Settling in Again

Larry and I arrived in Tucson on Tuesday afternoon. We received a warm greeting from our neighbor Bud as soon as we pulled in our driveway. That felt good. The only reluctance I have had in wintering in Tucson is being away from our friends in WA. Having neighbors that care about us here in AZ helps. We have been bustling around ever since we arrived here. We were relieved to find the house in great shape and set about locating where we left things. I thought I was being careful when making shopping lists to check for what we had on hand. We ended up buying Costco sized duplicates of a few things that we ended up returning. We both have found some volunteer opportunities to explore and are planning on how to coordinate use of the car. Yesterday our big excursion was to go to the Marana Costco to buy a new TV for the great room. We wanted newer technology and found a LED TV that we liked. Our handyman, Josh, came over and will remodel the entertainment center a little for it.

Today we attended the Tucson Rally to Preserve Sanity that Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert were hosting in WA DC. It was held at the Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson. The old hotel is lovely and made a pleasant setting for the event held on an outside patio. There was a big screen TV set up with speakers that we sat around. The event was well attended with probably 200 or so there.

I sat down at my computer to investigate hiking groups around town. There are at least a couple that sound promising. I got a little concerned, though. I browsed through articles written by club members to get an idea of what they were about. I found a few articles about mountain lion encounters at Sabino Canyon. In previous years, I have hiked up and down the tram road at Sabino Canyon thinking that it was a safe, well-peopled road that would be free from scarey wildlife encounters. Apparently, it isn't this year. A family of 4 mountain lions has been reported as being in the area. One hiker wrote that he was on the road last week and saw a lion just 10 feet away. The lion and he just stared at each other for a couple of minutes. When the lion started to growl, the hiker started blowing a whistle, which eventually scared the lion away. I'm going to buy a whistle before I go hiking again. I also think I will stick to hiking in a group.