Been AWOL again - sorry!

Things have just been perking along out here in the desert.  Haven't done much to report on except we are trying to get ready for the U. S. holiday of Thanksgiving.  Our local radio station advertised a food drive so my wife and I headed for the supermarket.  She got a cart for veterans and I got one for the foodbank.  The idea is that the vets are often living somewhere where they might not have cooking facilities so things in small packages and not requiring much in the way of cooking implements are better for them.  The foodbank stuff is more traditional, like a frozen turkey, large packages, etc.  I always throw in a few cookies or candys because kids are always kids & need their treats.

I think it is my wife's favorite holiday since it involves family, celebration and no religion.  Probably mine as well though I find celebrations kind of depressing.  Celebrate every day; not just once in a while.  Anyway, I got to feel the anxiety in the air while we hunted (in the supermarket!) for the perfect bird.  We found one but it wasn't quite right so we went to the other store, they had nothing.  So zoomed back to the first store & grabbed our new little buddy.  Jeez!  Then spent another half hour leisurely filling the cart with other stuff.  The butcher was really nice to us; he must think we are crazy though! 

Here is a photo I took back on the 12th:

That is 26F outside - or minus 3C.  Granted it was 06:30 in the a.m. but that's chilly.  Glad I drained all the water from the trailer! 

Here is a shot from a bit later that same day.  It warms up nicely during the day and we were in the hot tub enjoying an early happy hour.  Note the distinct lack of snow on the mountain in the background.  It has been getting snow then having it melt several times lately.

We've had variable weather so the sunrises and sunsets have been pretty spectacular.  Needless to say I have to inflict at least one such photo on you.

Here is my version of an artsy photo - a photo of a real piece of art!  We bought this sculpture in Paris way back before the turn of the century.  It isn't the one I wanted.  That was probably 4 feet tall (1.3m) and was making a rude gesture; my wife was afraid we'd never have a space big enough for it and she didn't much care for the gesture.  So we compromised on this one which is about 2 feet tall (.6m).  We didn't even notice that the woman is smoking a cigarette; now it is the first thing we notice!  We like it in spite of the political incorrectness.  And we really liked the way the morning light lit it up.

I'll close with a photo I took the other day of our flag and the mountain.  There are some really incredibly beautiful sights around here, you simply need to look for them. 

For those in the U. S. have a happy Thanksgiving.  For everyone else, celebrate EVERY day of life!  have a good one.

Grrrr

I've joined the bloggers who require a name on a comment.  It's not like there are that many people who read this drivel that I write but apparently some robot somewhere has found me.  I had to delete six 'comments' this morning.  That's just too many. 

I went in to Las Vegas the other day.  Nothing exciting, just doing errands.  BUT I had pizza for lunch then we went out to dinner and had pizza.  How many guys get to have a two pizza day?  I knew I was lucky but that's special.

My wife finally settled on her new laptop.  It's another Toshiba from ToshibaDirect.com; it's got the i7 chip and a 1Tb harddrive.  It's also got Windows 8 which is a whole new ball of wax.  She is managing it but as everyone says, it's a steep learning curve.  She has been switching between Firefox and Microsoft's Explorer on her old machine for some time.  Now she has a new Explorer as well as a new operating system.  I'm just standing back and trying to be encouraging; I sure as hell don't know anything about this brave new world she is entering. She was told to do a backup either on three DVDs or a thumb drive; she tried DVDs first and it just wouldn't work.  Happily we had a 16GB thumb drive and that worked.  Funny that they even suggested DVDs.

One of the casino's offered a free tee shirt to vets on Veteran's Day.  I just couldn't figure out how to prove I am a vet.  I guess my American Legion card might have done the trick but I don't carry it around with me.  After some thought I remembered my dog tags but, again, I don't wear the things.  So I didn't get my shirt.  Guess I'll just have to live.  I did FIND my dog tags though; they are at least 45 years old and still look just like new.  Guess that is what happens when you use something for a few years then throw it in a drawer for a few decades.  I know I'm sure worse for wear after all those decades!

I keep telling myself that today is the first day of the rest of my life.  Unfortunately I don't seem to be making any inprovements in my behavior.  It's not like I'm all that bad but I'm not all that good either. That's the rub.  If anyone has a secret method for making one do one's situps and pushups I'd love to hear it!  Not that it will get me off my ass but.....  It would be interesting.

Have a good one!

Strange World

The news continues to confound me.  For example, this woman who runs over her husband with a car because he didn't vote.  Imagine what she would have done had he voted for someone she didn't like! 

Then there is the very strange story of General Petraeus; everyone involved seems to be behaving strangely except maybe the General's wife.  She is just pissed off.  Wonder why.

There is a long article claiming that Mr. Romney lost the election because some software that was supposed to help the Republican's Get Out The Vote campaign didn't work.  Gee, is it possible that maybe Mr. Romney's and by extension some Republican ideas aren't acceptable for moderate American voters? 

Apparently there are at least twenty states where people have signed secession petitions including some where Mr. Obama won the popular vote.  I understand this is not unusual after a Presidential election but it sure is weird.  I wonder what these people think they are doing.  They voted, they lost:  how tough is that? 

Maybe it is just that we have so much more news available to us then in the past.  After all, newspapers have limited space, the internet seemingly doesn't. 

Have a good one.

Sore loser - to put it kindly

We went out to breakfast this a.m. and I spotted this.

I can't tell you how offended I am.  I'm not offended if some dumb ass in Iran or somewhere wants to disrespect our flag.  But to do this to your own country's flag just pisses me off.  This asshole probably thinks he/she is a great patriot or something.  I’m not going to say any more what I think of him/her, it would just be profanity.  I've read a good argument that the only place the flag should be flown is on government buildings.  But there are a lot of folks, especially around here it seems, who want to fly the flag.  MOST of them don't follow proper etiquette but do at least give it a try.  

If you have the time, you might try reading a few articles from this compilation of articles written by Charlie Reese, a newspaper man who is now retired.  I think he has some pretty good thoughts.  A warning however:  if you like Ron Paul you probably won't like Charlie; if you like Mr. Romney you probably won't like Charlie; if you like Mr. Obama you probably won't like Charlie.  If you think G. W. Bush was a good president, you certainly won't like Charlie.  Damn, I miss Charlie's writing.

Anyway, have a good one.

Happy Veterans Day

Happy Veteran's Day to all the vets out there.   As you can see, it’s a bit windy here today.  Having served our country is a privilege that those who have not done will never completely understand.   Odd, but true.

We had a murder here yesterday or maybe it was just lunch.  I just posted a photo of all the finches having lunch.  Well, apparently I have a hawk as a reader because he dropped in for lunch.  On the finches as it were.  My wife and I were sitting in the kitchen nook talking after lunch when I spotted a hawk out in the yard.  She grabbed her camera and got a shot or two of him standing around.  Then, in a moment, he had grabbed a finch and was dining!  Yep, just started pecking away at the little guy.  If you look closely you can see the finch in his claws.  After 10 minutes or so, we figured he was full.  He’d moved off a bit to finish his lunch and was kind of hidden in the shadows.  The other birds decided it was safe and returned to have more seed somehow ignoring the hawk.  Big mistake, huge actually for one because he came zooming in and grabbed another finch!  Yep, one just wasn’t enough.  I must admit, they are small. 

So we had a lesson in life yesterday.  We’ve all got to eat.  Have a good one!

Back to normal

After all the excitement of the election it’s good to return to normal stuff:  like watching the birds.  In the fall we get a ton of these little gold finches.  There are rose finches as well but the golden guys really go for thistle seed.  There is an ongoing fight to see who gets the best spots on the sock. 

We also had a rainbow yesterday.  No rain but the rainbow was nice.  There is a big storm coming our way from California so we are getting wind; perhaps rain over the weekend.  

On the CBS news this morning I saw a segment called  “Note To Self”; it was a man’s advice to his much younger self on the eve of going to war in Iraq.  The link is here – it is very highly recommended.  The guy, Alex Horton, works at the VA.  I cannot help thinking we will be hearing more from this guy.

Short post today.  Just wanted to share the ‘normal’ thing in life.  Have a good one.

Thank You!

Thank you U.S. of A. for avoiding the election of Mr. Romney.  Yep, I can't say thank you for electing Mr. Obama but, once again, I had to vote in favor of the lesser of two evils.  Jeez.  What a world. 

Locally we had a couple of people elected that I voted for and a couple that I didn't.  Isn't it always that way?  We'll stumble along as usual I suppose.  This area was a farming community; during the Las Vegas boom times it became a bedroom community.  Now during the downturn, it has no where to go.  Farming can't support all the people and commuting is pretty expensive so the only support are retirees who can live in this beautiful area without needing to work.  It's a tough place to represent in the best of times and these ain't!

We did refill the hot tub yesterday.  We drained it way last summer when we were traveling and it's been so warm that sitting in warm water didn't sound all that great.  Now, however, when the sun goes down it starts feeling chilly so sitting in warm water is sounding a lot better.  Silly, aren't we.  Anyway, starting tonight, most likely, if you want to see two old naked people come look through our gate or over the fence.  We've been sitting out enjoying the sunset most nights; now we'll have somewhere to go after the sun goes down.

Gotta go.  I've got another set of augers to install to hold the shed down and it will be too warm to work later in the day.  Have a good one!

Election Day

It's finally election day so if you are eligible and haven't already done so:   VOTE!  I know who I would like you to vote for but that isn't the way it works.  Go ahead and make up your own mind.  LOL 

We voted last week and the local election seems to be more agressive than in years past.  One candidate had a big bus conversion parked on the street with a 20 foot (7m) banner saying 'vote for me'.  Another had a little shade tent pitched where they could tell you what wonderful things they would do.  There were even a bunch of people trying to take an exit poll.  Jeez, I don't know what has come over all these people.  Anyway, I'm hoping that we the people make some wise choices and get this country off it's ass. 

We did go into Las Vegas yesterday.  I got roped into helping our daughter fix a mirror attached to a chest of drawers that she has.  This thing was flimsy when it was built and that was quite a while ago.  The mirror is about 3 feet by 5 feet (1m x 1.6m) and is being held on by four pretty short screws.  The maker actually put some solid metal attachment points but the bolts have been long gone and in fact one of the attachment legs has been replaced.  Anyway it was a less than fun hour of fooling around doing a truly lousy job.  What really made it worse is that the ladies both want to advise me on what to do but to about things in opposite directions.  My wife is slow and painstaking; my daughter is hurry and slap it together.  I was ready to rub them together and start a fire.

We also checked out more computers.  While that was fun, we did find a Samsung that was pretty nice.  It was sitting next to a Toshiba.  We currently both have Toshibas - hers a 2005 model, mine a 2008.  It was then that we noticed the Samsung has a matte screen while the Toshiba is quite shiny.  We orginally were basically looking at the new Toshibas and now we have more to think about.  I think I've talked her into only looking at 17" machines with the i7 Intel chip.  If she keeps the new machine for 7 years as well, it won't be a total boat anchor at the end and we don't really care about portability that much.  The new touch screen machines are pretty cool but I'm thinking we should wait a generation or so for the technology to become a bit more mainstream.   

Gotta go.  Here's hoping for the best.  Take care.

Promised Photo

I'm still fooling with the shed.  It's together but we get some really interesting micro-burst weather events around here so keeping it on the ground is a priority.   I bought the thing from our local Sears affiliate.  They had a little demo version put up in front of their store that was bolted to the concrete.  One day they came to work to find it totally knocked down.  It was still bolted down but apparently the wind got in the open door and just ripped it apart.  So keeping it in place might be a challenge.

The maker suggests bolting it to concrete or wood or using an auger type anchor.  We decided to try the augers.  They are kind of a pain to dig into the ground but seem pretty sturdy.  I’ve done the front pair of augers and installed a steel cable going over the top of the building.  The other set will have to be installed another day.  Anyway, here is the promised photo of the building.

I went all crazy and made chili yesterday.  It takes me about four hours from start to eating.  Good thing I’m not competing on any of those cooking shows where you get half an hour to create something!  One time I put about two-thirds beef and one-third pork in my chili and kind of liked it.  This time I tried putting in some chicken thighs (diced up of course).  It didn’t really work for me; the chicken just kind of disappeared into nothingness.  I use ancho chili and chili arbol mostly then toss in a chipotle with a bit of adobo sauce for a smoky touch. 

Tomorrow we might go into Las Vegas and look at computers.  My wife’s laptop is 7 years old; she is still on XP!  It is getting really slow; especially when she is using big files like in some of the games she likes to play.  Still, we are hesitant about going to Windows 8.  Have you tried it?  I haven’t played with it enough to tell if it is actually different or if it is just more of the same with a different face. 

Have a good one!

Not dead; just kind of creaky!

I just figured out that I haven't posted in two weeks!  Bad Don!  I haven't been just sitting around though I am awfully good at that.  While my wife was gone I decided to put up a metal shed that we bought an embarrassingly long time ago.  Well, I decided to start putting it up anyway.  The kit came in this large box; the size you have to unpack rather than try to move around.

The first few steps are where you get a nice level surface for the frame and put together some other parts, like rafters, that you’ll need later.  I spent a couple hours each day getting all that done.  Getting the frame perfectly level was a lot like hard work, I must say, but it really paid off because later in the construction we had very little trouble getting things to fit just so.  Then I got to Step 6 in the instructions (of 20 steps).  Let me quote the note preceding Step 6.

“The remainder of the building assembly requires many hours and more than one person.  Do not continue beyond this point if you do not have enough time to complete the assembly today.  A partially assembled building can be severely damaged by light winds.”

I was alone so I needed to stop then once my wife returned to assist/direct me, the wind started.  Grrrr!  I had the individual sheets of metal all set out on the ground divided into piles according to the instructions and couldn’t do anything.  There were 12 different types of panels and 23 other braces, trim strips, brackets, channels and frames.  It wasn’t until Monday of this week that we got calm conditions.  By then a few of the panels had been blown around and a couple had dents even.  But what can you do; just make it happen.  So that’s what we did.

I must say that the idea of completing assembly in a day seemed pretty optimistic; and it sure was!  We worked about 4 hours on Monday; 5 on Tuesday and another 5 on Wednesday.  We finally finished the thing with an extra hour or so this morning.  That’s a total of 15 hours (30 since there were two of us working) in addition to the 6 or 8 I’d already put in. 

So what do we have?  It is a 10’ x 11’ (3.04m x 3.35m) Arrow storage building that mostly just covers our well and the associated parts:  the control box, pressure tank, etc.  There is room for some other things but not a whole bunch.  You can however get all around the well should you need to work on it.  Another part of the reason for such a large building is that the pressure tank is over five feet tall and smaller buildings just weren’t tall enough.  In the end, the fact that we had a couple of dented panels didn’t really matter a lot.  It made fitting the panels a bit more difficult but it wasn’t that bad.   Most of the requirement for a second person was to stabilize the building while the other was putting in a screw or to tighten a bolt that the other person put in.  We managed it ok and we are both in our sixties so it isn’t all about strength.  

I must say that the kit was complete and the instructions quite good.  We ran out of the little plastic washers near the end but that was about it.  We had extras of the screws, nuts and bolts used.  They did have a habit of saying something like ‘only put one bolt in the beam at this time’ but not saying WHY you were only using one.  There was always a reason that we discovered some way down the line but it was kind if disconcerting to leave things half done hoping to find a finish later.  You also had to be very attentive to the instruction AND the diagrams; one of the reasons we stopped work after 4 or 5 hours was because we were getting tired and making silly mistakes:  like losing track of which end of the door was the top.  Still, I’ve got to say it is a pretty good product and it’s ‘Made in the USA’. 

Photos?  Ah, well, my wife took a few but hasn’t downloaded them yet!  The good news though is that it will make for another post.  LOL  Have a good one!

Lots O Fun

My wife and daughter have gone off to have fun without me; visiting the beach.  It works for me since they get to talk, talk, talk and I get to enjoy the quiet at home.  Definitely a win-win. 

I took our usual walk this a.m. with the dog out in the desert.  We walk along the road for about a quarter of a mile.  This morning we found this:  the remains of a rabbit.  Looks like the coyotes have a nice little dinner.  They sure didn't leave much.

It rained last Thursday; that's a week ago.  Well, here's another photo from my walk.  The earth here is nature's Tupperware!  It is still muddy from last week.

This trail is actually on the map as a road.  People drive here even though it is not what you might call 'improved'.  It is mostly pickups and ATVs that use the path but you do see the occasional car.  This is one of those places where putting too much reliance in your GPS can get you in trouble!

Some time ago I bought a shed kit from Sears intending to protect our well from the elements.  I'm finally putting the thing together.  Well, I should say I've started to put it together.  I worked all morning and got the floor frame together.  It has what seems to be thousands of tiny screws and nuts and bolts to connect all the pieces.  Just getting the site leveled is killing me.  I put one of these together when we lived in Orlando and I don't remember it being such a hassle.  Of course I was twenty years younger then.  LOL  Maybe that has something to do with all my whining. 

Gotta go.  Have a good one.

Two posts in two days!

Just when I've been saying my life is pretty quiet, yesterday happened.  All in all, it was a long day!  It started with an appointment with my opthomologist in Las Vegas.  That was actually quiet; too quiet.  Got there about 12:30 and didn't get out until about 14:45.  Why it took so long is beyond me; but then again, doctors don't seem to care much about the patient's time do they?  The outcome was I'm good to go for another year at least.  So it is almost 16:00 by the time we make it back over the hump.

Our daughter missed my birthday and wanted to take us out to dinner to celebrate, at my age I don't know if you should celebrate another birthday or just another day above ground!  Anyway, she was only about 10 minutes behind our arrival.  We had a glass of wine and chatted then went to an early dinner at our local steak house.  The dinner was really quite good and we all enjoyed ourselves. 

On the way home we were perhaps a mile from the house when someone came right up behind us and started tail-gating us.  Hmmm.  My wife and I both encouraged our daughter to slow and let them past; amazingly she did so!  (Later she said that she only drives that carefully when her parents are along. LOL).  This little gray car zooms around us and tears off but within a couple hundred yards went off the road and slammed into a driveway culvert.  Smoke was issuing from the entire vehicle and some steam from the radiator.  It was quite a sight. 

Naturally we stopped and tried to see if the occupants were ok.  The car's airbag had deployed and the driver and only occupant, a woman, seemed unconscious.  The car was rapidly filling with smoke, the police later told us it was from the airbag.  Anyway we tried all the doors; only the right rear and the back hatch would open but it did clear the smoke out.  Meanwhile my wife was on the phone to the police & fire departments.  They had pretty good response time.  The deputy was there in four or five minutes I would guess.  He just checked that there was an accident and called for backup; we had two more police cars before the fire department showed up.  They couldn't get the door open to free the driver either so they got out the 'jaws of life' and cut the entire roof off the car!  It had rained today so the ditch was filled with water.  The poor guy cutting the top off got pretty wet!   (Photo, btw, is from our daughter's cell phone.)

The whole process was quite interesting but for us not so neat as we were left standing around in the cold for well over half an hour watching while we could have been nice and warm at home.  All the deputies did for most of that time was to watch the firemen at work.  They did look over what remained of the car after the driver was off to the hospital.   In the end one of the deputies gave us 1 page witness forms to fill out then we were told we could go.  They could have done that much earlier!  Anyway, it certainly gave us something new to talk about.

I haven't been able to see any report on the condition of the driver.  She was taken away moaning on a back-board and one of the deputies said her injuries were minor but I can't find conformation of that.  (We could hear her from 50 or 60 feet (20m) away.)

Beautiful places near home

I haven't been very inspired to blog lately but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about you all!  It's just been pretty dull around here.  However, on our walk last Saturday morning my wife had an idea.  We have always wanted to visit Mt. Charleston; why not make a day trip up there.  Cool idea!  We've heard it is beautiful but have never made the trip.  Why not!

Let me explain a bit of background.  The photo of the mountain on the blog header is Mt. Charleston.  It is like the 3rd or 4th highest mountain in the continental U.S. at almost 12,000 feet (3,600m).  It is the centerpiece of the Spring Mountain range that divides our valley from the Las Vegas valley.  The thing is that you can go across the range south of Mt. Charleston or you can go north; it's quite a trip either way.  We decided to drive north of Pahrump on highway 160 up to where it intersects US 95 then take US 95 south until we could head up highway 156 to the Mt. Charleston peak area.  That alone is a 2 hour trip.  Then we thought we'd take highway 158 south along the side of the mountain to the little town of Mt. Charleston then go east on highway 157 until it connected with US 95 about 10 miles south of where we had left it.  Basically, all it amounts to is a short scenic loop that takes you up to about the 8,500 foot (2,600m) level. 

All was good until we got onto highway 156 to go up the mountain.  Turns out there was a 'special event' Saturday; to wit, a bunch of bicycle riders going up the mountain then coming back down.  Of course it slowed us down but actually that was kind of an advantage as it gave us more time to enjoy the scenery while we weren't trying to avoid the cyclists.  We got up to the place where we needed to decide whether we wanted to visit the ski area (and all the cyclists) or just turn south.  We chose turning south.  The road was very nice with a fair number of turnouts for sightseeing and letting others go past. 

The whole loop was very scenic with the desert gradually giving way to actual trees.  Did I take my camera, hell, no!  The way I plan for these things, you'd might think me an idiot.  On the way back to US 95 we got to drive through a couple of campgrounds.  They seemed quite nice but were basically unimproved and I wouldn't want to take a big rig in some of them.  We saw a couple of 35 foot motorhomes in the Kyle Canyon area but there weren't any big trailers or fifth-wheels!  Nice area but not for us.  In addition, because of the weekend, it was packed. 

It was 13:00 by the time we made it to Las Vegas.  We spent a good 15 minutes looking for a special restaurant my wife wanted to visit; happily we had both the address and the suite number - they are gone.  Not even a glimmer of a restaurant.  So we went to a fast food joint!  The things you've gotta do when it's late and you are hungry.  Anyway, then it was just a quick trip home in plenty of time to feed the dog. 

Sunday was pretty quiet but then Monday and Tuesday I was laid low by vertigo.  I had an episode early in 2011 so it wasn't as frightening this time but it isn't fun.  Basically the only thing you can do is lie down and shut up until it goes away.  I had some drugs I was given for it back in 2011 so I took some of those to ease my recovery.  Anyway, by Wednesday I was back in the land of the living. 

So there are my last few days.  We had talked of going up to Zion or the North Rim of the Grand Canyon but decided there are things around here that we need to be doing.  After the vertigo episode, I'm sure glad we were here!  Hope you had some nice fall weather!

Stuff & nonsense

We have been having a pretty quiet time lately.  Our big excitement over the weekend was a visit with blogger Ed and his dog Patches.  Ed has a medical appointment in Las Vegas on Wednesday and I volunteered to keep Patches while he is gone.  We thought we would get together ahead of time so Patches would have a chance to know me and my wife; not to mention our dog and cat.  As it turned out, everything is pretty cool.  Patches is really good with people; pretty good with the other dog and really amazed by the cat!  It was actually pretty funny.  Scotchie, the cat, is 17 and has been around a lot of dogs and he isn't taking any guff from them.  Patches would sneak up behind Scotchie and take a good sniff and Scotchie would turn around and whack Patches in the nose and Patches would run off.  LOL  Scotchie has no front claws so isn't going to do any harm but it sure surprised Patches.  So anyway we had lunch and everyone got to know everyone else.  Wednesday should be a piece of cake.

Late breaking news:  Ed is getting picked up for the trip to Vegas at 05:50 a.m.!  Hell, it will still be dark!  But I guess we'll live through the experience. 

I went over to pick up Ed and Patches in our truck which has hardly been out of the garage since we got home from San Diego.  Somehow it has developed a pull to the left and a shaking like something is out of round.  Took it down to a local tire place and sure enough, there is a bulge in the tread of the right front tire.  We had one tire grow a bulge in the sidewall on our trip to Washington in 2011 (approx. 20k miles); we had another grow a bulge in the tread while in San Diego (30k miles); and now at least one of the remaining tires has a bulge.  Hmmm.  I guess I can't really recommend the Continental tires that Ford put on the truck!  I think we'll just have the local guy replace both front tires (the old ones) with another brand.  We could chase around getting warranty work from Continental but that entails a trip to Las Vegas plus tying us to them for any future problems.  I think having a guy right here is the way to go.  The Continentals have been replaced under warranty pro-rated for the service we've received but that is still $120 + tax; new tires will probably run me $220 each but they won't carry the Continental name and if I have a problem the seller is about 4 miles away.

We are finally in our few moments of fall-like weather.  That means mid 90F days (35C) and mid 60F (18C) at night.  It's a big improvement over summer.  Of course it means other things:  Walmart has their Christmas stuff out!  The rest of the stores are focusing on shorter-term goals like Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Maybe it makes me sound old and grumpy but I think I prefer waiting just a bit longer for the attack of the Christmas sale. Ok, so I'm old and grumpy; but you knew that already!

Have a good one anyway!

Collapse!

I have been reading blogs lately whose writers are anticapating some sort of incredible collapse of our society - soon!  I disagree but I am in sympathy with them.  Our society is clearly in trouble; and not just ours but seemingly the entire world.  Let's see what sort of collapses I can find.

1.  The economic state of the U.S. - Public Debt is just crazy, the economy in general is dull at best.
2.  The euro - bailing out the poor countries will be awful; kicking them out ditto.
3.  Islamic unrest - is it out of control?  How does a primarily Christian country like the U.S. but believing in a separation of church and state respond to a religous war? 
4.  Will terrorists start sneaking serious bombs into our country?
5.  Is there a threat from China?  Clearly they make everything we use, buy all our debt, are establishing a huge military presence, may have the abliity to undermine our infrastructure.
6.  Our infrastructure is dying on the vine anyway since our country isn't investing in it at all.  And basic scientific research is dying without investment - if you don't think that is important you are sadly mistaken.


Of course I've not mentioned the things I don't think are dangers (and why) - like:

1.  Whether or not Mr. Obama was born in the U.S. (It's a done deal folks!)
2.  Increased gun control. (Against - I like guns AND the Constitution; read the 2nd amendment.)
3.  Immigrants. (This is the melting pot, let them in.  Legalize them!  In a generation, we'll all be better for them.  No one is complaining about the Irish any more.)
4.  Paying for abortions via Medicare. (Would you rather support the kids on welfare?  How about paying for orphanages?)
5.  The decline of morality.  (This does bother me but I don't see it as a danger as long as we don't try to impose any specific definition of morality on our society.)
6.  Religion in general.  (Read the damn Constitution!  Whatever you believe, as long as you keep it reasonably to yourself, go ahead.  Yes, even Scientologists, Islamics and athiests.)

Have I ever been wrong?  Of course!  All the time!  But really folks, I don't think the sky isn't falling any more than usual.  And even if it were, no one gets out of this life alive anyway.

Another Vegas trip

We wandered into Las Vegas again yesterday on a kind of different mission:  my wife and daughter wanted to go see the musical Wicked at the Smith Center.  I went along just for some quiet time in Las Vegas.  We left about 15:00 for a 17:00 reservation at a restaurant named Mundo which is near the theater in the World Market Center. 

They bill themselves as a Latin chic restaurant; it was fine.  We only had appetizers and drinks.  While the drinks were good and fairly inexpensive, the appetizers were quite unusual and in the $12-15 range.  For example, ahi tuna on a tostada - my wife loves ahi so she had to try it and I even had a bit.  It was surprisingly good though certainly different!  (I should have tried taking photos of the food but I'm usually too hungry; at least that's my excuse.)  I'm sure quite a lot of their evening business comes from the Smith Center crowd since it is so very convenient.  There are city and county buildings in the area that probably contribute to the lunch crowd not to mention other businesses in the World Market Center. (Ok, the name is pretty presumptuous but the building is quite interesting.  Maybe the 'Our Little Glitzy Corner of the Desert Design Center' wouldn't have the same ring!)

Anyway, while the ladies whiled away two & three quarters hours seeing the show, I took off and ran around the city just checking a few things out.  For example, wandering around in Frys isn't as much with my wife along; she is too practical!  I can look at these weird things and dream about doing outrageous stuff.  It was certainly more fun for me than going to the show!  Cheaper too!  I guess they liked the show and thought the cast talented but thought it rather long.  They also thought they might need crampons to reach their seats! 

In the end we made it home by midnight.  Reason enough for us not to do this too often!  However it was only about 65F (18C) so we could open the windows and cool the house off.  Very nice for sleeping!  Today we are recovering from the long day and working on those leftovers I have been whining about.  We need to take it easy on creating them in the future; this eating the same thing for a week is getting tiresome.  

Enough whining.  Have a good one!

9/11 again

I doubt if there are many in the Western world who don't remember 9/11; where they were, what they were doing.  My smartphone tells me it is Patriot Day.  Well, I don't mean to be a grouch but who really needed a named day?  And what the hell does it have to do with patriotism?  Tragedy Day; Terrorism Day; those mean something but Patriot Day?  The soldier who gets killed today in Afghanistan is a patriot.  The people killed in the terrorist attacks were mostly victims; the first responders might be called heroes; but I just don't care for the term Patriot Day. 

Ok, rant is over.  My wife and I are self-described weird people.  Take our eating habits for example.  We will start out a week with the fridge almost empty then we cook several days in a row and then darned thing is stuffed with leftovers.  Does anyone else do that?  For example, right now we have a big tub of ham & bean soup; another of a beef & barley stew; several pieces of leftover steak; some leftover salmon; leftover taco filling and more!  There is enough food for a dozen people; no wonder I'm overweight.  One thing we are both proud of is that we don't eat a lot of processed stuff.  No Hamburger Helper in our cupboard though we do have at least 30 different spices.  We might cook up some noodles and put hamburger in with them but it won't be out of a box. 

Of course that isn't our only weirdness.  Take vehicles; we keep them quite a while. It's not a contest or anything; I don't like unreliable vehicles but we keep them and take care of them.  Our last truck stayed with us for 9 years; the car 15 years; the one before that 10 years.  We are having a party in December; we'll be paying off the RAV4 after three years.  (Toyota was offering 0% interest & I just couldn't say 'no'.)  That means we'll have 6 to 10 years without a car payment.  That makes life a lot nicer!  The truck is an 08 model, nearly five years old, paid for, but it's only got 30,000 miles (48,000 km).  We are planning on keeping it for quite a while too.  What do we care if it's old? 

Being atheists marks us as weird too.  I doubt if I could get elected dog catcher in this country; much less in this town.  We have a church around every corner and at least two church related schools.  (Oddly, there is  no Catholic school here though there is a fairly large church; the fundamentalist sects are the ones with schools.)   It must be a reflection of my age and upbringing that I am unfamiliar with churches like The Rock Vineyard Church or The Foursquare Faith Fellowship or the Heritage Bible Church.  I'm more used to the couple different kinds of Lutheran or Baptist Churches. 

Speaking of religion; I came across an article on Thomas Jefferson and his religious beliefs.  Apparently he didn't care for the entire bible so he selected the parts he liked and physically made up his own version.  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/multimedia/videos/A-Brief-History-of-the-Jefferson-Bible.html  For me it is an astonishingly thoughtful and ambitious undertaking.  Apparently he was a person who took his religion seriously.

On that odd note I will leave you.  Have a good one.

Gardening

I was doing a little gardening yesterday.  Well, it was actually weeding.  Well, one weed anyway.  It was a pretty little thing.

 Unfortunately look at the spikes on that stem!  They were sharp too.

Boy I wish I could get things we want to grow to have protection like that!  You will note that my tool of choice was a pair of pliers, gloves would have been totally useless.

My wife and daughter are planning a short trip to Ensenada, Mexico next month.  They will only be gone a few days so I get to hold down the fort alone.  It's always weird when one of us is gone.  I should be able to stay out of trouble; whether the wife and daughter will is more of a question!  Two years ago they took a cruise on the Mexican Riviera and really liked Ensenada.  This time they will get to see more of the city.  I'm already really happy that I'm not going.  The thought of three days with our manic daughter is enough to drive me to drink.

The folks over at Because We Can are visiting Europe again.  It is making me want to go back; I miss it.  They took a guided tour of Normandy which actually sounded like quite a lot of fun.  We visited on our own  back in 1993.  Good lord, almost 20 years ago! 

I guess Mont Saint-Michel doesn't change that much!  I remember we were walking past a bar and heard the unmistakable scream of a Formula One race car.  We went in and asked the bartender about the race.  Alain Prost wasn't winning so he was bummed out.  The beer was good though.

Have a good one.

Election in Quebec???

Ok, I know the US is insular but this is carrying things too far!  There was an election in Quebec and the new P.M. is a separatist.  The Las Vegas Review Journal had not a word about the election; even though there was even a shooting involved!  Grrrr!  (Some nut came into the hall where she was speaking and managed to kill someone while missing the new P.M. entirely.)  The point for me is that Canada is an important part of the world and we don't have any knowledge of what's going on there.  Jeez!   The way I heard of the whole election/shooting was via my smartphone.  I think it is just sad that our traditional news media has become so isolated. 

Someone sent me an email the other day suggesting I watch a documentary on our local Fox affiliate on President Obama.  Are you kidding me?  What possible credence would Murdoch's right wing empire have with any normal thinking human being when talking about a fairly centralist candidate?  Oh, but I forgot, thinking is a very old fashioned virtue and isn't much done any more.  It certainly isn't allowed on television!  Every time I catch myself watching a show on Fox is pisses me off knowing I'm funding his empire. 

In an attempt to lower my blood pressure, I'm going to change the subject!  I am looking forward to the new vans that Ford and Dodge are supposed to be introducing.  I've always liked the look of the Transit van and some of the Fiat vans are pretty good looking as well and should be pretty cheap to run.  They all come from places where $5 a gallon fuel is the rule rather than a political scare tactic.  They should give the Mercedes Sprinter a run for it's money.  I don't see the traditional U.S. pickup being abandoned even though they do get awful mileage; they are kind of like cowboy boots, a tradition.  Besides, I've never seen a viable substitute.

Speaking of vans and trucks reminds me that we haven't traveled anywhere lately.  I'm not sure what's next.  There are lots of places in California that we want to visit that aren't far:  Sequoia National Park, Yosemite National Park, San Francisco, the wine country, the list goes on and on.  However, most likely it will be another run to San Diego but after the new year.   Dull, that's me.

Have a good one!

Lots of fun stuff.....

Thursday I took the F-250 over to the Ford dealer in Las Vegas for a service.  This is a 30K mile service so they do extra stuff - sale price is $500+.  This would be a reason not to buy a diesel!  However, pulling those mountains out here in the West is a reason TO buy one.  Decisions, decisions; well, the truck needed the service.  Took it in and was told that they couldn't really give me an estimate of when it would be done!  WTF?  Well, but it would be today.  Then the guy offered me a 'loaner'; a rental car from an Enterprise agency that was right on the property.  They would pay the fee and all I would have to pay would be the gas used and the taxes.  Weird but I jumped on it.  It meant I got to have lunch, check out some of Las Vegas and not be bored silly sitting in the showroom.  It was a great deal all around!  I arrived around 10:00 and decided to return to the dealership about 15:30 - the truck was done and it was pretty painless.  It cost me an extra $10 for the car but that was a heck of a deal! 

There was a very interesting (to me) article on Yahoo talking about the fact that Ford has decided to stop building the Econoline van series - the E-150, E250 & E-350's are gonners.  They are going to be bringing over vehicles that have been built in Europe (and perhaps other places) for at least 15 years.  The new vans will be taller, thinner and powered by more efficient engines both gas and diesel.  Van people know that an E-250 will be lucky to get 15 mpg; a Sprinter (by Mercedes) will do 22 mpg.  In Europe Ford has vans like the Sprinter but they haven't bothered to bring them/build them here.  The article suggested there might be some level of collusion to keep the status-quo but it's unlikely anyone will ever prove anything.  Still, better vans are something we need in this country.


We did make yet ANOTHER trip to Vegas on Friday.   My mom was the last of nine kids so I have a few cousins on her side.  There is a family get together back in Missouri that we are going to miss this year but one of the cousins was coming out here visiting friends so we had to get together.  We met at a Red Lobster restaurant; had a meal and a nice talk.  I met this guy maybe once or twice when I was a kid then didn't see him until I was over 60.  Not a close relationship (!) but I don't seem to have much trouble re-connecting with my cousins.  It was a nice visit but short.  (As an aside, I haven't been in a Red Lobster for probably 25 years.  They have changed and have food that is much healthier than way back then.  I'd definitely go back.)


So now we've had a couple quiet days.  Hanging around Pahrump isn't too exciting at the best of times.  We went out to breakfast yesterday; went out to lunch today.  We manage our usual couple of mile walk most days.  It's definitely low key stuff.  I've got to admit that we are planning yet another visit to Vegas.  We are cheese addicts and the local stores just don't have the stuff we crave.  I don't blame them; they probably wouldn't sell five pounds (10kg) of gouda a month not to mention some of the more common French and German cheeses.

My wife got the itch to clean our bookshelves; now there is a nasty job!  I'm guessing we have in excess of 300 linear feet of books (100 m); taking the book down, dusting it, dusting the shelf and putting it back is a giant pain in the whateverfloatsyourboat.  But trust me, it isn't fun.  It does need doing from time to time though so I'm slaving away beside her.  If there was ever a reason to have electronic copies of books, this is it!  My problem is that I'm a mystery fan.  Not just any mysteries, most of the books I have are copyrighted before 1960.  There aren't electronic versions; not to mention who would buy the electronic version if it were available.  I'll buy some new electronic books and read them on my pc but they will be few and far between.  I don't really care much for modern writers so I'll continue to haunt the used book stores.  Hope to see you there.

Not a good day

We wandered over to the Toyota dealer yesterday to have an oil change.  The local EZ-Lube or whatever does it in about 15 minutes.  The dealer managed to stretch it out to over 2.5 hours!!!  Needless to say, we were under-whelmed.  I must say the Service Director did give us basically a full refund.  Still, my bride was pretty darned hungry by the time we got to eat.  We also got to deal with a fouled up prescription so by the time we got home about 16:30 we'd been gone all day and had darned little to show for it.  We didn't even get close to the Smith Center for the Performing Arts as we had hoped.  Oh well, I guess it isn't going anyplace.

I've been staying as far away from coverage of the Republican National Convention as possible.  Mr. Romney is now the official candidate and I actually rather respect him.  The medical insurance scheme he came up with while Massachusetts governor was pretty clever.  And since he was a Republican there was no use of the 'socialist' term at all.  I'm a little worried that the remainder of the party may pull him to the right and he'll end up like that idiot from Missouri who talked about 'legitimate rape'.  Mr. Romney has already proven on his swing through Europe and the Middle East that his brain isn't always engaged while his mouth is in action.  I'm not so certain about Mr. Ryan who is to be the VP candidate.  He wrote a Republican version of the budget that I thought pandered to the naivety of  the 'tea party'.  His own legislative background is slight; but since Mr. Obama's is pretty slight as well maybe that is the new 'normal'.

I don't tend to watch a lot of television but do end up watching more than I should!   Last night I found a show called "Hard Time" on National Geographic Channel.  I guess it's been on for several years but I only just found it.  I do recommend it if you want to see a very strange side to life.  The particular episode I watched followed some inmates at Ross Correctional Institution in Chillicothe, Ohio.  It was very touching how these guys became institutionalized and were soon close to unfit for life on the outside.  One guy was 16 when he was involved with a murder (didn't actually do it, just tried to cover it up); now he is 27 and has been paroled.  He was clearly worried that he wasn't going to be able to make it on the outside.  A guard takes him outside the gate and stands around in the snow with him while they wait for someone who is coming to pick him up.  He says something like "So I'm free.  I could just walk down the road?"  He has never driven a car.  He has never slept with a woman.  He has never held a real job.  He has tattoos all over; on the back of his neck, his throat, his skull.  The show made it clear that even in a prison where they were really trying to give inmates a chance to learn; the inmate had to motivate himself and some of them, like this guy, didn't care at all.  I was almost surprised he didn't get into some kind of trouble so his parole would be revoked.  It was an amazing view of life.

Here's to living life on the outside.  Makes the idiots at the Toyota garage seem endearing; almost!  Have a good one.

Odd things....

Yesterday we had some odd happenings around the old homestead.  I noticed it when I went outside with the dog.  The cover of the hot tub had been removed; non-trivial since it had two concrete blocks holding it down.  The other odd thing was that the Weber propane bbq was moved.  Ok, wind COULD have done these things but I find it hard to believe.  However, we have a 5 foot fence around the back yard and all the gates are locked; so anyone who would do anything like this would be pretty athletic.  I just don't know and doubt if I ever will.  Just odd stuff.

Kids are going back to school now; yesterday was the first day.  Boy, do I remember the mixed feelings about the first day of school.  You get to see all your friends again but... school!  For me it was as bad as having a job.  Well, not quite as bad.  At least the teachers were easier on me than my dad!

Have to cut this short.  Taking the car in for service today so we are off to the big city.  We also want to check out Smith Center; a new civic auditorium in Las Vegas.  Should be fun; maybe I'll even take the camera. 

Have a good one.

Insurance Folly

I read blogs from other countries where there is some sort of socialized medicine and think that if only we could call it something other than 'socialized' it would be a big hit here in the U.S.  Unfortunately that particular word is misunderstood in this country.  I blame it on the abysmal job done by our education mafia but I digress.  I got a letter from my doctor's office yesterday containing a bill for an x-ray I had done.

First of all, we have health insurance that is associated with my wife's retirement.  It basically does nothing and costs us about $10K a year.  However, if either of us ever had something desperately wrong, it would pay for itself in moments.   BTW, my wife, being the inquiring sort, has figured out that even though we are pretty healthy, we are actually getting our $10K a year back based on accounting such as I shall relate.  Now, back to my doctor's bill.

On 16 May I had my x-ray.  The statement is dated 16 August; how it only got here on 23 August (from Las Vegas) is between the doctor's office, the Post Office and God.  I was billed $282.00 for my x-ray.  The insurance company paid $79.34 for the x-ray.  The contract between the insurance company and the doctor's office obligated the doctor to 'adjust' the bill by $182.82.  So my bill is $19.84.  Now what kind of screwed up mess is that!  If you walk in without insurance you pay almost $300; with this 'insurance', you pay $20.  Huh???

So folks, if you don't think the medical situation in this country is AFU, think again!

On a completely different subject, I normally use Firefox for a browser.  Yesterday I discovered that trying to view a video on YouTube (a Google company) gave me a message:  "An error occurred.  Please try again later."  Remember I was getting messages from Blogger( another Google company) about using Firefox; well, I fired up Chrome, Google's browser, and was able to view the video perfectly.  Anyone want to guess what's going on?  I'm not paranoid but I could learn to be. 

Have a good one!

What a difference....

Wednesday was our last day in San Diego.  We didn't do much.  Went down to the beach, walked around a bit and had lunch.  Life in the fast lane, etc!  Here was where we were walking on Wednesday.

The day started out a little overcast but by the time we made it to the beach it was about 75F (24C) and just lovely.  The wind picked up a bit after a while but it wasn't tough to take.  We stopped along the way at a restaurant associated with a wave pool:  the Wavehouse.  It wouldn't have been my choice but it was there.  We were surprised to have a very nice meal!  I had some excellent fish tacos while my wife had some really tasty chicken wings.  Yes, just pub grub, but really nicely done!  My tacos had a really nice creama and her wings weren't slathered with sauce but were just perfectly coated.  Amazing stuff!

Thursday was spent mainly in the truck but Friday morning found us out walking again.  Scenery a bit different though.  This is our normal walk; out in the desert near our house but  definitely not developed!  That black object is our dog, running ahead to be sure the route is safe.  It's good to be home!

Friday and Saturday were spent finding out all the things that had changed during our week away.  Isn't that sad!  I'm becoming my parents!  But isn't that pretty much the way of the world?  We are taught our parents values and beliefs but then are left to apply them to a world that is, sometimes, substantially different.  In 1954 my dad was 50 years old; in a job he wasn't fond of:  supervising a bunch of independently owned 'dime stores'.  On tv, Jackie Gleason was hitting his wife Joyce so hard that she would end up on the moon.  In 1988 I was 40; we had put men on the moon (didn't find Joyce!) and pretty much decided not to try again.  We were still tired out and pissed off from our efforts at being the worlds policeman in Vietnam.  I was ending a relatively short career with AT&T and going on to an 'interesting time' working for PACCAR.  Be careful what you wish for, grasshopper! 

Have a good one!

Still around....

This park was REALLY full when we got here; like there were one or two empty spaces in the whole place.  I mentioned that we had to ask two people to move their cars so we could get into our space.  Since Sunday though it is a lot more quiet.  Here's a shot of the trailer & truck in our space.

As I said, it's a parking lot.  But it is pretty quiet and there is a nice place to walk the dog.  Speaking of dogs, every rig seems to have a couple.  The people behind us only have one but their neighbor has two, the people a space down from us have three.  Jeez. 

We have a quiet day planned for today; just going out to the beach and hanging out.  We might even get our feet wet!  This week has been a good one for walking; my wife's pedometer has registered over 10,000 steps twice.  For us that's a new record.  Not that I'm fading away or anything, no worry about that!  Tomorrow we will pack up and head for home.  Compared to most people here we have nothing with us so it won't take too long to pack up.  Most folks have at least a shade canopy and a couple of bikes outside their rig.  We enjoy staying in the trailer but it's always good to be headed home.

Have a good one!

Travels.....

We are in the middle of our long discussed trip to San Diego.  The fact that we are paying tons for this rv space is certainly not reflected in the wifi they offer!  It stinks.  Over the weekend it was totally impossible to get on; now that the place is half-empty you are only dropped every five minutes or so.  The name of this joint is Mission Bay RV Resort.  The good news is it is on Mission Bay.  That is very good.  Also there is a lovely walk you can take along the bay shore.  The rest of the story isn't so great.  First of all, it is a parking lot. There are a few trees planted between the sites but otherwise it is total blacktop.  We had to ask two people to move their cars so we could get into our site so it's pretty tight.  It is also a very expensive parking lot > $400 for a week.  There is also a four page list of rules.  We don't usually have much trouble with rv park rules and we aren't having trouble here but it is annoying to have all these rules.  There were lots of kids here over the weekend but they were pretty well behaved.  The park has a small private beach and between time at the beach and riding their bikes/skateboards; they were tired out.  The fact that the park has 24 hour security and lots of it probably has something to do with it as well.

San Diego is as beautiful as ever and, of course, it's great to see number 1 son & his Significant Other.  We visited the Birch Aquarium yesterday.  It's a very nice facility; a little expensive but nice.  They had a large exhibit on Global Warming as well that was quite interesting.  We also strolled around La Jolla; just to see how the other half lives!  I've always heard about artists living in garrets; the ones who sell their work in La Jolla must have really nice garrets!  We've also been working on trying as many restaurants as possible.  Tough work but someone has to do it.

We've got a couple days left before returning home.  The heat wave is affecting the entire southwest except for this little part next to the ocean.  It's only about 80F here; in ten miles we'll gain 20F and it will stay that warm for the remainder of our trip.  Sounds fun! 

Have a good one!

What do I do???

I had a doctor's appointment the other day with a doctor other than my usual GP.  He was a guy about my own age and asked 'what do you do all day'?  I suppose he associates 'retired' with 'old, useless and discarded'.  I'm not sure what words I would use but relaxed and perhaps too comfortable are part of the answer. 

For example, there is absolutely no reason I shouldn't work out for say 30 minutes a day.  I'm unlikely to make it to the Olympics but that's not the point.  Good health requires some movement and unfortunately I don't make it happen.  We do walk out in the desert four or five days a week for half an hour or forty-five minutes.  When we go places like a museum I can tell that I don't get tired from the walking.  Now when we go someplace like Colorado I sure notice 1) the hills and 2) the altitude.  That would be tough to train for around here but I definitely need to incorporate some strength training into my day. 

Another area that needs some work is our portfolio.  I was checking today and a couple mutual funds that were rated as three-star (by Morningstar) have been downgraded to two-star.  I wasn't happy about having the funds at three-star but I've had them for a long while and thought they might recover.  For them to fall farther is not a good thing.  Generally I don't care much about the prognostications of 'experts' but when there is a calculated reduction in return,  I'm thinking there is a trade in my near future. 

Finally I want to spend less time on this computer and more time 'doing things'.  Like what?  Well, I bought lumber for a bat house but haven't built it.  I'm an amateur cook, that would certainly be a place I could improve!  Ditto with my photography.  I've wanted to learn to juggle for years, why am I not learning?  Finally, there are plenty of places where an unpaid volunteer might make a difference for people in the valley.  I need to raise my hand!  The fact that we are gone for a month or two a year should not be keeping me from the work in the first place. 

Ok, I'm motivated.  I'm going to go work out for a while.  Hope you are having a good one and, you too, can make time to work out.  Take care.

I'm not saying it's hot....

I'll let this photo of a dove hiding in the shade of the bird bath say it for me!

If you have been following this blog you know I've been copying old photos to my computer.  I'm about worn out trying to pry photos out of albums.  It's a giant pain but in a way it is kind of fun.  For example, copying the photos we took back in 1993 when we took European delivery on our new BMW.  We took three weeks and wandered around southern German and northern France.  We had lots of fun & saw all kinds of wonderful stuff.  People at work said it was 'the trip of a lifetime'; I said then and say now 'I'm not dead yet!'.  I'm hoping for many more 'trip of a lifetime' experiences.  Still, we did have fun.  Here I am 19 years ago(!) storing up energy to see Neuschwanstein - German King Ludwig's fantasy castle.

That huge bag is my camera bag:  Nikon, telephoto, flash & a few filters.  Wow, how times have changed.  These days half my photos are taken with my phone; it and my camera will fit in my pocket.  It was my wife's first trip to Europe.  Only four years later, she took a job there.  What a rush! 

One of my favorite RV bloggers says "Life is not a dress rehearsal. Don't be afraid to laugh, love and retire early." Well, I don't know about the retiring early; that's tough to manage but he's certainly right that life isn't a dress rehearsal.  So if you want to do something, make it happen!

Until then, have a good one.

P.S.  It occurs to me that this was my dad's birthday.  Had he lived he would be 108 today.  Happy birthday Dad!

Two days in a row????

WTF, I'm getting all crazy here.  Guess it felt so good to blog that I had to try it again.  To keep on with my restaurant rants I have to tell you about and experience I had here in town last week.  To start with, this is about guns, not food.  Of course that nitwit who is 'alleged' to have killed all those folks in Colorado brought this to mind. 

We went into a local Italian joint the other night.  It's got fair food, reasonable prices and pretty good service.  It's problem is that it basically looks like a dump.  They have a small problem with cleanliness but a larger problem with decor from the 1970's.  When is the last time you saw a statuette of a little Italian chef?  ANYWAY, this place has three employees:  the owner/chef, a fat useless greeter and a server.  The fat useless one just wanders around talking to friends/patrons and generally being useless.  The thing is that he is carrying a sidearm; a nice looking .357 with custom grips.  I told him that the food was good; he doesn't need to carry a gun but he didn't really seem to get it.  We got into a discussion about guns and he seems to think he needs to be armed to protect the place from robbers.  Hmmm.

My folks had a store.  My dad was in retail his whole life.  He taught me 'it's only money'.  If someone wants to rob you, it's only money.  It's not worth being injured or worse; it's not worth injuring someone else, it's only money.  This guy in the restaurant seems to think he's a local Rambo or something.  I wonder if he's got a clue about what it feels like to be shot - or to have shot someone else.  It's just stupid.  We watch someone on tv or in a movie being shot.  If it's one of the 'good guys'; they are walking around with their arm in a sling 15 minutes later.  If it's a 'bad guy' they are dead and the 'good guy' who did the shooting is having a beer with his friends.  Really?  Why is it that in real life police officers who have to shoot people are put on leave and offered counseling?  Why is our local park named for an officer who died in the line of duty?  Why did I contribute to a fund for his family?  Well, it's because life and death are a bunch harder than what we see on tv.

I'm a strong supporter of the 2nd amendment to the constitution which gives citizens the right to own and carry firearms.  I've always owned guns and if they were outlawed, I'd still own guns.  But to use a gun to take a life is a terrible burden.  I would do it if there were no alternative, NO alternative but not otherwise.  It's my belief that if you have a gun for protection you must have that discussion with yourself and know if you are going to use it or not.  And understand and accept the consequences of using it.  It's a big responsibility that I'm pretty sure a lot of gun owners/toters haven't figured out.

Have a good one.

Being bad, or at least dull!

It sure looks like I've fallen off the posting wagon but in my defense I must say that I haven't done much I would want to read about so maybe I've just been saving you from drivel, my reader.   We've had weird weather here with much more rain than usual interspersed with our normal July HOT.

Our big excitement was to visit Las Vegas for dinner at Panevino Ristorante.  It is a pretty upscale place that is NOT on the strip but is right next to McCarran Airport so you get to watch planes taking off and landing.  We had a 6 pm reservation & dinner took about two hours.  It is quite a nice looking place specializing in Italian gourmet meals.  The service was excellent and the food was good.  My complaint would be that the meals were quite expensive ($30-$50 for the entre), and the alcohol was unreal!  A gin and tonic for $9?  We had a bottle of the cheapest American Pinot Noir on their wine list - $75!  Come on.  Just a quick look at the wine list showed many more $200 bottles than under $100.  Maybe there are places in the world where people are going to appreciate such a wine list but I don't think it is Las Vegas.  Especially in this economy, I wouldn't like to be offering that kind of wine.  Granted, it was a lovely wine but I'm thinking there are better values out there.  Will we be back?  I kind of doubt it.  The food was pretty good but if you can't get out the door for under $100 a person; it isn't going to be my regular haunt.

Doing dinner meant that we couldn't do all our usual Las Vegas shopping so last Monday we returned for the usual round of buying stuff you can't get over here.  On this occasion we tried out a burger joint called Cheeburger Cheeburger.  Yeah, I know, we aren't exactly stuck in a rut when it comes to restaurant choices are we.  Anyway I can't really complain about the prices - $7 for a cheeseburger and $4 for some onion rings is pretty reasonable.  I can complain that once again you can't get a rare burger.  I guess they can't maintain good hygiene.  Of course the burger was pretty thin so maybe they can't get it warm enough to melt the cheese and still have it rare.  It is a 50's diner themed place so if you are allergic to that you are forewarned!  Will we go back?  I suppose but only because it is on a road that we travel most times we go into town.

Our local political scene is just as crazy usual.  Our 'town board' is supposed to run a few of our local government offices.  A group is trying to get them fired and have it replaced by an advisory board with no real power.  The power would revert to the county.  They managed to get an item on the ballot for the November election to this effect.  Now there will be a vote.  In the last election I think there were about 7,000 votes cast; this is out of population of 35,000+.  So whatever happens this coming election, it will most likely be decided by something under 10% of the population.  Why the hell can't people be bothered to vote?

I read a few blogs regularly.  One that I like but don't often read is BadNick.  Nick is an rv'er who just has to ask unusual questions from time to time and writes this blog specifically for that purpose.  I especially like the entry that I linked to, especially his last line.  "How come those of you who are very conservative think I’m stupid for asking half of the questions above, and the very liberal ones think I’m an idiot for the other half?"  I like people who look beyond the surface of a question.  We need a lot more people like Nick.

Have a good one!

Huh???

Last night it didn't get lower that 89F (32C) here; that's pretty warm.  So when we heard on the LV station that 108F (42+C) was possible we thought it pretty normal.  However, we actually got rain here!  I'm guessing at least three-quarters of an inch (1.9 cm).  Here's a photo of our back patio; the rain is being blowing in from the east at least eight feet(2.4 m).  It only lasted 8 or 10 minutes but it was intense. 

 Ok, iin our home in Florida this was an almost every day occurrence in the wet season.  NOT SO MUCH here, though it is true that rain is often accompanied by some wind.  This was pretty fierce though!

It is very welcome though because we had our own little wildfire going up in the mountains this a.m. caused by some natural lightning.  (I'd offer a link but the local tv station seems beyond that.)  The estimate was that it was about 20 acres (8 hectares)  This rain should help fight the fire.  It was up in land that isn't accessible by truck so the firefighters have to either fight it using aircraft or being taken up there by aircraft or by hiking up there.  None is very fast or easy or cheap so having some rain to help things along is great. 

We are having a quiet day.  Had some cheese, sausage and bread for breakfast (ala our German friends) and talked about our forthcoming California trip.  Tonight there is a chicken in our future though I don't know it's form.  We often buy a chicken to bbq half and do something completely different with the other; the weird weather might force us to modify our behavior.  Gee!  Guess that's life.

Have a good one; regardless of the weather!

Vegas Baby!

We've been home almost a week so it was clearly time for a trip to Las Vegas.  Today we especially wanted to visit the Erotic Heritage Museum.  My wife had found a deal on Groupon where we got in for half price:  $7.50.  I liked it a lot more at that price than at the $15 normal price.  The museum is right next door to the Deja Vu strip club; turns out the museum's patron is the guy who owns the clubs. 

It was actually pretty interesting.  They had a lot of art work celebrating sex though there was relatively little from other countries.  One exception was a series of German posters that Hitler tried to destroy.  There was some Asian representation as well but less than I would have expected.  There were also some pieces from primitive cultures but they weren't very well documented.  They also had quite a few televisions showing loops of various porn movies including ones from 1915, the 1920's and 30's.  They have a library that legitimate students can use but they also had a small display of pornographic literature.  Jeez, I hate it when I see things in a museum that I have at home.  It really makes me feel old! 

We had lunch in a brew pub called BJ's.  It's a fairly large chain that brews some of their own beers.  They have a few lunch specials at $5.95 which is fantastic for Vegas!  They were doing a pretty good business too.  I had a piece of fried chicken with potatoes & gravy.  It wasn't overwhelming but wasn't bad at all; especially for the price.  My wife had a trio of barbacoa tacos with black beans which she really liked but couldn't finish.  Again, it is a really good value.  I tried their porter and was happy with that as well but at $5.25 for a 12 oz. glass; well, I didn't think it was that special.

This is the time of year for it to be warm here and we are warm.  Right now it's 111F (almost 44C) and this is almost 18:00 hours.  If we are lucky it cools down in the very early hours so we can open the house for a couple of hours and get some fresh air.  Otherwise, it's just stay inside and thank your lucky stars for air conditioning.  For some odd reason we haven't felt like filling the hot tub.  Other than that we have everything squared away from our trip.  Even the seemingly endless of loads of laundry are done, the trailer is cleaned and put away.

I'm always on about the politicians around here.  I'm happy to say I've found somewhere that is even worse.  Here is a story about a Jordanian politician who pulled a gun on a critic on live tv!  Not bad by any standard.  The moderator had guts though, he got between the two and kept them apart.  I don't know that I would have been there between those two.

Gotta go.  Have a good one!

GRRR! Google is doing an Apple

As of a couple days ago I started getting a message when I log into Blogger - "Your browser is no longer supported by Blogger.  Some parts of Blogger will not work and you may experience problems.  If you are having problems, try Google Chrome."  Grrr!  That's the reason I hate Apple, they try very hard to force you into using all their proprietary shit.  Now Google is doing the same thing!  Double Grrr!

I'm going to go on using Firefox as long as I can.  I've got a copy of Chrome but have been avoiding using it simply because I don't want to.  It's probably a perfectly good browser, maybe better than Firefox but, it's the principle of the thing.  What a bunch of jerks.

We have decided our trip up to Washington was a success based on a new criteria:  we are willing to get into the trailer again!  Sometimes we just don't look forward to another trip.  This time we are already planning a trip to San Diego and LA.  Again we are talking just a couple weeks rather than a whole month; we are thinking that is part of the difference.  We also didn't have many long days on the road.  We think that makes the trip much harder. 

I assume everyone has heard of the possible malware that is supposed to infect your computer and makes it impossible to convert DNS codes to legible names.  If you haven't heard, this hack was done quite a while ago but was caught by the FBI and foreign security services.  However, the only way they could figure out to keep people from crashing was to substitute temporary servers for the hacked ones.  Now they need to remove those temporary servers so if your computer won't talk to the internet on Monday, lucky you!  Do a search on 'DNS problem' or something and you'll find sites to help figure out if you are infected and what to do about it.

I found a book at the local Friends of the Library store about chili.  Written in 1981 it is 'The Great American Chili Book'.  The author talks about chili (the soup) as a food, then offers some recipes.  Some are interesting, one or two might even be useful.
- chili from the U.S. Army Tm 10-412 - start with 24 lb ground beef....
- chili for 600 - 25 lb dried ancho chile pods!
- mountain oyster chili - 2 lb calf testicles....
Some of the folks have strong opinions:  "This business of putting tomatoes in a dish of chili is an abomination, and anyone who would do such a thing should be forced to consume a whole fried chicken cooked in castor oil."  You can bet I'll be modifying my chili making in the near future.  Not to say I'll be stealing a recipe but making some modifications to my own. 

Gotta go.  Have a good one.