To Crash or Not to Crash

Kadizzle took off yesterday with The Commander in the saddle behind him on the Yamaha steed.  The roads we were on were terrible as usual.  Two old people, both 66 years old buzzing down a treacherous road on a motorcycle.  Our goal was to get The Commander to the Nonesuch Rocks. The Commander is fascinated with rocks, the bigger the better.  On most rides of this nature there are times when The Commander has to dismount and let Kadizzle go it alone up or down an insanely steep part of the road.  Yesterday The Commander insisted on walking a part of the ride we could perhaps have made it up double.  Kadizzle figured he could ride alone and check the road first, then come back and get The Commander. Kadizzle made it to the top without too much trouble, but then decided to turn and go back for The Commander.  The simple act of turning the cycle around at virtually no speed at all resulted in the cycle falling. Kadizzle was not paying attention. As the cycle fell Kadizzle did a fancy roll so the cycle did not fall on him.  The clutch lever got bent into the shape of the number nine when the cycle fell, but it still functioned.

We made it to the rocks and had a great hike.  Where we go is so remote a rescue would be a mess.  Getting us out would be a problem and retrieving the cycle would also be a problem.  A friend broke the oil pan on his cycle and had to hire Mexicans to haul his cycle back.

Want to join my Tontine

About a month or two ago Kadizzle heard of an old fashion retirement plan called a tontine.  Tontines were invented hundreds of years ago.  Here is how it works, each person in the tontine puts in a sum.  For example let's say each person contributes 100 thousand dollars.  For ten people this would be one million dollars.  The money is invested, and everybody shares in the return on capital.  Now, suppose one person dies, then the remaining nine split the interest.  Now, another person dies, and eight people split the remaining interest. As you can see those that live the longest benefit the most.  In the end one person gets it all. Tontines were actually set up and used for people to retire in the old days.  One major problem was you might be inclined to promote the demise of the other people in the tontine.  If you are not the first to die the idea has some merit.  The problem is to come up with a scheme whereby you don't know who else is in your tontine.  This could be done.  Kadizzle is considering this arrangement.  You could do it among friends.  There is of course the problem of not knowing who was in the tontine.  That will have to be worked out, but the idea could work.  Other than the first person to die, everyone is a winner.

A lesson from the coyotes.

A peculiar site around here is a dog that has become part of the coyote gang.  Various people have seen the dog trailing along with the coyotes as they walk the desert.  The other day we came across them. They were all lying in the middle of the road warming in the sun.

Kadizzle is fascinated by what the dogs talk about when they sit around in their den.  "Well dog, tell us about those humans".   It must be a great conversation.  Dog says " They fed me, none of this running around chasing rabbits".  "The human food for dogs was not very good, it was usually mush in a bowl, and think about how much fun we have catching food."  Coyotes ask " What do those humans do in their boxes?".  "Well " dog says " They watch a flat device that makes them fat, lazy, and stupid".  " Why do they do that dog, when they could be out in the desert having fun?".  " I think they are scared" dog replies.  " I think they are scared of these people they call terrorist".   "Dog why do people carry guns?'.   " They are afraid, afraid of everything".   " Who is after the people dog?".  " I don't know Coyote, I have never seen anyone come after the people, but the flat screen makes them very fearful".   "Well dog how do you like living with us?".  " It is a lot of fun, but I hate getting the thorns in my paws, the humans would pull them out for you, ya know".  " It is kinda nice being able to poop and pee where you want, those humans made me leave the box, and often I had to do it on the end of a rope.  Imagine trying to take a dump with a rope around your neck".   " Why did you leave the humans, some dogs seem to life the live of ease?'  " Well Coyote sitting around all day with nothing to do is not my bone to chew.  How many times can you chase a tennis ball, and who can brag I got a tennis ball all by myself?'  " I see what you mean".   " You Coyotes get to chase a rabbit for a mile, when you win, you have fresh hot meat,  that beats begging for some table scraps like Republicans beg for tax breaks".

Confused

Cliff is the third member of our trail crew.  Every morning before Cliff joins up with us he has to inspect and clean the Forest Service restrooms in his area.  When we stopped to pick cliff up yesterday he reported some unusual activity in the men's portion of the rest room.  Apparently some poor confused person decided urinals were the place to defecate.  This is a charitable way of putting it.  More than likely it was some simple minded dinger who had been offended by the universe.  Unfortunately a lot of people do not know there are a variety of ways to protest.  Maybe this person was part of the Bundy gang that took over the wildlife refuge in Oregon.  If you are unhappy, you can talk to someone, you can write a letter, or there are a host of ways to make you unhappiness known.

Once way back when we had a wonderful dog, and he was a smart dog.   Duffy was very good at going outside to do the essentials.  Dogs cannot write letters, and they cannot take decisions to arbitration.  Duffy was not too happy that we left him in the house too long.  We forgot and got home late.  Duffy had a plan he peed on the bed right where Kadizzle sleeps.   Dogs do the best they can with the talents they have.  Unfortunately too many humans are dogs.  The human dogs shoot up signs, scrawl graffiti, and vandalize mailboxes.  Kadizzle does not like the concept of shock collars for dogs, but could endorse them for people. Imagine someone driving down the road with a shock collar.  The dinger throws trash out the window, you hit the shock collar button.  What we need is a justice system where offenders are required to wear shock collars.  When normal people see the dingers doing their dinger behavior they get to shock the dinger.

Now if you have ever known people who use shock collars they will tell you the dog gets to know what will happen if it barks with the collar on.  The simple act of putting the collar on the dog does the trick, you don't even have to use it.  Now Kadizzle proposes telling the dinger in court that a special collar will be put on his neck.  When he offends society the collar will sense it and blow his head off.  The judge will explain that the collar will give the dinger three chances.  After two chances are used up the collar will have a yellow light that will appear.  Actually the collar will just have a timer in it that is set to turn on the light after 24 hours.  The dinger will be doubtful that the collar actually works, but it will drive him crazy once the light comes on.

Put in your place

My little granddaughter is of course the apple of my eye.  As a bragging grandfather please bear with me.  Sylvie aka Ticklepinch, aka The Snoochel is very intelligent and perceptive.  Both these traits can be a problem.  The other day Sylvie's teacher said Sylvie needed to see the school psychologist.  This did not sound good.  However, the problem was Sylvie was getting her work done way quicker than the rest of the kids and then wondering what was the problem for the rest of them.  Since Sylvie is an only child she has some social skills to learn.  A little empathy for the less talented kids is what she needs so that is what the teacher wants her to work on.  Sylvie and her mom were discussing some of Sylvies problems at school when Sylvie said to her mom Erin " How would you like it if you worked all day and then came home and had someone criticize your performance"   Fran and Erin were both cracked up by her remark.

As a sailor Kadizzle is into sea shanties, and has learned a few.  Kadizzle likes to teach Sylvie some of the sea songs.  It is such a kick to see Sylvie doing some little task and singing Leave her Johnny leave her.Sylvie singing

The Brain awakened.

Today is a day off for the Kadizzlites.  Kadizzle thought a motorcycle ride was in order. Of course The Commander said "Me too".  Riding two people on a 250cc motorcycle is a challenge at best, but we do it. One way to make it work is for The Commander to get off and walk when the going gets tough.  Fortunately The Commander decided not to go.  The ride turned out to test all of Kadizzle's skills.  It was steep rocky and at points damn near impossible.  As a person who made his living in the field of safety Kadizzle violated just about all his own rules.  First, this was a ride that should be done with two people on motorcycles. This is so one can report where the other one was killed. Next, the cell phone should work.  It ran out of power. Normally there is a backup procedure, a spare battery.  However, the correct cord was not along for the ride.

So now Kadizzle is riding alone, where he should not.  Since the phone was out, mapping was unavailable. This meant technically you were lost.  Kadizzle thought he could make a giant loop if he stuck with it.  One major problem, the road kept getting worse.  At one point Kadizzle had to get off and let the motorcyle power itself over a bad spot.  Now there was one final safety measure in place. Kadizzle carries a satellite communication device that he can send The Commander a message with in dire situations.  Fortunately the brain awakened.  It was fairly late in the day and this could turn into a real mess if Kadizzle did not turn around.  In the end Kadizzle made it back without a single crash.  Now Kadizzle may attempt to awanken his brain at the beginning of the trip instead of close to the end.  Next time, check the phone is fully charged, the cable to charge the phone is along, and don't go into death territory alone late in the day.

There was some very scenic rugged country back in there, but no pictures since the phone was dead.

The blind Commander and the Elephant.

In various versions of the tale, a group of blind men (or men in the dark) touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one feels a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then compare notes and learn that they are in complete disagreement.

As usual The Commander and Kadizzle are starting the day with their first argument, fight, disagreement, call it what you like.  The Commander, at least in Kadizzle's view has a hard time realizing different people see things in a different way.  Yesterday on the great trail improvement hike The Commander accused Kadizzle of being a slacker. For the purposes here Kadizzle is the Elephant, and The Commander is the blind person. The old fable of the blind men and the elephant perfectly illustrates the point, and shows how so much human disarray occurs.  Cliff and The Commander were to start on one end of the trail and work towards Kadizzle who was to start at the other end.  The problem arose when the trail split and came back together again. This was unbeknownst to all.  Kadizzle was in a conundrum when he realized this was the case.  If Kadizzle took one route and it was not the same route the others took it would cause a problem.  They might by pass each other.  So Kadizzle turned back at the intersection. Of course The Commander interpreted Kadizzle's actions as sheer laziness.  Which was not the case, Kadizzle worked his way out and bak removing sinful catus from the trail.  Now to the parable. The blind men all try to figure out what an elepahant is, but each only feels one part of it.  You probably know the story, but you need to review it, it will be on the test.

The stories differ primarily in how the elephant's body parts are described, how violent the conflict becomes and how (or if) the conflict among the men and their perspectives is resolved.

In some versions, they stop talking, start listening and collaborate to "see" the full elephant. When a sighted man walks by and sees the entire elephant all at once, the blind men also learn they are all blind. While one's subjective experience is true, it may not be the totality of truth. If the sighted man was deaf, he would not hear the elephant bellow.

It has been used to illustrate a range of truths and fallacies; broadly, the parable implies that one's subjective experience can be true, but that such experience is inherently limited by its failure to account for other truths or a totality of truth. At various times the parable has provided insight into the relativism, opaqueness or inexpressible nature of truth, the behavior of experts in fields where there is a deficit or inaccessibility of information, the need for communication, and respect for different perspectives.

However, if the story is used by someone as an analogy for religious relativism (namely, that all religions are equally true, since it is claimed that none can see the whole picture), it breaks down. The only way a person could know this fact is if they claimed to have an objective view on religious truth - that is, above all other views. This is of course, is self-refuting since the self-proclaimed relativist believes that there is at least one perspective that can see above all others, despite claiming that none can see the whole picture. In other words, the story of the five blind men is told from the perspective of someone who is not blind.

Our takeover of federal land

What a nice spot we have.  If the Kadizzles had to buy the place where we sit it might cost a considerable sum.  We are in a wonderful site all by ourself with infinite lakefront property.  This could be ours.  All we have to do is get some guns and say we are taking it back from the government.  White people can do that.  Muslims, blacks, and Mexicans are not allowed to take land.  White people learned to do it in 1492.  We need to get in touch with the Bundy family in Oregon and find out why the land is ours.

If you want something, just take it is not a new idea.  History is replete with the concept.  Usually the guy with the most and biggest guns gets the land.  Of course a great deal of taking was done by spreading disease.  We need a modern disease to spread. How about stupidity?  It seems to be rampant in our country.  Infecting people with stupidity seems fairly easy. Let them watch Fox News, listen to Rush Limbaugh, and keep them away from books and science.  Once they start believing in supernatural beings, UFOs and the lottery  things will fall into place, and you can steal everything they have.

A good sense of humor.

Cliff is the third wheel of our trail crew.  He is a perfect fit for what we do.  He loves to hike, he loves to pick up trash, and he is a closet liberal.  Cliff is a camp host up the lake,  but also goes on our trail adventures. Cliff is surrounded by the rightwing crowd living on the fringe.  Among the Trump and Cruz gang.  He dare not show his true colors so he enjoys hanging out with Kadizzle and The Commander where he can vent his frustration with the redneck mentality.

Anyone who ever spent much time with Kadizzle would soon realize he blames Republicans for just about every malady on the planet.  Yesterday as we picked up trash on top of the mountain we were discussing the mess and Cliff said " Must have been Republicans".   It was a good dig at Kadizzle and one of those little humorous moments that make life fun. Subtle wry humor is always fun.  Bob up the street back home is good at that type of humor.  Humor that brings people back to reality and Earth is a good thing.  Nothing is better at deflating an ego that is about to burst than a good humorous dig.

Unquestionably humor and intelligence go hand in hand.  Once my cousin said " You can't fool me, I am too stupid".  I always loved that statement.  Think about it.  When you watch a magic show you get fooled by cleverly being mislead, but if you are stupid you don't even have enough brain power to be deluded.  Look at any well qualified crazy person, usually they are intelligent.  Take the paranoid, it takes some thinking to dream up a good scheme you can convince yourself it is true.  Nothing is more therapeutic than laughing at yourself.  If you do not have the ability to see yourself with a sense of humor, just pull out the gun and shoot yourself.

Up on the Mountain

The Trail crew headed out early and hit two spots to clean up garbage left by degenerates.  Degenerates like to shoot things and leave bullet casings all over the place. Real he men don't pick up the shells.  The Kadizzles have had tire punctures from shell casings. This is one great benefit of the gun insanity gripping the nation.

After we cleaned up the mess the dingers made we headed up to the Four Peaks.  It is one of the best drives in Arizona.  The views are fantastic, and it was a perfect crystal clear day to enjoy them.  At the top we did more litter patrol and documented the damage the gun dingers have done to the signs.  A big part of our job is replacing signs and repairing the damage the dingers do.  One good thing about dingers is they don't move far from their motors.  If a simple minded degenerate cannot shoot something close to the road he will not walk into the woods.  A bear or and elf might get him.  The dingers are a fearless bunch they have battled signs for years, a sign has never been brave enough to shoot back.  Dingers are real good at throwing their beer cans into the woods.  After a degenerate kills a sign, cleans it, and cooks it over his camp fire he often celebrates with a can of beer.  You don't shoot a 4x4 Forest Service sign every day and live to tell about it.  Some of the dingers mount the signs they kill at their man caves.

Later we drove out an isolated road on the ridge top and enjoyed more incredible views.   There was snow up there and a four wheel drive came in handy.  We met some guy trying out a 22k BMW cycle.  He was a bit confused and we had to show him the way off the mountain.  Following him down he almost lost it in the snow, but made it ok.  Tomorrow back up the mountain to replace some signs.  Lets all make sure every idiot has access to a gun so he can protect himself from signs.  Hopefully when the dingers shoot the signs they don't miss and hit you in your car behind the sign. The second amendment guarantees the right to shoot signs in self defense.

Degenerate Alert

Degenerates are the bane of our existence.  Degenerates are born to make life miserable for the rest of humanity.  Yesterday Roberto said he got a request from the Forest Service in Payson to have the traihead at Deer Creek cleaned up, it was a mess. Kadizzle said this is impossible just a week ago we picked up all the trash and had it spotless.  We picked up everything except the dead dog a degenerate had thrown under a tree.  The degenerates like their car to be clean and the world to be a mess, so the degenerates throw trash everywhere.  Trash is not a problem it magically disappears, at least that is how the brain of degenerate see it.  So today our trail crew will drive 30 miles each way with your tax dollars to clean up the mess the degenerates made.  Yesterday we were replacing trail signs the degenerates have shot up. Degenerates love guns.  Degenerates love jacked up pickup trucks, and making lots of noise.  Most degenerates are amused by the same things three year olds like, loud noises, throwing things, and getting attention for existing.  A good time for a degenerate is drinking some beer, driving into the forest, and shooting and old television to death.  The tax burden of degenerates is stiff.  They destroy public facilities, they are the ones who scratch restroom walls,  they break picnic tables,  they leave skid marks everywhere.

The Commander is packing lunch and soon we will be earning our pay, which is nothing, picking up the mess the degenerates made at Deer Creek.

This reminds Kadizzle of his brother in laws war on the degenerates.  Ned used to live right by the national forest.  One day he saw a degenerate drive into the forest with a load of trash and come out without it.  Ned went out to investigate and found the degenerate had dropped his phone by the trash he dumped.  Ned called the degenerate and told him he could have his phone back when he picked up the trash.  The degenerate complied.  Ned told him he could pick his phone up at The National Forest Service Office.  The degenerate got his phone and a one hundred dollar fine.  Report degenerates when you see them dispoiling the universe.

Here we go

It is Monday, and time to make the country safe for democracy.  The Kadizzlites will mostly accomplish this by clearing the trail by the old cemetery.  At least that is the plan, it can change at any moment.  Yesterday we watched football first at the marina where Kadizzle cooked the hamburgers, and then we went down to the bar on the other end of the lake.  Bored we returned to the Earth Module and the trail crew watched about four episodes of Fargo.  Living in North Dakota makes watching the series Fargo special.  My daughter Cheech can do some great imitations of the Minnesota characters.  Since we have no real television we are living on House of Cards, and Fargo.  Both reflect so well on the current insane state of our country.  Reality has been suspended.  Fox News is really Fox right wing fantasy.  Donald Trump the mother of all clowns is leading the dolt parade and the country into oblivion.  So to save democracy Kadizzle will take a lopper and cut the overgrown bushes off the trail.  Each time he cuts a bush he will say " Take that Trump" or  make some other remark to drive the dolts into submission.

Read carefully and make sure you don't understand.

Look closely, that is Bernie whacking on the bankers.  Kadizzle cannot tell you how many people in his little town of Hazen are always engaging in Bible Study.  How can so many people study something and totally miss what it is about.  There is no way any cognizant person could study the Bible and not conclude Jesus was a socialist.  All the people studying the Bible seem to be trying to figure out how the Bible will endorse their greed, their hate, and their hypocrisy. So many of the right wing that hate socialism don't have a clue what it is.  In North Dakota co-operatives are everywhere.  There is nothing more socialist than a co-operative.  In Hazen we get our electricity from a co-operative, we get our phone from a co-operative, we get our gas from a co-operative.  The people of North Dakota go to the meetings of their co-operatives and vote, and participate, and they hate co-operatives.  Makes no sense if they hate socialism, why not vote to disband them?  What is a cooperative?  It is a system that eliminates the parasites.  A cooperative removes the people who take, but do not give.  That is what socialism does.  Socialism is sharing.  What is so bad about that?  When a person inherits money or the ownership of a business they are rewarded for doing nothing.  They are parasites.  The person who inherits stock and lives on the dividends is a parasite. Lets face it.   Cooperatives have no stock holders, and consequently no parasites.

The crash of the Ice Cream Truck

Kadizzle was impatient and decided to wait for Cliff and Mike up by the highway instead of down at the camper.  Time went by and they did not show up for the motorcycle ride.  Kadizzle could spot a Schwan truck coming down the road as he waited. Kadizzle figured a Schwan truck which sells ice cream would not be coming down the road unless God wanted Kadizzle to have some ice cream. As the truck went by Kadizzle gave his shrill whistle and signaled the driver towards Kadizzle.  The truck stopped down the road and Kadizzle purchased two pints of ice cream.  Now Kadizzle had to get back to the camper and get the ice cream in the refrigerator. One big problem, The Commander was standing guard back at camp.  How could Kadizzle show up with two pints of ice cream and not get the chew?  Suddenly it dawned on Kadizzle, he would tell The Commander an Ice Cream truck had wrecked out on the highway.  It worked Kadizzle said " Quick put this ice cream in the freezer, there was an ice cream truck wreck".  The Commander bought the story.   Kadizzle told Cliff and Mike to confirm the wreck.  The Commander got suspicious and Kadizzle got caught, but in a few minutes Kadizzle will be cleaning up the mess from the wreck.

Three Old Guys

Three old guys decided to for a motorcycle ride today.  None of us have ridden together before.  Cliff is 69, Kadizzle is 66, and the other Mike is somewhere in that ballpark.  Off we went into the desert. Cliff had warned he was not that good.  The other Mike said he had been a former racer.  We got to the first bad hill. Mike the racer said he picked a "bad line", and crashed. Kadizzle made it.  Cliff crashed behind the other Mike.  Well the sorting went quickly and we figured this bunch of seniors was not going up the hill.  Kadizzle was proud he did not crash, and has made it up the hill several times.  So off we went into milder terrain.  Now we know the handicaps of our little motorcycle gang.  There are places out here that will quickly separate the riders into categories.  As you get older you tolerance for broken bones diminishes quickly.  The old saying in industry was there were quick electricians and old electricians.  The old guys who went slow lived to be old.  The quick young whipper snappers eliminated themselves in short order.  As you get old, you realize why you are old, you did not do enough stupid things to die young.

Free Range Children

One of the big buzzes today is how to raise kids.  Do you go free range, or helicopter? Most kids are so overprotected today they cannot learn to fart on their own.  Kadizzle was brought up free range style. Coming from a family of nine we were just seeds thrown out the door and expected to grow.  Very few activities we ever participated in were organized unless we organize them and that was a good thing.  The kids organizes softball, football, or whatever.  There were no little leagues or papa whatever football.  The main thing we organized were gangs.  The most famous gang was the Mary Wheat gang.  Mary Wheat had two boys in her gang and the battles were on.  The Mary Wheat gang occasionally stole the huge tricycle that belonged to my cousin's. This meant war.  Warfare usually just meant spying, and sometimes throwing mud.

If you wanted something to eat when I was a kid you foraged in your own house, or looked for a handout. You learned to make Jello or a toasted cheese sandwich.  As kids we got into everything.  Our favorite place to search for prizes was the attic.  Each of the old big houses we lived in had huge attics where the servants used to live.  In our day the attics were full of treasures.  The best treasures were the World War Two items the dads had brought back.  We always loved playing with the real German Luger handgun.  If there had been bullets we would have shot each other dozens of times.  There were bayonets,  helmets, and everything you needed to make an expedition up on the hill.

One big rule was to be in the house when the street lights came on.  That was it.  With nine kids if you were stolen or lost it really did not matter there were plenty of extras.  When we grew up being stupid was embarrassing.  If you were dumb someone told you.  That was your incentive to pay attention once in awhile at school.  Money was a joke. No parent ever gave kids money.  If you wanted money you fished pop bottles out of the creek or the hedge and took them to the grocery store, you cut grass, you pulled weeds. We knew how to beg.  We begged from the milkman, who gave us orange drink and gum. We begged from Mr. Blum the baker who gave us cookies.  We begged from Vincent the fruit and vegetable man who gave us a few cherries.

We had social clubs.  Under ever porch there was a club for kids to look at Playboy magazine and smoke cigars stolen from the drugstore.  Every kid smoked at least once a week before we were 12.  At night you could see Stephen Liebold smoking on his roof three stories up.  As free range children we learned to survive. We learned so many skills the helicopter kids will never know.

He admitted it

Today was a nice peaceful sunny day. The Commander is hiking with a bunch of women, so Kadizzle has free roam of the desert.  To celebrate Kadizzle took a long ride on the Yamaha steed.  In the course of events Kadizzle discovered some new routes and then figured one route would lead to ice cream.  At the store enjoying coffee ice cream and walnut pecan Kadizzle observed Mr. Bummore.  Kadizzle had seen Mr. Bummore riding his bike the day before.  Bummore is actually Leo, of Leo and Max.  Max is the shaggy little dog that rides on the bike with Mr. Bummore.

When Kadizzle arrived at the gas station for ice cream he noticed the bum mobile and wondered if he should engage Bummore in a conversation.  Bummore was walking Max the dog.  Kadizzle was amazed to hear Bummore cursing poor Max with profanities and jerking on Max's chain, along with dragging Max across the asphalt.  This was not a good performance for someone on the bum who wanted spare change.  While Kadizzle sat on the little seat and enjoyed his ice cream Leo Bummore came nearby and we exchanged pleasantries.  Somehow Leo mentioned he was a Trump supporter.  Kadizzle has been looking for someone who would publicly admit to being a Trump supporter.  This is when Kadizzle knew he had to get a picture of Bummore.  Leo epitomizes what a Trump supporter is.  Leo is a victim of the very things Trump advocates.  Kadizzle asked Leo what motivated him to take off cross country with his dog.  He said his pay was so low that working was hopeless.  Asked what kind of work he did Leo said "Dish washing".  With mechanization the dish washing profession cannot pay that well.  Of course The Donald will cure that by building a casino with American dishwashers like Leo. Well paid dish washers and not those Mexican cheats that are stealing American dishwashing jobs.  It would be so nice to see Leo in a campaign add for Donald.  The camera might pan in on Leo saying  " I'll kill you, you little F**king dog, if you don't put that down", and then ask him why he likes Trump.  Trump and Leo would make a great pair, just like Trump and Palin.  A couple of delusional dolts wandering around in a daze.

Food on the trail

Yesterday we savored a pork roast.  All day Al slowly cooked the pork.  As usual all the good cooks chipped in with side dishes and we had the mother of all meals.  Kadizzle has been blessed by knowing so many excellent cooks, that is one reason Kadizzle has Little Joey.  Little Joey is that big belly you see right above Kadizzle's belt.  Little Joey loves eating.  When Kadizzle first became pregnant with Little Joey his progeny was in there eating all the food that came down the chute.  Little Joey loved it so much he never came out, he just kept growing inside.  Kadizzle has tried starving Little Joey, but it never works.  He will plead for some good food and Kadizzle cannot resist.  Little Joey is in there with his laptop always searching for nearby food. The Commander is a good cook and she is the one who got Kadizzle pregnant with Little Joey.  Little Joey loves The Commander and has made the marriage stronger.  Who would feed little Joey if we separated?  Kadizzle might get angry and runaway, but Little Joey pleading to get home by supper is more than any man can stand.  Little Joey is 40 now and his taste have become more sophisticated.  He now likes much more expensive food, and getting him to some of his favorite eating places can involve time and money.  Of all our children Little Joey has been the most expensive and hard to raise.  He has never learned manners, he is impatient, and he will not accept no for an answer.  Additionally he is deceptive.  He will steal from the refrigerator, he will dip his finger in cake frosting, and on it goes.  Little Joey is not bashful. In a grocery store he will ask for a cookie, or a sample.  Most women love Little Joey, even if they are a marginal cook the way he eats can make them look good.  The worst thing about Little Joey is lugging him up a mountain.  If Little Joey were born today he might weigh up to 50 lbs.  At times The Commander says Little Joey might have a drinking problem.  He does occasionally drink a bottle of wine by himself, or have a couple of strong drinks in a row, then he want to go to bed.  Who knows what he has been doing lately.  Kadizzle has had some fire belly lately and the need for a dose of Tums is not unusual.

Fellow Travelers

The term "Fellow Travelers" was an old code phrase for what once was considered communist conspirators.  However, as move about people we have a lot of good friends that are fellow travelers. One nice thing about the life of movement is the people always change. In fact if you get tired of your neighbors in this game, you just start the engine and you are gone.  This is rarely a problem, in fact right now people seem to be gathering here from all over.  People we have met over the years are all showing up in the next few weeks.

Somehow there is a strange commonality.  Just about everyone we engage as good friends bikes, sails, hikes, and loves the outdoors.  Seems like a lot of them are birders. Why more people do not get unglued from the Television and enjoy the magnificent country we live in is a mystery.  Fox News must have them terrified. The Commander and Kadizzle have been living the mobile life for 17 years.  Never have we had a serious problem out in the wild.  It seems the craziest people stay close to town.  Town is what is making them crazy.  You will eventually have the pleasure of sitting in a nursing home watching all the Fox News you want, so why not put it off until then.  Most of the very best places you can only get to on foot. That is a good thing.  Remember the old movie line when a guy got scared? He would say " feet do your thing".  The thing was run. If your feet don't work, they cannot do their thing. Keep your feet in shape, walk.

The donation.

For many years the Kadizzles have been doing charity sailing trips.  Normally, the trips were auctioned off in Jamestown, North Dakota to raise money for the art center there.  Usually the sailing trips would raise about $700 per year for the art center.  The Kadizzles do this totally for free.  For many years there was a group of women in Jamestown that enjoyed the sail so much they always made sure they made the high bid.  We always had a great time.

This year we are going to auction a trip for our granddaughter's school in Denver.  It will probably be an overnight trip.  The school will conduct the auction, but Kadizzle will put the details on this site and let anyone who wants bid on the trip.  The description is being edited, and when it is complete it will be posted.

The Sun also rises

It looks like it will be a very nice day.  Later today we will sit by the water and enjoy a pork roast that has been carefully roasted with a special wood pellet stove.  We worked our three days this week, and the hike yesterday has worn old Kadizzle down.  It may be the perfect day for a motorcycle ride so Kadizzle may mount the steed and hit the desert.  As morning breaks The Commander and Kadizzle sit here getting up to date on the magic tablets.  The hummingbirds are working and with luck we might see the magic group of a dog and the coyotes.  On our drive over to Windy Hill Monday we saw two coyotes and the dog laying in the road trying to get warm.  The dog has become famous around here because the coyotes have taken him in.  It does show racial peace can be achieved.

Will we bring tablets back?

Our band will hike up the mountain today.  With Cliff, The Kadizzlites and four friends we will make an assault. When Moses went up the mountain he came back with tablets.  Presumably those tablets changed the world.  If we could bring tablets back today they might have Tom Friedman's article in The New York Times on them.  The article is called "What if?".

The world has changed and people seem to be oblivious.  Work as we know it has changed.  It will no longer take massive numbers of people to produce what we need.  This will have a major impact on countries like India, China, and of course the U.S.  The abundance of oil will have a drastic effect on the world.  Climate change is real.  With our heads in the sand we will go forward.

Missed again

Yesterday we treked up to the chrysocola mine to see if we struck it rich. The simple answer is no. The chrysocola turned out to be copper sulfate patina.  Great looking stuff but worthless.  So we lost the lottery and our mine went bust. Life is full of disappointments.  The only salvation is the mine may have uranium.  The plan would be to sell it to Iran or terrorist. Good thing we did not give up our day job where we work for free.

Today's adventure

The trail crew has the day off so the three of us will make a sojourn to the mountains.  About five thousand feet higher than our present location we will go in search of the precious chrysocola.  It will not be much of a search we know exactly where it is.  Last year we found the mine, but this year we need to verify what the mineral is.  Another major problem has been trying to figure out if a claim has been filed and if the claim is active.  Kadizzle has searched what records are available on the internet, and cannot come to a conclusion.  It appears the mine was originally a site where someone was looking for gold, copper, or uranium.  Inadvertently they ran into chrysocola.  Chrysocola is of value only for jewelry

.

Number Seven in a series of Nine

It has always been a puzzle what Kadizzle's parents were thinking when they had nine children, but Kadizzle is number seven.  Of the nine two have gone on to the great beyond.  Colin, and Louise both had heart attacks. Heart attacks are a favorite in our family.  Colin, Louise, our mother, Tom, and Kathleen all have been hit by the heart devil.  So here we sit in Cottonwood, AZ with the oldest Melissa, the youngest Patty, and myself.  Reviewing family history which changes as often as it does in Texas.  Of the nine children all but one attended College.  Tom did not attend college but he did just fine.

One thing everyone learned was not to reproduce excessively.  Of the nine no one had more than two children. Often Kadizzle wonders how anyone would attempt to raise nine children, even though he was part of such a scheme.

At these summit meetings always some tidbit of family history comes out that was heretofore unknown.  Our parents would be amazed that we all prospered.  With six girls and two boys it was surprising that two of the girls became lawyers, and none of the boys wanted anything to do with it.  Louise was a lawyer, and married a law professor.  Kadizzle has always been amazed how many lawyers were in the family.  Grandfather had a law practice, and all three of his sons were law school graduates.  Kadizzle never went to law school, but always braggs he was the only one in the family that served as a judge.  Kadizzle was a municipal judge in Hazen for 25 years.

Whenever the siblings are together there is always laughing.  A sense of humor was part of the heritage.  You had to be able to laugh to get through this ordeal.

Medical Insanity

The ability of the American health industry to run up cost is astonishing.  Kadizzle needs a shot for his prostate cancer.  Seems like a simple matter.  No way.  The doctor in Bismarck wrote a prescription. It seemed simple. While in AZ Kadizzle could present the prescription to a doctor in AZ and get the shot.  Nope, before you can get the shot which actually any nurse should be able to administer you have to become a patient of a doctor in AZ.  You cannot just do this in one trip to the doctor.  You have to go first to be examined, which has already been done and paid for twice in Bismarck.  Next you have to make another appointment to come back to get the shot.  This will involve about three hundred miles of driving.

The whole situation is the result of the bizarre medical system in our country.  The insurance company will not pay for the shot if you get it one day early.  The medical records all have to be faxed.  In the year 2016 the United States still has the most archaic medical record system in the world.  A modern country would have a national computer record system.  Kadizzle could write pages about the trickery that goes on just so the right people make money off the misery of cancer.  The shot will cost $1,500 plus the extra cost of three needless doctor visits.  The shot can suppress cancer for two years, after that it is useless. However, my doctor told me some doctors prescribe the shot for five years because of the kickback they get.  The shot can have some side affects that are unpleasant.  In summary when you have a medical system driven by profit people suffer, and money is wasted.  Kadizzle is one hundred percent for national health care like every other civilized country has embraced.

A very difficult situation.

Kadizzle just read a sad email from a young friend of our children.  The poor woman is going through a very difficult and what may turn out to be tragic pregnancy.  Knowing the terrible decisions her family may have to make stirs in me the thought of outsiders intervening.  The insane audacity of any person to interfere with other families' pregnancy crises riles me up beyond belief.  My daughter had surgery when she was four months pregnant with Sylvie.  Had any religious interloper tried to intervene in the medical decisions that had to be made I do not think I could have restrained myself.  The fact that Republicans use the abortion issue for political purposes is one reason I have nothing but disdain for that political party.  It is so very sad that politicians use such personal problems to enhance the suffering of young mothers, and for their own political gain.  If Republicans truly loved children they would provide health care, they would give single mothers a decent wage, they would support education, they would be for gun control. and they would help young families rather than provide tax breaks for the rich. There is no excuse for a child to live in poverty in the United States when some asshole like Donald Trump flies in a new 777 Boeing jet to spread hate across the country.

The Backwards March

Kadizzle was educated in a time when data, science, and facts ruled.  Never did it seem possible people would abandon rational thought, and embrace the concept " If you believe it, it is true".  The Republican Party has departed reality.  Truth in the Republican Party is determined by how loud, and how often you say something.  The more bizarre the better.  People used to respect knowledge and enjoy being educated, now they enjoy being scared, and led into the fantasy world of imminent disaster.  The world of proof and research has disappeared.  When Kadizzle was reaching adulthood the nightly news had respectable people talking about real issues in an unbiased way, you did not tune into the channel that told the lie the way you wanted to hear it.  People were not obsessed with guns and afraid of imaginary attacks in the good old days.  Unions helped insure everyone had a fair portion of the pie.  Today greed rules.  We admire the greenest meanest person we can find. His name is Donald Trump.  Once we had presidents that cared about everyone in the country. We had Dwight Eisenhower who warned us about the military industrial complex. We had John Kennedy who inspired us to reach the moon using science. We did not have some Republican dolt saying there is no climate problem and denying evolution.  The Republican Party has marched us backwards so far that we have become a third world country where only a few are entitled to the good things in life. You get ahead by inheritance.  No one has a sense of history about anything except their sports team.  With enough resources to give everyone a decent life we squander the planet so one percent can die from excess.  There is not one Republican candidate for president capable of turning the country around.  If decent people will wake up and point to the evil the Republicans are raining on our country perhaps we can go in the direction were single mothers can make a decent living, where everyone can have health care, where you get ahead not by inheriting, but by working and thinking.  With Republican toxicity the currency of our country is now deceit, pandering, and duping the simple minded.  As a people we should be better than this.

The Commander has become and equal

It happens every year. For three months every year The Commander is the same age as Kadizzle.  Today cannons will fire, church bells will ring, and massive demonstrations will be in order to celebrate The Commander's birthday.  After the doves are released the major celebration will start.  Hopefully the great gift will arrive by mail.  The great gift will be CDs from Netflix so we can spend the evening watching House of Cards for hours.

Yesterday The Commander and Cliff hiked up the mountain.  Kadizzle chose to stay below and connect two trials with some dirt work.  Next Kadizzle cleaned up the trailhead parking area.  This brings us to the degenerates.  Degenerates throw all manner of trash in the weeds as if somehow that makes the beer bottles, and the baby diapers disappear.  We found a dead dog or cat thrown in the bushes by the degenerates.  Degenerates take pride in offending decent people.  They love to make loud noises, smoke in the wrong places, and wave Confederate flags.  Degenerates love to destroy things.  In Arizona the degenerates drive into the desert and shoot up their old TV or shoot up some propane tanks.

To some degree evolution works for normal people.  The degenerates tend to kill themselves with drugs, cigarettes, or guns.  That is the good news, the bad news is they reproduce.  Putting degenerates in jail lessens the likelihood they will make more degenerates.  However, once they produce a crop of new degenerates the cycle starts all over.  Now people hate to spend money on programs to reform degenerates, but it is cheaper in the long run to wipe them out early than to pay the cost of jailing them, and picking up their trash.

A different point of view

Lottery update Bulletin

Kadizzle just read an article in The New York Times about the lottery.  The article mentioned a lottery simulator in the Los Angeles Times.  Kadizzle tried it out and bet 6,000 dollars.  Kadizzle lost 6,550 dollars.  How can you lose more than you bet.  It can be done.  Like most idiots that gamble all you have to do it always put your winnings back in until you are broke.  If you did not reinvest you would win 550 dollars on a 6,000 dollar bet.  Next time you see a simple minded dinger buying a lottery ticket explain to him how he can lose more than he bets.

Big Decisions

There is no higher tax than the tax on stupidity. Gambling is the perfect tax on stupidity. Kadizzle put two dollars into the lottery to pay his stupidity tax.  Now it has taken so much time deciding how to spend the billion dollars we will win later today.  How much should we give the kids?  What amount will just help them and what amount destroy them?  Which charities will we support? How much will we give Bernie Sanders? On and on the decisions go.  It all sounds like a lot of work.  This morning while we are still poor life seems so simple.  One nice thing this morning is no one bothers us.  All those people that will show up when we win will be such a nuisance.  Just to stay even with the interest we will have to spend about six thousand dollars and hour 24 hours a day.   That is a big job.  If we don't keep up with the spending we will just keep getting richer.  Think about the poor guys like Trump with 10 billion, you can see why they have to have their own brand new plane, just to help spend down the money.  One big decision will be how many politicians to buy.  Should we buy some Republicans and some Democrats?  Should we buy a president?  It would be nice to have one.  Of course we may want to buy some laws.  Once we get the money we may buy legislation that requires ice cream on pie or cake.   What about buying a title? Perhaps Lord Kadizzle.  Once we win later today it just seem like too much work.  So if we wake up tomorrow without winning and just hike up a trail and enjoy the magnificent natural world we may be the real winners.  Our biggest decision will be French toast or pancakes.

History does not exist

Kadizzle has been caught up in a history book about the early explorers of the Americas.  At this point Kadizzle is reading about Pope Alexander VI.   A more corrupt human could not exist, nor could a more corrupt church.  How could any person have any sense of history and belong to such and organization?  How could anyone even belong to an offshoot of such an organization?  Imagine if someone came up to you and offered you a membership in an organization that was an offshoot of the Nazis.  Would you not be a little questioning or suspicious?

Most amazing is reading how the same old game of bilking the dolts with the usual war and fear game has been going on for hundreds of years.  The game of those on top has not changed in a thousand years. Stir up some war, blend in some religious nonsense, and rob the dolts.  Kadizzle says history does not exist, if it did people could not possibly be as ignorant as our current crop of human beings.

Bulletin: It was Columbus who discovered cigars.

As The Commander scurries around Kadizzle in his usual lazy manner spends the morning reading about Columbus.  Little did Kadizzle realize it was Columbus who discovered cigars. To top it off it was in Cuba. So it was Cuban cigars Columbus discovered.  As is Columbus had not brought enough misery to the world he also seems to have been a major player in the many lung cancer deaths on the planet.  The amazing thing is Columbus felt God had inspired him to do it all.  All the people raped, robbed, and enslaved by what Columbus set in order can now also thank him for giving the world a new means to suffer.  The real history of the world is much more interesting than the Texas version where slaves were considered guest workers.  Of course we like history the way we like it and that explains Fox News that makes up history every day.

The Trail Crew

The Trail Crew worked above the dam yesterday and today will work on a local trail. The recent rains have put a damper on travel on the back roads.  The sun will shine today and it will be what Arizona in the winter should be.  Paul Krugman wrote a good article in The New York Times today about the Obama Boom.

Obama cannot really take all the credit for the improved conditions but it does give a lot of insight into reality.
Hopefully we can get into the backcountry while the water is still flowing and see the waterfalls in action. One area called the Jug has some really good water features.

Fooling the Dolts

With Priscilla flying in and out of our heliport The Commander and Kadizzle decided to check into her company.  By Republican standards it is considered a small business.  According to their web site her company took 600,000 people for tours in the grand Canyon last year.  At $250 per person that comes out to about $180,000,000 just from that source of revenue. Of course that does not include all the other work they do.  So you take in $200 million dollars and you are a "small business".  That is nothing.  Look at the Koch brothers, they are two of the richest people in the world with assets in the hundreds of billions.  Yup, they are considered a "small business".  They are categorized that way because they are "family owned".

Now some Republican will jump up on the stage and say we need to help "small businesses".  Yes indeed the Koch brothers need help.  They buy politicians like Kadizzle buys underwear.  The Fox News gang eats up this insanity.  It is like the inheritance tax, the Republicans relabeled it the death tax, and the dingers fell fo it. Dingers like simplicity, and the Republican love to give it to them.  Got a problem, carpet bomb it, or shoot it, problem solved.  Vote Republican and live in a simple world where prosperity comes from trickle down economics.  A simple system whereby the rich piss prosperity on the poor.

The Burping Toilet

Being awakened at 3 A. M. by The Commander to discuss the burping toilet is not Kadizzle's vision of nirvana. RV toilets are not like home models, there is a holding tank.  The Commander claimed gas was coming out of the toilet.  This would be feasible if the gas smelled like sewer gas, but our delicate thrown seemed to be burping fresh air.  So in the middle of night we did a physics class regarding how this could happen. Kadizzle figured there were two possibilities.  First, it might be possible a combination of chemicals could have been poured down the chute that caused a chemical reaction that produced some sort of oderless gas.  Chlorine is great for chemical reactions. The second possibility was gas was coming clear from the underground septic system, but if it was it should stink.

Well here we sit having coffee and the indigestion of the RV seems to have gone away.  With a more clear head it has occurred to Kadizzle that he could have put some Tums down the thing last night. Lately Kadizzle has had some fire belly, and the Tums seem to work.  Once it warms up the investigation will have to resume. The Commander suspects the vent is clogged.  We will check it, but that makes not sense.  The lack of any odor is the mystery.

The Sun Also rises.

Pricilla and her mechanic worked late last night on the flying machine and they just took off.  Apparently the fog grounded them while they were flying yesterday and they had to drop down and sit on the ground until the clouds lifted.  It looks like every morning for the next three weeks the alarm clock will be the helicopter starting up two hundred yards away.

At last it looks like the sun will shine. The Commander wants to work today.  What a wonderful job when you get to decide when you will work. Kadizzle has always been leery of work.  We have the best boss, Roberto. Roberto never tells us what to do or when to do it.  The Commander says " What are we supposed to do?".  Kadizzle always warns her not to ask.  If you have a job where you get to decide what you are going to do, then don't mess it up.

Things need to dry out a little before we can get back on the game. Our plan is to start working from the top of the mountains down.  In order to do this we need to find where the trails come out on the top of the mountain and roads to get to the trails.

We have been suffering from cabin fever.  Yesterday the CDs came with House of Cards.  It is an interesting show on just how crooked and corrupt our political system is.  There is an excellent article in the New York Times today about money in politics.  Our congressmen cannot get anything done because all they do is beg for money.  The guy with the most money wins, no matter if it is the gun lobby, Wall Street, or some other gang of rich crooks like the pharmaceutical industry.

Let's watch sports, listen to Rush, drink some beer, and turn on Fox News.  Life is good once you get away from reality.

Priscilla took off

It is still raining and overcast, but Priscilla and the Game and Fish gang took off. It looks like it might be a little more clear to the west and that is where they headed.  Time for a second cup of coffee.  So far The Commander has not barked any serious demands.  Creeks are running, and this lake should come up.  Sun may come out late in the day and things will get back to normal.

Priscilla is grounded

Priscilla came down to our campsite and started her helicopter at 6:30 A.M. before daylight.  With the rain Priscilla must have given up taking the Game and Fish guys out.  The visibility is terrible. Priscilla shut down the engine and went back to bed.  Kadizzle would not want to be buzzing around in a helicopter looking for deer and javelina in these mountains.  The big question is the lake going to come up?  The Commander and Kadizzle have been confined to the Earth Module for three days.  Two rattlesnakes in a small space is not always good.  We watched two Mayberry episodes last night.  It is like watching a Republican debate.  Simple minded dolts wandering through life believing in a distorted reality.  Maybe Kadizzle can get The Commander to make some French Toast this morning.

Keeping the crew entertained is going to be the goal today.  It looks like a lot of net surfing today.

CHRIST FOR PRESIDENT - WILCO AND BILLY BRAGG

The fundamentalist say our country was founded by God and our constitution was written by God, so why not just elect God president?  The Republicans love to play to the fundamentalist, so lets give them some ammo.  Why not run for president and say everything you do is going to be whispered to you by God.  Watch the video and just think about it as a campaign add. Sing along the words are right below.  Imagine how this will bring out the fundy vote.  Read the lyrics.




Let's have Christ our President

Let us have him for our king
Cast your vote for the Carpenter
That they call the Nazarene

The only way
We could ever beat
These crooked politician men

Is to cast the moneychangers
Out of the temple
Put the Carpenter in

Oh it's Jesus Christ our President
God above our king
With a job and pension for young and old
We will make hallelujah ring

Every year we waste enough
To feed the ones who starve
We build our civilization up
And we shoot it down with wars

But with the Carpenter
On the seat
Way up in the capitol town

The USA
Be on the way
Prosperity bound

Kadizzle's Militia

Kadizzle is known for his cheapness so the Kadizzlites often seek cheap accommodations.  The Militia movement in Oregon has given Kadizzle an idea.  The next time we travel to some little town in Montana, or any other state and we need a place to stay all we have to do is go into a federal building like the post office or the court house and take our gun. We declare we are going to occupy the post office until the price of postage is reduced.  The next morning we roll up our sleeping bags and claim we are satisfied, we made a mistake it was UPS we were angry with.  As a protesting militia we will remember to take enough snacks until the siege is over. Most of our sieges will only last a night or two at the most.  If we are offered clemency or a pardon we will leave.

Currently Kadizzle and The Commander are staying free on Forest Service property, they even give us electricity, sewer, and water.  However they do ask us to work 24 hours per week.  If we get too lazy to work, we will declare ourselves to be a militia.  We will ask all right wing groups to join us.  We are going to demand Arizona change to the Pacific Time Zone so we don't have to get up so early.  Time zones are a way the government controls us.  No one should be subjected to the government deciding what time it is. It was the government that made five work days in a week.  Our military will fight for another Saturday and we will get rid of Wednesday.  The second amendment gives us the right to occupy federal land and take back our right to live any time we want.  Any government that can decide what time it is can decide when you were born, when you will die, and when you will eat.  The right to determine what time it is makes us all free. What right does the government have to decide what time it is.  Think about it.  If you die at 12 P.M. Central time or 12 P.M. Pacific Time it makes a difference.  You could live another hour simply by changing the time zone.  Don't let the goverment take away you life for even an hour. We need to stand up for our rights and we need a gun to do it. Sell everything you have and give the money to the NRA, it is the only way we can assure our freedom.

A customer at last.

Kadizzle and The commander took off for the grocery store this morning in a rainy overcast situation.  As we left old Kadizzle noticed a helicopter flying low.  Kadizzle figured it had to be someone looking for a landing spot.  As usual The Commander said " Your nuts, no one will land at our place".  Kadizzle did not care he went back to the camper.  Sure enough after a month someone finally came out of the sky to our deluxe helipad.  The Kadizzles are camped at one of the premiere helipads in AZ.  We have three nice landing pads with a niche white H painted on each one.  We have lights for night landing, and a big wind sock.  We were hoping for Donald Trump to land.  We would gladly refuel the Donald with water and watch him crash in the lake, but no such luck.  Once the blade on the helicopter quit spinning to the surprise of Kadizzle a tiny littly pilot named Priscilla got out.  Priscilla was shorter than The Commander. It turns out Pricilla was from Max Bass North Dakota.

Priscilla flew in from the Grand Canyon where she normally takes tours in order to help the Fish and Wildlife people do a survey.  Getting here must have been exciting in this weather the ceiling is very low and she had to find a hole in the clouds to make it in here.  We helped Pricilla get her stuff into the Forest Service apartment.  Maybe word will get out about our nice facility and the Donald will come.  The area is full of rednecks, and gun totters. The Donald could make a good campaign stop here, and stir the locals into a frenzy with some  Obama gun talk.

Animals going by in pairs.

It is raining for about the fourth day in a row. Animals are starting to pair up.  When you see two cats, two turtles, two snakes, and two skunks going down the road in a line with suitcases you know it is time to look for an old guy building an ark.  Mark Twain commented on the last ark.  Mark Twain hated flies and according to Mark Twain, Noah was out to sea for six weeks when he realized he only had one fly on board the ark.  Poor Noah had to turn back to get the other fly.  Hopefully if God wipes out our sinful population he has become smarter this time.  Mosquitoes could be left off this time, and of course the flies.  Not sure if Noah took plants the last time, but as a trail crew worker Kadizzle could tell the lord a whole list of plants to keep off the next arch.

Now we get to the modern conundrum.  Should God put two Republicans on the ark?  What color people should he put on?  What was God thinking when he made people in different colors?  Of course we have to ask about religion. If God would just choose the correct religion, and let two of them go on the ark things would be so much better.  Kadizzle would prefer God put two atheist on the ark it would make such a peaceful world when the ark finally lands again.  After the rains stop God should reissue the Bible. This time he could update it for modern times.  He could be very specific if he wants us to stone anyone, hate anyone, or send money to anyone.  If God puts the Bible in the Cloud everyone would have access to his word on the internet and all the missionaries could do something more useful.

We are about a hundred feet above the lake.  When the water gets up to our campsite we will get in line behind the two skunks and volunteer to go on the ark as two non religious people.  There should be plenty of room for us if God decides to eliminate all the fake religious groups.  If it stops raining it just looks like everyone will have to straighten up and quit relying on God to clean up the mess.  This means the righteous will have to eliminate Fox News, Rush, and the gun nuts.  This means Republicans will have to repent and give back the stolen goods.  The rain has let up a little this may mean plan B.  Plan B is Be good. That is plan B. Be good to each other. Be honest. Be kind.  Be well informed. Be aware of those who deceive. Be active. Be helpful.  That is how plan B works.

The Dog Nerd

The other day The Commander saw four coyotes go by.  Following them at a little distance was a dog.  The Commander has discussed this with a few people around the lake.  The dog has been spotted in several places hanging out with the coyotes.  The Commander says the coyotes probably think the dog is a nerd, but agreed to let him hang out with them.   At night the dog must tell the coyotes stories about people and how people operate.  That is the function of nerds. Nerds usually have special information that makes them useful.  So when the coyotes are sitting around at night they probably say " Hey dog nerd, tell us about how people watch that funny screen all the time".   The conversations with the dog nerd and the coyotes must be pretty interesting.  Surely the coyotes have learned a lot from the nerd dog.  Since The Commander has almost a masters degree in wildlife management Kadizzle has suggested we set up the game camera and see if we can catch the dog and coyote gang passing by again.

Hate the government? But you are the government.

Kadizzle would rather eat a bowl of southern fried skunk rectums than be a simple right wing dinger.  Having just read up on the standoff at the wildlife refuge in Oregon Kadizzle is fired up about the hate the government nonsense.  Who is the government?  Donald Trump, Fox and their ilk act as if the government is some foreign entity.  It works great for stirring up idiots, but it defies any common sense.  Kadizzle and his relatives have all been involved in government in many different ways.  Are our relatives and evil conspiracy against us?

In the Southwest it is popular to get your bowels in an uproar over the government owning land.  The same simple minded right wing dingers that bitch about the government owning the land will go out on GOVERNMENT land and hunt right after they finish their bitching and their beer.  The same dingers will go out and drive their ATV on government land and fish in a government lake.  Kadizzle has enjoyed few things in life more than hiking, and camping on government land. In effect it is my land.  Kadizzle has seen the right wing simple minded dinger mindset in action in Montana and North Dakota.  A rick guy reeking with money he stole in the stock market comes to North Dakota and buys up thousands of acres of farm land.  He posts it and tell all the peasants to stay off.  Then he flies in with his jet once a year and hunts.  That is private ownership and how it works.  Once the dingers get all the land back from the government, which is me and you, and give it the rich, it will be the homeless dingers that suffer the most.

Watch what you ask for dingers.  The right to gamble has given the sophisticated the right to economically rape the dingers, and they are doing in spades.  The dingers never realize they need to be protected from themselves.  Dingers are children in adult bodies.  You tell children stories and they believe the stories.  Fox, Rush, Trump, and the Republicans tell the dingers stories and they believe them.

Making the rounds.

Kadizzle and The Commander just completed an inspection of the Windy Hill campground, our old haunt from last year.  The place is about deserted as it can be.  First we visited Max who  was out under his shelter cooking dinner. Max is a longtime fixture and lives in the camp in the winter, and travels all summer on his motorcycle pulling a small trailer.  Max has his sailboat parked right by his 8 x 12 cargo trailer that is his home.

After visiting Max we saw The Undertaker and his wife has just pulled in from Montana.  The Undertaker is a big bird watcher and has come for many winters to Lake Roosevelt to hunt and watch birds.  With the rain the trail work is shut down, so Kadizzle helped shuttle three trucks to Globe for inspection.  It is raining boredom and it looks like no sun until Saturday.

The World is Stranger than you think.

Albert Einstein said " The world is not stranger than you think, it is stranger than you can think".  Today Kadizzle ran into a bunch of Mormons.  Kadizzle cannot leave Mormons alone.  They are a special kind of crazy.  A strange Mormon cult in Utah abuses children and women.  Kadizzle has a problem.  The problem is the main bunch of Mormons do nothing to stop Warren Jeffs and his cult.  The Mormons in Walmart and Kadizzzle had a discussion about this.  There were about four or five Mormons.  Only one of them seemed conscious.  The rest were dazed with religious confusion.  Somewhere in the conversation the one Mormon who seemed to be somewhat aware of the world around him said " They are brainwashed", he was reffering to the Mormons in Colorado City.  That is the insane town where women and children are sexually abused in the name of the Lord.  It struck Kadizzle like a lightening bolt.  "Brainwashed?".  Here is one guy brainwashed to medium rare talking about another bunch brainwashed to well done.   Wow, the world is strange.

The Depends miracle.

What a day.  It has been a big burr in the butt of The Commander that our furnace for the camper would not work. It was not really a problem since we had electric heat, but still The Commander just could not sleep because it did not work.  Kadizzle went around in many circles trying to solve the problem. It was hopeless. There were two choices either take  the whole damn camper to the repair guy, or have the repair guy come to the camper. The repair guy wanted $80 bucks to come to the camper, and that is what The Commander insisted on because Kadizzle is an incompetent nincompoop.

As part of the great repair mystery The Commander kept insisting we had low propane pressure and that was the problem.  Kadizzle explained to The Commander that there were two separate propane regulators. One could be bad, but both could not.  Kadizzle tried a little experiment and it did appear the propane pressure was low.  Tracing the propane lines Kadizzle found a kink in the line that was the problem.  The furnace now works.  The Commander is so happy that she was right, and Kadizzle was wrong that she is calling and writing the world.  The Commander is so obsessed with joy she might pee her pants.  This is where the depends comes in.

Kadizzle attributes the miracle to Depends undergarments.  God needed to put a blessing on Kadizzle because Kadizzle did a good deed today.  Kadizzle was waiting in the grocery store for The Commander.  Kadizzle struck up a conversation with the lady at the service counter.  While there an old shot up lady with a cane made her way to the counter with a carton of Depends.  The poor woman was deaf, and struggling to fill out a check to pay for her Depends.  It was depressing.  The woman looked broke and destitute.  What a shame she had so little and had to spend it on Depends.  Kadizzle decided to buy the depends for the old lady.  In sign language she thanked the clerk.  After thinking awhile Kadizzlle thought maybe the old lady was addicted to crooked TV preachers and would just use the savings to send to Pat Robertson.  Well the Lord had to prove Kadizzle wrong on the same day The Commander enjoyed proving him wrong.  So the Lord put a Depends miracle on Kadizzle and the furnace works.  The Depends miracle saved us almost $200.  So Kadizzle will be making a statue to a new saint, Our Lady of the Depends.  People will come from miles to pay tribute to the Saint of RV furnaces.

What we learn from Barny.

Imagine a television with only three channels.  Imagine the three channels were specially selected to have the most useless ignorant shows possible.  That is MeTV.  That is all the Kadizzles can get in their isolated camp by Lake Roosevelt.  Two of the three channels are totally unwatchable.  One is nothing but the QVC junk being sold, and the other is the most hopeless gameshows ever, mixed in with some Jerry Springer nonsense.  So what is left.  In order to give our selfves some dose of television doping we can manage to get through some episodes of Mayberry, or Columbo.  Everything you need to know about management can be learned by watching Andy manage Barny .   One thing anyone could learn from Andy is the way he manages the problem of Barny carrying a gun.  Barny is a dolt and Andy knows he should not have a gun. So Andy requires Barny to carry just one bullet.  Barny has to keep the bullet in his shirt pocket.  Wow, what an idea.  It works great in Mayberry and no one has ever been shot there.  Why not have the same rule for the gun nuts.  The brave gun nuts could look the part, but they would be far less harmful.

As a young person Kadizzle grew up with all sorts of guns, but he was taught some gun safety.  One rule Kadizzle's father had was that when you came back to the farmhouse and got withing two hundred yards the gun had to be unloaded.  The first gun anyone had in our family was a single shot 22.  You learned to keep the bolt open, and usually did not load the gun until you saw a groundhog.

One day Kadizzle almost got shot by a friend.  Ben was a great big chubby city boy who had never groundhog hunted or probably shot a gun.  Kadizzle decided to take Ben hunting.  Ben was given a 22 with a magazine that is under the barrel in a tube.  After an unsuccessful hunt we were walking back to the farm house.  Ben worked the bolt on the 22 several times.  I did not know what he was doing, but he was checking to see the gun was unloaded.  If no shells were ejected he figured the gun was unloaded.  His plan was to point the gun at me and fire it.  As he swung the gun toward me his finger accidentally hit the trigger. The gun fired and he shot within inches of me.   A slight difference in his swing or circumstance and he would have shot me at point blank in the kidney.  A shell had hung up in the gun and loaded the last time he worked the bolt.  It scared the hell out of both of us, and was a very good lesson.  Almost everyday some young person is killed in a similiar accident.  It is usually because some simple minded gun dinger leaves a loaded gun near children.

Seized Up

After trudging up and down the trail yesterday we slept fairly well, but as Kadizzle sat on the edge of the bed and tried to get dressed a pain shot through his lower back.  For a few moments moving was impossible.  Slowly the pain subsided and movement began.  Walking the fifteen feet to the easy chair was like a person who was recovering from back surgery.  Slowy the muscles are coming back to normalcy.  The Commander is determined to shoot up another mountain trail today, so hopefully the lame shall walk. 

Our trail crew has managed to clear about five trails.  The problem is we can only clear the brush from the first three miles or so.  We have to head back to the truck by 1:30, so we basically can work from about nine until that time.  The hike back takes time.  The net result of all this is that we need to figure a way to work on the trails on the higher parts of the mountain.  We may start exploring roads that will get us to the top of the mountains so we can work our way down.  To make matters worse the heaviest brush is on the top rather than on the way up.  The reason is simple that is where the moisture is. 

Up the Mountain

If you lay off from hiking for two weeks and just eat, drink and relax it will take a little time to get back in the swing.  The Commander and Cliff are different, they blasted up the mountain and had a hard time stopping.  Our rule is you must turn around at one thirty.  Kadizzle did the usual.  Kadizzle stayed back and cut brush off the trail.  It was a nice perfect sunny day with an ideal temperature, but Kadizzle is worn down.  The heart medicine is helping, half Canadian Club, half Coke.  So of course The Commander and Cliff want to run up another mountain tomorrow.  Perhaps a nights rest will restore Kadizzle. The good news is rain is coming. That means stuck in the camper for rest.  Ah shucks.

Hide behind the tomatoes.

Back in the land of warm Kadizzle and The Commander had to stock up with groceries.  In the wild west town of Globe we stopped to do our shopping. Kadizzle has been in grocery stores for all his life, but never seen a fight break out before.  This is the new age where everyone must be armed.  The gun insanity is nowhere more rampant than in Arizona.  The Commander was stuck over near the vegetables and Kadizzle was wandering around at random trying to entertain himself.  Then the shouting started and people started staring to an outburst of people yelling and screaming.  It appeared some of the grocery store people were trying to break up an argument among some young customers. The fight seemed to be over a boyfriend issue.  The tiny little store manager who was a woman stepped in and various store people separated the participants and asked them to leave.

As Kadizzle saw the poor store people trying to untangle the mess he wondered if he should help them.  This is 2016 and the first thing Kadizzle thought was what if one of these idiots pulls out a gun.  One thing for certain is just about every idiot has a gun.  After the kerfuffle settled down Kadizzle started talking to a guy about his age in camouflage.  He speculated some of the rumblers may have been from the local reservation where lawlessness has reached a new high. He said he also was worried gun play might break out, and then he said he did not have his gun with him as he usually does.  Arizona is a place where it is not unusual to see some brave gun warrior openly displaying his cannon.  People from civilized countries that visit Arizona are amazed about the insanity, even people from civilized states in the United States are amazed on their first visit to Arizona.  Guns make American safer. Yes when you are reaching over to get your Cheerios and a bullet from the a fight in the other aisle comes out of the box that is great.

In the good old days when some nut cases got rowdy some sane big guys usually stepped in and settled the problem with old fashion muscle, but now with the prevalence of guns we are in a whole new age where helping a little old lady store manager could get you shot.

How is the economy doing.?

Do you want to be smarter than you were an hour ago. Read the article in the New York Times today titled "How is the economy doing".  It has some interesting information about what people say when they answer opinion polls.

Bass Ackwards

The ability of people to do things ass backwards is amazing. Shortly The Commander and Kadizzle will go a few blocks and catch a bus to the Denver airport.  In late April an amazing thing will happen. The new mass transit will be in operation.  It will be possible to walk a few blocks get on a light rail and buzz right into the middle of the Denver airport.

This is all wonderful and great. Only one problem it should have been done 15 years earlier or right when they built the airport. Instead of installing a light rail the simple minded dingers built about 15 miles of four lane highway to the airport.  Countless fuel and time has been wasted over the last 15 years because our country will not come to grips with mass transit. We are so stubborn about our need to have a car to take us every inch we go.  Who in their right mind would want to do the car airport thing when you could buzz from an office in Denver right into the middle of the Denver Airport.

If high speed rail existed along the east and west coast billions of hours could be saved, billions of barrels of oil, and life would be better.  Nothing happens because we are owned by the pharmaceutical companies, and the oil companies.  Our lives are destroyed by the NRA and the gun lobby, our health care is the highest cost in the world because of the insurance companies and the drug companies, and we have the worst transportation system of any modern country because of the oil companies.  To make it all worse the Republicans fund wars, but not highways so all the infrastructure is falling apart.  Just like the needless deaths from guns, we have needless deaths from health care, and transportation.  We have the resources to solve these problems, but instead we run around in a state of fright whipped up by the right wing.