Did I mention it's kind of quiet?

 Yep!  It's quiet.  Hell, we don't even have as many airplanes flying over as we used to have!  I used to take the dog out at night and see at least 3 or 4 airplanes taking folks to or from California.  Now if I see 1 it is unusual.  What a change.  We are still going out to lunch quite often.  Yesterday the waitress had to ask two guys to go find masks because they thought they didn't need to wear them.  Today we saw a woman who pulled her shirt up to use as a mask.  People are just so dumb.  The place we visited today was closed for a couple weeks.  It turns out that the owner, who is also the chef, came down with the virus and had to be hospitalized.  Of course the whole staff had to be tested and all that stuff took a couple weeks.  Happily the owner is doing better but he is still using a walker to get around and, of course, hasn't returned to work.

My birthday is coming up and my drivers license expires on that day.  Since I'm so ancient I have to have as optometrist testify as to my eye sight and a doctor testify that I don't have any medical conditions that would make it unsafe for me to drive.  What a pain in the ass!  But, what the heck, it might keep one of two idiots off the road.  Anyway, the doctor has a new assistant and she had a greeting for me.

I thought it was cute even if it's a little strange. 

We like to take our walk early when it is so warm.  It's about 2:30 in the afternoon and it is 102F (39C) now.  Believe me, walking at 06:00 when it is only 75F (24C) or so is a lot more pleasant!  And you get to see the sunrise!

One of the advantages of living here in the valley is that we get to see the sun move as the seasons progress.  On June 21 the sun would be nearly to the far left in the photo above.  By December 21 it will be fairly close to the right edge.  We've never lived anywhere before where the changes were so visible to us.  It's pretty cool!

Well, that's it for today.  Have a good one and be safe.

It can be a lovely world!

The last few days we've been in the 105F (40-14C) area in the afternoon.  My wife and I take care of that little problem by 1) taking our walk early in the morning and 2) staying in our air conditioned house in the afternoon.  It is running between 75-80F (25C) at 06:00 but that is a bunch easier on the old bodies.  It is also a great time to enjoy this lovely corner of the world. 

We live in a valley with mountains all around us.  Watching the sunlight slowly creep down the mountain side to our west is something that I'll never tire of seeing.  You can just watch the light moving down the mountain as the sun comes up over the mountains in the east.  It is amazing.  It is also a good time to see what little wildlife we have around here:  rabbits, jack rabbits, ravens, doves and lots of other birds.  Once in a while we'll see a coyote but that is quite rare.  It is also quiet with little traffic which is important because we have no sidewalks and have to walk in the road.  By the time we finish our walk the sun is really warm.

Today I went out to get the mail and saw a burrowing owl.  They are super shy and I didn't see the owl until it flew away.  These owls don't really dig burrows but borrow used holes in the ground from others.  They will even use the culverts people have at their driveways; which is where this morning's owl was hiding when I scared it.  This is a lousy photo but it's the best I could manage. 

Wikipedia, as always, has a much better photo and lots of detail on the little guys.  Weve seen them on our walks before and we always cross to the other side of the road to give them some space.  It usually works. 

Keep on washing those hands and doing your social distancing.  Thanks for stopping by.

WOW, that was fast!

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak finally announced that restaurants could re-open last Saturday, May 9.  We weren't going to go anywhere on the first day of re-opening and the Sunday was Mother's Day so we thought there would be crowds but now it is Tuesday and we have eaten lunch out two times!  It didn't take us long to check things out.  Both places were doing a good job of giving people room so that should keep everyone happy.  Some places seem to be having trouble getting open; hopefully that doesn't mean we have lost them forever.

Our public library has been closed for some time but yesterday my wife got a call from them saying that a book she requested had come back and she could pick it up today.  It was actually pretty cool.  They have a person in front of the library for one hour with a trolley of books so you just drive up and give them your name and they get the book off the trolley.  You don't even have to get out of the car.  What a deal.  Of course if you can't get there during that one hour it might be useless but with retired and out-of-work folks it works.

We saw a trailer set up in a parking lot with a big flag:  Women for Trump.  I simply cannot understand what they are thinking.  He treats women badly even when he isn't grabbing at them.  Today he insulted two female reporters.  Here is a video of the Idiot in Chief.  Really???

I went to the store the other day and saw this Dover Sole.  I cannot imagine who thought this was a good idea!

Yesterday morning we were out walking and I saw a lovely cloud formation.  Could we call it a bird-wing cloud?  Or could it be aliens in a great disguise?

That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep staying safe!

Wow! The year is going fast!

It's hard to believe that the year is 1/12th over already but I guess it's true.  I'm avoiding politics as much as humanly possible but it is totally in my face every day.  Jeez, what a mess.  It is distinctly difficult to see a good outcome for the country regardless of the outcome of the impeachment hearings OR the 2020 election.  Is there another planet I could live on?

Personally things are fine.  The usual aches and pains associated with being over 70 but I prefer them to not being here any more.  Weather in this corner of Nevada is weird.  Yesterday morning I was spraying weeds in my shirtsleeves at 70F(21C); then the wind came up in the afternoon and we had gusts around 40 mph (65kph).  It freezes the birdbath most nights so that's pretty chilly.

Our 'new' dog is coming along.  He had a bad day early in the week where he threw up during the night.  He must have gotten into something we didn't know about but about 03:00 he decided to rid himself of it on the rug in the bedroom.  He didn't even want to eat that morning and we only gave him about a fourth of his usual dinner.  Now he seems completely recovered.  His hair is growing back in small patches which makes him pretty funny looking.  It is still likely, I believe, that it will never grow back completely.  This is his most usual position.

We want to take our trailer to Las Vegas on a shake-down trip.  It's been a LONG while since we've been anywhere in it.  Like I think it was October of 2017!  Wow!  Anyway, we hope to start checking out parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada that we've overlooked.  We'll see how that works out.  The dog seems to travel well enough but we'll just have to see how he does in a completely new environment.

Hope the new year is treating you  well.  Thanks for stopping by.

Happy New Year!

I hope that your holidays were everything you could have wished.  Mine were ok aside from being troubled by the general situation of the United States in the regard of the world.  There is also that idiot we've elected President but let's not go down that path to doom and destruction!  I can't say I have much admiration for either party these days.

We had friends visiting between Christmas and New Years.  They are perhaps our closest friends though we live a thousand miles apart.  The guy is great; the woman is as well but can be somewhat trying; but we manage.  This isn't a resort town so we spent a LOT of time together.  I know that one of our first trips with our new dog, Ollie, will be to see them.

I've been doing a lot in the kitchen lately.  Our daughter was here for Christmas Eve and we had a ham so any cook knows what is coming along:  ham leftovers!  Yes, I've done ham and cheese omelettes, ham and bean soup and more - not forgetting the simple ham sandwich!  Of course there is Hoppin' John for New Year's Day.  BUT, I did insist on a rather large ham so I'm not complaining.

We do have a pretty house these days.  Well, especially outside.

Our celebration is rather subdued since neither of us believe in God but we were both raised in Christian households so honor the holiday.  For us it is simply an enjoyable time when all those other people try to be nicer to one another than usual.  Isn't that sad? Why can't they start with being nice to one another?

The dog is coming along nicely.  He is responding to commands and (knock on wood) hasn't had an 'accident' in the house in a couple of weeks.  His hair is taking it's own sweet time growing back - like maybe never!  I guess we'll just have to see how it goes.

Otherwise it it a normal Navada day. A belated Happy New Year to all.  Take care.

A little trip...

So I really do like being home.  However, my wife and I just got back from another little jaunt so I can't whine about it being dull quite yet.  This time it was 'business'. 

For several years I've been a member of a board that is supposed to tell the Dept. of Energy, Environmental Management people what local people think about the Nevada National Security Site - aka the Test Site.  You may remember it as the site used for testing atomic weapons back in the day.  Well, it's still there and parts are still radioactive and all is off limits except when you are taken on a tour.  It is 31 miles 'as the crow flies' from home so that is the excuse for me being on the board.  Actually, I'm just interested because of it's place in history.  Once a year the group gets a tour to visit things we'll talk about in the coming year and I always invite my wife.  We spend the day wandering around the site (on a bus with guides!) seeing places that are scheduled to be 'cleaned up' in the next year.  Security is pretty tight:  cameras and phones are banned and the guards do carry guns. 

I am not afraid of radioactivity so long as it is far enough away so visiting these places is always interesting.  Some of the pollutants need to be cleaned up; some simply cannot.  One place I remember was a concrete bunker that was polluted with some cleaning agent.  We recommended that it be locked and signposted as 'Do Not Enter'.  Recently the DOE transported hundreds of truck loads of dirt from one place to another because the first area is on an Air Force base and was needed for training.  It seems silly to move dirt but those tests ended in the 1990's and it was still polluted today.  The site has special areas reserved for Low Level Polluted Waste and that's where the dirt ended up. 

ANYWAY, every year there is a meeting of people from our board and other similiar boards from around the country.  This time I got to represent our board and the meeting was in Sun Valley, Idaho.  We've been near Sun Valley but never in the actual town.  It turns out to be a pretty little place and the resort we stayed in was quite nice.  The meeting was a day and a half (and pretty dull) but we also got to tour part of the Idaho National Laboratory.  We got to visit the EBR-1 nuclear reactor built back in 1953 and some other reactors still being used for various tests.  It wasn't as historically dramatic as I find the Test Site but it was very interesting all the same. 

We could have flown but decided to drive just because we haven't seen all that northern Nevada has to offer.  It is a 600 mile (970 km) trip one way but we were in no hurry so we made it two days up and two back down.  We got to visit a few new Nevada towns and see a bunch of pretty scenery.  No photos unfortunately because it was cold and windy.  When we were touring the Lab. areas photos were not allowed anyway; and yes, their guards carry guns as well.

So that's what we do for fun.  Drive, drive and drive some more.  Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoying Spring!

This time of year is often pretty good around here.  It has been windy this year but reasonably warm.  When we haven't been out spraying weeds in our yard we've gotten out and about a bit.

Week before last we visited Death Valley National Park.  The park is absolutely huge and we'd never seen the other side; specifically over by Panamint Springs.  We decided to just drive over and check out the roads.  With the over-62 senior pass it is free to visit so why not?  I was surprised by the number of visitors though I guess I shouldn't have been.  Even in early April the high was going to be 97F (36C) so waiting until later would make it a bit warm.  We ended up taking no photos worth sharing but we did discover that the roads are excellent and wouldn't be a problem at all if we were towing our trailer.  I'm not a huge fan of high and windy roads but this was just fine even if there were places that we were happy they had installed a guard rail.

Then last week we took a bus tour on the Nevada National Security Site.  This is where the majority of our nuclear weapons testing was done back in the day.  Today the site is used for a variety of things where security, space and even nuclear debris is useful.  (They train police and fire fighters on dealing with accidents that include a nuclear component; like the stuff your dentist uses to xray your teeth.)  Public tours are available but they are few and far between, like once a month.  If you are interested in visiting you should sign up around a year in advance!  Really, all remaining tours being offered in 2019 are full.  They are pretty rigorous about security and two of the things you can't bring are cameras and cellphones.  You also need to pass a paperwork security check but after all that you get a 250 mile bus ride.

Anyway, I managed to get onto a board that is supposed to advice the site management on how local people think they are doing.  I've been on the board for several years and we usually get a special tour about once a year.  This year we went to a part of the site I've never visited before where some of the larger underground tests were conducted.  One of the concerns with underground testing is that the ground water can be contaminated with nuclear debris.  The Dept. of Energy has drilled many wells around the test areas to test the ground water.  There are also wells on other federal land outside the site.  Happily the ground water doesn't move a lot out here and testing has shown that the water has traveled off the site but won't reach private lands for several hundred years by which time the radiation danger will be well past.  (The primary traveling nuclide is Trinium which has a half-life of 12+ years; it isn't something that has a half-life of 500 years or anything.)

Finally I drove into Las Vegas the other day to buy a couple things.  On the way there and back I go past Red Rock Canyon which is really quite a beautifully impressive place.  There were zillions of tourists!  There is a sign where people like to stop and take selfies with the sign.  This time a tour bus had stopped there!  Anyway, the rock is really very beautiful and a real attraction for rock climbers.  This photo is from 2010.

On the way home I stopped to get a couple photos of the cactus.  They are having their moment and have lovely blooms.

So we haven't been just sitting around home but have gotten a few miles on the car if nothing else.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one.

We are just hanging around home.

We were all tired out when we came home from our Panama Canal cruise so have planned for this year to be fairly quiet.  Lately, as I've been whining, we've had a full-time job spraying weeds but that is over for a moment or two.  This is a pretty good time of year in Southern Nevada and our daytime temps are squeezing into the 70's (22C) so wandering around is fun.  There are a few things we need to do around the house and this is the time to start in on them.  I'll whine about them when they get underway.

My wife and I are of an age when aches and pains are a regular part of life; therefore ibuprofen.  Unfortunately there are things the miracle drug cannot cure and one of those things has taken a woman whom I only met once but via her husband's blog felt I knew her.  Croft is a guy who liked to write about their travels and his wife Norma was always there keeping him 'in line'.  Lots of us guys need a woman like that and Croft was lucky enough to have found his.  I wish him the best adjusting to the loss of his friend, lover, wife and so much more.

Life here is going on with the usual panache.  The headline on our newspaper this a.m. was that we now have a Starbuck's store!  We had a Starbuck's counter in one of the local grocery stores but I guess that wasn't enough.  I'd put up a link but they haven't updated the website with that burning news.  In other local news, our county, Nye, has been involved in a reality tv show:  Live PD. The sad news is that our local sheriff's officers will not be followed by their film crews from now on.  I'm not sure why we are getting the boot but I expect it is because we don't have a lot of 'action'.  Let's face it, there aren't that many people living here (and most of them are old) so we can only have so many drug busts. There goes our moment of fame.

I manage our investments and I've been fascinated by the marijuana industry that seems to be growing by leaps and bounds.  Part of the reason I find it interesting is that it is legal to possess small amounts in Nevada.  We have a local dispensary for legal recreational and medicinal weed.  We also have a couple other places offering CBD, a non-psychoactive form, that is supposed to have considerable medical uses.  Of course every sleezy salesperson (sorry, financial advisor) is pushing one company or another.  Believe me, I have no special insight and haven't bought anything yet!  There is a lot of interest in Canadian companies since they have legalized marijuana nationally.  There are also the brands that are associated with alcohol distributors but that is also primarily a Canadian connection.  I'll probably buy into some of the Canadian interests only because President Nutbag (I mean Trump) and his idiot Cabinet could turn on marijuana in an instant and amp up the pressure on the states to resind legalization. 

Well, that's what is wandering around in my head today.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great day.

Weeds!

That's my curse word of the day:  weeds!  But I guess that's what happens when you take a moment and turn away. 

Actually we took more than a moment, we took two weeks.  We had a birthday celebration in Washington state so decided to make a trip of it.  We went over to the California coast by driving up highway 95 to Tonopah then on to Reno.  Then we hopped onto I-80 for a few miles and got off right after the Donner Pass onto California 20 and took it all the way to the coast.  That puts you in a little town called Fort Bragg.  Our timing was pretty good:  perfect weather going over the Pass then the next day chains were required!  Then we drove up highway 1 for a few miles until it ended on 101.  Let me tell you, that section of highway 1 is twisty and then some.  From the ocean to 101 was 22 miles and it took over 40 minutes to drive.  Then we just headed north.  It was a very pretty drive and we even managed to check out a few redwood groves.  There was a fair amount of rain and even a little sleet but nothing very serious.

The town we were headed for is Sequim, WA which is out on the Olympic Penninsula.  Of course, being Western Washington, it rained a bit but we lived in the area for something more than 15 years so there was no danger of us melting.  We got to see everyone, sing Happy Birthday and go out to eat a few times then it was time to head back home.  This time we were on familiar roads; south on I-5 then cutting across California back to Reno and down home.  Again the weather was just fine.  In places in California there were two or three feet of snow on the sides of the road but the roads themselves were clean and dry.

My wife is the navigator on our travels.  She uses Garmin software on her pc then enters waypoints in either the car's GPS or the Garmin we use for our truck.  Or sometimes, she uses both.

It's not every guy that has a woman and two machines telling him where to go!  Lucky me!  (Actually we took the Garmin because it has addresses for everyone in it's memory and the car doesn't.)  That photo was taken in the parking lot of our hotel in Sparks, NV.  They have a nice little lake there and we managed to wander around most of it after a day in the car.  I also got to see something I've never seen before in the park area by the lake.

I have absolutely no idea what was intended by whomever placed that sign there.  There wasn't anything really going on there; just a sign on a light post.  I guess it's an especially free area.  

So now I'm home and spraying weed killer like a madman.  We had rain when we were gone so the weeds are growing like crazy.  It will take a few days but I'll get them; every one of them.  On that note, I'll buzz off.  Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas done!

Happy Holidays to all who are still celebrating but for us it's over.  Haven't taken down the lights and tree yet but it won't be long. 

We were invited to Vegas to have Christmas dinner with our daughter and a friend so headed over there.  We were to bring a potato dish and the carving knife.  We set off in light traffic and had a pretty good drive until something unexpected happened.  We were going along on a four lane undivided road that enters Vegas.  There we found a car that was having trouble staying in his lane; sometimes over the line into the other travel direction and sometimes into the 'slow' lane in our direction.  At least he wasn't speeding, in fact he was doing about 10 mph under the limit so I waited until he was well over in the far side of his lane and passed him on the right. 

That went pretty easy and since he was going so slowly he was soon behind us by quite a distance; maybe a half mile or so.  Well, then we come up on a stop light that is turning red for us.  It's a new light and some people aren't used to it being there.  It is triggered when someone approaches from the side roads; we were on the main road.  So there should have been someone going through the intersection but there wasn't.  I've no idea whether someone got tired of waiting and ran the light or if it malfunctioned.  At any rate, we slow and come to a stop at the red light in the right lane.  I checked the mirror and the people behind us were slowing and the guy we'd passed was still coming but was still a ways back.  Then we stop at the light and about 5 seconds later this guy comes flying past us blowing through the light at his usual 55 mph!  Thank goodness that no one was turning onto our road and that he managed to stay in his lane for that maneuver!  It would have been a big crunch had he hit anyone.

Well, no harm done but you can be sure we'll remember that maneuver for a while.  Actually I don't know what else I could have done.  Aside from not passing him in the first place.  Anyway, the remainder of the trip was pretty quiet. 

Our daughter had borrowed an 'air fryer' to do a Christmas turkey.  I must say I'm not impressed.  The turkey looked ok but was not cooked through.  It took some time in the oven to get it to completely cooked.  It is only her second attempt at cooking turkey but I'm blaming the method not the cook.  The rest of the meal was excellent as was the company so what more can one ask.  It was dark by the time we arrived home but that's hardly unusual.  And we arrived safely for which I am very grateful.

Merry Christmas then and Happy New Year!

Back home for a while anyway

We got back from England on September 5 and had a whole two weeks to relax before our next trip.  Yep, another one!  This one was more personal.  FIFTY years ago I had the honor and pleasure of being in someone's wedding party and on September 22 they were celebrating their anniversary.  Well, you've got to go celebrate something like that!  So on September 21 we hopped a plane for Chicago.

Our friends live in a small town in northern Ohio near Toledo so flying to Chicago was the best choice by far.  Then it is a 4 hour drive to Ohio. Well, it is if you are smart enough to go around downtown.  If you aren't, it's more like a 7 hour drive.  However, we made it.  The party on Saturday was fantastic and we got to spend a bit more time with our friends on Sunday.  Monday a.m. we were off for the Chicago airport again. 

Now you need to understand that my wife does about 75% of our trip planning.  I get a word in every now and then but basically she does all the work.  So when we knew we were headed for the Eastern Time Zone we decided to add on a bit to the trip.  First a quick few days in Montreal; since we've never been there. 

We mostly wandered around in the old part of town.  It was nice and we got to see some of the good stuff:  the cathedral, the waterfront and the underground.  In one part of the underground was a large mall that had a fountain shooting way up in the air.  There were a couple small boys who really enjoyed that!

It was a very relaxing time and we enjoyed seeing some of the city.  I did see something I've never seen before.

Beware of Falling Ice!  Someone must have had a really bad experience on this corner.

Well, now we've been more than a week in the East but that wasn't quite enough so we added another five days in Washington DC.  We visited Washington in 2003 in our trailer.  As I understand it there is one 'good' RV park in the Washington area and we didn't stay in it.  The park was fine but we ended up with an awful commute into the city every day.  This time we weren't making that mistake!  We had a hotel about 3 blocks from the National Mall.  In 2003 we had done the Memorials:  Washington; Lincoln; Vietnam Vets; Korean War Vets.  All the big things with the glaring omission of Arlington National Cemetary.  So this visit we did make sure to visit Arlington.  As with every military cemetary I've visited there is a sense of peace and sacrifice.

Having visited the cemetary we spent the remainder of our time in museums:  The Art Museum (West and East); the Air and Space; he Smithsonian; and even the Hirshhorn.

That was different.  The above piece is displayed in front of the Hirshhorn.  The name is "Still Life with Spirit and Xitle".  The materials used to make it are listed as:  Car, volcanic stonee, and acrylic paint.  The car, of course, is a Dodge Spirit. 

One unexpected thing in Washington was our first Uber ride!  Uber hasn't made it to rural Nevada but it worked very nicely in D.C.  After a few days of such wildness it was time to go home.  Believe me, home is looking really good these days.  Take care and thanks for stopping by!

OMG - nothing?

Jeez, I'm worried that the President has died.  I mean he hasn't Tweeted anything stupid in at least 24 hours.  He must be gone.

Yeah, I wish.  But I sure don't care for the sound of President Pence either.

However, it is a beautiful sunny morning in southern Nevada.  24F when I got up with no breeze and certainly no clouds.  Aside from the usual creaks and groans from my body I'm feeling good so I really ought to be pretty happy.  My wife and I are in the process of planning our next three trips; a bit of a stretch even for us.  The first is pretty simple though:  visiting our son in San Diego.

This time we'll leave the trailer at home and try the motel route.  We are planning to abandon the Interstate highway system as well.  We'll find backroads down to the Joshua Tree National Park and 29 Palms and spend a day or two there.  Then on down to San Diego for a short visit then back up the back roads home.  I-15 and I-5 are just kind of ordinary even if they are quicker.  What the H, we are old retired farts with plenty of time!

The second trip is a cruise so that just takes money not planning.  The final trip is a return visit to England and Northern Ireland which we just didn't have time for when we visited Ireland.  Those will be documented when we finally get there.  Trust me, it won't be next week.

I am proud of being a veteran of the US Army and have been a member of the American Legion since at least the 1980's.  Last week I attended my first American Legion Post meeting.  Yep, after 30 years, I decided to visit the local post.  I'm a real 'joiner' aren't I?  Well, anyway, it was darned dull.  I'm not sure why but, jeez.  First of all, I'm going to be 70 on my next birthday and I was feeling young in that crowd.  Not to mention fit.   So here are 15 old white guys, sounds like the beginning of a bar joke but that's the situation, most wearing Legion hats and the Chaplin wearing a uniform....  Well, it goes downhill from there.  I won't bore you.  I'll probably try to go again if only to bring some youthful enthusiasm to the place. 

I'll quit rambling on now.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one!

OMG another month!

Well, obviously this old guy is living life in the fast lane.  LOL  Maybe not!  Actually it's pretty quiet around here.  Just doing our usual computer fun; reading; going out for lunch and shopping.  Not much. 

This week was kind of different.  Monday was filled with shopping.  First the grocery store for the VFW Food Bank then Walmart for Toys for Tots.  Yeah, we probably could have done it earlier but this was the time we managed it.  Trying to get my wife into Walmart is a job in itself.  We were there one time 3 or 4 years ago and some old dirtbag sneezed on her; she caught a cold and hasn't wanted to go back since! 

Shopping for the vets was actually 'laugh of the week'.  We were checking out and I was using a debit card that I don't usually use.  I used the wrong PIN and immediately realized what I had done and said something about it.  My wife immediately said (fondly) "You old codger!"  The woman checking us out about fell on the floor laughing!  She said something like "You are just like my husband!"  Hmmm, should I be insulted?  I'm not sure.  

Tuesday was doing some cleaning around the house - I mean stuff that we don't ordinarily do.  Wednesday we washed both the car and the truck.  It doesn't sound like much but, hell, we have to get the ladder out to clean the truck!  My wife spent at least an hour cleaning bugs off the front of both vehicles.  Nasty.  Maybe we should do it more than once a year? 

Yesterday was one of those pleasure and pain days.  Wifie went for a spa day with our daughter in Vegas.  The daughter just got passed over for a job she wanted so there was some healing needed.  Hopefully it made her feel better.  I wandered around shopping for a few trivial things (mostly wine) before meeting them for a late lunch.  See how tough the week as been?  Yeah, boring!

We did seind out a few Christmas cards.  Yep, actual physical cards.  Of course it is mostly to older relatives but I do have a couple friends who are almost my age so they get them as well.  You can never tell about these 'old codgers'.  Anyway, we wanted to do a photo of us next to our tree.  I had to skip over this one where I am too close to fondling myself!

The tree is actually  old enough to vote!  We bought it in the Netherlands 19 years ago.  The tree skirt is something my wife's sister made even earlier.  The ornaments are all over the place.  Some are things the kids made when they were little; some are from my wife's mother; a few we bought.  Funny how the whole tree is full of memories. 

Merry Christmas to all.  Let's hope for a wonderful and peaceful 2018.  Thanks for stopping by.

Wow - it's been almost a month!

Yeah, not good.  In my defense I can only plead a quiet life in a quiet place.  We get up either with the sun or shortly thereafter.  My first task is to feed the birds then make coffee.  Mostly it is around 37F (2.7C) when I'm outside.  Then I usually settle in at the computer to check out what has happened in the world.  When I am sufficiently depressed, we get some kind of breakfast.  Breakfast, if it is at home, incorporates bird watching. 

I just noticed that ugly seating area in our back yard.  We set that up as a 'trial' seating to see if it was large enough, etc.  Hmm, that was at least 5 years ago!  What can I say, it works for us but maybe someday soon there will be a photo of the wonderful, new, prettier seating area. 

Then it is more computer work until we get ready to go out to lunch.  Most days we incorporate lunch with whatever shopping we need to do.  Since it is so cool early in the day we like to take a walk after lunch.  It is just around the neighborhood (about 2.5 miles or 4 km) but you can't sit around all day!  We get to say 'hi' to the various dogs and horses and, as a big thrill, we count the number of rabbits we see.  By now it's time to work on dinner but we do try to get a little time out in the yard (on the ugly seating area!) to check out the sunset (about 4:30) with a glass of wine or a drink. 

After our 'happy hour' we have dinner which will be followed by a couple hours of tv.  Exciting times!

Actually there are a few distractions.  Las Vegas is right there in case we want to do serious shopping and we usually make a trip every 10 days to 2 weeks.  A week or so ago we went the other way, towards California, and visited Ash Meadows.  The meadows are formed by springs bursting out of the desert floor and pumping thousands of gallons of water a minute along small streams until the water retreats and goes back underground.  These days the most famous residents of Ash Meadows are the pup fish.  These are little minow sized fish who live only in a few of these springs.  Back in the early 1900's people were trying to farm this area and they did so much damage to the environment that it cannot be repaired.  Still there are about 30 species of plants and animals that are no where else on earth.  What we have now are a few walks that one can take on raised wooden boardwalks.  The longest of the walks is just over a mile and in 80F (26C) weather it is quite pleasant.  Mid-summer and I don't think it would be that much fun.  We walked to the Crystal Spring and had a very nice time.

You stand there looking into this crystal clear water then look up to see that bare rock mountain in the distance.  It is quite a place.  You can see why people wanted to farm this land.  Apparently native tribes used the springs as a place to meet on special ocassions.  A couple years ago a new visitor center was built and the many displays discuss the history of the area.  You can even 'adopt' a pupfish for a $50 donation. 

This Thanksgiving our daughter offered to host at her home in Las Vegas so off we went.  We got to bring a pie and the stuffing but that wasn't too tough.  I may as well say there are no photos.  She had never cooked a turkey in her over 40 years on earth so she got advice from all her friends.  Somehow they talked her into cooking the bird breast side up for an hour or so then turning it over for another couple hours.  My wife and I had never heard of that but it turned out to be quite delicious.  I'm not too sure the skin was as crispy as it might have been but I don't eat it so I don't care!  She and her mother seemed to like it though so it certainly wasn't bad. 

Anyway, that was the month of November!  As I said, life in the fast lane.  Hope your month was more exciting in a good way!  Thanks for stopping by.

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!

Happy Black Friday USA

I guess I missed the Thanksgiving post but I was busy!  My wife and I decided that we ought to do somthing for others this year.  Our town has a Community Dinner and we decided to volunteer.  I guess there are others who volunteer sooner  because we were assigned as drivers to take meals to the home-bound.  Actually it was great.  The people knew someone was coming around and were looking forward to their meals.  My three deliveries were to an older guy who wasn't moving around very well, a very old lady who was using a walker and a guy who was caring for another two people.  It was a great experience and I'm sure we will do it again.

Then we came home and started on our own Thanksgiving dinner.  Well, that worked really well even if it was after 15:00 when we ate.

Yes, pretty conventional but definitely good.  And my wife found a reciepe for a coffee-chocolate hazelnut pie that was really amazing.  The whole day was a 10.  And we can definitely recommend the 2016 Beaujolais Nouveau. 

Otherwise we are back in our groove.  It is 26F this a.m. (that's -3 to the rest of the world).  Brrr!  But it will warm up later and we will be able to take our walk.  We bought a couple extra things at the store so we don't have to go out; this Black Friday shit is just crazy!  Neither of us is much of a shopper so braving a crowd of people looking for bargains just doesn't work for us.  If I get all wild and crazy maybe I'll check out Amazon later.  How busy could it be?  LOL

Now that Italy is but a memory we are talking about Australia.  Now we just have to figure out what we want to see and how to manage it.  Of course NZ will be included.  Neither of us is all that hot on the island nations of the South Pacific so that will probably be it.  Ntext spring, fall for them, is the general target but we all know that shit happens!  Some day there will be photos but there is absolutely no guarantee!

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one!

Still here....

These are quiet times so in being quiet I'm just going with the flow.  I looked at my last post and I was whining about the dust.  Well, I'm not the only one!  The Las Vegas Review Journal is as well.  Their weather system is sometimes different from ours but this time it's pretty similiar.  This was taken this morning about 06:00 when we were setting out on our walk.

Pretty, yes, but the air quality does leave something to be desired. 

We were in Las Vegas yesterday.  It's amazing the things you can decide you need.  We went into a store looking for a new cheese grater.  Well, $85 later we got out of the store.  We needed all that stuff I guess.  One thing that I think is pretty cool is an outlet that will recharge phones, tablets, etc.  My wife especially is a great one for reading in bed and her electronics are always running out of juice so she has to get up and wander around to get them charged.  Now she can just hook up one device and go play on the other for a while.  I know lamps are coming out with such things but we like our bedside lamps.  Why replace something you like?

We had lunch at Chipotle Mexican Grill.  I don't know if they have some new competition in town or if all the bad publicity about E. coli, etc. is scaring people away but business at that particular restaurant was really slow.  In the past we've eaten there and have had trouble finding a place to sit.  Not this time.  This time there were only two or three other tables with diners.  I certainly hope they can fix whatever ails them because we really do like the food. 

My wife found a ham on sale last week.  I'm sure you know the old line defining eternity as the length of time it takes two people to eat a ham.  Well, it's coming close:  ham and eggs; ham sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, ham stuffed peppers, ham and bean soup, ham ham ham.  I'm not really complaining because we both really like ham but it is certainly something to remember!  Just to break things up I bbq'd a chicken the other night.  Throw some asparagus and a couple ears of corn on the barbie as well and you have a lovely meal with minimal clean up.  Hmmm, I must be hungry!

Speaking of my wife, she went to the optomotrist recently complaining her glasses were no longer right.  $550 later and in a couple weeks, she'll have new glasses.  She likes the progressive lens style and needs something to reduce glare and something to reduce scratching and.... Well, you get the idea.  By the time all the bits and pieces are added in, it's getting pretty close to expensive.

As you can see if you've made it this far, it's quiet around here.  I'll shut up now.  Thanks for stopping by.

Interesting stuff

Well, not all that interesting!  Mostly we've been thanking the air conditioner for keeping us cool!  It is either 9 or 10 days in a row of over 110F (43C).  Not all that much fun outside!  There is something in the paper practically every day about some idiot leaving either a kid or a dog in their car while shopping.  Jeez!  And they vote!

I did get up to Amargosa Valley for another deal with the Nevada Test Site's citizen's board.  It is kind of remote up there. 

They are probably the first who would get radioactivity in their groundwater from the tests done back in the day.  The Department of Energy does a lot of testing and there is next to no chance anything will ever leave government owned land.  The test site is nearly surrounded by the Nevada Test and Training Range which is run by the U.S. Air Force.  It gives any groundwater a heck of a long way to travel before it reaches land that is used by the public much less owned by individuals.  Plus the water is moving only about a foot a year!  We were up there to help people understand that there is no real danger.  Happily most folks already are on board and know they won't be turning green anytime soon.

One of the things we have a lot of around here is dirt.  Overnight the wind really picked up and, though you can't really smell it, the air is full of dust.  Here's a photo I took on our walk this morning - that's the sun not the moon!

That was taken about 06:30.  Sunrise was about 05:45 so it's not like the sun was on the horizon.  This time of year we walk as soon as we get up.  Even at that hour the sun feels hot but not today.  Even now at 4 pm I can't see the mountain though it is clearer.  

This week has been 'donation' week.  First we made our monthly trip to the supermarket for food for the VFW Food Bank.  The guy working there says they help feed 35-40 families every week and another 5-7 individuals - and they are only open 4 hours a week!  Two hours on Wednesday and two hours on Friday is all they can do.  In the winter when the snowbirds are down here they have more donations so are open two more hours on Monday.  Today was the day for school supplies.  There are lots of kids whose parents can't afford to buy them all the stuff they need for school.  So our local electricity co-op runs a drive every fall to help.  Every year we ask the volunteers if they are short of something special.  Last year it was backpacks, this year it was antibacterial wipes.  Who knows?  But it gives us a starting point and we can go from there.

Well, that's all the news that's fit to print.  Thanks for stopping by.  Take care.

Summer's here!

We have had several years in a row where most of the time we stayed under 105F (40+C).  So this year is starting out with a week of mostly over 105F.  Well, besides my neck, this is certainly the reason to stay inside and veg out.  I'd be embaressed to say how much 'crap' tv I've seen in the last two weeks but let's just leave it at 'too much'.  I could read but somehow it makes me fall asleep.  Hmmm, tough life huh.

We had big plans for being out of the area during this time.  My 50th high school reunion was being held back in Iowa at the end of May and we were going to make a big trip of it.  We were going to see friends in Colorado then relatives in Missouri before the reunion.  Then afterwards see friends in Ohio then go up through the Michigan Upper Peninsula.  Finally we were going to sweep down towards the middle of the country and check out the state of Oklahoma; one of the few we haven't visited in our trailer.  The whole trip would have been closer to 6,000 miles than 5,000. (9,600km vs 8,000).  The truck was all tuned up and ready to roll unfortunately, I wasn't.  Well, maybe next year! 

I am sorry to have missed the reunion but I did leave town about as soon as I could after graduating and haven't been back except to visit my parents while they were still alive.  It might have been fun to see how those people I remember as 17 or 18 look now that they are closing in on 70.  I did run across a few of them when we were all in our thirties but that too was quite a while ago.  Guess I'll just have to look at some random group of old folks.  Or maybe I'll just look in the mirror!  I'm pretty sure I wouldn't recognize myself and I can't find a copy of my yearbook photo.  I'll post it if I find it later.  There is a Facebook page that some hardworking person put together.  There are some group photos where I recognize no one.  Maybe missing the fun is something I'll live through.

We do have some thoughts for travel in the fall but we are pretty gun-shy since the summer trip kind of blew up.  If nothing else we'll probably take some short trips over to places in California that are way overdue for a visit:  Napa Valley, Yosemite, San Simeon just to name a few - we have woefully ignored California for way too long.  I should point out that we are wine consumers rather than wine snobs so a visit to Napa wouldn't take more than a couple days!  Driving up Highway 1 is on the list too.  I'm not sure how far we'd go.  We've had a whiff of the redwoods but haven't really spent time there.  We've been on Highway 1 in Oregon as well but that was coming south rather than going north and somehow it feels different.

Well, that's the news from the overheated state of Nevada.  Thanks for stopping by and have a good one!

WOW!

Holy guacamole Bat Man!  Really, it's almost a month since I posted.  Who the heck wants to read something like that?  Well, sorry but I am a lousy correspondent via snail-mail so I guess expecting me to be a better blogger might be kind of wishful thinking.  So has anything been happening?

In a word, yes.  Most importantly my wife had some dental surgery planned IF this one blood test came back right.  As it turned out, the test suggested that the surgery should be put off so that got canceled.  Of course, having that sort of thing going on still involves trips to the lab, the dentist (in Vegas) and plenty of phone calls to the insurance people, etc.  It's not a minor deal even though the surgery was canceled.

So then there is the great bed purchase investigation.  We have had our bed for eight years and it is increasingly annoying.  It's not a standard size (2 inches too narrow er, 5 cm?) anyway that means sheets don't fit; it is foam so it is hot; it weighs a ton so can't be moved.  Ask my wife, I'm sure she has four or five other reasons to get rid of it.  Of course, shopping here is limited so after checking the local options, it's off to Vegas.  Off to Vegas five or six times that is!  Every bed place wants to sell you a Tempur-Pedic since they are two or three times the price of a regular mattress.  Happily for me, my wife really liked this one mattress that we saw early in our search.  Unhappily (in this case), she believes in investigating the market place so we had to hit six or eight other sales rooms.  FINALLY we got back to the first place and bought the darned thing!  Then, of course, it takes an act of Congress to the it delivered.  I love living out here but the once every 2 or 3 week delivery schedules are kind of 1870's.

Also on our list was our trailer.  Last time we used it we has a couple things that bothered us.  The big thing was that the linoleum in the main room was lifting up around the edges.  We loved the stuff when we had animals because it was so easy to clean.  But you've gotta agree that having it lift up is a bad thing.  Plus we had half a dozen other minor problems.  We scheduled a stop at the dealer so went over to Vegas a day early to get there at a reasonalble hour.  That was a happy thought.  We stayed, as usual, at the Las Vegas RV Resort on Nellis ave.  The spaces are kind of tight but it's all paved (level!), clean, 24 hour security, kind of every thing you would like in a city RV park and it was $30.  Can't beat it. We didn't have anything to eat so went out to a local place Aces and Ales.  It is a nice little sports bar-pub that has a huge selection of different beers and some not-bad food.  We each found a different porter to drink and some pub-grub to eat.  What's not to like?  To make it even better when my wife texted our daughter our whereabouts she responded "I'm on my way".  Well, I guess the way to the girl's heart is via a pub.  Who knew!  So we had a nice little visit with her.  Dropped off the rig then off home.

Of course we had to go get it a couple days later.  Back to the Resort for another night.  This time off to dinner at Casa Di Amore for an interesting experience.  The good:  the decor is 'classic Vegas' done well, the food is respectable.  The not good:  there was a huge birthday party of about 20 people making the place both really crowded and really loud.  We were lucky and got a booth on the edge of the room but it was still really loud.  And, of course, the service wasn't great since almost all the servers had some part of that huge party.  It's a place we might go back to but the clam linguine was kind of short on clams and whatever I had was forgetable since I've forgotten what it was! 

The good news about all this back and forth is that we got two breakfasts at Blueberry Hill.  We hit on this place years ago when we were visiting Vegas and it's still pretty good.  My wife loves the crepes and they have lots of other stuff.  Not cheap but it is Vegas!  There are several locations and I'm not enough of an expert to prefer one to the others.  Still, if you want breakfast that is good food and not on the strip; it would be my go-to place.

Having had the RV in the shop there are, of course, things we needed to do as well.  Highly technical stuff like putting Protect-All on the roof, replacing burned out light bulbs, replacing the anode in the water heater:  stuff like that.  It all takes time.  How did we do all this crap when we were working?  Oh yeah, we didn't have an RV.  Replacing the anode did have it's high point.  Ok, it's not tough, socket on the anode and unscrew, right?  Well, I kind of forgot that we'd used the trailer and there might be some pressure buildup in the water heater.  Result?

Yeah, I'm pretty covered in the crap that was in the water heater.  The impressive thing is that I'd taken the old anode out a few days earlier and had rinsed the heater.  Apparently I'd not done a very good job!  LOL  Anyway, it's cleaner now! 

On a less dramatic note I spent a day wandering around Nye County (here!) with some folks learning about testing our ground water for nuclear particles.  The Fed's had been doing it but now the county has taken it over so they wanted to show us all what a great job they are doing.  Actually it was kind of interesting.  The water testing itself is totally dull; it's the wells that are interesting. 

The photo is of our group checking out one of the wells supplying water to the town of Beatty, NV.  That little well house is really well insulated and from the parka in the foreground you can tell why.  It was darned cold up there!  That was a public well that is always in use so the water is always 'fresh' from the ground.  In other wells, it required hundreds of gallons of water to be pumped out before you could be sure that you were getting water from the groundwater source.  Apparently water in the pipe gets contaminated FROM the pipe so you have to pump it clear.  One of the wells being tested is in a place called Oasis Valley.  There is a spring nearby so it's relatively 'green'.  The unusual thing about that well is that some scientist from UNLV checked the water and there are elements in the water whose DNA is unknown.  Who knew water had DNA?  But apparently most water has stuff in it whose DNA is common; not like yours or mine but common for water.  Anyway, this place has DNA that just doesn't fit in with regular water.  The guy who noticed it will probably spend his career working on that little unknown thing.  Who knows what it might be!

Also on the naturalist side of things, our annual cowbird invasion has come and mostly gone.  I've no idea where they live in the winter or the summer but in the fall they come through here and pretty much take over!  They are late this year but there were plenty of them.

They are much more aggressive about the bird bath than our normal pigeons.  There would be a dozen standing on the lip of the bath and three or four more bathing.  They are the only birds other than pigeons that we've seen actually bathing.  Don't know what the deal is but if it works for them, ok.

Well, that's enough for this post.  I'll do another soon (I hope!) so until then, thanks for stopping by.  Take care.