Hi Gram!

We’re still having a fun, relaxing time down here in Tucson. We’ve had clear skies and sunshine most days, although it did get cloudy for a couple days and even rained a little. The temperature swings pretty far from morning to afternoon and back again at night, (sometimes a swing of 30+ degrees) so it’s not always easy to dress for it, but “having to dress in layers and maybe bring a jacket” are definitely first world problems.

I’ve been working on lukma, my skydiver-specific video program a little each day, and I’m proud of the progress I’m making. I have friends who are much more skilled at programming than I am, but I can inch along and make progress, google things when I don’t know how to accomplish something, and ask friends for help when I really get stuck. A lot of the things I’ve been improving and adding have been back-end features that most people will never see, but I’m trying to make it more universal and self-contained so I can distribute it to others without having to set it up for them or make changes to the code to make it work in their environment.

When I start getting cross-eyed from writing code, I go for a walk, read a book, or go see a movie. One of my goals for our time in Arizona is to go for a walk every day. Walking is good for the body, of course, by keeping everything moving and flowing, but I’ve found that it’s good for my mind as well. Whether I’m wandering through a neighborhood or on a path, my mind takes the opportunity to wander. When I’m just strolling through a neighborhood, I can see the different landscaping ideas people have had (oh, they’ve arranged their stones to look like a creek… oh, this house has trees and shrubs I haven’t seen before…) and the shapes and states of the homes (wow, they keep everything in straight lines and well manicured… oh, they must be very busy people if their Christmas and Halloween decorations are still strewn about the yard…) When I go hiking through nature, I sometimes spot the occasional lizard darting about, wondering where it’s headed, or dream about the shapes and condition of the cacti and brush. Why do some saguaro plants grow side arms on opposite sides while others seem to branch out in clusters? What kind of bird burrowed in and built their nest there? What were the climate conditions that caused that tree to twist and contort the way it did? Does that cloud look more like Snoopy’s head or an ice cream cone? When she’s not too busy writing an article before its deadline, Zibby will join me on these walks and we hypothesize together the answers to these questions and more.

When I’m not wandering and wondering, I like to go see movies. AMC has a program that allows me to pay a monthly fee and see up to three movies a week. I signed up when we got to Arizona because I know that there are AMC theaters near Ottawa and there’s one near where we’ve been staying for the last few weeks. Unfortunately, I didn’t investigate the number of AMC theaters in Tucson before I signed up – I found out this week that the one that I go to up here is the only one within 100 miles. I’ll have a longer drive starting next week when we move to the new apartment, but it’ll still be within 1/2 hr. I’ve taken full advantage of the program since I signed up and have seen three movies every week since I signed up! I’ve already gotten my money’s worth for a few months of dues, and I plan to keep it up while we’re in Tucson. The mall that’s connected to the theater is pretty desolate, like many malls in America, but it has a two story Barnes and Noble. Once we move down to the other apartment, I plan to drive up a couple days a week and see a movie, go to B&N to read for a while, walk around the mall parking lot or a nearby hiking trail, maybe see a second movie, then head home.

Well, I’m getting a little hungry, so I think it’s time for lunch. I’ll leave you with a picture of one of those trees that makes me wonder, behind my woman who also makes me wonder sometimes…