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An Ominous Forecast

Well this is a first for my local weather forecast (from NOAA):

Tonight: Areas of blowing dust before 11pm. Mostly clear, with a low around 75. West wind 6 to 9 mph becoming south southeast.

Yep, the wind sure is blowing. 30 MPH gusts. We also have a weather advisory for ozone... apparently excessive amounts causes respiratory distress for children and persons with respiratory disease.

Yep, it's a different world out here. Hopefully I'll avoid Valley Fever... more on that later.

Stray Observations: Arizona

The weather: Obviously, Arizona is warm. The other day when the high was something like 96, I thought "oh, it's going to cool off today." The highs are regularly above 100 degrees and there is no cloud coverage, so the sun is a force to be reckoned with. The humidity is typically around 10%, which makes the heat bearable. Anything above 20% and I'm sure it would be awful. But that is very, very dry. If you stick a damp paper towel outside, it will dry within a few minutes. Sweat evaporates almost instantly.

My apartment complex gives me a covered parking space, which helps. No such luck at Intel. After 9 hours in an open parking lot, it is brutal getting in the car after work. Spaces next to trees are a rare commodity out here, but it's worth the extra walk if you can find one. It keeps the car at least a little bit cooler. When I drive around the air conditioner is on full blast and usually just starts to blow cool air once I arrive at my destination. But I'm getting used to it all.

The first week out here I started running on a treadmill since running in the heat is out of the question. I hate treadmills. So I've started running at 5 AM, and the weather is surprisingly pleasant. Plus, I never have to worry about lousy running weather -- it's always nice.

The roads: Unlike most east coast cities, the Phoenix area is well planned. All of the roads are more or less laid out in a grid fashion, and they're all enormous. They also tend to have bike lanes and sidewalks, which is great for us street runners. It is not uncommon for residential neighborhoods to have multi-lane roads and few main roads are 4 lanes... most are 6 or more.

Speed Cameras: Phoenix, somewhat infamously, has speed cameras. I didn't know this for a few days. When I drove in I noticed a police vehicle with a lot of rigging on top, turns out it was a speed camera. They also have fixed cameras. If you drive 11 MPH or more over the speed limit, a strobe light illuminates you and the camera captures your license plate and face. You are then mailed a bill. According to most, if you don't pay it there is no consequence. But due to the controversy of this program, it is being shut down in July.

Grocery Stores: They sell beer, wine, and liquor! It's kind of weird, but the prices sure are great. Not surprisingly, most of the wine is from California. It takes some effort to find internal wines, but there are a few specialty stores I'll have to check out. And naturally, none of the stores out here can match Wegmans.

The water: Locals can't stand the tap water. When I first arrived I thought it was terrible, but I was determined to get used to the taste. After about a week, I have. But most people can't stand it and don't drink it. We're in the desert, so water isn't exactly abundant. It is mostly reclaimed. And it is very, very hard. When I first got here I washed my wine glasses and let them air dry... and they did not look pleasant with all of the hard water spots.

Residential neighborhoods: Every house kind of looks the same. And some people are determined to have grassy lawns. It requires a lot of water, and even still it does not look good. Most yards have gravel/rocks with some desert shrubs and cacti. Pretty much everyone has a pool, too.

The time zone: It's hard to get used to. Arizona is on Mountain Time, but does not observe Daylight Savings Time. So we're currently in line with Pacific Time. The stock market closes just after lunch. Saturday Night Live airs tape delayed at 10:30 PM. Network broadcasts might air 3 hours early, they might air at the advertised time, or they might air randomly sometime during the evening. Phone calls back east are a challenge to coordinate.

The food: There isn't much local flavor out here. Most everything is a chain. That's pretty disappointing. But there are some new places to me, since most chains are Arizona or the west coast. There is plenty around to choose from.

The geography: Everything is flat until you get to magnificent mountains that are speckled all across the state. I would also like to visit the north rim of the Grand Canyon at some point... but it is an additional 5 hour drive to get there.

The Journey to Arizona

I am writing this on the deck of my new apartment in Chandler, Arizona. So how did I end up here?

Last year I was finishing up my second internship at Intel's Fab 17 in Hudson, MA. I was interested in working at a different Intel facility, so I managed to secure a third internship with Intel, this time at Fab 12 in Arizona. Yep, Arizona. That's 2300 miles from Rochester, NY and about the complete opposite when it comes to climate. It also makes what I thought the long drive home from RIT was, at 8 hours, like a quick commute.

I was very excited by this opportunity. It will vastly expand my network within Intel and allow me to live in an entirely new part of the country for 6 months. I was also excited by my decision to drive out to Arizona and not fly.

So yep... 2300 miles. I decided to do it over 4 days. I felt that it would be a good idea to drive a lot the 1st and 3rd days with shorter drive times the 2nd and 4th. To prepare for the journey, I bought a cooler and a case of bottled water, 2 boxes of granola bars, got an oil change, 4 new albums of music and two audio books. So how did it go?

Day 1: I left my Scottsville , NY apartment at 4:30 AM. I had packed the car up the day before and cleaned the apartment. Driving on the NYS Thruway in early morning is fantastic: there is no traffic. I should probably mention that I made this journey on Memorial Day weekend. I stopped for breakfast at a travel plaza before I left the state.

Driving through Pennsylvania on I-90 is no different than in NY. This is probably because the duration is short and you only drive through vineyards. But getting to Ohio, things change. This is because Ohio drivers get on the road. I will always maintain that Massachusetts drivers are the worst in the country, but Ohio comes close. Case in point: if a 3 lane highway becomes a 2 lane highway, traffic should not become more efficient. Apparently the additional lane is too much to handle for Ohio-ans. I drove through Cleveland and Columbus, which both seem like neat cities. Ohio took a long time to drive through, and I was happy to get out of the state. We had the same feelings on the trip to the Frozen Four in Detroit just a few months prior.

Then came Indiana. I drove through Indianapolis which looks like a very cool city. Otherwise, the state appears to be sparsely developed, at least along the interstate corridor. Towards the end of the state I started seeing Steak 'n Shakes on the "Food" signs, so I stopped at one. I had seen ads for them watching out of market hockey games and had heard a lot about them from friends that have lived in the Midwest. For not a lot of money, it was great. Had a good burger, fries, and a great milkshake. It hit the spot.

Then came Illinois. Wow. A whole lot of nothing. I stopped for gas and felt very out of place... The entire place (along the interstate corridor) seemed like backwoods nightmare. I need to go to Chicago sometime to get a different read on the state.

I made it to St. Louis and called it quits for the day. This was after 14 hours in the car. It was around 5 pm local time. The first hotel I tried had open rooms and it was quite nice. As a bonus, I was able to watch Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals before heading to sleep.

On this first day I had listened to the audio version of Sara Silverman's memoir, "The Bedwetter." She narrated it and did a great job. I enjoyed the book immensely and it kept me nice and attentive during the long day.

Day two: I had made arrangements to stay with a friend in Oklahoma City which was only 7 hours away. I got on the road around 8 and made my way through Missouri. What a beautiful state. At this point in the cross country trip, it is obvious that things (like exits and towns) are starting to get more sparse. I don't remember much from MO other than the beauty of the interstate corridor.

After a few hours I made it to Oklahoma. The interstate I was on was part of the turnpike system. Unlike New York, which has entry and exit plazas to determine how much to charge you, OK makes you pay $4 up front. Then if you exit before the end of the turnpike, you are issued a partial refund. I found this to be an odd way to do it. And boy where things getting sparse... It could be 20 miles between exits with no services once you finally reached one. I finally reached a travel plaza and stopped for lunch because I felt like nothing else would come. Turns out I ate at the largest McDonald's in the world. It stretched over the highway so that both directions could eat. So this McDonald's was 4 lanes + median wide. The stop was also a Will Rogers mini-museum. He's apparently a big deal in Oklahoma.

I found a few things curious about Oklahoma. First off, the anti-Obama and pro-life billboards and signs were quite rampant and humorous. I remember one which read "Invest in America's future: buy bullets!" There were also many signs that said "Do not drive into smoke." Apparently, there are often big grass fires that bellow smoke on the highway and this presents white-out like conditions. Also, for such a sparse area there were enormous schools. We're talking 4 or 5 story high schools. There were also many mega churches.

On this second day of driving I started listening to my second audiobook, "The Green Mile" by Stephen King. The narration and story were superb. I only got a few hours into the book but was hooked. It was a great story to drive to. That night I was able to spend time with my old friend, which was great, and also got treated to an authentic Midwest barbecue dinner -- also great.

Day three: time for the second long day of driving. I got started around 7 am and drove through the western half of Oklahoma. It is a lot flatter and sparser than the eastern part. I then made it to the Texas panhandle. Other than Amarillo, there is really nothing but ranches. I stopped at a rest area that had grills in the shape of Texas and the restrooms themselves doubled as tornado shelters. Because if a tornado hits, I want to take cover in a rest area bathroom...
There was a billboard that showed up every 2 miles advertising a "free 72 oz steak dinner!!" The fine print was that you had to finish the steak. I wonder how much it cost if you didn't finish... And in Amarillo I had a scare where two wild dogs seemed to just run out in the busy three lane highway. Good thing I've got solid breaks and tires. It was also at this point that everything became totally flat. I could see out for miles in every direction. This started the transition to desert. I also remember finding it odd that the speed limit was 70, but 65 at night. This was my first time encountering a night speed limit.

Then there was New Mexico. This was really desert. The soil became red and the plants were all desert-like. The only stops were truck stops and Indian reservations. But towards the western half of the state, around Albuquerque, the terrain started to get more interesting. I ended up driving through the southern portion of the Rockies, which I did not expect. They were impressive and made the Allegheny/Blue Ridge mountains seem pathetic. From that point forward there were magnificent rock formations. This continued into Arizona.

Compared to Arizona, New Mexico is very green. Arizona really started the sand for soil landscapes. Again, exits were very sparse. I started running low on gas because it had been quite some time since I had passed a gas station. I saw an exit sign for a Chevron and got off. Turns out the gas station was in the Painted Desert. I had visited there when I was 11 and thought it was amazing that I was back. I got some gas and then continued past breathtaking scenery to Holbrook, where I stopped for the night. Again, I was fortunate to be there in time for game 2 of the Stanley Cup. It helped that I kept driving into new time zones. For those of you unaware, Arizona is mountain time but does not observe daylight savings time, so it is currently 3 hours back from eastern time. Total time in the car? 12 hours. The 75 mph speed limits (yes, 75), helped out.

Day four: Only three hours to go. No more interstate, either. I drove on state roads the rest of the way. This had me go through pure desert: no stops, no topography. After an hour or so I got to a magnificent mountain range and state park. Wow, it was beautiful. Better than the Rockies I had driven through the previous day. Once past these, I went through some Indian Reservations, all with casinos. I then made it to Chandler and to my apartment complex... At 9 am! My trip was finally over.

I had finished The Green Mile... What a great book. I then spent that day moving in and unpacking. The nearby Target provided some cheap furniture to assemble, bedding, and a shower curtain. I got to bed around midnight.

So my first impressions of Arizona? Wow it's hot. And dry. But Chandler seems like a great town. Everything is well planned and laid out. My apartment is fantastic. And so far, Intel is going great. I think this is going to be a good 6 months.

Enough writing for now. I'll do my best to keep the entries coming. Please leave comments!

Self Rolling Snow Balls

This is insanely neat.

Snow stories: rare sell rolling snow balls found in UK

This is an article from The Telegraph. Apparently on some plains in the UK, if the wind conditions are right, there is just enough ice, and the snow is perfectly moist, giant snowballs will self form and roll around the fields. There are two pictures at the top of the article that I find fascinating. They are not really snowballs, but rather snow cylinders.

We've been getting plenty of snow in Rochester, but no self-rolling snowballs. That would be something to write home about!

Break in Review

So I didn't post any updates over break. Yeah, I'm lazy.

After RIT swept Sacred Heart in men's hockey, I drove down to Staunton for the week. Other than visiting with friends and family, there is really nothing interesting to report. It was a very nice visit.

Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, two friends and I drove up to Washington D.C. On par with last year, we went to the always fantastic Fogo de Chao for dinner, very much worth the price. We then walked over to the Verizon Center to watch the Washington Capitals defeat the Buffalo Sabres in a fantastic game. Varly got the shutout with a 2-0 final score, Ovechkin with one goal, Fehr the other -- you can read the NHL recap here. The arena was sold out and the fans were the loudest I'd ever heard...and very into the game. It was excellent.

The Winter quarter starts up tomorrow... I have all of my books and just bought some supplies, so I will hopefully be ready at 10 AM tomorrow.

Turning Back

Today was my last day of co-op at Intel's Fab 17. More on that later.

I've just about packed everything up here in Massachusetts. I'm about to shut off the computer and load it up in the car. I'll be on the road early in the morning... driving 400 miles on I-90 W back to Rochester, where I will unpack and finally get properly settled into my new apartment in Scottsville.

I've got a lot of travel ahead of me, but I'll try and get some posts up here, so check back soon!

Testing the iPhone app

WordPress, my new blogging engine, has an iPhone app that lets me do most things... Including new posts with photos!

Here is some hot sauce from Julio's...