New Year's Eve

Greetings from the desert where it is cold. Yes, yes, I know that you are colder. However, it's Arizona, it's supposed to be warm here. Expectations are not being met!
Wednesday I had an outpatient procedure that necessitated general anesthesia. So, the last couple of days have been pretty low key. Yesterday we drove out to the Pima County Fairgrounds for what was advertised as an RV show. It was pitiful. Apparently La Mesa RV felt the urge to haul most of their inventory out to a large, unheated building. We went through a few of the 5th wheels, but it was colder in the building than it was outside, so we left.
How cold was it? It was this cold!

The truck was trying to communicate our imminent peril with ice warnings.

So, to combat the cold and keep the cactus from being damaged, one is supposed to cover their tips with styrofoam cups. This keeps the part of the plant that grows from damage. I found this picture on the web.

Snow on the Catalina Mountains.

Now we will revisit my cuter than cute curio. Look - he's full. I gave Jim the horned toad on the bottom left, and he gave me the pair of badgers bottom right. Cute, cute, cute.

Jim also gave me this bracelet. This is part of the inventory Morningstar Traders bought from the old store in California. I like the turquoise a lot and the fact that it fits me.

Today was also quite cold, but the wind was down from yesterday. We stopped at Coyote Pause for a sandwich and headed out to hike in the Tucson Mountain park.

It was cold, but it was just beautiful out there. We saw very few people.

We went back over the west side of Gates Pass. There were two people climbing it and they were really moving. We were both impressed with the speed at which they were riding.

One of the two people we saw, working hard and climbing fast.

They were off the back! Poor two, they had been dropped by the main group. They're riding for the US Air Force Service academy. They're down for training camp and freezing their tooshies off. Here is their Facebook page. So far they've been up Mt Lemmon, Madera Canyon, Kitt Peak and Gates Pass.

We will do our usual New Year's Eve activity of not doing anything. It's a good tradition and one that we enjoy. We hope you enjoy your evening as well.