Ted Raguso has been on my case for a while, to go for lap swim after church. I did a few times last year, and it was great… but then again at that time I was driving to church. These days, I tend to cycle – but I took my swimming suit this morning, and figured I’d drop by the pool after service.
It’s a bit of a trek – something like 35 km (21.8 mi) according to the Google!
Right from the get-go, I felt tired this morning, not sure why. But I got onto the bike and got rolling in decent time. The service was fine, although, yikes, that last hymn – the Americans went and changed the tune for a familiar hymn, we sounded rather thin!
After he service, I cycled over to the aquatic centre and had a nice swim in the pool – outdoor lap swim pool – I need to get some polarized swimming goggles or something! I was only able to do 1/2 of my regular 60 lengths / 1500 metre swim – 30 lengths / 750 metre total. I was tired when I got into the pool. and you know that I was even more tired when I got out.
I left my swimming trunks on, put on my shoes and my cycling shirt, and headed for home. Oof, I could not believe that I had no reserve, couldn’t kick it up when coming up on traffic lights…. and that hill at 13th Street, about 4 km (2.5 mi) from home, which is always a tough slug on the way home, was almost impossible! I had to stop at the top for a minute, down a bunch of water, breathe deeply and let my heart rate recover :-) But, I made it!
It took 1/2 hour at home before I could get up to shower. I was going to jump in the pool, but it’s still a bit chilly – 24.2 C – I really want 25 C before I even think of going in. After my shower, I was so whipped that I slept on & off for another hour. Zounds, that’s not like me, to sleep in the afternoon. Oh well.
According to my weather station, the temperature peaked at about 35 C around the time that I got home (2 PM). No wonder I was a little zoofed after the ride :-)
I’m still fighting to avoid turning on the air conditioning, save energy, save money, and all that stuff. I bought a couple of box fans on Thursday, and put them in the windows all night, blasting away. At the peak of the heat outside, it was 25 C inside, which is OK if you aren’t exerting yourself – with little to no humidity, 25C feels just nice.
SRP Perkins Substation Installation
This was interesting. A 500 kV substation. Everything overhead is humming and buzzing, 24 hours a day. Only our little section of the substation is powered off, the rest is still working. We installed some equipment in an outdoor cabinet, and also in a rack indoors. We’re doing a bit of a joint demonstration of digital substation technology.
One of the challenging things about this kind of work is that the guys start soooo early. They generally arrive at 5:30 AM. We’d show up 6:30 or 7 AM, just as the sun was coming up. I understand why they do it, of course – there’s no shade out there, and the sun is unrelenting & hot! Hard to believe it until you feel it!
27 March: Visit to the Commemorative Air Force Museum in Mesa
Right after church, Ted Raguso asked if I wanted to go to an air museum. Now, I don’t know much about planes, but you know little boys always like planes, trains and cars. So we went. It was pretty interesting.
It turns out that they used to call themselves the Confederate Air Force, but here in the USA, the word “Confederate” has some meanings that many do not like – too many people lost in the war, still fresh in their minds, even though it was long ago. So, they changed their name.
They were having a military flea market inside the hangar, and a military vehicle show outside that day. The vehicle show was interesting too. One was a perfectly restored WW II jeep – a real jeep, not an imitation or postwar commercial one. I didn’t realize that Kaizer was made to share the prints with Ford, who made identical machines. But, Henry Ford being the guy he was (or was it his son? no matter), they put a little “F” on all the parts. So, restoring a Ford WW II Jeep is more challenging, because you have to track down all the parts with “F” on them. Heh, heh, maybe that’s why they did it – to make their vehicles more collectible????
I spotted a vehicle with a Canadian military insignia, flying the New Brunswick provincial flag, and numbered with a “CZ” on the side. What gives? It was an all-purpose military truck, and yes it’s originally from Canada. Ha ha, can’t get away from those Canadians, can you?
One of the tracked vehicles was some kind of gun carrier – eek, the armament on that thing! Kind of a propos in gun-happy Arizona, let me tell you… but that’s a story for another time.
March & April: Backyard Flaura & Fauna!
Oranges
In early March, I had the first orange blossoms on my little orange tree :-) Other folks’ trees have been blooming for several weeks, such a sweet smell… and now my tree smells nice too. Maybe this year I’ll get more than one orange from it :-)
Like last year, and the year before, there were so many blossoms on the tree, but last year I got only one orange, and the year before, only three. After the blossom petals fall, you can see tiny fruit where the flower was – but they all disappeared, so sad.
So… just before he left, Eric helped me put a screen cover over my orange tree. The idea is, if it’s birds (and we do have a lot of birds clattering around here in the spring), then it will stop them from accosting the tree ’til the fruit gets larger, when it seems they might be safe.
It’s a clunky contraption, but I hope it works.
Roses
It turns out that I have two rosebushes in the backyard, along the fence. Had I known that, I’d likely have put the shed somewhere else! Oh well. The one on the south wall, is beautiful pink, smells lovely, came out with at least half a dozen blossoms. The one on the east wall, is beautiful orange, came out with only three or four, Both were lovely while they lasted!
The red rosebush appears to have been attacked by caterpillars or bugs. I’ve sprayed to prevent further damage.
Here’s an update from early April. Again, still lovely :-) I will have to spray them earlier next year.
And here’s from a week or so later. They just kept coming :-)
And a few days later.
Creeping Vines
Those who’ve been here know that I have a patio area covered in vines. These vines appear to originate from my neighbours’ house – their whole south side, and half the west side, is covered with them! I shudder to think of the damage that they’ve done to their house’s structure. Oh well.
Anyway, these vines periodically get these big, beautiful, yellow blossoms on them, so beautiful. Also, good hummingbird attraction as well – I’ve seen them a few times, but never fast enough on shutter to catch a picture.
Here’s what it looked like this year.
Honeybees!
One Saturday in March, my neighbour told me by text, that the bee’s nest on his house would be taken down Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, in the middle of the night. What bee’s nest? Oh the big one facing my kitchen window. Hmm, never saw it.
I don’t know how I missed it! It was over a metre across, it was crazy! Constant activity around that hive. I was wondering how I always had bees around my outside lights at night, and I’m sure that’s why.
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| Before relocation – about a metre (3 ft) across! |
Apparently, they were honeybees and not nasty bees, so they were going to a farm – being relocated.
The guys didn’t show up on the appointed night, but about a week later, while falling to sleep, I heard something and looked out front. Sure enough, a couple of white vans marked with the name of the bee keeper’s farm, and saying “Bee Relocation Service”, and they were readying their suits & ladders. Now the eaves are empty.
There are still a few forlorn honeybees flying about.
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| After relocation – just a few forlorn honeybees buzzing about |
10 to 22 March – Eric visits Phoenix
13 March: Eric and Dean go to NASCAR
23 April: Has it really been over a year?
Apparently, it has. Sorry about that! I’m getting busier, here in the land of scorpions & rattlesnakes. I’ve posted a few things on FaceBook, mostly because it’s easy from my phone. So, you know what? I think I’ll snag the FaceBook stuff and re-post it here, since it’s my life! :-) Then maybe I’ll try to get started here again.
05 April: Easter morning!
Last fall, I formally joined Mission Bell United Methodist Church at 44th Ave & Bell Road. It’s a great place. The minister, Pastor Paul Self-Price, is a wonderful guy, preaches thought provoking sermons, and is familiar with the struggles of the 12 step program, which made it comfortable for me to talk to him.
Well anyway, last Easter, I attended my first “sunrise Easter service”. This year, I attended my second. I was at the church from 6:30 AM til after noon, attending all 3 services (sunrise, contemporary, traditional). Ugh! Then had to go to work to prepare for this trip to Lyon that I’m currently on :-) In between services, thankfully, we had a bit of a breakfast thing, which was very nice.
The only pics I got of the morning were of the Easter egg hunt. So cute!!! The setup for the egg hunt was interesting too – the older kids were asked to spread the candy-filled plastic eggs in the designated area. The kids, especially the older boys, apparently have hearing difficulties, or can’t follow directions, or don’t care, or something like that – they put eggs all over the place outside the designated area – and got careless, tossing eggs several feet, not caring if they popped open and spilled their candy all over. Heh, heh, pandemonium both on distribution and on retrieval! Ah well, they are kids, and they all had a good time! Sugar rush for many little ones that morning, eek!
02, 03 April: The Desert Blooms!
The summer heat is so stifling here, and the winter is so dry here. I bought a house with a lawn front & back – small lawns, but lawns nonetheless – but now I see the wisdom of having the front & back yards in a “natural” state. The sun is so hot, the air so dry (most of the time – but more about that another day), that you must dump copious amounts of water onto the lawn, just so it will survive.
The sun is so strong that it works as a bleaching agent – colours get washed out here, plants die unless watered – well, except of course for the weeds – weeds seem to flourish everywhere – and the cacti.
So, it’s amazing and wonderful when, all of the sudden, the desert blooms. Here are a few pictures of the desert plants in bloom. The first couple are in my yard.
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| In my backyard. I just missed catching a hummingbird that was sipping at some of the nice flowers in the creeping vines… |
| In my front yard. Since this picture, the whole tree has opened up in huge blossoms of red! |
| Landscaped area around water treatment plant along my cycling route to work. Look at those gorgeous red flowers! |
| More along my cycling route. Different colours for each type of cactus? |
| Catching other cacti along my cycling route. |
| Zoomed back shot along my cycling route. |
| More cactus along my cycling route. |
| In a front yard along my cycling route. Look carefully at the top of the cacti. I saw birds sitting on top as I rode up! |
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| Cycling Route… doesn’t show path along canal or through desert just north of airport |
| The start of the trail along the canal, off to the right of the service road, and up… |
| Ah, a much nicer, more level trail on the other side of the canal! |
| They coulda done me a favour and blocked the other end of the trail… |