Yesterday was Mike's and my 6th anniversary. He wanted breakfast at the Jerome Grille, and then said that we would do whatever I wanted.

I remembered him saying a long time ago that he knew where there were some Indian ruins - they're protected but you're allowed to walk to them. This is what I want to do!

Mike (being the perpetual voice of reason) pointed out that Arizona is having record heat for this time in August, the humidity is up, we've just eaten a heavy breakfast and this plan of mine is not a good one.

But I am stubborn and I've got an idea in my head and I insist.

So about noon we get to the hill that we need to hike up. When I say "up" I mean UP with capital letters. It's about 2 miles of rocky bad trail, the grade is at least 30% and it's 105 degrees and there is no shade.

Did I mention that I am stubborn and I've got an idea in my head and I stamp my little feet and insist? Mike shakes his head and shoulders his bag and we head up.

Neither one of us is having much fun, but I'm seeing random pieces of pottery and every time I look up it seems as though the summit where the ruins are is Right There. We forge ahead, sweating a lot and cussing occasionally, Mike asking once again if I don't think it's time to turn back because this is stupid - we can come back some other day. Since this story continues you know what my answer was - if I'd been smart and agreed to turn back it would end right here.

Now, I was born and raised in Arizona and I know full well the dangers of this place. However, I seem to have been made with a deficient sense of self-preservation. I have no fear of snakes or scorpions or spiders (centipedes totally creep me out and I got treed by a herd of javelina once) and for God's sake I could see our house from where we were. What's the worst that can happen?

We trudge some more and finally get to the top - there's the ruins. It's hot. It's damn hot. There are no trees up here, just one sad little juniper and a few crucifixion thorns.

I'm not sweating anymore, which is a very bad sign. I have a headache, my hands are shaking and I'm confused. I go to the edge of the cliff to see how close the creek is and wobble. Mike sees this and realizes that I'm in trouble and steers me over to a miniscule patch of shade under a crucifixion thorn and makes me sit.

I'd been giving Mike a hard time about this bag that he's carrying. He's been grunting and cussing at it since the first step, and I'd suggested leaving it at the side of the trail repeatedly. Now, bless the man, he pulls from this bag a bottle of ice water and makes me drink it - all of it. Then he pulls out another bottle of ice water and dumps it over my head. Then he pulls out another bottle of ice water and makes me drink that one, too. Then he pulls out a beer and he drinks that.

I'm scared. Mike is really scared - we still have to get down and he's not sure how to accomplish that, what with me needing shade and being stumbly. Mike mentions calling the rescue chopper, but I'm coherent enough to be horrified at that idea, at the embarrassment and expense. (Mostly the embarrassment. When I see people who have to be rescued, I always call them Boneheads and ask "Well, what did they think was going to happen, going for a little stroll at high noon on the hottest day yet in August? Nimrods.")

Mike thought about calling our friend Brain and having him come get us in his WallCrawlerJeep. To do that Brain would have to knock down the locked gate and drive up the protected trail and risk a $10,000 fine. Brain would do it in a minute if Mike called, but this did not seem like a viable option to me.

In the end we didn't have to do anything. The shade and water worked and after about an hour I got up and walked down to the trail head and we went home. I took a long nap and was just fine.

My point in writing all this is to remind us all that even though it's almost Fall, even though you're close to home, even though you're competent and comfortable in this country, it can be lethal. Human beings are not constructed to stroll around in this sort of heat. Thank goodness Mike was smarter than me and came prepared. Thank God I didn't take it into my head to go up there alone, which was a possibility.

Happy Anniversary, and be safe up there.

My son just posted this on FaceBook:

"Thunder rolling through the valley. The children are laughing. Good tunes are a playing and a Beautiful wife is within reach. Life is good."

What can top seeing every parent's fondest wish for their kid come true?

I get a kick out of everybody reading the foreclosure notices in the paper, and some even paying for lists of these notices. The they go, "Ooooh! So-and-so is in foreclosure! Oooooh!"

It doesn't seem to occur to them that if So-and-so wants to modify their loan with their bank, then they have to let their property go into foreclosure. There's no "Oooooh!" about it.

Isn't this a sorry state of affairs, the thought process (or lack of thought process) of the banks? "You're upside-down? Your income has been drastically reduced? Then you have to go into serious default and totally screw up your credit just to get into a position where we'll talk to you about us getting real about the situation!"

Sigh.

Rain in Arizona - it's like Christmas! It's been drizzly for the past 2 days, which never stops me because rain is the best. Water from the sky!
Today I go to my garden and plant salsa and nurture my soul. There's something about slogging around in the mud and breaking fingernails that's necessary to Band-Aid whatever mental health I have.

The only disturbing thing about gardening is the quandary of what to do when I find a tomato worm? I try to remember to be gentle and loving but I hate them with a passion AND THEY'RE KILLING MY SALSA! I wish I had chickens because then I could throw the stupid worm at the chickens and then they'd kill it and my karma would be clean. I settle for snipping off what I think is their head quickly and cleanly and sending them off to a new and better incarnation - I'm sure that they appreciate it. Who wants to be a tomato worm, right?

So today I'll go to the nursery with the intention of buying 6 Roma tomato plants and 4 jalapenos, and will come out with a Jeep full of house plants and yard flowers and some weird bright idea for the garden (Last year it was tomatillos. If you ever have a chance to grow tomatillos, one plant will be more than sufficient. Trust me on this one. I was never real sure what to do with the damn things since I don't like to eat them, but the plants sure are pretty. Neither the Mission nor the Food Bank wanted them either, so I started lurking in the Safeway parking lot watching for somebody that didn't lock their car doors so that I could fill their back seat up with tomatillos. It was a crime wave that was reported exhaustively in the newspapers.)

There are my plans for my day, and it sounds wonderful! Best wishes for yours!

I just spent a week in Washington, DC for the National Association of REALTORS conference. Wow! DC is not one of the places that I would choose to go if it had been left up to me. DC is not even one of the top 100 places that I would have ever chosen. Now, it probably is in the top, oh, say 50. The history sent shivers up my neck. I marveled at monuments and artifacts that I've been looking at pictures of all of my life.
I saw one of the copies of the Magna Charta from 1260. I saw all of the de rigeur monuments, the ACTUAL be still my heart! Declaration of Independence, the Articles of the Constitution, a real dinosaur skeleton, an abandoned graveyard, miles and miles of DC sidewalks - I was a shameless tourist and I loved it!
I had to discipline myself to remember that I wasn't there to be a tourist. I had to fit sightseeing into late nights and one day of hookey when they hadn't scheduled me for anything except a guided tour of NAR - I felt fine about bailing on the NAR building.
I was there for the REALTOR Conference and the Summit. The Conference was great (REALTORS are an odd bunch, but extremely competent, especially at this level.) The Summit was incredible. NAR brought together the biggest of the wigs to duke it out over the economy. The concept is that Congress and the Obama Administration could watch and learn what's going on out in the real world.
That's what happened. Alan Greenspan gave a speech which I enjoyed quite a bit. (I didn't expect that - to enjoy Greenspan.) Then 2 round table discussions with big-timey bankers, economists, journalists, all kinds of economic gurus, all who pretty much ended up sniping at the bankers. Well, who deserves it more? Jane Bryant Quinn moderated and she was the best sniper of all.
The upshot is that Greenspan believes that the economy took an "upswing" in November, and he expects it to continue indefinitely. He explained why but I don't do econospeak and my eyes glazed over.
It was incredible, listening to all of these great minds finally admitting what we've known all along - the economy is in trouble, the housing market is a disaster, and "trickle down" didn't work so let's try some "trickle up."
That's my new license plate to replace my current "Turets." "Triklup."

The Sound of Music

I just love this! Check it out: www.silverbearcafe.com/private/04.09/antwerp.html

No, damn it. The weather is not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about appreciation.

I got a compliment this morning. It felt so good to hear something nice about me that I almost teared up. Now, I know that people think good things about me. I know that I do a really good job. I know that I'm usually a nice person and that I try to make other people feel good. I also know that it's a cold day in hell anymore when people say so.

I am a very verbal person. I need to hear it. Some people need flowers and diamonds or others need a hug to feel appreciated, I need to hear kind words.

The problem with us humans neglecting to show our regard for our friends and family is that if we don't show appreciation then the people who we love assume that it isn't there. That's sad.

So then we get to deal with someone who has this toxic, resentful miasma hanging over their head. We don't know why they're this way - they don't tell us why because appreciation that's been strong-armed means nothing. We thinks that it must be because they're unhappy with us. Then we think, "But why should they be mad at me? Don't I work hard? Don't I do my best? What in the blue blazes more do they want?"

And then the spiral begins and sometimes it ends ugly.

I think that we should all make ourselves a promise. At least once a day we'll say something nice to the people that we care about. Not a big production - just a simple, "Hey - I love it when you smile like that!" or, "Wow. What a good job you did - I can see how hard you worked!" or just, "Yay! You're home!" or "You look great in that color!"

Let's try it. Let me know how it goes, please.

And thanks for reading. I appreciate your time and attention.