Saturday Meanderings

Well, August has gotten off to a not-so-great start. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if we’ve wandered into the Book of Exodus-famine, flood and pestilence seem to be arriving in rapid succession. Are the planets out of alignment or something? Isn’t it interesting, and sometimes downright painful, how life can become a series of unfortunate events, seemingly piling on top of another? This week’s Saturday Meanderings I will be sprinkling some beauty in with the beast. Grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and let’s recount the moments-good, bad and occasionally ridiculous-that made up this week.

A Chicago Weekend

Let’s start with the good stuff! Last week, we headed to Chicago to spend the weekend with our son, Benjamin and his new wife, Delaney. You’ve got to love Chicago’s public transportation system, as our trip turned into a bit of trains, planes, buses, and automobiles experience-with lots and lots of walking thrown in for good measure. Rain was predicted for most of the weekend, but somehow it seemed to let up whenever we needed it to be dry. I’m calling that a win.

One of the highlights was Friday Night Pajama Party Night, a family tradition that Benjamin has continued from when our children were little. Back then, Friday nights meant renting a movie from Blockbuster-or ordering one through the mail from Netflix (remember those days?), picking up a pizza and gathering everyone in front of the television in our pajamas. It was a rare treat to eat a meal in front of the telly, in jammies, to boot.

Benjamin’s version has definitely grown up a bit. His Friday night spread included homemade bruschetta, artisan cocktails, three kinds of homemade pizza-with the dough made from scratch-and a beautiful Caprese salad. Delaney finished the meal with a homemade strawberry dump cake. The pajamas remain an important part of the evening.

For our movie, we watched The Fugitive, which is still such a great flick. There’s something pretty wonderful about seeing a family tradition survive the years, even when the pizza gets better, the cocktails get fancier and the children are all grown up. Some things are worth keeping.

Another highlight was attending the Chicago Cubs vs. New York Yankees game at the iconic Wrigley Field. There is just something special about walking into that old ball park and soaking up the atmosphere. Add a delicious Chicago hot dog, a cold beverage and a Cubs win for the home team~a pretty perfect evening. And those Cubs fans? They are something else! The energy, enthusiasm and loyalty is contagious~even for those of us who may not be lifelong Cubs fans.

The best way to experience Chicago is plenty of walking. We wandered over to the Lincoln Park Zoo, explored a local farmers market, had wonderful food, loved the architecture and simply enjoyed Chicago in full summer bloom.

The flowers were everywhere, adding color and beauty to the city streets. And have you ever seen hibiscus this enormous?

It’s always a bit sad to say goodbye but these two are such happy newlyweds and enjoying life to its fullest.

What in the World is Going On with the Weather?

We had two major dust storms in Phoenix this week, which seems like more than our fair share of atmospheric drama. One night, before heading to bed, Scott looked outside and said the sky appeared to be on fire-everything was smoky and visibility was almost nonexistent. I went outside to investigate only to discover we were in the middle of a dust storm. The next morning, everything was covered in a fine layer of dust. Come to find out it was a Category 5 storm. Two days later, haboob round 2 hit again. Apparently, Mother Nature decided we needed a good dusting.

On Thursday, I headed up to the cabin. One of the things I love about the 3 1/2-hour drive is watching the landscape change from the desert to the mountains. With all the rain we’ve had, the desert is actually a beautiful shade of spring green, and there is so much sky to watch along the way. As the elevation changes, so does the weather, and I never tire of viewing the clouds build and transform above me.

This trip, however, I saw some cloud formations I don’t believe I’ve ever seen before. About two hours into the drive, as I was making my way through the Mogollon Rim in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, the temperature dropped from 95 degrees to 59 degrees in mere minutes. There was even snow on the ground (in August!), and dense fog swirling through the pine trees. Above me, enormous clouds were building into these strange, almost sculptural formations. They looked ominous~and frankly, the entire experience was a little otherworldly.

Then the rain started. And I mean started! It came down so hard that visibility was reduced to almost nothing, and I had to slow considerably just to see the road in front of me. For about 40 minutes, I drove through the storm, watching the landscape disappear behind sheets of rain. Just when I thought I made it through, I found myself in another storm, this one accompanied by multiple vertical lighting strikes and even an occasional horizontal bolt. It was quite the show.

Rarely do we see fog here, and I’ve certainly never experienced such a dramatic combination of fog, rain, lightning and towering clouds on this drive. I later learned that the enormous formations I was photographing were cumulonimbus thunderstorm clouds, those associated with strong thunderstorms. Whatever their official name, they were magnificent~and a little intimidating. And perhaps this is another example of the beauty in the beast theme for this week’s Saturday Meanderings. Even when Mother Nature is putting on quite a performance, it’s hard not to stop and admire the beauty of it all.

Mother Nature Strikes Again

When I finally reached the cabin, I was stopped in my tracks by what looked like the aftermath of a tornado. Debris was scattered everywhere-across the driveway, and both the front and back decks. Leaves, branches, pine needles, pinecones, pieces of trees and bark and flower petals covered nearly every flat surface. What the heck happened?

When I left the cabin a week earlier, the landscaping was pristine. My geraniums were in bloom, the hydrangeas filled with balls of blooms, and the herb garden was lush and abundant. Everything was growing like crazy and I knew my fertilizing efforts were paying off. I called my friend and neighbor to ask what in the world had happened. She explained that a horrific hailstorm had happened the night before.

Apparently it wasn’t just a little hail. Large icy balls pummeled the landscaping, literally stripping and decimating my foundation plants. The huge white blossoms on my hydrangeas? Gone. Every hosta had its leaves ripped to shreds. My beautiful geraniums were stripped from their stems, with several stems themselves broken and battered. Even the plants that survived looked like they’d been through a war.

I stood there looking at the carnage and thought, Mother Nature strikes again. After all the rain, I suppose I should be grateful for the lush green landscape, but I’m not sure the plants needed this much weather enthusiasm. I doubt many of them will have enough time to recover before the fall and winter arrive. So much for my beautiful, well-tended garden that I left a week ago. Sigh.

And then There were Floods and a Missing Brake Light

Hopefully, this is the last of the bad news for this week because I think we have reached our quota of famine, flood and pestilence.

Three of our neighbors have experienced significant house floods recently, caused by a broken water filtration system or an R-O unit. Two of the three are currently living elsewhere while their floors and cabinets are being ripped out and the massive renovation process gets underway. Nothing like coming home to discover that a water leak has turned into a very big-and expensive-problem.

This week, we did have a small flood in our basement due to a dead water pump from the air conditioning unit. Fortunately we were home and caught it in time before any real damage happened.

Lastly, something strange happened to us.

My beloved 2005 Escalade-yes, I know it’s old but I love this car-apparently become victim of a very odd theft. The rear brake light that sits above the trunk window and spans the width of the car simply disappeared.

We didn’t even notice it missing until we were packing the car for my trip to the cabin. Naturally, we started trying to figure out when and where it could have happened. The car had been at the dealership for the past seven days, so we checked our home security cameras. Sure enough, the light was clearly there when Scott dropped the Escalade off at the dealership. When we brought the car home, it was gone.

Hmmm.

So now we’re tying to determine whether the dealership has surveillance cameras that might tell us what happened during those seven days. The replacement part, along with installation, is going to cost approximately $1,000+. And I’m not exactly feeling that this is our fault-or, for that matter, our problem.

I suppose this is what happens when you own a 21-year old car. But honestly, I would much rather spend $1,000 on something else than replacing a perfectly good brake light that apparently decided to walk away while the car was in someone else’s care. Hopefully, this is where the bad news ends.

A Little Beauty to End the Week

And finally, a little bit of beauty to end what has been a rather beastly week. Finn recently had his very first mobile grooming appointment. Since Finn absolutely despises water, we weren’t quite sure how he would react to the whole experience. Much to our surprise, he was a very good boy-and now he’s nice and clean, nails are clipped and he is wonderfully soft and fluffy. I’m not sure Finn would agree that the experience was necessary, but we are enjoying the results!

So with that, I’m calling it a week. Let’s hope August settles down a bit before next Saturday! Next week, I’ll be sharing some really great finds, especially if you have any neck or muscle strain issues. Until then, have a glorious weekend, stay safe out there, and remember to look for a little beauty amid the beast.