PhotosPhoenix

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Hey Mike!...(he's my wonderful brother) Here is the baseball 'DOME' for the Phoenix Diamond Backs...or is it the 'Suns', or the 'SunDevils'...whatever.... The roof rolls over like the SkyDome, but they haven't had a rain scare since 1845. Everyone believes its rusted open, but then you need water to create rust. Phoenix has about nine tall buildings because there is a bylaw which states that anyone going higher than 100 feet is committing an unnatural act. Truth is, it gives an open, airy feel to the city, and when driving, you can always see the mountains. (They aren't really 'mountains', but steep hills...locally, anyways,...north of here in Flagstaff, they get rather ear-popping.) Don't tell anybody, but the palm trees in the fore-ground are actually teeny-tiny ones taped in front of my camera lens.

The animals here in Arizona are different from what we've become accustomed to. This is a cat,...the neighbourhood cat. His name is "Radar". The locals always laugh when I call "Kitty, kitty", and the scrawny thing doesn't even know what to do when I toss a tin-foil ball at him. (Poor thing,..I think it has a hind-leg problem.)

The dogs are much smaller here, probably from lack of water. These, I was told, are Chihuahuas,...and damn, if they don't live in the ground.

On the left is a picture of the desert up close, after 35 years without rain.
On the right, the same view after a 30 second sprinkle of rain. If you are fortunate enough to be able to trek out to the local wilderness just after a rare downpour, you will be regaled with a moisture-inspired cornucopia of flowering symphonic colour. If you ever need your heart re-started, just back into a Jumping Cholla Cactus. You'll be able to actually take a piece of the desert home with you, ......'cause only doctors can remove it without resorting to limb amputation.

They might not have much rain here, but they make up for it with golf courses. They are as prevalent as Tim Horton Donut Stores. Its not unlikely to find two or three scorpions fighting over your sand-trap ball. A tarantula in your golfbag is worth a two-stroke deduction and a free sedative. In the background is famous (to who?) CamelBack Mountain. They say it looks like a camel lying down. Did I tell you too much heat can cause hallucinations? (It really looks like a camel after a nuclear attack.)

The Grand Canyon is wonderful to see in person. The fact that you are actually there, a witness to one of the wonders of the world, combines with the ever-changing grandeur which amplifies the solitude and diminutive size of man. Wow!
(No. I haven't been there either!)

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ May 7, 1999-------Visited The Grand Canyon. ////////////////
////////////////// Photographs and impressions behind this link. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Here is a fine shot of the 'valley' (it's referred to as the 'Valley' by all the local radio stations 'cause its so cool to say "It's sunny and 165 degrees in the valley!"). Phoenix is situated snuggly between a couple of these mountains (which look suprisingly like gigantic piles of doggy do-do). In the background you can see Squaw Mountain, which is named as such because if you look closely, it appears to be a large squaw woman, about 65 to 70 years of age, with a red textured shawl and dark brown boots. Very clearly, she is grinding corn into flour with a large Volkswagen-shaped rock while doing a futile rain-dance and trying to fix the loose handle on her refrigerator door. It's easy to see.....try squinting a little
and biting down hard on your elbow.

In the foreground is a petrified beaver.

Bookmark this page. Before long it will be used as evidence to sue me, no doubt.

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