Monsoons? What monsoons?!

Every year I go through this anxious anticipation. "When are they ever going to start?!" Then that is followed by something like "when will this ever end?!" It's kinda' like how they joked about it in circa 1950s USMC: "there are only 2 good duty stations: the last one and the next one!"

In the mean time life plods on and grocery prices rise faster than Social Security checks. A few years ago the Admiral was paying something like $100 - $175 for the week's food & necessities from Safeway. Now she's paying about $400 for the week. Yikes! And no, we aren't eating a different mix of food: we've been on a (sort of) vegetarian regimen since October 2013- it's called a pescatarian diet: veggies plus cold water fish (like salmon) once or twice per week. 

Update: The Admiral shopped at Safeway today (23 Jul 2026). Sockeye salmon was $27/lb. They don't even carry king salmon. King salmon is caught of the coast of California and was a staple of our diet for many years.

The park is starting to look like a ghost town as the temps rise. Pretty typical for this time of year. Why would anyone with a moveable home stay in this heat if they have a choice? Still, I expected to see more leaseholders staying put this year with through-the-roof gas prices. Yikes! Locally we are paying about $3.50/gal at the nearby Sinclair station (this week!).

Anyway... a few shots from my (almost) daily walk around the North side of SKP Saguaro Co-op...

South of us. Looked promising but never got to the park.

Another one out over San Pedro Valley, but no-joy... never reached us. In fact I doubt those threads of moisture even reached the ground.

And we've been getting a lot of really nice sunsets

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I deliver fresh roasted coffee to 3 or 4 neighbors every Sunday morning. Sadly that number dropped by 1 this week as it appears one such neighbor won't be returning to the park. Just wanted to remember someone who was a 'fan'. 'Hope they have decent coffee wherever you live next'.