Part 4
10. Elections in Arizona are complicated, almost to the point of confusing. I've pointed this out elsewhere, but the most recent general election here had so many races, along with the numerous state, local, and school board ballot initiatives - and the absolutely ridiculous judicial retainer voting. Then there's the election signs on every street corner (I think I've seen a few are still up on a few stray locations around the city), and the absolute demonizing of opponents by politicians (oh, hai, Senator McSally). It's no wonder that Mesa voters barely chose to approve a bond issuance for Mesa Public Schools - but voted against a bond override allowing the district to spend over its current levels to replace outdated equipment and adjust salaries for the increase in the minimum wage. Sigh.
11. Snowbirds make driving in Arizona… interesting. OK, imagine this: six months out of the year, you're driving around your city or town and it's no problem - license plates are generally from your state, with maybe a few rogue ones from neighboring states. Generally, people understand what the laws of the road are, and try to keep up with traffic and whatnot. And then, suddenly, you get a glut of people in cars with license plates not even from your own country. And they drive slower, don't know the rules of the road, and basically drive like they don't really care that they're blocking traffic. This is Arizona Winter Driving in a nutshell. I have officially seen (as of right now) license plates from 45 of the 50 states since mid-October, and plates from the six major border provinces of Canada. Pretty much everyone who lives here full-time has a story about a run-in with a snowbird driver - and usually with the amount of colorful language that accompanies it. (Oh, and I should also note that because of the shorter amount of sunlight during the day, it makes for interesting times trying to navigate down the road.)
12. Winter in Arizona is equivalent to early fall pretty much everywhere else in the US. It took me a while to realize this, as you get this sense that "Arizona is ALWAYS hot" from popular culture. Truth is, except up in the mountainous area of Northern Arizona (aka "where no one really lives), temperatures generally don't get much colder than what you'd expect in Autumn in, say, the Midwest. It does get down into the 30's overnight in January, but it usually gets back up into the 60's and 70's by mid-day. And as a corollary to point 7, it doesn't cool down immediately once the sun goes down. This is, of course, because we essentially live in a desert here in the Valley. Still - there are trees down here that shed their leaves during the winter.