Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “desert”
January 14 marked the 3-year anniversary of my solar PV system getting connected to the grid. Each of the past two anniversaries, I’ve written up a summary of my solar data for the year and shared it here (click for year 1 data and year 2 data). My love for numbers hasn’t gone away and neither has my goal to help others learn more about solar energy, so I’ve decided to continue the tradition and share my system and cost data for a third year.
The word “desert” tends to conjure different images for desert dwellers than it does for our friends from moister climes (points for me for using “moister climes” in a sentence!). You moisture lovers often think of the desert as nothing but sand, and refuse to believe there’s anything redeeming about Tucson’s nature. Though some deserts are admittedly nothing but sand, the vast majority aren’t. Tucson is actually pretty green most of the year, including winter. It gets even greener in the spring and during monsoon season (my second-favorite time of year here). On top of the green, we get all …
A week and a half ago, I made my 5th diving trip to San Carlos, Mexico. Though I’ve been quite a few times now, all my previous trips were in the late summer and early fall. This time, I got to explore the murky, chilly, yet surprisingly bountiful world that exists underwater off the San Carlos coast in mid-April.
January 14 marked the 2-year anniversary of my solar PV system getting connected to the grid. Last year, I celebrated my first solar anniversary by sharing all my solar data for the year. Since I think it’s important to continue to spread the word about solar energy, I’ll share all my system and cost data again.
For the third time in 3 months, I went south to San Carlos, Mexico for a long weekend of diving. In August, I did my Advanced Open Water (AOW) certification and in September, I wrapped up my Rescue Diver certification. This time, though, I didn’t have any training to complete. It was a recreational trip in the fullest sense – a couple days of diving just for fun and nothing else!
In my last scuba-related post, I mentioned my goal to become certified as a scuba instructor. During that trip to San Carlos, Mexico, I got the second certification level I need: Advanced Open Water Diver (AOW). A few weeks later, I returned to San Carlos to complete the third certification: Rescue Diver. As I did for my Open Water and AOW certifications, I decided to do the Rescue Diver certification through my local dive shop in Tucson, Planet Scuba. They organize a trip to San Carlos at least once a month, and I love their owners and staff.
I’ve made up my mind that I want to become certified to be a scuba instructor. I’m not in a rush; I just know eventually I’d like to do this. In order to get to instructor status, I’ll need to build up my diving experience and also go through several certification levels. First up: Advanced Open Water Diver (AOW). This is one level up from the basic certification, Open Water Diver. I decided to do the certification through my local dive shop in Tucson, Planet Scuba. If you’re in southern Arizona and considering diving, I strongly recommend them!
About a month ago I got to do something pretty awesome: I hiked the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim. Most people who do a Grand Canyon rim-to-rim hike put in months (if not years) of planning and physical preparation. For one thing, the trek is about 24 miles in total, so it’s fairly physically demanding. On top of that, I went in August. This time of year, temperatures at the bottom of the Grand Canyon often exceed 100F (about 38C). So you have to be in pretty good shape.
Hello everybody and welcome to Episode 15 of What’s in that Hole?, a fun series I’m writing for my blog. In the last episode, we traveled to San Francisco’s Presidio for our holes. This time, we’re on the road again but much closer to home – I found today’s holes on my recent stop at the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, which is between Tucson and Phoenix.
On a recent drive between Phoenix and Tucson, I made a snap decision to visit the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. The ruins are off the main route between the two cities, but aren’t too far out of the way. Still, in my dozens of trips back and forth between Tucson and Phoenix, this was the first time I took the time to check out the ruins.
Hello everybody and welcome to Episode 13 of What’s in that Hole?, a fun series I’m writing for my blog. In the last episode, we returned to Tucson and looked at a cactus hole. This time, we stay in Tucson but look at a few holes on a much smaller scale.
Last fall, I ventured down to the Titan Missile Museum with a friend who was visiting from out of town. Actually, we had gone down to Nogales, Mexico and then back up Tubac, so technically we were heading back up to Tucson when we stopped there. Semantics aside, here’s my summary of the visit.