Happy New Year!!!

 Don't have much to say, like I ever do, but wanted to post the world a Happy New Year message.  It's been quite a 2020 and we are all looking forward to 2021 being better.  I can't tell the future so I can only hope!  

For us personally it has been fine.  We are retired so there are no jobs to be lost and our income is from pensions and investments.  We are healthy in general and have been working hard to protect ourselves from the pandemic.  At the same time we are going out to lunch quite often:  we enjoy it and the restaurants sure need the custom.  Our kids are both doing well:  one is in the pre-cast concrete industry and the other is in the IT department of a builder who does governmental and commercial properties.  Neither of those industries are having difficulties. 

So tonight we'll be raising a glass to a better 2021.  A year when we'll have a President who actually thinks before speaking; a year when we'll have vaccine that may help prevent covid; a year when maybe even travel will become possible again.  Talk about sounding hopeful!  

Happy New Year everyone.  And may 2021 be great for you and for us all!  Keep washing those hands and wearing those masks.

Just an early Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  Obviously I've been kind of slow with the blogging lately and I don't really see that improving.  I'm blaming it on all the covid-19 crap even though I'm spending more time lately at the computer.  I'm not doing anything really earthshaking, just getting records ready for the new year.  

Like many people we were out trying to see the Super Star created when Jupiter and Saturn came into line.  Our telescope is more of a spotting scope so the view wasn't the greatest but it was kind of interesting once we managed to aim the scope properly!  That took way too much time.  I have to admit seeing the rings around Saturn is pretty cool.

We had been planning on a visit over Christmas from our daughter however a co-worker of hers has come down with the covid virus so she decided to do the responsible thing and stay home.  My wife and I were both happy with that decision.  Our daughter has been one of the doubters about the illness and I guess now she has decided that it is a real thing.  Honest, she didn't vote for Trump!

Just to keep things 'normal' here in our little town, there was a story in the paper about some bags of marijuana that were found dumped off one of the roads out in the desert.  Apparently it wasn't very high grade stuff but, still, if nothing else dumping it like that is littering.

This is still Trump country.  Every weekend there are 20-30 people on the main corner here in town waving flags, Trump banners and No Biden signs.  It is really amazing to me that these people are still all worked up.  I mean 4 years ago Mrs. Clinton got more popular votes than Mr. Trump but because of the electorial college he won the election.  There weren't any people demonstrating then.  Maybe it just happened in another state and I missed it.  Well, in 4 weeks and a day we should have a new President.  I know Mr. Trump is still going to get plenty of headlines but at least he will only be a private citizen.  

Gotta go.  Once again, have a very Merry Christmas!

Jeez!

 So I wake up this morning to read yet more crap about the President refusing to acknowledge his loss to Joe Biden.  OMG What is this idiot going to do next?  But more importantly, what kind of people are supporting him?  In state after state the courts are being asked to overthrow the election results and in state after state the courts are saying 'it was a valid election, you lost'.  STILL people are supporting Trump and even wandering around with guns trying to intimidate election officials!  What the hell is going on?

I read an article some years ago that suggested the two party system was being run by groups that kept each party on a ideological track and that any diversion was not allowed.  It seems to me that now the Republican party IS on such a track; I'm not so sure about the Democrats.  They seem to have disagreements with some wanting light social support for people and some wanting something close to socialism.  My concern with the Republicans is that they are coming close to, well, I don't know what, some kind of martial law maybe.  People are supporting Trump like he is above the law.  Well, I sure don't believe that.  What is this country coming to?

On a lighter note, we ordinarily have pretty clear skies around here where the sun comes up lighting the mountains gold then it gets busy raising the temperature.  The other day we had something different:  clouds!  So I needed to take a picture of that.

And I promise there was NO manipulation of that photo.  Actually, in about 5 minutes the clouds had just become a gray overcast with no drama whatsoever.  

This is 'Decorate for Christmas' week so we'll be dragging all that stuff out.  Our tree is one we bought when we lived in the Netherlands in 1998 so it's old enough to vote.  Much of the other decorations are equally old if not older.  A few of the tree decorations were made by the kids when they were little; and they are on either side of 50 now.  Other decorations are momentos from our travel or of places we lived.  For a couple of atheists we rather enjoy the celebration. 

Well, 43 days and we'll see.  Here's hoping that there won't be violence on the day!  Take care, keep wearing those masks & social distancing.

Hmmm, not a lot to report these days.

 I hope everyone had at least an acceptable Thanksgiving; or acceptable Thursday if you don't live in the states.  We did ok.  We couldn't find a small turkey so we had a chicken.  We decided to go all crazy and get an organic chicken; it was fine but I'm not so sure it was $14 fine.  We tried a recipe my wife found where you wrap brussels sprouts in bacon and paint them with maple syrup.  We cooked it for less time than recommended but they were still burned to the point of tasting of nothing else.  We may try it again at a lower temp and without the syrup but it was not a pleasant side.  My wife did do a key lime pie which was excellent so that is the important memory.  We aren't football fans or particular fans of the Macy's Parade so we watched a movie or two.  Like I said, not a lot to report!

It has been cold lately, like 24F (4C) in the morning and 60F (15C) at mid-day.  We desert dwellers find that kind of chilly so I did what all good Americans do:  I ordered a warm shirt and another pair of jeans from Amazon!  I'm not even complaining about wearing long pants.  

My computer is doing weird things lately so it is probably headed for some time in the shop.  My microphone doesn't work at all.  My calculator app disappeared and every time I start the machine it give me a message about trying to download it then I get a message that the download failed.  The same thing happens for a mahjong game that apparently came with the machine.  It makes me feel REALLY OLD when I can't fix things like that; I mean I did earn my living programming computers but I guess that was quite a while ago.  

It wasn't quite that long ago!  The photo is supposed to be from 1956 but 20 years later the computers I was programming were about that size!

Our area was totally behind Mr. Trump so there are a lot of mad people around here.  We've had people on the main corner in town with signs about Biden cheated and other pro-Trump banners.  We can only hope that the sane Republicans manage to get that idiot to just leave the way he is supposed to do.  Actually I'm currently a registered Republican; if you aren't you just don't have a vote in the preliminary elections around here.  I heard an advertisement on our local radio station for  One America News Network where you can hear all the important stuff from Mr. Rudy Giuliani and others of that sort.  Jeez.  Just what we need:  billionaires telling people what they should be thinking. 

I've talked about balloons flying around before and the other day one landed just across the street.  That's our gate at the bottom of the photo.

The land where it landed is just empty; I think it is part of a 40 acre section that is open for retail development but it could be just residential lots.  Anyway there is a rough road over there and the cars used to transport the balloon crew and their passengers can be seen waiting for the landing.  Some people have been bothered by the balloons landing either on their land or very near by so the county is talking about a balloon ordinance.  Personally I think the balloon people are idiots if they can't stay away from people's yards.  I mean, another two minutes flight and you'll be far away from houses in our valley.  And, of course, if it is an emergency no normal person is going to bitch about them landing anywhere.  (Hmmm, there I go assuming we have normal people in town!)  

So there is all the news from Nowhere, NV.  Keep on washing those hands and wearing that mask.  It might come in handy if you want to rob a bank.  Good luck!