Phone Systems and Fire

I hate automated phone answering systems.  Jim is trying to get through to the new retiree services system.  He enters his employee identification number, the voice comes back and confirms it, and then asks for it again.  He's been through this loop about five times.  Once in awhile he gets transferred randomly.  They implemented a new retiree system and it does not seem to be going well.  Wait!  He just hit the #0 sequence repeatedly and the voice said it would transfer him to a human, then it said call volumes were too high and they could not take the call and hung up. 

We picked up the RV this morning from storage.  It went well.  The toilet was holding water and the bedroom slide had not extended itself uncommanded.  We took it in for new tires, tomorrow we will park it in an RV park close to the house and start loading the wagons.

After leaving the tire place we headed east to go get house keys made.  On the way we saw this.  It's not that great of a picture, taken through the driver's side window.  On the left, with the Open sign, is a hotdog truck.  On the right with the over hanging roof, is a dining area.  What you can not see is that there is a big honking evaporative cooler (a form of air conditioning) hanging off the front of the mobile dining room.  And we think he's towing it with a minivan.  To me, it looks too wide for a city street, but maybe not.  Hot dogs are big in south Tucson.  They're everywhere.

Later we saw a weed whacker on a motorcycle.

Three nights ago there was a fire.  There is an old warehouse district called the Lost Barrio that has been converted to shops selling rustic Mexican furniture and antiques, places that make furniture and stores that sell foo-foo decorating stuff.

It started in Petroglyphs, which was a purveyor of rustic Mexican furniture.  It's completely and totally gutted.  Nothing remains.  It's a wonder the entire block didn't go up given the old wiring and chemicals used for painting and staining furniture.

These people were to the right of them.  They made furniture and sold decorating stuff.  Really beautiful items.  We couldn't tell if they burned, but everything in there is ruined by smoke.  It was run by a mother and daughter. 

We had this made there last summer while we were away, and picked it up when we got back.

This is to the left of Petroglyphs.  It's currently empty, but the smoke smell is strong.  That is a huge old fan.

It's difficult to see the destruction.  There is so much mass produced crap these days, it was nice to see people making and selling things that were unique.  We wonder if the two stores will come back.  The rest of the block is open.