Lately I have gotten back into bicycling in a big way. I had fallen out of the habit a few years ago, and had several aborted attempts to rekindle the cycling mojo. But the recent diet and exercise plan, and the fact that I can ride without it causing my plantar fasciitis to flare up is all good. About 16 miles of my usual route are on well paved paths that happen to follow the irrigation canals...
When it is 103F outside, and it feels cool.
When your pool is a tepid 92F
When people you know from around the world feel the need to joke about the “dry heat”
But mostly, I just don’t mind the heat.
This afternoon I did a little shopping for the holiday feast tomorrow, and I got to observe some prime high quality behavior. First, how hard is it to put your damn shopping cart in one of the little corrals that they provide? Seriously, there are at least three per row of cars, but alas, it is too damn far for most people to put them where they are out of the way of other shoppers. There must...
Not really a secret, I prefer to do my exercise out of doors. Whether it is hiking, or cycling, or even jogging, I vastly prefer to get out and pound the pavement (or trail). But it can be challenging when summer happens here in Arizona. When the thermometer goes past 100F by 10:00AM, and at 5:00AM it is already 88F, it is difficult to get out and exercise. Yet I do it nonetheless. But I do take...
I am fully acclimatized to the Phoenix (and Arizona in general) weather. Yesterday, I thought nothing about pulling on shorts and going for a 4 mile run at lunch time (95F when I left). Additionally, yesterday, it was 100F at the high. The lowest temperature this June (from my memory), and it felt very comfortable. Of course today it will be 108, tomorrow 113, and Friday 117 or more. Yes, I am...
(Warning: I am going to use some harsh language below) We live in a nice subdivision in Chandler, in SE Phoenix. It is a clean, well kept, and in general a very friendly neighborhood. But there always seems to be someone who has to stand out as a twat-waffle. Our neighbors to the north are one such “family”*. They have a Son who just graduated high school, and he was a baseball player...
Warning: I am going to write about extremely boring shit for a few posts. When we moved to Arizona in 2003, we were moving to Tucson. A great place, lots of charm, but truly a no plan sort of place for how they let growth happen. Consequently, you had lots of little communities scattered all over without rhyme or reason. We lived on the far east side of town, in a fairly low density neighborhood...
When we moved from Tucson to Chandler last year, the last thing I thought I would have trouble with would be finding a decent, authentic Mexican restaurant. I mean, it wasn’t like we were moving to Seattle, we were still in the southwest, and there are plenty of authentic people of Mexican heritage here. But it has been trouble. Some background. Our first night in Tucson in 2003, we walked...
The house behind us has a large “shade” tree. It has an enormous quantity of fern like foliage that does a good job cutting the sun that beats down on our back yard. All good right? Except that when it loses its foliage, it dumps an incredible amount into our pool. How much? I have to skim and scoop two or three times a day, and still the filter gets jammed. In December, we had a cold...
There is nothing like getting a nastygram (or two) from your HOA. In general, I don’t mind being in a community with an HOA. Lots of people whinge about the CC&R’s, and having to comply (no, you can’t have a 40′ “murican flag in your font yard, thankyouverymuch). I have found that they have been very willing to work with you if you ask them. In our house in...