Merry Christmas!

 I hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas.  We are having a very quiet day.  Doing nothing fancy, eating nothing fancy, not even dressing up!  Well, that's old age and no relatives around.  The weather forecast was for a flood warning; it's bright and sunny with a few clouds over the mountains:  works for me!  Yes, we do live in a flood zone.  The houses across the street aren't in the flood zone so you can guess what kind of idiot came up with the flood zone idea.  

We've been having our usual fun:  mostly visiting Physical Therapy folks.  They are all nice people and try to help my wife but there really isn't much that can be done.  They want her to move and it hurts.  Needless to say walking around or swinging your leg around when it hurts is hard to do.  And not something you are likely to do.   Otherwise we are doing just fine.

Needless to say the President is constantly aggravating me.  I mean, destroying parts of the White House, sending military people (ICE) to act as police in our cities, renaming buildings in his own honor; the list goes on and on.  The people in his cabinet are just as stupid!  They are all kissing his ass.  And I still see idiots wandering around with Trump hats!  Trump signs on their lawns!  How completely stupid are these people?  Oh, and just to make matters worse, my step-son is one of them!  Trump is a convicted felon, a molester of young women, a draft dodger and what else?  Wow, our leader!  Our President!  Is that the way we want our country to go?  

Sorry.  I just can't ignore the direction in which we are going.  

Have a good one.  Try not to think about those idiots.  Take care! 

Talk about quiet!

 I haven't updated this in some time but there is a simple reason:  nothing to say!  We haven't even had a special sunset lately and no way am I getting up early enough for sunrise!  

We are surrounded by Republicans around here but at least there was a "No Kings" demonstration here along with the rest of the country.  I simply cannot imagine how these Republicans think Mr. Trump is doing anything for them.  Things are getting more expensive by the minute and governmental help is disappearing just as fast.  I'm waiting on ICE to come into town and drag off 10-15% of the population sending them back to Mexico or pretty much any South American country.  Most of our medical professionals are from overseas as well (mostly Asian countries) but I've got to think that even Trump isn't stupid enough to send them back to their country of origin.

 The thing that bothers me most about Mr. Trump is his mental state.  He is clearly not all there!  Every speech has statements that not only are weird but they have nothing to do with what he's talking about.  Getting the Republican's to see he has to go to the sidelines is going to be difficult unless he does something completely crazy.  And then I'm worried about his Vice President and Cabinet officials.  They seem even crazier than he is so without him who knows what they will be trying to do.  My guess is that we'll be finding out before too long.

Meanwhile, our personal days are full of fun.  My wife has Physical Therapy twice a week and one or the other of us needs to have blood drawn or an MRI or some scan done every couple of weeks.  Otherwise it's just living life.  Of course my wife can't do much of anything so I'm doing the shopping; cooking; laundry; cleaning; feeding the dog and the wild birds; pretty much everything and that's a lot for an old fart like me!  She is getting better with using a walker and the PT people have her using some specialized kind of cane but she does still need plenty of rides in the wheelchair.   I did have my 77th birthday last month so now I'm on my way to 78.  I'm really happy that I can do all that stuff and help her get around as well.  The fact that I see some movie star or someone dying when they are 5 or 10 years younger than I am does make me feel kind of weird.  Of course who knows what kind of life they were living!  Maybe they were living in the fast lane and God knows I'm pretty much in the slow lane!

I guess that's it for tonight.  Take care of yourself and your loved ones.  Keep keeping clean and stay away from the idiots!

Just a short update! No Kings!

 Today there were supposed to be 'No Kings' demonstrations all over the country.  We weren't expecting much since there are so many Trump fans living here but we were wrong!  The center of our town is where 2 highways meet and there were people on all four sides of the meeting.  I was guessing that there were at least 100 people and almost everyone who went past was honking their horn and waving in support!  It was great!  We had thought about going out and joining them but my wife's ankle was really barking so we just drove past the demonstrators two or three times honking and waving.  Damn, it would be lovely if President Dummy and his crowd noticed that there are plenty of people who disagree with his desire to own the country!  Our local sheriff was out there and a deputy or two but everyone was being good so they just stood around and watched the fun.

Then we went to CVS and got Covid shots.  We are still hoping to take a cruise in February and getting ill on the cruise isn't that much fun.  Yeah, we've tried that and the medics are very nice and competent but I'd still rather not have to deal with them. 

Anyway, that was our day.  70F (21C), not much wind, lots of sun and excited people!   

Quiet times

 We've been having some quiet times out here in rural Nevada.  Not to say nothing's happening.  It was a tad windy the other day.

 That's the flag outside our largest casino and getting it flat out like that is pretty unusual.  It takes some real wind.  The casino across the street has another flag about the same size but I couldn't get them both in one photo.  

We've also had some weird weather.

 That is the view to the east; towards the mountains.  And, yes, we got a little rain and some snow up on the mountain peaks.  I think we got up to 65F (18C) that day.

That was the view to the west.  These photos were taken about 30 seconds apart so you either get cloudy and nasty or pretty blue and sunny depending on which direction you are looking.  By tomorrow we should be in the low 80's (28C).  Who knows what's going to happen next!
 

We do donate to the VFW Food Bank about once a month.  A store was having a case sale so I got a couple of cases for the vets.  It was something over $300 but, well, why not? 

 I know I've mentioned it before but my dad (and me, of course) and all the men in my wife's family served in the military.  We both want to help those folks who served our country and need help.  

My wife's ankle is still giving her trouble.  She had it fused almost 3 months ago and it is still very painful.  She had a women coming around giving her PT advice and now she is going to a local PT office but walking is pretty much out of the question.  We did go out to lunch the other day and she used her walker but around the house or if we are going someplace with lots of walking; it's a wheelchair day.  She certainly hasn't been in a grocery store since the surgery!  Oh, and I'm doing most of the cooking so you can guess it's been pretty second rate!

So that's what's going on around here.  The place is about 90% Republican so you still see some Trump signs but not nearly as many as six months ago!  I'm pretty sure that within a year we'll be almost free of those signs.  Not free of the President nor the idiots he has in the cabinet but people will be noticing the decline in their lives; freedom; savings and I don't know what else.  I am a little worried that we might have a President J. D. Vance  but we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there.  Talk a life in the crap lane!

Have a good one and try to get all the vaccines you need and keep washing those hands!

Just creeping along

 Ok, it's been way too long but we are just having too much fun visiting doctors and other shit.  It is also true that there isn't much going on around here.  There are some houses being built; that is VERY different from a few years ago but, still, it's not really affecting us.  One of these days I'm sure it will and we'll get new neighbors.  The weather is being weird.  One day it is 50F and the next it is 85F and the next 105F.  One day it is quiet and the next we have 20 mph wind.  Again, what do I do?  I drive the car to the store and buy some stuff for dinner then drive home.  

Out in the world we've got Mr. Trump, AKA the Idiot in Chief, who just keeps doing stupid things.  I have to admit that he isn't as stupid as the people he's appointed to be in his cabinet but, well, that would be a stretch.  One of the really minor things Mr. Trump did just recently was to pardon a local politician who was appointed a judge and then found guilty of fraud.  She was in Las Vegas and started a support group to build a statue of a local policeman who was killed in the line of duty.  Then she used the money people donated to pay her rent, pay for her daughter's wedding and some plastic surgery.  She was found guilty of a felony of conspiracy and wire fraud.  So our felon of a president chose to remove the felony from this sorry ass judge.  Actually, on a scale of 1 to 10, it's way down there but it's still just so wrong!

OMG!  Here it is the 10th of August and I'm finding a post I started almost two weeks ago!  Well, to be honest there isn't much going on around here.  My wife's ankle is still causing her pain and she's still in the wheelchair.  Helping her around is my new exercise routine.  She has an appointment with her surgeon next week but I'm thinking she will have to be pretty careful for quite a while yet.  I'm going to the grocery store a couple of times a week and going to our favorite restaurants for take-out a couple more but that's about it.  A couple days of the week I don't even get to leave the house.  And an exercise routine, forget about it!

There are plenty of fires out here in the West.  They are pretty unlikely in this part of Nevada but it sure isn't impossible.  There are fire bans all over.  What they can't ban is the smoke from  the fires!  Most of the fires are in California but there are some fairly large ones on government land that used to be part of the Nuclear Test Site.  We have mountains to the east and west of us so the smoke tends to come down the valley areas.  Bottom line is that we can barely see mountains that are only 6 or 8 miles away.  Happily neither my wife or myself is bothered by the smoke but some folks do have problems with it.

So that's the story from here in Pahrump.  Oh, one funny story about the president.  We were driving out of a parking lot and a speed limit sign was blocking part of a sign naming the business in the building.  All I could see of the 2nd one was 'RUMP' and of course I was shocked that someone had opened an office for the president.  Turns out it was really something like 'JOHN'S PHARMACY PAHRUMP' and I could only see the last little part of it.  Whew!  That was a relief!  Take care.  Keep washing those hands and stay away from the sickies.

We got rain!

We get a reasonable number of storm warnings around here.  They are usually nothing.  But this time we got rain!  AND the mountains got snow!  That is really important because the snow will melt and end up in our aquifer meaning that we have water to drink!  I know lots of local folks grow trees and have lawns full of grass but my wife and I are pretty aware of living in the desert.  We have TWO cactus plants and that's it on our 1 acre home site.  We and our dog drink water and we (people!) shower every couple of days and that's our water usage.  We still worry about the aquifer.  What can I say?  Old farts worry about everything.

We managed to visit our dermatologist last week.  My wife just basically has dry skin that bothers her.  I had one episode of skin cancer that ended up in a Mohs operation.  They just basically scrape off the skin until they don't see any cancer there any more.  Fun?  No.  Effective?  Yes.  And I've got a nice little dent in the skin on my head to prove it.  This time the dermatologist found some spots on my skin that he didn't like so he pulled out the freezing spray and knocked out 13 spots!  They will go away but for now I've got nasty little spots all over my body.

Of course when I open up my phone or computer I immediately find some stupid thing our new President or his incompetent staff has done.  I mean the "Gulf of America"?  What an asshole!  Now "Gulf of the Americas" would at least make a little sense but it's been what it is for hundreds of years.  Taking over Greenland?  I mean I'm sure there are valuable minerals in those mountains; and it makes flying over Russia a much shorter trip; but you don't just go take what you want in this world.  I like my neighbor's car but I'm not going to go steal it!  I like the waitress in the casino but I don't just get to jump on her!  No, asshole is too mild a term for Mr. Trump and his cronies.  I can only hope that we and the rest of the world will manage to remain calm and peaceful for the next four years.  

I read several blogs where people are visiting Mexico and South America.  I see trucks full of bananas and wood and meat.  I know a certain amount of those things are headed for the USA.  Don't worry, those tariffs the idiot wants to impose will only make everything you buy more expensive!  Look at the fish in your grocery store:  product of Chile.  Look at almost anything you buy from Amazon:  product of China.  Don't worry; another 20% tariff will only be passed on to you by every retailer.

Life in the fun lane, huh?  Well, the good news is that it is warming up and we are going out to lunch at our favorite Japanese restaurant.  They haven't raised their prices in a year or so.  Next year will probably see the $10 lunch be $13 but we are here now.  It was 23 F ( -5C) this morning and now we are up to 45 F (7 C) so that's a good thing.  Gas and diesel are in the low $3 range; who knows what will happen there?  Nevada fuel taxes are kinda nasty.  We've been talking about an electric vehicle because it's only at most a 150 mile round trip to Las Vegas.  We could charge the thing here at home basically for free because of our solar panels.  But driving to Oklahoma City to visit our daughter would cost a bit - both money and time!  It's over 1,100 miles so that would be 4 days of full charge on most of them.  We'll see.

So take care & try to stay away from the sick folks.

Quiet times!

 We've been just having some quiet days.  Our daughter has a convention in Las Vegas this week so she came to check in on us last weekend but that's pretty much all that is going on.  

 I saw part of the inauguration on tv; what an asshole we have now for president!  Oh yeah, let's take the canal from Panama.  I kind of think it's a tie for most stupid idea between taking the canal back or invading Greenland.  Of course renaming the Gulf of Mexico is pretty painless but damn dumb too.  And I'm pretty sure the Canadian's aren't going to be looking forward to becoming the 51st state!  LOL  I mean, really, who can make up shit like this?  And he's just been elected President of the USA?  Well, J**** F****** C*****.  I just hope every idiot who voted for that asshole gets something really special in return!  And I mean something that really hurts!

I was reading a blog this morning and the writer was talking about enjoying taking photos on their travels.  It reminded me that I used to enjoy that too so I started looking for my camera and my wife's camera.  I found the cameras but finding the chargers for their batteries; well, that's a different story!  Maybe in a couple more days I'll find them.  Happily we aren't going anywhere soon so there is time.  Still, it's annoying that I managed to hide them away so completely.  What an idiot!  (Not the vote for Trump kind but still pretty dumb!)  It's also funny the weird things I'm finding that I've bought over the years:  weird little flash lights, various chargers, old phones.  Oh, what a past life I've had!

We've been having morning temps in the 15 F (-10 C) range plus some wind so 's been pretty chilly.  Still, it's winter so I should be used to it!  A few days ago a couple of guys came and dropped a 40 foot container on the lot across from us.  No one has been back to do anything but I'm expecting a crew will show up pretty soon and start building a new house over there.  We've had 4 or 5 new houses go up in the area in the last year so another one sounds reasonable.  Other than that I don't have much to report.  

Take care & keep away from those sick folks!

 

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.

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!

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!

 

No, I did not watch the debate!

Ok, I started watching it but after about 10 minutes of listening to Mr. Trump lie I just couldn't take it any more.  Wow!  And to think that there are people who actually admire him!  What can they be thinking?  And poor old Joe Biden looked so, well, old.  It was just nasty.

The 4th of July is coming up pretty quickly and that's a big deal around here.  We have at least 3 huge fireworks stores in our little town.  Of course you are only allowed to use fireworks at a public area well out of town; not in your back yard or anywhere like that.  And people in Las Vegas can't use fireworks; people in California can't use fireworks; but somehow the stores stay in business.  Hmmmm.  Do you think some folks are breaking the law or maybe just storing fireworks for a day when they will be made legal? 

These folks usually have a flag flying but when it comes to a special holiday they do kind of add to the display.  And, yes, the business is named "Area 51 Fireworks"; a nod to the well known extraterrestrial area just over the mountains from us.  It's maybe 50 miles 'as the crow flies'.  Actually I was on a civilian board advising the government on communicating with the public about the Nevada Test Site.  We got to visit much of the Test Site and even got a long distance view of Area 51.  We were no way close enough to actually see anything aside from dusty desert.

We had an interesting morning a couple days ago.  I really liked the cloud layer.  And it was fairly cool since the sun wasn't baking your body.

Still, that was unusual.  It is usually 'not a cloud in the sky' and something over 100F (38C).  You can tell it's warm when the birds are hiding in the shade wherever they can find it.

Well, that's all that's fit to print this morning.  Keep washing those hands and keep away from the sick people!

Mr. Trump and his 34 felonies....

Wow!  What a news flash!  I mean it's not like he shot 34 people or even beat them up but 34 felonies!  That isn't something that normal people should accept.  Of course we've all seen quotes from 15 or 20 Republican members of Congress (or Fox News) talking about how very wrong the verdict was. Of course several of those people are hoping to be the next Vice President under Trump.  Doesn't everyone cover up for the person who might be their next boss?

I was reading a guy's blog today (jobsanger.blogspot.com) where he pointed out that the Republican party used to be known as the party of law and order.  He's pretty sure that isn't the case any more and I can't say I disagree.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure the Democratic party has that honor either.  

I must say that I'm not really thrilled with either party.  My first, and simplest, complait is that both candidates are going to be older than I am!  I mean where are the 50 year old candidates?  Oh yeah, they are more busy trying to get laws passed to make money or slash taxes for their supporters. One of the things I've always liked about Joe Biden is that he seems to be someone who can work with members of both parties. Maybe there are some members of Congress who are doing that work these days but they sure aren't getting the credit/newscoverage they deserve.

At the end of the day I'm just thrilled that Mr. Trump was found guilty. I really cannot find anything good in the man. He started out being a draft dodger during the Vietnam War era. In business he clearly has lied and cheated others as well as the government. I heard, and I know many others heard, a tape recording made while he was being interviewed for some reason in which he claimed he really liked fondling women's genitalia even if he didn't know them. And lately his speechs have become totally confused babble.

One of the things that surprised me was the list of things that he will no longer be able to do as a convicted felon. There are apparently 40 countries that do not allow felons to visit. Of course the various states have their own rules that include things like voting, the right to own guns and various social benefits.

It's an interesting world and this is certainly not clearing things up! Let's see what tomorrow brings. Take care and keep washing those hands!

Back home again

 I've been AWOL for a bit but this time I've got a really good excuse.  My wife has an aunt who is ill with dementia and we wanted to visit her before it was too late.  The only thing is that the aunt lives in Florida; so we headed off to Florida.  We wanted to take the trailer for a trip so, of course, here are a few thousand more tow miles.  It was a very weird trip.  

Let's start with the first night when we hooked up the water and the toilet started leaking.  Hmmm.  Maybe we should have taken it as a hint and changed the trip to a plane trip!  The second day we didn't really have a problem except that the left front stabilizer didn't work quite right.  I lubed it but it is still only working with lots of effort.  Our daughter moved to a suburb of Austin, TX a few months ago.  Since we were making the trip on I-10, it was pretty much a no-brainer that we would stop and see her on both sides of the trip.  In Texas we were seeing dead deer on the side of the road at least 3 or 4 times a day.  Sometimes there would be two together.  We got off I-10 at Junction, TX so we could check out some of the famous Texas Hill Country.  Unfortunately, it was about that time that we got an error message on the dash:  Engine output reduced.  We were running in the hills and going uphill we were lucky to be doing 45 mph.  There didn't seem to be anything wrong; the engine temp was just fine; the transmission temp was fine; we just didn't know what was going on.  I was thinking that there must be a computer chip in the system that had died.  However, we made it to our daughter's.  We had a couple days with her and the truck ran just perfectly!  So we headed on East.  That didn't work long!  A 100 miles or so away and the problem started all over again.  We got the same Engine output reduced message and we also got one that said there was a problem with the trailer lights.  Grrr!  This time we stopped in East Houston, it was Sunday so I knew I'd be headed for the Ford dealer the next morning.  

I got to the Ford dealer by 07:15.  I went in to talk to a service advisor.  The guy came out and plugged his code reader in:  in a couple minutes he said "You need antifreeze".  Huh?  So I went over to the parts counter and bought 2 gallons of Ford's wonderful antifreeze.  (I say wonderful because it was $20 a gallon.)  I went out to the truck and the service advisor had already opened the cap where you add fluid to the cooling system.  I poured a gallon of antifreeze in and he said it should be mixed with distilled water!  So he went and got a gallon of Ford distilled water!  (For free!)  And he gave it to me to pour in with the antifreeze!  OMG, the cooling system was 2 gallons low?  How the devil does that happen and the truck doesn't overheat or anything?  However, that was the problem because it's been fine ever since!  

So we wandered off the next morning.  We got the trailer light message again but since we do a light check when we hook up the trailer we knew it was in error.  (That night I sprayed the trailer light plug with silicone spray.)  But the big news was that the truck ran like a top all day - no Engine output problem.  So we finally made it to Florida.  

We pulled up and my wife's uncle was standing there in the driveway waiting for us!  He has room on his property to park the rv so we stayed with him.  He is a great host and we had a great time visiting with him.  We visited my wife's aunt at the nursing home; he is going over there every other day but cannot visit her because of covid-19 so he goes to the window of her room and talks on the phone with her.  Unfortunately, her phone went missing so all we could do was wave and yell 'Hello'.  As it turns out, our visit was too late.  She showed no response at all to any of us.  It has to be just killing him to see the woman he loves turn into a non-person.  

However, we had visited her so now it was time to head back home.  This time I noticed that in Alabama and Mississippi there were parts of cars on the side of the road.  One time I saw the front bumper of a car with the license plate still attached on the side of the road.  We drove rather steadily and got back to the Austin area without really any trouble.  Again we had a good visit and headed out west.  We were nearing Deming, NM when the wind started hitting us hard.  It turns out there was a storm earlier today that was still with us with gusts up to 50 mph!  Let's just say we were really happy to make it to our rv park!

Our next night was to be in Phoenix.  As we got to Phoenix the rain started and, of course, the traffic became awful.  The rain was nasty and the fact that 4 cars were involved in a fender-bender made traffic just creep along.  We finally got past all that and were almost up to speed when something else happened.  I didn't see it along the side of the road but it must have been there because we had another long slowdown.  Finally we found our rv park about an hour later than we'd been expecting.  It is a huge park with mostly park model homes but they had 15 or 20 spaces for travelers.  It was ok but had no internet connection at all.  Well, we won't be stopping there again!  However the weather forecasts were scary.  They were talking about snow and a lot of it where we were headed.

In the morning the news was full of I-40 accidents and views of other roads that were simply covered with snow.  I started talking about going on I-10 to California then working our way north to Nevada.  In the end, that's pretty much what we did.  It wasn't the route I'd have chosen but it worked out just fine.  We got home Tuesday afternoon having not seen a single snow flake.  There was snow on the ground and it made the mountains even more beautiful than usual but no flying snow flakes.  Now that was just luck but I'll take it.  Now we have to adjust to living in a house again.  It's amazing but in less than a month I've forgotten where to find things.  I actually have to think about where the cutting board lives or where the coffee grinder stays.  Oh well, if that's the worse thing in my life it's ok.

Happily we have a new President who seems to be reversing many of the orders that Mr. Trump had made over the last four years.  I'm unsure about the legality of all these Presidential Orders but since they have been allowed to function as laws I guess it is just my ignorance.  I would just as soon that there was no more impeachment proceedings against Mr. Trump but that is just part of my desire for him to disappear from the headlines.  Let him just be the lying golfer that he's always been and not the headline grabbing right wing idiot that we've had for the last four years.  

Well, that's the story of the last month in my life.  I hope everyone had a great January.  We'll be working on February soon enough.  Take care & keep washing those hands.

I guess I'm in shock

 Actually, aren't we all in shock about the attack on our Congress?  I mean, really, I've always considered them o be a bunch of self-serving idiots but that doesn't really make a physical attack acceptable!  Term limits would be great!  An IQ test might even be a good idea (though there are plenty of smart ass**les around).  Anyway, I'm certainly glad that some of those rioters are being identified and arrested.  And cheers to the companies who are firing employees that took part in that travesty.

I haven't really heard from friends/relatives who support the outgoing President (boy, doesn't that sound great!) but thinking that invading the halls of Congress is a good idea is just way too far on the other side of reality. The people who are pointing out that law enforcement responded rather differently to this than they did to Black Lives Matter protests are absolutely right. The DC mayor had called out the National Guard but where were they? Were they all clustered around the White House to protect the President from his own supporters? I doubt if anything much will come of the different response but it is definitely there.

The part of this whole thing that is the most fun is that the Pres is actually in trouble because he basically incited a riot. LOL Actually, I don't think he should be called to account for that; I"m sure he's done much worse things that he could be prosecuted for doing. Charging him for this is simply something that his supporters could call politically motivated. Why let them continue to support him when he could easily be jailed for income tax evasion or some other non-political crime? Heck, how about cheating at golf? That would work for me.

I did read that the Secret Service was around in Scotland near a golf course owned by Mr. T and that there was some thought that he might be there on Inauguration Day. He has said that he won't attend the ceremony. First Pres to do that since 1869 or something like that. It just shows his concern for the office and the country. Ass**le!

Thanks for listening to my rant.  I hope to be back talking about nothing much before long.  I hope you have a good day and a great 2021! Keep washing those hands and wearing those masks.

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.

Just a beautiful day....

 Daylight Savings Time ended this a.m. so everything is kind of weird BUT the sun is shining on the mountains and making them look so good!  That makes everything ok.  

Well, I sure wish the election was over and way beyond anything close.  I'm tired of being represented at the 'world level' by a pussy grabbing a**hole!  Where we live there are SO MANY Trump flags; I cannot understand how anyone can support such a fool.  But, I guess I don't understand a lot of things:  chemistry for example.  Anyway, I sure hope we get a new President.

I imagine I've said it before but I sure wish that we weren't choosing between two guys in their 70's.  I'm 72 and I think I'm slowing down.  I think the "Leader of the Free World" should be younger.  Not like really young but maybe in the 50's.  And I'd like them to have some experience in government at the national level; like Congress.  I believe that being in the government is different from being in the corporate world or anywhere else.  Knowing how to talk with the people you are working with; or who are working for you, is important.  Having someone from 'millionaire row' being President means that he or she doesn't have a clue about what really happens in the government (have you noticed that lately?).  It would be like me becoming the mayor of our town; I don't have a clue about how much the Roads department needs or the Police or the Parks.  

Someone sent me a PDF about how the Chinese are doing so much better than we in the US.  It talked about Chinese railroads, dams, bridges, roads, etc.  First of all, they do have a country that needs lots of upgrading and they can finally afford it however, it is certainly true that the infrastructure in the US needs upgrading.  Anyone who has driven I-70 in Colorado knows that!  Not to mention things like the dam in Michigan that washed away.  I'm sure there are plenty more that could use upgrading.  Then there is the whole sustainable energy problem.  Sticking our collective heads in the sand and saying global warming is a 'lie' won't work for us in the long term.  It's about as true as saying the coronavirus isn't anything to worry about.

My wife and I are planning our next trailer trip.  It's going to be a biggie - 3 or 4 nights in Las Vegas!  Yeah, well, we go to Vegas every week or ten days but we never take the time to see the sights.  There are actually some interesting places and we just never take the time to visit them; this time we will.  And it will give the dog some time in the trailer which he needs.  He won't learn about it if we don't take him.  Anyway, I should have a few Vegas photos next time.  

Gotta go.  This 1st day of November is zooming away.  Take care & keep washing those hands!

I Voted!

 Yeah, life in the fast lane and all that.  We had mail in ballots but you can also turn them in to the County Clerk's office so we did that.  We did NOT go to the early voting place because:  

That was the first day of early voting; it's been worse since then!  Besides, the volunteers who run the early voting are just not that great.  We had one a couple of elections ago who was having trouble with the alphabet!

Anyway, we are hopeful that Mr. Trump gets a nice strong message about what an idiot he is and how many people in this country wish he'd just disappear.  Besides that there are FIVE prospective ammendments to the Nevada Constitution.  I mean, does everything need to be addressed in the constitution?  Don't we have any other laws?  

Other than voting, it's been a quiet time.  The high temps are still in the 95F (35C) range but when we walk in the morning it is more like 50F (10C).  This is one of those places where the heat just keeps growing all day so our high will be between 4 and 5 in the afternoon and sunset is at 6pm.  We are still required to wear masks when in public places and most people wear them.  A certain number will wear them incorrectly so the nose isn't covered but you just have to hope that they catch something nasty.  We continue to visit our local restaurants; they are working at half capacity so they can't be doing more than hanging on.  I've upped tipping to 30-35% because the wait staff has to be hurting too.  

Eric Trump came to town to star at a meeting at one of the local winerys.  Needless to say people weren't wearing masks and weren't social distancing.  Happily our local government was paying attention and the winery was fined something over $8,000 for hosting the event.  I liked that.  Of course this is a winery who has lost their liquor license.  The business changed hands and the new owner was given something like 18 months to get the license but they just didn't bother so finally the county commissioners did their job and yanked the license.  What idiots!

I guess that's all the news from this end of the lane.  Keep trying to be careful & stay safe.

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.