Category Archives: musings

expectations

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The interesting thing about expectations is that if you change them, your whole attitude shifts as well.

I was talking with a friend today about Phoenix. We both know people who complain that it is a ‘pit’ and an ugly, hot, annoying place. My first thought when people start to ramble on about this is “if you don’t like it so much, why don’t you move?” But if I ask them that, there are inevitable a million excuses: job, house, friends, blah blah blah. Maybe it ain’t so bad after all?

I like it here. Sure, it’s ridiculously hot, but whenever I start to think about complaining, I remember Chicago and I forget all my complaints. I remember perspective and adjust my expectations. Chicago is bitterly cold in the winter, has narrow, claustrophobic streets with double parkers, dangerous potholes and lunatic drivers. It’s a major hassle to go anywhere pretty much anytime of the day or night. I love it here with the wide, breathable streets and predictable and not terribly treacherous rush hours. As well, it’s a quick ride to escape the city into the beautiful desert and get away from any annoyances.

I suppose I could have adjusted my expectations more while living in Chicago to make it likable to me. I tried that for a while and we had a decent relationship, but ultimately, I wasn’t happy there. I had adjusted as much as I could and it still wasn’t working for me.  I could have sucked it up and stayed. I had a good job and a beautiful house. On paper my life was decent. But too often it was frustrating and ultimately, it wasn’t satisfying. I know life can be better than just ‘decent’. And that’s when it was time to leave.

Maybe this isn’t a very good example of my opening sentence. But it wasn’t meant to be a blanket statement. Sometimes simply adjusting your expectations does do the trick. For example: you are preparing for a work party and assume it’ll be boring. Well, if you go into it with that attitude, it probably will be. There is a level of self-fulfilling prophecy here. If you get ready for the party and expect that you will have some interesting conversations, you might end the evening on a pleasant note after having had some enjoyable discussions with coworkers.

I don’t know. It’s 1:14 in the morning and I just got home from a party.
I didn’t know what to expect and I had a really good time.

July 12

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I tweaked my back that morning I got the RD running…so after kicking it over, I spent the next week lying down popping naproxen and muscle relaxers. It started feeling better a couplea days ago, but figured I’d take it easy and not risk hurting myself further.

Today, I picked up a set of DG pipes a friend had hanging in his garage. (thanks RD Matt!)

They are in decent shape – couplea dents that won’t affect performance and some rust. So, I started sanding. By hand. I’m a dirty girl.

I made a bit of progress before a friend sent me an email with a valuable suggestion to put a wire wheel in my drill. So I said, “Screw this! I’m going Ace!”

At which point, I came inside and sat down.
Oops.
I got a glass of water and ended up sucked into the computer. It’s 102F right now outside. Maybe I’ll make it to Ace today. Or maybe I’ll just go in the morning.

I need to research jetting for this set up, learn how to make some rearsets (cuz all the new ones are too damn expensive for me), figure out the brakes(!) and put some grips on

summer storms

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We had a huge dust storm yesterday here in Phoenix-land. It was phenomenal. I took my dog out for a walk and it was light, with a wall of dark in the distance. There was an eerie stillness, like what I remember tornado-weather was in my childhood. My dog and I went inside, I got his leash off and went to the window. In those few minutes it took me to do those simple tasks, the sky had gone black with storm and the wind was whipping through the trees. As I sat in my apartment with a candle lit and flashlight next to me, I learned from local friends that this natural chaos is a “haboob” (which is not only an intense storm, but also a fun word to say!)

Yesterday’s haboob was a wall of dust, 5000 feet tall and 50 miles wide.

I love big, passionate weather. We have some intense weather here, but it happens so infrequently, we mostly forget about the storms.

In the Midwest there are storms aplenty. Tornado weather with the ominous calm-before-the-storm asparagus green skies always frightened me. I loved the fall rains and the winter ice storms that left glittering layers of ice encasing every leafless tree branch. But my favorites were the hot summer night thunder and lightning storms.

My grandparent’s house, where I grew up, had a large back porch with the roof overhanging almost the whole thing. We would sit up there in lounge chairs during thunderstorms and watch the lightning show, count the thunderclaps to figure out how far away the storm was, and listen to the rain cascade off the roof. It was wonderful sitting outside smelling the sweet summer storm, and at the same time be mostly protected from the elements.