Sunday, June 14

Adjusting to Arizona

People are as friendly here as they are on Guam.

Our new-used Toyota Corolla has a cassette player. I was hoping for an 8-track but when you buy used you take what you can get.

I'm still having to remind myself to add the sales tax onto the price of things. In Guam the tax is included in the posted price.

There are a lot fewer empty houses than I imagined.

There is a lot more empty retail space than I imagined.

In spite of the economic slow down they're still building new houses.

People are expected to make full stops at red lights and stop signs -- and mostly they do. If you don't the camera takes your picture and they mail you a ticket.

More times than not the Circle K clerks give me soda refills when I bring in my vat. One clerk felt obligated to tell me that the soda is so inexpensive that it hardly costs the company anything to do that.

Pineapples for $1 each. Mangoes 2 for $1.

4 comments:

Roy said...

I remember the day when you rigged up a cassette player in your car....as I recall, you kept it under the drivers seat. I was impressed. Of course, I was probably 12-years old. :-)

Justin said...

While I don't know what a "vat" is, I can tell you that it costs only pennies to fill your cup with soda while we're paying 1.50 to $3 at restaurants for a glass of the fizzy stuff.

Brad Boydston said...

Justin -- My vat is my 44 oz plastic refill cup. And I think you're right. The mark-up is outrageous. The paper cups cost more than the contents or so the Circle K guy told me.

Roy -- I remember installing a cassette player under the seat to make it less of a target for thieves. No one ever messed with it. But it could have been that no one ever bothered to look inside the window of a '64 Rambler.

Justin said...

Gotcha, it's a vat full of soda. Nice! :)