A Sunday walk with friends

I often get together with a small group of friends on Sunday mornings. We go for a walk, come back and meditate for about 20 minutes on a topic, and then have a discussion. We alternate whose house, and one morning in late March we met in a very nice area in central Tucson.

When I drove down there, I discovered bicyclists everywhere! Roads were blocked off and traffic cops were directing traffic. Turns out there was a local bicycling event happening.

It wasn’t a serious race – people were riding on all kinds of contraptions, some in costumes. What fun!

I made it through the festivities and to my friend’s house with no problem and we all set out walking toward the activities. This area of town has tons of character and makes an excellent place to walk even without a local festival going on.

I was like, wow, this is cool, where am I?

Here come the bikes!

I’ve always thought there would be nothing better than having a balcony overlooking street events.

The guys up on the balcony were friendly and chatting with my friends as we stood in the street, right in the way of the bicyclists. But the mood was casual, no one was racing.

There was even a Mariachi band. Local events help me to not miss Albuquerque, because the culture here in Tucson is similar.

Here’s the link if the embedded video doesn’t work for you, https://youtu.be/Bb09LIc15XQ

What? In Tucson we have earnest conversations with cacti all the time.

It was fun to walk through the festival atmosphere, and then back through the barrio.

On one hand, I would love to see this house restored to its former glory. On the other hand, when out-of-state money comes pouring into an older neighborhood (as is currently happening) there is a type of authenticity that is lost. Not to mention the social implications for the displaced local residents.

So many different southwest styles. From a distance this next one might look like the roof is terra cotta tiles, but that is actually a metal roof.

The walls are adobe brick with a thin outer layer of pigmented mud, leaving the brick texture showing, but giving it a more uniform color than my house (with nothing on the bricks at all).

This next one is more like what I had been used to in New Mexico.

If you look at the windows you can see how thick those walls are. It blocks the direct sunlight from getting in, keeping the house shaded. And the thermal mass of the thick adobe walls keeps the house a more consistent temperature from night to day, when air temperatures swing drastically in the desert, helping to keep the house cool during the day.

After our great walk, we retreated to my friend’s peaceful backyard.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com