Good morning!
I have been absent from this blog.
Precipitately we decided to go over to Tucson, and precipitately we went.
When I was first in San Diego, the freeway signs for East and West always confused me. How could Phoenix and Tucson, two cities which are the epitome of the West, be towards the east? But they are, and it always took a momentary re-orientation and readjustment for me to decide which direction to take.
But this is San Diego. Everything's east of here and I guess I finally realized it. Now I don't quite have the orientation problem. Quite.
The drive over was pleasant and easy. I was able to drive for about a third of the trip, which I enjoyed and Theodore needed. Coming back, I was too sleepy and didn't perform my duties well.
Tucson in the summer is not Tucson in the winter. In the winter, I can't think of a more perfect place. Sunny, clear, sparkling even. In summer, which season is just beginning, it is hot (reached 109 while we were there), dusty-seeming, and subject to irritating winds which stir up massive storms sometimes. But one seizes one's chance when one has it, no? I had a wonderful time.
My sister no. 3 and her husband live in the most perfect small house that's ever been. It has ceilings of 12 feet, I guess--there's more space over our heads than there is around us. But the little house is quite spacious and cleverly designed for maximum use and privacy. There are two bedrooms. There is a bathroom very near the guest room which is very near the laundry which is very near the kitchen. But--there's seclusion, discretion and privacy in these arrangements as well.
The master bedroom is spacious and its bath is just huge. HUGE. The bathroom is bigger than most bedrooms and if you figure cubic space, it's WAY bigger than most bedrooms. Or living rooms. There's a small paved back yard with a charming irregularly shaped swimming pool, surrounded by the stuccoed walls that surround everything in this complex. It was on that wall that I saw, yesterday morning, a young mountain lion perched, staring into the shadows of my sister's back yard. He was one hungry dude and his long search was unrewarded. After a time he jumped down and ran to a house behind my sister's where he leapt onto the wall and began to scan for something to eat there.
Later we found that he'd left scat and urine on two cushioned patio chairs. Was it a message or was he just caught out unawares? Must have been a message: or why choose a chair? I had my camera but didn't want to leave the cat to go to our room and bring it over.
Tucson is itself a masterpiece of planning, I think, One drives up and down the grid of streets amongst the mesquite and saguaro, with tons of subdivisions sequestered in there...all most well thought out. Driving at night is dark; civic rules keep out light and keep the stars open. There are no crosstown freeways, so the drives can get long, but I am so glad they have opted not to use the freeway option for getting around. Wonderful restaurants abound even in these poor times, and there are still the enclaves of delightful shops all over.
My sister is a wonderful cook of the Martha Stewart persuation. She made vegetable soup at my request. She made gazpacho. At my request for "a Mexican dish" she made the King Ranch Casserole, a Texas favorite with chicken, tortillas, canned soup, and Ro-Tel tomatoes and chilis. We had delightful sandwiches of Boar's Head meats on Tucson (or Tuscan) Bread from an unbeliveable bakery. We had salads, vegetables, brownies, Blue Bell ice cream, fabulous oranges, good coffee, and our choice of breakfasts. What more could a couple of lazy oldsters want? We were happy.
Our brother in law no. 3 had a birthday while we were there. We were happy to hear that they have some bugs over there because we'd brought him a spray bottle of Cedarcide, the organic pest control. I thought he'd like that as he likes things done right.
I got a few pictures so will put an addendum with pictures later on perhaps. Right now I am going to publish this before it evaporates into the place where this vacation did...leaving only a happy memory. YAZZYBEL
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