The past few weeks have been a combination of summer camp for older people (pool time at the recreation center, Italian classes, riding my electric bike through the neighborhood, desert walks) and health hassles and doctor’s appointments.

I’m not letting it stop me. Savanna and friends from the north have been swarming down here—everyone eager to get away from the cold and rain. I’ve been to the Desert Museum and Botanical Garden several times, spent another day in Nogales, Mexico shopping for stuff I really don’t need, overeating and relaxing at the house.

This weekend I took a quick trip to Atlanta to visit my friends Kim and Mike. Whenever I go to urban areas of the country, I realize how much I crave diversity. When I was young and would return to NYC from Oregon or the Midwest, I felt my shoulders drop a few inches. I was no longer a bull in a china shop. I was with my tribe. I have been having that sentiment again lately. It’s not a feeling of wanting to move to whatever place I’m vacationing, but much deeper than that. More like “what am I doing living in a white middle class tourist town?” Atlanta awakened that in me. Where there is a critical mass of multitudes of African American, Hispanic, Muslim, and Asian people and the majority of professionals are not Caucasian. It adds a more realistic view of the entire world which does not revolve around white America.

We visited a market which looked more like the U.N., with shoppers of every nationality and culture buying a variety of fish, meat, produce, and baked goods. We went to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, drove by the CDC and Emory University (where my friend works), but unfortunately the Jimmy Carter Presidential Museum was closed. We capped the night off at a blues bar and had a pre-Mardi Gras celebration.

I’m at the halfway mark in my snowbird experience, wondering what my future living arrangement will be. The sun is still my therapy, but it won’t be long before it becomes a scorched and unrelenting reminder of the planet’s fate. At which point I will return to the fire threatened Pacific NW. What a wonderful world…