Re: [QUAD-L] AZ

[Dana Miller]

I am sooooo envious!  Missouri is not bad and can get very hot, but I do 
hate the winters!  I do think they should be more ecologically sensative--a 
lot!--but thats business for ya!  I love trees and hate any of then to be 
cut down--lived in an old house(my husband and mine "first" house) with 10 
foot ceilings and completely shaded by trees all around.  We did not need 
a/c!  Sometimes would sit under a tree after work and splash my feet in the 
kiddie swimming pool, but it was at least bearable as long as air was 
moving.  The yard was large, the 20' x 40' dog pen attached to the separate 
garage, was barely noticed.  It was an old house tho, had not been taken 
care of and really needed to be gutted and redone.  Instead we sold it at a 
profit and moved into one of those sub-divisions built on a field that was a 
repo.  House was better.  Yard stank!  It did have a lot of trees on the lot 
for some reason.  We had the equivilant of all the trees on our street in 
our yard.
I forbade my husband to touch them!  When we divorced the first thing he did 
was cut the 2 big pines in the front down and the tree next to the back 
patio.  That still left several trees, but I have not seen it and will not 
go by it again.  We had so many birds in the winter and we planted plants 
that attracted hummingbirds and my ex had a nice rose garden coming along. 
We added 2 dog runs to the side of the house under another pine.  Put 
privacy up in the front and partially down the side.  There was not much air 
circulation there, so on really hot days, the dogs stayed in the garage with 
a fan, unless we were home, then they enjoyed the central a/c as we did.

There was a bank downtown that had a mini-tree/garden retreat just outside 
their building with trees and lots of shade loving plants.  When you walked 
by, it felt like10 degrees cooler!  There were benchers and people used it 
to rest, cool off and enjoy a bit of nature.  Its gone now and there are 
rock benches and is as hot as everything else is.

If people would just remember what trees and plants do for us!  Off my 
soapbox now.  take care,

Dana
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lori Michaelson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Quad" <quad-list@eskimo.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2005 8:48 PM
Subject: Re: [QUAD-L] AZ

A life changer indeed Greg!  I look & feel 100% better (despite UTIs) after
moving to Tucson.
84 here today and a balmy 74 evening.  You were SO LUCKY bnuying when you
did!  That's
NOW why we can't ... prices too high :-(
All the building however (in a desert) is good & bad.  Our neighborhood has
grown exponentially too (hundreds or thousands more homes in just 2 yrs), a
new
hospital, street repair, etc.
But all the building has been non-stop noise and dust & dirt for over a year
 Valley fever
can occur because of this and they don't water it down as they should.
We just started seeing a Tucson commercial of a kid walking to school and
all the dust plumes
he passes (from street blowers to construction to you name it).  Upon
arriving
to school he coughs out huge plumes of dust (exaggerrated).
Then it says 2000 people will die in Tucson this year from desert dust air
quality problems.
Unfortunately, just over our backyard 6-foot brick wall is a street
expanding further.  It'll be a busy noisy street.
And the truck noise out there starts at 7 AM daily.
Been working out there a year in the SAME PLACE!  Non-stop noise & dust.
WHY it's taking so long who
knows.  Under other circumstances I wouldn;'t care but I called the PIMA
COUNTY DEPT OF
AIR QUALITY a week ago (the commercial I stated was to encourage people to
call if they're
in an area affected by huge dust).
They're supposed to send someone out for the formal complaint.
Although we're in a nice part of Tucson ... we've seen so much beautiful
quiet desert areas nearby
with Saguaros and their kin be destroyed for subdivisions to be built.  I'm
not a tree hugger but
it's gotten bad.  And getting worse.
I love it (warmth, skies like no other) and hate it (unable to buy).
But love our forecast!  After 35 yrs in the northeast freezing ... I'm in
balmy heaven.
Lori
-------Original Message-------
From: Greg
Date: 04/02/05 17:13:39
To: quad-list@eskimo.com
Subject: [QUAD-L] AZ
My first Spring in AZ. It's great, 85 degrees here. It's a big change from
my past, I'm wearing short sleeve shirts for the first time in 23 years.
Which means my first sunburn on my arms in 23 years. We moved here in Sep.
and we are on the South edge of a growing suburb. Only 1 close grocery store
It's said to be the fastest growing town in the country.  Already we have a
number of stores and restaurants. A new freeway building 2 miles away. They
are building a Starbucks, Wallmart, Costco, Samsclub, by the new freeway,
plus tons of high-end stores near by. It's funny, every time we see a new
store we like, we get happy. They are building a 10 acre park at the end of
my street. 2 miles away they are building a huge 100 acre watrerbird
preserve, filled with parks and paths, I can't wait. I got so lucky. We
bought just after housing started going up. We picked this area because of
pricing, but before we got here, they jumped lots. But after I bought, they
sky rocketed. Houses!
 on my block are going for 35%-40% more than I paid. They are halfway done
building my pool. I'm not sure I will ever get in it, but I can't wait to be
out sitting by the pool in the sun. I spent 23 years basically couped up
sitting by the fireplace in my TV room, only getting out a few times in
summer. Now, even if I stay home, I'm at least going outside, getting my
niece from school, etc. Starting in March, on Tuesday nights the city has
free "Music In The Park" different live bands, from rock to jazz to classic.
Lots of cool things going on. I'm sure lots of cities do these things, it's
just I was always to cold to go out in the nights. To you cold quads, moving
somewhere warm can be a life changer.
Greg