An Old Favorite

A flower at the San Juan Capistrano Mission in California

I just couldn’t find a photo of the day to take this Sunday, so I decided to post an old favorite taken back in September 2000 on a trip to Southern California. Taking a photo of the day here in Phoenix for almost a year and looking over our streets with a critical eye, it becomes ever more painfully obvious that we live in a community with very little diversity of environment and architecture – the homes are as cookie-cutter as the people, the plants and landscape a shade of brown or cactus green.

Harkins Valley Art Theatre

Harkins Valley Art Theatre in Tempe, Arizona

After lunch at Hodori Korean BBQ in Mesa, Caroline and I drove the short distance to Mill Avenue in Tempe to visit the Harkins Valley Art Theatre, where we watched Mirrormask. This very nice film was visually stunning but the dialog was at times inane, most of the time matter of fact. Seeing Neil Gaiman’s art come to life should inspire Hollywood to give us more ‘art’ films; this was a breath of fresh air.

The Covered Wagon on a New Trail

A covered wagon being towed down the freeway moving 60 miles per hour, possibly the fastest this wagon has ever moved

Having to learn the hard way, Joseph and Erma rode well into the evening ahead of the other pioneers. They’d been told that the old Mormon Trail shouldn’t oughta be taken alone. Sure enough, they threw a timing belt and soon found their battered covered wagon being towed into town for expensive repairs. Life on the trail is known to be fraught with hardships, but four hundred dollars for towing seemed a might hefty this day.

Phoenix, the Boomtown

One of many construction sites across the Phoenix Metropolitan area where a seeming endless demand has every bit of land being built upon

Barely an empty lot remains in Phoenix, Arizona, that isn’t fenced for future construction or undergoing development. Real estate prices are soaring, promising to destroy one of the attractions that drew so many people to Arizona in the first place – sadly, wages are not keeping up with the rise. No matter for these builders, as there are enough speculators who have bailed out of the stock market who see that the sky is the limit and real estate bubbles are a thing of the past. This is the new real estate economy and is different than years past. Hmmm, right.