MOUNTAINS

One of the very first things I do daily is to rise and put on a pot of coffee. Since I helped make coffee in the Teachers' Lounge for about 20 years, I'm quite adept at the art. I went through a time where I added just a pinch of salt to the huge commercial pot in the lounge. It was at the suggestion of our superintendent. And I liked it for awhile.

One thing I look forward to is opening the louvers in our kitchen and getting the first mountain view of the day. Scottsdale is in the valley of, or some would say this time of year, on the valley of the sun. We are fortunate enough to see the McDowell Mountains and Camelback from our house. Not a great view of either, but hey, they are mountains, and they are cool.

The different colors they take on is an added bonus. We don't get a lot of the blue color (pictured) but we get blacks and grays and pinks and yellows and somewhat greens though. They change so quickly, too, with the sun and shadows and dust particles in the air.

Sunsets are great in the West, too, though not as great as over an ocean or lake when the orb takes its daily dip. Those are the best by far.

So, on days that I start with mountains and end with sunsets are some of the best. But before I shut off all the lights, I have to sneak a peek on or back outside porch for geckos. I can nearly always find at least one, with 11 holding the record.

DA, FINS, DA FINS, DA FINS

It wasn't the only 1959 model that boasted tail fins, but the Caddy was the Daddy of the fins. Even back then, they looks like a Martian car or at least some prototype of the future.

Ralph Nadar's book, Unsafe at Any Speed, complained of the dangers inherent in the design. He gives incidents of a motorcyclist, a bicyclist, a pedestrian injured or killed by the fins. He punctuates his research by telling a story about a 13-year old boy going after a fly ball who stabbed himself to death by meeting the fin head on.

It is amazing to look back now at some of the obvious, yet unintentional flaws in design that led to unfortunate injury and death. Yet we continue to do stupid things for the sake of style. One example is some of the high, high, awkward looking heels that stresses a woman's foot. Piercings, the bed head look, etc. may not be quite as dangerous, but for the sake of style we make sacrifices like the new age '59 Cadillac.

I remember the '59 Chevy better because one of my good friends, Steve drove one. We tooled around ( an expression from that era that I never understood. When we rode our bikes to girls' houses at an earlier age, we went bopping around. Also misunderstood or rather puzzled about the terminology) in that green car mostly during our juco days. Once we even took it to Joliet for Spring Break. Joliet is beautiful that time of year. But only if you have college age women with you. We did, mostly because Steve's fiancee was from there.

When we left for our return, we got about 30 miles out of the city when our alternator
went out. Sunday night. Well, what did you expect. We milked all we could from Spring Break. We had to spend a night in the car at a gas station until the mechanic came on duty the next morning.

We got back about dusk on Monday. With something like $1.74 in our collective pockets. But we looked cool in that '59 with da fins.

USA, USA, USA

No, I'm not talking about World Cup Soccer. Or the NHL draft where a Yank was first selection.

A common beef of mine is celebrities who insist upon sharing their political leanings with the rest of us. But they do it in such a way that is so elitist that it sickens me. I know, I'm beating a dead horse, but it reared its ugly head earlier this month at The Tony's. Or is it Tonys'?

Courtney was in town to visit a Guatemalan friend and celebrate a birthday (6/12). Since she now is in theatre as a coordinator for annual gift giving for the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, we watched part of the Tonys. Her executive director was there and Courtney thought he might have been with Chita Rivera so we looked for them.

In one of the presentations, a puppet and his operator informed some chemically enhanced presenter that he was a puppet and a Republican. "A puppet and a Republican--that rings a bell." Funny stuff. To the liberal attendees. But when you don't have the White House, Congress, or the Senate, I guess that's all they have.

I honestly don't know whom she was referring to, but it's the constant intellectual superiority the Democrats claim by innuendo that galls me. Be proud of your Party, (there are still some good ones, though the number seems to be declining) but not at the expense of the other Party, the Grand Old Party.

The last time I looked, our current President held degrees from Yale and Harvard. Be he can't be intellectual. He can't make good decisions for the country. He's a conservative.