Posts tagged arizona
Arizona Weather
Jan 29th
Last week we had rain… lots of it. Consider this… Phoenix normally gets about 7 to 8 inches of rain a year and last week we got almost 3.5 inches. That’s kind of nuts to think about. Amazingly, there wasn’t much street flooding in the metro area, so that was good. The back yard of the new house was a lake (not so good when you want the landscaping done ASAP). There was lots of wind damage though. Phoenix was under a tornado warning for most of Thursday night and some event tents were blown across the Loop 101 in North Phoenix leaving all the classic cars stored underneath them exposed to the elements. Up in Flagstaff, they got close to 3 feet of snow. Normal snowfall for the entire month of January is only 22 inches. There were quite a few buildings that had their roofs collapse under the intense weight and seeing the pictures posted this weekend and early this week, it’s a good thing the buildings gave way after closing time for these businesses.
So yeah, it was a crazy weather week for us and there’s still signs of the storm lingering around the valley… like water actually flowing through the Salt River at the 35th Ave bridge! SRP is saying that we’ll see water flowing until at least March as they release water from the reservoirs upstream.
Here’s a photo of what the sky looked like on Friday morning as I was driving to work after dropping Beezus off for her spaying appointment. A dark sky that we’re not used to seeing in January.
HVAC System Update – Blog Quickie
Jan 22nd
So I read the FAQs online and was able to troubleshoot the heating problem. The system works like a charm now. Just in time, since the weather took a turn for the worse this week. We have had pretty not stop rain since yesterday at 4pm. Nuts.
Crazy Arizona Weather – Serious Consequences
Dec 23rd
Yesterday was a crazy weather day here in Arizona. Two interstates were closed because of bad weather. I-10 was closed South of Phoenix due to blowing dust. The low visibility caused a massive wreck that involved at least 8 semi trucks and killed 4 people. Insane. The second interstate was I-40 between Flagstaff and Williams. It was closed due to white-out blizzard conditions which also led to a large pileup of cars thankfully with no serious injuries.
So there you have it. December weather… Arizona style.
Changes for Metro Light Rail
Dec 16th
A recent news story (here) announced that Stephen Banta will be named chief executive of Metro Light Rail. He comes to Phoenix via Portland, OR where he ran their TriMet system. He comes to the Valley at a good time. Metro is in a transition period where the light rail is moving from being the “new, cool toy” to something that needs to become more viable for the Phoenix Metro Area. Hopefully he can breathe some new life into Metro and bring the much needed improvements to the system (hello, I’d love to know how long it is before the next train arrives, especially when it’s summer and it’s 114 outside!).
When I was in Portland recently, one of the coolest features of their light rail system was the intigration with Google Maps that was present when searching for directions. Watching the mobile app on my iPhone, I could see exactly when a train left the station I wanted to board at and how long I had to wait for the next one to arrive. It was amazing. The MAX seems to be a pretty reliable source of transportation given the few experiences I had while in Portland.
Grocery Store Strike?
Nov 9th
Safeway and Fry’s (Kroger) employees are set to go on strike this Friday if an agreement isn’t reached between the companies and the Union. That’s all well and good but there are some issues that are troublesome for the Union and I’m wondering if they’ve really thought this whole thing through.
First, Arizona is a right to work state. This means that you don’t have to be a member of the Union to work in a unionized workplace. Given the fact that we’re looking at very large unemployment numbers at this time, there’s absolutely nothing keeping Safeway and Fry’s from hiring temporary workers or, in fact, firing every employee that is on strike and replacing them. One Fry’s employee put it well in the Arizona Republic today. She stated that working at a grocery store is probably more attractive to someone than working at a Taco Bell or McDonald’s. She may be right. It will be very interesting to see how the grocery stores react to the strike.
Second, the Union isn’t making many friends. The Arizona Republic reported that a majority of the membership does not want to go on strike given the tough economic times we’re currently in. Some are afraid of losing their jobs. Others are wondering how on earth they’ll survive on the Union strike pay of $100 a week. Top this all off with the reports coming out that the main sticking point from getting a compromise is that the Union does not want their membership to pay for any of their own health care costs and you have a recipe for disaster. With health care in the news and on everyone’s mind, it doesn’t make much sense to complain about the grocery companies wanting their NEW employees to pay $5 to $15 a week for coverage depending on their needs. As an example, I am on my company’s health care plan as a single person and I pay almost double the family rate the grocery stores are looking to charge.
Last time we had a grocery strike all the strikers found their jobs replaced by temporary workers and, in the end, the Union caved. The next few days will be very interesting.
Phoenix Design Week
Oct 1st
Check out the website. There seems to be quite a bit of interesting things going on during the Phoenix Design Week.
I Love Phoenix!
Jun 19th
Where else will your weather program say the following??
Always the comedian, Mike stated “who’s dust?” after mentioning this output to him.
The HEAT!!!
May 19th
Okay, for those of you that have been reading my blog, you know already that I’ve always seemed to have issues with my AC unit in my house. Well, this past weekend, it finally decided to give up to ghost, or rather, I decided to stop throwing money at it and just get a new unit. For the past 4 days, I’ve been living with no AC and the outside temp has been 104 or above (that means it was a cool 92 degrees in my house). It’s been real plesent! Anyway, I purchased a new unit on Sunday from The Home Depot and it was installed today! Cool air has never felt so good!! Sadly, the large chunk ($7000+) that is now missing from my wallet is not much fun… but it’s totally worth it!
Anyway, I have a cool house once again. Hopefully the AC gods will look down kindly upon me and keep this unit from having any issues in the forseeable future!
12 Of 12 – May 2009
May 13th
Well, I am in Flagstaff, AZ this entire week getting my house ready for the new renters (yes! we got it rented!!). My 12th of May was spent running around town getting items and working in the back yard before my sister and her husband showed up later in the afternoon to help out. Here’s how my day went.
My sleeping arrangements for the week – full size at least!
The house was painted yesterday! It’s so clean and fresh looking!
Today was going to be another day of busting my hump in the small back yard.
I had to run to the bank to close an account and transfer money.
Home Depot to pay for the carpet that is going to be installed this week.
This rose bush was the bane of my existence today. It really didn’t want to come out.
My sister arrived and we went to the nursery to buy plants! This is a lemon smelling creeping thyme plant.
This vinca is growing in the front, we’re moving a huge chunk of it to the back.
An up close look at the purple flowers this vine produces.
I was starving so we had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. It. Was. Good.
My sister chilling after a hard day of work! You can vaguely see her husband chilling outside on the back steps. It was a busy day for all.
My new sleeping arrangements. My sister brought a twin mattress to sleep on with her husband… Oops! So I gave up my full for the night.
Even though I was not at work, I still found it difficult to get 12 pictures. I think it was mostly because I was concerned with getting to where I needed to be at whatever time I needed to be there. I had a list and I needed to stick to it. I was able to get everything done that I wanted to on Tuesday and my luck has followed me into Wednesday. This house has been weighing on me lately and getting it ready to rent (finally) will really put me at ease. I’ll post pictures of the back yard after the full day we put into it on Wednesday soon. You won’t believe your eyes!
