Brrrr…. It’s a might chilly. Well, for the Arizona desert it is. Temperatures have been low for the past two weeks and folks all over the valley have been telling me about ice that I had not seen,,,until this morning. 
I had the foresight to keep a drop light shining on my outdoor spigot the past several nights, but the bulb broke late yesterday. So I turned on the water, just a trickle, and let the hose run. This morning about 5 AM, (on my way back to bed from the bathroom) I checked the outside temp: 38. “Excellent”, I thought and went outside and turned off the water. Guess what. 5 AM is not the coldest time of day. 
By 7 AM there was ice all over the truck, and on the hose. I cautiously turned on the water – barely a drip came from the hose. I opened the valve a bit more – no change. I waited, knowing that the water coming into the house was certainly above freezing and after 10 minutes or so, the water began to flow more robustly. The temperature is now at 36 on the porch (where my thermometer rests) and probably a bit lower at the shady side of the house. But it will soon rise as the sun does its thing.
My friends down at “Three Points” ( a spot in the desert southwest of Tucson) posted a photo of snow coming down at their place. And this morning, Tucson is surrounded by decorated mountains and folks all over the higher areas in town are taking pictures of their blanketed yards. And up at Gold Camp and Apache Junction, the Superstition Mountains are white.
Today, 1 Jan 2015, is the 3rd birthday of my granddaughter Emily. We will be joining family members and friends in celebration this afternoon with a pot-luck feast at her other grandparents’ home. I imagine there might also be some football-watching going on.
So it’s promising to be a pretty enjoyable day. I hope the remainder of 2015 will follow suit. On my immediate 2015 “to do” list is the task of building my new recording studio bench (I have the materials now) and completing work on my next album “Complicated Man”. Here’s a peek at the “draft” art work. I think it’s pretty cool. It’s a drawing done by my artist uncle Dale Witherow. Check out his other works at www.witherowgallery.com.
I will be performing a short 10-minute showcase at the Arizona Songwriters Gathering at the Glendale Library on 17 January. There will be a steady parade of songwriters performing that day – all free. And on Valentine’s Day, 14 February, I’ll be playing at the Gilbert Folk Festival again. This time I’m on the “Farmers Market” stage. It will be a great day of music, so come join the fun.
Happy New Year!
