Whine & Cheese

Photo Friday

For awhile now I've wanted to submit a picture for Photo Friday ... each week (on Fridays, go figure!) the site challenges folks for a picture with a particular theme... sometimes it's something pretty "tangible" like "The Great Outdoors," "Fire," or "Purple"... other times it's much more interpretive like "Silence" or "My Little Secret"... best yet, there's nothing to sign up for and no requirements... other than an URL that points to your photo... and you can participate whenever you'd like.

Never would I have thought in my my first submission would be this week's challenge: Religion.

Thanks to our recent travels, I had a bevy of cathedrals and churches to choose from.  I tried not to go with some too obvious, say a tourist-y outside shot of a church... and while afterwards, I realized I had some other good options... I went with my gut first reaction (which is typically wiser anyhow) and submitted this photo:

It is a stained glass window towards the back of Notre Dame (the only cathedral that allowed indoor photography!)... and it turned out just as I'd hope... getting that statue in silhoutte against the stunning window.  Actually came out better than my hopes... since the camera captured the detail on the glass far, far (far!) better than my faulty eyes... here's a link to the pic on Flickr or just check out the large and larger sizes.

Now that I've taken the Photo Friday plunge, I may try to keep giving it a shot... and I can share my submissions here too... though it's pretty intimidating, there are some really awesome photographers out there... but heck, it'll give my pix a bit more exposure (ha! thank you and good night!)!

Also, last night I got out my camera for the first time since the trip.  Scott had alerted me to a wild looking red pre-sunset sun and capture it in full effect in his shot... I pretty much missed that, but still went out and took some pix over our backyard fence. 

When I first started shooting, I thought it was merely due to a bit of dust storm headed into town... and while that was a factor... once I took a break and stopped seeing spots before my eyes from staring at the sun... I realized it wasn't just clouds and dust... but smoke coming from a pretty good brush fire waaaay out on the west side of the Phoenix metro area.  I pulled out and caught the trail of smoke...

Even when something not so good is happening, Mother Nature certainly has a way of making it spectacular nonetheless.

When I was going back and forth and back and forth, Rocky... in a rare moment... decided to stop following me around in circles and sit/lie still for a minute... and I managed to capture it on film (well, digitally on a memory card, that is):

Ain't he cute?!

Our London Forecast

Ah, London!   Now this is what's always scared me about trying to get Wimbledon tickets for one specific day... rain, rain, rain!   

Needless to say, we're leaving early Sunday morning...  but hopefully that bodes well weather-wise for our next stop a bit further East and South... and quick check... it does!   A bit dicey on Sunday, but partly cloudy for the next 3 days with temps in the upper 60s... that is, if you want to believe days 8 thu 10 on a 10-day forecast!

Wacky Weekend Weather

This is officially a sign that I am turning into my parents... a post about the weather!  Though I am guessing I am not alone in this department... while there are exceptions, I think one's fixation with The Weather Channel is correlated with age.

Anyhow, on Saturday we took a trip down to Tucson to take Todd's Dad out to lunch for his birthday... like my Mom, it was a the big 7-0.  Earlier in the week, he had called Todd to let him know that if the weather is bad that we should not come down.  Needless to say, we woke up to clear skies and abundant sunshine and were on the road shortly after 9am.

We took the Cooper.  With our Cooper-centric vacation rapidly approaching, I was torn between wanting to give it a good highway "test" run prior to our big road trip... but even well over a year since the accident, I still suffer from bouts of paranoia... nothing bad an happen to my car in the near future... as you can probably guess, it is a pretty important to have a Cooper at a huge gathering of MINIs! 

But no worries... the Cooper is just fine... but there were some dicey moments.

This is our stormy time of year... our monsoon (or haboob) season... bad weather crops up quickly and unpredictably.  While were in Tucson, the skies were fairly ominous... but the proverbial "bark with no bite"... and just a bit of rain as we hit I-10 for the late afternoon trip back home.

So long story short(er), it didn't take long before we hit into some heavier rain... again, not too bad if anything it was nice to see that my rain-sensitive automatic windshield wipers work!   But soon there is a huge plume of dust ahead and that's got me concerned.  The worst weather situation I faced in the Cooper was a quick duststorm on the way to our favorite Indian casino last summer... but fortunately, when we reach it, there is only minor reduced visibility.

10 minutes or so later, there is another cloud of dust ... and this one is bad.  It seems that in a blink of an eye, the dust is so bad that the cars in front us literally disappear into the storm. 

I immediately pull off the road and join a few other cars that have done the same... within minutes, more and more cars are pulling off... so many that I am concerned we are going to get hit by someone pulling off and not realizing home many of us there are... plus there are a bunch of cars merely on the shoulder (vs. all the way off the road)... plus my heart was in my stomach as cars (and 18-wheelers!) didn't slow down all that much heading into the dust cloud... plus pulled over cars not observing the recommend "lights off"  duststorm rule.... since moving cars would generally be following lights... on top of that, both cars continuing to drive on and those pulled have their hazard lights blinking... so very confusing (and pretty nerve wracking) with the low visibility and decreased depth perception. 

We were able to get back driving 20-25 minutes later, with visibility still not quite ideal, but it cleared up enough a few miles up the road... we hit into some heavy rain again, but "anything but dust" was good enough for me.    

Todd was hoping to mow the grass when we got home.  Despite all this bad weather, it appeared that as we approached the very southern edge of Phoenix Metro area was pretty clear.  Alas, we had a downpour the exit right before ours... so the window of opportunity to mow seemed to seemed to slam shut!

Or not... a mere five minute drive from that rain-soaked spot and back at our house, nary a drop of rain and the grass dry enough to mow. 

Go figure, but that's the hit-and-miss summertime weather here in Arizona!

Baby Its Cold... Inside

Last night was not a good time to lose the heat in one's house.

Now, I know what you may be thinking... oh, you wimpy Phoenician what did it get down to 62 degrees outside?  Not quite.  Last night was the 2nd consecutive night of below-freezing temperatures.  On Sunday morning, our indoor/outdoor thermometer read 27 degrees.  This morning it was even lower... 25 degrees.  According to the newspaper, these are the lowest Phoenix temperature readings in 16+ years.

My first "uh-oh" moment was last night.  As I was watching TV, I was thinking "Hmmm... it seems a bit chilly."   I go to the thermostat to pop up the heat ... and nothing turns on... and then I realize it should have been on before I even got there.

  Ok, I thought no huge deal.  We have 2 outdoor AC/heating units. I go check outside, both are on and blowing. Back inside, the other side the house is humming away.  However, when I was reading in bed (I know, I know the bed is only supposed to be for sleeping and that) I feel a cool rush of air blowing from the air vent in the ceiling. I just think I must be imagining things. The air is probably "warm" but I am just not feeling it in relation to the outside temperature. 

I am not good at all with "guy" things.  I know, shocking.  Todd takes care of all that stuff, plus he's owned a home before, where my "fix it" expertise was calling the apartment complex office for a maintenance guy to come over.

So, I wake up this morning and the "heated" side of the house is at 62 degrees and the non-heated side is a brisk 59 degrees. Something is obviously not right.  I emailed Todd just to see if he had any ideas.  I figure I am just being "stupid" about something.  Though in retrospect probably a bad idea since he (a) certainly doesn't need another thing to worry about and (b) can't do a thing about from France.

The phone book is full of "same day service" ads for AC/heating unit service companies.  The first one I call says they can come out Wednesday morning... the second says tomorrow/Tuesday morning.  I figure I can make it through 24 hours... and figure it is a bit silly to keep calling around and making and canceling appointments.

But I still run out and get another space heater, since the one I do have couldn't get my not terribly big office past 63 degrees.  I plug in the new one, get a cup of coffee.. and everything in my office is off.  I had blown a fuse/circuit.  Fortunately, I figured out how to get that back on... though it was a bit scary when a couple of the first attempts to "fix" it didn't work.  Again, hopelessly inept when it comes to these things.

One place I called also does plumbing and they said they were getting more calls for busted pipes due to the freeze vs. heating unit problems.  When I was asking my two fellow "work at home" co-workers about their heating/AC experiences, one of them said they haven't had water for 2 days now.  I definitely prefer being a bit chilly than having to deal with that!

So I guess that's it.  The outdoor temp is up to about 50 degrees ... the indoor seems to be hanging around the mid 60s... so we're doing fine... but I will certainly appreciate the heat when it gets back!

Hot Turkey

I'm not making this up folks!  Here is the current temperature!

Though the local news said we officially hit 89 degrees... needless to say, an all-time high for the day.

As you can see, there's a cooling trend ahead and we'll probably need to throw some logs on the fire come Thanksgiving Day on Thursday!

Hot in Herre?

Ok, I know I am risking the cyber-wrath of a good part of the country... but heck, us Phoenicians do not get to brag about our weather much during the summer months...

As we have sat down to watch the national news these past few evenings, we have scratched our heads over this national heat wave.  Usually we only experience this kind of weather disconnect in the "winter"... we'll be sitting around in shorts and there'll be news of a blizzard back East or the Midwest.  Now granted, snow is not part of our reality here in the Valley of the Sun, but we do know a little thing or two about heat... and lately, dare I say, its been downright pleasant.

It was comical seeing the front page of the AZ Republic this morning with thi as the feature story:

Arizona offers an escape from heat wave

What?!?   Usually what happens is that we have extreme heat in June (those 110+ degree days)... around July 4th, the monsoon season kicks in ... lowering temps, but upping the humidity level... graned not to East coast humidity levels, but still high enough to make that dastardly heat index rise to uncomfortable. 

But this year, we had our drop around the 4th... but then it went away... the extreme temps came back a couple of weeks ago (including a 118 degree day)... and now we have kind of the best of both worlds... moderate (even below normal!) temps and no real humidity issues.  Yesterday, for example, it was 102 with a heat index of 100... very strange for this time of the year, but no complaints!

Even our pool has "cooled" off by 4 degrees over the past week or so... and I don't have to get Toby out for his walk as early as I had been... a couple of weeks ago it was approaching 90 degrees about 7 a.m., this morning it was 78.   Granted its up 10 degrees already and hour and half later... but, c'mon its still the desert!