and, stealing shtick from no less a character than Groucho Marx, normally I'd refuse to join any club prepared to have me as a member. But this was a club I was happy to join. The club being, of course, those who've met Roger Wright. For the benefit of non-CodeProject[^] members, Roger Wright is a piece of the furniture around the joint. I'm not sure that he didn't join CP before there *was* a CP!
He lives up in Northern Arizona in a place, if you believe him, that's even hotter than Phoenix! We've been planning to catch up for at least the last four and a half years; two previous attempts failed. The first when he and Shog (another CP reprobate) planned to meet at The Grand Canyon and I was invited, on too short a notice, to join them. As it turned out I was probably saved a wasted trip (though no trip to The Canyon is truly wasted) because neither Roger nor Shog could find the other!
The second failed attempt was when he was driving from Tucson through Phoenix to home. It was a while ago so I'm not entirely sure of the details anymore but it seems he was driving along Loop 101, missed noticing any one of the 15 exits prominently labelled 'Scottsdale' and got lost. Mind you, I reckon he was lost anyways; going through Phoenix from Tucson to parts north of there really shouldn't involve the Scottsdale part of Loop 101!
I'm sensing a pattern here; don't trust Roger for directions.
This time he was in Phoenix proper, staying at a hotel a few hundred yards off my beaten track from office to home. Four hours, one beer (mine) and an uncounted number of drinks later it was time to finish the drive home. We started in the bar of course but the insanity of smoking laws here (not that it's unique to here alas) drove us out onto the patio.
He weakened for a moment as a spattering of rain came down but I rallied him to the cause; this was warm rain and I could see little reason to scurry indoors. I seem to have disappointed him by not flinching as we listened to a running gun battle on the adjacent freeway. But we all know you don't hear the bullet that kills you (though how we know that beats me - one can hardly ask the dead).
A thoroughly enjoyable evening!
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