About Gretchen

I updated the 'About' page with information about Gretchen. Find out what her strongest desire is, what her likes and dislikes are, and what she's currently working on when she's not podcasting.

Sedona, AZ

About three weeks ago, I went to Sedona, AZ so I thought that I would share some photos of one of the most beautiful parts of the country. When you drive from Phoenix, you see mostly somewhat brown rolling desert, but when you get within about 5 miles of Sedona, all of a sudden the ground turns red and the vegetation turns green. And you see a lot of very startling rock formations.

The first two pictures above are from a rafting trip in Glen Lakes which is about three hours north of Sedona. The river is the Colorado just north of the Grand Canyon. The cliffs of the Colorado in this area are about 1000 foot high at this point.

Interestingly, we got to Sedona a week after firemen stopped the fires that were threatening town. As a result, there was a sort of strangely vacant vibe. Also the forest land immediately east of town was closed off for some of the touring including the famous 'vortex' tours which was a bit of a dissapointment.

This vacation was for just a long-weekend but was beautiful and spectactular. The American West is truly a national treasure!

It's Hot!

It looks like I haven't posted an article up here for awhile. Sorry about that - I guess it's the summer "lazies".

Yesterday on the way home from work, my car's outside temperature gauge read 116 degrees. Now - the car always reads high. But I can't recall in the 10 years since I have owned this car (yes, it's been that long) ever seeing a reading that high. I think yesterday's offical high was 104 degrees. Today is suppoed to get up to 105 degress.

I suppose it's all just numbers really. I honestly don't feel a huge difference walking out into 104 degree weather than I do walking out into 95 degree weather. Perhaps that's because the humidity is fairly low in Dallas. I think that humidity probably has more to do with really feeling a difference at that level. Either way, 95 or 105 - I don't want to spend much time outside and don't have the normal 'spring in my step' as I do when it is a bit cooler outside.

Alas - that is what summer is and always has been. Hot and lazy. Time to watch more movies, read more, sip on cool beverages and enjoy the season!