"people are falling from the sky"

"I have to let you go now, people are falling from the sky!"

That's what Dawn said to her Mom on the phone as we approached Skydive Arizona in elegant Eloy on Saturday. It's a pretty cool site.

First you hear the airplane go by at 13,000 feet or higher. If you watch very carefully, you can see a smattering of black dots escape and trail behind the straining machine. They don't do much else for what seems like a long time. Just a bunch of dots against the clouds like black pepper on mashed potatoes against fine china.

Then one by one, each dot swoops away and transforms like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis and the sky is filled with a visual percussion of flourescent colors. Like a dozen unique rainbows indignant at having to share the atmospheric pallet with their siblings.

Then, before you have fully appreciated the spectacle, the butterfly storms into the landing area like a peregrine falcon on the hunt only to pull up short at the last second, legs stretched to terra firma and the canopy of colorful nylon collapses into just another fluffy pile of fabric and string, spent dreams and smoke.

Here are some of Dawn's terrific pix:

Now, THIS is funny!

i just don't see what's so funny

about this picture:

Yesterday we went explorin'. Down through Coolidge, past Casa Grande, and into Eloy, which you might know, is where we willingly jumped out of an airplane almost 11 years ago. So we revisited Skydive Arizona, thinking that it would be good for some colorful pictures. We both got lots of great pictures that I'll be posting (here or on the photo blog) over the few days.

Dawn is of the unfathomable opinion that this picture is somehow amusing. Go figure!

ASU Polytechnic

Went with Dawn to ASU Polytechnic, today. She needed the library for a test to shore-up her AZ teaching certification. I needed to tag along and annoy her. Took some pics of the campus.

Looked like some sort of student center...

I don't know what this is, but I'll tell you it isn't right side up. Do you know which way it goes?

flowing waters

Tried an experiment yesterday. A longish exposure to get flowing water to look flowy, smooth and milky. Here's what I ended up with. It was a full sunshine midday shot. I know I should have waited until dusk, but.... darn it.... I like to eat dinner around dusk!

handsome fella

Found this handsome fella in Florence, AZ a couple of days ago. Florence is the next town over to the east (fifteen miles to the east) and is the county seat. But there isn't much there except some prisons and some homes.

But I did find this guy in front of a store on Main Street that sells Indian items. Best image of my whole visit to inconspicuous Florence, AZ.

Next time, maybe Florence, Italy! OK, maybe not next time, exactly, but sometime.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West

Took another excursion on Sunday to Taliesin West, in Scottsdale. Taliesin West is a campus (or camp) or even a bit of a commune that Frank Lloyd Wright created to teach architectural theory and practice to his proteges.

It still functions as a school of architecture. There are no grades, no tests, and no set period of education, yet it is a fully accredited school of architecture.

Here's the man, himself:

and here are some pix I took on Sunday of TW:

mystery castle

Hello!


On Saturday we took an interesting excursion to the Mystery Castle at the base of South Mountain in Phoenix. Read the story. Look at the pix. The old lady in the fur is Mary Lou and she lives in the house. Even after living there for 63 years, she still finds little treasures and surprises left behind by her eccentric father.

nog, nog, nog, nog....

Carole gave us these snowmen, er, loving snow couple (who am I to judge?). Dawn can't get enough of 'em. Especially the nog part. Watch and learn and hopefully laugh a bit.

the day.....

the earth stood still! egads!

So, a couple of nights ago, we rented the original The Day the Earth Stood Still.

I never actually saw the whole thing before. It was pretty terrific.

Then, today, we ventured into civilization and saw the re-make with Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly. Keanu Reeves must be brighter than he looks. He's gotta know he is a far cry from a brilliant actor. So, he leverages his pretty face into roles where he can play it cold, inhuman, stonefaced, etc. And makes millions doing it. Kudos, Keanu, Kudos.

Dawn liked it. Carole liked it but thought the ending left a bit to be desired. I liked it far more than I expected, but I think Carole has a point. The ending needed a bit more fleshing out. All told, however, pretty good stuff. Good effects, reasonably good screenplay, and a nice mix of the original, a little War of the Worlds, and some Close Encounters. Fun!

Xmas 08

Pix from Christmas day... a rainbow, a well-lit house, and a visit to the Mormon Temple.

Dawn's New Outfit

Here's Dawn trying on a swell new outfit given to her from her Mom! Check it!

decorating

OK, so we finally decorated the house a bit. Tree, Xmas cards, stockings, gifts. And its only Xmas Eve! Anyway, here are some pix.

Rawhide, hee-ya!

Carole, Dawn, and I visited Rawhide Wild West Town today. Oh, its kitschy, but ya gotta do it. Sunday also involved a visit to Scottsdale and a terrific burger at Tempe's ChuckBox. Here are some pics.

Here the ladies met some nice fellas. Nice fellas with six-shooters!

Dawn met this bald guy. Just another shiny bald guy....

Carole posed with a friendly cactus. We were told we had to get a picture of Carole with a cactus and we figured that is had to be a saguaro cactus.

I did some prospecting for gold, but as you can probably tell from the look on my face, I only found fool's gold. I guess that's just about right, ain't it?

Then we visited old towne Scottsdale where, much to our surprise, Santa was driving a trolley!

L'ecole

Went out for a fancy-pantsy dinner last night at L'ecole. L'ecole is the training restaurant at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute (where Merry-Berry went to school). Basically, it is a terrific way to get a five star meal for a no star price. When you add all the dishes together, you get full, but one of the dishes was this single stuffed grape tomato. Ha!

Guess who's in Arizona?

Dawn's Mom flew into town today! And the airline lost her luggage! Oh no! But it's all easy sailing from here on out!

some swell ideas....

Nothing particularly new here, but I think this video nicely sums up the way some folks believe Christmas should be. Except for the rampant comsumerism and commercialization, I'm a big fan of Christmas. Take a look:

a little under the weather...

Well, Dawn and I are both dealing with colds. Not the cold, mind you. Just colds. She's had it for over a week now. I'm just getting started. But I'm shooting for a quick recovery. Unlike this poor shmuck...

and the cotton is high

about seven feet high!

Have you ever seen what happens to cotton when it gets harvested? They smush it into giant rectangular shapes about the size of a semi-truck and cover it (to protect it from the rain we almost never get!).

Then, I presume it gets hauled away eventually. I'm gonna keep on eye on all this cotton!