Talking Pictures (again)

Let's see what's been on my mind - and my camera - today. Yep, it's another photo essay.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. No, it wasn't about my cold; it was a physical/GYN exam, scheduled months ago. Aside from my weight and my cold, neither of which require expert diagnosis, it was pretty much all good news. She was happy to see that even though I'm not taking my diuretic, the edema is currently almost completely gone. Everything else looked normal except for a minor issue with one test, which I'm pretty sure was due to something I did rather than an actual medical condition.


My doctor's office is within walking distance of where I work, so, naturally, I walk. Somewhere in between one and the other is this complex of dentists' offices, which is where my dentist is. Handy, huh? The interesting thing about the dental park, aside from the topiary in between the buildings and the hand-painted "B4" near my dentist's particular entrance, is the way the light hits the south side of this building on sunny mornings. The sun slanting down through the ramadas casts oblong shadows, making the stucco look like an elongated log cabin.


And here's another surprising sight. This idyllic scene is at the edge of the parking lot outside Dr. L's building. People come and go all day long, oblivious to the beauty as they worry about test results, turn off their cell phones and wonder whether they remembered their insurance cards. Notice also that it wasn't terribly cloudy at 9:43 AM, despite a report that another heavy rain was coming.

This is the walkway in front of Dr. L's office. Nice, huh? It's not as sumptuous as it looks, but it is peaceful. I remember having a few low key conversations with my Mom here as she smoked after an appointment.

After work I took a few pictures, went home, researched the Democratic primary for about 15 minutes and headed over to my local polling place. The Tucson Citizen is not the world's greatest newspaper (I noticed tonight that one of their headline links spells Mt. Lemmon as "Mount Lemon"), but they do put together a decent election guide. I especially liked this sentence in their primary endorsements:

Governor: Four men are running, and we don't think any would make a good governor.

The sole Democrat in that race is the incumbent, Janet Napolitano. I like her a lot, and so, apparently, do most Arizonans.


So I checked out a couple of the candidates for Jim Kolbe's House seat, and ended up with the one the paper endorsed: Gabrielle Giffords. I was tempted to vote for Patty Weiss, who used to be a news anchor here, but Giffords agreed with me almost perfectly on the issues. (Giffords won easily; Weiss is second at this writing.) Yes, I know the above is a lousy picture. The original was very dark, and I kind of like the wonkiness of the colors.


One thing I already knew: a nasty little anti-immigration proposition that passed a year or two ago meant that I had to show a driver's license to vote, and it had to be a recent drivers license. Fortunately, the MVD made me take care of that last detail a month or two ago. Here's something I didn't know: there's a limit of 75 pies at polling places in Arizona. (Yes, I know that's not what it really means.)


Check out the major cloud cover by 6:30 PM. It had actually rained a bit by this point.


The building with the two lights shining is the school where I usually get to vote. When the polling place is somewhere else, I have to scramble to find it in time. But not tonight. The polling place was where it was supposed to be. All's right with the world. Well, with Tucson, anyway.

Karen

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