Well, that was fun!

No, I'm lying.  It was NOT fun!  We woke and fed the dog the other day and I took him out to hear just a waterfall!  Well, this is the damn desert.  WTF??  I saw this in our back yard.

Yeah, that's a small lake in our back yard right next to the pump house.  Hmmm.  It didn't take me long to turn around and run in to get the key for the electric box and shut off the pump.  Well, I did managed to get this photo of the problem.

Yeah, that's a problem for sure!  We called our favorite 'well guy' and he came over and repaired the leak.  He's explained this to me before but apparently our local government has decreed that pumps should be sitting on a concrete pad; but they don't want a REAL pad like with rebar & an underpad of gravel.  So as the ground moves around, so does the pressure container and every couple of years the plastic pipe cracks.  Ain't that wonderful?  So, he fixed the pipe and collected his $80 and we'll be seeing him in another couple of years.  He is a nice guy but really?

Of course it's not all about water around here.  We do get some nice night skies, sunrises and sunsets.

 Of course it is the Xmas season so we've decorated the house.  We have our 1998 plastic Christmas tree from the Netherlands.  I'm sure I've never posted a photo of it before!  LOL  The things decorating the tree all have memories attached.  Some are things the kids made (who are now both over 50 years old!); some are from the Netherlands; some are from our travels; some are just beautiful in their own right.  The Santa robe beneath the tree on the table was created by my wife's sister when she was into weaving.

And, of course, it is finally cool enough to use the fireplace!

Hey, what more could you want?  Well, aside from no more broken well connection.  Oh, and world peace and no more Hitler-wanna-be assholes and a funeral for Mr. Trump.  Yeah, I'm not asking for all that much so maybe in 2024 we'll get some of that.  Hell, I'd settle for the last one!  Take care and keep washing those hands!  Thanks for stopping by.

Life in the REALLY fast lane

 It's been a bit since I updated the old blog but at least this time I have an excuse:  we went to Texas!  Yep, movement is possible in the good old USA these days.  The thing is that our daughter moved to the Austin, Texas area and we wanted to check out the house she has been renovating and the area in general.  We did visit Austin a few years back but we were more interested in the Presidential Libraries and stuff than the town itself.  Besides, she doesn't live in the city but out a bit.  The other thing we wanted to learn about was taking our 'new' dog for a long journey.  

Ollie, the dog, is a rescue; probably 8-10 years old.  He has trouble moving and has had more than his share of bad treatment by humans.  Even the rescue shelter managed to shave his fur off so closely that the hair folicles were damaged and some places may never grow back!  Anyway, we wanted to know what his reactions would be to traveling all day in the back seat of the truck.  Also, how would he deal with motel living?  And what about stopping in rest areas?  I can lift him in and out but neither of us likes it much and my wife cannot.  Therefore because he has trouble moving, I built a little stair for him to use to get into and out of the truck.  He had used it once or twice but a trip would give it a real workout.

So off we went.  It turns out Ollie did very well.  We had his dog bed and he slept on it every night.  He had some trouble with the stair but by the return side of the trip he was just fine with it.  He loved our daughter's back yard which is fenced and has grass which our's does not.  She has a swimming pool and I was thinking he might fall in because he was so interested in the water but he managed to not do that.  He even managed rest areas and such well.

The trip was actually very good.  The 'Really fast lane' I refered to in the title is the fact that the speed limits on the highways were usually 75 or 80mph(120-130kph).  I haven't driven that fast in a while!  Weather was great.  We did get to drive through a rain storm that was heavier than anything I've seen in a long time.  We also got to drive some of the Texas Hill Country which was very pretty.  Then on the way home we went north from I-10 to I-40 via the Salt River Canyon and  Show Low, AZ.  The canyon was spectacular.  I took a few photos but nothing that really reflects the place.  I've always wanted to go see Show Low; no real reason just that it has a neat name!  It seemed like a nice enough town and they have real trees!  We don't get a lot of real trees here in the desert.  

Anyway we had a great trip and are now primed for staying home a bit.  The California fires are still covering us with smoke usually at a high enough level that you don't really smell it.  This morning we can smell it; it isn't pleasant at all.  I feel for all those folks who are losing their homes and livelyhoods and sometimes even lives.  

Of course this morning I get to read about Mr. Trump telling the folks in Minnesota that they have 'good genes'; meaning basically that they are white.  What an a$$!  How the devil people can vote for that idiot is beyond me.  Especially, black, Hispanic, Asian and female people:  what the hell can he be doing to earn their votes?  It just doesn't make sense to me but he's doing something right or this election would be a shoo-in for Biden.  Don't get me wrong; I'm not really crazed about Biden but at least he's not a closet Nazi.

Gotta go.  Have a good one and thanks for stopping by.

Quiet Days

 Things are pretty quiet out here in rural Nevada.  Like most of the Southwest US we've been under a heat warning which, around here, means temps around 115F (46C) though Death Valley which is 50 miles away got up to 130F(54C) the other day.  

I went into town to get gas the other day and looked over at this group of birds sheltering under the plant trying to keep out of the sun.  They even have their mouths open trying for a little more 'cool' air.

We also are getting a lot of smoke from the fires over in California.  It doesn't smell like smoke but there is a haze and you can't see the mountains like normal.  Heaven knows how many thousands of acres are destroyed and how many more will be!  

 

This was our sunrise this morning.  You could actually look at it with your bare eyes!  I haven't done anything to that photo except reduce the size.  As I said, you can't really smell the smoke but it is certainly there.  There were a couple balloons flying but they were too far away to photograph.

Bars are closed by the coronavirus pandemic.  Some, in the really really rural areas, are being allowed to open but none in our town.  We are going out to lunch as usual.  Well, except for wearing masks and tipping quite a bit more than usual!    California had rolling blackouts recently and we were warned that we might have some but so far not.  Of course I'm happy enough about that!  Gee, I might have to sit here in the dark with my wife and a candle.  Horrible!

Our daughter, who is unmarried, is always asking my wife what we find to talk about.  I guess it must feel strange to her but for us, there's always something.  A couple weeks ago my wife took the car to a doctor's appointment.  She didn't make it a mile before she saw something that she just had to tell me about and she called me.  The same thing happens to me:  if she isn't along I just see so many things I want to share with her.  Weird, I know, but at least I'm pretty sure that sitting in the dark with her would be ok.

The election is getting closer and closer and I'm worried.  All this crap about the postal service not being able to deliver ballots; removing sorting equipment; allowing things to sit around spoiling (and in the case of baby chicks, dying) because it's been de-funded is so stupid.  I swear I've moved to some 3rd world country where they just can't afford modern convienences like mail service.   Of course having Steve Bannon arrested was interesting.  I wonder if Mr. Trump will try to pardon him before his trial just in case Biden wins the election.  It fits in with lots of other things he's done.

Gotta go.  Keep washing those hands, wearing those masks and, if you are eligible, VOTE!!!

Wow! It's been a while!

I'm not sure why it's been so long since I updated this; I guess the general dullness is setting in.  Anyway I don't really have much to report.  It is quiet around here.  Our county has a population of only about 40,000 but we have managed to become a 'yellow' county in terms of the coronavirus.  That meant that the bars all got shut down again.  It is too bad but realistically if they weren't closed they would probably be filled with people from Vegas which is in a 'red' county. 

We still have a few people who are convinced that it is their right to not wear a mask even though the govenor has made it a rule.  It seems simple to me:  wear one and maybe not get sick or skip it and have a much better chance of catching this crap.  It is inconvenient and uncomfortable but I really do not want to catch something nasty like coronavirus.  In fact I heard that mask wearing might very well reduce the number of flu cases this winter since it too is a virus.  Who knows!

My wife and I usually get up and get on our walk before the sun rises; or about 05:50.  It is a pain to get up so early but it is a lot nicer walking when it is 65-70F(18-20C) than 105F (40C).  We also get to see the sun gradually light up the mountains in the west.  They absolutely glow golden starting at the very top and slowly moving down the mountain side.  We also get to see the local balloons if it is calm enough.  Usually they get slowly blown north but once in a while they land near us. 

This guy was landing but he must have been coming down too fast because you can see the flame from his burner slowing his descent. 

We have been getting quite a bit of smoke from the Apple fire over near Los Angeles.  You can kind of see it just above the mountains in the photo of the balloon.  They say it is 30% contained so there are still 20,000 acres burning.  We could have this stuff with us for quite a while yet.  It is only about 150 miles (240km) from here as the crow flies. 

We here in the US have just under 3 months until we get to vote.  I'm hoping that Mr. Biden can manage not to screw this up.  This is Trumpland around here.  We pass at least 8 or 10 Trump banners when we take our morning walk.  Of course there are more whenever we go other places.  I just cannot understand how people can support that idiot.  Of course I keep reading all kinds of things about how if Mr. Biden wins the economy will collapse and we'll all be living in a socialist society.  Bah humbug!  Yes, there might be some movement towards more social programs but I can't see any of them being very revolutionary.  Yes, rich people might have to pay more tax.  They can afford it!  Companies might have to pay more tax; hell, some have been getting away with paying NO tax.  That isn't right either.  Illegal immigration bothers a lot of people and I can understand that.  I think we should make the path to citizenship easier; then compelling people to do it makes more sense. 

Well, I'm going to quit whining.  Thanks for stopping by & keep washing those hands!

Photos!

As I said, I forgot my camera!  Grrr!!  However my faithful wife did bring hers and we have been using it.  I'll start with one from Craters of the Moon from way back on the 12th. 

This is some of the hard lava.  There must be square miles like this.  All the walks are paved because it lava is actually quite fragile. 

We finally made it to Glacier.  Apgar Village is just a disaster.  Way too many tourists, little parking & not much except trash and trinkets to be seen but I guess you have to check these places out.  On the Friday we took a horseback ride!  I haven't been on a horse in probably 50 years and haven't really wanted to try it again but my wife loves horses.  We were pretty disappointed not to be doing it in the park but their rides were all full.  Happily our horses were pretty calm and the route through the forest fairly level.  It did kick our asses though and we were feeling it the next day as well.

We checked out the park a bit on our own but the highlight was really taking the Red Bus tour across the Going to the Sun Road.  I don't like driving on roads with no guard rail or shoulder so taking the tour was a no-brainer.  Here would be a few photos starting with our bus.

These buses were built by White Motor Co.  for all the parks.  Most of the other parks got rid of theirs but Glacier managed to get Ford Motor Co. to fix theirs.  They took the body off the running gear and put it back on a modern Ford truck chassis.  So you have a propane powered Ford truck with the old, restored body on it.  This was done in 1999 and our driver said Ford ponied up about $250K per vehicle to do the update.  I must admit to being pretty happy about having big disk brakes under us when coming down the mountain. 

The fun part is that the roof is canvas and can be rolled back.  The driver stopped at the hotel so we could check that out and he could roll the roof back.  It made it pretty chilly riding along in the cool morning but there were benefits!

We rode in the last row of the bus.  The seat was really close to the floor but we had more leg room.  Since we weren't full, my wife and I got the last row to ourselves.  That was fun.  It was also cool because we couldn't see the road at all, only the mountains.  The other rows had three people per row; intended to be four if the trip was full.  There are only doors on the passenger side so you have to slide across the seat to enter & exit.  Because of wildfires over in Idaho we had quite a lot of haze.  Most of our mountain photos are pretty crappy because of haze.

This is a photo of a bus that was ahead of us going up the hill.  This west side road was built in 1928 and it is really just carved out of the side of the mountain.  The east side was done a couple years later.  Some places, like this, they had to just build a place for the road.  You go through two tunnels on the trip.  We were told that one had to be dug by hand without using dynamite because they were afraid of taking the whole section of the mountain down. 


At $80 (plus tip) each for the all day tour we thought it was a pretty good value.  Lunch at the hotel at Many Glaciers, a bit farther north in the park, wasn't such a great deal.  $14 overcooked hamburgers just aren't that wonderful.  The view was pretty spectacular. 

The hotel was built on the side of a beautiful lake with a great view of this fan-like mountain ridge on the other side. 

My internet connection is pretty crappy here so I'm stopping now.  There will be a few more photos of Glacier and on later.  Have a good one!

Goodbye Fire!

It looks like the Carpenter Canyon Fire is much under control.  The folks on this side of the mountain have been allowed to go back to their homes.  The other side is where the action is right now but the firefighters are confident of success.   Thank goodness!  And I don't believe anyone was seriously injured fighting it.

My wife and I went out to dinner the other night.  As we were leaving the parking lot we saw a bunch of tents and trailers over in the park.  I pulled the car over to see what was happening; it usually means some sort of circus or rodeo is in town.  Well, a deputy sheriff pulled in right behind us!  WTF, well, turns out all that stuff was for the fire crews and the park was off-limits for the rest of us.  LOL  I haven't been parking with a woman and questioned by the cops in centuries!  Made me glad I'd only had one beer with dinner too!

Since we haven't done any traveling yet this summer and won't be leaving this country,  I've been getting my Europe fix by watching Le Tour de France.  The scenery is simply fantastic - and the cycling!  Those guys are at a level of fitness that I really can't believe.  Riding 100 miles or more a day for three weeks?  Amazing.   The Tour is the only cycling event that I follow; sports aren't really an interest but this stuff is pretty impressive.

The birds are still hanging around waiting to be fed.  The only birds that show up in the birdbath are pigeons but I guess they are birds too.  The hummer keeps his ownership of the feeder chasing anyone else off.

We've been doing a lot of cooking on the bbq but I seem unable to take photos of the event.  It is warm to be out there but it's better than heating up the house.  I've done chicken twice, steak, salmon twice and that is just in the last week.  The meat and a salad is our usual fare.  It's pretty low on carbs for my wife and if I'm famished I can always nuke a baking potato.

After dinner we often go out and enjoy the sunset.    You know I don't have any trouble remembering the camera for a sunset!

Well, gotta go do something even if it is wrong.  Have a good one!

Duh, more fire news

The fire on Mt. Charleston is still the big deal for us.  Now we are talking about 25,000 acres (10,000+ ha) burned and 1,100 firefighters on the job.  Big numbers; but here is what it looks like from Las Vegas. 

This photo was taken near the Red Rock Canyon just west of Las Vegas.  From our side it doesn't look like a big fire because the smoke is going north and east.  This makes it more real for me.  There have been a few comercial buildings burned down but no homes so far.  Lots of people have been evacuated from their homes of course.

The weather isn't doing much to help the firefighters but there might be some moisture in the next few days.  I sure hope they get lots of rain & no more lightning!  Having the temp go from 107F to 96F (41+C to 35+C) will probably help the firefighters too.

 While in Las Vegas we looked at range hoods at Lowes.  We have a microwave/range hood now but it has problems:  1) the fan isn't strong enough and 2) it gets really dirty and is a giant pain to clean.  You need a screwdriver to take it apart and still can't get into all the little nooks and crannies.  We wanted to look at something other than what our local Home Depot has in stock.  Lowes didn't do a lot for us; nothing in stock but a nice $700 (!) one in their catalog.  Jeez!  I'm not sure I'm up for all that!

Meanwhile, rather than actually exercising, I'm watching the Tour de France.  Those guys are really amazing.  Of course it doesn't hurt that I'm watching the stage that ends at Mont St. Michel!  What a fantastic site for the race.  I've got to say I'd like to be watching it in person.  Maybe next year.... 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one.

Just two things....

First the fire was reported at over 22 square miles this a.m. - that's a lotta cotton!  We are getting firefighters from all over but the area being burned is extremely difficult terrain; way beyond anything that can be reached by road.  If they get enough aircraft in that might help.  Otherwise, who knows! 

Second, I've heard a lot about people being injured or even dying from the excessive heat.  It's true, many of us don't drink enough water.  We never drive 'off-road' but we carry water in both our vehicles.  When we were in Death Valley last I found this really neat chart in the men's room.

It's not the greatest photo, sorry cellphone alert, but when it's mounted over the urinal; well, it gets your immediate attention.  You don't have that much else to be doing.  This heat is pretty intense; I'm starting to think nicely about fall!  Yeah, I know, I'm fickle. 

Anyway, hope you have a good one.

Fire!

The fire that started out as a lightning strike on Monday night has now burned about 2,000 acres (800 ha) and is zero percent contained.  NOT a good situation.  Here is a link to the Vegas Review Journal.  There is talk of moving it up to a Type I fire which means the firefighters have more equipment, personnel, etc.  So far there hasn't been any loss of life or any homes destroyed but there are people who live up there so something needs to be done soon.  So far all that has been done is to tell the people to leave their homes.  Here's hoping the new fire teams can put this thing out.

Last night the fire was even more visible from out house than before.  Apparently the fire was moving up a ridge and got to a place visible to us.

We had a quiet day yesterday.  About 21:00 I was listening to some music and started hearing this irregular beat so had to go investigate.  Turns out, of course, it was the town fireworks display for the Fourth of July.  Wow, my head was so far away from that!  We viewed the display from our front porch; it was quite nice.  We were having a lightning storm with a tiny amount of rain at the same time so standing out in the yard didn't sound all that great!  The rain wasn't enough to even leave a puddle so it's not likely to wash us away. 

Here's to having a quiet weekend and much less wildfire! 

Almost over....

The forecast is for the heatwave to subside somewhat here in the next couple of days.  We will then be back to a more normal 105F (40C) or so.  On the other hand we have that visitor no one wants:  fire.  There is a lightning started fire burning up in Carpenter Canyon on Mt. Charleston.  Carpenter Canyon is a bit south of Pahrump but we can see the fire from our house.  It is south and west of the peak of Mt. Charleston.  Here is a photo I took last night; remember this is probably 30 miles away!

I really feel for the poor guys fighting the fire; it's got to be pretty close to 100F (37C) even at that altitude and they are wearing all that gear.  Just wearing all that stuff in heat like that has to be a challange and then to be clearing brush or trying to pump water from a truck!  That's a lot like tough work.

Here is another photo showing the smoke from the fire though it does look much like a cloud.  This was taken on our walk this a.m. with my cell phone. 

We wre in one of our local stores yesterday buying a gift for our daughter's birthday and the owner wished us a Happy 4th of July and mentioned it was the 237th birthday of our nation.  Ok, I love my country but who the hell keeps track of stuff like that?  Not me!  I prefer taking my regular bags of groceries over to the VFW food bank for vets who are having a tough time.  It seems more important to me somehow. 

We don't have much planned for today.  We bought a couple steaks to throw on the barbie tonight and we'll find a bottle of cabernet to go with them.  Maybe we'll be awake for the fireworks at the city park and maybe not.  Anyway, hope all you U.S. citizens are having a good holiday and all the rest of you are having a good day.  Take care!