4:30 p.m---OMGoodness! What a whacked-out 24 hours it’s been! Left Hawaii at 6:30 p.m. on yesterday and arrived
in LA at 1:15 this morning after a 4 ½ hour flight. Tried to sleep on the plane
but wasn’t too successful at it. Hung
out in an empty LA airport for about 5 hours in the middle of the
Kim, on the other hand, only catnapped along our journey from Hawaii back
to Arizona, drank lots of coffee along the way, caught a second wind on the
drive back to Picacho and has been up all day.
His eyelids are drooping but the telescope is set up and he’s ready for
a clear sky. Only hope he can stay awake
long enough to enjoy it.
--------------------
Evening update:
Still didn’t have any food in the camper and we had a bunch of laundry
to do. So, after a brief discussion about who was up to doing what, I got into
action. Kim was up for finally getting a
shower so I gladly did the errands. I had slept and had the energy; he was
still running on no sleep since Sunday morning. So, I put the laundry in the
washer up at the clubhouse, took the truck to Eloy for some minor groceries and
when I returned, stopped at the clubhouse to transfer the wash into the dryer
before heading back to the camper to put away groceries. Then Kim cooked supper while I went back to check
on the status of the dryers. We ate when I got back, just in time for him to
head to the telescope. Divide and conquer was the name of the game.
--------------------
Changes in Eloy: Last year a new housing development was being
constructed on the edge of Eloy. On my
way to the IGA tonight, I noticed it’s been completed; the houses are a mix of simple
one-story single or two story family dwellings and all look to be occupied. The area between Eloy and Coolidge has seen a
rise in industry since 2016, the year we started coming here. I know of two private prisons, an expanding
solar energy complex and Nikola, a car manufacturing company. Obviously, this translates into more job opportunities
and more tax revenue for local governments. But there’s a danger of loss, too,
if factory/industrial expansion isn’t kept in check. Not only does this area have huge blocks of
desert but also oodles of acres of cattle farms, cotton fields, hay fields and
pecan groves. Hate to see some of that
go away all in the name of more..more..more.
Currently there is something huge being built between Eloy and I-10 but
honestly, I don’t recall that property being anything but vacant in the past. The
building is currently in the steel skeleton phase and when I say huge, I mean
gigantically huge. There are no signs
that I’ve seen to indicate what it’s going to be…will have to nosy to find out
what it is.
---------------------
40 Days of Lent challenge: Disrupt your schedule to connect
with someone and meet a need they may have. Given the day I’ve had, this one was tricky BUT I may have
stayed true to the spirit of this challenge unknowingly. When an airplane lands,
most people jump up, jostle each other around getting at their luggage in the
overhead bin and then just stand in the aisle awkwardly holding it, waiting for
every other person on the flight who did the same to move. It clogs the aisle and doesn’t accomplish
much but I’ve been a part of that behavior on previous flights. It’s what
people do. On both flights from Hawaii, the
other passengers stayed true to the ‘hurry up and wait in the aisle while
holding bulky luggage’ mentality. And
both times we just sat back and let everyone else go, got our bags when the aisle
was clear and were the last passengers off the plane. So, we disrupted a cycle of behavior by
staying seated and in the process helped everyone else meet their needs but really
can’t claim to have connected with anyone other than our seatmate. And yes, I know that’s stretching it but hey,
it’s what I’ve got.
Kim did fulfill the challenge although he didn’t necessarily see it that
way until I mentioned it. When Kim was
busy setting up his telescope paraphernalia, a fellow camper came over seeking
some guidance with his own scope. He admitted
that he didn’t know how to do anything but look at the moon; Kim took a break
from what he was doing and spent some time talking with the man. So, a disruption of his schedule and
connecting with someone over a particular need.
Besides being an ambassador for astrophotography, he unknowingly played
right into today’s challenge.
