Retirement

Volunteer work

I had mentioned ICS (Interfaith Community Service) in a blog a couple of years ago (who-to-help), when I started my volunteer training for Caregiving Services (just one of their myriad services).  My volunteering had obviously been put on hold when I was working in Orlando for a year.  Now I’m back to driving.  (We do this for people just out of hospital, who have no support system, relatives and so on, to get them to doctor’s appointments, the drug store, grocery store, and such.  Without us, many of them would end up back in the hospital.)

Had a young guy who had had stomach surgery for ulcers, had lost his job because he had been in hospital, and therefore lost his insurance.  Had to cancel his first doctor’s appointment as he didn’t have the copay (that had been with Banner Health – a non-profit health system!), rescheduled for El Rio Health Center.  After his appointment an administrator there helped him fill out forms for AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System), our Medicaid agency.  By the time the paperwork was completed, the lab where his blood work was to be done and the pharmacy were closed for the lunch hour so I picked him up again the next day.  Went to the lab, then the pharmacy but the pharmacist wasn’t in so we’d had to come back.  Asked if he wanted to do any grocery shopping.  Said he had no money yet for that, and he hadn’t heard of food banks.  So took him to the ICS one that has fresh food as well as canned, and set him up for a few weeks.  Then back to the pharmacy.  I am happy to report that because he is so young, he has been healing quickly, and got another job, so is doing well.

My present person has dialysis MWF, which his insurance covers, including the driving, but is with us due to heart surgery.  (Plus his wife has lupus.)  So far I’ve taken him to two doctor’s appointments, a trip to the pharmacy, to the lab, and to the grocery store twice.  Shall do that for six weeks; after that the Health Center gives cab vouchers.

The first guy I drove, back in 2017, had COPD – Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease – from a lifetime of smoking, but had just gotten out of the hospital for leukemia.  (Treatments include chemotherapy and corticosteroids… usually last four weeks and are done in a hospital.)  He had a car and could drive, but could not carry his groceries to his second-floor apartment, as he could hardly breathe.  So once a week I’d drive him to the supermarket and carry his purchases to his apartment.  (He had applied for a first floor one, but it came in when he was in hospital, so someone else got it, so he’s back on the list.)  I also talked him into buying a few vegetables.  He was much younger than me, but I felt like a spring chicken, bounding up the stairs with his bags.

Also did another bit of unexpected volunteering a few weeks ago.  Was meeting a few friends at the Invisible Theatre for the play Dancing Lessons (which was quite good) and was waiting in the lobby when one of the In Charge people entered in a tizzy and told the person handing out the Will Call tickets that one of the ushers couldn’t make it.  So I asked if I could help.  Yes!  For a short stint before and after the show they put the five of us in the second row of seating!

Note: they’re putting on Letters from Zora, with Award Winning Stage and Film Star Vanessa Bell Calloway at The Berger Performing Arts Center:

TWO PERFORMANCES ONLY!
Saturday, April 6, 2019 at 7:30 PM
Sunday, April 7, 2019 at 3:00 PM

for which we have tickets.  (Back in February of 2017 they put on Frederick Douglass: In the Shadow of Slavery, also at The Berger, which was fabulous!)

More books

Finishing The Overstory, a novel by Richard Powers.  502 pages in hard cover from the library, but shall be sad when it’s over.  Great characters, and descriptions of the horrible destruction of our old growth trees, much on federal land.  As the NY Times review (by Barbara Kingsolver) is entitled,

The Heroes of This Novel Are Centuries Old and 300 Feet Tall.  books/review/overstory

This week

A clutch (or if you have a better name for a tightly packed group slipstreaming, please tell me) of about 20 bicyclists zipping by in their attractive lycra.

Two coyotes crossing my street in the evening, on their way to cross La Cholla (which is dreadfully being widened – the wash between the street in front of my rental and La Cholla used to be heavily vegetated, with large trees, and now it looks like it’s going to be a concrete V before the four lanes).

An elderly woman with a small dog on her walker seat going into El Rio.

Roads lined by purple yucca lupine flowers.  Lots of other wildflowers around, seeded next to roads?

My neighbor’s tombstone rose plants trailing over the fence between us, decked in white flowers.  (This photo from my breakfast room/office, with the photinia in front.)

A roadrunner behind my yard who stopped to look at me when I talked to it, then ran off on his mission.

Harvested enough spinach from my garden for a salad and a soup.

Do have a complaint (besides the denuding of the wash).  The landscape crew started cutting limbs off “my” mesquite out front at 6:30am!  #firstworldproblems  I had asked that no lower branches (the only thing between my living room window and that horrible scraped land) be taken off.  Crew leader said he had to so his guys could climb the tree to cut out the mistletoe, as they didn’t have a ladder high enough.  That poor tree has been trying to grow back its lower branches for years!

The mistletoe seeds are dispersed by  birds, the phainopeplas, which have been around all of my desert yards.  This blog, more-critters, has a good photo of one, along with the description of the mutuality between the plant and the animal.  An over-infestation of the leafless hemiparasitic plant (it takes water and minerals from its host plants but it does its own photosynthesis, making it a hemiparasite) can kill a tree in 15 to 20 years.  (Walked four blocks down our main drag to take a photo of this poor palo verde that died of mistletoe.  It’s the worst I’ve seen.  Two across the road also look dead.)

Then, had to take photos of two dumb houses.  The first, which has a beautiful stucco finish, has a humongous window, with no overhang, facing due south.  The architect that designed that should not have been licensed in Arizona.  Unless that is a really super shade inside, they can never use the room. The second house,  obviously, should not have been built so close to the fairway.  The first architectural office I worked in did many Sun Cities, and our boss bragged that their fairways were wide enough to avoid that problem. 

 

 

My Favorite Things

I started this blog two weeks ago.  Thought I just ought to post it, even if incomplete.  I didn’t even mention art or books or travel or bugs or gardening or bobcats and javelinas…

A cousin (one of my favorites) emailed me after my last (downer) post: And yet, we must find the delights in life or ….  So here are a few of my favorite things:

Humor.  As in the book, Tonight with John Oliver Presents A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo:

A children’s picture book released by comedian John Oliver about a gay bunny has hit the top spot on Amazon, outselling a vanilla version featuring US vice-president’s Mike Pence’s pet rabbit.

The satirical doppelganger… was strategically released by the British late-night TV host a day before Marlon Bundo’s A Day in the Life of the Vice President, which was written by Pence’s daughter Charlotte and illustrated by his wife, Karen.

Within two days of its release, Oliver’s Marlon Bundo had sold 180,000 copies on Amazon and become the bestselling book on the site, outstripping the Pence version which at the time of writing languished in fourth place.

The Pence book tells the tale of Marlon Bundo trailing his master for a day, but Oliver’s version, written by comedian and staff writer Jill Twiss, is about “a lonely bunny who lives with his grampa, the vice-president of the United States” who one day “falls in love with another boy bunny”.  gay-rabbit

Also, this is a great video of John Oliver being interviewed about Marlon Bundo on Late Night with Seth Meyers: John Oliver on Late Night.

Snow.  (Photos from my family room two Fridays ago.  The yard snow was gone by mid-day, but it took a few days for the north side of the Catalinas to melt.)  I liked sledding and ice-skating when I was a kid in Michigan.  In fact, my parents would flood our back yard for a “rink” and we pretended to play hockey with the kids on the block.  One night, when I was at Michigan State, Lansing had three feet of snow overnight.  MSU had to close, even though it had 21 snow plows.  What fun!  Also took figure skating while at MSU.  (When my daughter was in elementary school I drove her to Phoenix for a class when she wanted to give figure skating a whirl.  The first lesson was how to fall – she refused.  Said she’d never fall, and she didn’t.  Don’t think she ever fell skiing either.)

We would go up to Mt Lemmon every February, because there would always be snow.  (Photo of my daughter with a snowman.)  So we decided built a cabin in Summerhaven after our son was born.  I taught the kids to ski there, although I was dreadful myself, having had only a few lessons from a boyfriend on what was a very low “mountain” outside Detroit.

Relatives and Friends.  I adore my brother, despite the fact that he was always beating me.  I was awarded a $300 bond for winning the poster contest – I have no color photo of it; he got actual cash for $300 his National Art Scholastic win.  I once beat him at tennis, but then needed surgery on my elbow, after catching one of his serves backhand.  I did pretty well in architecture by end of my career, but at that point my brother was making four times what I did directing commercials! This is one of his best (make sure you have your sound on): Honda Eraser

I could go on and on about my two kids, three grandkids, favorite cousins, and old and new friends, but will have to do that at another time.  However, must put in a photo of my son, in his lab about 15 years ago, to give him equal time with his sister (above):

Tennis.  I’ve always loved tennis.  I grew up in Detroit and bicycled to a city park in the summer when in junior high to take free lessons (at least that was my recollection from the late 50’s) and earned a spot on my high school team.  During the summer played on the Detroit team, and my couch, a student at Michigan State, said I could make the MSU team.  Problem was, I needed to work through college, so had no time for sports.  But after I settled in Tucson, I played at the Racquet Club for many years with friends; my son did All-Sports Camp there during the summer, and my daughter did the tennis program after-school every day when she was in high school. When I was working one my architecture degree I played on the Racquet Club team. (As competition was in the morning, I couldn’t do it when I was working.)  But when I was working in South Carolina, played on my company’s team – we practiced after work and competed on the weekends.  That ended when I returned to Arizona.  Hadn’t played in ten years until my daughter suggested we start back up, so I’m taking one to two clinics a week to try to recreate my game. I’m sore most of the time but love it. Was 30 degrees when I left home two Sundays ago to play, but got warm enough in our sun to shed the warm-up suit.

Chocolate.  It’s supposed to make you feel like you’re in love.

Phenylethylamine is sometimes called “the love drug”, because it arouses feelings similar to those that occur when one is in love. Another neurotransmitter, serotonin, is a mood-lifter, as well. One chemical that causes the release of serotonin into the brain is tryptophan, found in (wait for it!) chocolate.

I try to eat chocolate every day – it’s easy to make pots de creme au chocolate, which are marvelous with whipped cream.  Sliced pear goes nicely with dark chocolate for dessert.  Looking through a Living (Martha Stewart) magazine in the dentist’s office yesterday, saw a recipe for Triple Chocolate Brownie Bars (pictured right) which was not hard to make!  Even talked my mother into making me a Flourless Chocolate Cake one year for my birthday.  Death by chocolate!

Positivity.  As Nicholas Kristof’s column “Why 2018 Was the Best Year in Human History”. progress-poverty-health

Cooking.  I’ve gone through many different episodes, including Julia Child for many years, starting in college (yes, chapter by chapter, which got a bit much in the souffles), and many years of curries after living in Jamaica, which included making my own curry powder.  A few years ago I got away somewhat from my Mediterranean cookbook to The Pleasures of Cooking for One and Radically Simple.  Although, as many people whose cookbooks are falling apart are doing, I’m simply Googling.  Like what to do with mizuna, as I have so much of it and it’s bolting now.

Architecture.  I had been a math and an English teacher, and then a computer programmer which I quite enjoyed (until IBM left town and my spouse-at-the-time didn’t want to move), just as I still enjoy math games.  But then I went into architecture, later in life, and really really loved it.  Bad luck for the youngsters in my class, trying to date simultaneously, with their brains rattled (been there, done that), as I was top of my class.  Designing microchip factories with Fluor wasn’t a lark, but it was so engaging to work in Taiwan and Micronesia (not so much Dublin or São Paulo), and designing US embassies was interesting (Kazakhstan, Haiti, and Jamaica) but the most fun I’ve ever had in life was designing two houses for myself (on the side, while working full time). Above, my first house.  Fifteen years later when I was working on my program to teach 3D CAD (which was also a lot of fun), I did the above house in 3D.  Here is a rendering (not a photograph) of the living room/ dining room:

Diving.  Scuba diving opens up a whole new world, and is very calm.  This trip to Fiji wasn’t my favorite fiji-day-5, but it’s the only one I blogged.  The best was Palau, on a live-aboard, with friends, diving with my son.  If I had a dive partner, I’d go again to some exotic locale, but haven’t had one in a number of years.

When the dog bites,
When the bee stings,
When I’m feelin’ sad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don’t feel so bad…

A New Year

OxiClean for the Eyes

Had my second cataract removed on Tuesday (the other side had been done two weeks ago), replaced by an intraocular lens, and the color I used to see, with a grayish-tan tint, that I had simply thought of as Desert, is now bright, with a hint of blue, rather what OxiClean does for your dingy white sheets.  Or like brightening a photo with Photoshop.  Amazing!  Plus I have discarded my graduated tri-focals and can now read (except for the fine print on prescription bottles), and see mid and far distant.  Wow!

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone…
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind.
It’s gonna be a bright, bright, bright
Sun-Shiny day.

Yes, many of you have emailed me to see if I’m okay, not having blogged in almost five months.  Just over-dosed on computer usage with my FEMA job, and quit end of October.  Have traveled a bit since then, first with Road Scholar (and a marvelous group) to Vietnam and Cambodia, then to my brother’s in northern Sonoma for Thanksgiving, and to my son’s in Vancouver for Christmas.  This year am back to my five-day-a-week exercise classes, seeing friends here in Tucson, these surgeries, and two tennis clinics so far as I think I’ll get back into the game.  Depending on my sticktoitiveness, I’ll try to give you the backstory.

The Wall

But before I do that, I’d like to rant.  We had thirty-five days of the government shutdown, but I’ll bet the prez still had someone to make his bed and cook his meals.  Or is that why he served take-out hamburgers and pizzas to the Clemson University Tigers at the White House?  trumps-sandwich-celebration.  Anyway, I donated yet more money for the Community Food Bank as they had to feed government workers too.  (I wrote this before Trump Announces 3-Week Government Reopen, Threatens New Shutdown If Border Wall Not Funded.  I had to look up the sword of Damocles.)

“I think everybody’s relieved that the government’s getting back open,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. “But I think everyone’s still a little tenuous because we’ve got a sword of Damocles hanging over us three weeks from now to see if we can get things worked out.”

But hey, when we didn’t have enough money for our schools (Arizona ranks 47th out of 50 for expenditures per student – least-on-education), we’d do a phone-a-thon.  (I had been chair of our school district’s foundation, and know them well.)  So maybe Trump should call all of his rich buds and get them to fork out the money for The Wall.  And he could spend as much as he got.  Someone else has started for him:

Florida veteran Brian Kolfage, 37, created the fundraiser titled “We The People Will Fund The Wall.”  …By [December 21] the GoFundMe reached $10.9 million…  fox2now.com

Last of Orlando

(Wrote this last October, but never finished the post.)

Hope I never see it again.  Bad enough to be working in a freezing cold office (read about how men decide the temperatures, which are generally 5 degrees cooler than women prefer – chilly-at-work) all day long, then half a day Saturday, in front of a computer, but the work got too depressing with changes in rules.  Imagine if an outfielder caught a fly and at that point it was ruled that flies caught within 10 feet of the fence don’t count, and any that were caught that close within the past 11 months shall be ruled invalid, thus changing the scores of games.  Aargh!  Yes, I know that we were working with an entirely new system (totally computerized for the first time), and “they” were working out the details as we went along, but my applicants were not pleased, and, of course, I was their fall guy.

Here are a few of the enjoyable times from the last month or so:

View across the Lake

This is a sunset shot from my last “villa” rental.  Couldn’t decide which exposure I liked best.

Epcot Center

More photos from Epcot Center from my ears series:

Frank Lloyd Wright

Once voted by The Princeton Review as “The Most Beautiful Campus in the Nation,” Florida Southern College is a National Historic Landmark, and home to Child of the Sun, the world’s largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.

There was an ad for the tours on NPR, and it sounded interesting, so I took a four-hour tour.  The buildings had engaging design, but it was depressing to see the lack of upkeep.  That seems to have been a problem with so many of Wright’s buildings.  Shown here are the Usonian House, which wasn’t built until 2013, but is used as the Tourism and Education Center.  Next the Water Dome “symbolizing the fountain of knowledge”, then the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel and one of the esplanades which give needed shade.  (The supports are said to suggest the orange trees that were then numerous on campus.)  I believe the next are the Ordway Arts Building and the William Danforth Chapel.  I have a lot of detail photos of doors set on piano hinges, and so on, but this is enough.

23andMe

My daughter had given 23andMe to my son for Xmas last year, and he gave a packet to me.  They keep asking you to fill out more forms.  I finally got tired of it, until I thought I’d see if I’m going to get Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease or Age-Related Macular Degeneration.  Never mind. That costs $125 extra.

Kavanaugh

I had written this about the Kavanaugh hearing, what, seven years ago?  Seems like ages ago, but so nice to quote…

Krysta Fitch, a 34-year-old stay-at-home mother in Walls, Miss., said she cast the first vote in her life for Mr. Trump and enthusiastically joined his rally in the nearby town of Southaven this month. She said that women have no business running for president. “In the Bible it says that a man is responsible for leading his household,” she said. “And a woman’s only supposed to step up if he’s not willing. Aside from that, women are just too emotional. I feel like it would be dangerous to have a woman in a position to potentially start a war.” nytimes.com/2018/10/12

Phew!  Didn’t she watch Dr Ford’s calm demeanor and Judge Kavanaugh’s literally screaming and crying about calendars? (Getty Images)

May give all y’all more updates more frequently.

Home

I do so like being home, spending time with family and friends, and working in my garden, even if it only is for a week of “rotation”.  Harvested four round carrots (easier to grown in the desert hardpan soil), two stubby bell peppers,  five small japanese eggplants, and one ripe cherry tomato.  The squash is in bloom and there are dozens of green cherry tomatoes, but the brussel sprout plant is not producing yet.  These are all plants that didn’t die back in the winter.  I’m working my own compost (produced by slow but steady worms) into the soil to plant more on my next visit home.  The Abert’s towhee is enjoying water in the birdbath; fun to watch him revel in it.  Quail investigating the yard; guess they haven’t had chicks yet.  And lots of collared lizards enjoying the sun.

Wednesday friend K and I saw an art movie at the Loft, Leaning into the Wind – Andy Goldsworthy.  I love his work, and have two books of it, but now he’s doing a kind of performance art (like climbing through hedges, as in this photo).  Here’s a trailer: into the Wind

The next day we took a tour of University of Arizona’s Environment + Natural Resources Building II by Richärd+Bauer Architecture.  Awesome building which earned LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – I am accredited in it) Platinum Certification.

The vision for the Environment and Natural Sciences complex (ENR2)… sustainable design. The University’s goals: this project is the centerpiece of environmental research, the building should have a definable iconic identity… serving as a living and learning laboratory, and be the most sustainable on campus…

Organized about a central “slot canyon”; curvilinear anodized aluminum ribbons define the walls of the central canyon, recalling the terra cotta walls of the natural canyon, leaning overhead, and falling away. The vertical striations of the anodized scrim recall the desert varnish pattern of the Navajo tapestry and the canyon walls. As in the natural environs, each terrace reflects the elevated desert floor, with native trees, grasses, shrub, and stone. The canyon floor is a sand and stone dry bed, which gathers the rainwater and guides it into storage cisterns for reuse…

https://www.richard-bauer.com/work/environment-natural-resources-2/

Walked the U (of Az) this morning w/ friend B and her dog, and brunch at the B-line.  Weather lovely: 64° feels like 84°.

LOL

You must read 40 Sea Gulls Wrecked His Hotel Room. 17 Years Later, a Pepperoni Pardon.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/14/world/canada/sea-gulls-fairmont-empress-victoria-nick-burchill-pepperoni.html

Florida Art

I’ve not been posting as often because I spend at least 7 3/4 hours a day on the computer at work, so I’m not enthusiastic about working on my tablet on weekends. But St. Petersburg was fun a few weekends ago. I had to go to the Dali Museum. It was built by Reynolds and Eleanor Morse who, in 1943, married, became friends with Dali, and bought their first work of his.  In 1982 they built this museum to house the largest collection of Dalí’s works outside Europe.  The architecture was amusing.  Those colored ropes, trailing from the tree in the wind, are made up of the bracelets we got when we entered the museum.  When you leave, you contribute to art.  The spiral staircase is in the center.

Dali’s style changed with the times.  Here are some of my favorites.  Love this Post-Impressionist scene, Cadaques, 1923.  (Cadaqués is a town in Catalonia, Spain where Dali spent summers as a boy and later made his home as an adult.)

The Portrait of My Dead Brother is huge – 69 in x 69 in.  This older brother was also named Salvador and died at the age of two, before the second Salvador was born.  When you’re close to it you see only the cherries (click on the photo and enlarge to see them) – the two under his nose have joined stems representing him and his brother.  Sorry not great focus – I was using a phone to photograph.  Had to take that one from a room away.

This Surrealistic self-portrait of Dalí surrounded by the elements of war, Daddy Longlegs of the Evening–Hope! was painted in 1939 in the US, where Dali and his wife sought refuge during World War II.  (The daddy longlegs spider, when seen in the evening, is a French symbol for hope.)  This was the Morses’ first purchase, a wedding present for themselves.

You’ll have to look up this Surrealistic painting, The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, to understand all of the references.  It took over a year to paint and is so large, over 14 feet tall and 9 feet wide, I couldn’t get back far enough, with the crowds of people, for a straight shot.  It is amazing.

There is a room where you put on goggles and earphones to move through space made up of symbols in Dali’s paintings.  Sound has been added.  Much fun!

Even the gift shop has Art: this car.

Then the Imagine Museum, a glass museum, which was free that family Saturday, with children doing projects in the cafe area.  Can’t imagine them touring the glass exhibits.  Asked one of the women in charge – she said it was “a challenge.”  I have the names of the artists who did these marvelous pieces, if anyone is interested.

This is not my best photograph.  These are all glass copies of plastic containers.

 

This is all glass.  Amazing.  I had lots more photos, but can’t find them now.  Took them with my FEMA iphone.

 

Anyway, am leaving Tucson tomorrow morning to get back to work.  So figured I ought to post this.  Hasta…

Orlando

Haven’t been to Disney World since I took my kids there about 25 years ago, but did remember enjoying Epcot Center and the Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios).  Today it’s Walt Disney World Resort, covering 27,258 acres, featuring four theme parks, two water parks, twenty-seven themed resort hotels, nine non–Disney hotels, several golf courses, a camping resort, and other entertainment venues, including the outdoor shopping centre Disney Springs… the most visited vacation resort in the world, with an average annual attendance of over 52 million.  (This info from Wikipedia, which keeps asking me for money.)

When I was a kid growing up in Detroit, we could afford to visit my maternal grandmother in Los Angeles each four years, during summer break, in the days before AC in cars – a hot drive.  We were there in 1956, the year after Disneyland opened.  There was a ride in conestoga wagons through the “painted desert” (much more colorful than the real thing, but Disney was into fantasy).  Imagine kids liking anything so slow (or hot under the canvas)!  Postcard above.  The ride was discontinued – not fast enough throughput.  Now they have rides like Splash Mountain, just quick fun.  But Tom Sawyer’s island is still there, which is a walk, not a ride.  I remember the suspension bridge and the pontoon bridge, and the rocks which were spray-painted in primary colors with what looked like the screen and toothbrush method.

We also would go to Marineland, best known for its performing killer whales (before we knew how bad that was), which was open from 1954 until 1987, when SeaWorld San Diego bought it and moved the orcas as well as dolphins, sea lions, harbor seals, sharks, and a variety of other related sea creatures to San Diego.

There is a SeaWorld Orlando, a theme park and marine zoological park, including Discovery Cove and Aquatica, and many neighboring hotels.  Also in Orlando is Universal Orlando, the second-largest resort here after Walt Disney World Resort.

Friday night got out of work late (meeting), so skipped dinner for a 45-minute drive on I-4 for Christmas with the Basilica Choir ($25) in the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe.  Three of my four applicants are PNPs (Public Non-Profits), Catholic schools, so I thought it would be nice to see the basilica.  The small orchestra was marvelous with or without the choir (as in the Sleigh Ride).  Especially liked the choir – seven men and eight women – when they sang a cappella.  During half-time they called out the raffle winners.  First prize was champagne and truffles. (Christ might be turning over in his grave.)  Fourth prize was a Santa pillow and some other like stuff.  The second half had a singalong, which I was looking forward to, but started (after the Sleigh Ride) with the choir singing Hark! the Herald Angles Sing.  I wanted to sing along!  So I envisioned myself singing awesomely at my seat.  The choir would hear me and peter out.  I would be ushered from my row to the front where I would be given a microphone to finish the first verse to much applause.  I would be, of course, a famous opera singer such as Kiri Te Kanawa, who I heard sing when I was in Taiwan.  (My brother should get a kick out of that, because he knows that I have been the only dreadful singer in the family.)

Altamonte Springs

The Residence Inn where I’m staying is in Altamonte Springs, one of the northern suburbs of Orlando.  Altamonte means high mountain.  We’re 85′ above sea level – go figure.

There’s a baseball tournament this weekend, ages 7-18, the Winter Bat Freeze, and the Residence Inn is full of families, many of them speaking Spanish.  The pool has been full of young boys, as the basketball half-court has been, and last night they were playing soccer in the parking lot.

There is a huge building under construction right next to I-4.   (My photo from down the street from my abode.)  I looked it up; according to the Orlando Sentinel:

Altamonte tower entering year 16 of construction may be completed this year

…the owners of the 18-story office tower… would like to finish the structure this year. The iconic structure stands as the tallest between Orlando and Jacksonville.

For years, SuperChannel 55 President Claud Bowers has said he plans to complete the self-funded, pay-as-you-go project within a year to 18 months.  On Friday, he said the city asked for a best-case timeline to complete the work and Bowers said he told them a year. He added that he needs to raise about $10 million to finish the project.

“The patience of the community and city officials is just amazing and appreciated,” said Bowers, who next year will be a 40-year veteran of Christian television programming.  In the past, he has raised funds on his Christian television station and also got a settlement from the state for some land in the path of the I-4 expansion.  altamonte-tower

$$$$$

I’m almost in tears.  How could our Arizona senators, Flake and McCain, vote for this tax bill?

JOHN MCCAIN CLAIMED HE CARES ABOUT “HONOR” IN THE SENATE. HIS TAX VOTE SHOWS HE LIED.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN of Arizona joined 50 fellow Republicans on Friday night in voting yes on a Senate bill that slashes taxes on corporations and billionaires, while enacting the largest tax increase in history on many poorer Americans.

…the tax bill… directly benefits McCain and his family in obvious ways. His wife Cindy McCain’s estimated $100 million fortune is largely based in her ownership of liquor distributor Hensley Beverage, which would gain from the bill’s cut to alcohol taxes. It also will allow the McCain children to inherit $22 million tax free, doubled from the $11 million exemption under current law.

Jon Schwarz, The Intercept

But maybe his children will take their $22 million and provide full college scholarships ($120K total for four years at a state university) for 183 students in need…  And that’s only their tax free inheritance.

In the $$$$$ category: I was almost out of gas after the Christmas concert, so I stopped at the nearest gas station.  $5.99 a gallon – took $77 to fill the bug.  I had to laugh, it was like I was in another dimension.  I figured out that prices are high there because it is next to the airport.

Miscellaneous

Garrison Keillor?!

August 2017

San Diego

Visited friends L and P last week in California.  Monday morning we made pinhole cameras and watched The Eclipse as tiny dots on white paper on their patio, coverage only 59% here in San Diego, kinda an eh event, but the weather was gorgeous. Then watched on television as The Eclipse moved across our country.  Our President wasn’t getting enough attention, as we were focused on Nature, so he pardoned Maricopa County‘s ex-sheriff, Joe Arpaio.  Arizona is such an embarrassing state to live in.

Next day went to see the movie Detroit, of the 1967 Detroit riot (think I was at Michigan State in summer school when it happened), because I am from Detroit and the director, Kathryn Bigelow, had done Hurt Locker, a good flick.  Do not see Detroit; way too depressing.

Thursday went to Balboa Park for an exhibit, Ultimate Dinosaurs, at the Natural History Museum.  At least a dozen complete skeletons, and a few great videos of the beasts flying by or walking by in herds, looking as natural as elephants.  The rooms, in the basement of the museum, were dark, and dinosaur roars and squeals emanated from the bones.  (My brother told me not to buy this camera ’cause it’s not good in low light. My bad – bought it anyway and it’s not good in low light.)  Lots of active information on how the continents divided from the original Gondwana.  (Explanation here from National Geographic: continental-drift.)

Wednesday was overcast, great day to hike one of the area’s five peaks, Kwaay Paay, at 1,194 feet.  We were in a cloud at the top.  Much easier than hiking at 12,000 feet!  (denver-2017.)

That afternoon to Ocean Beach to see friends N and G, who are renting there, escaping Tucson’s heat.  Walked about the town, through the large Farmer’s Market (Wednesdays 4-8 PM featuring locally grown produce, art & live music), and a short drive away, to Sunset Cliffs Natural Park, to see the sunset, it too late and too chilly for the ubiquitous divers who illegally take their lives in their hands.  TripAdvisor recommends cliff diving here!  (This photo from their site.)

 

Friday L and I drove up to Los Angeles to see the relatively new Broad Museum (pronounced with a long “o”).  It’s next door to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank O. Gehry Architects, which I have a photo of in this blog: 2014 san-diego.

She drove, and I was supposed to navigate.  After two-and-a-half hours of freeway driving, we could see the museum, but the main street, Grand Avenue, was blocked by construction.  Detoured to the adjacent street, but each of the next six cross streets had been turned into underground parking garages.  Finally backtracked to the correct cross street, but we were going one way through a tunnel, while the entrance to the parking garage was above us, going the other direction.  Took us probably 40 minutes to find the garage, once we were downtown!

Then we saw the line of maybe 200 people who didn’t have reservations for one of the 15-minute time slots, and, of course, we didn’t either.  L said to the guard who escorted us to and from the restroom, that she couldn’t possibly stand in line that long with her plantar fasciitis, so the guard gave us two tickets for immediate entry!

First, the architecture.  It is known as the Veil and the Vault.  The fiber-reinforced concrete façade, seen at left, was dubbed the “veil” by the architectural firm who designed it, Diller Scofidio + Renfro.  (The other photo at left shows the skylights providing filtered natural daylight to the galleries.)    The “vault” houses the collection storage, as well as the entry (photos at left).  This diagram from the museum’s website: the broad building.

Fabulous exhibits!

Three humongous pieces by a favorite of mine, El Anatsui, from Ghana.  (Mentioned him in this blog: monsoon.)  Friend L in front of Stripes of Earth’s Skin (detail, left – look at the curled copper wires and the small strips of aluminum, as narrow as bag ties), me in front of Red Block, for scale.

Born in Ghana and based in Nigeria, El Anatsui crafts giant shimmering sheets from bottle caps, reused aluminum commercial packaging, copper wire, and other materials. The elaborate works hang like tapestries referencing kente cloth, all-purpose pieces of fabric used in Nigerian and sub-Saharan African culture for everything from washcloths to dresses. The function of the kente cloth is often determined by its context. Red Block can be thought of in a similar manner; the firm square of woven red liquor labels can be folded and hung according to the dictates and curation of the institution that displays it. The materials are embedded with multiple histories and influences, ranging from the effect of the colonial period on Africa to current problems facing its people, including alcoholism, pervasive poverty, and the impact of global markets on the continent’s economies.

I’m going to post this and finish up the Broad artwork in the next post.

 

100 Year Birthday

Tucson’s original Odd Fellows Hall, built in 1914, had a birthday bash Saturday.  Music (darn – did not get the name of the very young woman who played the guitar beautifully), birthday cake (yummy chocolate from Janos), and a talk by local preservation architect, Robert Vint.  Skipped the cocktail – too early for me.

Tim Fuller and Barbara Grygutis own the building, which also contains Janos’ Downtown Kitchen and Terry Etherton’s Gallery.  I had never met Tim, but have been friends with Barbara since I bought a sculpture of hers.  (Must take a better photo of it.)  Have known Janos since our sons were in pre-school together.  (Even had the family for dinner at our cabin on Mt. Lemmon – what chutzpah!)  Have known Terry since I bought a painting of Nancy Miller’s from him.  But didn’t know anyone else at the celebration!

Robert Vint actually said little about the Odd Fellows Hall; Tim told most of the stories.  But Robert had nothing nice to say about the new TEP building across the street – shown here from a Google map – despite the fact that UniSource Energy plans to secure a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification for the new building from the U.S. Green Building Council to ensure that it meets high standards for energy-efficient construction and environmentally sensitive design.    The Odd Fellows Hall is pleasant to look at, but all of those front windows face west, hot as hell, the worst possible choice for the desert.  And is it really desert architecture?  Come on, it could exist Back East.

You probably wonder what Odd Fellows are.  Another one of those 18th century men’s clubs, kinda like the Masons, where their rituals include an ancient secret handshake.  But here’s the official definition:

Started in England around 1748 and established in the United States on April 26, 1819, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows is now a worldwide altruistic and benevolent fraternity and sorority dedicated to improving and elevating the character of humankind by imparting the principles of friendship, love, and truth.¹

Physical Therapy

I mentioned in my last blog that I continue to have problems with rotator cuff tendonitis.  So I am now going to a physical therapist and I love him!   He lives in Philly but winters here.  Has both a bachelors and a masters (in physical therapy?  I must ask.)  First he massages my shoulder and bicep.  Then the exercises (which I also must do at home two or three times a day).  Next the best part: stim and ice.

“Electrical stimulation … can be used to treat pain and/or swelling, especially in the acute stage of healing when an injury is new and pain/swelling is inhibiting progress or function. It helps to treat pain by stimulating larger nerve fibers that can override the smaller nerve fibers that produce pain… ”  Eric Sampsell PT, ATC²

It’s great – the electrodes confuse the nerves so that they no longer pay attention to the pain.  The ice pack, which goes around the shoulder, also adds pressure, and decreases the swelling.  Finally, the Kinesio tape so that I look like Kerri Walsh (as if).  It holds the shoulder together; I am finally sleeping through the night again!

 

Many of us first saw [Kinesio tape] on the shoulder of US Beach Volleyball Gold Medalist Kerri Walsh in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.³

The Ant Chronicles continued

These seem to be the kind of ants I have.  Nothing really to hate, like army ants – you may have read Leiningen versus the Ants as a kid, or fire ants, prevalent in the South.  This article from the Arizona Daily Star from three years ago:

Tiny rover ants, like these in a UA lab, are a nuisance rather than a menace. They don’t bite or sting, and they don’t eat your home. They just show up in large numbers where they find optimal living conditions.  Swarms of South American invaders have colonized our parks, apparently oblivious to immigration law.  Worse yet, they’re now showing up in our homes.

A young University of Arizona researcher may find the key, however, to controlling colonies of rover ants.  Javier Miguelena did not start his doctoral research in entomology to find a solution for the “rover ant” or Brachymyrmex patagonicus problem.  He knew the species had invaded Tucson and would be part of his examination of ant species in Tucson parks, undeveloped urban plots and undisturbed desert.  He did not know that the tiny ants would be such a large part of his dissertation studies.

Now he has begun growing his own colonies of rover ants, and his discoveries may lead to pest-control strategies for a species that seems to easily elude attempts at control, said Paul Baker, a UA outreach entomologist who advises Miguelena…

Rover ants haven’t been a major problem in Southern Arizona but, when they do show up, they are difficult to treat, said Bob Hartley, former vice president of technical services for Truly Nolen Pest & Termite Control.  His company had a problem removing ants that had invaded the intensive-care unit of a hospital, he said, until it discovered the source of moisture.  A layer of plastic was trapping moisture beneath the landscaping rocks just outside the walls of the ICU. “I believe we got that problem resolved,” said Hartley.

Dan Atkins of Johnston’s Pest Solutions said the rover ants “definitely require moisture and something sweet to eat.”

Rover ants may have other characteristics that make them proliferate, said Miguelena.  For one thing, they seem to be overlooked by larger native species, which are often very antagonistic toward newcomers.  They do fight with other rover ants from different colonies, Miguelena said, which should keep them from forming hard-to control “super-colonies” with multiple queens…

“I’m a biologist. I knew I wanted to study insects, and at first I didn’t like ants that much because they’re very small. They’re very hard to collect,” [said Javier].  Jill Torrance / Arizona Daily Star⁴

I emailed Javier at the U.  We’ll see if he answers, and if so, has any solutions to my problem.

¹http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Independent%20Order%20of%20Odd%20fellows%20%28I.O.O.F%29
²http://www.drdavidgeier.com/e-stim-electrical-stimulation-advice-sports-medicine-experts/
³http://www.travisdoddsphysio.com/kinesiotaping-for-rotator-cuff-injuries-and-shoulder-pain/
⁴http://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/city-invasion-by-tiny-ants-is-major-part-of-doctoral/article_552fb0c3-80fc-55b3-976c-38bc989be45c.html

Cold Mornings

Fall has arrived.  Check out the change in weather we had a week ago:

The cold mornings have meant going from iced coffee to hot lattes, from homemade granola to stone-cut oatmeal, from my cotton yukata to a warm terrycloth robe.  I was still wearing sandals last week. As of Monday I’ve been wearing closed-toe shoes.

Artist’s Studio

A week ago Sunday with CAS⁶ visited Lynn Tabor’s studio, in her home.  Enjoyed her oils (a display of small skyscapes), but was particularly interested in her pastel skyscapes.  (I did not take my camera, so this is off the Web¹.)

And she had tall cabinets with little drawers all filled with pastel chalk (arranged in color order, of course) .  Plus, her studio was immaculate.  Never seen an artist’s studio as clean.

Downtown Tucson

A week ago Wednesday evening toured The Flats at Julian Drew Block² with a Sierra Club group. Downtown Urban Living has never been more affordable!  84 WalkScore; 100 BikeScore.  (No parking available.)  The ONLY Condos for purchase in Downtown Tucson.

Usually don’t go out in the middle of the week, and was surprised to find so many people downtown, especially as it was a Wednesday night!  Guess the new trolley helps. Lots of sports bars and restaurants open.

Back to the condos.  The developer took an old apartment building, ripped out all of the old wiring, plumbing, and kitchens, and updated the look.  He put in 16 SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio – mine are rated 13) A/C units, and low-E windows, but didn’t follow through with water conservation.  (Putting in rain shower heads rather than water conserving shower heads, for example.)  Here is a studio apartment.

Developer Ross Rulney got more than $600,000 in street, sidewalk and utility improvements outside his downtown property in return for a commitment to build 53 condominiums.³

Ross is now building condos in Oro Valley in the abandoned, partially built Sunway Hotel Group’s development on the northeast corner of Oracle Road and Linda Vista Blvd.⁴

UA Dance

Saturday evening attended a UA Dance performance in the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre. WOW – loved the modern dance, imaginative with humor and great costumes. (Could have done without the ballet.)

Unbreakable… used 8 dancers to explore the intricacies of glass…
Five Studies in Locomotion showcased music from Mozart to Moon Dog, including Shostakovich, Hough and Glazunov…⁷

The Election

Totally depressing.

Early Thanksgiving

Bruno, our tour guide on CAS’s trip to Italy (see my blogs for the trip⁵) and his wife, neither of whom had been in the States before, are visiting, so CAS⁶ had a potluck Thanksgiving dinner for them this Wednesday evening.  All American food and wine.  A feast!  At the beautiful home of the S****s, a modern design with views of the mountains and the city. B is Principal Emeritus of S**** Associates Architects.⁷  Their large collection of art is pretty incredible too.

Was surprised that B didn’t know that I was an architect.  That conversation over 22 years ago is etched indelibly in my mind.  I had just graduated from architecture school and interviewed with him.  The next day he called me and apologized that he couldn’t offer me a job because his son would be taking over the firm and would feel uncomfortable managing a person older than himself.  A professor of mine was astounded that they hired T, a less than mediocre student, over me, top of my class, AIA Silver Medalist, etc.  Sure, blatant age discrimination.  But, sigh, I’ve also experienced sex discrimination, at my last firm.  Happens when only 16% of the AIA’s membership is female.  At least I don’t have to wear a burka.

Blooming

My hibiscus is blooming.  Unfortunately, as I remember from Jamaica, each flower only lasts a day.

¹http://www.ethertongallery.com/exhibitions/taber/index.html
²http://juliandrewflats.com/
³http://tucson.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/city-paid-k-in-unfinished-condo-deal/article_2b47ffe8-e75f-511d-a976-3ff5605bcad2.html
⁴http://www.arizonadailyindependent.com/2013/03/21/el-corredor-rises-from-the-ashes-of-abandoned-hotel-site-oro-valley/
⁵http://notesfromthewest.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/verona-venice-2013/
⁶Tucson Museum of Art’s Contemporary Art Society
⁷http://dance.arizona.edu/performances

Gardening

In my continuing study of landscape architecture I have started reading The Meaning of Gardens by Mark Francis and Randolph Hester.

I’ve only read the first chapter, an introduction, but I enjoyed this quote:

Riley develops a typology of gardens including the jungle as sex beyond control; the domestic garden as delightful, as controlled sex; and the lawn as overcontrolled sex.

And this:

The garden has been nature-under-control…

If I could finally control mine!  The huge mesquite tree outside the fence (whose seeds are eaten by the deer, javelinas, and coyotes¹) put out a root about 25 feet to a large pot next to my patio, crept up into the pot through the drainage hole and filled it with a tiny maze of roots.  I remember telling my granddaughter how smart a bunch grass was to sneak into all of my formal plantings.  She said Plants aren’t smart.  Plants can’t think.  I don’t know.  That mesquite tree’s root was pretty smart.

I emptied the pot, took out the knot of roots, which were half of the contents, added lots more potting soil and four plants from my favorite nursery, Mesquite Valley Growers, a purple sweet potato vine, purple and pink petunias, and a purple alyssum.  I must have been having a dark day.

I also bought a dark goldfish plant, so named because the flowers look like goldfish, for my kitchen window.  (When I had re-potted my ivy I inadvertently grew a tomato plant from seeds in the potting soil, so I put it in the vegetable garden).

Then I replaced the insect-ridden outdoor coleus with a dark-leaved hibiscus, which should bloom red.  (To rid the pot of the reoccurrant mealy bugs² I baked the potting soil, in batches, in the oven at 200° for 3 hours, and scrubbed out the pot with diluted bleach. A lot of work! So those pesky bugs better not return!)

Because September is the fall planting month for Tucson I sifted one of the two compost bins I keep going (to take out twigs and stuff that hasn’t composted yet and put in the other bin) to add to my veggie garden.  Couldn’t bear to throw away the volunteer snapdragons so dug them up and put them in pots.  Gave five to the housekeeper.  Anyone else want some?  Digging out lots of tree roots there too.  Bought two more tomato cages and am cutting back my tomatoes.

Here are six good reasons to prune tomatoes³:

• To grow more flavorful tomatoes.
• To grow larger tomatoes.
• To grow more tomatoes over the length of a season.
• To keep plant leaves and fruits off the ground and away from pests, insect damage, and fungal disease.
• To keep plants smaller and more compact.

Cleaning and Repairs

Yay!  Had my windows professionally cleaned.  Wow, what a difference.  Am getting cleaning and repairs done before I put the house back on the market.  My handyman fixed a few minor items and is presently replacing the cross beams for the spa deck – rotted not due to termites, as they had been pre-treated, but from water damage.  Replacing them with redwood, which is supposed to hold up to everything.

A friend of mine was on vacation so I borrowed her cleaning lady (who is my house-sitter when I’m out of town) for a day to clean the cupboards on the deck, scrub the patio cushions, and tend to other tasks that haven’t been done for two years, when I last hired her to help with the cleaning.  (My mother would have thought me a slacker…)  Am still working on the accumulated dust, not attended to since I took the house off the market in May.  (Can only bear six months of cleaning.)

The electrician is here to replace the final bad bathroom fixture.  I have overpriced light fixtures in both the master and guest baths.  When the house turned ten years old they started to go out.  With some the bulb melted into the fixture!   I couldn’t exactly choose a completely different fixture as the mirrors (large and probably expensive) have spaces between them for the lights.  And originally only one was out.  After replacing five of the six I asked the electrician to put the one that was only blinking off occasionally in the guest bath, which is seldom used.  Of course that was a bad idea.  Why those in the guest bath would go at the same time as the ones in the master bath which is used daily, I don’t know.  Conspiracy.

Need to get the trees trimmed too, but the tree-trimming guy was sick, so postponed ’til next week.

McMansions

Defined by Wikipedia:

A McMansion can be a large, new house in a subdivision of similarly large houses, which all seem mass-produced and lacking in distinguishing characteristics, as well as appearing at odds with the traditional local architecture.

McMansions in China⁴ in Sunday’s NY Times.  Money doesn’t buy taste.  There or here.

Generic Brand Video

Heard this on Marketplace on NPR earlier this week:  http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/generic-brand-video

¹https://notesfromthewest.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/mesquite-seeds/
²https://notesfromthewest.wordpress.com/2012/08/18/cool-weather-heated-politics/
³http://www.harvesttotable.com/2009/04/how_to_prune_a_tomato/
⁴http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/magazine/let-a-hundred-mcmansions-bloom.html?_r=0

Dallas/ Fort Worth

Thursday

I realized that I had been to see my cousins, H and M, many times, and they live just outside Fort Worth, but I had never visited the Kimbell Art Museum, designed by the American architect Louis Kahn (widely regarded as one of the outstanding architectural achievements of the modern era.  [The Kimbell Art Museum] is especially noted for the wash of silvery natural light across its vaulted gallery ceilings.)  Plus, after many years of trying to decide how to double the size of the museum,  the renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano was chosen to design a companion building, which opened November, 2013¹.  Here is the model, Kahn’s building on the left, Piano’s on the right:

Can’t see much from what used to be the entrance (now facing the addition with the new entrance on what used to be the back, seemingly an afterthought from the parking lot), as there are so many trees.  Hard to get a good photo without a helicopter.  Photo of me and H by the previous front.

But took lots of photos of the details, which my cousin said that he would never have noticed.  The sliver of light on the edge of the vault of Kahn’s building.  The handrail.

 

 

 

The overhang on Piano’s building.  And the way he inset the entry mat and air vent with the glass entry walls and door stop.

 

In addition to the pristine buildings, the collection is pretty awesome.  Here a Rembrandt, Bust of a Young Jew.

 

The artists include Bellini, Bernini, Boucher, Braque, Caravaggio, Cézanne, Corot, Courbet, Cranach – Lucas the Elder, Degas, Donatello, El Greco, Fra Angelico, Fragonard, Gainsborough, Gauguin, Goya, Frans Hals, Léger, Maillol, Manet, Matisse, Michelangelo, Miró, Mondrian, Monet, Munch, Noguchi, Picasso, Pissarro, Rembrandt, Reynolds, Rubens, Sisley, Tiepolo, Tintoretto, Titian,Turner, Velázquez, and Watteau.¹

 

 

Photo of my cousins in the Kimball’s buffet restaurant with 5th century mosaics on the wall behind.

 

 

Then walked one block to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, which was designed by Philip Johnson.  Johnson is known, among other buildings, for his glass house, built in 1949 (photo left from Architectural Digest), “universally viewed as having been derived from” the Farnsworth House design, now  just as famous as the glass Farnsworth House Mies van der Rohe built in 1951 (photo right). 

But the Amon Carter Museum is not one mentioned in architecture classes (where we were taught to worship at the Kimball).  I didn’t even bother taking a photo of the front.  (This from the museum web site².)

Preferred Johnson’s addition (left).  I am more partial to the Pennzoil Place, a set of two 36-story towers in downtown Houston, Texas (below left)designed by Philip Johnson and John Burge, for which Johnson was awarded the 1978 AIA Gold Medal and became the first laureate of the Pritzker Prize in Architecture.  Unfortunately, Johnson and Burge also designed New York’s Sony Tower (below right), fondly know as the Chippendale Building after the open pediments characteristic of the famous English designer’s bookcases and other cabinetry.  (All photos from the Web.)

Oops, I’ve gotten away from Dallas/ Fort Worth and am into an architecture lecture.  Sorry.

The art collection was very nice, including this Thomas Hart Benton depression art, an O’Keefe and a large Louise Nevelson.

My favorite (just a detail here) was Ease (1882), by William M. Harnett.  (You must click on this to see the detail.)

…he painted trompe l’oeil (fool the eye) still lifes, arrangements of life-size objects rendered so realistically as to seem three dimensional.  In Ease, which was commissioned by James Abbe, a Massachusetts businessman, he offers a glimpse into a Victorian gentleman’s library.  Harnett selected items that would best convey his patron’s emotional, intellectual, and spiritual sides,  The owner is a very real presence in this interior.  He has momentarily set down his lighted cigar and will return, we feel certain, before it burns through the newspaper.

Friday

We spent most of the day at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden³.  (Two Botanical Gardens in a week – can you tell I’m studying landscape architecture?)  This was A Deal.  H bought the parking ticket online at half price ($5), and we got in for only $1 each during August Dollar Days!  M, having broken a toe, was wearing The Boot, but she was a real trooper as we tromped around most of the 66-acre gardens, in the heat, 100° with the humidity over 30% (uphill both ways).

These are labor-intensive gardens, with huge swaths of flower beds replanted each season.  H and M had moved back to Fort Worth 14 years ago, and had never been to the Gardens.  They have vowed to go back next season.  (Yes!  I took these gorgeous photos.)

We had lunch in blissful air-conditioning at the DeGolyer Estate, and then took a tour of the house – two photos here.

We saw all these, I believe: All America Selections Trial Garden, Boswell Family Garden, Crape Myrtle Allee (but we didn’t walk down to the  pool at Toad Corners), Jonsson Color Garden, Lay Family Garden, Martha Brooks Camelia Garden, McCasland Sunken Garden, Nancy Clements Seay Magnolia Glade, Nancy’s Garden, Nancy Rutchik Red Maple Rill, Palmer Fern Dell, Paseo de Flores, Pecan Grove, Rose Mary Haggar Rose Garden, Trammell Crow Visitor Education Pavillion (where we saw a short video on what the gardens look like each season – this was at the end and the room was air-conditioned!), Trial Gardens, A Woman’s Garden, Crape Myrtle Allee, Jonsson Color Garden, Karen’s Gazebo, Lay Family Garden, McCasland Sunken Garden, Poetry Garden, Rodriguez Gazebo, The Lower Meadow, Cissy Thomsen Welcoming Water Wall, Dann Talley Kincheloe Courtyard, Fogelson Fountain, Magnolia Allee, Orchid Hollow, Junkins Fountain, Palmer Fern Dell Bridge, Wind Harp, A Woman’s Garden Pool, A Woman’s Garden II Bridge, Grotto, Octagon Fountain, Indian Courtyard Arbor, Wolf Brothers Urns,  Rodriguez Gazebo, and the Woolf Circle.  Phew!  (Can you tell that a lot of rich people donated?)

Got a photo out of the car window of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge over the Trinity River in Dallas, designed by Santiago Calatrava, a world-class architect. (OK, I won’t go into projects that he has done.)

Also, through the window,  Fort Worth’s City Center Towers Complex, comprised of two towers designed by noted architect Paul Rudolph.  (When you google famous architecture in tucson az you get Mission San Xavier del Bac, founded in 1692.)

Saturday

We spent the morning taking a tour of the Bass Performance Hall⁴ in Fort Worth (the crown jewel of a city which boasts the nation’s third largest cultural district⁴).  The symphony was practicing in the hall, so we only got to peek in (no photos).  Art deco.  Ceilings painted by Scott and Stuart Gentling.

Two 48-foot-tall angels sculpted by Marton Varo from Texas limestone grace the Grand Façade.

That evening H and M’s daughter and her new husband came for dinner.  Lots of chatting about The Family.  H and M are doing significant research into our Blair family.  More about that in the next blog.

¹https://www.kimbellart.org/collections/list-artists
²http://www.cartermuseum.org/visit
³http://www.dallasarboretum.org/
⁴http://www.basshall.com/thehallhistory.jsp