Despite some flubbed and frustrated plans, time was well spent with daughters and family.
What? Flubbed and frustrated plans? well, at least I thought so ....
First, my pastoral and rustic fixation was not served by not driving on Hwy 89 - to and from Arizona. On our way there, we got to the crossover point at which to link with 89, but it was around twelve midnight and I did not want to venture into some unknown and unfamiliar territory in the middle of the night; it was foolish to have even tried, I was convinced. Daylight would certainly have made a difference. As compromise, however, I silently promised to take Hwy 89 on our way back to Utah. But even that did not materialize due to the forest fires around the area (Flagstaff) during which about a thousand homes had to be evacuated.
Second, one of our grandsons had planned for me to take him to see Toy Story 3 on Saturday (opening weekend). I was sick in the stomach Friday evening and it got worst before movie time so I was unable to go ...Bummer! Oftentimes when vacationing, and we get sick, people always say it’s one of three things specific to the new locale: drinking water, weather or the air. It’s definitely not the water. Who drinks tap water anymore? Now we drink bottled water from far away and exotic places like Switzerland or Fiji - whoohoo Fiji! - and even as close and local as Utah. (In case you didin’t know, the recent Great American Water Taste Test named Beaver, Utah as having the best bottled water in America.) Beaver is one of the small cities through which we pass on our way to Vegas/Arizona. So my mishap was likely due to the weather, air, OR ...something I ate!
Arizona temperatures averaged 104 degrees during the weekend and it was just too hot for moi. You step out to drive to the store and the difference between near-frigid cold inside and the heat outside is an experience in extremes. The difference brought back memories of my Apia sojournment while attending Samoa College - and Leifiifi.
Remember McKenzie’s? ...the store with the cold gusting air condition? After school my friends and I would always go into McKenzie’s just to feel the colder-than-cool air-condition - not to buy anything. Then right next door, we would walk through the BWS building which had a climate-controlled feel of its own. Some members of our clique would be audacious enough - bordering on rudeness and disrespect - to raise their gold lavalavas like ballet tutus just to get the cold air underneath. Some girls did the same thing too.
All in all, in some serendipitous sense - for me at least - the experience of the hot-cold osmosis in Arizona became a cordial and placid deja vu, while time spent with family is certainly priceless and to be treasured forever.
Once again, I’m back home now where the cloud-hovered mountain peaks seem like a larger than life landscape painting, and where my Saturday sleep-ins are cut short (pun intended) by the crackling sounds of lawnmowers, especially at this time of year.
Is this the real world? It’s mine alright ......
No comments:
Post a Comment