Outta this world!

So, you are asking, what is life in Flagstaff like?

Well, the downtown has bowls of water on the sidewalk for dogs that come shopping with their owners. A horrifying number of dogs are dressed up. Dogs are ok in grocery stores, etc etc.

The city is a Dark Skies City, meaning that the street lights are designed to put light only on the street, not into the sky. Its energy efficient (also a big emphasis on the environment here), but the main reason for doing that is to keep the sky dark. There is a huge astronomy center here...the Lowell Observatory, and it needs as little light pollution as possible. In addition the Navy got lost and ended up near here with their big observatory. Astronomy remains a huge part of sailing, so that's why they are here instead of a coast. The Discovery Channel in conjunction with the Lowell is building what will be the world's largest refractory telescope near here too. It will be over 150 inches wide. The altitude here and the low humidity make Flagstaff appealing to all these star gazers.

People who live here tend to fall into those that HAVE and those who work for those who HAVE. There is a huge issue with housing because very wealthy people get 2nd homes here and drive up housing prices and the average Joe can't possibly make enough to afford to buy here. Another factor driving up housing prices is that Flagstaff is "land-locked". It is completely surrounded by state or federal forest lands, which makes it beautiful, but also makes it hard to build up an area of modest housing for Joe Average.

There are amazing archeology sites around here too. I drive by the ruins of an ancient pueblo every day going in to work. And every day I drive the Mother Road...Route 66.

The town is steeped in history, and we recently found a photo in a book of the first fire departments here in town. The team consisted of 12 guys who literally pulled the water to the fire in a huge bucket-type affair. The teams would compete against each other on holidays and stuff. So, we're looking at this picture from 1910 and get to reading the caption--one of the guys in the photo was Dave's grandfather! Another day we found an old newspaper article about Dave's g-g-grandfather. He was out herding cattle and his horse bucked him off and stomped on him, knocking him out. When he came to he walked 7 miles to the nearest train stop and then rode the train back to his house. Bet your're thinking "WOW! What a guy!" Well, yes. He died the next day, so the story wasn't a happy one, but it is still quite the tale. We found other news articles about his family coming to town for dances. In that time, people would come to town, dance til midnight, then a big supper would be served after which they would resume dancing. After so many years of emphasis on the Johnson side of the family, it is facinating and fulfilling to "get to know" Dave's family.

Tonight being Halloween AJ is planning to go scrounging the neighborhood for candy, but Viv wants to dress up and hand out candy to the little kids. I worked last night, so I just got home a while ago. My Halloween plans include communing with my pillow for a good part of the day.