When I left home yesterday, there was cold gritty wind and a pall of dirty grey clouds or dust over the mountains. The shuttle ran into the real storm half an hour north of Tucson, with driving rain and bad visibility, and passed a couple of bad accidents, the sort that leaves battered vehicles sitting in the sunken median, before getting into Phoenix about fifteen minutes late. In the meantime, I'd committed about 700 words to Old Laptop's rattly little hard drive, once I persuaded the machine to boot up and open my file. The SuperShuttle dispatcher at the Phoenix airport had taken refuge inside the terminal building, which made him hard to find, but we connected eventually.
We watched the second half of Ben Hur after supper, and the first half of the making-of documentary. I found myself wondering, later, if that was the LOTR of its time -- the book that attracted a cult following, kept selling for two or three generations, and challenged the technology of the day to bring it to stage and screen.
Today dawned bright and sunny. On the way back to the airport we could see snow on the mountains -- a most unusual sight from downtown Phoenix! I spent a lot of the shuttle ride back just watching the landscape in that unaccustomed mode of little fluffy clouds and distant snow-covered peaks.
The campus weather gauge at the UofA registered 0.17 inches yesterday; I think Phoenix got a lot more, though. The Santa Catalina range to the north has just the faintest dusting of snow, like sifted sugar, on the highest ridges. As I came into the apartment complex, I passed a tree with a whole flock of little birds -- at least one house finch with its vivid splash of crimson on the chest, some plain brown sparrowish things, and some darkly irridescent in the low light, all chirping in sweet, liquid voices.
( writing thoughts )
We watched the second half of Ben Hur after supper, and the first half of the making-of documentary. I found myself wondering, later, if that was the LOTR of its time -- the book that attracted a cult following, kept selling for two or three generations, and challenged the technology of the day to bring it to stage and screen.
Today dawned bright and sunny. On the way back to the airport we could see snow on the mountains -- a most unusual sight from downtown Phoenix! I spent a lot of the shuttle ride back just watching the landscape in that unaccustomed mode of little fluffy clouds and distant snow-covered peaks.
The campus weather gauge at the UofA registered 0.17 inches yesterday; I think Phoenix got a lot more, though. The Santa Catalina range to the north has just the faintest dusting of snow, like sifted sugar, on the highest ridges. As I came into the apartment complex, I passed a tree with a whole flock of little birds -- at least one house finch with its vivid splash of crimson on the chest, some plain brown sparrowish things, and some darkly irridescent in the low light, all chirping in sweet, liquid voices.
| |
6,903 / 100,000 (6.9%) |
( writing thoughts )
