Brutus 8/15/ 1995 - 10/24/2007

My heart is broken but he's no longer in pain.

just a few more misc pics.

All the dogs

Brutus
Heidi and Sugar
Clifford

Time for an update

Even the nasty messages stopped asking when something new was going to get added. Figured I should prove we are alive and well in Arizona. 2007 has had it's challenges. We still have not sold the first house and that's been causing a definate financial strain to say the least. At the moment we do have two offers on the house and trying to work thru them with our Realtor. My postion at work changed partly for the good and party not. After 10 months of working 7 days a week and being on call the hours I wasn't there I took a position as recruiter and trainer. With one of us gone more then half the week and with (then) three dogs at home it was just too much. So the upside is I'm pretty much working 5 days a week with regular hours but also took a cut in pay. Holding out so far but after labor day It's time to start looking for another job again. Meanwhile Dan's still happy flying although he's always got some good stories about passengers. Good and bad. Rude and happy flyers. And of course some they left at the gate.

We took on an addition to the family a few months ago. On a trip to Petco for dog food we happened upon the mobil kennel for the county animal rescue people. So of course we had to go look. There's always stray dogs out here. sometimes running in good size packs. Big ones, small ones and all dogs in between. And all too many dogs here dead on the side of the road. So at least some do get picked up and given a second chance. So when we went in to see what they had for dogs there was one we both found ourselves falling in love with. We looked around, did our shopping at Petco and left. Well we did take this one out and walked him too. There was also another guy there looking at him too.

So we left and stopped to get some lunch. Both of us were talking about this dog. But figured the other guy was going to take him and he'd end up with a good home. This other guy also had at least one dog at home too already. And we had 3. But when we got back in the car it didn't go home, it went back to Petco to be sure this dog got a good home. All the way there saying we were sure he'd be gone. NOT!! He was still there.

The rescue people were so happy to see us come back. I'm sure !! So we took the dog out for another walk. We spent a good hour there and finally decided we'd take him home to join our family. After doing all the paper work the other guy came back again too. But too late for him. The Bloodhound was going home with us. So now we have 4 dogs. A 2-3 yr old Bloodhound we named Clifford.

Winter in Phoenix

Like the rest of the world, winter here has been a little different. Maybe more like normal then the first winter here. It's definately colder then last winter. After the storms this weekend there's visable snow on the mountains toward the north of the valley and there was snow this afternoon in the north part of the valley as well. Last weekend I was out early to work the Rock 'N' Roll marathon in Tempe. We had to be on site, outside, at 4:30 AM and it was 26 degrees. I still have a few nice warm jackets but I wish I had remembered to wear some thermal underwear. Might have been my only chance all winter here. I'm sure not heading up to Flagstaff just to see snow or get into some cold weather. I send buses up there nearly everyday so I get to see snow dripping and melting off buses here. That as close to snow as I want to get.
I added some new photos. Some are just of the sky here today. There was even some thunder. Those clouds were the ones dropping snow to the north and a few rain drops here. You can also see what's behind the house here. There's a bunch of family farms with horses, sheep and goats. And I don't mind them as neighbors one bit. The company I work for did all the transportation for the bowl games here. There's a pic of my truck on the tar mac at Sky Harbor. Over the two weeks I was out there a lot escorting buses for charter pickups and departures. Mostly at Southwest of course!! It was a long and tiring event doing three bowl games. But it was just a dress rehersal for next years college bowl games and the super bowl. Our planning for the Super Bowl is already in progress.
There's a couple of pics of the garage too. I love the garage here. Finally a BIG garage for my truck and still lots of room left over.

added January 21st

we are moving again *

well hopefully. We have to sell the current house but we signed for this one today and should close in a month. It's a mile and a half down the road. Single story, 2,872 sq ft. All tile flooring except the bedrooms. We needed a winter project doing another backyard and putting in another pool.
check out the photos below.

new house pics

If you don't know, you do now. I started a new job in July. Thought I'd post a photo of myself at my new post. I like what I'm doing, where I work and the people I work with. But the hours are way more then before. But I'm only whining!!
I don't miss all the bitching parents.

Labor Day weekend

Ok, maybe it was a lazy summer. Maybe it was a busy summer. But either way you call it I havn't posted on here in a couple months. Regardless of the type of summer you had hope it was good and you are not crying about how fast it went by. If you are back in New England hope you did get some nice sunny days to go to the beach or pool or some fun outdoor activities. Seems like for a while every time I checked the news it was flooding somewhere and more rain was on the way.
This, being the second summer here in the Valley of the Sun, allows me to make a comparison. Well last summer sure seemed like the hotter one to me. We had a couple more days where it dipped below 100 this summer then last summer. That's a COUPLE, not a lot. Maybe it was 4 total. Maybe 5. Sitting here right now on Sunday the weather channel says it 93 with 36% humidity. VERY humid for Phoenix. But it did rain hard last night. And Hurricane John off the Mexican coast is going to bring us more rain and cooler weather all this week. Cooler here in early September means under 100. Last summer was much dryer. Little rain that brings the temperatures down. So it was 100 + into the middle of September.

Ok, enough about the weather other then to say I do like the heat. It was down in the low 80's last night after the rain and I went out with a sweatshirt on. I'm sure some of you are not surprised and laughing about that.

I posted some new photos. The top one is just one of the many beautiful and unique sunsets from the summer. This one is just another example of how the design for the Arizona flag is so fitting for this state. check out a flag and see.
The next one is in California on highway 62, driving west from Twenty Nine Palms toward the Arizona border. We drove thru Joshua Tree National Park, then took 62 east. It's a long 100 mile drive thru the desert. There's nothing out there but the beauty of the desert to absorb.

There's a photo of Dan in Joshua Tree, under a Joshua Tree, between Hwy 62 photos. Then the other photos below are taken in Joshua Tree. I had to drive thru there. It is an interesting place with a variety of cactus, and desert flora. As you can see in the photos as we drove thru there was a rain storm passing thru too. There's nothing like experiencing a rain storm in the desert. It can amaze me how you can watch it for so long and from so far away. The smell of desert rain is distictive and as unique as the desert summer weather that consists of monsoons, microbursts, duststorms, haboob, lightning and thunder.

Well I hope people are still reading the blog and checking out the photos. Remember to click on the photos for a larger view. Add some comments so I know it's being looked at and I'll try and hurry back soon to add more.

off to the pool with the dogs !! happy holiday weekend.

Summer Photos 2006

It's only June. it's hot as hell already

hey ya'll. Greating from the valley of the sun. If you like it around 106 - 110 time to come on out and visit. Just remember it's a dry heat. Unlike everyone back in Rhode Island and Connecticut where we hear you need a row boat to get to Dunkin Donuts and use the sail thru. Well we got some rain here Wednesday afternoon. I guess from the emails I have received if you watched some of the news shows you saw we had a good dust storm here. Not that it was a huge one but it was early in the season for that kind of storm. Usually the "monsoons" as they call them here are not till July. For me the fun was driving in it. I had gone to Tucson Tuesday to do some work down there. right after lunch you could see the sky getting really black to the southwest. Knowing that our storms in Phoenix usually come out of the Tucson area and track right up I-10 I knew It would be prudent for me to get the hell out of there soon. Well by the time I left and got to I-10 the rain and wind were just hitting the area. And wind means around 50 MPH. I drove in rain and wind for the next 90 minutes doing about 15 - 25 MPH in flooded roadways and watching the water cover everything on both sides of the highway. I finally our ran the rain and went into a dark but basically dry area but could see the swirling dirt and dust ahead of me. The wall of dust was the next thing to conquor to get home free. Luckly where I was it wasn't that bad YET !! I was just south of Casa Grande, I would call CG the home or ground zero of the dust storms. I think they really get fueled there with all the miles and miles of desert and dirt and then just push all that crap up to Phoenix. North of CG the highway is frequently the location of big pileups of wrecked cars that drive into the dust storms.
Well I made it thru safe and sound. When i got just north of the storm i stopped to take photos of a stopped train with the wall of dust behind the locomotives. and one looking the other way showing the dust as it was pushing north. (the top 4 photos below) As fast as i could take those 4 photos I was back in the dust storm again. So off and running i was again to get out of the storm. Oh, did i mention I was driving the new truck I had bought last week? I wasn't being to heroic since I was driving a truck with about 700 miles on it and really did want to have it around a little longer. Well I finally got to where i exited I -10 and headed west toward the pass thru the mountain to get home here. All the time watching the storm to my left approaching. As i walked into the house and out the back door to bring things that could blow around into the house it hit where we live. We got plenty of dust but no rain on Tuesday.
Wednesday afternoon here we had an encore performance by mother nature and another dust storm and this time considerable amounts of rain too. the rest of the photos were taken on Wednesday from the back door looking out over the pool and some from the deck upstairs looking out toward the golf course behind the house. So here's a few photos of weather in action here in AZ. But i got to admit I still love it here !! the Pool is around 90 degrees and there's usually plenty of sunshine.

This week's dust storm photos