There have been a few changes in this beautiful town of Fountain Hills, Arizona in the year since we’ve been here.
Oh, the air is still much purer than in the valley below and the community still doesn’t allow street lights so the stars shine gloriously bright in the night sky.
The local residents, many of them transplanted Midwesterners just like us, are still just as friendly and accommodating. But there doesn’t seem to be as many of them this January. For Sale signs now adorn their front yards.
This area was especially hard hit by the mortgage crisis. There are some 500 homes and condos on the market in Fountain Hills right now and some real deals to be had.Mountains, a lake, a fountain, three golf courses and a casino close by..what’s not to like?
Unfortunately, for Linda and me, the same economic collapse that brought about those deals has also gobbled up our financial ability to take advantage of them. So, we’ll just continue to sponge off our beautiful desert daughter, Christy, for as long as possible.
It’s with her that the biggest change has happened in the last year.
TWINS, a boy and a girl, arrived in late October and, even though she’s not married, her mother and I couldn’t be more proud.
Okay, okay..they’re just cats; Jack and Monet (no one consulted me on the names) but they have restored a spark in our daughter that went out after the loss of her longtime feline friends, Felix and Pipi within a few months of each other.
“That’s it,” Christy said after they died, “I’m through with cats. It’s hurts too much when they go.”
But then, last fall, at a local animal rescue she came upon a litter of black kittens. The male reminded her so much of Felix it was love at first sight and she had to have him.
Then, she decided it would be cruel to separate him from his sister so they left the shelter as a pair in the back of Christy’s car.I still can’t tell them apart but Linda says that’s Monet staring at the camera.Three days after Linda and I got here, Christy had to leave on business for a week which meant leaving US in charge of these not-so-little-anymore kittens.
Well, they’re a lot like teenage kids; they have boundless energy, are into everything they’re supposed to stay away from and they refused to acknowledge voices of authority. Then they’ll sleep for hours at a time which awakens ferocious appetites that can only be satisfied by gorging on great gobs of expensive kitty food which eventually results in huge piles of digested stinky residue left in a litter box built for one.
I’ve begged Linda to let me take a turn at cleaning out the mountains of cat poop deposits that are made each day but she always says, “No, honey, you just sit there at the computer drinking your bloody mary and leave this delightful chore to me.”
(Or something like that. Those may not have been her exact words.)
But, just like teenagers, Jack and Monet do provide hours of entertainment and laughter and Linda and I are mighty glad that Christy came to their rescue because they’ve certainly come to hers.I will take credit for teaching both of them to appreciate TV watching. Here we’re learning Spanish on Telemundo.