May you live in interesting times

I'm no Chinese scholar but I've always heard my title to be a Chinese curse.  Well, we're in for it now.  Let's hope things don't get TOO interesting.  As I've said before, I didn't vote for the man but he is our new President.  For eight years I've heard and read about people disrespecting President Obama.  I've got to give this new guy a chance.

On a happier note, it's raining in the desert.  The weather folks are saying that the three storms that started yesterday should give us about a inch of rain.  That is about 25% of the annual quota so it's a big deal.  Fortunately it is spread out over several days so it shouldn't cause any flooding.  Yes, it does flood out here, just not this time.  And just to make it more interesting people don't really know how to drive in the wet. 

Well, actually, I don't think many of them can drive worth a darn anytime.  I had the enjoyment of driving home from Las Vegas the other night.  The number of people who tried to hide in my blind spot was amazing.  They seem to be the same people who think turn signals are the work of the devil.  There was even one genius in a new Audi TT Coupe that was driving without headlights - this is about 3 hours after dark.  Grrr!

The rain does make for some interesting photos.  Here are a few from the last couple weeks.

Here's hoping for a great 2017!

Happy New Year!

I certainly want to wish everyone a joy-filled, healthy and prosperous new year.  Well, I can dream, can't I?  You must understand that I am a very conservative person and conservative people dislike the unknown.  They also dislike large changes.  We here in the US are faced with a new President who is very different from the last several Presidents.  He also doesn't seem to have an agenda, I should say a fixed agenda.  It seems to change over time.  He is talking about dismantling, or attempting to dismantle, parts of the federal government.  What was I saying about disliking change?  2017 will be an interesting year for future history students.

Around here the conservative person can be pretty happy.  It is cool, highs in the 50's (12C), freezing 2 nights out of 5.  In the last couple of days we've had a storm front come up from the Gulf of Mexico bringing lots of wind and some rain.  But the basic look is almost always the same.  We have lots of brown dirt with some vegetation and a backdrop of beautiful mountains where ever you look.  We've told each other a thousand times that without the mountains we just wouldn't be here.  Every time you look at the mountains they look different.  Sometimes there is sun, sometimes a cloud obscures part of the mountain, sometimes the cloud casts a shadow on the mountain.  They are always the same and always different. 

I was poking around on the internet the other day and found the photo posted below.  I don't own it and if you do and it offends you to have it posted here I apologize and will remove it.  However, I just find it to be so amazing that I had to share it.

It is a photo I certainly wish I had taken; especially if I can ignore the whole taking pictures while driving thing!  Anyway, I do love it and wish I'd taken it.

So we are having a quiet winter out here in the desert.  I hope you and yours are having a quiet and peaceful start to the new year as well.  Take care and best wishes!