Budd has found the house he wants to buy here, and I knew which one it was as soon as he told me where, because I've had my eye on it, too. It has two huge shrubs like the smaller one we have out back. I think of it as a rose because the flowers are similar, but one of these days I'll get it identified for sure. Anyway, they are all laden with heavenly hot pink flowers right now. So yesterday I took a couple of pictures of that house also. Unfortunately, it isn't for sale. It seems that every third or fourth house here is, though. When I conversed with a local real estate agent, I learned that average days on market exceed a year. Not a good place if you want to fix and flip, but may be good if you want to acquire a lot of rentals.
We checked out the 'casino' in Why on Sunday while out for a drive. It was actually a combination gas station, convenience store, slots room. No table games, so it won't be a temptation. Someone told us the nearest table games were at a casino in Maricopa, which looks to be at least an hour, hour and a half away. Our drive was cut unfortunately short as I began to realize that the shake from Dairy Queen had disagreed with me, but we did find the dump (no municipal garbage collection here), the golf course and the airport. The latter is merely a landing place for private aircraft--there's no commercial service as far as we could tell. There is, however, a good bus service from here to points both north and south.
I'm going to have to find a walking buddy, as I have to fight with myself to go out for my walks alone. We live in what is known as the Historical District, very close to the square which has a couple of commercial establishments, the post office and the library. Also close to the only bank in town, the newspaper office, the Curley School, and the historic Catholic church. NOT close to the grocery store, Dollar stores, or thrift stores. The Curley School is located on the site of a former public school, I forget now whether C told me it was the high school or the elementary school. In any case, it now hosts large gatherings like the Sonoran Desert Alliance symposium that was taking place during our first week here. I understand there are also artist apartments there, and I assume there are classes of some sort. A Google search reveals that there are mixed opinions of it, and I haven't begun to explore the truth yet, but it appears to be well-respected by the locals as its events are prominent in the local newspaper.
We're curious to learn whether the restaurant that we got to about a week ago just as it was closing for the night has actually closed for the season...we haven't seen it open since that night. We have, however, found one that stays open until 9 p.m., and it's within walking distance. I'm afraid that many of the local establishments will close for the summer, but at least this time there is a larger town within less than an hour's drive. And within two hours, we have most of the Phoenix area available, as opposed to Gallup when we were at Canyon de Chelly. I don't feel quite as isolated.
I guess I'll have to go alone to take pictures of the wildflowers. The biggest problem I have with his long commute each day is that he doesn't want to make it again on the weekends, which is the only time we would be able to take the hiking trails at the park. He has also developed night blindness that's as bad or worse than mine, so he isn't interested in going driving at the times that many of the desert plants bloom--after dark. Which, to be fair, is also the most likely time to run into illegals and drug runners out in the countryside--not my favorite idea. Maybe I won't go alone after all.
I've discovered some weekly library events that look like a good place to meet people I'd like to get to know. The Community Garden people meet there, and there's a 'Stitch and Chat' meeting weekly on Thursday evenings. Won't get a chance to get there this Thursday, as I'll be out of town.
I'm marking time until my trip to Dallas to see my immediate family and cousins in what we've been terming a 'cousin reunion'. These are cousins from my mother's side of the family, and there are only a few of us as Mother only had two siblings live to adulthood and none of the three sisters had a really large brood. My brother, sister and I have just two female cousins, daughters of Aunt Margie, and one male cousin, son of Aunt Teddy. Both of them have passed away, as have their husbands and my dad, so it's just Mother in that generation of her immediate family now (although she has a couple of first cousins still living). We all treasure her, and are really looking forward to seeing her and each other this upcoming weekend.
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