Visiting the snowbirds

I had a great weekend. Becky came down from Flagstaff to visit since she was off work and itching for some nice weather. And nice weather she got. It was in the mid 70s the whole time with not a cloud in the sky (we're on day 103 of no precip, 101 days was the previous record).

Her aunt and uncle, originally from North Dakota, live down here during the winter to get away from the cold weather in the midwest. Lots of retired midwesterners and Canadians move down here for a few months during the winter to escape the cold of the north. People call them "snowbirds".

Becky's aunt and uncle live in a suburb of Phoenix called Sun City. It is a master planned community by a company called Del Webb. It was built in the 60s and 70s explicitly for the snow birds and in fact you can't even buy a house there unless you are at least 55 years old. Since then 4 other Sun Cities have popped up (Sun City West, Sun City Grand, Sun City Anthem, and Sun City Festival) and there are no signs of it stopping any time soon.

Sun City is like no place else I have ever visited. The streets are almost twice as wide as a normal city street, yet there are never any cars out, except for the odd golf cart here and there. Yes, they actually drive their golf carts on the city streets there! Also it is very quiet. There is no one outside, no traffic, no noise, no kids, no nothing. Just row upon row of little bunglow style houses with cactus in the front yard. BIZARRE! It IS a nice place to visit though. Very clean and tranquil but I think almost anyone under the age of 70 would go stir crazy there. I love visiting Becky's aunt and uncle though. They are very fun and interesting peopel and are always asking if they can get us anything and making sure we are comfortable when in their home. Her uncle always has some crazy story about the old days when he ran a farm out in the middle of no where in North Dakota. There was the time he had to kill a rattle snake with his bare hands and was only bitten 2 or 3 times (I dont know if i believe that one! :-D), or the time it didnt rain for 4 months straight so every day he and his wife had to pump water from the well and hand water 300 acres of corn. I am always up for one of his stories. They dont make 'em like this guy any more.

The weather was really nice this weekend, like I said, so Becky and I took advantage of it and did some hiking; we got a little sun burned too, oops! It was a really fun and it sucked to have to watch her drive away again this morning.

As for school, things are going pretty well. This week is going to be a killer though. We have 6 tests in 5 days. plus lecture and readings for the lectures. I already got one done this morning in my Positioning class and I think I did pretty well. I got the results from 2 of my tests from last week too. On my intro to radiography test I got a 93% (my lowest so far, d'oh!) and on my A&P I got a 102%. I am still trying to figure out how I got over 100%. The instructor mentioned something about throwing out a question because it wasnt clear, but I still dont know how that would get me 102%.

Tomorrow I have a lab competency test on all the positions for the upper extremities (i.e. digits, hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, and upper arm). Its the first test I am actually somewhat nervous for so I hope I do OK. I practiced on Becky for an hour or so this weekend, so I think I have most of it down. I just get nervous because the instructor will give me three different parts (at random) to position and I have to do it with her watching me like a hawk and making sure I remember to do all the various and sundry tasks that go into making an x-ray image. It will be nice to get this one out of the way. Wish me luck.