Ferris Wheel Season

 "The feris wheel is back," said Jessica, a couple nights ago, while standing at the kitchen sink and looking out the window into the darnkess of late November evening. 

I knew at once what she meant. We had seen it years back, before COVID, before the holiday. It is quite a distance away. From where our window sits, on the third floor, we can see far across the lowland flats.before the freeway, and then across the populated part s of North Scottsdale, and then onto the mountains on the west side of the Phoenix Valley.

The lights were a pleasant and festiv, every oto notice when finding oneself looking out the window into the darkness. 

The lights puzzled us. What are they?

We guessed ferris wheel immediately, but if so, where was it? Surelyd we would have noticed it's presence somehow while driving around that part of Scottsdal on the elevated 101 freeway. But by daylight we could see nothing that might be a ferris wheel.

It was a mystery. I consulted street maps, both digital and paper. We had guesses, based on a single bearing. If only we could see it somewhere else, I thought, we could triangulate it's location.

Then in the spring it went away. We figured as such. After April, no one wants to do anything outside here, even after dark.

The lights came and went a few more years, always appearing in the autumn and disappearing around Easter.

In 2020 it went away early. Everything was shut down, even our lights.

Later we read an article in the free community monthly newspaper that gets mailed to all local addresses, IT mentioned the seasonal ferris wheel at the a well-known resort we knew, and which was original guess. The ferris wheel was coming back at some point, when the pandemic allowed it, the article said. 

We had it lucky here in Arizona during the pandemic. The governor never attempted a statewide shutdown. He knew people here wouldn't put up with that

We'd been to the hotel, the Fairmount Princess, to dine at the high-end steakhouse for my birthday (of course at Jessica's suggestion, as she researches such things). It was an excellent steak, one of the best I have ever had. We didn't see a ferris whee, but e weren't looking for yet, and it was too early in the season.