Saturday, July 18, 2009
Location: Flagstaff, AZ

I love monsoons... I love the hot day that transitions into deep humidity only to be followed by thunder and cleansing downpours. Moses doesn't like the thunder so much. Last week I stood out in a monsoon and actually let it pour down over me.. I wore nothing but shorts and laughed as the rain washed the sweat off my back tickling me so kindly.

After leaving Arcosanti I spent the night at the rest area nine miles south. It was the only place high enough to catch the breeze. Moses lay panting deep into the night as I slept blanketless, all the windows outstretched and open. It was a pretty loud and sleepless night but restful in comparison of what was to come.

the next morning I had a nice chat with Terry who works on the nightime road crew in the area and he told me of another place to camp just down the hill where I could find silence and still catch a desert breeze.

I headed down into Tempe for my interview with Charles Redman of the Global Institure of Sustainability. I had been told to park in underground parking which was great until I realized my van was too tall. My van measures 9 and a half feet in height in case you want to know. So there I am the meeting pushed back until noon in the hot desert sun temperatures steadily increasing to 110F and a dog in a van... I spend a good 100 minutes covering all the windows with my reflectors and sitting in the van checking the airflow before I head in. there's no shade and although I know the van is cool enough it still leaves me feeling worried and less than relaxed.

I head into the cool airconditioning of the GIOS building and immediatly find Charles and his assistant Liz. they both tell me I could have brought the dog in, but at this point I'm certain he's ok and I just want to get back to him asap.

It all seems to work out as my interview with Charles is cut short by half an hour as he has to give a speach out of nowhere on his definition of sustainability. In the half hour we did have we covered a lot of ground and I captured some good content, and it seems the universe was looking out for Moses as I made it back to the van in record time.

The air inside the van was warm but nothing compared to the heat of outside and moses was laying comfortably on the bed a bowl of icewater still glistening on the floor in front of him.

peace,d