Jean Rubin A multi-tasker, with too much to do who is… Stressed in Scottsdale and Hashknife Riders Tech Stress Ever think your day is going to go the way you planned and then nothing happens the way it’s supposed to? I am organized and efficient. Most of the time. I accomplish what’s on my lists. Most of the time. I try not to stress over small stuff. I have a nudgy mother, remember? First, my computer calendar came up blank. No appointments. No reminders. Nothing. I checked the calendar on my phone and it was all there. Whew! I’m ready to write a proposal for a client and my power fritzes. No computer. No email. No lights. Was it our house or the whole neighborhood? I called Maury at the office. His advice was to go next door and see if they had electricity. Now you probably already know I’m a Birkenstock girl with wild hair so image isn’t a priority even though my friends, Glee and April, did a style intervention last year. Would my writing clothes (an old political T-shirt of Maury’s and unmatched clown pants) scare my elegant neighbor? Better change the shirt, comb the hair and put on some lip gloss. I’ve only actually seen them once because we all pull into our garages and disappear. They might be shocked by who is residing on the other side of the wall in Scottsdale. After all, I’ve been corrected from referring to our homes as townhouses. “We’re in villas,” I was informed. But first, before I went to all that trouble, I called back Maury. Maybe it was a breaker. He guided me through a box of switches that I clicked in different directions. Then I ran back upstairs and I had power! No need to change my shirt. However, I still couldn’t get online so I called our local cable company. A lovely woman named Sandy explained which modems and routers I had to unplug and re-plug. Soon I was back in business. My question is: Are the internet and technology giving you stress? Sep Kamvar thinks so. Check out his Almanac of Internet Emotion. The Pony Express Sometimes with all the glitz and glamor I forget I’m living in the West’s Most Western Town. At least until today. The Hashknife riders have arrived. This is a group of dedicated men (I didn’t see any women listed so someone’s got to get out and break that barrier!) dressed in authentic cowboy garb, which I understand some women find very exciting, who ride two hundred miles with 20,000 pieces of mail. They start out in Holbrook and spend four days riding to Scottsdale through snow, sleet, and desert landscapes just like the frontier-people who settled here. There’s a trail boss, swing boss riders and a support crew. That’s enough men in jeans to keep the Women of Scottsdale (high-powered businesswomen who might also carry guns in their Louis Vuittons) busy for a week. So where did the Hashknife Pony Express get their name? It’s a really sharp knife originally used by chuck wagon cooks to cut meat for hash. the company relocated to Holbrook, Arizona in 1866.