BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE....

I don't live in the Arizona desert, I live in what they call "high-chaparral" country. We get too much rain during our two monsoon seasons 12 inches is the average) - although we are pretty parched the rest of the year.




So when it rains, this landscape turns green and lush and plants aggressively take over EVERYwhere.





So to me, these are simply lovely.




And beautiful.



Our INSANE amount of birds. who take advantage of even our CACTUSES to protect their babies. 






And we have the coolest moonrises in the world.

THIRD TIME LUCKY

I hate cold weather.


I do live in Arizona, but at a high enough altitude that we get freezing temperatures, and even snow once or twice a year (at least until global warming began turning every one's weather upside down and backwards).


And last night was one of those cold nights - it got down to 22 degrees Fahrenheit.

Our church is almost completely volunteer-based; we don't have a  paid clergy, church members teach the classes and run the organizations.

And we volunteer to keep our church building clean.

So this Saturday morning, our names were on the list to meet early to clean.

I called the brother who is in charge of the cleaning schedule Friday evening to confirm the time.

And he told me we would be responsible for cleaning the OUTSIDE of the building.

The pavements - and porches - and leafs - and raking - OUTSIDE.

And guess what?

It was COLD.

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY....

We need rain.... desperately.

We're not in anything like the drought in California - I mean, hey, we're in Arizona.

But we've had a good growing season, and then a longer than normal dry period, where everything which grew has turned into tinder.

We've got a very, very high fire rating right now.

So we need the rain.

But I don't need the rain.

My husband keeps remarking what a comforting sound rain makes.

While when I hear rain falling, I'm thinking

- my poor horse is outside standing in it.

- my poor dog, who doesn't understand why she keeps getting put on in the rain, and just waits patiently at the same door to come back in.

- a leak which shows up occasionally in my bathroom.

- how muddy it's going to be tomorrow.

Maybe I need to watch "Singing In The Rain" before I try to go to sleep to change my attitude.

AZ SENATE BILL 1062

Arizona doesn't get into the news that much. Except when it's minus 5 degrees in the rest of the country and it's 75 here.

And when certain bills get introduced. Such as Arizona State Senate Bill 1062.

The "Pro" people say it's to allow religious people to exercise their beliefs. The "Con" people say it's to allow discrimination.

I see it another way, which I don't think the pro people have even considered.

It's one way to allow religious people to be legally discriminated against.

The Con people cry that it will allow wedding cake bakers to deny services to gay couples who want a wedding cake

The Pro people insist that it allows the bakers to express their displeasure about a gay wedding based on their religious beliefs.

I say it's going cause a WHOLE lot of employment problems for the baker.

Would you hire some nice Christian who could just mess up the large order you got for a rainbow cake?

If you're a Starbucks manager, would you hire a Mormon who might suddenly decide in the midst of the morning rush to stop selling cappuccinos because of her religious views? 

How about the Muslim that could possibly view all customers as infidels?

So then we'd have to have another law that you couldn't refuse to hire someone because of their legal right to refuse service to someone based on their religious beliefs.

Does this seem as silly to you are it does to me?

Sure, if you don't want to bake gay wedding cakes, keep the rainbow off your ads.

If you are LDS and don't want to serve coffee, find another job outside of food service.

If you can't deal with infidels, don't do business with infidels.

But if you are a normal, reasonable human being, realize that you can deal in business with people of different moral, religious and social values without sacrificing your own.

It's called politeness.

BACK HOME AGAIN

It's literally just been a few days.

But Oregon was dark and overcast and cold.

It was staying in small hotel rooms.

Taking naps on strange, cold beds in unheated bedrooms.

Looking at grey freezing landscapes.

It's nice being back to sun.

Warm and DRY climate.

Yeah.

I like coming home.

SUNSET

We have incredible sunsets where I live.






These may be downloaded from the internet (because I can't get to my own cell phone photos), but I swear on my Boy Scout badge they are a fair representation of what I see night after night.

WIND

Normally, there are some great things about windy days.

I grew up in the L.A. basin, where breezy days meant the smog was blown away, the skies were blue, and you could actually see the San Gabriel mountains six miles away.



Gusty days were always more interesting days to have a horse out - more things blowing around for him to spook at.




But windy days here in Southern Arizona almost can guarantee one thing.

Dust.

And more dust.

We have dust every single moment when the air is perfectly still - it just is about a jillion times more when blustery weather prevails.

To the point where it becomes difficult to see, let alone keep anything clean.



Today, however, the wind was shifting very very large semi-trucks on the interstate into sharing more of my lane of traffic than I was completely comfortable with.



Next windy day, I'm going to put-off driving to Tucson.

RAINBOWS IN ARIZONA

The headline reads "ARIZ SHERIFF SAYS HE'S GAY AFTER MISCONDUCT CLAIMS".



So the first time, I read that as "a Sheriff in some shortened version of the state of Arizona became aware of his homosexual tendencies shortly after filing claims of misconduct on someone else."

And the next time, it obviously read that "an Arizonan Sheriff made an announcement of his homosexual tendencies shortly after filing the misconduct claims.


And then I clicked on the link and read the actual story at Arizona sheriff who is running for a Congressional seat.


People, let's get real here.

I mean, look at me.

I sleep with a dog. I talk to horses. I eat Eggo waffles with creamy peanut butter piled high on top. And until age 43, I had a perpertual blackhead on my upper lip.

So am I not eligible for running for Congress? Do any of this facts in ANY possible away affect my ability to represent my area's interests in the federal government? Does this suddenly make everything I do subject to intense questioning?

Does my talking to horses make me overly sympathic to any horse-related bills that might come up, to the obvious anti-horse feelings of my district?

Will the Eggo and peanut butter make me subject to possible blackmailing by the Kellog and J.M. Smuckers?

SO WHY DOES ANYONE CARE IF THIS GUY LIKES OTHER GUYS MORE THAN HE LIKES GIRLS?!?! (Eww... I think I wouldn't like this blonde bimbo either)

He's not married - he's not cheating on his significant other. The article quotes that "Babeu owes much of his political standing to Arizona Sen. John McCain," he's an Iraqi war vet, and he has a very nice list of creditionals at his web site.

Please, people. Elect this guy as a good person to represent us in Washington D.C.  Or don't. But don't base your decision on how he lives his personal life. Or if he eats waffles with peanut butter.

But if you ARE going to base your decision on his gayness, then please also do the following for EVERY OTHER ELECTED OFFICIAL YOU HAVE EVER VOTED FOR; it only seems proper.

- Is this person married to their original spouse?
- Has this person every had an extramaterial affair?
- Do this person and their spouse practice any form of birth control?
- Has this person ever mastrubated at any point in their life?
- Had this person ever agreed with any position commonly held by the opposing political party?

And does any of THIS have anything to do with their ability to hold a political office?

So just one last thing.

Any one reading this who prefers to be called a Chrisitian - look up Luke 6:37.


Please - let me know.

MY WEATHER REPORT IS BETTER THAN YOUR WEATHER REPORT

Tonight...Mostly clear. Lows 61 to 67.

Thursday...Sunny. Highs 95 to 101.
Thursday Night...Mostly clear. Lows 61 to 67.

Friday...Sunny. Highs 95 to 101.
Friday Night...Mostly clear. Lows 62 to 67.
 

Saturday...Sunny. Highs 96 to 102.
Saturday Night...Mostly clear. Lows 62 to 68.

Sunday...Sunny. Highs 94 to 100.

Through Wednesday...Mostly clear. Lows 58 to 66. Highs 90 to 100.

Sometimes I simply love living in Arizona.

MORE ON ARIZONA

Desert rains are usually so definitely demarked that the story of the man who washed his hands in the edge of an Arizona thunder shower without wetting his cuffs seems almost credible. ~State of Arizona, U.S. public relief program, 1935-1943


You know you're an Arizona native when you take rain dances seriously. ~Skip Boyer

Arizona looks like a battle on Mars.


A three-inch rain in Phoenix means three inches between drops.


Welcome to Arizona, where summer spends the winter, and hell spends the summer.



The Grand Canyon is carven deep by the master hand; it is the gulf of silence, widened in the desert; it is all time inscribing the naked rock; it is the book of earth. ~Donald Culross Peattie


You know you're an Arizona native when... a rainy day puts you in a good mood. ~Marshall Trimble


I am enamored with desert dew because it's usually the closest thing we get to rain. ~Linda Solegato

Once, it was so damned dry, the bushes followed the dogs around.


In Arizona, shade trees are your best friends. (And occasionally the basis of small civil wars over parking.)

You know you live in Arizona when the cold-water faucet is hotter than the hot-water faucet.

It's so hot even my fake plants are wilting. ~Linda Solegato

Each season of adventure reality television gets more and more challenging. I'm waiting for them to come out with a Survivor: Phoenix in July edition. ~Linda Solegato

You know you live in Phoenix when you are willing to park 3 blocks away because you actually found shade from a palm tree imported 300 miles from California and nurtured with water piped 250 miles from Nevada.

A hundred ten in the shade is sorta hot, but you don't have to shovel it off your driveway.