Livin' in the Southwest

Before I hegin my thoughts on living in the Southwest, I need to recognize my BIL, Jake, for his assistance in getting this blog started. I was sitting at the computer trying to think how to start it when in he walked w/ Kevin from the priesthood session of conference. I believe I called him a genius when he was helping me because I have no idea. So Thanks, Jake. BTW, his wife is having a baby in October. The first Partridge cousin! Now we know that at least one of Kevin's siblings can procreate.
When we first moved here almost ten years ago there were a few things that I noticed that were not going on in Utah, where we had come from, or anywhere else for that matter. The first one was the amount of pick up trucks that had Hispanic men sitting in the bed of the car. I knew this was illegal in Utah, but I could not understand how this would be okay. There is not a law against riding in the back of a pick up and it was all of the landscapers. Just so we're clear, Kevin's employees ride in the cab of the truck, facing forward, hopefuuly with their seat belts on.
The next was that before we moved here, I heard a lot of people tell me we'd be fine in the summer because it is a "dry heat." Little did they know about monsoon season. The humidity builds until it bursts in the form of a downpour and floods the streets and "stupid motorists" try to drive through it and end up getting stuck in the water because you are unable to determine the depth of the water. There is a "stupid motorists" law because of these people in which they have to pay for their own rescue. I was so ticked off at one nurse that I had worked with in the burn unit who was the loudest proclaimer of the dry heat and inform her that it was indeed not. May and June are dry and comfortable, even with 110+ degree heat, but when the humidity rolls around, even if it doesn't hit a 100, it's uncomfortable.
The other fun weather related phenomenon here is the dust storm. Instead of precipitation, a cloud of dust travels through the valley in a huge ball. They tell you what to do in case of a dust storm, like pull over and turn off your lights. Like we need more dust here!
Now because of the lack of water here, a lot of houses do not have grass in he front yard. They have what I like to call "kitty litter" because it is just little rocks that is the ground covering in front of the house. But it gets better and more fun: you can have it in different colors and sizes. But there is some maintenance of the kitty litter. The homeowner must rake the rocks to keep them looking nice.
In terms of lawn maintenance (I did not subscribe to the kitty litter, so we have a large front and back yard. Full on grass.) there is seeding and reseeding that has to be done twice a year. Don't ask me what seed to put when, I could easily ask Kevin, but that would mean I would have to wake him up and he's sleeping so peacefully right now. That shocked me that it did not grow spontaneously and that there was a lot of work to this grass thing. But I still would not have kitty litter.
I was amazed at all of the different states license plates. I made a list of all fifty states and when I saw that license plate, I would cross it off. I saw all fifty states license plates here. Delaware was the last one. I even saw a few providence of Canada. I credit this to the snowbirds that descend upon us every October to April. We're no affected where we live, but if you go out to Mesa, look out!
There are other things that are different from living in Utah, but that is more about being out of the culture of Utah, like getting stopped in Costco and being asked did I mean to have that many children or was it an accident (love the snowbirds), but that is different from the fun of living here. There are many things about living here that I am so glad for and I will never leave, the weather, the people, the outdoors and Kevin's business (which is not seasonal here). I'm going to break out my Southwesten inspired jewelry and dust cover and love the lofe I have here! P.S. i admit, this is not an exciting first post after the initial opening post, but I'm new here, it's late, and I just had a baby (eleven months ago).