Don't fence me in

Living in this house the last couple of years, we've avoided monsoon storm damage.... until today.

A little fence that separates this property from the one to the west blew over during a thunderstorm. It isn't a very sturdy fence so the fact that it's stayed upright all this time is amazing.

I was able to bend the little posts upright with little effort and have to get some kind of wire, straps or screws to reattach the pieces of wood to the poles. It won't be an expensive or difficult repair.

If this is the worst damage we ever get from a monsoon thunderstorm, I'll take it.

Fence blown over during a monsoon thunderstorm

Blown over fence, one of the overly trimmed juniper trees,
and the stone thing (on the right) that had the
bee hive in it.
2016 hasn't been kind to the front yard.

An erect fry and forks on the floor

Another weekend has come to an end. I got a little bit of stuff accomplished around the house that needed to be including much needed yard work.

If there's any doubt that I'm getting older, a few hours sweating my ass off in the heat was a reminder. Holy crap, that's getting more difficult to do.

I was saddened by the news that iconic street fashion photographer Bill Cunningham died at the age of 87 from the effects of a stroke. I ran across Bill's work by accident on the internet and became quite fascinated by him. He is a good example of what I've learned about the most successful people (in their careers or work): Having a clear singular unwavering focus on what you do, and sacrificing nearly everything else in the process, ends up creating the most extreme and wildly successful results. Most people are not capable or willing to take it to that level and that's why they don't have the biggest successes that they can. I'm not suggesting that it's the right thing for most people but it is a fascinating look at what happens when someone takes it to that level.

You can see a fascinating documentary about Bill's life and his work that is available for Amazon Prime members called "Bill Cunningham New York". It used to be on Netflix as well but that title is not available as of this writing. But it is on Amazon (I watched it again last night).

We wrapped up the weekend with dinner at Culver's (a storm broke out while we ate and while it just rained hard for about five minutes in the area where the restaurant is, it did a lot of damage to the central part of Tucson) and then grocery shopping afterward.

Anthony got two Concrete Mixers at Culver's
because he had a coupon.
Six was our order number as well as the
number of hours two Concrete Mixers gave
him a stomach ache.

I made our order number a 9 instead of a 6.
The consequence I suffered from messing
around with our order number:
I ended up with a photo
that appears to look
like I have the world's fattest hand.

That fry was really happy to see me

A cool picture of the rain storm
moving across Tucson as seen
from the Walmart Neighborhood Market
parking lot at Broadway and Camino Seco
looking west

When you're too lazy to spend five minutes boiling eggs
someone came up with a solution for that.

48 ounces of Califia Farms latte and espresso.
Drink one of these bad boys and you'll
be able to clean a house in less than
sixty seconds and still have jitters left over.

Limited Edition Triscuit Sriracha.
They're extra wonderful when you
put a leaf on top as shown in the
serving suggestion on the box.

Mop handle on the floor.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

A box of forks has fallen and they can't get up.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Yeah, I'm almost this old.
The only thing that makes that slightly less depressing
is the candles are covered in glitter.

I don't need one of these...
just in case you wondered.

Take a little off the top

Anthony's mom, who owns the house we live in, offered to have someone come over and trim the two large evergreen / juniper trees in the front. I don't know much about the process of trimming trees properly so I was grateful she volunteered to arrange for the task to be completed.

I got a surprise when I came home yesterday. The trimming was more of a 90 percent removal of the trees. I have a feeling that's not what she had in mind (it certainly isn't what I had in mind) but the branches can't be glued back on. So, we're stuck with the result.

I am trying to look on the bright side. If we put Christmas lights on them this year, we won't need a ladder.

Flashback to October 2014 when we got the keys
to the house and what one of the trees looked like until
a few days ago...

Here's what the same tree looks like now.
If I want to enjoy shade from it I'll have to lie down
really really close to the bottom.

They say it's a dry heat

I've always disliked being cold. But there's a point where even I, cold blooded as I am, feel it's pretty darned hot. Today was one of those days.

We hit 115 degrees in Tucson which ranked as one of the three hottest days ever recorded. A couple of people died hiking in this heat (a completely preventable death if someone has an ounce of intelligence and knows it's going to kill you hiking when it's 115 degrees). I wanted to get some yard work done this weekend but I decided I didn't have a death wish.

One of the items that Anthony's mom left here when she moved out and we moved in was a vintage outdoor thermometer. (I just looked it up on e-bay and it's worth over a hundred bucks!) It also registered the ridiculously warm day we had. Of course, it's a dry heat.

It also gave us a lovely sunset -- the heat in combination with drifting smoke from a wildfire burning in northern Arizona.

The Bubble Up thermometer keeping track
of how hot it got on Sunday June 19th.

When I shot this photo in the early afternoon
it had only reached 113 degrees.
That already had broken a record for this date.

Hot weather and smoke in the air
gave us a beautiful sunset
in Southern Arizona tonight.

Eyes Wide Shut

A video shoot for the TV show this week at an eye care center was successful as far as the shoot itself, but I took some crappy photos when I was there.

I was also timing the segment and field producing, and shooting a few photos when I had a free few seconds. Not one of my better moments as a photographer though because some of the photos I shot had the subjects with their eyes closed.

It was definitely an eye closing experience. (as opposed to eye opening... ahem)

Behind Paul who was running the camera while the eye doctor
explains the anatomy of the eye to host Tina

"If you put your finger in an eye here,
the person who owns the eye will say "ow!"

The other eye doctor and Tina as seen
from behind Paul the photograper

"Close your eyes and repeat after me:
Ken Carr is awesome. Ken Carr is awesome."