Creeping up to Xmas

 We have managed to pack a whole bunch of fun stuff into these finally days before the holiday.  Ain't it fun!  First of all we did donate the trailer to the American Legion Vehicle Donation project.

So there it is going on down the road with the guys who picked it up for the charity.  Now it will most likely be auctioned off with the proceeds helping the Legion with their good deeds.  At some point we will get a valuation that we might be able to use as a tax deduction.  We'll see.  All we need to do now is turn in the license plate and cancel the insurance.

You may not know but I am a fairly liberal person.  We live, however, in a VERY conservative area.  I mean you still see people flying flags urging the election of Donald Trump in 2024 even though the news is full of Republicans backing away from him.  So it was no surprise to us when a local Justice of the Peace replacement was certainly going to be a Republican.  In the end, however, the county council chose someone who is just over the top.  This person just moved to town from Las Vegas where she has managed to make herself just a bit too unpopular.  The woman's name is Michele Fiore.  She is a big supporter of Mr. Trump and even had a letter from him that she could read in the council meeting.  I mean, doesn't he have anything else to do except recommend candidates for Justice of the Peace in a minor corner of Nevada?  Her plan is to work on her Batchlor's Degree and study the law.  Well, happily the JP's in this corner of the world don't have a lot on their plates.  But I'm sure it will be interesting.

I had to go into Las Vegas the other day and saw this by the side of the road on the way home.  I thought it was pretty cool.

Someone is out there celebrating the world.  Good on them!

Thanks for stopping by and please have a Very Merry and Safe Christmas.  Take care.

Well, another month gap! Lazy fool!

 I have to admit that I don't have a lot to share in this blog but not making it every couple weeks or so is just criminal.  Sorry.  Mostly we have been transitioning to cooler weather.  We even got some precipitation in the last couple days so we have snow on Mount Charleston.  That's the re-fill for our aquafier so we are always happy to see that.  Seeing 10 feet would be great but I imagine it is only a couple feet.  I actually looked the snow level up and apparently it varies between 8 inches and 160 inches!  Well, we can but hope.

Our dog, Gus, has had a problem with his right front paw since we got him in February.  He's had 8 or 10 different medications, both oral and applied to the paw.  We finally asked our vet to operate on his paw and see what is going on.  She didn't find anything specific but there were some poorly healed scars and some crud in his foot all of which she cleaned out.  Of course we had more salve and bandages which did not make him a happy camper.

I'm  happy to say that this seems to have done the trick.  He is still receiving medication but he's lost the cone and generally is just ignoring his foot just like a dog should do.  

Our town had it's annual Balloon Festival.  It was a bit too windy for much ballooning though.  I did get a couple of shots but usually you will get a shot with 4 or 5 balloons fairly close together.

We have also decided that we may as well get rid of our 31' travel trailer.  It is 12 years old and moving it around isn't as easy for us as it was back in the day.  (There is quite a difference between 62 and 74!)  Anyway, rather than fool around trying to sell it we've decided to donate it to the American Legion Vehicle Donation operation.  So far it is still in the back yard but we are hoping that it will be gone before Xmas.  It is still in good shape so we are hoping that they will get a nice amount for it.  We'll see.  This afternoon we will be going out and taking photos of it for them and unloading all the 'stuff':  plates, glasses, cooking utensiles and who knows what else.  There is even a certain amount of canned food that we'll probably just pitch since it is at least 2 years old!  Fun and games.

I'll end with a photo of something someone put on the back window of their car.  You can tell me what it means!

Take care.  Keep that social distancing and washing those hands.  Hopefully I'll get back here fairly soon but if I don't; have a Merry Christmas and may 2023 be a great year for us all!

Happy Veterans Day!

 

Yup, it's another year and I'm still thankful for that flag.  Of course that photo doesn't show all the fun that we were having in the eastern part of the sky.

I'm thinking that Nevis AFB is doing some flying this morning but there is a certain amount of travel to, front and past Las Vegas.  

And there are some people out practicing for the Balloon Festive that starts today!  

Just another day in the wilds of Nevada.  Thanks for stopping by; keep washing those hands.

Change

I said something in my last post about 90F (32C) days being comfortable; well, we don't have to worry about that any more!  Today we are talking 65F (18C).  Oh well.  At least it is sunny outside.

This was taken out the window on Friday.

It was just an odd day.  It wasn't windy but there was just tons of dust in the air.  We couldn't see the mountains or any blue sky all day.  Then came Saturday.

Same window, same corner of the garage but sunshine and mountains.  What a difference a day makes, huh.  Then on Sunday we were looking at winds mostly around 15 mph (24 kph) but, thankfully, no flying dust.  

I keep reading about iOverlander.com.  It is a site that people update when they have camped in a place and want to let others know about their experience.  So, of course, I had to look up our town.  Two of the local RV parks were listed.  We must have 20 spread around but only two made the grade.  What I really wanted to see was the free camping out on BLM land (Bureau of Land Management - public land).  There were a couple of places that were described as nice but the ones closest to town were described as trashy and I would have to agree.  We have a fair number of people living out here more or less permanently.  Every now and then there is trouble but not too often.

Hmmm.  Well, today it is November 8.  I started this post on October 24!  Nothing like letting thing go crazy.  Well, my excuse is, at least, different:  we took a trip to Colorado Springs, CO.  We have friends who live there and we wanted to stop by when we were coming back from visiting the kids but my wife's foot injuries just made her want to get home.  She was feeling better so we thought we'd hit the road again.  

This time we took the car.  We go up I-15 into Utah then pick up I-70 and head for Denver.  Just before Denver we cut down to Colorado Springs.  The drive is just nice.  I-15 does about 30 miles in Arizona going through a canyon formed by the Virgin River.  It is spectacular!  Then you get to Utah which is pretty nice and finally across Colorado which is just amazing.  We stopped both ways at the Super 8 motel in Green River, Utah.  It is a town of about 900 inhabitants and probably 900 hotel rooms!  This was the view from a gas station where I stopped.

When we got into the higher elevations there was snow on the side of the road but none on the road itself and none coming down.  Actually that's a large part of the reason we took the trip when we did because in a few weeks there will be plenty of that white stuff coming down.  

Our friends met while he was serving in the Air Force in Germany and she still brings a lot of Germany to their lives.  Like the dinner she served us where you got to cook your own meal at the dinner table.

And that was for just four people!  How I didn't gain 10 lb is beyond me.  They have a lovely home with a little lake/stream behind them.  I liked getting photos of the ducks and geese.

In the distance you can even see the Air Force Acadamy!

So after a good visit we came back home.  We'd considered going south on I-25 and then west on I-40 but that is a longer drive and I wanted to get back so I could attend a meeting.  But we did get to check out those beautiful mountains in Colorado from the opposite direction!  

So that's what I've been up to.  Fun stuff for sure!  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Having a nice fall season!

We are having a pleasant fall season.  It is still making 90F (32C) in the afternoon but the morning starts out at about 50F (10C).  For us 90F is pleasant not crazy hot.  It is just as well since the a/c in our car decided to quit working!  That was two or three visits to the mechanic before they got it fixed.  At any rate I think it is fixed.  No, we probably won't be using them for anything complex in the future. 

We have a Balloon Festival here November 11 to 13.  It hasn't been on for the last couple of years do to covid concerns but they are good to go this year.  It should be fun.  There are lots of people selling momentos and food.  MOST years the weather has been good and you get to see quite a few balloons in the morning.  Of course we do have one or two floating around lots of mornings.

Here's a little closer view of the balloon.

In other news we had a couple visitors.  Here's a quickie photo that I managed to get.

The coyotes live around in the open dessert.  This guy is one of the larger ones.  There was another, smaller one, coming along 100 yards behind this one but I missed him.  This photo was on the 8th.  On the 13th our Ring alarm caught these guys about 07:00 in the morning.  

Well, that's the news that is fit to print.  Hope you are having a good and safe time.  Keep taking care.

OK, it's over a month now!

Jeez, I just keep getting worse and worse at this blogging thing.  Well, this time my excuse is that we went on a little trip.  It was a family visit trip.  We started with John in Citrus Springs, FL.  John's wife was my wife's aunt so the family relationship is pretty distant but we both really like John so we are willing to drive 2,000+ miles to visit him.  He is in kind of a high point in Florida's geography so the hurricanes kind of give him a miss.  He got some rain from Ian but that was about it.  Of course we'd gone on before all that.  

Our second stop was on the outskirts of Little Rock, AR.  Our son left his long time home in San Diego and moved to Little Rock.  Yeah, seems kind of strange to us too but they seem to be happy there.  It was certainly financially a good deal:  they sold their small house outside of San Diego and were able to pay cash for a larger and nicer place in Little Rock so no mortgage payments for them!  Not only that but they are on a little private lake.  What's not to like?

So, having stopped at one child's new house (well, if a 50 year old can be called a child!), of course our next stop would be his sister's new house outside of Oklahoma City.  Yep, both kids decided to move in the same year!  Well, anyway, they are both just off I-40!  

Number 1 daughter had lived in Las Vegas for a number of years but decided to move to Austin, TX a couple years ago.  She finally figured out that she had moved into basically a retirement community and wasn't happy.  She works for a company that supplies equipment to the building industry and has several customers in the Oklahoma City area and decided that she liked the area and moved there.  So we went to OKC.  Again she found a nice little house.  It is small but plenty big for her and her cat.  

So that was about 3 weeks of September and almost 5,000 miles on our 2008 F250.  The truck is really a pleasure to drive and cruising at something just under 70 mph gives us just under 20mpg.  The downside would be that it is diesel which was somewhere between $4.20 and $5.00 all across the country.  And those were the cheaper place; no big truck stops for us!  

We took the dog so were looking for dog-friendly motels.  We like a king-sized bed and my wife prefers a large room so finding places to stay was always fun but she does it all so I can't really complain.  There would be a problem with cleaning sometimes.  She showered one morning then just wandered  around barefoot in the room for a couple of hours.  This is what her feet looked like after just hanging around in the room.  Not good!

Dog-friendly often means a hard surface floor rather than carpet.  Apparently the cleaning staff doesn't always know about mopping floors.  

We also managed to find a couple of places with rooms on the second floor.  In one of those places my wife was going up the stairs (outside) with the dog and the dog managed to trip her and make her fall.  So she got a huge bruise on her butt AND hurt her right foot.  Well, since she had that operation on her left foot, having the right foot injured as well did not make for speedy walking.  She is ok and both feet are healing but it didn't make life any happier.  

We had hoped to visit friends in Colorado Springs on the way home but with the foot injury we decided we just needed to get home.  I must say we were both really happy to get home.  It seemed like a much longer trip than it really was!

So that's what I've been up to for the last month.  I hope you were having fun as well.   Take care and keep washing those hands.

Wow, September!

 We are getting late in our summer around here but it is still 110F 43C) most days.  Of course it is warmer over in Death Valley so we don't feel too picked on.

The sun rises are pretty nice too.

We don't get tired of watching the sun rising from different positions in relation to the mountain.  It's got a bit more travel towards the south before it stops and heads north again.  There is a dot in the sky on the right side of the photo that is a hot air balloon.  We get quite a bit of that around here.

Our little town of Pahrump has a few stores where you can buy most of the things one needs day to day but we aren't entirely quiet.  This is something I saw in one of the store parking lots recently.

 

We haven't gone anywhere exciting lately.  The bi-weekly trip to Vegas for various supplies doesn't count.  We don't go anywhere near the exciting parts of the city.  Grocery stores with better seafood, various stores with better prices AND selection, restaurants that are different; that's the limit of our Las Vegas visits.  The last visit was to pick up a new dishwasher from Lowes.  How's that for exciting?

I got to visit the dermatologist recently to have a few little things removed.  It's just one of the things you get to do when you get to a certain age.  Well, living in sunny places and not wearing hats and long sleeves might have something to do with it.  But since that's the worst thing I've got going on I feel pretty darn lucky!

So that's what's going on in my neck of the woods.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

And I thought I was dull before!

 Wow, it's been an entire month since I updated the blog and, honestly, it has been pretty dull.  We've had a few doctor visits but the only thing we did that was really interesting was that we went to San Diego for a quick trip to the zoo.  And I have zero photos of it!  

We really wanted to have Gus get to spend a couple days in the local kennel and going to San Diego seemed like a great opportunity.  I guess he did ok in the kennel and he was ok with us when we got him back so maybe that will work out.  We hope to travel without him once in a while so getting him comfortable in a kennel is a requirement.  So far it looks like this will work out.

San Diego is about a 5 hour drive from here so, what with our not-early start, Tuesday was mostly about getting to the city.  We did have one weird thing happen.  We got in the HOV lane when we were going along on I-215 and the GPS told us we had to get off the highway.  We did that then the GPS was telling us to get back onto the highway!  Apparently it thought the HOV lane was some other road entirely.  That's certainly never happened before.  We also weren't too taken with the signage on the highway having the Interstate being subordinate to other roads.  We had to get off the highway several times to remain on I-215.  It just seemed weird to us.

We stayed in a motel we've used before, the Old Town Inn.  It is walking distance to the Old Town area so we got to walk around there a bit and found a Mexican seafood restaurant for dinner.  It was really very nice.  We ate outside and it was quite comfortable.  Wednesday we spent at the zoo.  These days the zoo is $120 for two senior one day passes.  Hmmm, it is certainly not for the poor people.  

We had a nice lunch with a bottle of wine then promptly got lost looking for various exhibits.  It was fun though.  We'd parked our car under some solar panels that are joined up to charge electric vehicles.  It takes quite a few panels to charge a car so some of us old gas guzzlers can park in the shade too.  We'd had a late lunch so dinner just turned into snacks.  

The next day we headed back home.  We took I-15 rather than I-215 this time and it worked much better!  Then before we hit the California border we came across a lane closure to fix one lane of a two lane bridge.  Somehow that turned into a 40 minute delay!  Grrr!  We finally made it to Baker, CA where we had a late lunch at The Mad Greek.  It has been a favorite stop on the trip for years but it closed for at least a year over the Covid problem.  Anyway, it's back now.

Other that that little trip it's been quiet times here.  There is a 'monsoon' season over in Las Vegas and they have had flooding and all kinds of stuff.  We had a couple little showers but nothing special.  My wife did find a puddle outside one morning and we had to record that.

Otherwise we've had some nice sun rises but not much going on.

So that's all the news that's fit to print from this end of the world.  I hope things are good where you are.  Take care & keep washing those hands.

Dull, dull, dull!

Well, the usual stuff is going on around town.  Fires, drunks, wife beatings; you know the kind of All American fun that goes on all over the country.  But otherwise, it is 80F (27C) when I get up at 06:00 and somewhere around 110F (43C) by mid-afternoon.  Frankly it slows me down quite a lot.  My wife and I like to take a walk in the morning but not when it's that warm!  We did get a few walks in a week or so ago.  It is good exercise for us old folks and it is getting Gus used to the word 'Heel'.  He doesn't know what it means and wouldn't give a darn if he did BUT the leash does keep him between us and moving on.  He is one of the most hard-headed animals in creation!  

Read an excellent post over at Sightings Over Sixty.  It is a very good blog but this week the writer talked about 'facts'.  And how they are sometimes just a bit off.  In our current political climate where there is so much miss-information it is nice to read about how some things are being miss-represented.

I have ordered various financial advisory news letters over the years so I'm on the mailing list for many, many others.  I got one the other day that started with a list they called "The Great Reset".  They expect: The END of financial and personal privacy.  The END of freedom of thought.  The END of capitalism as we know it.  The END of law and order.  The END of parental control over our own children.  The END of the freedom and justice for all that makes America mankind's last, BEST hope.

I mean, really?  I'm supposed to take financial advice from someone who sees that as our future?  Jeez!  Oh, the capitalization in that previous paragraph was all theirs.  Why don't I take financial advice from some homeless drunk in the street?  Of course in the next page we are advised that "When the Democrats are thrown out of power, it opens the door for us ordinary folks to grow 5 TIMES richer fast".  I mean I'm not President Biden's biggest supporter but I'm pretty sure that his leadership isn't as toxic or even as effective as they are making out.  

Enough of the sunny side of life.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

It's been a week!

Boy, does time ever fly when you are having fun!  Of course my definition of fun might be a bit off for most people.  I've found a few cartoons/memes that spoke to me.  As in this reference to what all our Supreme Court is doing.

Of course with all the shootings these days stopping gun violence is important to everyone.

And one final thought on learning about being gay.

Of course the 4th of July came along right on time.  We've had about six days now with not a cloud in the sky.  It is only running about 100F (38C) but that's warm enough.  The wind has been running 10-15mph  (15-25kph) so I got to go out and unwrap the flag a few times.  In the evening we went out and sat in the front yard and watched the fireworks from a nice distance of not quite 3 miles (4.5km).

Then there are the important personal problems we old folks get to learn about.  I had a mole removed way back in February and afterwards was told that it was cancerous and I would need to have the remaining tiny cells removed by a procedure called a Mohs surgery.  The Mayo Clinic website says this:  "Mohs surgery is a precise surgical technique used to treat skin cancer. During Mohs surgery, thin layers of cancer-containing skin are progressively removed and examined until only cancer-free tissue remains."

I got to the dermatologist's office and it was packed!  This office is only open a couple days a week and the person who is usually here to treat you is an PA-C - a physician assistant.  Today they had a surgeon fly in from the Los Angeles area and he had plenty to do!  They tell you that it will take up to 4 hours for the procedure.  My appointment was for 08:30 and I got out at 12:13.  Close enough to 4 hours.  I was glad I'd brought a book!  The actual surgery wasn't particularly painful but there was quite a lot of blood.  In the end, I have something that is a bit painful still but better than cancer.

So that's all that's fit to print from this little corner of the world.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

I found a new-to-me blog!

 I saw a new-to-me blog today that really struck a chord.  The url is tinadrakakis.com and it goes by the name Eyerollingmom.  She mostly talks about her experiences raising four children.  She sounds like a very nice person with firm ideas about behavior in our society and bringing up your kids to that behavior.  I liked her a lot.  I was looking for a way to contact her but couldn't find one so I'm hoping she won't mind me tying into her idea.  I like this idea SO much!  It begins with the following meme (for lack of a better term).
        

Control yourself!  Really, Every day we read about someone who is pissed off about their work and goes in with a gun to kill people.  The other day some person with a pickup truck ran into a bunch of Roe-Wade protesters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  It just never stops.

Alter your thinking!  That is important if you are a kid and your parent is telling you to do something you don't want to do.  It is also important if you are an adult and are involved in a dispute regarding public policy or something.  Not that you must alter your thinking but you certainly must question it.  All the talk about President Trump and the January 6 attack on the capital:  I don't understand how he really could control the mob but I certainly think he encouraged them in many ways.  I'm not on the TOTALLY GUILTY side and not on the TRUMP FOREVER side but the point is to consider the alternatives.

Delete negativity!  Well, that's tough for some people but I do believe that your thinking leads to your attitude about the future.  If you expect negativity, I suspect you will get it.  Trust me, people who have a positive attitude get into negative situations too but if you start out expecting a negative result I suspect you are more likely to get it.  

Lately I've been having so many negative thoughts that I really appreciate this call to CNTL-ALT-DEL!  I just cannot go on seeing just the negatives in our world.  There are good sides here and there.
1.  I think Mr. Trump is a crooked, racist, right-wing fool but he didn't actually get us in WWIII.
2.  I don't believe Covid is being treated as well as it should be but you can't get everyone to listen.
3.  The inflation we are feeling these days is crazy but it should go back down with the Federal Reserve working at it.
4.  The war in the Ukraine is a horrible attack on a free country but it is waking NATO up to the possibility of a closer attack.

Bottom line is that I need to CNTL+ALT+DEL and I thank Eyerollingmom for the reminder.  So, maybe I should end with a different idea.  Anyone who has traveled far has felt the pain of crossing multiple time zones.

    
Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Lots of excitement!

Well, no, actually very little excitement.  We did do something a little different though.  Last week we celebrated our 38th anniversary.  

Wow, was that ever a long time ago!  We got married by a co-worker who was legally able to marry people.  It was in our house after work with the kids and a couple friends as witnesses.

We put Gus in a kennel and went in to Las Vegas for a night.  We had a nice time; nothing very crazy but it was nice. In the late morning we parked the car in the Treasure Island parking lot and walked around a bit.   We haven't been in any of the Vegas casinos in years so that was kind of different.  It was early enough that most of the shops weren't open.  Eventually we wandered across a pedestrian bridge and found some restaurants.  We ended up sharing a plate of nachos with chicken tinga.  It was just something different.  My wife's foot is still painful from her surgery and she'd had enough walking so we headed off for the motel.

My wife had found a Best Western hotel WAY off the strip so we went there for a couple hours quiet time before going out to dinner.  It was a fairly nice place.  It certainly was not going for the casino crowd.  We had decided to go to Bonefish Grill for dinner.  It is a chain but it is just totally different from the places we ordinarily go.  We used to go to one back when we lived in Orlando.  As it turns out the food was semi-acceptable and our server was a idiot.  Oh well!  

The next day we came home and retrieved Gus.  He was pretty happy to see us but they said he had been just fine.  We liked hearing that because he needs to have a place he can stay when we want to go somewhere.  

I think that's all the news.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Ok, I voted.

 It is primary election time and in this totally Republican county the winner today has little chance of losing the actual election.  I mean a couple years ago we voted in a dead pimp as a member of the county council!  

Actually my wife and I voted last Friday.  We went in and used the machines.  We actually have candidates who are all in favor of going back to paper ballots.  Jeez!  But I'll bet we will be going back to paper in the future.  The idiots will prevail.  I must say the Republican party in this county has plenty of money to mail ads to the voters; we get 4 or 5 cards every day urging us to vote for X or Y.  And, of course, there are a few that say 'Don't vote for Z!'  I guess it's just regular electioneering but it's exhausting just reading that drivel.  And the number of candidates who think putting a photo of Mr. Trump on their ad is THE key selling point is just astounding.

We've moved into summer even though it's still a week or so away.  We are in the low 100's (37-38C) so it's not officially HOT.  Of course if the a/c stopped working that would be a different story.  Along those lines, our country has some very interesting decisions to make.  Since we are not convinced that Global Warming is true, that will affect a lot of choices.  We are obviously in a severe drought in the West but there doesn't seem to be much we can do about that.  People are moving to Las Vegas in droves but there is a small problem with the amount of water available to keep those folks alive.  Solar power is extremely effective here in the Southwest but it is amazing how little it is used by normal people.  Of course there is the problem of violence in all it's forms:  gun attacks; driving into crowds of people; mob violence.  Hell, it's just depressing.

I did see a cartoon about carrying a firearm that I really liked.

That's all I've got today.  Have a good one and keep washing those hands.

A little trip!

 If you've read much of this blog at all you know my wife and I really love to travel.  But now we have a dog and were unsure about what kind of a traveler he might be.  We wanted to give him a trial so we planned a little trip to Bishop, CA.  We decided to drive west across Death Valley then pick up highway 395 and go up to Bishop.  Oddly Google Maps says it is 223 miles and coming back via a different route is also 223 miles!  Oh well.

So last Tuesday we headed out for a planned 3 day trip.  It turned out really well.  I've never been in that part of the country and it was really quite beautiful and a bit strange.  It's hard to tell from the maps but 395 runs quite close to the mountains on the west and a small river, the Owens River, on the east.  Because of the river it is also quite green with lots of farming.  I took this photo of the mountains when we stopped for moment.

I have to admit that I didn't get any photos of the river.  It was quite small and I just didn't manage to get a good shot of it.  My wife had made room reservations at a motel in Bishop and we found it with no problem.  It was a nice place to have the dog but I really couldn't recommend it otherwise!  They had fake wood floors that had seen much better days and the door had definitely been broken into on several occasions.  However we didn't really want a fancy place in case Gus decided to 'mark his territory'.  It turns out he just did his business on his leash outside just like you would want him to do.  We ended up having a cheese and salami dinner in our room.

Wednesday morning we headed up 395 a bit more to visit Mono Lake.  Mono Lake is a saline soda lake which ends up with really odd salt formations.  It was quite interesting.

Then we moved south again to stop in Mammoth Lakes for lunch.  The Mammoth Ski Area is nearby and we got a real tree fix.  We stopped at Liberty Sports Bar & Grill partially because they had outdoor seating and we could bring Gus.  It turned out to be a great stop.  The food was excellent and the beer was pretty good too!  They even came up with a bowl of water for Gus.  After lunch we drove back to Bishop and just looked around town a bit.  For dinner we found a Mexican restaurant with outdoor seating but unfortunately it wasn't as much of a hit.

Thursday was our day to drive home and we wanted to take highway 168 for a couple reasons.  It is not heavily used AND it leads to the home of the Bristlecone Pine up in the Inyo National Forest.  We decided we'd try the road, it was paved, and if it was ok we might make it up to visit some of the pines.  Well, it was narrow, totally curvy, constantly going up and had no guardrails but there wasn't much traffic so we made it!  We looked around a bit but they recommend that older folk not spend too much time at the altitude.  In fact my wife said her vision was kind of off at first but it cleared up after half an hour or so.  Anyway I took a few photos and we headed back down.

Of course I had to catch a photo of the GPS showing our altitude!

10,027 ft (3,056 m) - a record for the truck anyway!  There were some good views coming down the mountain but we also met 4 or 5 vehicles coming up.  Who knew we were such early risers.  Anyway we were back to 168 going east.  We got to 266 and kept going east.  We went through a town we've heard of, Lida, which turned out to be 4 or 5 houses just off the road.  Finally, about 11:00 we got to US 95.

US 95 is a major north-south highway around here and it was busy!  There were lots of semi trucks and to make it better they are working on the road.  We made it most of the way home before we got stopped for about 15 minutes waiting for one-way traffic coming from the other direction.  In the end we got home about 2:30 pm.  

Really it was quite a good trip.  Gus, the dog, turns out to ride in the back seat quite quietly.  He acted well at the motel and was just fine in the restaurants.  So, now when we want to go visit the kids, we don't have to worry about him.  What a deal!

Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Another day; another mass shooting.

Just another dull day with nothing to report but another mass shooting, this time it was children, the last big one was black people.  The times where 1 or 2 people are shot just don't count any more.  It's got to be 10 or 15.  WTF. The Las VegasReview Journal has a story today about a man shooting an another because he was escorting the 1^st guy's estranged girl friend. Oh, he was arrested and charged with a bunch of things but has been released!  Our son recently move near Little Rock, AR; the local paper has another shooting story.

And I have probably 50 pieces of mail from Republican candidates for public office and they all say the same thing:  I support our 2nd Amendment rights!  Well, shit!  I'm good with the 2nd Amendment but it certainly doesn't say anything about the right to go around killing others!  It doesn't say anything about letting nut cases do whatever they want.  It doesn't say buy all the military grade weapons you want.  What's next?  Why can't I go buy a mortar and a few rounds of ammunition? I mean it would take some practice to learn to use it properly but why not?  I'd only blow up 2 or 3 peoples houses while practicing.  I've had guns since I was a child.  I've had concealed weapons permits in two states.  But this is getting just a bit crazy.

The 2^nd Amendment is pretty simple. It says:  "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."  Well, it needs some sort of restating to keep 'the right of the people to live peacefully' alive as well.

Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Wow! No post for 3 weeks!

 Well, talk about lazy!  Actually I do have a small excuse:  my wife's brother visited with us for a few days.  Yeah, that's not much of an excuse is it.  He's really a pretty nice guy.  Retired Navy, like most of her family, and widowed 3 years ago.  His trip was to attend a Celebration of Life for a friend who died recently and Las Vegas was a nice convenient airport.  He's been here before so we mostly took him out to eat in our various favorite places.  Having him visit really wasn't a big deal.  But having him follow behind the son & family makes it the most visitors we've had in years.

Other than having him visit it's been pretty quiet.  We managed a couple visits to Las Vegas for shopping.  We have been taking Gus, the dog, because he is still being a pain in the *ss when we aren't at home.  

We put him in his crate and he just barks the entire time we are gone.  We have a camera on his crate and whenever we look at it he is standing there barking.  In the truck he whines quite a bit but does settle down once we get out on the road.  Happily we have a favorite restaurant in Las Vegas that has outdoor seating so we can be there with the dog.  We will have to find him a kennel for long term trips but we have a bit of time before we are headed out.  

This is a nice time of year here in Southern Nevada.  Highs have been in the 80's and 90's (high 20's C) though we have had over 100F (37C) at least one time so far this year.  Nights are cool enough that we can open the house and get some fresh air in the house.  Even the cactus is happy.  Of course now that I said that I can't get the photos to upload!  WTH?  

I'm trying to avoid talking about the upcoming elections.  Here in our county you are either a Republican or you don't have a chance.  They are all bragging about being conservative; one wants to impeach Mr. Biden and build Mr. Trump's wall.  Another one is bragging about being supported by Rick Harrison from the tv show "Pawn Stars".  It's just ridiculous.  What a bunch of idiots!

I guess that's all the news that's fit to print from around here.  Thanks for stopping by & keep washing those hands. 

Back to the quiet times for the moment

Well, Number One Son and his females have gone; headed to their new home in Arkansas.  That should be interesting and we certainly wish them the best of luck.  Our dog is still running around the back yard sniffing for evidence of that intruder dog.  I never even saw the two cats.  Apparently they were happy enough with the sister in whose room they got to stay.  

The intruder dog is a bulldog.  He is really quite friendly; almost too friendly.  He likes biting games with peoples hands so he needs to be corrected from time to time and isn't getting that correction.  When he is calm, he's a great guy.

That's him relaxing after I'd been scratching his belly.  He even raised his leg to give me better access.
 

So now we are back to exciting stuff like doctor's visits and vet visits for our dog.  Yep, three doctor's visits and two vet visits scheduled for the next week!  Of course one doctor visit is with my wife's surgeon and we are thinking he will be pretty satisfied with her recovery.

He gave her instructions to leave that tape on and just let it fall off naturally.  Well, it's covering the stitches so tearing it off doesn't sound that smart even to me!  She's also got a visit with her regular doctor; just a regular thing.  My visit will be with the dermatologist; a checkup on a thing they removed a few weeks ago.  Aging does bring these not so wonderful side effects.

Our son asked if we had any trips planned and the answer was basically 'no'.  Right now we don't want to put the dog in a kennel so that takes international travel or cruises off the table.  We have had people visit just a month or two after we moved somewhere and we won't do that to them.  So that leaves us a choice between a little trip over to California or maybe the other way to Arizona.  We might do something like that.  There are plenty of places we haven't visited in both states and it would get the dog used to traveling.  So far the farthest he's been in our vehicles is Las Vegas. Since 3 or 4 thousand mile trips are our norm, he may as well get used to days in the truck!

Gotta go.  The dog just came in to point out to me that I'm late with his breakfast.  Take care.  Thanks for stopping by and keep washing those hands!

Something different!

 So we were just poking along here when we got a call from Number One Son in California.  They are moving to Arkansas to be in a more conservative area.  Their house in California sold on the first day and then the realtor in Arkansas screwed something up and they can't close when they thought they would close.  So they are homeless.  They have two cars and are driving both of them to Arkansas; the guy and the dog in one, the woman and the cat in the other.  Could they come stay with us for a couple days until the Arkansas problem was fixed?  Sure.  

Well, it turns out that his wife's sister (whom we had never met) is moving with them to Arkansas so now we have three guests.  And their dog, a huge bulldog, and their cat, and the sister's cat.  Hmmm.  So now we are five with four animals.  To make it even more special, the dogs don't get along very well!  Oh well.  We are working on it all.  We have a sleeper sofa in my office that is set up for the sister and she gets to keep the cats in there with her.  Lucky gal, huh.  The son & daughter-in-law have the spare bedroom with their dog.  Did I forget to mention that the bulldog doesn't like cats?  To make things even better, our son is still trying to work from 'home' so he is set up at the dining room table with two computers and a phone/headset all day.  It is entirely weird but we are all trying to make it work.  

There is hope that the Arkansas paperwork will get done by Friday so they may leave by Wednesday but there seem to be more hangups than anything so we might get to keep them until Friday!  OMG!  Having two dogs that don't get along and simply cannot be left alone is the big problem.  Oh well, I'm not going to complain about life in the slow lane ever again!

Thanks for stopping by and keep washing those hands!

Coming along...

Things are moving along at their usual slow pace but they are moving.  

My wife had surgery on her little toe a week ago yesterday.  Yesterday we had her first post-op visit with her surgeon and he was most complimentary about her progress.  The toe was twisted sideways so she wasn't walking on the pad of the toe but the side.  Needless to say this was not pleasant.  After surgery her foot was bandaged and she was told to keep it elevated as much as possible.  Happily I can cook or we would have been eating a pizza a day.  Anyway, I did finally get to see her foot.

So now the toe is straight and is looking much better.  The CB is the doctor's initials from before the surgery; you wouldn't want him to work on the wrong patient!  On her ankle you can see some white fuzz that came off the dressing she'd been wearing for a week.  Now she has a much less intrusive dressing and by Friday she won't have to wear a plastic bag on her foot to shower.  She is still wearing a heavy boot thing for another three weeks but then she should be back to normal.  

Our daughter bought a Dog DNA test for our new dog.  We swabbed his cheeks a couple of times and sent it in and now we have the answer.

 He is 100% Chinese Shar-Pei.  It brings the question back of why anyone would allow such a dog to be lost and not search for him.  Online I'm seeing puppies for sale between $1,500-2,500.  Even at the low end of the scale that's a lot of money to just let run away.  Oh well, I guess we'll never know.

We've had 'debates' between the candidates running for public office lately and a more silly bunch of  people would be hard to find.  There are three men running for County Clerk.  To quote the Pahrump Valley Times: "All three candidates for clerk favored paper ballots, providing ID before voting and allowing only U.S. citizens the opportunity to vote" What idiots!  Paper ballots, really?  Do they want to do away with the internet as well?  Having ID to vote?  When haven't you had to have ID to vote?  Only allowing U.S. citizens to vote; when else have non-citizens been allowed to vote?  Jeez.  And to put the final icing on the cake all three think Mr. Trump won the 2020 election!  

In other local news the County Treasurer resigned saying he was tired of fighting "corruption and sabotage" in the office.  Heaven only knows what that means (did someone put salt in his coffee?) but it doesn't make normal people respect our county government.  

On the other hand we have a clear, sunny day with a high of 80F (27C) forecast.  Sounds like a good day to get a little work done outside.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one and keep washing those hands.

Stuff n nonsense

There's not a lot going on around here these days but we are managing to get through it anyway. Of course there is the world: war, drought, public slaps and covid but odd ball stuff too. It seems to be a time of lots of little crap.

Our new dog has turned into a very needy little guy.

He does NOT want to be left alone. We have a crate and have left him in the crate while we go out to lunch. We have a camera on the crate and he barks the entire time we are gone. Twice he has soiled the crate and we come home to having to take the crate, with the dog, outside to be washed out. This is a problem. We've read that we should leave him alone for small periods of time and gradually increase the time we are gone. I guess we'll try that sometime but right now we are having our own fun.

My wife, who is a very healthy gal for 70+, has managed to have the little toe on her left foot turn under so she is walking on the side of the toe. Needless to say, this is painful. So Tuesday she is going in for surgery to straighten her toe. She is a little stressed about the surgery. She hasn't had surgery since her early 20's and is kind of worried about it. Of course her doctor is telling what a simple thing it is but she's having a hard time buying that. She will be wearing a boot for about a month then should be 100%.

My wife's surgery is scheduled for 10:00 in the southern part of Las Vegas so we'll have to leave home about 08:30 and it could easily be 04:00 pm by the time we get back. Of course that means that the dog will be alone for pretty much all day. We clearly cannot leave him in the crate so we have been looking for a place to kennel him. The first choice is near us but they are on vacation. Another place is way out of the way and they are only open from 10:00 to 4:00 pm. Well, that won't work. A third place is open from 07:00 until 03:00 pm. Nope. Our last choice is at a veterinarian that is open from 08:00 to 05:00 pm. That's going to be our choice.  I'm sure to write about the outcome!

On another front, our son, who has lived in the San Diego area his whole adult life, has decided he can't stand liberal California anymore and is moving to Arkansas that he expects to be more conservative. Wow! My wife and I are looking forward to seeing how they adapt to all the changes. Of course we've lived all over the place but son and daughter-in-law seem to think that a more conservative location will make their lives better. I hope so but we'll see. Financially it is nice for them: they sold their 1,300 sq ft house in CA for $570K and are buying a 2,800 sq ft place for $360K.

So you see, war and droughts aren't the only problems in the world. Weirdo pets are especially trying! Thanks for stopping by. Keep washing those hands!

Quiet enough but OMG!

We are having the usual spring weather with all the usual weirdness.  It's 50F (10C)  when I get up one morning and 18F (-8C) the next.  And the wind!  Don't get me started about the wind!  But that is pretty normal stuff.  Unfortunately we are talking about elections already!

The deadline for filing for office is next Friday but already we have FIVE candidates for Sheriff including the current incumbent, two of her subordinates and two people who just think it would be fun.  County Clerk has 4 candidates:  3 Republicans and 1 with no party affiliation.  There are 3 seats on the County Commission open and 8 Republican candidates; no candidates with any other affiliation.  Well, that's the county for you:  be Republican or be gone!  It is not unusual for a Republican candidate to be unopposed in the actual election.

The really amazing thing is that the County Commission is actually going to discuss using paper ballots rather than voting machines!  I mean, really?  And the people who oversee the election are at least my age so their eyesight probably leaves something to be desired.  Besides, it's not like we have tons of illegal aliens who are going to try to vote.  They would be voting for a bunch of Republicans; does that sound likely?  To put numbers on this, in the 2020 Presidential Election IN OUR COUNTY Mr. Trump had over 17,500 votes while Mr. Biden didn't quite have 7,300.

My wife and I don't really belong in this demographic.  We are WAY too liberal but we do like the small town and the fresh air and the lack of traffic.  There are too many homeless people in town and they aren't being given much assistance but that's true in a lot of places.  It is one of the reasons we are constantly giving to the VFW Food Bank.  

Oh well.  The primary election is in the first part of June so things will quiet down for a bit prior to the general election in November.  In the mean time, I'm going to figure out which Republican is the best one for me.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Quiet times

We've been having pretty quiet times especially if you leave out doctors visits and wild stuff like that.  The snow that I mentioned in my last post is long gone and we had 80F (26C) yesterday!  That's a little much but so was the snow.  

Gus is being a fairly good dog.  We took him to the vet and were told that he is probably more like 8 years old than the 4 that we were told.  However he got a clean bill of health and he hasn't gained any weight in the three weeks we've had him.  He is gradually learning the few things we want him to do:  sit, stay, etc.  What he is having trouble with is 'separation anxiety'.  I had to go to Las Vegas the other day and my wife says he stayed by her and looked out the doorway much of the time.  Then she had a checkup yesterday and I got the same experience from him while she was gone.  When we are both gone we put him in a crate.  We have a little camera that we pointed at his crate and he just goes nuts when we are both gone.  He barks and scratches and tries to escape in every way.  We left him alone in the house once and he used the living room as his bathroom.  Hmmm, we didn't like that!  Anyway, when we are around he's great.  

We are taking him for rides in the truck since that is the way we do long distance travel.  He is a little crazy hopping around in the back seat.  He also wants to get into the front seat but we aren't letting him do that!  The good news is that he gets to sniff some new things!

So that's life in the fast lane!  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands.

And now...

When we arrived home we were intending a trip up to Washington state to visit my wife's brother.  He is alone since his wife passed away and was going to have knee surgery which would require that someone be available 24 hours a day.  However, on the 10th he called to say the surgery was going to be delayed until later in the year.  Since we were going to leave on the 11th we were glad to hear from him.  I have to admit it was rather a relief because we were both wanting some 'at home' time.  

So, what to do?  Of course we went out to lunch.  What else does one do to celebrate?  And, at the end of the lunch my wife asked "How about going over to the dog shelter and see if there is anything there?"  Do I have to say more?  We went to the shelter and were shown two animals.  The first was a young German Shepherd; about two years old and full of steam!  She was way too fast for us old folks.  The second was a Shar-Pei, four years old and a little calmer.  Hmmm.  The little guy had just had surgery to remove his testicles and had a cone around his neck to keep him from licking the injury.  He was found by animal control on Christmas Day.  He didn't have a microchip; no one had called to ask about a missing Shar-Pei so he was up for adoption.  In the end we asked that they keep him a couple more days until he could be without the cone then we would take him home.

The pound uses some sort of computer name-game thing to come up with names for stray animals and this poor little guy got named 'Goose'.  There is no way we were going to let that remain his name but we thought that 'Gus' might work.  He'd been called with that G word for a month or so and we hoped that the hard G would help him with his new name.  Anyway, now we have a new dog!

We have no idea whether or not he is actually a Shar-Pei or just partially but he does pretty much look the part.  That first photo was of him while still in the pound.  Here he is in our living room.

Of course now he is chipped and filled with shots and all that so there is no way he can get lost.  He is pretty stubborn and doesn't know any of the 'necessary' dog things.  We are working on his name, the commands for come, sit, down, heel, stay and whatever else.  He is smart enough but really wants to do what he wants to do; not so much what you are suggesting!

So this morning we woke to a surprise:  snow!  This is like the third snow we've had in the thirteen years we've been here so we are all excited.  It is only about an inch and a half and will be gone before long but, hey, it's snow!  

So that's all the news that is fit to print from here.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and stay safe!

Update:  10:00 and the snow was all gone.  The mountains still look nice and white but in the valley it is dusty as usual.