Holding Our Breath

September 14, 2020

Tombstone, Arizona

Certainly all the fires in the west contribute to many wanting to hold their breath. Here in southeast Arizona we're surrounded with haze, often blocking all of our mountains to the west and south. 

Huachuca Mountains hidden under smoke from far away fires.

Yet that's not the breath-holding I'm thinking of. 

Almost half way through our seventh month of this unreal reality, it seems perhaps it could go on forever. Even making plans for next summer with great optimism and enthusiasm, I'm reminded that it's possible they will all be cancelled. I never even considered that the northern border might still be closed until a few comments on the last post raised the possibility. 

Another ten months??? Good lord.......

We've already held our breath hoping and praying and wondering and crossing our fingers for such a long time. In April I certainly thought that by August we'd be looking at the end of the threat, that we could breathe normally again. Instead September is sending mixed messages of flattening curves, increased hospitalizations, and possible mutations at the same time vaccine readiness dates are bandied around. 

Sanity requires finding humor where we can.

Political and social justice battles fuel human fires around the country while entire communities are destroyed by killing flames. I hold my breath every morning nervously wondering "what's next?".

Local postal workers remind us they are under attack.

Our new grand baby is coming in early November no matter what the world is doing. Life does go on. 

We continue to get a few projects done in between a whole lot of laziness. Monsoon season has moved on without giving us much water. The San Pedro River is dry in most places, reduced to a flat trickle under the bridge on the drive to Sierra Vista. Our desert is green and beautiful, and most days we have 20% humidity. But it still feels much dryer than last year at this time.

Last year!?! Yep, we've now been here a year. It was October when we moved into the house, but we opened escrow and were mooch-docking at our friends' in early September. Hard to wrap my head around how different our lives have been being off the road. Not bad at all, but certainly different!!

I did finally get the bedroom done and am very pleased with how it turned out. Updating the hardware in the kitchen makes that room feel more complete as well. Bought paint for Jeff's room, and will probably start on that after our trip to Santa Fe.

In between permanent window coverings I used lap blankets. Jeff said it "looks like an opium den". I don't ask how he knows this......

Having lived in earthquake country all my life, I like soft things above the bed :-)

Fun to decorate with my photographs.

The original plan was just the plain blinds, but they turned out "too" plain so I added the curtains to soften the feel. 

With a large yard we have lots of large and small projects to keep us busy during cooler weather. On hot days we still get out to "find" rocks for landscaping and focal points. It's the desert, we have a large selection to choose from :-)

In search of large rocks, we find a new-to-us trail to follow.

Colorful cliffs on both sides.

Erosion shapes interesting canyon walls.

In addition to living in a national historic town, we're surrounded by several smaller vintage townships. Not surprising, Ghost Town Road takes us through several ruins to what remains of Pearce, Arizona. It's a pretty drive on one of our hotter days.

Old mining tailings along Ghost Town Road.

Visiting hours are over at the jail in Pearce, Arizona

Jeff and I take a rare drive to Tucson to pick up a few items we can't get locally. Limiting our exposure to others we're back home in just a few hours. So many places I thought we'd be exploring in our closest city, so many things I thought we'd be doing......

One thing that is less than perfect at our little Arizona home is the lack of decent Internet. We added ViaSat to our AT&T MiFi and we still can't stream movies or TV shows with any regularity. Frustrating with all this time and access to Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu that we can't enjoy. We have satellite with 900 channels, and maybe 12 that aren't complete crap. First world problem admittedly, and maybe one that will get resolved while we're holding our breath :-)

At least football season has started, and while it's a slightly different experience, it's still wonderful to watch games again!!

Yay!!

Back in SoCal Ezra starts Kindergarten at home. Shalise has done a lot of preparation to make sure he's getting the full curriculum. Like all kids, he's missing making new friends and having humans his own age to interact with. Soon Ezra, hopefully soon!

I love that he wants to be a "demolition expert"!

Miss Clover is Ezra's new house companion.

I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe. Remember to breathe :-)