Jane's Random Observations

• The Mexican influence here is one of vivid, beautiful colors – we stopped at a restaurant in Albuquerque on our way out that used the traditional Mexican vibrant colors but in a contemporary way. Bright lime green, yellow, turquoise and red linoleum squares covered the floor, the same turquoise squares were laminated on table tops, and the walls were painted red, yellow, and lime green. It was really cool,all very sleek and simple. It’s moving me away from my natural beige leanings. Walls in our house are all white, so I am tempted to do some painting (rather, have Arthur do some painting . . . .). We bought the living room and dining room furnishings from the prior owner, and she was more of the Spanish conquistador, hacienda persuasion (brown, brown and more brown). Transforming the place into my light, bright, colorful new vision will be a challenge.

• Men in the grocery stores – retired couples appear to regularly shop together. (Is that enough to make you rethink the whole retirement idea?) Just not used to seeing gray haired men that look like corporate execs in the cereal aisle. A telling “Men are From Mars” moment was when I overheard a woman saying to her husband “we have to ask where it is – we have been up and down every aisle a dozen times!”.

• Our neighborhood seems deserted, and I think I have figured out why. Cars must be kept in the garage, which makes it seem like no one is home. There is not a lot of activity on the street – partially because there are no kids, but many neighborhoods don’t have kids out during the day anymore. But most neighborhoods we have lived in have cars parked in the driveway or on the street. Now I realize those cars represent a symbol of life on the planet!

• The number of houses being built in the Green Valley area alone is amazing. I am sure other areas of Arizona are building as many or more – preparing for the baby boomers.

• People here are very nice and friendly, everywhere we go.

• We were excited by how up-to-date the local movie theater is. We plan to get back into the movie-going habit that our home theater in Atlanta broke. It is good for us to get out of the house – especially for me, since that is also my workplace.

• One way I am gauging where I am on the “how settled are we” scale is how many switches I have to push before the light I want comes on. I am making real progress. This may be an area in which we have exceeded the point of diminishing returns in our quest for convenience – being able to control each light (and ceiling fan) from several different locations leads to serious control panels. Especially for us elderly folks, it might be better to have one light switch close to the light it controls. We could get some exercise walking over to the switch. On the other hand, mastering the switches may be an effective adjunct to crossword puzzles for maintaining an active mind . . . .

• I am bothered that we are in an acquiring mode again when the trauma of our elimination of mass quantities of goods in Maryland is still vivid (even though we did donate them to charitable causes). All of this purchasing may be good for the economy in the short run, but can’t be good for us or the world in the long run. However, it is hard to reject creature comforts once you have become used to them. The good news is there is a terrific thrift store here in Green Valley that serves a needy population in the area – we have made some purchases there, and we can take things there when we inevitably revert to a getting-rid-of-things mode.