Exciting stuff!

 Well, not really all that hot.  It happens every month or so:  I mean the full moon, of course!  But this time I was out to see it.

It's only from my cell phone camera but I still liked that I went out and took it.  Maybe one of these days I'll get my real camera out and take a few.  

I had a surprise on Monday.  We'd been out to lunch then took our short walk which is only about a mile.  Half way through the walk I started feeling woozy.  I've had vertigo before but not for a long while.  I barely made it home and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in my recliner waiting for the meclizine to kick in.  Then I managed to get to bed without assistance.  In the morning I was fine again.  Believe me, it is times like that when you want a friend.  Happily I've been married to my best friend for darn near 40 years.  

Today we made a trip into Las Vegas.  The last time we were there we bought a couple shirts for me but the changing rooms were closed.  When we get home and I can try them on; they didn't fit.  Grrr!  But it's a great excuse for another trip to the big city.  We go fairly regularly anyway; I always tell people that I can save enough buying 1 bottle of scotch to pay for the trip and it's true.  The difference between buying the scotch here in town vs buying it at Total Wine in Las Vegas is about $17 and the round trip is around 120 miles.  For old retired folks it's a no-brainer.  Besides, we can look at clothes somewhere other than Walmart; food at somewhere other than Kroger or Albertsons; and electronics somewhere other than Walmart.  Talk about life in the fast lane!

Gotta go be nice to the dog.  Funny how he likes to go out every now and then.  Take care and keep washing those hands.

A quiet week here in the country

 Last week I wrote a bit about gun violence so today I thought I'd see what has happened in the last week.  Here is what the gun violence website has to say.  

April 24, New Orleans, LA,  5 injured

April 22, San Diego, CA, 1 killed, 5 injured

April 19, Houston, TX, 2 killed, 2 injured

April 19, Atlanta, GA, 5 injured

April 18, Mongomery, AL, 1 killed, 4 injured

April 18, Detroit, MI, 1 killed, 5 injured

April 18, Shreveport, LA, 6 injured

April 18 Kenosha, WI, 3 killed, 3 injured

Well, jeez, I guess I'm glad to live out here in the boonies.  That is 35 injured and 8 killed in one week.  Of course, there was alcohol involved in at least some of the incidents and most likely various illegal drugs.  No, I don't know what the answer is to these problem.  I don't believe for a moment that laws trying to ban guns would work.  Not to mention the political impossibility of enacting such laws!  Maybe the human race will just have to get clopped on the head by an alien.  (We are pretty close to Area 51 so that sort of possiblility is perhaps more real to us who live here than to regular people!) 

I did read an interesting article on CNN about VP Kamala Harris.  They talked about the relationship between the President and the Vice President as growing closer as they work together.  I think that is a great thing.  I think that one of the President's strong points is his many years of work in the Federal government.  If he can bring the Vice President even some of that knowledge it will make her a much more effective leader.  And Vice Presidents have certainly been known to want the big job when it is vacated.

I'm reading a lot about the tremendous amount that President Biden is trying to spend on infrastructure and I have to say I'm pretty much sold.  A LOT of our traditional infrastructure (roads, bridges, dams, etc) is in pretty sad condition.  Anyone who has driven on the interstate highway system knows it needs help!  But it is also true that those are not the drivers of the future.  Climate change would get money; immigration reform including speeding up naturalization cases; and electric vehicles for appropiate governmental uses.  Those are things that need doing that have been getting ignored for the past few years.  

Finally, just to show you that all the news isn't bad, here's an article about someone doing something nice for some kids.  Enjoy and keep washing those hands!

How can it not be about gun violence?

 Jeez, I came across a site that tracks gun violence and it's hard to imagine that this is normal for anyone.  I liked the site because they aren't preaching anything; they are just tracking the story.  We here in Nevada have our flags at half-mast because of the latest Indianapolis FedEx shootings.  Those people, just like George Floyd and Daunte Wright, were killed just because they were there.  Or was it because half of them were members of the local Sikh community?  I honestly do not know and since the killer (in Indianapolis) is dead I'm pretty sure we'll never really KNOW.  Floyd's killer, in my opinion, knew he was being too violent but I'm not sure he intended to kill.  Wright's killer really seems to have made a mistake in my opinion.  It's hard to believe that a cop with 20+ years experience would do that but it is so stupid a killing that I vote for mistake.  That is not to say that both cops shouldn't be punished for it!  I mean if I let my car drift over and I hit a pedestrian; I should be punished.  It was a mistake but that's not a get-out-of-jail-free card.

My brother-in-law dropped his NRA life membership a few years ago when they started supporting people having just any type of firearm. He'd been a hunter for many years but never needed a fully automatic weapon to kill a deer.  I liked him for that.  

I have a gun that was given to me by my parents when I was 11.  That's over 60 years ago.  (OMG!)  But I haven't killed anyone or anything with it.  I've bought a few more over the years but nothing crazy.  On the other hand, if you break into my home and threaten my wife and myself, I doubt seriously if you will leave here alive before the police show up to save your ass.  (An aside:  my wife's first husband joined the police; it did their relationship no good when she repeatedly shot better with his service weapon than he did.)  

All of this is really close to my heart right now.  My wife and I are very fortunate to be comfortably retired; reasonably healthy and happy together.  On the other hand, those other things:  pandemic, the markets, the general state of the United States; those things are bothering me.  The last is bothering me most of all.  There seems to be some sort of stupid thing happening every day!  There are plenty of shootings:  both by citizens and by police.  The former President who STILL maintains that he won re-election; and there are actually people who believe him!  Cryptocurrency is going crazy.  I have to say that chronic stress seems to be kind of the new normal.

I was reading about applying yourself to a hobby as a way to reduce stress.  I'd love to do that but my photographic hobby is being difficult just now.  How about I share a couple photos I took when we lived in the Netherlands something over 20 years ago?

They had balloons even way back then!

And this is what the local community college parking lot looked like.

Have a good one.  Keep washing those hands!

The heat is coming!

 We've had our winter and now we get a couple weeks that might be mistaken for spring before the heat of summer arrives.  This time of year it is really great to be outside.  It's not too warm, not too cool and it isn't humid.  Of course it isn't a long time before the heat really hits but you've gotta live in the moment.  A couple days ago I wandered around the valley looking for something new to show the world.  

Here's a balloon floating along in the spring air.  We have two balloon companies in the valley:  one run by local people and another that is run by people who came over from Las Vegas.  This is one of the local company's balloons.

Mt. Charleston kind of rules the eastern views.  It's kind of funny because it is really hard to spot from Las Vegas but over here it's right there!  You can see that the snow cover is going fast.  The photo was take from the local Chief Tecopa Cemetery.  It's kind of a funny combination of rockery and greenery with lots of military thrown in. 

 

This next photo reminds us that we aren't in Kansas anymore!  We have wild horses and burros roaming the desert and especially at night when it is cooler.  But at night they can be hard to spot.  Some nice people have put a few signs up to remind drivers to be careful.

Our city/county government building is situated in a kind of park area.  There is a small pool, trees and grass.  This attracted 3 wild horses that you can see in this photo.  Unfortunately some local idiots started coming over and trying to pet them, etc.  Then they had to be removed to a less comfortable area for their safety and that of the idiots who thought these wild animals were just like pets.

There are a few photos of this corner of Nevada.  It's different but we call it home.  BTW, if you would like to see more of my photos you can follow this link to Flickr to check them out.  Please don't mis-use anything you see there but do enjoy.  I sure enjoyed taking them. 

Take care and keep washing those hands!