It's finally nice enough to sit outside in the scorching desert

Fall has arrived. While fall in Arizona is much different than fall in Utah, it is fall none the less. The air in Arizona is cooler and slightly crisper once the sun goes down. The flowers and cacti are blooming again. The sunsets are beautiful. It is the beginning of the outside season, when we get to spend time on our patios and porches without baking in the summer heat. This is the time of year that makes people want to move to Phoenix. Had someone told me five years ago that 80 degrees would be “fall weather” I would have laughed out loud. If they had told me that I would consider pricing outdoor fire pits for my patio, I would have had a hearty belly laugh and called them crazy. Yet, here we are, mid October in Arizona and I am sitting on my back patio in long pants and a sweat shirt. Drinking a cup of coffee and enjoying the yard once again. Wishing I had an outdoor fire pit to warm my hands and feet.

In Utah, by this time of year, it would be so cold, there would be no sitting outside on the patio on purpose. Oh no. Anyone will tell you, every year by Halloween, Utah has had at least its first snow. Trick or Treating means making the costume large enough to fit over a winter coat and gloves. Hats are not merely a costume accessory, they are a necessity. No one in Utah sits outside after October first. In fact, the month of September would be the high time for any outdoor fire pits to be in full use as we all tried to squeeze in the last remaining days of enjoying the outdoors before we have to hole up inside until mid May when the sun begins to shine again and the snow is finally melted.

It is strange to contrast the two states I have lived in. Utah where we spend four wonderful months outside enjoying the weather and yards and the neighbors; and Arizona, where we spend four months inside making excuses not to go outside, when pools are only used after the sun goes down and neighbors barely wave to each other so as to avoid any conversation in the summer sun. Each state has its own season to enjoy the outdoors and the evening sky and good conversation with friends around the outdoor fire pit, without having to leave the comfort of our back yards to do it.