Merry Christmas, Marana

So today I got my godson's box shipped. Third day UPS cost as much as the presents I bought him this year, but not as much as the total cost of the contents, much of which predated 2006. The box wasn't very heavy, but it was big. Perhaps that's past of why the cost was so high. I saw the guy from the shipping place measuring it.


When I headed back to the office around 3 PM (got a late start!), the clouds, which at one point almost completely obscured the Catalinas, were starting to clear up. Here you can see the remaining clouds and the heavy pre-Christmas traffic, especially for 3 PM on a weekday.



You know how I often joke about the Crosswalk of Death? It's not that big a joke. This homemade memorial cross is about a hundred feet from it, on a median in the middle of Wilmot.

Tonight I tried to drop off the weekend's charity toy purchases in a Toys for Tots box. Every year it gets harder to do this. There used to be one of these boxes at Toys R Us, but that hasn't been true in several years now. Target stopped last year, I think. Last year I put toys in a box at Walmart that was guarded by actual Marines. This year, no box. John thought he saw a box at the Curves at 22nd and Kolb, but a) they're closed when I get off work, and b) there was no box there as of tonight.


The other place John saw a toy drop off was at the Subway at 22nd and Kolb. It turned out, though, that it wasn't Toys for Tots. It was for something called Miracle in Marana. Marana is a town a little north of Tucson, right around the county line. It has a community airport, and I think some suspected terrorists took a few flying lessons there. I don't remember for sure.


John was worried about the potential hinkyness of giving the toys to a charity we had never heard of. What if it was bogus? Myself, I just felt a bit of a wrench not giving to Toys for Tots for the first time in about 20 years. But the Subway employee I spoke with seemed terribly grateful for our donations to the Marana kidlets. "We pretty much only had donations from employees," she told me. She went on to say that the employees keep a close eye on the box (which is right next to where the person who starts the sandwiches stands), thus preventing unauthorized withdrawals. Her daughter has expressed interest in the toys, so the mother explained about the poor kids who don't otherwise have a Christmas. Good for her. Our balls and Barbies, monster maker, Hot Wheels and other stuff easily doubled the haul, and that makes me feel kinda good about it. Merry Christmas, Marana!



On the way home, I thought I'd take a picture of a different house with Christmas lights. I like the way the trees frame the house, and the cyclone effect of the lights around the tree trunks.

Karen

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