After a long day at work, I whisked by Target on Frank Lloyd Wright and the 101 to pick up a couple of greeting cards. One for a co-worker recovering from surgery, and another one for my sorely missed spouse. The card pictured above is a birthday card, which I’ll eventually send my mother. It will be late of course, in true snail fashion.

I’ve thought I’d stop at the public golf course next to my school, Paradise Valley Community College for a photo because they have a pretty fountain. I can see it from the road when I drive to work in the morning. I figured it would look nice in the setting sun. However, I never noticed before that it is turned off in the evening when the course closes. So here is the Paradise Valley Park Golf Course, sans fountain. Maybe I’ll be early enough one day to stop on my way to the office.

Auntie Eleanor gave us a fright today. She collapsed in the morning and 911 was called. I drove to the hospital to see her and was relieved to find her exhausted, but well. I hung out for a few hours and by the time I left she was awake and alert. On the way home I stopped at Frys Electronic and bought John a present, the soundtrack of the movie “The Proposition” which we enjoyed seeing in the theatre a few months ago. Auntie stayed in the hospital for more tests and returned home a few days later.

After visiting with Auntie and Karen, my mother-in-law, I did something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I checked out the Star Nursery that is on the way back to the 101 on Thunderbird Road. I walked between rows of shrubs for about 10 minutes, but there wasn’t too much I was interested in. Luckily (for John and probably even for the plan) I did not give in to temptation. If they only had a Jasmin in a size smaller than 5 gallons, walking out bare-handed would not have been so easy.

Thunder clouds were piling up at the horizon but the sky was clear blue until afternoon, when all of a sudden a severe dust storm rolled over our neighborhood in Phoenix, Arizona. I was helping out Sonal at Indo-Euro on 16th and Bell and stepped outside to look for a photo opportunity when the winds kicked up. could barely keep my eyes open with all of the dust and strong winds. Rain and thunderstorm followed and it was still pouring when we left the store at 8.45 PM.

On the way to pick up our mail, I snapped this photo of our pool in the evening. A father and two kids were the only people hanging out in the area. During this part of Summer, pools can actually get kind of too warm to be refreshing. I was tempted to go and change into my suit for a swim but a temperature check confirmed – bathwater temperature.