Arizona in December
I had just started a new job back in 1998. It was during the great tech boom and companies were awash with lots of money. So, my company decided on a new initiative – new employees from around North America would spend 4 days at a resort in Scottsdale, AZ for company orientation.
I’d never been to Arizona. I did know it was supposedly warmer than Southern Ontario, especially since we were going in the middle of December.
I found out the other Canadians who had been invited to this orientation and four of us decided that since our first day there was completely open, we would get in a round of golf.
That Sunday started off at around 70 degrees (F), with a few clouds in the sky. I wore a t-shirt and shorts. We set off for the golf course. The weather was perfect.
Around the third hole, it clouded over and the temperature started to drop.
At the fourth hole, it started to rain.
At the fifth hole, the temperature had dropped to a point where I was starting to feel cold. Other foursomes had left the course, but we Canadians decided we were made of stronger stuff and were going to play through.
At the sixth hole the wind picked up out of the north and I was thinking that shorts might not have been a good idea.
At the seventh hole, our hands started to get too cold to hold the clubs.
Finally, on the eighth hole, the unthinkable happened – it started to snow. Not just wimpy white-lumpy-rain type snow, big thick flakes that started to cover the ground.
We realized that the powers in charge did not want us to finish our game. In fact, we had upset the entire natural order of things by trying to play golf in Scottsdale, AZ in December. We quietly left the course.
Upon arriving at the clubhouse, people were running out in the snow and taking a lot of pictures of the snowscape.
This is how I remember my one and only trip to the hot, dry state of Arizona.
I’d never been to Arizona. I did know it was supposedly warmer than Southern Ontario, especially since we were going in the middle of December.
I found out the other Canadians who had been invited to this orientation and four of us decided that since our first day there was completely open, we would get in a round of golf.
That Sunday started off at around 70 degrees (F), with a few clouds in the sky. I wore a t-shirt and shorts. We set off for the golf course. The weather was perfect.
Around the third hole, it clouded over and the temperature started to drop.
At the fourth hole, it started to rain.
At the fifth hole, the temperature had dropped to a point where I was starting to feel cold. Other foursomes had left the course, but we Canadians decided we were made of stronger stuff and were going to play through.
At the sixth hole the wind picked up out of the north and I was thinking that shorts might not have been a good idea.
At the seventh hole, our hands started to get too cold to hold the clubs.
Finally, on the eighth hole, the unthinkable happened – it started to snow. Not just wimpy white-lumpy-rain type snow, big thick flakes that started to cover the ground.
We realized that the powers in charge did not want us to finish our game. In fact, we had upset the entire natural order of things by trying to play golf in Scottsdale, AZ in December. We quietly left the course.
Upon arriving at the clubhouse, people were running out in the snow and taking a lot of pictures of the snowscape.
This is how I remember my one and only trip to the hot, dry state of Arizona.
posted by Mike at 3:36 p.m.
5 Comments:
that is just crazy. i honestly don't remember it snowing enough to really cover the ground. did it stay long?
i remember catching the news and there was talk of snow, but where i was, it was just cold. you meanie! you took my snow! i've been waiting for years...
It stayed on the ground for no more than about 20 min before it melted again, but it was enough to ruin my day.
Hey, if you want snow, go north.
yeah, i could head up to flagstaff, but then... i'd like have to actually prepare for a trip and stuff. i say... come to me snow. snow, come to me. ;)
ruined your day?? a Canadian was able to get most of a round of golf in blinking December and he's complaining that there was a bit of snow that stuck around for 20 minutes???
yea um... try back in July when it's 120 F
THAT will ruin your day..... make you hide out indoors....
It was strange to me while we lived in Scottsdale, that everything shut down in the summer instead of the winter. We tried to join a Soft Ball league in the spring when we got there, but they were just "finishing" up the season because it was getting to hot... I am used to playing all summer!
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