Nuttin' much

Life just keeps heating up around here; the WeatherChannel has us at 111F (43.8C) this evening (20:00).  No matter, we baked French Fries (chips to you Brits) and boiled breaded catfish in oil for dinner.  Can't imagine life without a/c around here.  It is quite dry though so people do use swamp-coolers which are much less expensive to buy or to run.  When it is humid they don't work for f*(k but around here that is a week a year.  It is certainly a tradeoff I would make if I needed to save the money.  When I lived in Army housing in El Paso in the early 1970's, we had a swamp-cooler.  It worked just fine.  Went out for our walk yesterday a.m. at 05:30 - mostly because we were both awake but I 'm just saying!  It's nicer when it is cool. 

Number One Daughter came over to participate in the fish fry; we haven't done that in 25 years or so. Wife and daughter did all the fish frying but there was plenty for me to do getting all the odd stuff done.  Funny how fast the time flies.  We probably haven't a fish fry since we lived in Orlando back in the mid 1980's.   Earlier this week I found some photos I haven't copied to the computer; they are pretty new, only 20 years old!  Did I mention I had to rip them out of the photo album.  What crap, these albums won't even make it 20 years without tearing apart.  Hmmmm, maybe I'm being a bit tough on them.  What do you think?

Number One Daughter works for a company who makes little steel parts that are used in concrete manufacture.  For example, when a concrete wall is pre-molded that is 40' long by 15' high (12.3m x 4.5m and probably 25 cm deep) they mold into the concrete a couple pieces of steel used to lift the wall onto a truck and then into place.  Some of her customers get all out of shape because these little pieces aren't made in the USA.  I find this rather odd since they are complaining about little $5 pieces that are used twice; once to move the piece off the mold and once to put it into place.  I understand that I'd like more manufacturing in the U.S. but I'd rather the bits being made here being the more important ones.  For example, having the truck made here is nice.  I like to think that our standards (maybe not the worlds best but our own, BTW) are being observed.  I'm not saying the Chinese made pieces aren't up to our standards but at least some local folks are being employed making them.  It's a tough question not made any easier by my belief in international trade being a keystone to success in this world. 

Just to end on a humorous note:  our local county council recently debated a rule that if the federal governemt ever enacted a law making ownership of firearms by civilians unlawful then the sheriff of the county was to stop them at the county line and tell them to go away on the basis that it was unconstitutional!  Jeez, are you kidding me???  Let's not even discuss firepower!  It's up to the courts to decide constutionality!  But apparently none of our elected representitives know that.  Happily the city District Attorney was around to point out their rule was beyond stupid.  Thank goodness for small favors!

Hava a gooe one.  Thanks for stopping buy!

Update, nah! Why bother....

My life has been really dull lately so updating the blog is an exercise in 'what did I do'?  We did go into Las Vegas last week but it was just an errand run.  Didn't do anything exciting at all. 

My wife did cook a lovely chicken with garlic recipe.  It was one where you saute the chicken then add whole, unpeeled garlic cloves then put the whole thing into the oven for 15 or 20 minutes.  When it comes out you add a little flour and make a sort of gravy.  It turned out really well and I'm sure we'll be making it again; served it with whole wheat noodles.  It was the first time we'd tried whole wheat noodles and they were just fine; another thing we will use in the future.  I went into the kitchen just before the pan was to come out of the oven and saw that metal handle in the oven so grabbed a mitt and put it on the door of the oven to remind my wife that it would be hot.  She just laughed at my over-cautious nature.  She got it out ok and started in on the gravy.  Sure as the devil, she forgot about the handle and burned herself.  Grrr!  Idiot!  Happily soaking her hand in lots of ice water for the rest of the evening took care of her burn. 

We are getting into triple digits these days (38C) so we walk early; we were out by 06:30 this a.m.  After our walk we get to spend some quality time pulling weeds in the yard.  We each do a trash bag full then declare the work day over; at least the yard work portion!  Retiring to the porch to drink coffee and watch the birds fight at the feeder is lots more fun when you are feeling virtuous from the work and the exercise. 

For some excitement, we stopped by the local office for Humana Health Care.  Our health insurance has always been part of my wife's retirement benefit.  We pay for the insurance but supposedly it is at a cheaper group rate.  Anyway, I'm turning 65 later this year and will be Medicare eligible.  That should be interesting.  The Medicare will be handled by the government but then you have to figure out what additional coverage you want.  That is where the fun part begins.  There is an Advantage program that you can buy that has increased benefits and a drug plan; there are suppliments that offer different options; and there is a stand-alone drug plan.  Oh boy, it makes your head hurt just reading all this BS.  These plans are all just a bit different and, of course, Humana is only one of the companies you can do business with so each company will have it's own little twists.  What the hell, it's only money.  Once you sign up, you are stuck for a year.  You can change things around only in the fall of the year.  Who knows how they come up with these things.  I was afraid to ask if Obamacare was going to impact any of this; I kind of doubt it but I know nothing!

Anyway, there you go, life in the fast lane.  Thanks for visiting.  Have a good one.

Happy Memorial Day

Remembering those who gave their lives for our freedom.

And not just at home; Luxembourg for example.

Have a good one.

Another Vegas trip

Wandered into Vegas yesterday to help Number One Daughter buy a new tablet computer.  We don't know anything about them but we do know enough to ask a few questions:  like, will this run X software.  Actually I skipped out on the computer shopping to do other stuff.  I just had to make a run over to Harbor Freight for a couple things.  I know most of their stuff is crap but some things work out ok even if they are somewhat shoddy.  In this case I was looking for 24" wood clamps; they are $5 each at Harbor, $35 each at Home Depot.  If I were an actual woodworker I'd need the good ones.  In this case I'm going to use these things once and maybe again if 5 or 10 years if I'm lucky.  I just can't afford having an extra $60 sitting in the garage until I die! We have a table with a minor crack that I need to glue and clamp.  I can't imagine the next time I'll need a clamp this big but at least we'll get the table back to where it doesn't snag the table cloth! 

High point of the day for me was getting to see one of the cars Google uses for all those photos they have in Google Earth and Vpike.com.  It was a little Ford, I think, with this 3 foot (1m) pole coming out of the top of the roof with a ball of cameras on top that looked like a demented soccer ball.  Honestly, it had about that many lenses!  How do I know it was Google's car; well, it had a big sign on the side.  You can't fool me with tricks like that.  I was way too slow to get a photo though. 

I had lunch at Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  The cheeseburger was pretty good; a bit greasy and the fries were quite good, better than most for sure.  My big problem isn't the $6 for the burger but thought the fries and coke were somewhat overpriced.  Also between the hard surfaces, the loud music and the customers talking, you couldn't hear yourself think.  Much less hear when the guy behind the counter called your number to hand over your order.  Will I return?  Meh, don't know but I kind of doubt it.

Got back to rejoin the ladies for a beer while they ate their late lunch.  Daughter bought the MS Surface.  In her business she uses a lot of MS products and this thing will run them.  Kind of expensive at $1100 not including the keyboard that they have backordered but if it does the job she will be all set up.  At least until the 'next thing' comes along. 

Gotta go.  It's feeding time at the zoo and I'm getting in line.  Have a good one.

Wow!

The news this morning is filled with images of the terrible destruction from the tornado in Moore, OK.  What can one say?  Just in case anyone thought people were in control in this world; think again!  Our thoughts go out to all those effected.

I thought you deserved a photo of the terribly insulted cat after mentioning his lion cut.  Here we go!

Let's be clear; he is almost 18 years old and has trouble cleaning himself.  His fur is really long and gets tangles.  This cut really helps him out; without it he gets hairballs and throws up even with hairball medication.  He is really much more comfortable with his haircut.

We sat outside last night.  It was quite cool; say the low 70's (22C), which was a nice change from the day!  We enjoyed watching planes criss-cross the sky.  Gee, I'm going to be getting on a plane next month for the first time in a decade.  Cool.

Now if the damned thing just works the way it is supposed to!  Have a good one.

Sharing videos....

No, I'm not going to inflict any of my own videos on you.  That would be rude.  However I have come across a couple of YouTube vids that I thought were pretty cool.  For example here are some kids making beautiful music with instruments you can hardly believe.  It's entitled "Landfillharmonic".


This shows people doing fantastic things all over the world.  Makes my life look pretty dull I must admit.


We have officially  switched over to the early summer walking schedule - getting out by 07:00 is working for now but later in the year we'll be moving it back a bit more.  Walking when it's 90F (32C) or greater isn't all that much fun!  Otherwise there isn't a lot happening chez us. 

Gotta go.  We are getting the cat his 'lion cut' today and have to go pick him up.  He should be pretty insulted for a day or two.  Have a good one.

Death Valley

We live about 60 miles (100km) from Death Valley but don’t really go there very often.  It is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter; some people are never happy.  Still, it is a fascinating place and we decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip over there last Sunday.  It was overcast and windy but it was only about 85F (29C) so we figured we could manage it.  It wasn’t a good day or time for photos but I have a couple to share.

It is kind of an interesting trip.  Pahrump is at 2,600 feet (790m), going west we crest the hills at about 2,800 feet (850m) then drop down to about 1,400 feet (425m) then back up to about 3,000 feet (900m) before starting the descent into Death Valley.  It isn’t a steep descent but it does go down quite a ways! 

We checked in at the Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center.  It was renovated recently and we hadn’t been.  They did a nice job mostly making the building much more energy efficient that it had been.  Then we went on a couple little trails; to see a couple of the attractions.  We've been to some of the better know spots like Zabriskie Point, Badwater and Artist's Palette before so we went to lesser known ones this time.  The first was the old Borax Works.  The mine isn’t shown but they have part of the machinery for melting down the ore and a few wagons that were used to transport the borax.  It must have been quite a deal.  They had Chinese workers who were paid something like $1.50 a day – this was in the 1880’s so it wouldn’t be TOO much like slave labor but then they had to buy food from ‘the company store’.  I’m sure that wasn’t much of a bargain.  Happily for the workers, borax couldn’t be processed when it was over 120F so they got the hottest part of the summer off. 

After that we went on a little walk along Salt Creek.  Yes, we have creeks in the desert.  This one is pretty fragile so the park service built a boardwalk along the creek.  You can see pupfish swimming in the creek.  These are cousins to the ones at Ash Meadows.  The ones at Ash Meadows are considered endangered and nearing extinction.  These guys have managed to adapt to the salty water of the creek and are actually doing just fine.  Trying to get a photo of them didn’t work; the wind was rippling the water. Besides, they are tiny, only an inch or so long (2.5cm).

This is the view north from the Borax processing area.  Not too scenic, huh?

Just to show you what our GPS thought of Death Valley:  we were in the parking lot at Salt Creek and elevation is -227 ft (-69m).  You will also note the absence of roads however when we got back on the road the GPS was back to knowing where we were.

We ended our stay by driving through Twenty Mule Team Canyon; a narrow and twisty one-way road through huge mounds.  It was really interesting but totally un-photographable. 

So that was our Sunday drive; we left about 10:00 and got home about 16:00.  It was really a great day.  Hope you have a good one.

Beef Jerky Day

I make beef jerky, mostly for my wife, and thought I'd go through the process.  It's really easy and quite economical compared to buying the stuff in stores.  I start with the leanest beef I can find; usually that means Select grade eye of round roast.  First I remove all the fat that I can then slice it into steaks and slice the steaks into strips.  I want strips that are somewhere between one eighth and one sixteenth of an inch (1.5 to 3 mm) thick.  Uniformity is important of course so the strips dry at the same rate but I don't get too wild and crazy.

Being foolish I didn't weigh this piece of meat before starting to slice it however I ended up with two pounds three ounces (1 kg) of sliced meat.  It cost $3.99 a pound so I've got about $9 worth of meat here.  That isn't a very good price, I often find it for less but this what I could find today.  (Well, yesterday was when I actually started this process!)  You see how I take the fat off the outside of the steak.  I leave those small white pieces of fat in the slice unless they are considerably larger than the ones you see.  You don't want the fat because it will get rancid.  This is a nice size roast for me since my dehydrator has only five racks.  The most meat I can get onto it is about three pounds (1.3 kg). 

Next comes marinating.  I marinate the meat overnight in a Ziplock bag in the fridge; hopefully remembering to turn it over once or twice.  Here are my marinade ingredients.

You can check the internet for marinades; there are probably as many as there are jerky makers but this is somewhat representative.  Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, onion powder, garlic powder and red pepper flakes is what I use.  I try to have about three-quarters of a cup (175 ml) of marinade for this amount of meat.  It really helps if you don't spill the onion powder all over the counter and the floor like I did!  I squeeze as much air out of the bag as possible and let it work overnight.

This morning I loaded up the dehydrator and let it do it's thing.  Here I have four of the five racks loaded.  This is a Nesco dehydrator; it claims to be drying the jerky at 160F (71C) and has lower settings for fruits, vegies and nuts.  It works well but the racks are plastic and are just nasty to clean and pretty easy to break.  I usually add a grind of black pepper over the jerky just before turning it on; I like the bite the black pepper gives.

At the end of a few hours (three to five) we have beef jerky.  Some people recommend drying off the meat with a paper towel or something prior to drying it; I've never done that.  One of the things about making your own jerky is that you get it the way you like it.  My wife likes spicy so I use quite a bit of red pepper flakes and add the black pepper.  She also like it somewhat chewy so we don't dry it as much as someone else might.  Others might like it sweeter so they might add honey to the marinade.  Bottom line is that you get it how you want to make it. 

Here are the three baggies full of beef jerky.  I got twelve and three-quarters ounces (.34kg) of jerky from this batch.  That's not bad for $9 and a little time. 

Have a good one.

Water Works Wonders!

We planted a couple cacti in the yard about a year ago.  They weren't dying but weren't doing much living until recently.  We visited a place called Cactus Jack's over by Las Vegas.  You can guess their speciality.  The woman offered us some advice about how much to water our cactus.  Hmmm, they are lots happier now!  We may have to go buy some more now.

The other day we were out sitting on the back patio enjoying some nice weather.  Had a little friend visit.

I've got to say I'm pretty happy about our Canon SX210 IS cameras.  They were fairly inexpensive ($250), they have 14x optical zoom and are image stabilized.  The hummer was about 30 feet away; not bad for a point and shoot!  The only think I really dislike is that there is no viewfinder.  Seeing that screen is difficult enough for old fogies like myself but in the sun it is almost impossible.  Grrr! 

I've been trying to clean up my desk for days.  Why do I hate doing this?  A place for everything and everything is it's place means absolutely nothing to me.  I sure couldn't live in a van!  I can manage it in our trailer but nothing smaller.  I like reading about van living but I'd be lost in no time. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one.

Misc....

Well, they caught the Boston Marathon bomber kid.  I'm afraid he is sounding just like a normal passionate 19 year old who got hold of some nasty ideas.  Now to see what kind of 'justice' we will serve up.  Killing three and injuring so many more is going to make lots of people want the death penalty.  I’m kind of against that but throwing him in jail for the rest of his natural life doesn’t do much for me and turning him loose after three or four years isn’t where I’m at either.  Guess I’m glad I won’t be on the jury!

In other news, my favorite financial blogger, RandomRoger, has announced that he isn’t going to be blogging every day but only from time to time.  I can’t blame the poor guy, he’s been blogging almost daily for over eight years!  Still, I will miss him.  I’ve been reading him almost from the beginning and his ideas have influenced my investing style a  lot.  Fairwell, sir.

I have a list of ‘favorite’ blogs that I try to read regularly, I suppose most people interested in blogs have such a list.  I was looking at it this morning, surprised at the number that are no longer active.  Some have just disappeared.  It is an odd kind of feeling.  You read someone’s thoughts for a year or more then they disappear.  You can’t help wondering what happened.  An accident, jail, death, threw their computer through the window, moved to Argentina; like so many things in life we’ll never know. 

My wife and I have decided to visit Florida early this summer to celebrate a relative’s birthday.  This isn’t really news but it is kind of unusual for me; I haven’t been on a plane in over 10 years!  Since we lost our dog and the cat sleeps all day anyway, we have decided to rejoin the flyers of the world.  We’ll toss the cat in a kennel and fly away.  I’m reasonably certain it won’t be any more comfortable or healthier or even faster than it was 10 years ago but flying does mean I don’t have to hear whining about how long it takes to get across Texas.  We’ll see how it turns out.  Come to think of it, I haven’t stayed in a motel in at least 10 years.  Wow, a whole new world!

Today we are off to Vegas on a little shopping spree.  We (that would be my wife) need clothes for the trip to Florida.  I know it’s kind of early but there is this sale…..  Besides, we haven’t been in almost two weeks.  Can’t let the car forget the way, can we?  Have a good one!

Marathon

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not much of a tv watcher.  I don't watch the news except for the weather.  I seldom read the newspaper.  I've even given up looking at most movies.  Instead I waste too much time on the internet.  But I've gotta tell you, I've been glued to the tv coverage of the Boston Marathon bomber chase.  What an amazing thing. 

Here is this young guy who seems to be an absolutely great kid who for some reason apparently participated is this horrible and pointless bombing.  What the hell?  I sure hope he can be captured alive so we can learn more about what goes on in his head. 

Personally it's been a quiet week - well since I'm glued to the tv obviously I'm not doing much!  This morning we had 40F (4C).  Darn.  That is just not right.  We ought to be at 80F (26C) during the day.  Well, maybe tomorrow.  I may notice it if I can pry myself off the tv. 

Yep, ice from the bird bath this morning.  Brrrr!

I did start watering the cactus last month & it is doing what it's supposed to do.  We have growth!  All that green stuff is new in the last month or so.

Well, I guess I'm off to glue myself back to the tv.  Have a good one!

Another trip to Vegas!

Friday we had another trip to the big city.  This time Number One Daughter was having a colonoscopy and needed some semi-responsible party to pick her up.  This getting up and driving to Vegas to be somewhere before 09:00 is a lot like having a job.  Jeez. Of course we were happy to do it and since everything turned out well it's happy endings all around.  (Sorry!  That just slipped out.)  Anyway, one time when she was anesthetized she had a tough time coming out of it; this time was just perfect.  In fact, when we got her to her house we got talked into putting some outdoor furniture together for her.  Obviously she was doing just fine.

Of course with al that excitement on Friday, we had to take yesterday off!  Our big accomplishment was to walk around the neighborhood.  It is getting warmer, mid-80's F (29 C), so we like to take our walk earlier in the day.  It looks like the total blight that was on the real estate market around here might be lifting a bit.  There is a house behind us that is receiving a small addition.  There is another that was empty for some time that now has new owners and they are doing a ton of landscaping.  Those are the big jobs but there are also smaller changes; a new fence here, some minor landscaping there.  It is great to hope that the valley might come back to life one of these days.  We have lost our favorite electrician; he was working out of town during the week but his family stayed here.  Now his recorded phone message says he isn't working in the valley any more.  It is all just heartbreaking.

Here is a link to a town in Rhode Island that sounds much like Pahrump.  We have a regular policy in our house not to go to the stores for the first two or three days of the month.  People get their Food Stamp money and you can barely get into the parking lot.  Depressing doesn't begin to cover it.  We have EIGHT local food banks!  And this is supposed to be the richest country in the world.  Bah! 

Gotta go before I depress you all any more.  Have a good one.

Real excitement!

Yesterday we were just discussing where to go for lunch when my wife got a call from our daughter.  She was out of town on a business trip and her cat-sitter couldn’t get into her house to care for her cats.  In terms of emergencies, it was kind of low key but we have a key to her house so agreed to go in to Las Vegas and open the house for this gal. 

Off to the big city we went being really careful that we were in fact taking the darned key!  So we follow this pickup into the development and right to our daughter’s house.  Turns out she is having some concrete work done and this is the guy who does the work.  He said the power was out to all the exterior outlets.  But he did have the key to the lock to the back yard.  So we start looking for the breaker box.  Oddly, here they put the breaker box outside.  Hmmm.  And it was locked.  This isn’t looking good.

Turns out our daughter was smart enough to get two padlocks that are keyed alike so the back yard key also opens the breaker box.  Unfortunately none of the breakers were tripped.  Hmmm.  So now we are wandering all over the house looking for a tripped GFCI.  It took quite a while but finally, we found it!  Now we finally have power to the outside outlets, the garage door opener started working, all kinds of great stuff.  I didn’t realize how many GFCI’s were used in a modern house – 2 in the kitchen; one in each bath; and one in the garage.  (Huh, the garage?)  Who knows.  Anyway, the one in the garage was the problem.  What a trip!  Anyway we got an unexpected trip to the big city and got to meet some of our daughter’s neighbors.

Today we are just being lazy.  I’m catching up on blog reading and doing a few chores around the house.  I was in Home Depot getting a couple things and some woman, a complete stranger, says “When you get through with your wife’s ‘honey do’ list you can come work on mine.”  Huh?  What’s that all about?  Trust me, lady, I’m not that handy.  All I’m doing is putting up some shelves in the garage. 

That’s all the news that’s fit to print.  Have a good one!

Excitement - in the slow lane!

We've been so darned dull lately that we had to do something!  Last week my wife found a notice in the paper about a cactus garden in Las Vegas sponsored by the EthelM Chocolate factory.  They have a free tour and a cactus garden that you can visit.  We waited until Monday to go because we figured there would be crowds over the weekend but we did go.  Amazing!  And it was quite fun.

The EthelM company was set up by one of the Mars family to honor his mother’s ability to make fine chocolates.  I’m hoping they are fine because they want $2 a piece (declining to $1 each if you buy a box of 48) for these chocolates.  Sometimes I’m really thankful my wife is trying to lose weight!  So we went through the free tour; it was almost overpriced at that but it was ok.  You walk this corridor staring through windows at the workers on the line.  Gee, there must have been six or eight workers making candy.  It wasn’t very exciting but then we got out to the plants. 

When we showed up it was almost mid-day so my photos aren’t great but the plants really made up for it.  You wander around on little paved paths looking at the cacti and their associated name tag.  I’ve no idea how many species were represented but they were mostly looking really happy.   Here is an ocotillo.

Since I am not much of a plant person, I decided to take a photo of the name tags too – like here.

This is an example of a really happy silver yucca.

The only real downside was this.

We were right under the landing pattern for McCarran International Airport!  Good place for a candy factory though.  I’m pretty sure it didn’t bother the candy at all.  Or the workers, I’m sure there is plenty of other mechanical noise to keep their attention.  Bottom line though is that I highly recommend spending an hour or so in this really nice cactus garden. It's not unknown; there were tour busses and vans around all the time so just be aware you won't be alone.

Have a good one.

Life in the slow lane!

The visiting family wandered off last Sunday so I'm finally catching up with the blogs I read.  It's really amazing how much time I can spend reading about other people’s lives.  You’d think I didn’t have one of my own; life that is.  As it is I’m driving myself nuts trying to figure out what to do with some of our mutual funds.  I know I want to move more into index funds; it’s just that there are so many to choose from!

I can see why some people prefer to have a professional manage their money.  It’s a lot like work.  Fortunately I enjoy it.  Yahoo Finance is my friend.  Our brokers, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade, each have research available as well so if Yahoo doesn’t have the information I want there are other sources I can use.  One of the things I like to check is what companies are owned by the fund.  For example, we own Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX).  One might think that they would hold stocks that might be out of favor with the intent of making lots on them when they recovered.  Well, you’d be wrong.  They own Apple, Google, Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, Walt Disney – how much more mainstream can you be?  It gets really fun when you go into the ‘Basic Tech. Analysis’ section and compare the last years price chart of FCNTX vs SPY (an index fund for the S&P 500).  That is when you find that FCNTX sometimes tracks the S&P 500 really closely and sometimes, like now, it falls behind.  So now I’m paying extra for a managed fund that isn’t doing as well as an index.  Grrrrr!

When I’m not grinding my teeth over stuff like that I sometimes get out to work in our yard.  This is weed time in the desert so pulling the big ones and spraying the little ones is my lot these days.  At least it is good exercise.  It’s not very satisfying because they seem to spread faster then you can get rid of them.  There are a couple of guys in our yard that we like:  two cacti that we actually planted.  I’ve started watering them; you are supposed to let them be over the winter.  Here is a photo of the results; new growth.  I’ll try to get more photos after the growth becomes something more.

I guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print.  Thanks for reading.  Have a good one.

Yet another AWOL

Well, what can I say, I live a dull life. For example, here is my hot photo of the week.

I woke the other morning to find this little guy resting on the pillar in front of our house.  The glow is from one of our outside lights.  Apparently he just needed a place to stop and catch his breath and doesn't like the dark. 

We have family visiting kind of - my sister-in-law and her husband are staying in their motorhome in one of the local RV parks.  We had been expecting them to stay at our place but apparently they highly prize cable tv which we cannot offer them.  Guess I'll survive the disappointment.  The downside of their visit is that we are eating like we've never seen food.  My wife actually made brownies!  Dessert is NOT something we usually have.  She let me pick the recipe so I chose the one with the most chocolate.  Go figure.  Turns out the SIL isn't all that fond of chocolate, who knew.  Happily her hubby likes it just fine.

I got sent to the store for a few things; basil was one of them.  They had 2 different packages; one really looked a lot better.  Did I bother to read what it said on the outside, hell no!  Turns out what I bought was a little tiny basil plant with a 1 inch square root ball!  Happily there were enough leaves for the recipe and now we have a little basil plant sitting out on the patio.  Hmmm, maybe we'll have an herb garden this year after all.

We managed corned beef and cabbage on St. Paddy's Day - the corned beef was a tip cut and was the best we've made in the past several years.  Unfortunately the cabbage was overcooked and tasted like green slime; which is basically what it was.  Oh well, the corned beef was definitely worth skipping the cabbage.  Had to have a Guinness with it of course.  Guinness is ok in the bottle; better from a tap; I can't wait to taste it in Ireland!

Gotta go.  Lunch, leftover pizza, is calling.  Have a good one!

San Diego sadness

We did have a very nice time visiting San Diego; did lots of tourist stuff, had a great parking spot, looked at water a lot since we can't do that here at home but there was one very large downside:  no dog.  We had stayed in this same park once before and taking the same walk we took last time only with no dog was pretty sad.  There is an excellent place for walking, complete with little doggie bags so you can pick up after Rover, but we had no dog.  We still have the cat and he is an annoying little sh!t but it's not the same.  Well, we'll just have to get over it.

We have an appointment to have the trailer axles lubed next Wednesday over in Las Vegas.  We are taking the trailer back to the people who sold it to us.  They want us to get there early so they can get us out the same day.  It shouldn't be too tough but who knows.  We had Camping World lube the axles on our old trailer and that was the start of a number of problems.  They didn't bother to use the right size dust caps so they came off, spread grease all over & just generally made a mess.  Of course, without grease, the bearings went south.  It was bad.  I don't think I've been back to a Camping World since.  After getting the maintenance done, we'll put the trailer away until our trip next summer.

It's funny how the human mind works; or at least how mine works!  I was reading a guy's blog and he discovered that his car is without an oil dipstick.  We've had the Toyota for three years and I don't remember ever looking under the hood so of course I had to rush out to the garage and look to see if it has a dipstick.  Sure enough; in fact it has one for the engine and one for the transmission.  I don't really care but if I hadn't gone to check, it would have bothered me until I did.  I'm so easy!  The car is coming up on 29,000 miles so I'll be taking it off to the dealer one of these days to have it serviced.  This driving to Vegas is getting habit forming.

I've been trying to figure out if I should take the truck over for an oil change.  The thing is that it was due 'by time' in January but we really haven't used it much so we are about 3,000 miles short of needing to change it 'by mileage'.  Seems kind of silly to change it but I would like that engine to keep going for a long time.  I imagine I'll split the difference and take it to get fresh oil just before our summer trip.

Well, that's all the wheeled news that's fit to print.  Have a good one! 

A few more photos

Here are a few more photos I took during our week in San Diego; in no particular order! 

We visited Pacific Beach.  There is a pier that you can use to get out over the water.  Actually, there is a hotel with little cabins all along the pier.  You can 'sleep over the ocean' if you want.  For me the pier seemed a little creaky so when a car came along the boards definitely moved.  It is one of those 'you want a small car' places.  Anyway, there were some guys trying to surf even though there wasn't much of a wave.  This guy did better than most but fell soon after this photo.

Some years ago a guy did a statue of the famous photo of a sailor kissing a woman in New York on VJ Day.  A statue has been made of the kiss; it's entitled "Unconditional Surrender".  It was displayed in Sarasota and now it has been in San Diego for five years.  They may be losing it soon though; it is getting weathered and having a bronze version would cost a bunch.  Anyway, it was there last week!

Finally I've got a photo of our trailer in it's spot at the park.  We have a picture window in the back of the trailer so being backed in is ideal for watching the birds and all.  You can barely make out a light post right near the rear of the rig.  It was extremely bright!  Happily our sleeping quarters are in the front so were quite dark but it was llight in the living room even with the blinds closed.  There is a small walkway between the rigs and the bay but few people used it and they didn't bother us at all.

Of course we have more photos but I've been unable to pry my wife's photo out of her grasp.  Maybe I'll get them next week!  Until then, have a good one!

Back home...

Our quick trip to San Diego is over and we are back home.  It was really a great trip.  We spent more on the site than we would usually do but it was great watching the water.  We also did more touristy things than usual. 

One thing we did was to visit the aircraft carrier Midway which is docked almost downtown.  One of the docents estimated that about 25% of the ship is available for visiting.  You are given a audio player to provide information about the various displays.  The flight deck has a display of aircraft some of which were flown from the carrier and others that were not carrier based.  They also had quite a few helicopters on display; between the Navy and the Marine Corps. there are lots of uses for them.  The Midway was a working carrier for 47 years; longer than any other ship.  It was commissioned just after WWII ended and was still out there during Operation Desert Storm.  Quite an accomplishment.  Did I take any photos, aw, you've got me there - not a photo.  The hanger deck was mostly open as well and it mostly had WWII era aircraft.  Down below you got to visit some enlisted quarters, the mess hall, officer country and the dispensary.  The audio for the dispensary pointed out that they had lots of head injuries because the overheads (ceilings) were pretty low in places.  The headphones kept me from hitting my head at least twice!

We also did the two hour harbor tour.  It was kind of fun.  The first half was the northern part of the bay.  It was kind of fun going past the airport, all the pleasure boats and the Navy base on Coronado Island.  There were about 20 of us on this ship intended for several hundred passengers.  Then we stopped back at the dock to take on more people before doing the southern part of the bay.  OMG, there were probably 200 people trooping on for the second half of the trip!  Most were Asian with some kind of tour group.  Looked like they were having fun though.  The southern bay has shipyards where many Navy ships were being worked on.  They had a fence around the yard so you couldn't get too close and a security boat came out to watch the harbor tour boat! 

There is more but I've got to go do things.  Have a good one!

Bad Don!

Ok, been AWOL again.  My only excuse is that I'm on vacation.  (How do I go on vacation from no job?)  We are visiting San Diego.  It's not really that great of weather (high 64F - 18C & breezy) but the views are pretty good.  This is from the picture window at the back of our trailer.

This park is on Mission Bay so we are fairly close to downtown and the ocean beaches.  We've stayed here one other time.  It's expensive but quiet for a park so close to everything in a big city.  It has Wifi but it isn't terribly reliable; this morning (07:00 on Sunday) it's fine.  My wife grew up in San Diego so we have fun visiting some of her old haunts.  And we get to see Number One Son & his SO.  I must say we won't be losing any weight on this trip!

One of the old time scenic stops is Mt. Soledad.  There are nice views of the surrounding area - this is of the beaches to the north.

The monument itself is a giant cross intended to honor veterans of the U.S. military forces.  There were some legal actions some years ago in connection with having a religious symbol on public land.  This has been addressed; there are now several plaques mentioning that this is now private property!  It is a nice thought but sometimes I fear we take political correctness too far.

 

The cross is surrounded by low walls displaying plaques honoring various members of the military.  It is kind of strange; all crammed together with no apparent organization.  WWI is next to Vietnam which is next to Korea; there are plaques to the famous and to the unknown; there are quite a number of couples where both served.  Very interesting; I don't even know if they are all from this area!

We'll continue visiting.  Hopefully I'll continue to use the camera!


The traffic in San Diego is pretty awful.  They have plenty of stopages and the roads themselves were built with a special something that sets up a rocking motion for our truck.  I would estimate that approximately 20% of drivers on the freeways (including myself) go the speed limit of 65 mph (100 kph).  The remainder are from 10mph to 20 mph faster.  Needless to say there is absolutely NO lane discipline; fast cars are slaloming between lanes like a skier in the Olympics.  Most people flip on their signal light and change lanes without checking to see if there is anyone there; some omit the signal light.  It sucks during the day and is quite a bit worse at night.  I'm hardly surprised a the stopages; the accident rate must be impressive.  Last night the police found a drunk waving the U.S. flag in the middle of one of the freeways.

Anyway we are planning on being here until next Wednesday when we will return home.  Gotta go for now; have a good one.

Feeling Better

My back problem seems to have gone away - it was a long week but I'm doing much better.  Just in time too because yesterday we went in to Las Vegas to visit the World of Concrete.  Number One Daughter works in the concrete industry so gets us into their annual show.  It is always fascinating.  The show is huge and this year we didn't really have time to check much of it out.  I doubt if we saw 5% of all the exhibits and didn't see any of the fun stuff.   They have contests to build the best brick wall, drive some machine around a course, stuff like that.  We just had a bunch of errands we wanted to get done as well so had to miss out on the excitement.  We ended up walking three or four miles all the same!  I didn’t get any photos; the small stuff isn’t very exciting and the large stuff is too big to photograph.

We got home about 16:00 yesterday then discovered there is a Dark Sky Program over in Death Valley on yesterday and Saturday evenings.  We just didn’t have the get up and go to make the trip yesterday but we are hoping to get over there this evening.  The drive takes a bit more than an hour; the road is a bit twisty in places but it is basically fine.  The park wants to be designated an International Dark Sky Park; I’m expecting the star viewing to be excellent.  I’ll try to report tomorrow.

We got snow in the mountains last night.  We are at an altitude of about 2,600 ft (790m) here in the valley; I’m guessing the snow came down to 3,000 ft (910m).  I know it’s only a couple of inches deep if that much but it makes it feel a lot more like winter and it adds to the aquifer.  Plus all those wild horses, burros and big horn sheep up there need every break they can get - photo courtesy of the Nevada State Parks website.

Gotta go.  Have a good one.

Exciting stuff - well, not THAT exciting...

I actually have something to blog about!  I don't know what to do with myself.  How does this work?  I guess I'll just plunge in somewhere and hope it makes sense.  We got a new internet service.  This one is talking about speeds in megabytes rather then kilobytes so that is a good thing.  The two guys who installed our new antenna were just on a whole different planet from me when it comes to heights.  They were zooming up that ladder like they were walking down the street.  It made my hands sweat just to watch them.  Here's one of the guys programming the receiver.

Just another day at the office for him. 

I did something that put my back out.  I've no idea what it is but while sitting doesn't hurt getting into a chair or out of it sure does.  Go buy some stock in ibuprofen because use is skyrocketing.  To manage my computer addiction during this time I've installed a new desk.

Yep, I'm in the closet.  I know all those celebrities are coming out of the closet, I just had to be different.  I can't stand here for long periods of time but for ten minutes at a shot it works really well.  The view sucks but.....  (Comments about the crap stored in the closet will not be accepted unless they are accompanied by a photo of your own neat and tidy closet!)

Anyway, aside from all that excitement, things are pretty normal.  We are having some nice 60's (17C) high temps and not too much wind so being outside is nice.  We are doing our walk mid-day rather than at 06:00 as we do in the summer.  We walk around the neighborhood and check out what the neighbors have done with their yards and houses.  We figure we have some very strange neighbors!  I'll talk about them another time.  Right now it's getting time to go find another position.  Standing in my closet is getting painful.

Have a good one!

Rain?

Yep, in common with most of the Southwestern part of the U.S. we have been getting some rain.  We are supposed to average 4" (10 cm) a year and we've probably had around .5" (1 cm) in the last four days.  It doesn't sound like a lot but it turns the desert into a giant mud-hole.  So we've been walking on the local streets.  We don't have sidewalks but fortunately we don't have much in the way of traffic either.  Walking two miles we will probably see two or three cars.  That works for us; the only downside is that it is a bit tougher on the feet to walk on the asphalt.  Our daily highs have been in the 60F (15C) area so we can’t complain about that. 

 I took the above while driving into town.  That is just where the mountain is supposed to be!  We just don't get views like this very often.  As you can see, I was a bad driver and pulled over into the turn lane to take this photo.  Of course, there wasn't a lot of competition for the lane so I didn't feel too bad.

Here is a cloud bank that is covering the valley.  This particular mountain isn't one of the taller ones but it was big enough to peer out over the clouds.  And, yes, that is blue sky over the mountain.

I’ve been working on building a bat house to encourage bats to stay around here and munch down some insects.  We don’t have a lot of insects but generally I think fewer is better!  I’m making the house from some rough cedar fencing.  The little guys need some way to hang while they sleep and I’m hoping the rough surface will be just the ticket.  I haven’t decided how high to suspend the house; the instructions say to put it  really high but they may have to compromise some on that since I don’t like ladders all that much.  We’ll see.  I’m trying to keep the thing as ‘natural’ as possible so there won’t be any weird smells, etc. to scare the bats off.  Next summer should tell the tail.

I spoke of building a little bed in the back of the pickup so we could spend an occasional night off in Death Valley or somewhere.  I’m still working on a design so haven’t gotten anywhere with the idea.  Right now I’m thinking of a bed that will fold in half lengthwise so we won’t lose too much cargo space.  When we want bed we just unfold it, blow up an air mattress and toss out the sleeping bags.  There should be plenty of room under the bed for camping supplies, a stove, etc.  I’m not sure about a porta-potty; we’ll cross that problem when we come to it.  Of course the design isn’t wife-approved yet so if I end up building something completely different; that’s what happened.

It is now two weeks since we had to take the dog to be put down.  Things are getting back to a new normal.  We went in to Las Vegas the other day and were a bit late getting home.  No worries now!  The cat just sleeps most of the time anyway and if he gets beyond eating cat food and hitting the litter box; well, that’s another problem.  He does get frightened in the night a few times almost every night.  He will start howling as loud as he can then quits after four or five howls only to repeat the performance a couple hours later.  We are actually getting used to it.  It’s like living next to the train tracks; eventually you sleep right through the passing train sounds.

Well, gotta go.  Have a good one.

Getting on...

We are still getting used to the new normal of no dog.  It will be a long while before one of the other of us goes a week without thinking we see or hear her but it will happen.  In the mean time we just need to get over it.  We got her almost twelve years ago and were separated from her for a total of 16 days in that time.  When we had her put down there was absolutely nothing wrong with her aside from the mess that was her cancer.  However.....

I was reading RandomRoger (famous financial blogger) a few weeks ago and he pointed out that there are a LOT of funds and ETFs that mimic the SPY ETF; which is supposed to mimic the S&P 500.  Since I read that I've been trying to find funds that will give us diversification while keeping charges low.  The problem is the HUGE universe of products almost generates an inability to make a choice.  I've read of this condition but now it's got me.  In the end, I know what I'll do.  I'll go for large products and just go along for the ride.  We certainly won't get famous or particularly rich but we'll do ok.

We have decided on a new way to spend money; well, new to us!  Viking River Cruises have been sending my wife their brochures for some time.  Right now they are giving 'special' rates if you book a 2014 cruise now.  We just couldn't say 'no'.  It is weak of us I know but what are you going to do?  Take it with you?  We have signed up for a China river cruise that includes flying around to some sites that aren't on the river.  It is one of those drag you around by the hand things where you are either on one of their ships, one of their planes or in one of their buses.  It is going to be really weird but we are both intimidated by not knowing the language or even the script.  We don't go for over a year but are already getting excited.  It will be the first time we've been out of the country since 2000.  Amazing!

Somehow I managed to watch much of President Obama's inauguration.  I thought it was ok as such things go; the poem that was written for the occasion seemed longer than the President's speech!  It will be interesting to see what he does with a second term.  His first seems to have polarized the country even more than it was before.  I'm afraid he isn't a man who learns cooperation easily and the Republican party seems pretty divided so I'm not so sure anything much is going to happen.  I hope he doesn't take the back door approach to things and start proclaiming Presidential Privilege all over the place.  That crap will stick us in the ass.  The Constitution did a great job of defining three parts of our government; having some fool try to jimmy the definitions on the fly for his own ends is not good for any of us. 

Have a good one.  I'm going to work on it too!

Getting used to the new normal

No, I'm not talking about some idiots view of the economy but rather life without our companion of the last, almost, 12 years.  Well, it won't be easy but we'll get there.  My wife thinks she hears the dog every now and then.  I'm not quite there but I am looking for her in all her old places.  I keep forgetting to feed the cat too because the dog isn't here going 'where is my food!'.  Happily the cat self-feeds so if I stock him up a bit it will keep him going for several days. We took our first walk out in the desert without the dog.  It was a little weird but....  We saw two jack rabbits; I was tempted to chase them for the dog but gave up on that thought.

We are getting our travel planning going for the next year.  We'll be in San Diego late next month then in the summer head north for Yellowstone and Glacier.  We are really looking forward to the summer trip.  There are some quiet, hopefully little used, roads heading up there & that will suit us just fine.  I love the Interstate system as much as anyone but when you aren't in a hurry it's fun to visit the backroads.  We haven't gotten so far in our planning that we have any idea of the time we'll be gone; could be three weeks or it could be six.  We'll cross that bridge later!

Short post today.  Maybe I'll have an actual idea tomorrow.  Take care!

RIP Sammie

Yesterday a.m. we woke as usual and I took Sammie out to do her thing.  When we returned my wife noted a small spot on her tee shirt.  By the time she lay down for her first treat of the day, it was bleeding.  When she got up, there was a puddle of blood a foot across.  Oh shit!  We bandaged her up as best we could but the emergency vet was in Las Vegas.  We went in to Vegas and had her put to sleep.  It was bad for us all but was the only solution. 

I'll be back later but until then RIP Samantha - D - Dog.  We love you!

Quiet before the literal storm

We are having some quiet days but the forecast for the next few is cold with precip. possible and gusts to 50 mph (80 kph).  It makes staying home a lot more reasonable. 

Yesterday we put a bunch of fiberglass insulation up in the attic.  There are places were we had very little and didn't realize it.  I believe the house is warmer; we'll see what happens to the electric bill.  We have these two small openings to the attic, maybe 2 ft x 3 ft (.6m x .9m), and we have 10 foot (3m) ceilings.  You would have laughed at me trying to get up the ladder with a roll of insulation that would only just go through the opening.  For some reason the builder managed to put the ceiling openings right next to a doorway so it isn't possible to get the ladder in a good position.  I was crawling up the ladder holding on with one hand with my stomach right against it carrying the roll of insulation off to the side in my free hand.  It was pretty funny.  My wife rolled the stuff out while I fed it to her.  By the time we were done with just four rolls, we were both soaked with sweat and definitely in need of a shower!

We did take the dog to the local vet for some blood work.  The oncologist wanted to be sure she was accepting the pain meds. without any problem.  The blood work came back fine so her only problem is that she has this huge cancer on her chest that we can't do anything about.  Here is her photo from 12/28.

And the following is what it looked like yesterday.

The cancer is just growing like crazy.  She has been pretty good about leaving it alone but this morning we caught her licking at it.  NOT good, so now she is wearing an old tee shirt to keep her tongue off it.  This is not a good news story.

I've been trying to adjust some of our investments to keep my mind off the dog.  It is embarrassing how long it's been since I've done this.  Some investments are doing fine but too many of our mutual funds are in Morningstar's 2 Star category.  Gotta change them out or put up with below average yields.  There are just way too many choices but I'll get there.  Happily there are only half a dozen positions that are really crap.

Speaking of crap, the charger for my DROID phone died; how tough is it to make something that will last a couple years without breaking?  Especially since this isn't a terribly complex article.  Guess I should be thanking my lucky stars that it is the charger and not the phone.  Nah, I'm still torqued; not that anyone is going to care. 

Anyway, have a good one.  If you keep putting one foot in front of the other, you'll get there.  Good luck!

Spam???

After quite a while with no spam, all of a sudden I'm getting spam comments.  Grrr!  Oh well, if that's my biggest problem!  Like that's true. 

I've been keeping a food diary for the past week or ten days.  It's kind of interesting; well, to me anyway.  Doubt if anyone else would find it instructive.  I do find that I eat more restaurant food than I expected.  Part of this is because we seldom finish a restaurant meal so I have a leftover for the next day.  For example, if I have a buritto at our favorite Mexican joint and eat the whole thing, I'm so full that I roll out the door.  I find that if I eat half I feel full and still have the energy to do something other than take a nap.  Just for the fun of it I'm trying to estimate the number of calories; now that can get difficult!  I mean no one knows the calorie count in that buritto!  If it were a chain, like Taco Bell, you could get the information easily but not if you are going to El Jefe in Pahrump.

I heard some comment to the effect that since we don't use our checkbooks as much it should reduce the problem people have remembering the new year.  For me, it's the opposite.  Of course, I was having trouble figuring out how late in the year it was.  If you aren't accepting that it is November yet you are going to have a heck of a time with January.  Happily I don't have to remember the date too often.  Still, I want to make it a point to know the date.  When my mom was being tested for diamentia one of the questions asked was "What is the date?"  She didn't know.

I appreciate all the comments on how people organize their photos.  It sounds like there is no perfect system so I guess I'll just continue with the date and tag method.  Besides let's face the fact that most often no one in their right mind would want to see my photos.  If they are lost I won't be torturing anyone with them. Speaking of photos that could be lost, here is one of the really important ones!

You see, I could lose that and no one in the entire world would be the worse off!  G. Duboeuf of France is probably the only person who would care about this.  Beaujolais Nouveau, if you don't know, is a certain French wine that is released on November 18 of the year in which it is grown.  Almost all decent wines are stored for a while at least before release; not this guy!  And all the producers release their versions on the same day.  If anyone is interested this year's wine is pretty good but not great.  I remember a few years ago we bought a bottle on November 18 and it was so nice that I went back and bought an entire case.  I don't think we'll need to do that this year.  This is a photo I almost certainly will lose too since we didn't try the Beaujolais Nouveau until December so that's where I stored the photo. 

Well, I've blithered on long enough wasting all these electrons and the time of anyone who has gotten to this point.  Have a good one!

Happy New Year!!

Here is to a great 2013 for one an all.  I hope your celebration was fun yet something that you remember!  And, of course, that you are feeling reasonably well this morning! 

My wife and I have always had a very quiet and private New Year celebration.  As usual we spent the evening talking.  Talking about how fortunate we are; trips we have made, trips we want to make, our hopes for the kids, our hopes for the world - yes, alcohol was involved but we did both see the New Year in.  In my family we always left Christmas decorations up until the new year; in my wife's family they took everything down on the 26th.  My wife very kindly agreed to do it my way so this was the last day for the decorations. 

Now we are ready for the new year.  I wish I could say the same for the total idiots we have elected and sent to Washington.  Jeez, what a bunch of (*&%%$##s!  Oh, don't get me started! 

We are hoping to travel up into Wyoming and Montana next summer and in talking about that discovered that we would both like to be able to take the truck and 'rough camp' a bit; leaving our trailer in a park and maybe going up that dirt road and staying for a day or two.  It will take a bit of modification to the bed of the truck but should be do-able.  We have a shell on the bed so all we are talking about is a sort of platform bed that will enable us to sleep on top of some of the stuff we need to carry.  I'll try to take photos of whatever happens.  If nothing else, it should be interesting.

Since it is a new year, I celebrated by getting up just before sunrise.  We had a nice one!

Though as the saying has it "Red sky at morning, sailor take warning."  Here's hoping it doesn't bode ill for 2013.  Have a good one everyone!