Weather, I like it or Not

Yesterday, as I sat in the living room typing away, clouds rolled into the Valley. Actually, to say they rolled in might give the impression of a calm, fluffy, fluttery softness. When in reality, clouds blew in with the furious moving winds that came with a front.

Weather is one of those things that fascinates me in general. I love keeping an eye on the sky and paying attention to the patterns of fronts and wind. I’ve said it before that maybe I should have been a meteorologist. But I’m not. Instead, I’m just a gal who enjoys changes in my sky every here and there.

Moving to Phoenix might not seem like the best plan for a person who wants some type of variety in my weather. But don’t be so quick to judge.

Phoenix might be known for our summer heat but it also might surprise you to learn that our temperatures from highest to lowest can range up to 92 degrees. No, that’s not a typo. While some parts of the country enjoy 92 as a daytime high in the summer, we could jump as many degrees over the course of a year when conditions are right.

Want proof? Check this out. With just a few clicks you’ll see that in January 2013 the lowest recorded temperature was 23. In June of 2013 we apparently maxed out at 115.

Of course those readings were taken at the Deer Valley airport. Heading north out of the city where things can be “cooler” than down in the bowl. Because I remember that the recorded temperature, only days after we arrived in the Valley back in 2011, was around 119 at Sky Harbor airport.

When the temperatures fell into the low 20s for a couple nights around our neighborhood, a friend’s pipes froze and burst.

Luckily, we grew up in the northeast so we knew the slow trickling faucet trick and our pipes were okay.

But today we’re nowhere near the low or the high. In fact, today things are split pretty much right down the middle. The high for today is only supposed to be 68 and according to our weather peeps, the clouds are (allegedly) due to stick around all day.

I have no problem with that. Growing up in Boston, clouds were a regular occurrence. Not to say we were as overcast as, say, the northwest, but New England had a fair number of cloudy days. And most of the time those clouds came with rain.

By 2011, I had all I could handle of clouds. I wanted to see sky, sunshine.

Rain, rain go away.

You know that saying about wishing for things and being careful? Lesson learned. Why? Because we’re 89 days into 2016 and so far have recorded only about 1.5” of rain. According to the Maricopa weather tracking site we had measurable precipitation on 5 days this year. The last? January 31^st.

Yes, 58 days ago.

So to say that I’ll be excited if the clouds hang above the house all day, falling droplets of water or not, would be an understatement. Though, some rain, someday, would be nice. I clearly moved from one extreme to another but finding a place in this country that fits all my conditions is pretty much a unicorn.

• No snow.
• Warmth and sunshine 75%ish of the time.
• Clouds and rain the other 25%ish.
• Beach and ocean within proximate driving distance.
• No temps above 95 or below 60.
• Affordable.

See? It’s that last criteria that really puts it over the edge. Because southern California generally fits the bill otherwise.

So I’m not in SoCal, I’m here in Phoenix where today will be 68 but by Monday we’re cruising back up to the low 90s again. In early April. And I know those temperatures will only get higher as each day wears on. Plus, clouds or rain aren’t likely to make another appearance for at least two months.

Winter rain season is over. Now we have to wait for monsoon season to hope for any measurable liquid.

When rain does arrive it will give me and all the other Valley peeps something to celebrate. Even if those rains come with unconscionable high temperatures.

But hey, I’ll take it because at least we don’t get snow.

• • • • • • • • • • •
In addition to this drivel I also write books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Learn more on my author page.

Okay, Thanks Phoenix but Even I’m Done Now

This probably started just down the street from us.

You all know I live in Phoenix. And most everyone knows that the climate in our little corner of the country is on the warm side most of the time. In fact the monster number of days of sunshine and warmth were two of the main reasons I wanted to live here in the first place.

But even I’m saying Uncle at this point.

Our first 100+ degree day was on April, 28. May only had 9 days at 100° or better (but we had 18 days between 90-99°), no day in June was under 100°, only 3 days were below 100° in July (and only 1 day below 96°), 2 days below 100° in August, and now 14 days in September have been 100° or more.

That’s 113 days do far. Funny, that’s what the temperature feels like out there. Keep in mind there are only 145 days between April 28 and today, September 20. Although today’s figures haven’t been shared yet on the Phoenix NOAA page. But if you trust my phone’s weather App it got to at least 102° today.

I trust my phone because it sure feels like it. And it doesn’t show any sign of slowing down. At least not this week.

Okay Phoenix, thanks, but could you back off just a little please? Even dropping to 90° would feel like a vacation.

I thought the trip we took to California for our anniversary would be a nice transition because as soon as we got back we had 3 days in a row under 95 degrees. We thought the worst was behind us.

It was perfect weather in San Diego actually. Funny though, the night we got in the news was reporting on their “major heat wave” and what residents were doing to stay cool in the high temperatures.

They reported that it had been close to 90° for about 5 days in a row. Matt and I looked at each other and just started laughing. Picture me patting people on the head and saying ‘oh you’re so cute thinking it’s hot here!’ We went to Cali to cool off. And cool off we did.

But the weather must have caught up with the fact we came back and Mother Nature turned up her furnace once she figured it out. How very nice of her. Remind me to send her a melted basket of chocolate covered fruit.

Even our record low warm was broken this month. On the 18^th in 1992 the low temperature was 85 degrees. This past Tuesday it only got down to 88°. Though, I’m not gonna lie, at 9:00 at night when there’s no sun and no humidity that temperature feels glorious.

I’m just sad we didn’t win the huge Powerball lottery the other day. You can bet I’d become a late summer snowbird and spend all of September in San Diego if I had the means to do so. Maybe October too. Because at this point I have no idea how we’re going to drop off before Halloween.

And melted chocolate doesn’t sound very delicious.

Image courtesy chrisroll on freedigitalimages.net

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Content Marketing Strategist and Blogger for hire, Jenn has over 12 years of freelancing experience. Read her blog

Steve Miller Really Knew What He Was Talking About

Time really does seem to be “ticking, ticking, ticking, into the future” at a pretty rapid clip these days. The past few weeks have been super busy learning all this new information on how to start and successfully run my freelance writing career, actually writing and applying to get some freelance writer gigs, chewing on my sequel in the subconscious (yes I’m still going to be writing fiction, no worries there!), and watching lots of exciting, long-winded playoff hockey.

I’ve barely had a minute to put together any kind of comprehendible thought that doesn’t involve SEO, keyword research, content marketing, some other industry specific term, or how many times in a day I can tweet with #BostonBruins.

So some of the stuff I’ve jotted down (because you know I carry a notebook and pen around with me everywhere) or uttered out loud has stuck with me the past couple weeks. In no particular order.

Refinancing your mortgage is kinda like losing your virginity

You wonder if it’s more than you can handle and you know it’ll hurt while it’s happening but it’s such an exciting prospect that you just can’t force yourself to stop moving forward. Especially because you know you’ll come out a different person on the other side. The pressure is off. Things can get back to normal. Maybe. I just hope at the end of it all I’m not left confused and bewildered, wondering if I made the right decision. And the bastard had better call me the next day. And if they can’t get it together to commit forever at least leave my big huge check on the nightstand and get the hell out.

There are at least 83 levels of awesome in “How I Met Your Mother”

Matt and I are TV bingers. When there’s a series that we have interest in watching but didn’t start from the start we add it to our Netflix instant queue and after the series is over we go back to watch all the episodes in one lump sum. Without commercials. “How I Met Your Mother” has been sitting in our queue for about four years and now that they’re coming back in the fall with the last season in the series it seemed like a good time to start watching from the start. I’d seen plenty of disjointed episodes over the years in syndication but something about knowing the full story is legen…wait for it…dary. “The Big Bang Theory” is up next.

Writing with keywords is a pain in the ass on a personal blog

No matter how much I want people to find and read this blog I just can’t make it keyword stuffy. It isn’t what this blog was originally set out to do and I don’t want it to become a chore or I’ll probably stop writing it. I write here to rant and rave and writing for content marketing doesn’t really fit in with that. At least not now. If I figure out how to do it maybe it’ll be so subtle no one will even notice. Until then I always have my website or Green Leaf Reviewer to jam pack with perfectly written keyword articles.

Hockey games should never be five hours long

Don’t get me wrong, I love that the Bruins are in the Stanley Cup Finals and I love that they’re playing the Chicago Blackhawks because having an Original Six matchup for the first time since 1979 is awesome. But there’s a reason I don’t watch much baseball. After the first four hours all I want to do is take a big old nap. So when the Bruins had to play a double overtime game to beat the Penguins and move on to the Stanley Cup Finals I figured that would be the longest game I’d ever seen. I figured wrong. After last night’s game 1 against the Hawks went into triple overtime and the game was within a minute or two of being the longest game ever in NHL history, I slept like a wee baby. All that screaming and excitement can really wear a person out. Please go back to your regularly scheduled two and a half hour running time. My east coast peeps shouldn’t have to be up until 1:00 AM watching these games. Unless the Bruins win of course. Then I don’t care if it takes seven hours. Carry on.

I love the smell of sweat in the morning

I started getting more serious about working out again in the past month or so and it’s all thanks to the stationary bike. That thing was the best $130 investment I’ve ever made. I ride at least five miles every morning, sometimes another five in the afternoon, and I’m already down about four pounds. It isn’t an extreme loss but if I can keep up the pace and intensity I should be up to twenty miles a day in the next few weeks and burning fat regularly. Exercise isn’t on my immediate radar so doing something quick like this really helps me stay motivated to keep doing it. The dancing thing happened a few times but I admit it pretty much fell by the wayside. Oh well.

Still wonky, still have sausage fingers

I found a naturopathic doc who seems pretty cool even though she’s very expensive and not really covered under my insurance. Of course she’s not. She gave me some plant based something-or-another to “completely stop” the wonkiness. It didn’t work. She goaled me to lose ten pounds in the next three months. I’m trying to do more than that. Not sure if I’ll go back or not. None of them seem to have a clue whether trained in east or west. Sometimes I think I’m better left to eating a more natural diet and exercising so I can just work this out on my own.

I’m wearing my hair up until it stops looking like Darth Vader’s helmet

You get what you pay for when you go to the cheapest possible place to get a trim. But really, she went a little too short and blunt this time. I asked her to do a small stack in the back so it would fall more naturally toward my neck instead of fluffing out like it does when it’s all one length. She said no and cut the way she wanted to. In turn I tipped her what I wanted to. Good thing it’s long enough for a ponytail and that I’m okay with my hair being up every day.

I need a new saying because “oh my god it’s a hundred out!” is actually low balling it

Mother fucker it’s blazing hot here. I mean I knew what I was getting into by moving to the desert but its only mid-June and we’ve already had twenty-four days at or above 100 this year according to the National Weather Service. With at least two more months of this on tap I’m just happy to have a pool and central air.

“No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater... than central air.”

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Published in multiple print and online sources, Author, Blogger and Freelance Writer Jenn Flynn-Shon has been writing for publication since 2001. Follow her antics on twitter @jennshon

All but Useless

Here in Arizona one might think the umbrella is a totally useless piece of junk cluttering up a closet. Most of the time I’d be inclined to agree but there are definitely times during the year when we are truly in need of a sturdy working umbrella.

You like our early seventies tile? Hot right?

Monsoon season is just around the corner and I don’t know about you but I’d prefer not to get stuck out walking across the mall parking lot or something when this is coming down.



On the road back from Tucson, yes that is a line of rain.



The winds before it are what bring in stuff like this.



It was right about this moment Matt asked what I was thinking getting out to take pictures.



And then usually, if we’re very lucky, the rain, thunder, and lightning are close behind. That’s what makes stuff like this happen.



Very early but same pattern. April of this year.



It’s raining mud! (You should’ve seen Matt’s car just from his drive home.) But despite the gross factor of the falling clay, the rain brings the temperature back down from the 110+ range to something more reasonable like 95. Trust me in the middle of July in Phoenix 95 does feel cool.

Lots of people here use their umbrellas in the middle of the day too. That sun can really beat down on you and an umbrella will keep those dangerous rays from sneaking under your skin to cause any permanent damage. Plus you won’t go ruining your white T-shirts with cheap sunscreen stains.

Which is the primary reason I just picked up some bleach this week. It isn’t my preferred method, not as environmentally friendly as I’d like it to be but certainly effective. And it helps me from purchasing more new white clothing which probably has a bigger impact to produce than my small bit of bleach going down the drain.

At least I’m going with that tradeoff for now.

Anyway, as far as the umbrella goes, I’m really posting the picture today for my mom because we talked weeks ago about u is for umbrella and I didn’t want to let her down.

How else can we stay dry during these summer months in the desert.

All photos taken by me

Posted for April 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge U is for Useless

The Day After Today

Better known as tomorrow there sure will be things going on that are causing me a bit of panic. First and biggest news to talk about is the storm, Sandy, that’s currently only a couple hundred miles off the shore of the northeast United States. She’s huge, evil looking and apparently going to bring so much surge with her as she makes landfall that the southern coast of Connecticut and north shore of Long Island could see eleven foot swells.

For places that are already at sea level (or below like marshes) an eleven foot sea is going to be like a nor’eastern tsunami. To all my friends and family up and down the coast, but especially those in the northeast which looks to be the hardest hit, please take care of yourselves and your loved ones. Get to higher ground if you’re right on the water. And for those who do flood it will suck but its only stuff. The most important thing is that you are safe.

For those who do stay home but experience a healthy storm with all the fixin’s there’s a few things you can do:

1. Pull out the board games (Remember those? Some of us do.)

2. Charge your electronic devices & only use when necessary (This does not include playing Angry Birds all day because some Governors declared your day off before the storm even approached your area, be smart!)

3. Cook some meals in advance (Especially if you’re Ann.)

4. Fill your bathtub - in case of water issues you can use it to flush toilets or boil to drink if things get really bad (this one is serious)

5. Be safe with candles (And only burn books if you absolutely have to in order to survive.)

6. Pull out extra blankets in case the power goes out & it gets dark/cold (Which is totally different than it is most of the time in mid-fall in the northeast of course.)

7. Stay the heck off the roads, crews already have enough going on, they don't need to deal with stupid motorists (another serious request)

8. Change your name if it’s Sandy (Who wants to be called a bitch for the next few days, weeks, months?)

9. Build an ark and get the hell out of there (But watch out for those tall waves, we all know what happened to Marky Mark and Clooney. That was a disaster!)

I joke but this shit is serious people! The most serious of all of course is #2 above. I mean, if your device isn’t charged how on earth are you going to be able to download and read my brand spanking new novella, Reckless Abandon, when it comes out tomorrow?

(Nice segue huh? Like I’ve said a million times, I’m a shameless self-promoter. This means that, yes, I will use a hurricane to promote my work. Good thing you all love me.)

Reckless Abandon, my Romantic Suspense novella, is on my website for preview. I’ve posted a synopsis and a short excerpt. What do you think? I’m so very proud of this book and I’m panicking a teensy bit over it being released (all joking aside, the hurricane has nothing to do with it other than I feel Sandy took up residence in my head and is swirling around non-stop leading up to this release!). This is my first attempt self-publishing a suspense genre of any sort. The book is short, only 30,000 words, so you can read it in a couple hours.

Or during one day curled under a blanket on your sofa by the light of your fully charged electronic device while you ride out a hurricane. Just sayin’.

I’ll be posting the link to purchase over on my Writesy Blog as well as my website tomorrow once it goes live on Amazon for Kindle. My first eBook!

For those who pre-ordered my first title, Ripple the Twine, when I released it this past April be on the lookout for an email to arrive a little later today or first thing tomorrow morning. I have a surprise for all of you!

And in all seriousness, please family and friends, if you live in the northeast stay safe and check in somewhere as soon as this thing passes by – blog, FB, twitter, email, text, phone – because we’re all crossing our fingers that you stay warm and dry and that you kick Sandy’s ass!

Broken Thoughts: A Tasty Thursday Treat

Wow what a week, it is spinning by once again but this time I don’t feel as if it’s out of control at all! I wish every week could be like this -- take Friday “off”, go do a ton of research taking notes and video and photos all weekend, come back Monday and share it all with everyone. Ah yes, to be a travel writer. Perhaps that should be a goal of mine; both are certainly in my top five things to do of all time.

So my friends gave me this amazing little video camera for my birthday called a Flip. It comes in a few different versions with storage capacities ranging from this 30 minute one that I have up to 120 minutes and it comes in a handful of different colors too. I love it!

I made a documentary video while we were in PA by editing down twenty-ish minutes of raw video into a little ten minute film including photos and text transition slides. I am now addicted to making videos. I’ll just try not to talk too much because I hate my voice haha. If you haven’t seen it and want to you can check out the YouTube link, it’s about Centralia.

Finally getting caught up on reading blogs, news and all kinds of other wonderful stuff after being away. Geez, that was only 3 days I can not imagine what it will be like when the week long vacation comes up this fall. Guess the laptop goes with. Maybe.

For some reason all I really wanted to do yesterday was curl up on the couch and watch TV. That is very odd because in general I am not a fan of TV at all, just Lost. Other than watching movies or playing Rock Band, our TV is almost never on especially in the summer.

Ugh, so much laundry. By the year 2000 weren’t we all supposed to be flying around in spaceships and wearing stain free, dirt and odor repellant suits? How come they feel the need to invest so much money into male enhancement drugs and nothing into the Future Suit?

My horoscope gets delivered to me everyday in my email. Most days I read it but never truly absorb it. Today it was so nice I really wanted to share.

“Your horoscope for July 30, 2009
This is a good day to spend time with your family, Jenn, as you already love to do. Try to get the chores out of the way as quickly as possible and schedule something fun for this afternoon. Maybe you would enjoy an outing to a park or the cinema. Or perhaps it would be fun to stay in and bake chocolate chip cookies. Whatever you decide, may warmth and love permeate the atmosphere and bring you closer together as you create wonderful memories.”

Aw! Now I really want some chocolate chip cookies.

There is something seriously wrong with me I think. I was just out grocery shopping and it is 86 with about 90% humidity and I’m wearing jeans. Not only that but I’m not sweating or uncomfortable at all. Maybe I was meant to live in Hawaii. Or Miami.

I hope some more thunderstorms roll through tonight, the ones this morning were too short lived.

Current love -- Garden of Eatin’ blue corn tortilla chips. How do you spell delicious? Y.U.M. of course!

Well I have about 3 posts to write for over at the other place, so once again I can relax this weekend, so I had better wrap this up now. I am kind of enjoying this front loading blogs & scheduling to post thing, it frees up so much more time than I would have thought!

OK later peeps.

Speaking of peeps, here's the rest of the crew...Read them all. Do it, seriously.
Ginger, Bridgete, KC, Kate, Bree

Done. Seriously.

I can not wake up to this:

anymore or I am most certainly going to lose my mind. In the past three weeks we have had one, yes one day with sun. The little blip of sunshine this past weekend was short lived. Even before I finished writing the post it was gone. I am pretty sure it did not rain that day. At least I think so. It’s hard to remember what day rained when every day seems to rain.

I want out of this movie. No matter how funny Bill Murray is.

S.A.D. is not something one should ever have to experience, but least of all in the summer. Yes yesterday was the Solstice, the official first day of my favorite season. The day that the birds sing and the hugest flaming star burns pale bottoms on lazy weekend days.

Or maybe that is just the reverie of my soul’s desires talking. Time to snap back to the real world and look for the silver lining in all of this right? So what are the advantages to constant rain?

► No need to put clothes in the dryer they will be wet again in moments due to the humidity in the air.
► Toilet paper is more like baby wipes because that constant humidity dampens and really nicely expands the quilting.
► It doesn’t matter worth a damn what I do with my hair; it falls when I go outside anyway.
► Or I get to wear a hat.
► A daily free car wash.
► There is no pressure to smile.
► I get to put the lifespan of CFL’s to the test; since it always seems like night inside they get constant use.
► Because of FM radio I have become so well versed in all the songs that involve weather of any sort in the words or the title that I would sweep the category on Jeopardy. Of course the coolest has to be Milli Vanilli.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, I loved you. Those guys were Fab. And Rob of course.

I noticed though that the day not yet revealed on Yahoo weather is Thursday. My birthday. I am ordering Mother Nature to cease with her crying, it isn’t as if I am some old hag or anything. I’m only turning thirty…ssssss…..mumble…grumble…Oh okay fine, I will tell you.

I will be thirty six this year. Crossing the threshold toward forty. No turning back now. Closer to fifty than twenty one starting overnight on June 24 at 1:58:01 AM. No kids and not a cougar (unless a three year age difference really counts). I get to write for a living and as of Saturday will have a dishwasher. Life is not all that bad in the grand scheme of things.

But none of that matters at all because I might just off myself over Seasonal Effective Disorder before we even get to Thursday. Never mind Saturday.

Please. I beg, plead, bargain and negotiate with you Mrs. Nature. It is time. I really want to move my mattress without having to wrap it in plastic and it would be oh so nice to take a walk without a slicker or my boots. My little pasty feet are in serious need of being back in flip flops again without turning into toesicles. Not to mention that it is mud, not mold, that is good for the skin. I am tired of being green and fuzzy. Moss is not a good look on anyone.

So go ahead and knock it off.

Almost Time to Put Away the Flip Flops

As of three days ago, fall officially began but I did not need a calendar to remind me this year. In the past few days I have noticed that the leaves are turning in random pockets and progressively in the past couple weeks the temperatures here in the northeast have started the inevitable downward spiral.

Even though I am a summer baby who is still a firm advocate for the hotter the better, there is something comforting about the early days of fall. Perhaps it is the re-introduction of warm colors, like red, brown, orange and yellow, which provide me a stronger bond to the Earth instead of my usual Water connection. After a summer full of an almost inexplicable need to be in or around water of any sort (but primarily the ocean), there is a peaceful feeling that comes from abandoning my fins for the land. Cooler temperatures allow for light sweaters and hot bowls of chicken soup with stars and even though I am not a big proponent of exercise I love to take off for a woodsy hike or city stroll on a sunny day.

This Sunday morning me, Matt, my Mom and our Fearless Leader my Aunt S are taking part in the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk in support of and to honor the many family members and friends we all know who suffer with effects from this terrible disease. This is my fifth walk, sixth year collecting donations and I actually hit my goal this year which was really exciting. Sadly, the forecast for a nice sunny stroll like we have had in most years past is not looking good.

The event of course is rain or shine. The good news is they are doing a big lunch at the end for all the walkers and it is only a short walk from the Cambridgeside Galleria, past the Museum of Science, down part of Storrow Drive, over the MIT Bridge and back down the opposite side of the Charles River to end back at the Galleria. We always manage to have a terrific time walking no matter what it is like outside and this year will be no different regardless of the predicted showers. Maybe that will prompt all of us to walk a little quicker and return home a little faster just in case the Red Sox Yankees game is not rained out.

Luckily the Sox are in the Wild Card spot regardless if we beat the Evil Empire and really luckily the Yankees are all done no matter if we ever play this final series of the season or not. It just makes me happy to think that maybe now Giambi will get rid of the cat on his face that has clearly not helped them garner a spot in the playoffs. I understand that an outfield is slippery when wet but it always aggravates me that rarely ever is baseball played in the rain. Games can always be made up in off days or double headers later because they play roughly 160 games per regular season. Then October arrives and the beginning of fall brings an end to the baseball season and the beginning of football.

Football games are played in rain, snow, sleet, hail, driving winds, 100 degree temperatures or any other element Mother Nature can throw at non-domed stadiums and teams suck it up and play because they have to. With only seventeen weeks of regular season play there is no time for a make up game. They come at you hard and fast and leave just as quickly. Just like fall in New England.

Autumn brings my favorite nationally celebrated holiday Halloween, the perfect excuse to cuddle up on a Saturday morning with a cup of tea, and the death that brings the rebirth of spring. It is the season that is necessary for leaves to fall and blanket the Earth beneath the snow of winter when the trees, and I, hibernate. Fall is the season of change.

In honor of that change and the many others I have personally made lately, I present this brilliant piece of musical prowess to keep everyone entertained while I pack up the summer clothes and pull out the wool cable knit sweaters.

Time to change.

Maybe I will leave one pair of sandals beside the sofa, just in case we have an unexpected heat wave in October.

We Hate the Environment Here?

A few years ago for Christmas, Matt and I decided to spend the holiday with my sister in Arizona for the first time since she moved there. Seeing her at the holidays is always nice but doing so in the place she calls home was especially wonderful. All week long, even as the calendar rolled over to January, we commented how odd the weather was, noting the fact that it hit about eighty five on Christmas day. That was particularly strange since generally they are in the sixties. As a lover of all things warm I thought it was great to sit out on the front balcony and get a tan while everyone back home bundled up in winter gear, but at the same time I knew there had to be a reason for the phenomenon.

One evening out at the house of a friend we were all drinking beers and having a great time. I went to bring some empty bottles into the kitchen and aimlessly looked around for the recycling bin. When I did not find one immediately visible I poked my head back in the living room and asked if it was in the garage. My sister looked down at the ground, sighed and said:

“Yeah, we hate the environment here. There is no recycling pick up so just throw them away.”

Just throw them away. With a very heavy conscience I had no choice but to do just that.

To those of us who come from an area where recycling can be a regular part of our daily routine, it might seem strange that a city the size of Tucson would not have a pick up. Sadly not having one is more common than having one in many areas of our nation. It got me thinking about how fortunate we are in Boston, and my town in particular, that we have a separate pick up for all recyclables. Just put the blue bin out at the curb every other week and the work is done; easy. Why then do I hear things like:

“No I never recycle the cans because the cats get at them in the bins and then I forget to bring the bin out so it is easier to just throw them away.”

Just throw them away. We display blatant disregard for the planet by deliberately ignoring one of the most simple and available solutions to help it by adding to the landfills.

Then we complain about the weather. We marvel over the fact that we have already had two inches of rain in August and it is only one week into the month. We sound shocked as we discuss that in the north east we have already had over double the usual number of thunderstorms in an entire season and the season is only two thirds over. The words “climate change” come flying out of my mouth and we all nod but what are we really doing to help prevent it?

Companies that many of us would have never thought of as being environmentally conscious are starting to see that jumping on this trend is not such a bad idea. Hopefully as more of them move in that direction the trend will turn into the norm. Yes that does mean we all have to keep an extra special eye out for imposters who are just trying to make a quick buck on a product that is not environmentally conscious at all but there are some instances where the positive impact is indisputable.

For example, this morning I read about Ikea beginning manufacture of solar panels and other cleantech products. They plan to work with a limited number of cleantech startups in order to keep costs low and hope to begin distribution of the subsequent technologies into their stores by 2011. Not bad considering there are 283 stores spanning thirty nations worldwide (Nineteen US states have one or more locations and by 2009 they will add the twentieth state to the store locator list). Could Ikea be blazing a path toward a new and even better trend such as the potential to purchase an eco-friendly house and all the green solutions needed to furnish, light and accessorize it in a one stop shopping experience? Do not laugh, they are already providing pre-fab, low cost housing in Sweden and expanding their reach with this product to the United Kingdom. It is just a matter of time before the Boklok reaches the United States and we can surround our assemble-it-yourself furniture with a home of the same persuasion.

I own Ikea furniture, lots of it in fact. My mattress & bed frame, sewing cart, sofa and living room chair, bedroom bureaus and two bookshelves are all from this big box retailer. At the time I purchased all of this (about four years ago), admittedly, the reasons were not so much how environmentally friendly they were but rather the fact that they were right down the street in Long Island and I could acquire modern style furnishings for our tiny apartment and do it on a tight budget. Despite what people might think their furniture is not “disposable”. Just like anything in this world it will last as long as it is properly taken care of. Kind of like the world itself.

Arizona has an Ikea in Tempe. Perhaps once these eco-friendly solutions are distributed world wide Tucson can take advantage of their hot and constant sun and pick up truckloads of the panels to install in as many locations as possible in an effort to harness their resources instead of simply throwing things away.