I miss stucco

Sitting in a cafe on an Amsterdam canal a few days ago, mesmerized by the hundreds of years old buildings, the gabled rooftops of the canal houses, the cobblestoned streets, one of my fellow Phoenicians joked, "I miss stucco." We all had a good laugh and I chuckled again as we landed back in Phoenix on Wednesday, studying the sea of red-roofed Taco Bell stuccoed houses in my hometown.

Just one lucky day from getting stranded in Europe after most of the airports were shut down due to the erupting volcano in Iceland, I looked around at the comforting stucco in my neighborhood, the palm trees, the grass. Yeah, we have heat (I was in town when it got to 122 and they closed Sky Harbor for the afternoon), but we don't have volcanos, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados or hurricanes. And, thanks to flood control and the beautiful greenbelt down the street, knock on wood, no floods, either.

It's good to be home.