Shuttle van...

No one of course would contemplate moving to the state of Arizona without a driving licence, except former denizens of New York City who inhabit their own island reality. Thus I managed to delay driving for the two years after my arrival, which took a certain degree of intransigence given that we were living 30 miles from the nearest metropolitan center. I was abetted in some measure by the job I happened upon — at a large state university with a burgeoning population of students (currently 55k and soon to reach 90k) located some 2 hours from my home in one of the most blighted urban landscapes I have ever stumbled upon ... okay, I admit, grimy industrial has far greater appeal for me than miles and miles of fake pink stucco. My solution was to take a small shuttle van up to Phoenix every week (or down, if one considers altitude) and sleep over 2 nights — in a small studio that was once part of a 1950's style motel (complete with swaying palm trees and lima-bean shaped pool).

The pool deserves mention. Many people have pools in Phoenix but one need only experience one Phoenix summer to ask why. For pools in Phoenix do not present opportunities for refreshment. I shall explain.

A week or two after I had started work, temperatures soared to 116 degrees. There is no amount of time that one can spend outdoors when it is 116 degrees and take any comfort. The smallest tasks instead bring on waves of nausea. Too, there was no promise of cooler temperatures in the evening (as most of the desert experiences), as the pavement of Phoenix manages to trap the day's heat which is then released full throttle at night.

On the evening in question -- when the temperatures had shaved off a mere 2 or 3 degrees -- I traipsed the mile from my office to my apartment as slowly as possible, borne along only by the thought that I would soon shed my clothes and jump into a still pool full of cool water. Sure enough the pool was empty and I quickly threw off my belongings, slipped into a suit, paused for a moment at the pool's edge and then jumped.

The water was warm. Not intentionally mind you, but warm enough to steep a bag of sun tea.

to be continued