More Snow in Tucson!

It snowed in Tucson! Again!

That’s twice now this winter, in case you’re keeping track. We didn’t get much here in Midtown, but my colleagues who live a little higher up had several inches on the ground.

We had to be content with this:

Snow on the organ pipe cactus in my front yard
Closeup of snowy organ pipe arm
My neighbor’s yard (She has a much nicer garden than I do)
Seen in the neighborhood: snowy mailbox and something in the opuntia family
A purple opuntia edged in snow from another neighbor’s yard
Icy flowers from yet another neighbor’s yard

If it hadn’t been a snow day, I’m sure my neighbors would have wondered about t he ctaking pictures of their yards.

I wish I’d been off work yesterday so I could drive out to Saguaro National Park. They got several inches.

Article of the week

Sometimes I share interesting articles or videos I run across in the course of farting around on the internet doing research. This week’s gem is a wonderful piece by Natasha Varner in Atlas Obscura: Found: An 80-Year-Old Wedding Cake With a Tragic Past. After Elaine Nishimura’s mother died at age 102, Elaine found the top tier of her wedding cake, preserved in perfect condition. Elaine’s parents had married in 1943 in Camp Granada, a Japanese American concentration camp.

Tucson Festival of Books

I’ll be at the Tucson Festival of Books this weekend, the third largest book festival in the US. At some point in the Saturday festivities, I’ll be at the Tucson Sisters in Crime booth, signing copies of my short story, “Adam Carmona and the Case of the Saguaro Ripper,” published in an anthology called Trouble in Tucson. I shared an excerpt in my March post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. On Sunday afternoon I’ll be interviewing author David Quammen about his book, Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus, a behind-the-scenes story of how scientists deciphered COVID-19 and developed vaccines. More info about that session available here.

An abbreviated memery

Just a few memes this week, because I’m slammed with work and prep for the book festival.

Yup. The plants on my kitchen windowsill subsist on extra ice that falls out of the ice dispenser in the fridge door.

Yes, the article is real. There should be a Captain Obvious award in science, and Yeo et al. should win it.

This is also true of the block editor in WordPress.

And since we’re bashing Word:

And finally:

I was there. I don’t talk about it.

Happy Friday! Who has fun weekend plans?

This post is part of the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. Wanna meet some cool blog friends? Join us!

28 Comments

  • Joanne

    We got snow too but somehow it’s less exciting when it’s par for the course. LOL. Those memes are fun… but I honestly loved my early morning university classes; maybe because I was one of the only ones that was dressed and wide awake and participating while most of the rest of them straggled in in pj’s with coffee and had their heads on their desks.

    • Janet Alcorn

      I had an 8 AM calculus class my first semester of college. It confirmed my suspicion that mathematicians are sadists.

  • Jeanne

    I was just in Tucson for the Gem and Mineral show, and was there when it snowed. I didn’t realize snow was “rare”. Nice photos!

    • Janet Alcorn

      I’m not sure how rare—this is only my third winter here—but I don’t think it happens often.

      How was the Gem and Mineral Show? I was boring and didn’t go.

  • leannelc

    I love seeing all the snow pics that other bloggers share (we get zero snow here – never have and never will) so it’s my way to enjoy the prettiness of it without the mess or sludge. Lovely that you got to have your share twice this winter – to offset those really hot summers.

    • Janet Alcorn

      I love snow as long as I don’t have to shovel it, drive in it, or slide around on it after it melts and re-freezes into an ice slick. So yeah, I love other people’s snow pics.

  • trent

    I should go out and take photos of snow… Naw, you need something to set it on and all I’d get outside is pure white…
    True story – Sometime during my junior year my adviser asked me why me grades were so all over the board. I wrote down the classes, put the time the classes started next to the class name and then the grade. There was a perfect correlation between start time and grade no matter subject. Of course I majored in Mathematics so I was informed that though the correlation existed, that was not proof of cause and effect…
    Have a great week!

    • Janet Alcorn

      I think making college kids attend an 8 am class would be like making someone my age attend an 11 pm class. Our circadian rhythms are different at that age.

      Hope you have a great week too!

    • Miss Andi

      Snow on cacti doesn’t look natural to me… they invoke summer, not winter, my mind cannot process it! Good luck on the festival, hope it’ll go well!

  • Michelle

    Snow on cacti is surreal. Interesting weather to say the least! Congrats on your publication. Awesome! And I so enjoyed the memes.

  • Gary A Wilson

    Me thinks there’s gonna be some cacti death due to succulent-freeze in Tucson this spring.
    It’s pretty, but I bet there’s a price gonna be paid.

    In my first early am class, a theology class, I noted right off that I sat right behind a very cute little gal who obviously spent 2+ hours on her outfit and makeup each morning. I thought to myself, this simply can’t last. Something going to have to give. And it did. About halfway through the semester, she staggered in, sat down looking as polished as ever, but her head dropped within 15 minutes. Okay – prediction satisfied and so was the young wise-guy behind her. I watched through the class as she sank slowly deeper into the seat and her head turned to one side to partially face me – as a big drool began to roll down her lip, then off her chin then down her right breast – leaving a long moist trail down her pink frilly dress.

    A good friend would have nudged her but I had never been introduced so I just sat it out and waited for clock to ring out the time for us all to run off to our next classes. I moved more slowly so I could enjoy the show when she awoke and discovered her less-than-polished state.

    Gosh – that was funny – but I was gentleman enough to hold it in until I was out of her sight.
    Any some say that chivalry is dead. . .

    • Janet Alcorn

      LOL! I fell asleep in class a few times but pretty sure I never drooled. Just leaned on my elbow and dozed. I’m amazed now when I think of how well I could function on very little sleep. Now if I get less than 7 hours, I’m useless.

  • Bobbiem91

    Good work on the memes. But that was sleet, not snow. snow is fluffier and, well, not so “icy”. Flagstaff broke all records for snowfall this year, so enjoy the icy sleet in “Satan’s anus.” Have fun this weekend and may work get a little less crazy. Mine will get there next month for a few months–or so I hope.

    • Janet Alcorn

      Oh, we had actual snow, not sleet (though I think we had that too at one point). We just didn’t have a lot of snow here in town. People closer to the hills got a couple of inches at least.

  • Lina Belle

    It always surprises me when I see snow in places like Arizona and Texas. I’ve always associated these places with desert land, extreme dry heat 24/7, but I used to live in Texas so I know how brutal the winters can be. I don’t miss getting up early for school not one bit and I feel bad for my kids for having to do it. The Microsoft word meme made me giggle and it’s so true! 😄 I hope you have a great week!

    • Janet Alcorn

      Yeah, people forget that deserts can get *cold*. Tucson is ~2000 ft. elevation, and the dry air means we get some big day/night temperature swings (except in the summer, when it’s just hot all.the.time).

      I definitely don’t miss getting up for school, but now I get up early for no reason at all–except I’m old. *sigh*

    • Janet Alcorn

      It’s been such a bizarre winter. I don’t really mind–much better than constant rain (Portland) or shoveling snow (Flagstaff). But definitely weird.

  • Natalie

    Janet, Thank you for your weekend coffee share. Snow-covered plants look pretty to me. I hope you’ve had an enjoyable time at the festival. Have a great week ahead!

    • Janet Alcorn

      Thanks! The festival was a blast. Lots of fodder for next week’s coffee share.