Wow, almost a month without a word!

Well, actually that's not too unusual for me!  Unfortunately!  But then again things aren't changing a bunch around here.  It's still in the 20 F  (5 C) area at night; 50-60 F (20-25C) in the daytime; and fairly sunny.  We did have a couple days of 20 mph wind but that too is gone.   

We have had several homes built in our area in the last 6 or 8 months and the other day a couple guys dropped a container in the lot across the street from us so I'm expecting a new home to be built there during the next few months.  We'll see what happens.  Otherwise it's the old retired fart usual stuff:  visit the doctor, go buy groceries, go buy booze, dah dah dah.

Of course we are getting a new President and he is managing to make an ass of himself in a different way almost every day.  I mean 'The Gulf of America' - take over the Panama Canal - the 51st state of Canada - the 52nd state of Greenland - WTF???  The guy's just bat-shit crazy!  And some of the people who are going to be running the various departments; I'm afraid they are probably worse!  I've said it before but all those people who voted for Mr. Trump are going to be sorry about their votes and probably sooner than later!  It does make one think of moving out of the country but, well, 1) where would one go, and 2) what's going to stop Trump from taking that place over next?  I mean the 53rd state of Portugal?  Who knows?

Well, as an older white guy with a pension (small, believe me!) and Social Security and some savings; I should be ok.  It's the lady who cleans our house (very Mexican); the people at one of our favorite restaurants (Japanese); the guy at the garage (pretty Mexican); they are the people who might not be here in a year.  Oh, but we will have lots of new computer designers from where-ever to design the new Tesla.  Grrr!  

As you can tell I'm kind of obsessed with political thoughts these days.  I read blogs about people who are just having fun trying to catch some fish or traveling in Mexico or trying to take good photos of birds.  I need to follow their lead.  My blood pressure will thank me!  And I can't remember the last time I used a real camera; all I do these days is use the phone.  Damn,  I'm lazy & it's easy.  Now I just have to learn how to connect the phone/camera with this new computer.  That's a problem but I'll get there.  

Take care & keep away from all those sickies out there.

Aging is such fun! Ha!

 I've been reading a few blogs daily for some time; one being thebayfieldbunch.com.  It is some information about a couple, Kelly and Al, who did quite a lot of rv travel and finally retired to a place in Canada.  The lady, Kelly, passed away yesterday after a severe bout of liver disease.  It is terrible to hear of her passing but not being ill every single day; not being in pain every single day; it's a relief in some ways.  

My wife broke her ankle 2 years ago and still isn't walking well.  Her doctors aren't managing to do anything right!  But she's not ill.  Having her taking every sort of pain medication and just having it knock her out; that's a hell on earth!  I feel so sorry for Al but at least Kelly's awful illness is over. 

 I'm lucky; there isn't much wrong with me but there is always tomorrow!  And in the mean time I read about Mr. Trump and the bunch of rich assholes he is going to inflict on us.  And that's worse than most illness!  There aren't any words strong enough to say what I feel about those idiots.  The one redeeming feature is that the folks who voted for Trump will know soon enough how they screwed up when they voted him into office.  

If you've bought anything electronic lately; that price will go up.  If you've bought a vehicle; that price will go up.  If you've bought lunch; that price will go up.  Oh, and your Medicare coverage will go down.  And your GI retirement will go down.  And your social security income will go down.  And finding someone to fill jobs at your business will be even more difficult.  And finding someone to repair things around your house will be more difficult. 

Don't worry, voting for a draft dodger, felon and molestor of women will come back to bite those folks.  Oh, and then there is the total unknown he chose as Vice President.  When Mr. Trump is declared incompetent, which might be pretty soon from the way he talks in interviews and on stage; then we are going to get more surprises.  I can't even guess what will happen then!  

Life goes on.  Keep away from those sick folks and keep washing your hands!

Well, it's gone Thanksgiving!

 Yes, I know it's been a while since I posted but I've got a great excuse:  travel!  Yep, we've been off to see the family.  Our daughter is stop one in Oklahoma; our son is stop two in Arkansas and my wife's uncle is stop three in Florida.  No, we don't party for days and days with them.  We stop for a couple of days then head on.  It's still a 3 week trip!  OMG!  Our 16 year old truck is getting close to 100,000 miles!  In addition, my wife was on one of the DNA sites and discovered she has two half brothers who are living in Florida!  So we got to meet them and their wives; they are all very nice people.  One of the half brothers is a couple years younger than my wife (early 70's); the other is about the same as our son (early 50's).  Talk about different lives!

We have been talking about moving back to Florida; this right-wing rural Nevada gets kind of old.  We'd been talking about St. Petersburg, FL.  Well, that's a wash!  I was looking at places on Zillow and the prices were just crazy; not to mention nasty looking.  And the traffic was on the other side of awful.  Ok, maybe we'll be looking elsewhere or even staying around here.  Who knows? 

My wife was talking about going down the Texas coast and checking out Brownsville.  I just couldn't do it.  We'd just been in too many motel rooms and the thought of adding three or four more to the list was just more than I could do.  5,600 miles in 3 weeks is a lot for this old geezer.  And, of course, there are the rest of the world's problems going on.

I'm confident that all those Trump supporters are going to figure out what a bad decision they made.  And those idiots who didn't vote; what can you say about them?  I mean I already started with the word 'idiot'!  It's got to go downhill from there.  Already one of Mr. Trump's cabinet possibles has dropped out:  I mean Mr. Trump knows how to molest women, does he need instruction on molesting underage women?  Gaetz could do the job, of course, but, well, who thinks Mr. Trump need instruction in that area?  But, really, putting a tariff on imported goods will just raise prices:  Walmart has already suggested that prices will rise with the tariffs.  Don't worry, it will be Biden's fault!  And listen to Mr. Vance about women and children! 

I cannot understand a lot of the people who are supposed to have voted for Mr. Trump.  I mean why would Latino people vote for someone who wants to eject immigrants?  Why would ANY woman vote for a molester?  Or someone who supports a ban on abortion?  Why would any law abiding person vote for a felon?  I guess I could go on but you get the idea:  WTF is with the American public?  I'm an Army vet.  One of my First Sergeants was of Mexican extraction:  he was great!  My wife was molested by her stepfather as a child; why would anyone vote for a molester?  I'm thinking using a gun on them would be too easy.  Using a whip or just a stick would be lots better especially if it was more painful and took longer.  No, I'm not threatening Mr. Trump but if someone else were do do so.....

I have one final excuse for not posting anything lately:  I bought a new computer and getting the thing to work is driving me crazy!  First of all it's got all kinds of new software that I've never even heard of.  Then it's got Windows 11.  Between all the weird software and the new operating system; well, I may as well be using a machine using Chinese!  Maybe one of these days I'll get some new photos loaded but don't hold your breath!  Take care & keep washing those hands.

Getting close to no daylight savings time!

We are close to the end of daylight savings time.  I don't really care about it but my wife hates it!  She wants her hour back!  I'm not sure why she's so against it but she'll be happier in a couple of days.  I guess we could move to Arizona where the whole state doesn't want it but, yeah, not worth it!  Anyway, we are doing our usual fumbling around trying not to screw things up too much.  I had fun going to the grocery this afternoon and spending $100 on mostly candy, ice cream, wine and beer.  Hey, that's what happens when an old guy who's had 2 glasses of wine gets to go to the store on his own.

Actually the temps are getting better around here; like 80 F (26C) as a high.  That is a very nice situation!   It is a bit chilly at night too so we are happy campers.  Well, not campers; we gave that to the American Legion.  I still think they were ripped off by the company who was 'helping' them but at least they got something.  

I know I've talked before about my family's military history and my wife's family's history but I just can't get over having a convicted felon and draft dodger running for President!  Jeez!  And we live in a very Republican area with lots of Trump signs.  What are those people thinking???  We actually joined the Republican party when we moved here because it's not unusual for there to be 4 Republicans running for an office and 1 other person either Democrat or no party.  If you want to have any choice you have to be in the party.  Of course, being from Iowa, I started out as a Republican.  I don't think I've ever joined another party but I've never been a big supporter of either party.  I've got better things to do with my time:  like pet the dog or the cat back when we had one!  Do I need to say that my wife and I both mailed in our ballots a few days ago voting for Harris?  Duh!

I'm sure I've complained about how my phone isn't connecting to either my new laptop or the old one.  It's still happening so I've got no new photos so share.  Of course there aren't many anyway because it's kind of dull out here but still!  Maybe next lifetime!  Take care and keep up with the vaccinations. 

The middle of October already!

This growing older is weird.  There are some things you kind of expect:  slower walking, pains here and there, memory lapses.  But there are weird things too:  I used to have hair on my legs; no more!  I have a few hairs on my forearm that are 3-4 inches long!  I have unexplainable bad moments; the other day I suddenly wanted to vomit.  It's not like I'd been drinking or I'd had bad food or anything else.  Actually I was brushing my teeth getting ready for bed and suddenly I was ready to vomit.  The next morning everything was normal.  Weird stuff!

Aside from that weirdness things are going along ok.  We have finally gotten out of the 100+ degree days and we actually took a drive this morning with the car windows down.  OMG!  We had a bunch of stuff from a case sale at the local grocery that I'd purchased for the local VFW food bank.  Then we drove around the area a bit checking out a few places we'd never seen.  Our 'town' is about 10 miles long (north to south) and about 4 miles wide (east to west).  We come pretty close to the California border but no one wants to live out in the middle of nowhere (our town) and have to pay California taxes!  Our 'town' used to have a town council and employees.  Then 6 or 8 years ago they decided that being a town was expensive so they canceled all that and we became an unincorporated town.  I suspect all the town employees just became county employees but who knows.  Anyway, things seem to be looking up for the 'town'.  There is quite a lot of building going on.  We have five new houses being built within 6 or 8 blocks of our house.  We are talking about maybe 3 new houses built in the previous 10 years so it's quite a rush.  I'm talking about regular houses; probably 50% of our town is manufactured housing but it looks like that percentage is going down.

 

I was talking about the local government.  Here's something you don't see every day.  Zoom zoom!

I'm spending WAY too much time worrying about the election.  I can't stand some of the things Mr. Trump is saying.  I mean immigrants eating cats and dogs!  Not being able to pronounce words like 'Midwestern' and 'evangelical'.  And he keeps claiming 100,000's of people at his rallies.  Jeez!  What an asshole!  And did I forget he's a felon, draft-dodging womanizer?  

Have a good one and for God's sake vote for Harris.  Take care!

Hot and cool!

Well, we are having high temps in the 105 F (40C) range and the lows in the 50 F (10C).  Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but that's where we live!  Crazyville!  Just to prove it we are expected to overwhelmingly want to re-elect Donald Trump for President!  Oh shit, I sure hope the rest of the country is smarter.  I mean we are talking about a draft dodger, woman assulting, self-aggrandizing felon.  Hmmm, do you get what I think of the man?  

We haven't had heat like this so late in the year that we can remember.  It's usually like 80F (26C) for a high and that's pretty nice.  Oh well, we didn't get torn apart like North Carolina.  That was awful!  Looking at people's houses just torn apart, their vehicles crushed, it's just awful.  I feel for them.  We have so many memories in our houses:  family members, things from them, pieces from places we've been, people we've known.  Losing all that has to be just crushing; not to mention the loss of the buildings!  And having to clean all that loss.  

Meanwhile in Nevada we are just crying about the heat.  Yeah, it's nasty but shit oh dear!  It makes me feel pretty petty for sure.  Anyway, I recently got to the great old age of 76.  Nothing earthshaking but it's another year.  So I bought a new PC.  My current one is getting old so I guess it's time for Windows 11.  Unfortunately nothing works the way it used to!  I can't get the notebook app to work properly; there are a couple of internet apps that are just crazy; transfering data from the old machine to the new one is just a joke.  Grrrr!  No photos for my blog because I can't upload them!  Grrrr!  Yeah, I know I'm older but only a few days ago I could do this stuff!  Just another day in paradise.  Take care & keep away from those sick folk.

Life in the slow lane

Things are just perking along here about 20 mph under the speed limit; well, unless the limit is 20!  I got a message the other day from a guy I've known since I was about 4; his wife of 56 years just passed away from cancer.  Damn, I'm such an idiot.  I can't figure out how to tell him how sorry I am for him.  But it's got to have been a year and a half of hell watching the woman he loved going down hill.  Actually, he invited me to be in their wedding; it's the only church wedding I've ever even seen much less being a part of!  She was a lovely woman who loved her husband, her community, her country.  You just can't say enough good things about her.  

In other news, our town is having a fall festival this weekend.  They have a parade planned for this morning; we are going to be hiding in our house!  The street department started putting out signs a couple of days ago and I'm sure visitors were wondering why there were detour signs all over the place beside the road but not IN the road.  Well, they will be IN the road in a couple of hours.  We got .03 inches of rain yesterday afternoon; I'm sure everyone is hoping it won't happen again this afternoon!  Who wants to go to a rodeo or a carnival or just a parade in the rain.  But, after all, it is Nevada; they'll be safe from the rain.

These days the news is totally full of the election.  We have quite a number of people around here with Trump flags and signs.  I cannot imagine why any normal, somewhat conservative, person could support that lying draft dodger/felon for president of the United States.  But what really scares me is that he is even older than me and I think my mental faculties are declining; his have to be even worse from the way he acts and what he says.  I mean he thinks there was an audience at the debate with Kamala?  And that leads me to his vice presidental choice; really?  OMG, what a weirdo.  And if Mr. Trump were president and his doctors declared him incompetent we'd have this Vance guy in his place!  Well, heaven help us.

I got a kick out of Kamala Harris talking with Oprah Winfrey and saying that if someone broke into her house she would shoot them.  In our house it would be a race to see if my wife shot the idiot first or if I beat her to it.  I got my first pistol from my dad when I think I was 16.  We had a store and sold almost anything except food and one time dad ordered this pistol and I thought it was so cool!  And then it disappeared from the counter, apparently sold.  And then it showed up as a birthday gift!  Wow, and I've still got it and I still know how to use it.

To end all this rambling I've got a photo of the full moon disappearing into the mountains west of us the other day.  Take care & be careful with all those sick folks out there!