Has the novelty worn off or have I just nothing to say? (Did I ever?)
For whatever the reason, I haven’t felt much like blogging lately, not that there isn’t just scads of things going on. I’ve been going through the photos and here are a few that bear mentioning, just to catch everybody up.
Chronologically, then:
This is the answer to a question that’s been bothering me for some time: How the heck are they going to have curved electrical wires running over the top of the Phoenix Light Rail when it bends at Camelback and 19th Ave?
Answer: The erected an elaborate web of cables and wires over the entire intersection, stretching the power lines into something roughly curved.
As it happens, they’re putting up the final stretches of wire and I’m told testing on the trains has already begun, although I’ve yet to see (or hear of) a train this far north. It seems they’re concentrating their testing along Washington. Light Rail is still (apparently) on schedule to begin December 29th.
Now, this photo is a pizza I didn’t eat. A friend had this Prosciutto and Melon “pizza” the other day at Sauce and quite liked it. No cheese, no red sauce – not pizza – at least in my book.
This big story has to be “the storm.” A Phoenix fireman told me it was the biggest storm in 10 years. I’ve been here 26 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it. Winds near my house were clocked at 80-100mph, and it came on us fast. I was in my computer room/office when I suddenly heard a very distinctive sound outside. It’s the sound of a hurricane – I’ve only ever heard it once before, but you never forget it.
Next morning, the city was paralyzed. Power was out all over central Phoenix. (We were just 1 mile outside the power-out zone, but we did suffer several black-outs.) Tree were down everywhere, lying in the roads, billboards were bent over, ripped up and smashed. I took this photo on the way to work. Note the metal girders that are broken.
Finally, there’s this bacon. This is a snapshot of shame. Never in my life have I left a piece of cooked bacon uneaten. The other day at Arby’s, the bacon on my sandwich was so inedible that I had to peal it off and throw it away. Bad for you Arbys on Camelback and 15th Ave. I won’t be back for a long time because of this.