Rear View Mirror: 5 Things I Will Not Miss

I am rather amused that I only have five things.  At least five I am willing to publish.  They say that folks either love or hate the ABQ.  I managed to circumvent that notion by loving the activities and the food and the people.  However, I have serious reservations about the loveliness of the climate.  It has been pleasingly cool for the last few days.  More similar to a day at a Pacific beach than the typical ABQ summer weather.  An employee at Starbucks told me he had heard people complain.  Apparently some folks like scorching sun and sand blowing in your face.


So to follow up on a few of the things I will miss, I have a few that I will not.

Fading.  Everything fades in the consistent mile high sunshine.  Pieces of paper that are nowhere near the window, fade.  Books inside a home, where the blinds are always closed, inside a glass cabinet, fade.  Playground equipment and road signs, you name it.  The sun scalds you when it is freezing outside. A similar volume of sun would be fine, just a little bit further away please.

Dog Pee on Hot Xeriscaping Rocks: It smells worse than the worst day at a hot beach with no wind and lots of dead creatures rotting in the sun.  The sight of poo on xeriscaping, also not a favorite.  Why does it look less awful on grass??  Actually I won't miss the xeriscaping at all.  At least not the rocks type. A garden of untamed wildflowers would be prettier.  Xeriscaping has come a long way in the last decade or so, yet it still is just one more item for the high spring winds to pick up and hurl in your face.  I failed to convince myself that the elaborate rock and crushed granite displays were better than nothing.

Evaporation Beyond Belief: In cleaning out my house I discovered a jar of jewelry cleaner that I had forgotten about.  You know the watery stinky ones that are not very good for your jewelry.  Anyways it was sealed and in a drawer in the bathroom and ALL THE LIQUID EVAPORATED.  Through the plastic.  Then there is this darling glitter globe ring given to me a decade ago by a young friend.  It was a fantastic conversation piece.  However after about one year, ALL THE LIQUID EVAPORATED.  Through the plastic.

Vege-what? New Mexico is sort of like what would happen if you mixed up Texas, California and Colorado, and covered it in green chile stew.   I have been a vegetarian for almost 20 years. It has never been harder.  This was surprising, given the hippie streak in New Mexico. Apparently here the norm is bacon loving hippie-ness.   My diet was less stressful in Arkansas and Mississippi!  Watching folks refuse meatless options like they were horrible insulting alien dishes; encountering folks who seem insulted by my choice.  Catered event dinners with nothing healthy or vegetarian on the menu. Dinner of cornbread, anyone, anyone?

Those days when the swamp cooler doesn't really work.  Evaporative cooling is more physics than chemistry.  For it to be effective it needs to be under 95 degrees (f) and under 35% humidity, or something like that.  When those factors are in play, I prefer swamp coolers.  They are moist rather than drying; they are usually a comfortable cool rather than a frigid one.  Some folks feel that it is environmentally better than AC; and it is certainly a much simpler contraption.   However, there are always days in the summer when neither of the 2 factors listed above are present.  On those days, which must total about 20 a summer, then the SC is a joke.  Last summer while in Indianapolis I had dinner at a restaurant whose AC was non-functional.  Everyone else at the dinner party was very uncomfortable.  I found it normal, normal for when it is one of those days when the swamp cooler just ain't gonna cool anything.  I noticed a few swamp coolers in my new small town...which is more humid than here.  I wonder how that is gonna work.

What life factors here in the ABQ are forgettable for you?