76 Degrees in Scottsdale

I don't ever think about Arizona. It's a desert. All the water has been brought in from other places in order to create a fabricated environment. It's a risky business. But, in the dead of winter, it is quite hospitable and lovely with all the desert plants and the sunshine and gorgeous temperatures.  You can go outside in a T-shirt and be amongst imported palm trees and eucalyptus and there is green grass that must have cost a fortune. You can see why people want to retire here. Except that it's all a mirage and it might not work for much longer. But without the added water the vistas are mountains and cacti and perfect for hot-air ballooning.

We had a really nice morning with Malcolm and Lynn. Malcolm took the day off from teaching and Lynn discovered that her appointments were canceled by chance or mistake, so we had bagels and dallied at the breakfast table. We talked about Israel and the response at Malcolm's school (instant support of Israel, unwavering still, perhaps because there is a strong Jewish club that meets in his room and there is no corresponding Palestinian club meeting somewhere else) and our shared dismay at how the war does not seem to be going in a direction that is achieving the stated objectives. We learned a lot about a lot of things because Malcolm is a lifelong teacher with thoughtful observations about just about everything. And he will talk about anything. Then we all went on a walk together, going from their front door on a big loop through a park (watched some pickleball and learned about the rules) and the neighborhood. It all looks pretty much the same in this curated community and Lynn had to keep looking back to ask Malcolm how we were really getting home since she doesn't usually walk on those trails, with street after street of identical stucco houses with similar landscaping. They are happy that they finally put in a desert landscape in their yard (no more grass, all rocks and sturdy plants).

Then Jon and I headed out to a supermarket, bought some picnic supplies, and went to sit at a picnic table for a few quiet hours while we waited for it to be time to pick up Leila.

 

The drive from Phoenix to Las Vegas was easy but bumpy since we were on smaller roads. We talked and talked for five hours. First cousins have a lot of shared family history and Leila and I talked about our Jehovah's Witness grandmother, our kind grandfather, our cousins, the unpredictable ways our families have unraveled and raveled again (her father married our uncle's wife which made some things complicated but everyone managed). We stopped at a Thai restaurant that seemed completely invisible, except that Jon found it online. We had the place to ourselves, and the food was tasty and different from what we are used to.

Arrived at our cousin Matt's house at about 9:30. The last time Jon and I saw him was about 17 years ago when Matt and Michele were living in Kansas City, running a doughnut shop, raising four little kids. Now they are empty nesters in a gated community in Las Vegas, Matt works for a large casino business in sales and he travels around the world working on promoting their line of gambling machines. He says it takes about 18 months to develop each sale. Years ago, his company had 75% of the market but now there is much more competition and they are down to 30% but they are still doing fine. He says since covid, casinos have been "printing money." There are so many jobs in this world that I have never imagined. Leila saw them last at Auntie Pat's funeral (Auntie Pat is Matt's mom, and she is the one who married Leila's dad). So even though we haven't seen these people in a very long time, we all have the same uncles and aunts and cousins and grandparents and we certainly know each other from childhood. Matt's brother John lived with our family for about ten formative years because he was not thriving at home -- looking at Matt's face and hearing his voice is like being with John. Spooky. We definitely laugh at the same jokes and share concern for our aging relatives. Matt and Michele have been married for 35 years so she knows all the people as well as anyone. All of us look up to Leila, the oldest, and are in awe of her. She told the story of how she met Tim, and it was so interesting to see which parts of the story each person picked up on (Matt was parsing the business model of e-Harmony and Michele was feeling the feelings of trying to learn to date after 40 years). We stayed up late.

I was totally surprised to learn that they don't own this house, even though they have lived in Las Vegas since they left Kansas. In his business-minded way, Matt has been waiting for the right moment. He wanted to wait until his kids were grown so they could buy a smaller house. Then when that time came, the economy exploded and prices went up and supply went down and everyone came from California to buy all the houses. Our Uncle Babe apparently just bought a house in Vegas sight unseen because he wants to have a place on the mainland and Reno turned out to be way too cold. But Babe and Arlene have bought and sold more houses than anyone we know, and they are savvy, and they don't mess around.

The other story that we all understood and laughed about: Zippy's now has its first restaurant outside of Hawaii, here in Las Vegas. Matt says this place is the "ninth island" with a half million relocated Hawaii residents and when Zippy's opened, the lines were so long that people had to wait two hours to sit inside. Zippy's is a Hawaiian fast food chain that is known for its local food, with the ambience of a McDonald's, I kid you not. You eat off of styrofoam dishes. There is saimin and plate lunch and loco moco and teriyaki burgers and lots of dessert.  Matt brought home some delicious haupia cake and we all loved it.