Adiós to the monsoon...

S. left this morning for Seattle; she'll be spending a week up there, visiting friends and family.
September up there can be so seductively lovely--
Puget Sound sparkles, Mt. Rainier's glaciers glint under the late summer sun--
you can almost forget that months of endlessly grey spitting-rain skies are about to descend upon the evergreen landscape...But ahh, September in Seattle...I wish I could've gone as well, but this early in the school-year, I just couldn't take a whole week and leave...

So I'm home alone. Blogging. I don't mean to sound mopey. Because I'm not. And Paquito's here to keep me company.

This year's monsoon in Tucson is officially over: little likelihood of rain during the next several months. We only got about half of the usual summer rain this year. So, the Tucson newspaper, this past Sunday, did a photo-spread featuring desert rain...and yeah! I was surprised again--for the third time (!) in the past few weeks, a photo of mine was published in the Vamos! section of the paper:

I didn't care too much for the editorial caption that accompanied it: 'dripping with color.' (Although, I guess it is...) S. and I just happened to be at the right place at the right time for this photo--about a month after we moved here a couple of years ago, we'd taken a Sunday drive up to the top of Mt. Lemmon; on the way down the Catalina highway, we stopped to stretch our legs at a scenic pull-off just as the sun was setting, and this isolated rainstorm just happened.

This past weekend, we went for another drive--a 3hr45min drive up to northern Arizona, to the old mountainside mining town of Jerome. From there, you can look north across the Verde River valley to the red rock country around Sedona, and beyond, the high plateau that leads to the Grand Canyon. It was raining up there:

The permanent population of the town is only four-hundred-something, but its proximity to Phoenix makes it a major weekend hang-out destination, very picturesque--ruins of 19th-century buildings...endless views of open sky and mountains...and a singular combination of stringy-haired Harley-riders, aura-seeking urbanites, jewelry-makers, a handful of b-&-b owners, blown-glass demonstrations, stray cats, the occasional carload of Japanese tourists, a rainbow-stickered-restaurant with crabcakes as their special du jour, and across the street a rough (and decidedly rainbow-free) tavern where no one would be caught dead uttering 'du jour'...À chacun son goût, non?

(The mountains in the background are the volcanic 12,000-ft San Francisco peaks--the highest point in Arizona.)

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Last week, S. and I both had Monday off--a rarity...so we went of town that day as well. S. hadn't yet been down to Madera Canyon, in the Santa Rita mountains, so there we went:
The canyon is an internationally-known birding destination...one of the little lodges has a big feeding area, to 'encourage' the less exotic species to entertain the non-hiking visitors, I guess:

Determined squirrel, eh? The finch seems bemused...

Turkeys--never pretty, like, say, elegant trogons, but still...a fun sight...

By mid-day, the peanut-butter sandwiches I'd packed just weren't exciting any more, so we decided to splurge on a restaurant-lunch; about a half-hour away is the little artsy town of Tubac, and from there the view

back to the Santa Rita mountains is this:

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Closer to home, now:

Sunday evening, before dinner, S. and I went for a walk in Sabino Canyon, and saw this young buck snacking off a mesquite tree...

Even after living in our new place for a few months now,

we still are thrilled by the fact that we can walk out our front door, and in a few minutes, see stuff like this...

...another Sunday, another photo, another word...(from petroglyphs to hoplophobes)

...Sunday morning coffee with the paper...and there on the back page "Gallery All-stars" feature in the Vamos section:

...the editors did a spread of photos of pre-Columbian petroglyphs found in various parts of Arizona, and they chose a photo of mine! (another small 'published'-thrill...)
These are Hohokam petroglyphs on Signal Hill in Saguaro National Park, just west of Tucson...dating from anytime between 350 and 1450 A.D., rock-art being hard to date accurately...

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On a completely different note, also from today's paper, check out this column: Weapon-toting protesters hurt Arizona's image, reacting to this blog posting (Do Guns at Political Events Disturb You? Then Consider Skipping Arizona for Now) by travel-guru Arthur Frommer. I think it even made the national news...

Can't wait to come, right? How relaxing it would be, eh?, to see an AK-47 strapped on a fellow diner's back as you have margaritas and nachos...
And so, in reading the 'readers' comments' reacting to the column,
(you can imagine the range of opinions),
I learned this word:
hoplophobe, meaning a person with an inordinate fear of firearms and/or other weapons.
(Inordinate?)

New to me.
And that is today's mot du jour/palabra del dìa.

I don't think I'm a hoplophobe...I mean, running errands in Central America regularly involved saying Buenos Días to machine-gun-toting muchachos: at the bank, at the grocery-store, not to mention border-crossings...But, still...

(My wife and I still joke with each other, half-seriously, that living in Nicaragua was training-for-everything.)

And tomorrow is Monday, start of another week of educating the youth in this saguaro-studded state of second-amendment-worshippers, salsa, and Sonoran hot-dogs. (Incidentally, Bon Appétit magazine recently recommended a Tucson hole-in-the-wall as one of the ten best hot-dog experiences in America.)

But hey, we have prehistoric petroglyphs and abundant sunshine...
somehow it's all a good mix?

So, for your packing-for-AZ list, remember your sunscreen and don't forget the Kevlar...

First javelina sighting...and so far, no more muffin tops...

Week número uno of the new school-year has come and gone.

(Finished it with une bonne bière irlandaise: yep, a Guinness, draft, at "The Firkin & Friar" down the road...)

So far I've been pretty good about keeping my Buenos Diases and Bonjours straight;

we'll see how long that lasts as my foray into multi-language teaching continues...

A few evenings ago, we had our first javelina sighting at our new place--literally right outside our front door! Our next-door neighbor spotted them and called us, and we looked out our respective doors at the critters snorting and foraging in the sycamore leaves by the fountain...

I had just enough time to grab the camera and manage this blur, before the javelinas ran off:

The biggest of the lot must have stood thigh-high...
So, as our friends next door have said, when we arrive home at night, and we get out of our car,

we should be, not afraid, but 'aware, just be aware.'

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So, how many years ago was it that 'muffin-top' entered colloquial American English?

(here's a definition:

...generally pejorative slang term used to describe the phenomenon of overhanging flesh when it spills over the waistline of pants or skirt in a manner that resembles the top of a muffin spilling over its paper casing. This generally occurs when an obese or overweight person wears low-rise, hip-hugger pants, or midriff-baring tops that are too small. However, this phenomenon can be seen even on a slim person if his or her pants or shorts are poorly fitted.--courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muffin_top)

At any rate, thankfully, high-school fashion this year, at least in Tucson, is not really including or encouraging that regrettable phenomenon. It's nice to not have to enforce that aspect of school-dress-code...Moving on...

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Basil--looks like we're not going to have it here...
The local birds and lizards and squirrels and bunnies leave the verbena, lavender and rosemary alone;

Thai and Italian basil, though, are their preferred snack-leaves.
After two months of living in our new place, then, we realize our patio-herbs will be limited...

But the cactus-flowers abound. August is peak time for fishhook-barrel-cactus blooms. This is our third summer here, but we still find them spectacular, these flame-bursts in the midst of pineapple-esque fruits:

...and up close, almost otherworldly...a 'land anemone'...(?)

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...I finally looked up the word "firkin:"

Pronunciation: \ˈfər-kən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, ultimately from Middle Dutch veerdel fourth, from veer four; akin to Old English fēower
Date: 14th century
1 : a small wooden vessel or cask 2 : any of various British units of capacity usually equal to 1⁄4 barrel --http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/firkin

Now I know.

end of summer...diaspora map...

Tomorrow: back to work--staff meetings and classroom prep before the students return next Monday.
Adios, verano...

I've 'sold' some of my photos the past couple of days(!)--to a local bookshop,
a coffee shop, and a furniture/decor gallery. Well, I've not yet been paid,
but I showed my portfolio, and the business owners picked out which ones
they want me to return with; one store is going to sell them on consignment,
while another will actually pay me on delivery...
nothing big, but it might help pay for gas, eh?
(So, do I have to get a business license or something? I mean, just for a few bucks?
hmm...technical questions that demand answers...)

This morning's online newspaper reading led to some hyperlink-jumping, resulting in this find:



(map courtesy of the Joong-Ang Ilbo-linked blog: http://www.discoveringkorea.com/)

...me and maps...
so, this one shows the Korean 'diaspora'...
color-coded--cool, eh?
Who knew that Brazil had so many Koreans?
I mean, China and the US--duh--but South America? Germany?
I like that the map is in shades of red: the color of kimchi and so much of la cuisine coréenne...

The notion of diaspora--close to my heart...
a couple of factoids:
Did you know
--that there are more descendents of Irish immigrants
living in the US than there are Irish people living in Ireland?
--the number of Franco-Americans (Americans of French-Canadian
descent) is larger than the population of Québec?
--one percent of the population of Costa Rica is Chinese?

All over the place...

...fishing in the Sunday morning paper...

Ahh, the Sunday morning paper...leisurely coffee, birds singing outside...
and in the "Vamos" (weekly Sunday travel) section, the editors decided to publish various 'fishing' photos sent in by readers...and one of them was this one:

I took it a couple of years ago, in San Diego...
I thought of it as more of a 'sunset' photo
with a scenically incidental inclusion of an angler
being circled by some seagulls...

So, fun to be 'published' again...

Saw my third rattlesnake-in-the-wild the other morning, going for my morning run.
It was stretched-out, pole-straight and sluggish across the trail...
A cottontail rabbit hopped by, oblivious...
and finally after the serpent inched its way back into creosote underbrush,
I continued on my way, giving it wide berth...

My mother was here visiting--left a few days ago...seriously considering becoming a Tucsonan herself...perhaps in a year or two...while she was here, I finally (re)learned how to make some Korean dishes...interesting to look at Tucson again through the eyes of a potential resident (and through the lens of real-estate)...and gustatorily nostalgic to reconnect with foods of childhood...

Subtle? No, but...

A couple of weeks left in the school-year-summer...

So, before the back-to-work madness, a few cartoons gleaned from the paper recently:

First--'the benefits of social interaction:'

Not a complete justification for home-schooling, but hey...

(...and did I mention I'm grateful to have a job!?)

And then, this morning's Tucson paper printed a cartoon

from Augusta, GA

Sad. So sad. Skool...

And finally:

I think I'll post this one by the pencil sharpener in my classroom.

Yes, kids still use those archaic things--not everyone has 'graduated' to mechanical pencils and pens.

Over the years I've collected and laminated quite a few cartoons, and it's always interesting to see the kids who 'get' them while sharpening their pencils--an informal way to 'assess' students...

This week--a temporary 'turning off' of Tucson's monsoon faucet--dry skies, 106 degrees today...

Afternoon thunderstorms should return by the weekend...

For our friends up in Seattle--hang in there--these unusual 90-degree-days you're having up there will be but a distant memory in a few weeks...(a reminder of why a/c is a necessity for those of us who live in warmer, southern latitudes...)

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Another shot of our resident hawk, perching on the fountain outside our front door...

...a month later; back from 'back east,' back to a new home...

We've been back home for a week-and-a-half now, after spending a couple of weeks visiting friends and family in GA and the Carolinas...

And this is what greeted us on our first day back in Tucson:

...one of the 'resident hawks' at our new place, perched in a mesquite tree, staring in at us through our living room window...

...and then a couple of days later--the same guy (we think) cooling his talons in the fountain across from our front door. Moving while simultaneously planning and packing for a cross-country trip--not 'fun,' exactly, but it's been fun to come home to a new place. After a week-and-a-half back, we finally feel like we 'live' in our new place--all the boxes are put away, and we even have the guest room set up...

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So...the trip back east, starting with an out-the-airplane-window-photo--an aerial view of part of The Willcox playa, with the startlingly geometrical irrigated farm-fields nearby--about two hours east of Tucson:

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...Augusta, GA:

(the right camera angle can make a ho-hum city look attractive, eh?)

It's the town where I finished elementary school and stayed through college, before moving out to Seattle...my parents had a house there, so when my father retired from the military, we ended up living here. (My father, having spent his New England childhood chopping wood and shoveling snow, swore he'd never live through severe winters again...)

Not a bad place--just not somewhere I felt 'at home;' we had no relatives there, and the 'boy, you ain't from here' vibe was something that was always just under the otherwise friendly-surface. When we moved there from southern Arizona, I missed the wide open spaces--I often thought, 'where's the sky?' So many trees, those hazy summer days, no far horizons, no mountains...no visible Milky Way at night...I knew that when I grew up, I'd head back out West...

The local press is always quick to point out that 'the metro area, center of the vibrant C.S.R.A. ("central Savannah River area"--prosaic regional moniker, no?) on the South Carolina border, is the second-largest city in Georgia.' Yes, true...but that's like comparing a salmon to a whale, the whale being Atlanta, THE city of the 'New South.'

No comparison, really.

Historic, with some beautiful architecture, but not quaintly preserved like Savannah or Charleston, Augusta is 'always on the cusp,' as a local freelance writer friend of mine said to me over lunch. Such potential...just never the collective wherewithal to progress as a great city...That being said, there are worse places. What keeps Augusta from being unbearably provincial (snob snob!) is the fact that it has a Medical university, a state university, and the nearby military base to keep just enough 'outside blood' (boy, you ain't from here, are you?) flowing into its piney woods...

It is pleasant enough, with some charming historic architecture, like the Victorian Cotton Exchange:

In its heydey, Augusta was the second-busiest inland cotton-trading port in the world, second only to Memphis, Tennessee...local farms would transport cotton (and other goods) here, from where it would go to sea and abroad via Savannah, down the river...

...and the forested residential neighborhoods are lovely; I guess living elsewhere for 12 years has given me a more appreciative eye...I used to drive by the above house every day when I was in college--not a huge place, nor particularly historic, this early 20th-century neo-Greek-revival house, but perfectly set into its landscape; I've wanted to snap a photo of it for years, and I finally did...

Over the past decade, the swampy forest just across from downtown, on the SC side, has been developed into riverfront luxury homes--private boat access, with a golf course on the other side...The New South's real estate version of paradise:

Up on "The Hill," the local state university is on the grounds of the Augusta Arsenal, which is the site of the first Confederate take-over of the Civil War. ('The south will rise again!'--The past is not dead in The South; locals only half-jokingly refer to the Civil War, not as 'the Civil War,' but as 'The War of Northern Agression'...) Not as famous as the events at Fort Sumter, in Charleston, where the first shots were fired--what happened here is that the local military officials resigned from the Union, and promptly claimed The Arsenal as Confederate property--a peaceful affair...

The Arsenal was located on 'the Hill,' relocated from the more swampy downtown area, plagued throughout the early 19th century with malaria...After the Civil War, the area became a fashionable neighborhood, 2 or 3 degrees 'cooler' than the riverside downtown neighborhoods, and not subject to the occasional river-flood...

Several miles north of the city, where the river ceases to be navigable due to rapids (the 'fall line'), is this dam that diverts water into The Augusta Canal:

It's the prettiest outdoors-area in the region...Dug in the 1840's by immigrant Irish labor, and then enlarged after the Civil War by immigrant Chinese labor, (oh yes, cosmopolitan Augusta...) the Canal was built to transform Augusta into an industrial city...for a while it was known as the 'Lowell of the South,' full of textile mills like up in Massachusetts...During the Civil War, Augusta was the only industrial center in all of the Confederacy, the sole source of gunpowder for the Southern forces...And the natural power of falling water was the source of it all...

The trail that runs between the canal and the river is a perfect spot for running and biking, and the canal itself has become popular with canoeists and kayakers...The microclimate is the northern limit of the habitat for alligators and Spanish moss...my favorite spot in Augusta...

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We spent one day in Atlanta, visiting

the Georgia Aquarium, the self-proclaimed 'world's largest aquarium'...incredibly crowded, but well worth the three-hour drive from Augusta; sort of an inland downtown SeaWorld without orcas...

(ooh, manta rays...)

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Before flying back to Arizona, we went up to the mountains around Asheville, NC--what a cool place! In all the years I lived down South, I'd never made it up here...Surprisingly 'hip,' this small mountain city--'the Paris of the South,' or 'the San Francisco of the East,' as it likes to call itself, and the pedestrian-friendly downtown, with sidewalk-cafés and bohemian atmosphere, is definitely a change from other Southern towns...

On the outskirts of the city is the celebrated Biltmore estate, the 1895 'château' of the Vanderbilt family:

The grounds were landscaped by Frederick Law Olmstead (of NY's Central Park fame)...when the Vanderbilts acquired the land, much of it had been logged; today it seems like virgin forest and meadow again, with endless views of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains...
For generations of schoolchildren in the SE, the Biltmore has been the first 'castle' that they could visit...the French Renaissance-inspired house is full of imported European furnishings--more richly furnished than many castles in Europe...it boasts medieval Flemish tapestries, and even an entire ceiling from a Venetian palazzo...But no interior photos are allowed, so here are just a few views of the gardens:

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...and so, readjusting to Tucson, after two weeks in the lush, humid SE...

A few days ago, 'our' resident hawk showed up with a friend (sibling? mate?) to perch on the fountain out front:

Back home.

...oh yeah--AND, so a few days ago, I FINALLY got THE phone-call from the Tucson school district: I DO have my teaching position back after all, even with the budget crisis. Ay. The past three months of job-uncertainty finally come to an end...and now, with a month left before the first day of the new school-year, time to get ready and catch up on the studying/preparing that I had put off, waiting to know for sure if I would be teaching...homework!