Half of tomorrow and the remainder of the weekend, I’ll be involved in the Fifth Annual Tucson Festival of Books which benefits literacy efforts in Arizona. \u00a0I have the honor of knowing a woman in her fifties who, in the past three years, has availed herself of the services of on of the beneficiary literacy organizations and who now is able to read my books and understand what she’s read. \u00a0After a lifetime of dyslexia caused illiteracy she is now a voracious reader. \u00a0So let’s just say I have a vested interest in the success of the TFOB as it is referred to by those who know and love it.<\/p>\n
For those of you who believe Tucson has to be somewhere out there in the back of the cultural beyond, I have news for you. \u00a0TFOB is now the fourth largest book festival in the country. \u00a0It is held on the campus of my alma mater, the University of Arizona where the event drew a whopping 120,000 visitors last year.<\/p>\n
So this week, as preparations have been gearing up for the event, local weather people have been trying to rain on our parade. \u00a0It’s sunny outside right now on Thursday afternoon as I write this, but a breeze seems to be springing up, and the rain that hit central California yesterday is purported to be on its way here with lows predicted to be in the 40s. \u00a0In other words, there are a lot of weather-wimp crepe-hangers out there who are wringing their hands and predicting disaster.<\/p>\n
Excuse me. \u00a0Get over it. \u00a0For people from Fargo or Bemidgi or Chicago, temperatures in the forties are considered downright balmy. \u00a0And in Seattle where from November on the daytime highs are 47 and the nighttime lows are 45, being told to expect 40 degree weather isn’t exactly the end of the world.<\/p>\n