Tag: Tucson

June-here, hot and busy

After a call this morning from my niece about her visit this month, I looked at my calendar for June and found several things going on. I better take my vitamins.

First, the 100’s will hit Catalina AZ tomorrow! Damn, I’m not ready but at least they held off until now, so I only have to make it through one month and then monsoon season will show up to help my water bill. I can do that, yep I can. The spa is not heated so I can dunk myself, fully clothed, a couple of times a day to stay cool.

Second, my 88 year old mother will have a diagnostic procedure and followup appointments this month. It is part of a recent discovery made about her medical condition that will need monitoring. Yeah, that’s about all I can say on that one.

Third, my daughter and my grandson will make two trips out to Arizona from California this month. The first time will be mid month to do some logistics setting up the second visit. That one is her permanent move to Arizona for a new job in Phoenix!! Okay color this human ecstatically happy! Charlie will only be two hours from me-his Nannie. Melissa is having some strong emotions about this move since she has been in LA since 1997. She will leave lots of very close friends that make up the village who have been there for her while she fostered and adopted Charlie. They are family. But hopefully not too far away for visits.

Fourth, my great niece Kali will be coming down from Phoenix to stay with us for several days, and we will begin her Tucson indoctrination – haha. Phoenix and Tucson are so very different. Phoenix is the big metropolis with freeways, concrete and asphalt, tall glass towers, and very oppressive heat. As is typical of a city like Phoenix there is a lot of things to do. Tucson is also a big city, but because of a our surrounding mountains ranges our weather is not quite as hot. Don’t get me wrong it is hot here but rarely will Tucson have temps over 115. Phoenix does.

Anyone who visits needs to drive up to Mount Lemmon, and we plan to bring Kali up there for yummy cookies, homemade fudge, and a visit to the Living Rainbow gift shop. Also a ride on the ski lift to the top of the mountain (over 9000′) and a trip to Sabino Canyon to play in the creek and have a picnic. Tucson has avoided expanses of freeways; some of us regret that, others are glad for it. Our mountains may not be Colorado mountains but they get enough snow for skiing in the winter and a right out my front door.

So we plan to introduce Tucson to Kali in all of its laid back coolness.

So this month will be hot and busy. But that is life.

Cheers!

-N

So freaking hot!

I’m sitting here inside my air conditioned home, drinking an iced coffee with Bailey’s thinking of why did anyone in their right mind stop and settle in Tucson or Phoenix? Okay, so Tucson does have beautiful mountains that get snow every winter and offers a cool respite from the damnable heat. A hundred years ago there were rivers that ran year round. But Phoenix?? The Salt River ran, but the hills are black volcanic rock.

Had to have been in winter.

June is hell in Southern Arizona. No rain, hardly a cloud, humans and animals hide inside, underground, in shade, wherever it is cooler. Folks who live where it gets very cold do the same thing during the winter – find warmth and shelter and hunker down.

There is a point in the day where nothing can cool me but to get wet. If I had a pool it would be ideal, but I don’t – so – I turn on the cold water in the shower and get drenched. It works, and I can make it through the day. In one of my books* I described the way evaporative cooling was done in this part of the state.  Fabric was soaked in water and draped over windows, the breeze would be cool as the fabric dried. June is perfect evaporative cooler month. They work great unless the temperature is too hot and the humidity is too low. In that case you will spend the day hosing off the cooler pads.

Years ago my son and I house-sat in Phoenix for my sister during the summer. It was my first experience at how ineffective a “swamp” cooler could be in the hot and dry Phoenix summer. My brother-in-law showed Aaron how to climb up the ladder holding the hose and wash down the cooler pads. Wet the pads worked great. Fortunately they had a pool so we spent hours in the water. It’s 120 degrees of dry heat!! That’s bull shite.

I hope one day to live in a home either at the ocean or on a lake, in a place that gets four seasons.

It is my dream, it is my fantasy.

Cheers!

-N

*https://www.amazon.com/Blame-Whiskey-Tombstone-Nancy-Vaughn-ebook/dp/B01CQ4S8R4

Friday, Friday

I remember Friday being the best day. After getting off work I would hurry home, pick out an outfit, shower, shave (you never knew), put makeup on and be ready to be out the door by 7pm to par-tay. It was glorious and I felt like an adventure was just waiting for me.

In 1972 Arizona lowered the drinking age to 19. For Real!! It didn’t last long but the best part was I was 19. So I was legal and it was cool.

I could vote and drink. There is symmetry to that.

It was often an evening spent dancing at the Wildcat House, I was there for the opening night! Then across the street to the Bum Steer mostly to see who was there. Tucson back then was a pretty cool place. Lot’s of celeb sightings all over, we had an amazing promoter (can’t remember the name) who managed to get the best concerts here. The Tucson Community Center opened with an arena beckoning artists, we had a hopping music scene.

I used to do voice talent for radio and I met a lot of music people in town to promote their artists. It was exciting. They had money and drugs. I would record at KWFM and then the copies would go out to the other stations. I can say for a fact, since I was there, that when the DJ’s put a song on that lasted more than 10 minutes they were smoking a joint on the balcony. It’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida time! https://youtu.be/UIVe-rZBcm4

I got tickets to concerts and free albums (vinyl) and an education.

Tucson was also a place to make movies and TV programs. There was a big sound stage out at Old Tucson (western movie location) in use constantly. Regularly streets, especially downtown, were barricaded for filming and locals knew the hotels the actors used and we would show up there to party. Most of them were pretty cool hanging with locals. Anyone who’s lived here for a long time enjoyed a Tucson that was Hollywood’s little secret.

“Shut up and dance with me!”

Cheers!

-N

Ps: Thanks Tony Burgess for the inspiration!