Peoria, 2017.

When you live in the Sonoran Desert area of the Southwest, summers are interesting things. 115° during the hottest part of the day is normal. You go from air conditioned building to air conditioned building to air conditioned car and think nothing of it.

October is around the corner which means it's now cool enough outside in the mornings to have the windows open. It's the little things in life.

So this is what fresh air is. I remember this.

Just around sunset the clouds started to roll in. Nothing especially unusual about that in monsoon season, but what followed was…interesting.

Thunder. Lightning. Wind.

— Kevin Spencer (@kevin_spencer) August 24, 2017

The thunder got louder, the time between lightning flashes and the boom got less and less and less.

Super thunder, super lightning. And good lord rain. Like, all of it.

— Kevin Spencer (@kevin_spencer) August 24, 2017

And then the loudest bang you ever heard just outside our bedroom window. The lightning deciding our road a perfect place to strike. It was one of those ok, now I'm awake moments. Everything seemed ok in the 30 seconds I spent in the torrential downpour having a look. Our house looked fine, neighbors house looked fine.

This morning Nextdoor was abuzz with holy shit, did anyone's house get hit last night?. Because that's how neighbors communicate with each other in 2017 yo. Absolutely no trace of anything when I had a look around in daylight so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it remains but a mystery.

This week marks a small personal milestone. Somehow I've now lived in America for 20 years. What?

In fact, because Italy was home for 2 years prior to that, I've now lived more of my life outside of England than inside.

I'm forever British, European, and yet American all at once. It's complicated, but somehow it all just works.

Squid Ink, Peoria.

A nice little Friday evening happy hour to start the weekend.

What a bizarre year eh?

From the head scratching of Brexit and Trump to the downright sadness we all felt with the loss of Lemmy, David Bowie, Prince, Alan Rickman, Pete Burns, George Michael, and Carrie Fisher.

2016, you sucked.

So here's to a bright happy and prosperous 2017.

It's getting much harder to rise from the warmth of bed this week. Gone, apparently, is the late late Autumn heat. Replaced with frost on car windows and the amazement of seeing your breath in the desert. The sunrises are still lovely this time of year mind and I smile while sitting in gridlock listening to Maps.

Fashionably late on the Halloween post this year. What a slacker. Our house got lots of compliments which was nice on our first Halloween here. Having friends over with a little Wine & Pimms made the perfect evening.

As the year comes to a close, a quick look back at some things that happened in the life of Spencer, in no particular order.

Took the least amount of photos of any year since 2008 (shocking). New Order released an album and it was good. Acquired speeding ticket. Little one flew to England for the first time. Ate Sushi. Nephew crashed and totaled our car. Bought a new car. Almost doubled my team at work. Got two new kittens. Scraped ice off windshield in the desert. Bought a house. Moved the week of Christmas (don't do that). Filled iPod Classic (now what?).

Really, I cannot stress the point about not moving the week of Christmas. And I realize I'm the only person on the planet who still has and uses an iPod Classic. You kids get off my lawn.

I hope 2015 was a good year for you. All the best and have a Happy New Year.

So I wrote a thing.

2001-2014. He was my friend, and I will miss him. Sleep well my boy.