF chilly this winter.

Cake.

Jeff and Mark from North Carolina are visiting for the weekend. Jeff’s family lives north of Phoenix and they decided to wrap up their visit with a stop here in Tucson. It was great to see them.

Mark is celebrating a birthday this weekend, and Chris and Mike made a Guinness-chocolate cake to celebrate. It was wonderful.

Caturday.

Truman is allowed on the bottom shelf of the cabinet in the kitchen. He enjoys this vantage point.

Less Green.

The Sonoran Desert is slowing moving toward it’s characteristic desert look as we move away from Monsoon Season 2021. Things became very green during the uncharacteristically rainy monsoon season. The rain was a good thing, because we needed to break the drought, but now the grasses the popped up are turning brown and I’m a little concerned they will contribute to wildfires later on.

This is a shot from the first or second look out along the road to the top of Mount Lemmon, about six miles to the north of our home.

Just A Notion.

Tomorrow, ABBA will release another song from their upcoming album “Voyage”. It’s still so weird to type that.

Originally recorded in 1978 but discarded and never finished, ABBA has finally finished “Just A Notion”. Out tomorrow, there are some snippets of the now finished track available on YouTube today.

Enjoy.

Gracefully.

Aging gracefully is a beautiful thing. There’s a meme going around on Twitter where we’re encouraged to post a photo if we wear glasses. I posted a photo and immediately lost three followers. I don’t usually notice my follower count, because honestly I don’t really care how many people follow my inane tweets, but the change in number caught my eye and I was a little bit surprised.

I wear glasses. My mustache is gray. I have a gut and I don’t have a six pack that anyone can see. I’m comfortable in my skin, I’m probably in what could be called my mid-50s and I know who I am.

I’m happy being me.

I don’t feel the need to color anything or pull anything tight or inject anything to smooth anything. I’ve earned the laugh lines and I’ve learned to laugh more.

I’m happy being me at 53 and I look forward to what the future brings.

Dead.

Work just started a company obituary page on the corporate-wide website to do the typical obituary thing for co-workers that have passed. Many have passed recently due to “COVID-19 related complications”. Too many.

I think the biggest thing I’ve lost during the pandemic is my compassion for folks who choose to remain ignorant.

Cleanliness.

We stopped at a McDonalds on our way home from Vegas this past weekend. The self-serve kiosks were malfunctioning, no one was at the traditional registers, and their seemed to be a sense of panic from the back.

Plus, folks didn’t care if paper was strewn all over the lobby as they picked up their food.

We are not in what I would call “the golden era of American society”.

Early.

I was up at 5:15 AM and immediately headed to the airport to fly a 1969 Piper Cherokee 140 for an hour with the instructor that’s checking me out on their airplanes.

The desert is beautiful at this time of day. Unfortunately, I did not take any photos but it turns out I am capable of flying an airplane first thing in the morning. I had never done that before.

Home.

After seven hours of driving across the desert, we arrived at home just in time for dinner with the family. And, another spectacular sunset.

It was a very good long weekend in Las Vegas. I feel relaxed. I intend to hold on to that feeling.