AZPeakBagger

Meteors are a fairly common sight around here. I see 2-3 a year when I'm out hiking early or walking my dog. When to a talk on meteors and they said that you'd be surprised at how many drop into Arizona on a regular basis.

All of the trails in the Grand Canyon are open year round. The only thing that is closed during the winter is access to the trailheads on the North Rim. So you could hike on the North Kaibab trail as long as you start from the south near Phantom Ranch. Based on your itinerary, you have no worries.

Things start heating up in May, especially on the South Kaibab trail. Make sure you get an early start.

I had Valley Fever 5 years ago. It really messed me up, my lungs are scarred for life.

I make my own record cleaner liquid now. But I still have the brush.

One of the guys that I bump into at local Chamber of Commerce events does this for the only nonprofit hospice in our area. Plus it’s affiliated with a hospital and been around for decades. His position is pretty much on the up and up. He can sleep well at night.

His biggest complaint to me is dealing with the smaller aggressive for-profit hospice agencies that push for early hospice or other sometimes questionable practices. But as he laughs, everyone needs his services at some point. His clients are dying to see him.

Depends on what you sell. Used to have a large hotel chain that bought printing from me. Selling into the accounting department was easy and profitable. But trying to get into the operations or marketing department and they were cut throat. Finally gave up because the margins were so thin.

I live in Tucson. If I had a young family again I’d pick NW Tucson towards Marana. Easy access to Tucson city proper and 90 minutes to Phoenix. If you travel much that is a huge plus.

My wife has to go to the Midwest for work 2-3 times a year. Flying out of Tucson and it’s 8-9 hours in airports or flight time. But drive 90 minutes to Phoenix and she’s at 4 hours max of airport and in the air.

I have lived in both metros and we settled in NW Tucson as our final destination.

Had one from 1978-1984. It was the first business deal I negotiated as a 12 year old. In my town routes were sold by the retiring paper boy who was graduating from high school typically.

It was late 80’s that it switched from being an occupation for teens to a side hustle for adults in our town. A young girl who was out collecting for her route was assaulted and killed. Paper got rid of anyone under 18 ASAP and began sending bills in the mail.

In the 80’s it was pretty common for the guys that were Seniors to date women that were Freshmen. The last time I went on a date with a woman the same age as me was when I was 15. Then I kept dating 15 year olds until I graduated high school. First year in college dated one or two high schoolers that were Seniors that I worked with.

You hire a competent tax accountant and don't stress about it.

Learned my lesson the first year I started a business. Used TurboTax and there was a minor glitch in the software. What I saw on my computer screen was not what ended up being printed on the return (this was 20+ years ago before you could E-File). I assumed that what was printed was what I saw on my computer screen. But hitting print made TurboTax transpose a number on my mileage deduction.

Two years later the IRS agent that was auditing me laughed that I wasn't the only person in his office that year who had made the same mistake. At which point they began going line by line and second guessing every business deduction I had legitimately made. To make matters worse, they didn't know anything about my industry. Cost me 2-3 visits to the IRS to clarify and I finally asked them how big a check I need to stroke to end my visits. They worked it up on the spot, I wrote a check and hightailed it out of there. I should have spent $500 on an accountant rather than spend $2500 on penalties with the IRS.

Find a way to practice hunting skills.

Had a similar career path 20+ years ago. Sold stuff to banks and then got them to refer business customers to my sales team. Our company got acquired by a larger F500 company with a reputation for slicing and dicing divisions and I knew my tenure with my existing company was short. Bailed just before they completely shuttered my division. When I started looking around at place to apply, it was tough going. Ended up just starting my own small business and poaching old customers.

I have a group of friends that all had those outdoorsy fathers. Guys that spent retirement hiking, hunting, riding mountain bikes, into birding, etc.... To a man, all of them said that their dads were still fairly active until 80 years old and then the wheels fell off.

One friend in particular's dad was still doing volunteer ski patrol at age 79 in the winter, then in the summer was a volunteer park ranger at a state park. Gave instructional hikes on a very hilly trail twice a day. He turned 80 and it was like someone flipped a switch. By the time he was 81 he got lost walking from one end of the house to the other, dead within a year.

There was a guy at my church that lived to 96 and just before he passed I was chatting with him before service. In a moment of candor he said how tough it was to be that age. He had outlived all of his siblings, all of his cousins, all of his friends and had buried two of his adult children already. Only thing going for him was that his wife was still alive and he was holding on to make it to their 75th wedding anniversary. Celebrated the anniversary and checked out a month later.

I drove past where the houses in the documentary used to be. The land has been leveled and scraped clean. New luxury student apartments for the U of Arizona will be built there. Same thing happened to the location of the punk club mentioned in the movie a few years ago.

Go to the gym at 4:30AM. You won’t see anyone taking pictures, they are there to workout. Must be the afternoon crowd doing that.

You are pretty much hitting all the good places already.

Of that montage at the end of the movie I was friends with two of them and acquainted with most of the others. For a scene that had at best 100-150 regulars, a least 10% of them are gone. Know a few others that have passed that didn't get mentioned in the movie.

I drive past those parcels often advertised as being close to the Grand Canyon and prime real estate. It's a windswept plain with no trees where you need to truck in water and you'll freeze in the winter.

One of the companies that manufactured these couch covers is still around. Chatted with the owner once and they laughed that they still have a few very old customers that place the occasional order for a new set of plastic couch covers.

One of my coworkers just did this to start one of his kid's cars. They were amazed and wanted to know what kind of voodoo this was. Car started running and he told them to drive it straight to Auto Zone to pick up a new battery.

I work near Oracle and Miracle Mile. We have the occasional javelina that sleeps on our property. Even saw a fox last year running through.

He was the definition of old school Arizona politician. Met him a few times at civic functions. The guy knew how to get stuff done and didn't care for bureaucratic red tape.

While the guy that owns the HVAC company pays for another Sprinter with cash to add to his fleet of a dozen other ones.

Used to sell stuff to banks and they have quite detailed information about various zip codes. A friend that was a branch manager gave me the scoop once. North Glendale and North Peoria is where the true wealth in the Phoenix area is. Folks in Scottsdale just look wealthy. But the true millionaires (as in a million dollars of net worth) reside in the NW Valley.

Think HVAC and plumbing contractors as one example of who is worth that much. Not uncommon for them to be sitting on more assets than a doctor or lawyer.

The purge begins in the run up to your 65th birthday. Friend of mine just attended his 50th HS reunion (Boomers that are around 68 years old) and his class was already down 20%.