Air conditioning emergency and stray shots of Phoenix

The last two days have been taken up by a visit with my parents and dealing with a car issue.  Once again, my Dad out did himself with a delicious chili dinner with cornbread on Thursday.  Mmmmm...  Afterwards, we chatted and fiddled around with computers.  Fun! Mom and Dad are not intimidated by computers.  They seem as curious as Steve and I are about the latest devices.  All and all, another delightful evening.

Today, after lazing around the suite until obscenely late, we went out to grab something to eat and explore, but found that our car air conditioning wouldn't come on.  Yes, that is a problem when it's 107 degrees outside. [At least we don't have unhealthy wildfire smoke filling air like the Pacific North West.]  This season seems to be like deep winter in the Midwest.  You don't send your kids out to play alone in these temperatures.  Here they can drop from heat exhaustion and in Minnesota they can drop from the freezing temps.  I look forward to enjoying the more temperate weather of fall and winter here in Arizona.

Fortunately, the car air conditioning healed itself and, if the AC holds through the weekend, we will be able to get it checked at 8 am sharp in Glendale, AZ on Monday.

Needless to say, it was an irritating few hours.  But, AC, food, drink, and going straight "home" fixed it all for now.

However, I DID take a few photos along the way.  Opening the window for a clear shot didn't seem such a big deal anymore. 😈  You have to look close in the last two photos to see the rusted metal yard sculptures, of antelope and a giraffe, I think.  The car took off as I started to take the photos so there were no adjustments allowed.

The view over the trailer park.

Metal animal sculpture on the left side.

Metal animal sculpture sighting on the left side of the yard.  Notice the typical  gravel yard.

Tomorrow, we bring carry out dinner over to Mom and Dad's.  It will be another enjoyable evening of conversation, playing with our electronics, and maybe a TV mystery.  Who knows?  I'm going to miss them so much when we leave.  But, we may be heading out for Los Alamos next Thursday.  We'll see.

Scottsdale, AZ - the shopping Mecca and sculpture garden

Scottsdale, Arizona looks like a western resort town.  The old town area is full of expensive jewelry and high end fashions and western wear alongside souvenir shops and cheap imports.  On top of that, there are several shopping malls with even higher end merchandise.  If shopping doesn't bring you joy, Scottsdale may not be the place for you.  There are many beautiful and expensive looking resorts, including golf courses and spas.  Seems like a playground for the rich, but we thought we might be able to sneak in and get a peek.

So, today, Steve and I got up late, ate brunch and headed for the shops.  Shopping isn't really my thing, but I am still acclimatizing and don't have the energy or the money for golf or the spa.  We browsed the jewelry shops and I found a great place to get a few of my pieces repaired.  (I have a small jewelry collection because my parents were in the business many years back and traveled the country selling at the big gem and jewelry shows. Birthdays, Christmas, unbirthdays, my gifts were jewelry.  I loved it!)  But, parts fall off well-loved jewelry or break and then what do you do?  It's either get them repaired or learn to do it myself.  Now that I'm retired maybe I will learn, but for now...

It was a balmy 98 to 101 degrees today because of the cooling rain of the monsoon season, but even going from air conditioned shop to air conditioned shop left me enervated.  So, we cruised the town and found some great sculptures.  You'll notice a theme because I love horses and that is pretty much all they had.  It got to be too late and, now, I have to go back to get a pic of the bucking bronco sculpture on one corner in Old Scottsdale.  You'll love that one!

It's buried, but the sign says, "Welcome to Old Town Scottsdale".

This was such a striking sculpture that it is actually what drew me back to Scottsdale.

Look at the colors.  It is so dramatic, energetic and just magnificent.

More horses galloping through the Old Town square.  Don't you just love it, too?

The Scottsdale version of a bus stop.  It was so lovely that I couldn't help myself.

So, if we feel well enough, it's off to Sedona tomorrow.  I suspect that, if we were to live in Arizona, it would be in the higher elevations near Sedona among the red rock formations (assuming that we could afford it}.  My brother, Mark, says that Cottonwood, AZ on the way to Sedona might be a good place to retire.  We'll see tomorrow... or the next day.  We are retired.  We have time.