Tweets
- It already feels like we’ve been here a lot longer.
- The combination of cool air temperatures and direct sunlight from cloud-free skies is unique. Mornings have been cold (around 30°) and afternoons have reached into the 60 degree range. You have to dress in layers so that as it gets warmer you can peel off a layer, and as it gets colder put a layer back on.
Currently reading: Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit 📚
I like walking because it is slow, and I suspect that the mind, like the feet, works at about three miles an hour. If this is so, then modern life is moving faster than the speed of thought, or thoughtfulness.
-Rebecca Solnit; Wanderlust: A History of Walking
Finished reading: A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko 📚 Enjoyable book with humor, drama, history, and mystery concerning Grand Canyon National Park. Should be visiting there during this vacation.
The past two days AML and I have been exploring the region by car. Yesterday we drove out to Chiricahua National Monument, and today we took in Saguaro National Park. More to come!
Morning Walk Sat. Jan. 25, 2025
I know I said I came out here mostly for the light, and it IS sunny this morning, but 25°? Damn! 🌬️
Thursday Jan. 23, 2025
I’m waking up to sunny skies and 32° temperature with a “real feel” reading of 36°. Still too cold to sip coffee outside, even in the sun.
Lots of little issues to take care of yesterday and today. Forwarding mail is a bit complicated when mail carriers don’t bring mail to the door but to a central block of boxes instead, and you don’t have a key. Walmart orders getting canceled arbitrarily because - who knows? I shopped in a grocery store for the first time since the pandemic. I got my steps in! Now to deal with the UPS Store to get things printed, signed and scanned.
Morning Walk Sunday January 19, 2025
Neighborhood walk, 1.6 miles. Weather: 45°, sunny, cloudless blue sky. I realized two things while walking this morning. The first is that I feel like I’m living in a Wes Anderson movie set. The lack of human activity is decidedly eerie. The second is that what adds to this eerieness is the fact that people do not use fences to enclose their back yards; they use walls. There is this strange juxtaposition of enclosed spaces set amidst open land and sky that feels alien. Individual houses have a fortress vibe to them.
I passed a woman this morning who was out picking up garbage along the curb of the main boulevard. She seemed to be doing this of her own accord, as there was nothing about her equipment (a kitchen garbage bag and a picking stick) or her attire (sweats) that indicated any official or volunteer position. She was the only person I passed.
The route I took showed me a different way to arrive home rather than the way I was taking. I believe it’s a bit shorter and more direct. There are a number of dead ends and streets that don’t connect to other streets, so finding a direct path is not simple. But I am getting better driving around this week and getting my bearings. Now that we’re mostly settled in we have to start planning trips. Saguaro National Park and the Tombstone/Bisbee/Douglas route are the two easiest. We didn’t come here to sit around the house. We will, though, be watching the Bills/Ravens game. That’s going to be a challenging game for Buffalo.
I am continuing strongly to urge people to get off social media. Own your digital content.
The TikTok ban, the Musk Twitter takeover, the Facebook moderation policy changes, the Republicans’ rapidly intensifying crackdowns on speech... let these be the proof you needed to move anything you care about online to a space you control.
Digital sovereignty is more important than ever.
Morning Walk: January 18, 2025
I took my first morning walk since arriving in Sierra Vista this past Monday. Weather: 40°, sunny. I walked 1.3 miles just around the neighborhood. I didn’t want to overdo it on the first day. I had been using the treadmill at home due to weather conditions there before we left. I don’t like the feeling of having gone too far and then your muscles ache all day.
Walking the neighborhood produced some interesting sensations. It is an odd feeling to have the sun shining down on you, seeing desert topography all around you, and yet your hands are cold because the actual air temperature is 40°. This neighborhood we are in feels brand spanking new compared to back home. Every house is in great condition. There seems to be a lot of roofs being repaired. All the houses, as noted earlier, are one-story ranches, all with that southwestern stucco look. Every dog in the neighborhood seems to be a barking dog. With all the sculptured landscaping (tall thin trees of some sort) and the rock-filled front lawns, the place looks like something that was just dropped onto an empty parcel of land, ready-made. I am so used to wood-framed houses that this all feels artificial to me.
The Evil that is Facebook
As soon as I retired, I canceled any and every social media app I had. Facebook is - and always has been - an evil corporation run by a hollow, soulless human being. This article goes into great detail as to why Facebook is and always has been evil. Yes it’s long; a 23 minute read. But if you really want to know the unvarnished truth about Facebook, you should read it.
And if you still have a Facebook account, you should delete it. Full stop. No excuses. There are alternatives. Micro.blog is the best one. Email people. Create an email list of all your “friends” and email them from time to time. Call them up and talk to them. Text them (use Signal). Any paltry excuse you offer for remaining on Facebook just gives Suckerberg more power over you and your friends, and supports his MAGA agenda. Own your own digital life!
The Slop Society wheresyoured.at
First Impressions - Journey West
So we have now been in Sierra Vista for three+ days, and here are some initial impressions:
Day Six - Journey West
A very short driving day. Only 4 hours on the road, all non-interstate. I thought we would be able to make it from our last stop to our destination, but AML wasn’t so sure and made me put in this short stop along the way. It was an interesting drive, in the sense that US 54 goes through some rather barren landscape, as well as a few run-down towns. Most of the towns we drove through felt semi-abandoned, relics of the 1960s. I don’t find the geography desolate, but once you get a look at the run-down nature of the region’s towns, “desolate” does spring to mind as an apt description. Our route took us past White Sands National Park, but we did not stop to see the Visitor’s Center, as we were listening to the Bills-Broncos game on XM Radio and didn’t want to stop listening.
The weather also added a certain mystique to the drive, as we drove through a few snow showers. Many of the mountain peaks we passed were capped in clouds, and the snow showers were thin enough that you could see through them as if they were light fog.
Tomorrow brings us to the end of our travels, and none too soon. At our age traveling has more of an effect on us physically that we were aware, and it might take two or three days until we are settled in and more relaxed. I did attempt one photo while driving through the White Sands area, but I’m sure it’s none too good.
