December 16th
– December 22nd 2013
Monday and Tuesday, we spent those two
days in Tucson and it is described below. For few days, there was a
“heat wave” when the temperature was hitting around 80 degrees.
Pretty nice. J. had two work days (she is still saying that people in
the hospital are so nice) so I guess it is all good. I officially
finished school (3.93 cumulative grade for this semester). Some
practical stuff (papers, clean car, …). I took a walk in another
part of North Mountain Park (really close to our place) and again, I
was surprised by the steepness of the hill. The views were great. The
way back was steep, rocky, and full of dirt dust making it really
slippery. Anyway, it was really nice walk (I think I am getting a bit
of sunburn). Life is fine. Those were Wednesday and Thursday.
Cloudy day. It rained Thursday evening – interesting event in the
desert. Slower Friday morning. We drove across
Scottsdale to the Butterfly wonderland. It is apparently new facility
that has several thousands of butterflies in the conservatory. Funny
Arizona thing: we exited freeway, saw the building and withing
hundred yards or so the road was blocked with big concrete barriers –
there was no road for the moment. It is probably future expansion of
the city. We watched 3D movie about Monarch butterflies – it was
pretty great. After that we were let in – moist and warm garden
with many butterflies flying around. It was very amazing experience.
There was also koi pond in the middle with bunch of fishes. After we
left the conservatory there were some tropical fishes, ants and bees
but it was not as interesting as those butterflies.
We were planning to see a movie and had some time to
kill so we drove to Anthropologie store in the nearby mall. Big
mistake – apparently people are shopping like crazy and traffic
within the mall was horrible. It seems that people in here like their
malls and shopping. Quick visit and then movie – Dallas Buyers
Club. It was very good movie – somewhat different – somewhat sad
– somewhat funny. We got back on the road around 3:45 pm, it was
still cloudy and the sky looked great – clouds, colors and images
of something strange. We detoured to our nearby Lookout Mountain Park
and were going to take a walk around the hill. It was pretty nice –
unfortunately it was more ups and downs, more rocks on the path, and
even longer then expected. Still – pretty nice day. Saturday.
Nothing special actually. We had some plans but found out that
Camelback Mountain is closed for some park improvements and we also
did not really feel like some difficult hiking. J. got phone call
from work as they were looking for people to work on Sunday (shortage
of nurses). She decided to do some overtime. Apparently this job is
so much nicer compared to NYC. We drove to the Roadrunner park and
walked through the farmers market. We continued and got some
groceries (J. needed to make some food for following work days) and
also get some stuff for cranberry cake (we brought cranberries from
Boston area). Home. Cooking. Relaxing. Reading. Anchorman movie in
the evening (the first one, I guess it was fine). Sunday. Work.
Otherwise nothing special. Almost Christmas. Sunny day in the desert.
((((Two days ago I received a phone call from my brother at 4:30 am,
he told me that my father had a stroke. Today I talked with him and
my aunt and tried to figure out what the situation was. Unfortunately
he is still in hospital – since 11/27 and is physically disabled
and barely able to communicate. Life …. I did not get all
information and should know more within a week. Makes for a strange
Christmas – somewhat.))))
