"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 148 ~ Party Time!

This is part of Lonnie's Halloween costume.  The punkin' wears it well.  Any guesses?

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 147 ~ Desert Decorations.

This is how we roll in the desert.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 104 ~ Soccer Sunset

There are soooo many of these in my past and future...

"100 Degrees until Halloween" Day 76 ~ View of a Storm

"Storm at Sunset," maybe this picture should be titled...or, "Orange."  Whatever.  It was incredible.  I was driving home from a family photo shoot and it took me 45 minutes (rather than the usual 15 min) because I had to keep pulling over to try and capture the sky, and the mountains, and the gorgeous light.  I am lucky I made it home alive.  (P.S. My house STILL didn't get any stinkin' rain...)

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 74 ~ Follow Up (Yellow)

One from my small but mighty group of blog followers (thanks Hilary Lustig!) asked if we could eat the yellow cactus fruit from yesterday's post.  (This project is making me realize how little I know about the desert considering I have lived here since 1996.  Is this thing called a fruit????  CAN we eat it???).  So I plucked it right off the barrel cactus in the front yard and sliced it open.  It smelled peppery (not sweet, like I was expecting) and did not look appetizing.  I suppose you COULD eat it...but I didn't chance it.   (Doesn't the poor thing look parched?  The interior skin looked dry and desirous of some water...)

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 73 ~ Blue

I've always admired these adobe homes on Ft. Lowell and today, with the cotton clouds above, I couldn't resist the picture.

(No rain in sight... 105 degrees today.  102 degrees as I write this blog at 6:18 pm.  11% relative humidity.  Yup, it's a dry heat.  A really, really, dry, horrid heat.  Bah.)

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 72 ~ Light Pillars and a plane!

This was a bright spot in the evening hopeful monsoon action.  It was thundering, and overcast, and the wind was blowing...and then, nothing.  nada.  nichevo.  But this was a cool moment nonetheless.

(Like Richard Scary's goldbug...can YOU find the plane?)

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 71 ~ Morning Ride

If you follow me on Facebook, personally, then you have seen the minor abrasions suffered this a.m. on the trail (not to mention the rattlesnake!) but this picture was taken at 6:15 a.m. before heading out.  Morning is the best part of these Tucson (no-chance-of-a-monsoon) days, for sure...

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 69 ~ Can't Stop the Shadows

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 67 ~ Long Shadows

"100 Degrees until Halloween" Day 65 ~ Green

The desert looks green (or is it just me?)

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 53 ~ This Guy (I wanted to name this post "It's a Boy!")

This guy (who likes to be called Rusty) is at the corner of Sabino Canyon Rd. and River Rd. every day at no later than 6 a.m. (except for Mondays when he legitimately gets there later to take care of personal business).  This guy is selling newspapers until they are gone for the day.  That can be 7 pm.  This guy is there on the weekdays and weekends.  He's there when it's 110 degrees out or 50 degrees out.  He always has a wave and a smile to those who accept it.  And, he agreed to be photographed for my project.  I gladly buy his papers and wish him well and I hope if you see him, you feel inclined to do so too.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 52 ~ Ho.ho.ho.

Christmas in July!  (And all other months of the year).  Who can tell me where this is in Tucson????

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 51 ~ storm clouds

Lots of beautiful cloud action.  No rain.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 50 ~ Agua Caliente

I went to scout out Agua Caliente Park for a photo shoot later today.  Usually Agua Caliente is a sure thing (and I will run into at least one other photographer).  The client and I had both heard water levels were down in the main lake so we were unsure of its suitability for a setting.  Gah, it was depressing...the grass is green but the water is sooooo loooooow.  The article (linked above) said that it is a spring fed pond and the spring stopped running last summer.  No help in sight for this Tucson landmark.

(DISCLAIMER: Commercial photography at this park requires a permit.  This blog brings me absolutely no $$ so I think I am good :) )

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 49 ~ Storm

I grew up in New Jersey and moved to Tucson in 1996 (a mere 23 year old in the arid desert).  I have forgotten what it is like to NOT see the whole sky and what it is like to NOT be able to pinpoint where in the city it is raining.  In NJ (and Maine and everywhere I've been on the East coast) it is just gray and cloudy, or it is not.  I was trying to see if my friend in DC (who, to my knowledge, has not been to southern AZ) "got" my post from Day 40 (Rain Cliff).  Today, while driving home, I saw another chance to document this western phenom.  I could see two storms from miles and miles away...and I don't care.  I love it.  :)

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 43 ~ Sunrise

Thing are really heating up in our household!

We are off and running these last few weeks of July (school starts for my kids Aug 5th-- an ABOMINATION to this East coaster).  In any event, the blog and project will take on all sorts of new sights of the summer starting Monday.

First new sight for this lazybones is sunrise!  I was up at 5:00 am to drive my daughter and her grandma to the airport for their special trip to Washington, DC.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 42 ~ Plip Plop

It's real raindrops!  Puddles and all.  And, in the morning....lovely.

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 41 ~ 7/11 Day!!

Let me introduce all non-Tucsonans to the eegee....it's Tucson's favorite thing to love so, although "similar" to the slurpee, it's no slurpee.  It has love and tradition in it the way no stinkin' slurpee ever has.  They do a different flavor eegee each month and THIS month is watermelon (which is my daughter's favorite flavor).  So much so, that when doing our July family wall calendar she wrote the eegee flavor on it.  Happy 7-11 and long live the eegee!

"100 Degrees Until Halloween" Day 40 ~ Rain Cliff

The monsoon light is so incredible.  This is the northwest-west side getting hit.  I also took pics of monsoon rain south and far east-- over the Rincon Mts. (River Road and Swan).  

To date we have had nothing but sprinkles at our house.  

Again, I am sure it's NOT the project's fault (grrr)....