Where I Would Live?
Posted: Saturday, September 17, 2011
by John Waddey
firstcenturychristian
I was born in Tennessee and have lived in Mississippi, Colorado, Texas and Arizona. I have been privileged to visit 38 of our states and 22 foreign nations.
For natural scenic beauty, Arizona and Colorado compete for high honors. For hunting, fishing and outdoors sports, Colorado ranks number one. For neighborliness, good manners and social graces, Tennessee is hard to beat. But for overall living I pick Arizona over all the others.
My home is in a suburb of Phoenix. We are located in the midst of the great Sonoran Desert. This means we average only 7 ½ inches of rain per year. We decorate our lawns with crushed stone. The plant decor of our lawns emphasize the many varieties of cacti and desert flora that flourish in our environment. Some three million of us survive here because of two great canals that bring us life-giving water from the Colorado River.
Yes it gets hot here in the desert. In May our daytime temperatures will cross the 100 degree mark and stay there until September. From June -August we bump the 110 degree mark pretty often. The Creator remember this and made arrangements to send us our annual monsoon season from mid-July to mid- September. Most afternoons we get some clouds that buffer the burning rays of the sun and if we are fortunate we will get most of our rainfall for the year. Many who are retired from work and have the means to do so will spend these hot months in some of our lovely mountain towns. Those of us who stay here are smart enough to do our errands, walking or running in the early morning when it is still cool. By noon we retreat to our air-conditioned homes, offices or vehicles and enjoy the cooler climate therein.
Those who are not familiar with our climate often ask, Why would anyone want to live where it gets so hot? Let me tell you why.
• Living in the desert means low humidity. It is not uncommon for our humidity to be 10-15 %. That means little or no perspiration. It means our 105 degrees feels no warmer than 90 in cities with high humidity.
• With low humidity, little standing water and little grass, we have very few flies and mosquitoes. In twelve years we have had maybe five or six flies in our home and no mosquitoes.
• Our winters are lovely, with daytime temperatures ranging from 65 to 80. We rarely have more than three or four frosts each winter season.
• Living here, we have no frost to scrape from our windshields, no snow to shovel from our walks. We never have to drive on snow or ice. We do not worry; about freezing if our power fails.
• We have no hurricanes, no earth quakes, no volcanic eruptions, no floods. Occasionally we will experience a micro burst, but hardly ever a tornado.
• We don’t have to mow grass!
The crime rate in better in our Maricopa County than in cities of similar size. Much of the credit for this goes to Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the toughest sheriff in the nation. Those of us who live here appreciate the diligence of Sheriff Joe and his team of officers. They are on our side. They add to the desirability of our community.
The desert is not devoid of wild life. In fact we have an abundance of rabbits, quail, doves and humming birds. Coyotes roam our neighborhoods in the evening hours looking for supper. Many hawks spend the winter with us and enjoy the fresh rabbit meat that is readily available for them. We do have a variety of rattle snakes and scorpions but those living in town rarely see them. If we don’t bother them they don’t bother us. They do make nice topics for conversation.
All of this explains why our population nearly doubles in the winter season. Most who visit us once, want to return, especially in the cooler months.
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