The Coliseum

 

The Coliseum. I can't help but appreciate the aesthetic. It's a beautiful structure. Every year the layout changes somewhat. What a job it must be to design it. 

Moon obscured by cloud tonight. Visible to the east but looks like a white pill diffusing in a milky liquid.

 325 words written today, all them just now. Pushing forward each day.

I spent much of the day down in the garage, bringing many heavy boxes up two flights of stairs to our apartment. Each was full of Jessica's books, all of them unopened since we moved here six years ago. If I carry that many boxes of books up the stairs every day, I would probably need no other exercises to strengthen my legs. I carried half as many boxes of books, inventoried and resealed with a numerical code, back down into the garage and placed them onto the metal shelves like I was building a tight fitting puzzle.

Six years. Amid the items in the garage I see items that, like the boxes of books, have remained unused and undisturbed since we moved here. So much has changed. Among the items see ones that remind of the state of mind I had moving in, when it was all new. We are not moving out yet, but I want to prepare for that because we both want to move on from this place (the complex I mean, and also maybe Scottsdale), even though there are many positive things about it. 

During the afternoon we had the golf tournament on television, something I would never imagine I would do---watch golf.  At times the network coverage from the blimp caught sight of the McDowell Mountains, familiar from every walk I do in the park or down to Bell Road. The announcers were disappointed because no one made a hole-in-one today on the 16th hole. The 16th hole is where the 24,000-person "Coliseum" was erected over the last three months, starting at Thanksgiving time. They will start taking it apart on Monday, I suppose, and then put it up next year.  It is amazing operation, all for a four-day event once a year. It reminds me of a bullfighting ring and is meant to provide an intense spectator event as the golfers come to the green. It's a short "par 3" hole, so holes-in-one are not uncommon. If someone makes a hole-in-one in the Coliseum, by tradition the crowd launches their plastic beer cups onto the green, and the grounds crew has to clean it up. This is part of the "quirkiness" of the tournament that people love.  People still talk about how one year, about twenty years ago, the famous golfer Tiger Woods made a hole-in-one and was showered with beer cups.

Also they have concerts there by famous musicians. Tonight we will probably hear the music from where we live, mixed with the nighttime construction work ripping up my undeveloped desert preserve.

Can I confess something? This may sound uncharitable, and I know it is. I am appreciative of the benefits of living here, including the whimsy of the golf tournament. But in reality I hate Scottsdale. In many ways I am downright miserable living here.