Arizona July 08

I’m back from Arizona! It’s strange to read what I wrote in June and realise how tired I was. The month I thought was an eternity when I set out has passed and in the grand scheme of things wasn’t such a long time to be away. Back at work things are much the same as they were when I left!

We had a great time. We made the most of every day and all our opportunities, didn’t get sick, kept well within our budget and just experienced loads. The main impression I will carry with me is the huge vistas of the canyons, not just the Grand Canyon, but Brice and Zion in Southern Utah. Although I studied a little about American Indians I can understand from seeing that environment about their close affinity to nature and their experience of deity within the natural environment. Storms can be so localised that you look on them as a patch on the landscape, not the whole landscape you can see. I loved the big outdoors and I loved the cowboy stuff. We went to a rodeo and we stayed on a dude ranch and I went western riding. We did museums and places of interest. We did Vegas which was interesting, but consumerism gone mad – endless luxury shopping malls, all air conditioned, while beyond the city is a desert so barren they conduct all their secret weapons testing there. Arizona has been a reasonably undeveloped state in the past, but everywhere we went land was up for sale for development and local people told us that whereas houses there had been cheaper, prices were now comparable to other states.

J” survived and was upbeat about it. J1 got his degree AND got accepted for his marines officer training , one of only 50 out of 3,000 applicants. He starts September on £28,500 – I didn’t realise they paid starters so well and is just buzzing with it. A* is just getting on with the work/social life balance. She went away with James’s family to the Isle of Wight while I was away.

I have some back full of contentment and with energy to resume the home improvements, albeit at a slow pace. I also want to focus on getting J2 through his driving test.