Survived last night, although it was frought with trepidation and anticipation.
For three days the intrepid weather forecasters of the news stations out here in the Great Southwest warned of an impending storm of Terminator proportions was moving through California and into our state. Usually all the forecasters have to do is say, "Sunny today, with a high of ___________" But they earned their money this week as they kept track of everything from blizzards in the North High Country, and the Southeast Mountain Ranges to heavy rains and flooding here in the Valley. This normally desert weather pattern received four inches of rain, and rivers that never flow, like the Agua Fria and the New River, were filled and flowing. The normal tranquil Tempe Town Lake had to open its dam and let water flow... Roads that are built over washes like Mckellips Road will be closed, possibly until spring.
When we heard the alarms go off for severe weather on TV, we wondered what was going on. Just like the Midwest, they let us know that the unusual Tornadic activity could happen. Contrary to the midwest where when conditions become ripe for tornadoes a watch is issued, here they issued a warning. Good thing they did for the people of Scottsdale. Folks at the Russo/Steele car auction had some tents blow down and hundreds of thousands dollars worth of collectible cars were damaged. Dorothy and I just went to an interior room and read. (She read, I watched TV, something you should never do during a storm.)
My good friend Colin Flaherty called to let me know we were having a storm. ( like I did not know that) and that he, too, was hunkered down in his underwear in his house while an ice storm raged outside. I reminded him that most of my day is spent like that... in my underwear. (Too much sharing?)
Anyway, all is well out here. Only nine days til pitchers and catchers report. The rest report a couple days later.
Oh, Yeah.... My beloved Cubs are still coming to AZ for Spring Training. Mesa will probably build an 84 million dollar facility for them, and the team will stay for 25 more years.
Hope springs eternal.
Doughnut
Showing posts with label Mesa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mesa. Show all posts
Friday, January 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The Anniversary
We have just completed our first full year in Arizona. WOO HOO! We decided a long time ago that when the time came for us to retire, we would come here. My daughter made it easy for us.
When the kids were little, my wife's mother lived in the Valley of the Sun for health reasons. We came here one summer and fell in love with the place. Where else could you go year round without a coat? Where else, besides some tropical paradise, could you be in the sun about 320 days a year? No more milk drinking! We now got vitamin D straight from the source without going through the cow's mediary. Our reliance on farms would diminish and we would no longer breathe what farmer's called "the smell of money." It took us 30 years to return.
But return we did. After deciding that we had had enough of the rat race of education, we sold everything we could, gave some away, loaded up an ABF truck with the rest and headed west, taking Horace Greeley's advice. So, you ask, how did my daughter make it easy?
I always wanted to come out here. Wanted to do it since I started to go to broadcasting school in Artesia, New Mexico back in the 1973. Could never seem to pull the trigger on leaving Illinois. After all, my brother, my mother were there, and my roots were there. I had lived in Central Illinois all my life except for a stint in Iowa, which might as well be Illinois. My daughter, Debi, took an intern position with the Mesa Police Department in her senior year of college. When she came out here to live with her Aunt Debbie (Our family tends to name kids after other family members...There are over six Jameses in our gene pool, and three Dons), she told me as she was taking me to the airport, "If you ever want to see me again, you will move here. I am not going back to Illinois." And, to my knowledge, she has only been back twice in five years. So the decision was easy. A daddy cannot leave his daughter out in the cold, cruel world alone.
My son, James, with whom I am extremely close, never offered to have me move to California! Never threatened me with withholding his presence! But Debi meant it. So, I went home, told Dorothy, and we began the search for a house. Which, by the way, the Debi's picked out.
The move, so far, has been great. My blood pressure is down, my weight is up, and every day I seem to pooh sunshine. Arizona is the next best place to Paradise. I threw out my winter coat, long pants, and tie shoes. From now on its just flip-flops,shorts and Suntan lotion. How can a place that has 320 days of sunshine, about a thousand golf courses, and a Jack in the Box on every corner be bad?
More tomorrow.
Don Shields
When the kids were little, my wife's mother lived in the Valley of the Sun for health reasons. We came here one summer and fell in love with the place. Where else could you go year round without a coat? Where else, besides some tropical paradise, could you be in the sun about 320 days a year? No more milk drinking! We now got vitamin D straight from the source without going through the cow's mediary. Our reliance on farms would diminish and we would no longer breathe what farmer's called "the smell of money." It took us 30 years to return.
But return we did. After deciding that we had had enough of the rat race of education, we sold everything we could, gave some away, loaded up an ABF truck with the rest and headed west, taking Horace Greeley's advice. So, you ask, how did my daughter make it easy?
I always wanted to come out here. Wanted to do it since I started to go to broadcasting school in Artesia, New Mexico back in the 1973. Could never seem to pull the trigger on leaving Illinois. After all, my brother, my mother were there, and my roots were there. I had lived in Central Illinois all my life except for a stint in Iowa, which might as well be Illinois. My daughter, Debi, took an intern position with the Mesa Police Department in her senior year of college. When she came out here to live with her Aunt Debbie (Our family tends to name kids after other family members...There are over six Jameses in our gene pool, and three Dons), she told me as she was taking me to the airport, "If you ever want to see me again, you will move here. I am not going back to Illinois." And, to my knowledge, she has only been back twice in five years. So the decision was easy. A daddy cannot leave his daughter out in the cold, cruel world alone.
My son, James, with whom I am extremely close, never offered to have me move to California! Never threatened me with withholding his presence! But Debi meant it. So, I went home, told Dorothy, and we began the search for a house. Which, by the way, the Debi's picked out.
The move, so far, has been great. My blood pressure is down, my weight is up, and every day I seem to pooh sunshine. Arizona is the next best place to Paradise. I threw out my winter coat, long pants, and tie shoes. From now on its just flip-flops,shorts and Suntan lotion. How can a place that has 320 days of sunshine, about a thousand golf courses, and a Jack in the Box on every corner be bad?
More tomorrow.
Don Shields
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