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Note to the reader: The memoir on Mt. Lemmon was written about 5 years ago; I have been revising it as I go along, here on this blog. Hot again. One area in the Catalina State Park which runs parallel to Oracle Road issues heavy dirigibles of smoke, bulging up, in slow escalator motions into the sky. No flames can be seen, too far for my sun-shaded eyes. Glare is all in Oro Valley. Without a sun-visor, one conceivably could grill a frank on the dashboard. Things heat up quickly, a steering wheel, to wit. Again with fountain pen in…

The expulsion of fire, smoke, cinder and ash on Mt. Lemmon parallels my own outbreaks – – wonderment, awe, bewilderment, sorrow, despair, depression, tainted hope, jaundice, and gloom. I am unAmerican to the bone. I’ve come to Oro Valley in Arizona not to retire but to live and to die. I had no idea I would end up here. Isn’t that life?: I had no idea. . . The mores here are different, of course, and this 9/11 New Yorker takes no prisoners, is often insufferable; but like everywhere else, locals are locals — neanderthalish, whether in upstate New York…

It’s 7:22, Arizona time, and I’m sitting at poolside, four or five rabbits are short-sprinting on the lawn; night draws nigh. It is dusk, my favorite time. It is the lull all humans need if they are dimly awake — and aware. The heat of the day is fleeing, a soothing breeze crosses my face, a clutch of birds are hobnobbing about. The water in the pool is becoming still and stiller. And there is a warmth in the air, dry, Sinaitic. Birds in the distance chorus. A couple, hand in hand, walk by. And I sit here, pen in…

We’ve decided to stay indoors given the extraordinary temps outside. This morning i made arrangements for a consultation about a bladder obstruction caused by an enlarged prostate. It’s set for next week and I feel the anxiety fill me like a balloon blowing up. For nine years I’ve watched that PSA count diligently, been biopsied so many times that my prostate looks like chicken on a George Forman grill. After the trauma of a catheter inserted into my penis without anesthesia — and gone awry, I might add, I’m quite leery of anything medical going near my dick, including doctors…