Tuesday, March 20, 2007

By the time I get to Phoenix...

Drive by shot of Orange Grove in Tempe


Downtown Phoenix

I spent some time with Ju Che Child & Family this morning. Ran into downtown Phoenix to do some errands. They are tearing the whole place up to put in a light rail system. The orange grove is close to Ju Che Child's house and it was for Churlita. Not a great shot but she did mention something about orange blossoms and I aims to please. The unseasonable weather we had in Iowa a little while ago was also down here as it hit the upper 90's which apparently is high this early in the year even for Arizona. So things may be blooming ahead of schedule.

Flight down yesterday was uneventful. I finished Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn (sequel to Case Histories). Can't say enough about both of them. Love the intertwining plots and all the twists and turns. They also inspire me to visit Edinburgh. Not exactly a place that was high on my list especially after reading Irvine Welsh. After changing planes in Dallas I began reading Seamus Heaney's Beowulf, excellent stuff. I did start drifting off to sleep right before Grendel's mother arrived. The poem caused me to wonder about Earth Goat's Grendel and how he was doing over in the Netherlands. He has an update and some more pics up.

I was extremely fortunate in the rental car pickup. I managed to snag a 2007 Mazda MX5 convertible. I think it was due to high volume of people combined with an afternoon arrival that caused a shortage of vehicles available but the Mazda was the only car left besides a couple of PT Cruisers. Bonus is that they are still charging the same rate if it had been a Corolla so the corporate office can't complain. Somebody will I am sure but I am covered. I had my eye on a Mustang but the woman in front of me grabbed it. So I shoehorned my luggage into the styrofoam cooler sized trunk and hit the road.
The car has a manual/automatic shift which took me a while to get used to it but you can shift it like a standard or just switch it on the fly to auto. I figured it out after I had it up to 5000 rpms in 2nd gear. Next stop Casa Grande and the Toltec Tavern for lunch.

3 comments:

Churlita said...

Thanks for the orange trees. I miss going outside and picking them off trees and the smell too. I miss the smell. right now, Iowa City smells like a combination of Cedar Rapids and loam.

Unknown said...

Which are probably not even close to how I imagine the combination of frankincense and myrrh.I really wish we could convey here how bad Cedar Rapids smells. We need a scratch and sniff internet. The scary thing is that it is from cereal plants.

Anonymous said...

The grooves are all but gone, along with the cattle ranches and cowboys. I'll have to take Dexter way outside to even glimpse more than 20 trees together. Tucson tomorrow Dex - find a place with a cheap kiddie menu and expensive beer.