Well, thank the powers that be! I just went to a social marketing class taught by Paula Monthofer of the Flagstaff Association. She said that we should just "Be yourselves! Don't concentrate on real estate!"

Thank God. I was boring even myself.

So now the big question is "Well. What do I want to talk about?"

I want to talk about the wonderful weather in central Arizona today. I go outside and am reminded of why it is that I live here in Cottonwood. (Cottonwood is about 15 minutes from the Red Rocks of Sedona and 5 minutes from the wonderful old historic mining town of Jerome. We're right smack dab in the middle of the state.)

I tried to leave Cottonwood once. I was born & raised in Prescott, Arizona, and moved over Mingus Mountain to Cottonwood when I was 17.
Years later, my husband at the time had people in Arkansas and, in an effort to finally make him happy I consented to sell everything that I owned and we moved to Mountain View, Arkansas. This was a colossal mistake on my part.

I'm not writing today to trash Arkansas. The simple fact is that Cottonwood is my home and Mountain View wasn't. Yes, I could tell you hair-raisers, but not today.

Part of the problem was the weather there. Colder than hell in the winter, hot and unrelentingly muggy in the summer, and please don't get me started on the ticks and chiggers and cottonmouths and copperheads, some of them in human form.

The beauty of having lived someplace else is that now I have a frame of reference. I know how special it is here. Our climate is great, (Yes, it does get hot, but not TOO hot. Our summers are like Back East's winters - we go from climate controlled houses to climate controlled cars to climate controlled offices for a couple of months. It cools off during the night, so windows are open. Ahhhhhh!)

What else? Our crime rate is low, people are mostly friendly, and our views will knock your socks off!

If you're interested, shoot me an email and I'll send you some pictures.
carolanne@adobegr.com.