Laura came out to Tucson to visit and we had so much fun! I was worried it would be too hot for her, but it wasn’t at all. It’s pool season!
The way I see it, Tucson has a cool season and a pool season. Cool season runs from November to April. Pool season runs from May to October. Neither are clearly best or worst – it just depends on what you want to do!
If you are coming to see the sights; the amazing desert museum (which is mostly outdoors), the missions, the space museum, biosphere, etc., and to shop for southwest-themed merchandise, and sit outside enjoying brunch at cafés…then come during the cool season. If you truly hate the heat, or you’re coming specifically to hike, then come during the coldest part of cool season – December, January, February. But if you want to use the pool, then come during pool season! Just be aware that it’s going to be too hot to hike during pool season.
We did use the pool in April when Emily came and and it worked out great. We got really lucky with some early-season hot weather! Plus, pool season for little kids is pretty much year-round, lol. Blue little popsicle kids love the pool! But adults, not so much. We used our pool heater, but I still wasn’t in the pool much myself in April. I like the air temps to be really hot before I enjoy the pool. I wasn’t even in the pool all that much in May – it was windy in early May and I was in Albuquerque in later May. Well, now it’s June and it’s absolutely hot enough, whew! Temps regularly clearing 110°. Now this is pool weather!
Here’s a picture Laura took of me skimming the pool. The wind regularly blows leaves from the neighboring trees into our pool. It’s easiest to remove them while they’re still floating, although we have an underwater vacuum robot to get them off the bottom of the pool.
Some days, when the weather is calm, I don’t have to skim at all. But on windy days, it’s a hopeless battle. So far I enjoy skimming the pool – it’s meditative. But this is why I never wanted to have a pool until I retired. Skimming the pool all the time would be annoying if I had to rush through it. It’s best done slowly.
I figure it’s only a matter of time before I end up falling in the pool while I’m cleaning it. I walk along the very edge (which has cracked and crumbled over the years), with my attention focused on the floating debris far out in the middle of the pool. One of these days I’m going to trip, or maybe even just walk right off the edge. It’s inevitable! That’s why I make sure I don’t have my cell phone in my pocket when I clean the pool!
Laura used the pool twice a day when she was visiting. She did exercises in the pool before work in the morning.
Then we would both sit around the pool and swim lazy laps in the afternoon when she was off work.
She worked part-time while visiting, which worked out great. I liked having the time to get my own stuff done, and we still had plenty of time to get out and do fun stuff.
Laura looks very glamorous in her big hat!
I usually don’t use the pool until late afternoon, when the sun goes behind the neighbor’s eucalyptus trees.
On Friday morning Laura and I bought plants at a nursery we have very close by.
John had set up a drip system and some empty plant pots ready for me to install plants. June is not the time to be doing gardening in Arizona, but we are getting very tired of the lack of landscaping in the backyard.
My goal was 5 flowering perennials or small shrubs for under $15 apiece. That pretty much ruled out this big guy, but wow, would it have looked nice in our backyard! This is a type of desert willow that does very well in the heat and low water conditions.
It also has beautiful blooms.
But I’m not ready to buy anything big yet. I would need a really big hole, and irrigation run to the really big hole, and before any of that happens, we have a wall we want to expand to enclose more of our side property as backyard. And we may remove all or part of the wall that currently bisects our backyard. Building and removing walls is going to completely mess up what little landscaping we have in that quarter of the yard. When landscaping, the plants are the last step. Unfortunately, all the difficult and expensive hardscape has to happen first.
So instead of an enormous and expensive desert willow, I bought this box of little plants for pots – which can always be moved around to accommodate our eventual landscape plans.
By the time Laura and I made it home with our modest box of little plants, I was hot and exhausted. I left the box in the cool of the house to plant the next morning. But the next morning we had other plans – a farmer’s market! So by the time I planted the new plants, it was in the heat of the day. I’m not sure who was suffering the most, me or my plants. It was at least 100°. Every day for awhile now has cleared 100.
Here’s what they looked like when planted. Since then, they’ve been going downhill 🙁
We’ll have to see which ones survive. In this heat, I’m not expecting 100% survival. Truly, June is not the time when locals plant things!
That morning we had gone to what we thought would be a farmer’s market hoping to buy some fresh fruits and vegetables. But it turned out to not have produce, just art and junk.
There was also some guy playing live country music on a guitar. Not my favorite genre to start with – and then he made a weird comment about Laura’s enormous hat over his loudspeaker system. I’m sure he was trying to be funny and engage the crowd. Except there was no crowd – just Laura and I walking alone through a very sad and sorry market! We had already turned around and started heading the other way when we belatedly realized he was talking to/about us. So he didn’t get the enthusiastic reaction he must have been hoping for.
Luckily Laura located a coffee shop with shady plaza seating less than a block away, thus salvaging the outing. We enjoyed the morning, chatting in the shade with our coffees, watching people walk by, and reading a local freebie paper.
LOL, in this next picture I’m all hat. That’s one way to hide from the camera.
We also went to brunch a couple of times. The first time we sat outside, but the second time it was too hot by the time the shop opened up, plus their outside options were poor. That may have been my first time eating indoors in a café since getting vaccinated. I think so? I can’t remember.
Laura is gluten-free and everything at this bakery & brunch place was entirely gluten-free. Laura was very impressed, which is hard for me to pull off. I live in dusty towns out in the middle of the vast desert southwest – how am I going to compete with the offerings of the San Francisco Bay Area?
Not only can I not compete on a culinary basis, I also still can’t seem to figure out how to take a selfie! My face is twisted in concentration while Laura is wearing a patient, fond expression, clearly humoring her poor old mom.
Candid shot! (probably accidental, lol)
Now Laura’s like, “Here, just give me the phone. I’ll do it.” This is how it’s done! (I still look dubious.)
We went to brunch a couple of times, as well as getting take-out for dinner once or twice, but mostly we just stayed home. Here we are making gluten-free scones. I think ours were as good as anything at the bakery.
Laura also helped me learn some new stretches for my back and my neck. Here she is demonstrating:
I’m glad she was able to come spend an entire week in Tucson, thanks to being able to work from home – wherever home may be that week.
After Laura flew back home she had to stop by at her office to get something. The offices aren’t open yet, and they are only allowing people in occasionally for a specific reason with a reserved time slot.
She told me that since everyone was still working from home she got a “primo” parking spot. At first I pictured her cruising up to the front row of the parking lot, right next to all the handicap parking spots. But no, silly me, she works in downtown Palo Alto. There’s no parking lot! Nearby parking garages, yes, but no big, empty, sprawling parking lot.
When she said she got a primo parking spot in front of her building, she meant on the streets of downtown Palo Alto. Right exactly in front of her building!
It seems the entire Silicon Valley is still working from home.
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