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I was a bit disappointed in my stop at Arcosanti because it was not at all what I was expecting.  I was thinking Art Colony and I saw a place that looked more like a setting for a dystopia themed science fiction story.  The concrete buildings did not seem to go together well, and the metal looked more rusted than aged.  This bothers me as I am very much into architecture that has form following function and siting that takes the sun and other features of the area into consideration.  I enjoy reading about Buckminster Fuller and Frank Lloyd Wright and studying each of them in more depth is on my list of things to do.  Solving problems in new ways is a short version of what interests me.  Since I was having such a negative response to the site I declined to take the tour this time.  I am doing more reading on Paolo Soleri and his ideas and I’ll stop and take the tour next time I head up.  I may be too proletariat to appreciate all this, but I wonder how the issues of food, clothing and water are handled in this urban living experiment.  To me, selling over priced bells and ceramic tiles as the main industry lacks a certain sustainability.  Then again, it is near Scottsdale.

As an aside, one time I was staying at a hiker hostel in north Georgia prior to taking a hike on the AT.  At breakfast we were sitting around a table talking with one of the women who was new to the area.  She mentioned that she really liked the small town there as it looked like real people lived there.  “It looks like a place you can get real items you need, you know, like bullets, whiskey, tampons…”  The lone male at the table pondered the comment for a minute and suggested that sounded like a dangerous combination.  However, I tend to look at settings now to see how basic needs for commodities are handled, and that seems to indicate how long that setting can survive.

Everything else is going well.  I’m waiting to hear when I start the radiation treatments.  I’m feeling really good, and am walking a lot to get my overall health to where I want it to be.  Mike and I took a walk to some pictographs while I was up there this past weekend, and I was able to enjoy the walk.  This shows I’m getting into better shape.  Here are a couple of pictures of Mike taking a picture of the pictographs.  Say that one fast 3 times.