"I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later." - Mitch Hedberg

 In no particular order - chronological, logical, weight, or color...
Oh, and as always, click to enlarge the pics.

This morning I replaced Louise's metal fuel line with a high grade rubber fuel line and installed a new filter while I was at it. The job took less than an hour and went fine. The jury is still way out on whether this solved the problem. The car runs better and accelerates stronger, but neither of those things should be attributable to a new fuel line. It starts differently altogether, another mystery outcome. If shut off briefly, as was the case when I got gas this morning, it now takes a poke on the gas pedal to get it fired up. OK, I can deal with that. If it sits for an hour or so, as it did this afternoon while I was in a meeting, it STILL has trouble when first fired up. Wants to stumble and die for the first couple of minutes before smoothing out and running just fine. But at least this time I was able to keep it running.
AARGH.

Through particularly astute management and a lot more blind luck my fantasy football team has risen to second place in our league. My record is 6-3-0 and the first place team is 9-0-0, so I hold no hope of overtaking him. But if I stay in the top two I'll have a chance of knocking him off in the playoffs.
Feel free to join me in rooting for outstanding games by Aaron Rogers, the Green Bay QB, Randall Cobb, a Packers WR, and Marshawn Lynch, Seattle RB, the keys to my team's performance. Oh, and Green Bay's defense.

If you follow the NFL you may already know that this is Green Bay's bye week, so four of my leading scorers will be inactive. Read: I'll be 6-4-0 a week from now.

I feel like an outsider. Because we vote by mail I'm almost two weeks past my civic duty when everybody else is proudly sharing their voting number and wait time.
I didn't even get a sticker.

They pulled NCIS in favor of election coverage.
FAIL

Tomorrow's forecasted high - 91 degrees, which would tie a record. November, people. November.

I grew up in Seattle, Pam in Las Vegas. Since meeting at college in Michigan we've lived in SoCal (twice), the CA central coast, Michigan, and now the Phoenix metro area. We have first hand knowledge that every area of the country has its advantages and disadvantages. The east has hurricanes, the midwest tornados, the upper plains frigid cold, and the Pacific Northwest has gray damp. California has earthquakes and Californians.
Arizona, along with the rest of the desert southwest, has heat. I think it has to do with the desert part. Our average annual rainfall is 4", compared to 40" in Seattle. We mark the first and last triple digit temp days like people in Michigan mark the first and last snowfall of each year. The average for July is 102 degrees, but we all know that for at least three months each year we should expect most days to be at or above 110.

You can't grow things here, at least not things that people would choose to grow, or can be grown without Herculean effort. Cactus does well, as do trees without leaves, like the Palo Verde, the AZ state tree. We don't have dirt, and you can't call this soil. The appropriate term is ground. Or concrete if you're trying to dig in it. The state color is brown.

So how to explain that Phoenix is the fifth largest metro area in the nation? (It may be sixth after the housing crash; we have to wait until the next census to know for sure.) Try to name the biggest five cities in the U.S. and I'll bet you're surprised at what isn't on there to make room for Phoenix.

This place used to be pretty much deserted (pun intended). There were always a few crazies here with two part names like "Mad Dog Charlie" or "Rattlesnake Bill," but most people would rather face tornados every spring to eat vegetables they could grow out back and have a lawn instead of painted gravel.
All of that changed in the mid-50's, and within a decade the desert southwest was boom central.

They invented commercially viable AC systems for cars and houses. And the interstate system.

Suddenly it didn't matter how hot it was outside because you could live in 72 degree comfort year 'round. No tornadoes or snow or earthquakes or hurricanes. Just sunshine all year long and whatever temp you wanted.
The place began to explode. First it was old people who got tired of shoveling all winter long, but pretty soon business began to realize working people liked it, too. And desert land was cheap, so nice houses could be built and sold at bargain prices.
All the stuff you need to live - food, clothing, iPods? Interstate 10. It runs right through Phoenix, in one side and out the other, and it's a parade of semi trucks.
All because of air conditioning.

This place wouldn't exist if it weren't for AC. Nobody that didn't drink whiskey would live here.

All of this to explain that on my bike ride yesterday I asked myself the question, "Of all the places you've lived, and all the places you've seen (lots more), all things being equal where would you choose to live?"

A: all things are never equal, so it's an empty mental exercise. But if I were to choose....

Where would you choose?