March-ing on

Margie had free passes to Out of Africa, a wild animal park near Cottonwood, so we went up there to see that. They have mostly rescued animals native to Africa, but also black and brown bears and tigers.
All together now...."Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"  Good.
The grizzly bears were very small, and the black bears were very fat. The lions and tigers are awesome animals. They have a performance called "Tiger Splash" in which handlers tease playfully with a couple of tigers to get them to leap high into the air and land in a pool of water. The handler is also in the pool. With a playful tiger. We were there on a Sunday, which is one of the three days of the week that they feed the predators. That was fun. They throw huge hunks of meat, or chickens, or turkeys over the fence. They hand feed the grizzly through the fence. (chainlink)
Anyway, we drove home the long way and were rewarded with a spectacular wildflower show.
Now we are getting a few days of light rain, and March Madness has started, and grandkids are coming to visit next week.
Life is good.

March in Tucson

We had a little cold snap last week. It rained most of one day and the high temp was 57. We had to put on jackets to go out. Now, though, temps are on the rise and in 70's on the way to 80's next week.
Moon was full last night, and will be just past full tonight. So we are going to take a moonlight hike in Sabino Canyon tonight when the moon comes up just after 7pm. We will stay on the road so as not to trip and fall off a cliff. It would be nice if some wildlife (not mountain lions!) show up.

February in Tucson

Seventy something. Doesn't matter. When the first digit is seven, the second digit is just a detail.
High, thin clouds. A little wind.
We dressed appropriately, applied sunscreen and set out.
There was a car show with a couple of blues bands at a local mall. Outdoors. Food trucks.
We admired some of the old cars, explored the food trucks for later, selected a couple of chairs and listened to the first band. We were facing the north side of the Catalina Mountains. A large hawk was drifting on the wind. At one time he drifted about fifty feet straight overhead.
The band finished its set and we went to get BBQ tri tip. We sat on a curb to eat. Then we heard the second band warming up and headed back to the bandstand. The second band was better. More experienced. More professional. The hawk was joined by a mate. They entertained us for quite a while.
When the music stopped and it was time to give prizes to the cars, it was time to go home.
Wow. February in Tucson.

Happy Birthday Ariana

Seven!
How do you get to be seven so fast?
I think you should slow down. Don't turn eight for at least another year.
Well, enjoy your day. I hope the storm doesn't keep you from having fun.

Happy Birthday, Julian

Two years old.
At two one doesn't have the experience necessary to understand what a "birthday" is. But parents celebrate it, adding to the child's store of memories so that by age five full anticipation kicks in. If there are enough other children around having birthdays and especially parties, children can pick up on the importance of the occasion even sooner.
Sorry I don't have any pictures to post here, but you can check facebook for anything Peggie has posted.

You might think nothing is happening.

But you'd be wrong.
Our Skagway friend Dennis visited for a few days and we had a good time. We went to Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Kartchner Caverns, and several movies. Also, we had a fire in our new fire pit.
Brother Don called to invite me jeeping. I went up for a whole week and we went all over the place. We did not break anything, and did not need a rescue. We saw lots of pronghorns and deer and hawks and eagles. I found some interesting rocks including some 350 million year old fossils. Peggie drove up to get me and we enjoyed a long drive home via Pleasant Valley. Beautiful scenery.
It is raining a bit now, although the forecast called for a downpour, which is not happening.
The state is excited to host the Superbowl this weekend, but for us it could just as well be anywhere since we will see it on TV.
Speaking of TV, we use it to appreciate living here as we see the nasty weather in the rest of the country.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

This is a sincere wish for each of us to have a good year.

Our New Year's Eve tradition is to stay home, off the streets, and safe. We have a dinner made entirely of hors d'oeuvres. Okay, I had to look up the spelling. I bet you would, too.
However, Peggie had an injection yesterday, so it was not a good night to celebrate. So we had our hors d'oeuvres meal today. It worked out great. Who wants to cook on New Year's Day?

Last night we started getting snow at around ten. When we went out at 10:30 there was already a dusting. This morning there was a couple of inches on things like rocks and cars, but roads and ground were just wet. By the time we got up, the eaves were already dripping.

My computer monitor has been acting up, and finally, a couple of days ago, it just would not come on. We used Peggie's laptop to look up some troubleshooting. We disconnected, cleaned, and reconnected all the cables. We ended up taking the cover off the CPU case and vacuuming dust out. We were going to do the same thing with the monitor, but then Peggie found this little TV she had won from Domino's a few years ago. We hooked it up, and voila, I had a computer monitor.
It is nice to have my computer back. I think I don't use it much, but when I can't use it, I want to use it all the time.

I am aware that I deserve the Bad Husband of the Year Award. We gave Peggie a fine birthday celebration, but I totally forgot to make a Happy Birthday, Peggie post here. No excuse. My monitor was working that day. Bad, bad husband.