Barbara Wrote:
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>
> Yes! I never realized how open the skies were
> until we moved away, and I didn't have them
> anymore. Claustrophobic is a very good term to
> describe what it felt like. It took some getting
> used to. It is also nice to drive about 5 miles
> out of the city at night and look up, the stars
> are just magnificent when there is no light
> pollution!

I went from lots of hills, mountains and trees blocking the view (the only time there was "big sky" was when I was on top of a mountain or butte in Oregon that was higher than everything else lol) to being able to see for miles and immense sky. I never felt more exposed but after working on 4 years out here, it never ceases to amaze me. The stars are really incredible. We stayed at my grandmother-in-law's ranch one evening where there is no electricity at all and the sky was literally dusted with stars and the big arm of the Milky Way stretching across the sky. It was absolutely breathtaking.

>
> And yes, A/C!! People from out of town think we
> Arizonians are nuts when they see us drive around
> with oven mits in the summer. But after leaving
> their car in the parking lot at the mall for a few
> hours of shopping - one touch of the steering
> wheel makes it instantly obvious why we natives do
> that LOL! It takes a good 10 minutes of A/C for
> the inside of the car to become tolerable again.
> A/C is a virtual necessity in a home or a car,
> when temperatures get as high as 124 F (in the
> shade LOL).

If we do move to Phoenix, I'll have to remember the oven mitt trick. My husband still hasn't reacclimatized himself to living on the Colorado Plateau. He still runs around in shorts and tshirts when he can during the winter when it's below freezing...LOL. He really misses Phoenix, methinks. We went to Phoenix about a year or so ago for about a week and it hit over 100. What's that saying--"it's a dry heat"?? I swear there is something to it because the heat just didn't seem that bad, lol.

Stephanie






In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.--Ralph Waldo Emerson