Today I am feeling like taking a vacation from blogging, and it just happens that I have a houseful of guests here right now.   We invited a few people over for pizza from Magpies, which is incidentally the best pizza we have found in Tucson (so far).   So combining my disinclination to blog with the guests, I have come up with an idea: a group blog. Everyone here is being asked to contribute just a sentence or two (or a paragraph). As they say, “many hands makes light work.” So let’s see what my friends have to say.

First up is Susan, because she’s the bravest:

It was a beautiful day for a hike and Rich and Emma took Adam and I to Tanque Verde for a hike and look at the waterfalls.   Along the way we saw every kind of cactus imaginable, frogs, a swarm of bees, and a bunch of college geology students who told us about the local formations.   Beautiful!

Next up … Judy:

This was an almost perfect Tucson day-blue skies, 80 degrees and 8% humidity with an occasional cool breeze-ahhhhhh.   (but don’t move here, THERE IS NO WATER!)   This is the weather that brings out the gardening bug in Tucsonians so we walked to the nursery and bought plants, three Blackfoot Daisies which are the native daisy for this part of the southwest.

And now her husband Rick:

I could go on about how nice a day it was in Arizona,   so I will. It’s the reason many or most of us are here. Generally, Sundays can be uneventful but this evening finds my family with friends, some new some not so new and it certainly made this Sunday special.

Now, let’s see what their son Sam has to say:

Well, hello all.   Today’s been a lovely day, absolutely gorgeous Arizona weather.   My day began as any other day and has come to a close with an amazingly stimulating philosophical conversation that spanned everything from human nature to James Bond novels.   It’s such a nice experience to be able to hold an intelligent conversation with such intelligent people, at least every once in awhile; as well as it is heartening to realize that there are, indeed, other intelligent people in the world who have the mental capacity with which to hold these conversations.   It’s one of those lovely little moments that recharge your faith in humanity; which is very refreshing in these days of uncertainty”¦ when it can, at times, feel like you’re the only one who thinks this way; or, to be brutally honest, even thinks at all.   I must thank everyone here for the opportunity to expand my mind, and maybe even expand someone else’s.

Adam here:

Today’s hike was wonder full as Susan says.   Tonight we got to see Carol’s beautiful book on the Birds of Sonora and I gained great insight and hope from our new friends Sam and Joe who re-enforce our belief that the next generation can teach us a lot and will continue to change our world for the better.

It’s Joe at the deck:

Hobbes, Locke, Descartes””We’ve been over them all, over a 30-something minute conversation with Adam, it’s amazing at how three people from different backgrounds have their paths crossed in a intermingling dialogue, from the internet (a series of tubes cleaned out by the powerball) to Alexander the Great to Bernard of Clairvaux. The morality of human nature, the motivations behind political careers, the fallibility of mankind, the power of advertising. And the amazing thing we all found, the conversation came full circle””back to communication and upbringing. Ah, but to have more chances to experience this caliber of conversation, dust off your ideals and bring your views out into the light, so as you read this, make a decision, the next time someone approaches you with an idea or an opinion of this nature indulge them and yourself.

[By the way, Joe is 15 years old.   Both sons, Sam and Joe, have been homeschooled all their lives.   You can see the results. — RL]

Carol here,

The desert bloom is ending, it was a spectacular wildflower show in SE Arizona.   I enjoyed the evening with   Rich, Eleanor,   Emma and their friends.     Pizza was great.

And thus concludes our group blog this evening.   Our guests are on their way home, the pizza leftovers are in the refrigerator, the dischwascher is quietly dealing with its inaugural load of plates and glasses,   and we are settling in for the night.   Thanks to all our guest bloggers this evening.

36 hours until we head out!