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The advent of central air conditioning is the leading factor contributing to the huge number of people moving to desert areas such as Las Vegas, NV and Phoenix, AZ. Probably also other cities in other southern states in the U.S., like Houston. Places where things are fine, until they aren't.

The house where I'm staying has the benefit that it actually has two central AC units, so when one died, the other could at least keep half of the house at a tolerable temperature. And the chances of massive, extended power outages like the one recently experienced in Houston are lower here for a number of reasons. I do not consider this sufficient reason to move to the desert, just noting the overall situation.

In any case, when central air units die, it is very expensive to replace them. But at least mildly entertaining to watch.

Shiny new unit arrives:
AC unit replacement project

Craning out part of the old unit:
Craning out an old cooling unit

And old swamp cooler also got taken out at the same time since it hasn't been useable for a while now.
Craning out an old cooling unit

Whee!
Craning out an old cooling unit

Swamp coolers are far more energy-efficient than air conditioners. They are basically just giant fans that blow across water, using evaporative cooling to lower the local temperature. However, they don't work as well once the desert hits the monsoon season, so they've generally fallen out of favor. In addition to their energy efficiency, they offer the advantage that they can be used with the windows open. On the other hand, because they rely on water, they tend to rust out over time.

One of the other historic climate control methods in this area is flood irrigation. Flood irrigation is not particularly water-efficient, but it is quite nice in several different ways. For one thing, it provides deep watering that is beneficial for keeping large shade trees alive. Shade from trees is rather precious in the desert. For another thing, the evaporative cooling of flood irrigation does help keep flood-irrigated neighborhoods cooler than non-flood-irrigated neighborhoods. You can feel a noticeable temperature difference when riding a bicycle from a non-flood-irrigated area into a flood-irrigated area.

Much of the flood irrigation water travels to different neighborhoods through a network of canals. The original canal network was created by the Hohokam more than 1400 years ago, but then abandoned at around AD 1450 for unknown but likely climate-related reasons. In the recent past, many of the canals in this region were tree-lined, and served as places where people could go to swim and cool off during the summer heat. At some point that ended, I believe under the thinking that the trees were causing a lot of water loss, and maybe also the canal structure changed to the point where it no longer seemed safe or prudent for people to swim in the canals. Not sure. Some more specific history can be found here, in any case. But now the canal network forms an alternative transportation system that is tangential to the street grids, so the canals remain a great and lower-stress place for riding bikes or walking the dog. At least until a person reaches a road crossing and has to play "frogger" across 4-6 lanes of traffic traveling at speeds of 45 mph or more.

Anyway. The house where I'm staying has flood irrigation, and was scheduled to receive water yesterday. At the Farmer House, a Zanjero (just learned the term!) opened the valves, but here, the homeowner is supposed to open the valves. Except the current homeowners are down in southern Arizona, so I'm in charge.

My inner five-year-old was pleased.
Flood irrigation control

12-second video of water coming out:


The second valve:
Flood irrigation control

The second of the two valves for this house, which is in the backyard, supplies the front yard, via a small "creek" that forms alongside the house.

I was trying to read papers while sitting at a desk, but got distracted by some of the small drama of the flood irrigation outside the window next to the desk, where the flood water chased a bunch of beetles out of their hiding places and onto a small rock island (center of 20-second video below):



I didn't get this part on film, but periodically a beetle would just decide to take the plunge and would jump off the rock into the water, swimming away towards the other side. I don't know why more of them didn't just try and get closer to the house, where the ground was higher, but maybe staying in the shade was a higher priority than staying dry.

At one point, a desiccated (ornamental) orange with one side punched in floated past, looking like a small boat, and 3-4 beetles tried to jump into it, capsizing it.

Typically, the flood irrigation waters take a day or two to sink into the soil, and then it's back to desert life as usual.
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The Beg Buttons that are at almost every intersection a bicyclist might use out here serve a dual purpose, as small billboards people on bikes can use to communicate with each other.

I think the city here has tended to fight back most vehemently against stickers that directly modify the sign itself, so there aren't any more "Push Button for Aliens" or the like - at least at the moment.

Tempe, AZ

The posts underneath, however, seem to be attracting more messages.

Bicycling billboard

I always appreciate spotting War on Cars stickers out in the wild:
Propaganda

The above War on Cars sticker is accompanied by an art sticker showing beautiful bike-themed art made by someone I know. And why not?

I'm kicking myself for not having brought more reflective bee and duck stickers with me. I generally don't put those up in public places but I do like to give a duck to people wherever and whenever I can. I just gave all the ducks I had with me to friend S this time. So now I am all out of ducks to give (ha ha I am funny).

I think what I would really like is some sort of "ghost bike" sticker design. Several years ago this City decided the ghost bikes were getting a little out of hand and removed them. The problem is that this undoes the effort to bring visible attention to locations where people have died in crashes with motor vehicles. While I can understand that people find roadside memorials to be "clutter," I think the point still holds that there needs to be some form of visible recognition that these things have happened. I'm going to have to think about how I want to make this happen.

Perhaps I'm biased on this front because every time I am back in Seattle I'm struck (ha!) by the number and variety of signs that people have put up all over the place about various aspects of road safety, including memorials about crash sites.
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Mostly posted for [personal profile] scrottie's benefit.

The Farmer Market has morphed. Again. It is essentially now a coffeeshop by day, a bar by night. I tried to go have lunch there, but apparently they are getting food starting up at the end of the month, so no luck. I will henceforth go there for coffee, instead of Cartel. Nothing in particular against Cartel, just, I'd rather continue supporting the Farmer Market.

I punted to the next plan, riding to campus and eating at one of the Charlie's. On my way, I couldn't help myself, I rode all the way down to 13th and Farmer.

Tempe, AZ

The Farmer House still looks great, from the exterior. Neighbor G's former house next door looks barren and terrible, which is kind of no surprise because it has long been a Rentals Tempe property (why she moved).

I planted the tall, organ pipe-type cactus just to the right of the Farmer House walkway shortly after R and I moved in, in 2008. I love going back to visit and seeing that it's still there and thriving. Amazing that it's now taller than the tree right behind it.

I had that thought about killers revisiting the scene of the crime, while going back and taking photos of a former home, but after all, it's a natural impulse.

There have been changes on Farmer Ave, but overall the character remains the same.

The Charlie's in Hayden Library was closed, so I just went to a Qdoba in the MSU instead.

I appreciated spotting this on my ride to downtown Tempe this morning.

Tempe, AZ
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Let's just start from the premise that I cannot work for all waking hours aside from time spent towards self-maintenance (eating, bathing, cleaning). My mind rebels and refuses to work in a linear, systematic fashion. I can encourage it, but cannot force it. I will get better as I continue to practice.

In the Elgin House, the Lair has a desk with excellent light from a big window, and there are things to go outside and explore in the yard, right there. A great place for reading the entire internet (ha!), books, small drawing and painting projects, and photography, as you've seen.

The Tempe Lair does not have an equivalent desk, and is generally a darker space, so, not as well situated for art projects. I could set myself up elsewhere in the house, but I'm not at that point just yet.

I also just sent over one paper to collaborators for their review and feedback (yay! FINALLY!), so I'm in that transitional state between papers. It takes a while for me to transition mentally from one project to the next; the next most logical project to pick up on is a leafcutter paper from my dissertation that has been rejected from two journals so far. Collectively this meant that much of yesterday was spent flopping around, trying to piece together where I left off with things, trying to ponder those annoying bigger questions, such as, "How to provide context for the motivation for the work?", trying to figure out what new and additional papers I need to read to stay up-to-date on the literature, and trying to remember how to deal with the heat in the Central Valley (highs in the 110's, lows of 89-90 degrees).

Today I have ridden my bike north to downtown Tempe, where I think what I'll wind up doing is: laptop camping at Cartel for the morning (right now), ASU campus library for the afternoon, visit the Bike Cellar because, well, bikes, then either meet up with folks somewhere for dinner/drinks, or back to the Tempe house for the evening.

It also continues to be clear to me that I want/need to keep moving my body every day. There are two potential rowing options to investigate and Princess TinyBike, of course. I can't really replicate what I got started for strength training at the Elgin house because it is too hot outside for me here. So maybe I'll try out the Tempe Family YMCA.

Eventually I'll also work in more art and other expeditions. Having just now checked, the ASU Art Museum has two new exhibits opening this Saturday, so I should go sometime after that rather than hurrying over there today. Information about the Ceramics Research Center says they're generally not open over the summer, so if I really want to go visit I'll need to contact someone and arrange for that. I will also try to make it up to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art at some point, and maybe also to the Heard Museum and other downtown Phoenix destinations - you know, just to make sure everything's still there.

Mapping these plans out makes me realize I'm still dissatisfied with my local art situation in New York. I need to make an effort to poke around some more on that front.

That is a purpose of travel; provide perspective on everyday life, to continue answering the question of, how do I want to live my life?

And I will also say, I do NOT miss the overall grocery store situation in Arizona. The Sprouts that is closest to my Tempe accommodations is actually the most well-stocked Sprouts I have encountered to date, but it isn't as though it has the cheap avocados, salsa, tortillas, and roasted chiles of the local Food Citys. As with Texas, it's possible to find all the things I'd like to buy and eat, it just involves a grocery-shopping circuit that is absurdly time-consuming. I continue to appreciate the well-stocked co-op in Albany.

And with that, back to the writing projects.

(oh, also, LOL, back to overhearing coffeeshop conversations about bad business ideas!!)
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As the subject line says, I'm at about a 50% batting average right now when it comes to getting up early to exercise. Yesterday morning, I failed, but this morning I succeeded. Today I took Princess TinyBike out in the opposite direction on Highway 83, just to see what was out there.

It's hard to see, but in this photo there's some sort of small blimp hanging out above the Huachuca Mountains, in the center of the image. My guess is that it's associated with Fort Huachuca. It was there the entire time I was out riding.

Morning bike ride to Parker Canyon Lake

This was the coolest wildflower I saw this time, although I'm not sure what it is. The leaves look like they're the wrong shape for this to be Arizona summer poppy.
Morning bike ride to Parker Canyon Lake

Morning bike ride to Parker Canyon Lake

I'm so glad the temperatures are cool here in the mornings.
Morning bike ride to Parker Canyon Lake

After a certain point, I became curious about how close or far away I was from reaching Parker Canyon Lake. A check of the GPS suggested it wasn't too far away, so it seemed like a worthwhile destination.

It wound up being *mostly* worthwhile.

Morning bike ride to Parker Canyon Lake

There was a low crossing shortly before a final climb to the lake. At the nadir, a dog burst out and gave chase, and I heard multiple other dogs barking as well. It did eventually respond and turn away when I yelled at it, but still. It was there again on the return. The loose dogs in Arizona aren't as bad as in Texas, but I don't really feel like I need to ride that last mile out to the lake again if it's going to involve a risky dog chase.

The rest of the ride was fantastic. I saw a couple of wild turkeys, and there were deer, ducks, and a heron at the lake.

The lake is too small to be much fun for rowing, but the perfect size for tootling about and swimming and fishing.
Morning bike ride to Parker Canyon Lake

The outbound leg also involved some elevation gain, so it was also fun to descend and enjoy the views on the ride back. There isn't exactly the same "top of the world" feeling here that I sometimes get in places in the Midwest and New York, but in parts of Arizona you definitely get a sense of the vastness of the Central Valley (or other things) from certain vista points.

Morning bike ride to Parker Canyon Lake

Other pretty wildflowers:
Morning bike ride to Parker Canyon Lake

Morning bike ride to Parker Canyon Lake

I also figured out that maybe part of why exercise is seeming unusually tiring is because the elevation here is around 5000 feet. I've been acclimated to sea level.

And now, to work.
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Yesterday while procrastinating from writing, I walked around the yard to look at things. The person who lived here before J&J liked to collect eclectic "yard junk," providing a powerful lesson in how carefully collected and curated "yard junk" can look cool, but too much can look cluttered. J&J have gotten rid of a lot of the "yard junk" but not all of it.

Around the House

Read more... )
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Yesterday, JH noted that they have a blacklight here. Unbenkownst to me, he set it up last night, hilariously using Princess TinyBike to hold up the sheet.

Brompton insect blacklighting support + aftermath

Since I only got to take a look at it this morning, I missed some of the more interesting visitors, but there were still ample subjects for practicing some macro photography.

Southern AZ blacklighting aftermath

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Pretty soon here I need to get into a biweekly strength training routine, but there's a very mild hurdle to that in that I need to assemble specific lists of the exercises I'll do, based on what I know I have access to (resistance bands but not much else).

So instead, I got up and went on a bike ride this morning.

AZ Morning Bike Ride

The first 1.5 miles are on dirt roads, but the Brompton handled just fine. I do have to walk the bike across cattle guards; the wheels are just too small to risk riding across.

Because I was conflicted about whether I was going for a bike ride or a photography expedition, I did not stop to play around enough with the exposure settings for this landscape photo.

AZ Morning Bike Ride

About halfway through, however, I decided it would be another plant/photography expedition after all.

This spiky friend is called Buffalo-bur:
AZ Morning Bike Ride

clicky for more... )
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The routine I aspire to here: get up, exercise, have breakfast, work on academic work/writing, have lunch, more academic work/writing, dinner, then kick off and enjoy drinks on the patio in the evening. At the moment there are excess beverages in the house, so someone should really do something about the situation.

Utterly luxurious, really.

But in practice, I would also like to work in some time for artistic aspirations. Maybe I can work on drawing and painting as a semi-social late afternoon or evening activity, for instance.

And I really want to learn how to use this Panasonic DSLR camera while I'm here, too. It's a great camera, a gift from [personal profile] scrottie but so far I've been just a little too overwhelmed to sit down and really learn to use it. There are lots of wonderful things here to photograph, though, so this seems like a good time for the project (although argh, I should have brought along my mini-tripod! I almost forgot I own one!).

Last night we discovered that the resident seed-harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex barbatus, are reproducing. I have a small backlog of videos I need to upload, including one that's hilarious (to me) because I tried to record queens taking off to mate, but got distracted by the workers who came out to defend the nest. I'll get to that soon.

I set the bar low for this morning's exercise, after Monday's overly hot bike ride: a walk. Morning temperatures are much more pleasant here than in Arizona's Central Valley anyway, but whenever I'm in a new place trying to establish a new routine, I need to allow myself a few days to get established. And I'll need to go back through all of my strength training notes to get myself set up with a strength training routine with the tools and resources at hand (resistance bands, etc).

Also, I needed to get a sense of what's out here.

Anyway, my initial photos with the Panasonic are too dark because I couldn't figure out how to adjust the exposure, but come along for the walk, anyway.

New seed-harvester ant nest tillings:
Elgin, AZ

I was hoping to get a photo of the queen in the act of digging, but when she noticed me, she decided to wait underground until I left.

I had an audience while I tried to take ant pictures:
Elgin, AZ

clicky for more... )

Arcosanti

Jul. 24th, 2021 09:21 pm
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So now. If you ever have the chance, VISIT.

I took so many photos, but they can't do justice to the full experience of coming here and walking around in the space.

Somehow, the monsoon rains bypassed this spot this afternoon, so I could walk around and even go swimming in the pool. And this evening I can watch the flashes of lightning from my guest room. Incredible.

Arcosanti visit

This is the last photo in the series. The pool is located above the guest rooms. It is top-notch.

In the pool, I met a couple of the other people staying here tonight, one of whom was much more familiar with Arcosanti and says that Form is an especially amazing time to come here.

The workshops also sound phenomenal.

Now I know.
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(post title is a periodic reminder about one of my all-time favorite pieces of installation art, which I hope more people will get to see in person some day)

When in Arizona, this is a blog that talks incessantly about the weather.

On Thursday, the Tucson branch of the National Weather Service twittered some commentary about a large impending monsoon storm:



(side note: They weren't able to get this thread to thread properly so if you actually want to read it you'll need to dig)

Things started to get interesting here last night at around 9 pm, with very strong winds. The torrential rain then got strong enough to cause water to build up in both the front and back yards of this place. I started having flashbacks to the times that the Villa Maria house flooded, but thankfully, this place was built juuuuust high enough that no water made it inside from the flooding. The water level reached around 2 inches in the back, and maybe an inch out front. Some water DID make it inside through the bathroom ceiling vent, which I think mostly just tells us how windy it was. It was interesting watching shingles flap up and down on a neighbor's shed.

The power even went out briefly, making me glad once again that I impulse-purchased this silly, cheap LED lantern in California:

Emergency lantern activated

After 30 minutes the power was back on again, so I went to sleep to wait and see what things looked like in the morning, when I'd been planning on a bike ride and coffee with friends.

...as of right now, it's still raining, complete with lightning, and I suspect the storm activity is going to continue into tomorrow. So the bike ride definitely didn't happen, and I doubt I'll get to go rowing tomorrow morning, either.

Instead, Emma and I have been enjoying the storm from inside the house. I am SO GLAD I finished labwork yesterday!

July 23 monsoon rain

July 23 monsoon rain

July 23 monsoon rain

During a small lull:
July 23 monsoon rain

We're almost up to 3 inches already in the part of town where I'm staying. Interestingly, the Tucson NWS just posted a write-up about an epic July 2006 monsoon storm, that dumped up to 8-11 inches of water in various areas. I can only imagine what that must have been like, if this is what 3 inches looks like.

This has been quite the summer for climate-change-related weather events, generally. I have to assume you've seen photos of the flooding in parts of China. I was chatting with a colleague yesterday who noted that over the last 3 years, Arizona has seen some really terrible wildfires that have wiped out a lot of old-growth forest (keeping in mind that it takes around 100 years before a saguaro starts to reproduce). I'd heard about some of the fires, but still didn't have an appreciation of the full extent of the carnage in the Superstitions. I'm nervous about the smoke levels I may encounter while driving to California, but it can't be helped. This is our new normal. I almost feel like it's a good thing that some of the smoke from the fires has traveled all the way out to the East Coast so more people can really understand what these fires mean. Human beings are generally terrible about extrapolating beyond individual lived experience.

Not that I'm optimistic that this year's weather events will actually get people to change profligate lifestyles or anything.
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I. I love to visit just for the building. It is a beautiful, peaceful space, with multiple courtyards and shaded walkways full of beautiful sculptures and plants.

Scenes at the Heard Museum

Scenes at the Heard Museum

Scenes at the Heard Museum

II. One of the current exhibits is called "Small Wonders" and features a ton of tiny, exquisite works of art, and homage to many jewelry-making traditions that economically sustain many Native communities. The insects, of course, especially caught my eye, including this cicada and tarantula killer by Liz Wallace:

Cicada and other pieces by Liz Wallace

Tarantula killer by Liz Wallace

Apparently these wings aren't simple inlayed stone - they are more like miniature stained-glass pieces that light can shine through. Gorgeous and incredible.

I regret that I did not take a picture of the ring that this description is for:
Under False Pretense - description

The ring contains so much symbolism in such a small format and is very compelling.

III. Photos cannot do justice to the incredible Dine rugs that are currently on display. I generally don't take a ton of pictures of art, but this sign made me laugh and change my mind this time:

Please do not touch

It's hard to read, but it says, "PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH - The artwork is practicing social distancing"

The detail, the symbolism, the precision, the care in these rugs is just amazing.

Pieces from All At Once: The Gift of Navajo Weaving

Pieces from All At Once: The Gift of Navajo Weaving

I would have to take a thousand pictures to do these justice, and even then it wouldn't be the same because these rugs have such tangible presence. What a treasure.

IV. I also appreciated this collection of Native-made face masks:

Masks, Heard Museum

Not all of these are practical/functional, but this exhibit speaks to contemporary, living art traditions that interact with and respond to events in the world. Native communities have been hit very hard by the global pandemic but have also reacted in distinct and unique ways.

-

It was only after I went home that I realized I missed seeing an entire exhibit of contemporary Native art. Argh! Still, I am so glad for what I did see.
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This is my first time existing in the Greater Phoenix Suburb-o-Politan area where I have ready access to a motor vehicle.

The experience of this city from behind the wheel of a (not-so-large) automobile is so vastly different from the experience of this city on a bicycle, the bus, the light rail, and on foot.

It is two- and three-lane grid roads and traffic lights; a vague sense of terror while constantly jockeying for position among other vehicles; enormous, fast-moving freeways to nowhere.

Yes, it means everything in the far reaches is accessible, but by that very same token everything in the far reaches greatly loses its lustre.

I am sure the vast majority of the inhabitants living here are utterly unaware of this aspect of the poverty of their circumstances.

I biked to the Heard Museum yesterday, as much for the bike ride as for the museum (the museum is exquisitely wonderful). Oak Street is a well-worn groove in my mental map of the area, since it was the backup route while the light rail line got put in on Washington and the initial route we knew best for transiting between my house in Tempe and [personal profile] scrottie's house in Phoenix, before we discovered that the Grand Canal was superior and faster.

When I ride my bike to destinations in downtown Phoenix, arrival is an oasis.

The rate of construction of new townhomes and apartments out here continues to be incredible. I imagine the spaces being filled with the same sort of furniture and things as the place where we're temporarily staying. The place where we're staying is filled with the things that would be expected for conventional guest accommodations. Serviceable but impersonal. Do these spaces simply act as shells or cocoons for the inhabitants as they watch TV? Does short-term hedonism start to feel hollow after a point after the best restaurants and amusements have all been tried and the adrenaline rushes wear off? What happens after that? Children and families, hard drugs, or just numbness? Lives I struggle to imagine.

It is hard to keep images of the coal-fired power plants on the Navajo Reservation proximate in one's mind. You can pretend it's solar power if you'd like, but those plants are still very much active. It is hard to look at fountains and sprinklers watering sidewalks and remember that a thousand small things like these are siphoning down the Colorado River to nothing.

I suspect the agricultural fields will dry up first, although I could be wrong. When we crossed back over into Arizona from California, gasoline prices dropped by a full dollar, so in the short term it seems to me the throngs will continue to flock here and fill the streets and houses, not knowing how life could be different. Different certainly doesn't mean better - perhaps it doesn't actually get better than this. But I'm glad to remember the ways that I found to live out here, to know the possibilities.
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Survival rates have been MUCH higher for our most recent queen collection, to my great relief. That exhausting return trip to California was completely worth it. We might not find what I thought we'd discover, but we will have plenty of information to work with. Hard to collect much more data on behavior and metabolism in dead queens.

Busy lab

The boxes in the foreground are a new nest for a Pogonomyrmex barbatus colony that has been living in a cobbled-together display nest. At some point during grad school I determined that a person could spend the rest of their life designing and building a better ant nest. But on the other hand, nest design can have a potentially big, unknown impact on nest function, so it can't be completely ignored, either. The nest transfer process will probably get underway Monday morning.

The ant farms in the midground are our most recent set of queens, about half of which are busily digging away.

And the new leafcutter nests are in the background.

We finally reached a point yesterday where I had a small bit of time to get outside. I headed over to the ASU Art Museum, but unfortunately they only have a very small exhibit of items from their permanent collections right now.

I still enjoy the architecture on that part of campus quite a bit. I really appreciate art museums that are architecturally interesting because that means that even if the art is terrible at least you got to hang out in a cool building for a spell.


Towards the underground museum entrance:
Arizona State Campus Views

Arizona State Campus Views

The larger building on the left is the Farmer Education Building. Over the past decade, there have been several efforts to provide more shaded outdoor spaces for students, which I think are wonderful. Not that they help much when it's 110 °F out, but they make a difference for much of the school year, at least.
Arizona State Campus Views

This architectural element has long fascinated me. Plus, citrus trees and palm trees.
Arizona State Campus Views

When I biked home, there were ominous storm clouds off to the east that looked like they were getting larger and heading towards us. We only got a smattering of actual rain, but the students enjoyed getting to watch and photograph the associated lightning show. I took the students down to Tempe Town Lake, thinking that might be a good destination for storm watching, and as it turned out, I wasn't wrong.

Storm documentation

Not pictured: those dockless scooters have absolutely taken over around Tempe Town Lake. I find them utterly hilarious. There are worse forms of entertainment, I suppose.
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After almost all of our seed-harvester queens died, I made plans to go back to California. Picked up the rental car yesterday morning, picked up the students, and drove straight back to Pine Valley. Our first 30 minutes of searching were disheartening, but then, miracle of miracles, we found a heap more queens! The students were especially thrilled.

We stayed overnight at a motel in Wynola, with pizza (and for me, good beer) for dinner at a fancy pizza place. In the morning we ventured back over to Lake Henshaw and got another decent haul of queens from there, too.

Shortly afternoon, we set sail back to Arizona (metaphorically speaking; this time the rental car was some kind of Kia - definitely my least favorite of all the cars I've driven recently).

Now we are back and I am exhausted. Tomorrow we'll be back to respirometry in the lab again.
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I was so happy I managed to get this footage yesterday. Getting this kind of footage is rare and valuable. A short playlist:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3loTEVdiSN-qMm1G1EnyiZMvu8f98YD6

In previous years I've been way too busy to make this kind of recording, plus I didn't really have the technology together for it. So I should say, begrudgingly: thanks, smart-o-phone.
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Saturday morning I checked the Pima County rain gauges: enough rain to trigger leafcutter ant mating swarms. I went down to the lake for rowing practice, but screwed up the time and was 30 minutes late, so no rowing after all. Instead I toodled around the lake for a bit and through chance bumped into an old randonneur who provided support on the brevet where our friend RG flatted 7 times on his Brompton before throwing in the towel.

Then, campus. I finished prepping the leafcutter nest dishes that I'd brought with me to Arizona and attended to the seed-harvester ant queens. Then back to the house by way of the auto repair shop, where I picked up the Honda with its new radiator. When I got to the house, I checked the oil and noted the oil level was still low, so I walked back over to the closest gas station and picked up a couple more quarts of oil. Put those in, packed a couple things up, then told my smart-o-phone to point me to Tucson whilst avoiding the highways, and got on the road.

I made it about 5 miles when the engine coughed hard and blew a bunch of smoke. I somehow got myself into a left-turn lane at Broadway and McClintock, waved people around me, and sat through a light cycle with the engine off. When the arrow turned green again, I managed to limp the car into a shaded parking spot at a Burger King and then called my uncle.

While I waited for the tow truck, I booked a rental car from the airport rental place (nothing else open due to the holiday weekend) and put my bike back together (borrowing a bike from a friend). Instead of just taking the light rail over, I decided to bike there, not realizing that the airport rental car place is a whole separate facility several miles further down the road from the airport.

Regardless - made it there, stuffed the bike into the rental car, and got on the road to Tucson. I made it there by 6:30, which was enough time to drive the usual roads and check to see whether there was evidence of queens having already flown. Seeing none, I drove back to my aunt's house, where she spoiled me with a lavish and delicious dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I can't even begin to describe how wonderful it was to get to catch up with her and my cousin D. They have been so good to me over the years, and it was also a real treat for them to get to catch up because they haven't been able to go much of anywhere. My cousin D is on immune-suppressing drugs and still has to be extremely careful about It.

If the queens had already flown, I would have needed to go back out at night to try and pick them out of their new nests. Instead, since they didn't seem to have flown, I got to go to sleep, setting the alarm for 5 am. I woke up at 4:59 with a start because the first light of dawn penetrated my brain and made me think there was a chance I'd overslept. I made coffee and got on the road by 5:20 am. As I drove towards the intersection of Sunrise and Skyline roads, I started to see the little forms of ant bodies flying through the air: an auspicious sign.

When I reached one of our sweet spots along Sunrise, I knew I was right: perfect timing to catch a big swarm.

Swarm Sequence

Swarm Sequence

Field notes for myself: Swarm began shortly before 5:30 am, so shortly after sunrise. It continued to grow until around 6 - 6:15 am, with a fairly even sex ratio. Queens and males would fall to the ground to mate, and then they would fly up again into the swarm. I was thinking I'd wait until queens started to tear their wings off, but as time went on, the swarm became more and more male-biased, until the ants on the ground largely consisted of big balls of males mobbing a small number of queens. Therefore I conclude that after they've mated, the majority of queens fly away from the swarm to nearby locations to search for places to start new nests. Walking around the immediate vicinity of the swarm location, I did not encounter any queens starting to dig, confirming my sense that the swarm location is not surrounded by ideal leafcutter habitat.

As the swarm wound down, I drove over to the corner of Sunrise and Swan, stopping in at a convenience store to use the restroom and get some chocolate milk. When I drove to Swan the night before, I discovered that the road has changed a ton in the last couple of years, with a lot of new developments having gone in. That has also meant that places where I've searched in the past aren't so fruitful anymore. Regardless, I walked up a stretch of road to see what I could find. As I returned down the road back towards the car, I hit a second jackpot: a patch of desert landscape that was perfect nest-starting ground. So in addition to collecting a number of queens out of the mating swarm, I was also able to collect 60 queens as they started digging new nests (means they are fully mated).

Then: back to my aunt's house for breakfast/brunch and more time catching up (so amazing to get to catch up with family!!), back on the road to Phoenix, to the lab to set up what nests I could, to the house to pick up the students, to the airport to drop off the rental car just in time, and then RG picked us up for some pool time at the Graduate and a Fourth of July fish BBQ feast at their house.

I'm not sure the feast or crowd were quite the cup of tea for the students for a Fourth of July experience, but that is what it is.

Now back to the lab.
rebeccmeister: (Default)
Played the usual Sunday morning Scrabble game today, except at 7 am instead of 10 am because I'm on West Coast time now. Either time is equally fun, I've determined.

Then I spent some time trying to get organized: what do I need to do, what do I want to do, etc. Part of traveling is that you're away from the usual everyday responsibilities and projects, so you have a blank slate of sorts or at least a chance to push the reset button.

So I wound up deciding to go visit the closest Goodwill, and then a plant store.

I have missed Goodwill so much. There was one in Albany, but its inventory was really limited when S and I stopped in, and it closed down this past year. We know the ones out here pretty well, and each of them has its own character.

I like that in many Goodwills, the clothes are organized by size, so you can just go to the appropriate section and page through what's there. If you find something that suits your fancy, great! If not, well, at least you didn't just spend hours reaching the same end point at a mall where everything costs 10 times as much and you have to deal with sales people.

I would have tried on some pants, except apparently the dressing rooms were closed due to Covid. So instead I walked out with a button-up shirt and some 9-inch square cake pans for a project.

After that, I headed over to a garden store, where I picked up two cute succulents. I miss being able to go to garden stores fairly easily. From what I understand, there are some that are pretty good in the Albany area, but they're far away enough that they'd be a single-purpose expedition, so most of my plant-buying has taken place at the grocery co-op.

Tomorrow I will get up and get into a routine for the week, which will involve heading in to campus to impersonate my PhD advisor / use her desk while she is out of town (with her permission!).
rebeccmeister: (Default)
Amazing phrase I encountered last night in the book I've been reading:

"yuppie taco-deco ranchitos and golf courses of Sierra Vista"

The quotation is by someone who lives right along the Arizona-Mexico border, in the book A Great Aridness, which is about forecasted impacts of climate change on the desert Southwest.

Border politics factor in heavily, for good reason.
rebeccmeister: (Default)
Unsurprisingly, this has been a weekend of a few small chores. Just a few.

One of the floodlights out back burned out, so I figured I should replace it. When I went to remove it from the socket to see what kind it was, the front glass cover came clean off in my hand. This seems like an Arizona kind of problem. I replaced the halogen bulb with an LED one, and was interested to note that the local Ace Hardware doesn't seem to carry any CFL's anymore. I don't know about you but I'm content to transition away from those.

I managed to get out of bed before 8 am this morning. I'm still not sure why I've been so tired in the mornings, but at least I've had a chance to try and sleep that off. After some breakfast, I thought it might be a good idea to work on deconstructing the raised bed out back, before it started to get too hot. Even so, I sweated buckets and gave myself a bad thumb blister/tear in less than 5 minutes. I should have put on bike gloves right away.

Now the wood pallets are out by one of the giant trashcans, and the soil is in a big pile:

Uncontained garden

I think there's about one full yard of soil there. I've advertised it to friends via social media, but if there aren't any takers I'll probably post it to Craigslist. We might also wind up having to break down the pallet wood even further. It was just the other day that I was making all those trips up to Singh Meadows to buy all that soil and then pedal it home, bag by bag.

Let's see, packing stage 1.5. Bookshelves are pretty much all packed - only cookbooks left. Next on my agenda is organizing and then packing up all the canning jars. They're currently a jumbled mess, spread across 6 or 8 boxes and stacked in cupboards, too. After that, I'll tackle the small tchotchkes, and then maybe I'll also start making inroads on kitchen stuff - at least the stuff that I hardly ever use: pizzelle-makers, stand mixer, angel food cake pan, etc.

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