Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Tucson Arizona - Bear Down Baby!

It sure was nice last week to get a taste of the old stomping grounds. Of course in writing the title of the post I'm reminded that my school slogan sounds like something an OB/GYN might say... As part of an expansion of my job responsibilities at work I am adding our facility south of Tucson, Arizona to the list of facilities I take care of environmentally. As part of that, I visited Tucson last week. For those of you not aware, I attended the University of Arizona in Tucson for my undergraduate degree where I met my wife. Of all the places I have lived, Tucson ranks third, for now, only behind Salt Lake City and Silver City for duration. Kearny may beat it out if you add in a few summers here and there but I don’t think so, I’ve never done all the math…we could call it a tie for third…

Anyway, I flew into Tucson late on Monday and back to Georgia early on Friday. If I was smart I would have booked my return flight for Saturday or Sunday and used the company paid flight for a trip up to Kearny as well, but I guess I can do that next time. As it was I was able to arrange dinner on Tuesday night with my twin as he stopped en route from Silver City to Phoenix with a co-worker headed to a training conference. I also met up with my parents on Wednesday night as they drove down to Tucson for dinner. My brother Ollie, who lives in Tucson for another month or two, joined in for both occasions. Living on the East Coast with only one sibling within driving distance makes me appreciate those rare chances to see family all the more.

I can’t have a post without a nod to my running of course. Oh how nice it was to run in Arizona. I could get used to that in a hurry! Each morning I would go out for my runs at the usual 5 am but due to Arizona’s insistence on ignoring daylight savings time the sun came over the horizon within 15 minutes of the start of my run each day. The desert may get hot in the day (103 last week) but the morning cool in the mid 60’s with what felt like single digit humidity was PERFECT running weather. My 70-degree runs with 90% humidity back in Georgia this week have felt oppressive in comparison!

For all the old acquaintances I wasn’t able to hook up with this go around, I’m sorry, I’ll try to catch you next time. As it was, I was with my boss who had rented the car for us, so getting the car for my own use on two of the three evenings was pushing it as it was. The trip reminded me of all the things I enjoyed about Arizona not to mention the proximity to family, but for all that, I love life in Georgia as well. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean I cheer for the SEC over the Pac-10, that doesn’t mean that I don’t read the Kearny, Tucson, Silver City, and Salt Lake City online newspapers at least weekly, it just means I follow NASCAR now as well…

5 comments:

Real said...

LOL! Nascar!

Wait...that was a joke, right? Or are you serious?

kodiak73 said...

Ummmmm, Kasey Kane won at Pocono on Sunday from the pole but points leader Kyle Busch came in dead last as he wrecked early in the race but has a large enough lead in the standings to remain number 1...

Resistance is futile, I have been assimilated. I'm telling you without such knowledge I couldn't get jack from anyone at the plant. It is my way of letting them know I'm Okay to talk to. Hey, at least I'm not flying Ol' Dixie...

Real said...

Bwahahahahaha!

Nascar (shaking my head)

Jamie said...

At least no one makes fun of how you talk yet.

RyanAZ said...

Deanna and I were also down in Tucson that week, visiting the ol' alma mater and celebrating our 15th anniversary. That would have been quite funny to have run into you there. I ran into Pat a few months ago while we were both visiting Kearny, but that's a bit less impressive a coincidence.