Thoughts on a nice day.....

Its 10:30 here in Arizona, and I am playing around with the National Weather Service reporting web site...  Minneapolis is -6, Des Moines is +5 and Overland Park is +17..  That is ten or 11 degrees between the locations as you get farther South...

I was really happy when we moved from Des Moines to KC because that extra ten degrees meant a lot to us..  But even in the spring of 2007 we left KC and drove out here to Arizona for a couple of weeks in the first part of February...  We didn't have an RV yet, so we were in motels.....

The following winter we were in the RGV of Texas in our RV, but the wind and humidity made the winter 35 degree cold down there seem almost like Kansas...  So we have returned to Arizona every year ever since....

Yes, it gets colder here in Az than in Texas, especially at night..  We saw temps in the 20s this past month at night...  But the sun always shines!  And the wind never blows and it is always dry...  And there are never any bugs...

So when I just checked the temperature here in Mesa and found that it is still 61, I know why we still keep coming back here..  It isn't the best, as perhaps Florida would win that honor...  But in Florida, the bugs are back and the humidity is never far away...  And it rains, sometimes for days on end..  Occasionally it gets cold, but not for long, so that wouldn't count..

So we have decided that Arizona is the best compromise...  And now that we have built sticks and bricks, the cold nights are not nearly as much of an issue either...  With good insulation and a good heating system temperatures in the 20s late at night aren't much of a problem..

As I was out riding the motor cycle this afternoon and I had 79 for a high temperature, I was thinking all of these things thru. I realized that our choice of Arizona, is for us still the right one..

I had my liners all out of the motorcycle clothes just like it was summer and the lighter helmet on as well...  And the long range forecast calls for at least 70 degrees for each of the days next week.... Ahhhh............ Are we beyond the cold?

But on a serious note, we have lost almost all of the plantings that we put in our yard last summer...  Even the big trees are frozen and brown....  They were pricey to put in and we are just sick about it...  Most of the small bushes are gone as well...

Cover them was the watch word, but when it is a solid freeze for 12 hours in a row, covering them did little..  Had the trees lost their leaves and gone dormant like they do in the Midwest, the cold wouldn't have mattered, but that never happens here, so they are severely effected...

The local news people have warned, not to immediately replace all of the lost plantings, as they can not rule out another cold snap during February..  So we will sit here and look at brown bushes and trees for another month...  And perhaps it will be until next fall before we have things replaced...  Will any of it come back?

Our friends from Des Moines are coming to our home tomorrow...  We will get to show them around some and go out and get a meal as well... But sitting in the back yard and looking at dead bushes seems fairly wrong....  Oh well........... its single digits in Des Moines...

Retired Rod