Horses

The Horses are getting smart and coming to the corner of the field every day so Winky can give them some apples. Yesterday we had a crumbling party.  A bunch of us old people got together at Cliff's for a feed and a lot of chatter. Ralph came on his three wheeler. Ralph talks like an old mafia guy and just hearing him talk is a treat. Ralph is Italian and has that mannerism. Kadizzle quizzed Ralf on his life. Somehow Ralph made it from New York to Arizona where he leaned to lay 88's.  What in the hell are 88's?  Ralph calls cinder blocks 88's. Ralph is like Winky he has a high energy level and used to work 12 hours a day. Now he is still very active hiking and taking care of the church. Ralph is a Catholic, and a strong one at that. Listening to someone relate their life is interesting. Kadizzle gets to feel like an interviewer. Everyone has a story, you just have to dig it out of them.

 

Green, green, the grass is green

Awakened to a picture perfect day. Went to the executive suite at Cliff's, and then sat on his porch to reflect on the upcoming day. The birds are chirping and the humming birds are having their usual battle over who gets to drink the sugar water. Those little buzzers will fly within inches of your head. It has rained almost every day for three weeks. Kadizzle cannot get over the color green so vibrant in the early morning sun. 

Winky says she is going for a bike ride. She will probably go up to the Sipes Wildlife Area. Kadizzle may go a little later and try to catch up. Yesterday the UPS guy came and we got into a discussion about the ebike. Mr. UPS says he wants to ride an ebike from Show Low to Phoenix.  Today he said he would come back and Kadizzle is going to let him try the ebike. If he takes some back roads it would be a fun adventure. Kadizzle has given so many people the chance to try the ebike. Seems like about half of them have bought one.  A bill has been introduced on the federal level to give a 30% tax break to ebikes. If they become widely used the environmental benefit would be tremendous. 

Monsoons

Kadizzle has never lived in a area that has monsoons before. The phenomenon is interesting. Every day starts out with clear skies and plenty of sunshine. By mid afternoon the skies become cloudy and the rain falls in sporadic places. Some of the rain can be a torrential downfall, and on other days it is a light sprinkle. The pattern is so consistent, and it has been going on for about three weeks. 

Boredom set in and Kadizzle made a call to Senator Cramer's office in Washington. It is the usual run around. You cannot get any answers out of the Trump lickspittles. If you are lucky you can get a form letter sent to you explaining why reality does not exist. 

Yesterday Kadizzle took the ebike up one side of a mountain and down the other. The trail was very rocky, and it was the arms not the legs that took the beating. Everything has turned a wonderful green. The rain has soaked in and the plantlife and animals must be in heaven. 

The Three stooges

 North Dakota is represented by three stooges. Kevin Cramer, Kelly Armstrong, and John Hoeven are the worst lickspittles imaginable for Trump. Kadizzle was enraged yesterday listening to the hearings on the Trump insurrection. Kadizzle called the editors of both the Bismarck Tribune, and the Fargo Forum to ask why the stooges were not held accountable for their role. The stooges should be forced by they news media to hold a public news conference and answer questions about their position on the Trump riots. Below is the letter Kadizzle wrote to the papers. 

Newspapers complain about the decline of their media. The newspapers themselves are their own worst enemy. In past times people relied on newspapers to dig out the truth and investigate stories. It used to be the job of newspapers to hold politicians accountable, but that day is gone. Kevin Cramer, John Hoeven, and Kelly Armstrong have never been held accountable for their part in the rise of Donald Trump, a the disaster Donald Trump created on January 6th. Why haven’t the newspapers insisted the elected representatives hold a public news conference and explain their lack of action investigating the insurrection Trump inspired? The North Dakota delegation have been accessories in the cover up of what Trump incited, yet they remain immune to the public scrutiny the press in North Dakota should demand. Yes, newspapers are failing, and they deserve to fail when they cannot perform the basic civic duty they are entrusted with. 

Off to Payson

Up early the Kadizzles will head to Payson to see how the new house is progressing. Kadizzle found a house with almost the exact floor plan for sale in Payson on Zillo. The house we are building has some nicer aspects. The good news is they price they are asking for the listed house is higher than what our building cost are.  Of course we are looking at cost overruns, but that is to be expected. Winky has been very busy picking our colors and fixtures. Building a house is a hassle and people our age are just to old for the game, but with luck we will move in by early September.  We have no furniture to speak of, most of it we sold. 

The grass has brought out the wildlife. Kadizzle saw a herd of about forty antelope up on the mesa. Elk are everywhere, but the big horn sheep have been scarce. 

The rain has not slowed the loggers down, the trucks keep rolling out of the forest. 

Daughter Erin swears Kadizzle is dyslexic. Maybe that explains a lot of things. Maybe that is why he is an agnostic and thinks the is no dog. 

Good Morning

The sun popped up and today is off to a good start. All the rain has the area looking brand new. The grass is growing so fast if you stand still it will lift you a couple inches in no time. Made some pancakes this morning. Used an old trick lazy people use. Kadizzle put popcorn in the pancakes and they flip themselves. Lazy is an art. Once back in Hillbilly country Kadizzle walked by a hillbilly guy on the porch. Kadizzle asked him " Why don't you get married and have some children?".  The lazy fellow said " I can't find a pregnant woman that will marry me".  Now, that is lazy. 

Strangely in this part of Arizona the weather has been better than North Dakota. Winky is off for a hike early today with a local group of hiking women. Kadizzle will be unsupervised today.  

My end of the boat is still floating

 Kadizzle is 72 years old. There cannot be that much of the game left. Perhaps that is good. Collectively the planet has lost it't bearings. Climate change is real, and the planet is melting. If your bedroom is on fire, but you are watching TV in the living room no problem, just shut the door to the bedroom. Republicans are worse than termites, flies, mosquitoes, and the ignorance they spread is the worst disease ever to affect mankind. Turn on the news, floods in China of record proportion, same in Germany, the Midwest is either burning or flooding, but we are just fine and about to have breakfast, why worry? Humans have become a petulance that is eliminating itself. For older people we can only hope to check out before the hotel burns to the ground. 

We are close to Phoenix. The old Donald showed up with his Big Lie show. Of course the Hoopleheads flocked to be reassured their mental illness was the rapture. Still no ammunition on the shelves at the drug store in Springerville. What if the liberals attack? What about the revolution when Trump is put back in office in August? So many problems. 

About the Angels trail video below

Winky, Kadizzle, and our daughter Megan have hiked this trail. Winky and Kadizzle have done it several times. It is amazing the stupid people on the hike. People should be able to do it, you never forget the hike, but it should be limited to people over the age of 12 who have been told how dangerous it is. We gave Megan a pin after she did it, but Erin wisely did not go because she was scared. You should not take the hike if you are not confident. Once Kadizzle went up there when it was snowing. Kadizzle would not go out that day. However, there were idiots going out there. It was suicide in the making. As the video mentions there are other extremely dangerous hikes in Zion. We have also done some of them, but most people do not know about them, and they are longer hikes. 

FOX 13 Investigates: Hikers pay deadly price on Zion's Angels Landing trail

An Ark went by

 It rained, then it rained some more, and still it rained. The sun is trying to peek out, but it is a different wet world here. It poured rain all night and the plants are drunk on water. The color of this universe has turned to bright green. 

Kadizzle's jihad today is about taxes. The IRS could collect up to a trillion dollars in taxes due if the Republicans would support the funding of the IRS, but not. The greed dogs are dupes for the rich. It is so obvious, yet the cult is clueless. Pathetic Republican woman from my home state of West Virginia was on CNN saying making the rich pay taxes is an invasion of privacy. Wow, can people be that stupid? Yes. You can feed the cult any line. 

Through the Wilderness

Looking down the valley there is a sheet of rain. It seems to be crawling up to us, but at the pace of a crippled snail. Rain has been a daily occurrence and the pattern is steady. What was a problem with blowing powdery soil is now a potential muddy mess. Today in the morning the sun was out bright as usual. Cliff, Kadizzle, and Winky set out for a long tour in the car. The extent of wilderness here is mind boggling. After about twenty miles going down into the Black River Canyon we wormed our way out on a gravel road for about thirty miles. As we drove out the scenery was spectacular but a storm threatened. Prior to out drive out we took a little hike down to the canyon of the Black River. The lack of human intervention is the amazing  aspect of the journey. To drive fifty miles without seeing a house, a barn, or any sign of habitation is a rare experience. Now that rain seems closer and the sky is extremely dark. The mountain has disappeared and everything is pointing to a torrent of rain. It has been so dry here that inches of rain have not made the streams run. On our trip today we could see a stream that must have suddenly risen six feet and then quickly went down. That stream had a beaver dam that was still intact. The engineering ability of Beavers is amazing. As old Kadizzle types that apocalyptic mess is inching closer.If you hear from me in the morning it means we survived. 

Ed T. You are out there somewhere

 Winky and Kadizzle are sitting in the Earth Module. Some good old fashioned jazz came on the radio.  Kadizzle said to Winky " Who does that song make you think of?"  To his surprize she said " Ed".  Wow, you read my mind.  Ed let me know if you read this. Ed is our oldest traveling friend we met a thousand years ago in Tucson. Ed has an electric piano in his Casita.  Sitting by the key board he cranks out some excellent music. 

The right to be stupid

We live in a wonderful country where we have the right to be stupid guaranteed by the constitution. You can be as dumb as you want. Although there is free public education, you can be home schooled or got to a religious school and be filled with the most simple minded idiocy imaginable. It is your right. You can work in a hospital and infect everyone in there, it is your right. You can invade the Capitol and claim it was just a tourist trip. What other country allows you to go broke giving money to a church or TV preacher? Now if you really want to exercise your right to be stupid vote. Vote for a Republican that will shovel money to the rich while they rape the poor. Vote for a Republican who will not fund the IRS so the IRS can collect the 500 billion the rich tax cheats will not pay. If you do not exercise you right to be stupid you could lose it. Then what? Without the right to be stupid we might have good health care like so many other countries, we might have gun laws like Canada, we might have income equality. Who wants all that socialist stuff? Far better to live in a run down trailer and carry a gun. Far better to live under a bridge with your dog and your friends while Bezos goes on a ten minute space ride. Use it or lose it. 

Good Morning

For some reason the day is starting with an overcast sky. The weather here has been amazingly consistent. Mornings start with crystal clear skies. On schedule the clouds appear shortly afternoon. By three the rain is here. Kadizzle has never lived in the land of monsoons before. 

Politics takes too many of Kadizzle's brain calories, but it is an addiction. North Dakota is such an embarrassment. An old friend in North Dakota said North Dakota is as bad as Mississippi for dunderheads that will not get vaccinated. Kelly Armstrong who is in Congress for North Dakota is a piece of work.  The little Trump suck up was to be on the committee to investigate Trumps riot. Cramer, Hoeven, and Armstrong are pathetic lickspittles. Why does the Trump cult thrive in North Dakota? A lot of older people fall for the silliness of right wing lies.  North Dakota does have some sad right wing commentators that seem to have a following. The little lairs take their lead from Fox News.  Scott Hennen lies to the farmers on their tractors, and you got a few right wing opinion guys and a fundamentalist woman writing for the Fargo Forum.  The Fargo Forum is at least rounded.  The Bismarck Tribune is so bashful and fears it may offend a Republican.  Now, we are living, and moving to Arizona. Arizona is shaking off some of the insanity, but it is also as bad as North Dakota. There is no shortage of Hoopleheads here. Gun toting Hoopleheads. 

Worn out old man

Winky the world's most hyperactive hiker, or maybe it is Cliff, forced Kadizzle into New Mexico for a hike yesterday.  We hiked down a mountain valley that was full of brush. Supposedly we were going to a waterfall. When we got there the waterfall was very disappointing.  It was a hot day and the humidity was high. Coming out of the canyon was a death march. Kadizzle paid dearly for the lard around his middle. Little Joey took a lot of effort to get up the brushy trail. The thorns tore Kadizzles arms to shreds. It looked like he had been attacked by a bear.  The energy just was not there.  About every tenth of a mile a rest was required. A storm chased us out, and we made it just in a nick of time.  Today is recovery day. The old body is sore and needs rest.  Some serious porch sitting is in order. Did have fun with the bloody arms. Kadizzle posted a picture of his torn up arms on facebook.  In reality it was nothing but minor scratches, but the blood running out of the scratches made it look much worse.  After a shower all the damage disappeared. The vastness of the forest in New Mexico, and Arizona never cease to amaze Kadizzle.  Anyone who thinks these two states are barren desert is sadly mistaken. Miles and miles of road with nothing but trees and no one living anywhere.  Our live have made a 180 degree change from the prairie.  

Gross motorcycle stupidity

 A couple weeks ago Kadizzle found a mountain road that took him out onto a high point where he could get a good view of the valley where he now resides.  Since then Kadizzle has been trying to refind the same road with nothing but failure.  Today Kadizzle took off on the mission to find the missing route. During the quest sixteen miles into the forest Kadizzle saw an interesting road or the simulation of a road, or more like a goat trail called Little Creek.  The game of dare to be stupid began. Kadizzle started up little creek and the little guy in his head kept saying you can make it farther. Like a well groomed idiot Kadizzle kept going up and up a very bad road nobody uses.  However, it was clear someone had been up this goat trail. This made Kadizzle think yes you could get to the top.  Gradually the trail got worse and worse and another little voice in the head said " you better turn around you idiot".  Of course " you idiot" kept going.  Then the bell started to clang. What if something goes wrong, nobody will ever find you. Kadizzle called Winky and and left a message on her phone giving the approximate location to look for the body.  Now he was damn near what seemed like the top of the mountain with no idea where he really was.  About two or three hundred yards and he would be at the top. The poor old Yamaha had been hauling his lard ass up a very steep grade. The Yamaha overheated and said I quit. Now what? This was a real mess. Turn around and go back the terrible three miles he had just come up or try to make it to the top.  After pouring or spitting two bottles of water on the cycle it seemed like it cooled down. Praise be unto Jeeesus it started. Kadizzle used the clutch and first gear. He walked beside the motorcycle and got it to the top of the mountain where it was flat.  The blessing was there was somewhat of a real road there.  Following the road he came to a meadow. He could see a decent gravel road in the distance. After he managed to get to the decent road he began to realize he was on the Escadilla mountain road. This was a blessing and he started home. At this point he had to switch to the reserve tank. As usual he did not start the trip expecting to get involved in an adventure. He did not take the satellite communicator. Also he lacked a couple other necessities such as a decent jacket. In the end he was lucky or shrewd.  The stupid feeling lingered for awhile, but no doubt Kadizzle learned nothing. 

The World is Crumbling

 Floods in Europe, Drought in the western U.S. ,  idiots springing up like mushrooms everywhere, people are oblivious to reality. Trump made the Hoopleheads proud to be losers. Kadizzle will leave the planet in not that many years, whew.  However, our kids will be stuck here as the place melts. Our biggest enemy is ignorance. When Kasdizzle was a kid being a dolt was considered embarrassing, now you put a Trump flag on your noisy truck and parade through town to let everyone know your education failed. Your busted flat, but you have tattoos all over your body, shiny wheels on your goofmobile, and you are vaping clouds of chemicals. Jobs are abundant, but you cannot get ahead flipping burgers. The rich bought the government and are having fun going to space. You wander around in a cloud looking for a shopping cart to push to your house under the bridge. The Sackler family makes billions selling opioids, and the guy on the street who sells one joint is in jail. Bridges and building fall down, but the stock market goes up. 

Anti-Vaxxers, Conspiracy Theories, & Epistemic Responsibility: Crash Cou... This one's for you Omar

Republican Hate and insanity.

Winky and Kadizzle are having a home built in Payson, Arizona. So called Mexicans laid the foundation, framed the house, put on the drywall, and roofed the house. Builders cannot find workers other than the Mexicans. If not for Mexicans the housing industry in Arizona would collapse. Now who wants to fight to keep Mexicans out? The very same people who benefit immensely from the work of the immigrants. These people building our home work hard, they do good work, and Kadizzle has a lot of fun joking with them while they work. The idiots we call Republicans cannot comprehend that there is a labor shortage in this county. If businesses had the labor they needed the economy would do well. 

Now remember the Mexicans are supposed to be the lazy welfare cheats. Yesterday while the Mexicans were busy putting up the drywall two nice young white boys were doing the cleanup. Now think about this, the Mexicans had a skill, the white boys were only capable of pushing a broom. Did the Mexicans take a job from the white guys? Hell no. The white guys could have made a little effort and learned to do drywall installation, but no they wanted to get by sweeping up the mess.  The Republican distortion of reality to further their interest is sickening. Our entire country has become a victim of Republican fantasy. 

Listen to the words.

Posted below is the song A rainy night in Soho.  Sometimes someone writes a song with the perfect words. Listen carefully play it once or twice. The routine here at the Earth Module is to get up and play a nice song or two.  Of course Winky starts shouting put on NPR.  

Our old friend Ruth is here.  She came yesterday. Winky and Ruth took off immediately to the Sipes Wildlife refuge.  Then the rain came in torrents. They got back with no problem. Today they are going to buzz around and see the sights. Kadizzle may inspect the results of the downpour on they cycle. The sun is up and the day has started very nicely, but the pattern has been rain in the afternoon.  

The Pogues - A Rainy Night In Soho

Rain beyond belief

 Kadizzle is an old man, but he has rarely if ever seen a rain like this one in the White Mountains of Arizona. It came down. Seems like two or three inches fell in thirty minutes. The ground is a sheet of water, that same ground that was powder dust a few days ago. This has to be some makins of a flash flood situation. Ruth and Cissie took off shortly before the downpour to go to the wildlife refuge. Wondering if they can make it back. The road in here is a muddy mess. Amazing looking out the window how much has already soaked in. There are still more clouds coming. Would not want to be hiking a canyon with this going on. 

Trails are cheap

Kadizzle saddled up yesterday and took the Yamaha for an extreme ride. A trail exist here made especially for motorcycles and small four wheeler. The trail winds through every type of terrain from mountain tops to valleys. It is a 27 mile trail. It does not cost a lot to make a trail. Some of our most enjoyable moments are hiking, riding the ebike, and taking the Yamaha on trails.  The Kadizzles had a wonderful time with the ebikes buzzing through the woods on trails last summer, and this summer. The Ma Da Hey trail in North Dakota is one of the greatest. We did 120 miles on that trail. Why don't states invest in trails? North Dakota could have wonderful trails along Lake Sakakawea, and along the Missouri to Bismarck. There is not a whole lot to making trails now with small equipment available. 

Let's go to church

This morning churches will be full of people who despise the Mexicans coming across the border and feel Trump is the most recent Jesus. The contradiction is beyond comprehension. How can you support Trump and Jesus at the same time. Somehow the rednecks make it work. Kadizzle is perpetually amazed at people living in rundown homes and yards full of junk taking their money and giving it to a bunch of charlatans that will help them get eternal life.  In every town you visit you can ask the question " What if they took the money they pissed away on churches and spent it for something useful?" Richardton, North Dakota is a classic. The town has nothing, but the town does have an insane cathedral.  No swimming pool for the kids, no nice senior center, no decent school, and none of the amenities a little town could have. Nope, but do they have a whopper of a church. The church sits there empty.  When my old friend Ray walked into the edifice he said " I wonder how many farmers went broke building this place?"  What if the money funneled to Rome stayed here and helped people?

Youtube addiction

 You do not become an alcoholic all at once, nor do you fall into Youtube in the same way. When boredom sets in Kadizzle finds himself turning to Youtube videos. The variety is astounding. From watching the videos Kadizzle has pretty much mastered flying most of today's airliners. Just don't get on with him as a pilot. You name it and someone has done a video on it.  Kadizzle has become a big fan of some strange people. One favorite is a professor at the University of Illinois. The man seems to be capable of taking any complex subject and explaining it to an idiot like Kadizzle. There is a guy in Canada who tears things apart and explains how they are made either well or poorly.  The ex prison guy telling about his life in the pen is fun to fill time. Of course there is a lot of crap, but there is also a lot of good information. 

Another Stinger

 To the delight of Kadizzle the Fargo Forum published another of his letters revealing the fraud of Scott Hennen.  Hennen is a Fox News wanna be who imitates his hero Trump. He matches Trump in the lying and distorting. Trump has a radio show on KFYR that appeals to the Trump Cult Hoopleheads. 

Another hike down a mountain valley in New Mexico yesterday. The vastness of the Arizona, New Mexico forest is hard to fathom.  We drove six miles back into nowhere before we started to hike.  There was water in the stream which adds so much to a hike. Kadizzle takes off his hat and soaks it in the water to get some evaprotive cooling. 

The recent rains have brought the grass to life. Things are greening up. The evidence becomes more overwhelming every day that we are in deep trouble with the climate. The NYT has an article today on the mess in California. The greed of homeowners, builders, and Republicans is bringing the country to it's knees.

The mind is wandering, but back to the forest. Way back where we hiked there had been a CCC camp.  Old people will know what the CCC was.  The CCC was one of the best things the goverment ever did. The high quality of work was amazing. As we drove into the wilderness we cross many wonderful bridges built by the CCC. The stonework was very well done and the bridges have been in place for almost 100 years.  Why not have a national service organization that gives young people pride, skills, jobs, and a chance to work outside?

The lumber mill

 After traveling through endless forest on the motorcycle Kadizzle came out of the woods near the little town on Nutrioso. The only business in that town is a small saw mill. Kadizzle has been educating himself on the lumber industry and wanted to see the mill in action. As Kadizzle puttered around the perimeter of the sawmill looking at the stacks of logs and cut lumber he saw and old beat up suburban pull into the lumber yard.  Kadizzle went to what looked like the office for the place, but it was not. Kadizzle was directed to a ramshackle office. The two guys in the suburban got out of their beater at the office before Kadizzle. One guy was just a beer bellied old fart like Kadizzle. The other guy had a narrow beard half way down his skinny frame. He  had on some sort of hat that looked like an engineers hat without the stripes. He looked grizzled and shot up. Quickly we struck up a conversation.  He said " What's up".  Kadizzle said " I am kinda confused, I brains in my head ain't never been used"  He indicated he had the same problem. It turned out these two were trying to buy lumber to rebuild the one fellow's cabin that burnt down. Into the lumber office we wandered. Ted was on the phone so we all sat down. It was a strange office. Behind Ted's desk was was seemed like an old living room full of living room furniture.  When Ted got off the phone the cabin guys started asking him about lumber and prices. The conversation started and it was half stories, and half business. It ended up Ted did not sell the kind of lumber these guys wanted, and the price of lumber was high. We had a good time telling stories and bullshitting. Kadizzle finally asked about some lumber prices. The place sold large lumber 6x6 and so on.  It seemed like the session would go on for ever.  Kadizzle asked Ted if he could go watch the sawmill work. Ted said sure.  Kadizzle went over and peered in the mill.  The machinery was old but automated.  A huge band saw cut through logs like they were not even there.  A fellow that looked native American was running the saw. He seemed very skilled. The logs rode on a large carriage that zipped through the saw at incredible speed. The logs on the carriage could be flipped automatically and the entire process was operated from a small cage where the operator just pushed buttons and pulled levers.  In a matter of minutes a large tree became usable lumber. ll

The Forest has reopened.

 On the way back from Payson it became apparent the closed signs were gone. The forest has been reopened. The rain diminished the fire hazard. Today Kadizzle hauls the bike to the bike shop to get the new derailleur put on. Kadizzle has cooked up a scheme for the bike shop owner.  The shop owner has sold his property and needs to invest a half million dollars. Kadizzle watched an interesting video on gambling. The speaker was very intelligent and a good mathematician. Kadizzle will present the bike shop owner with a variation of the math the speaker reported on. It goes something like this. If I bet you a coin will land on heads and I win, you have to pay me a dollar, but if you win I have to pay you two dollars. The math says that if you bet one quarter of your money on each bet you will win over the long haul. The general trend of the stock market is in your favor. So in theory it means that if you invest one quarter of your cash at a time you will win. My proposal is the shopkeep will invest one quarter each time there is a stock market fall of 400 points or more. It will be great to experiment with someone else's money. 

Wandering to the Big House

Awoke very early to go to Payson. The rain fell from Heaven last night and the morning was blessed with a wonderful sunrise.  Kadizzle wandered to the big house to fire the cannon. Sunshine on the mountains and cliffs made some great pictures. Hopefully the forest will be opened and the hikes, bike rides, and adventures can be resumed. 

OK, that was the good news. As Kadizzle awoke this morning he lay in bed thinking about the incredible waste in this country. Many times driving down the highway a train could be seen moving along the tracks. On that train were a couple hundred tanks.  Each of those military tanks cost well over a million dollars.  So that was a trainload of schools, houses, and other things that could have improved life for humans. The amount we have wasted is in the trillions. Now if you want to pop your eyes out of your head visit the plane grave yard near Tucson, Arizona.  There you will see 54 billion dollars worth of tax money rusting in the desert. What could you do with 54 billion dollars?

History is replete with human insanity.  First the pyramids, then the cathedrals, what next?  We are going to Mars while people on Earth starve.  

The People you meet

One thing leads to another, and another. The other day we met two guys selling lumber in Alpine. Winky became enthralled with their products and now we have purchased several raw planks that will eventually be shelves and tables.  After our hike and 22 mile ebike ride yesterday deep in the mountains of New Mexico we went to visit the saw mill where the huge slabs of wood are created. Sam was the owner of a sawmill he built. The sawmill was specially built to saw slabs that could be four feet across and as long as ten feet. The Kadizzles got to see his stockpile of unique wood that he would turn into interesting products.  Sam had to go into the forest with an old Toyota Tacoma and haul out logs bigger than the Tacoma. A log Sam bought from the forest service for a dollar could yield several thousand dollars worth of furniture quality slabs. 

One thing that has always been a great pleasure in our travels are the unique artist we meet. The other day we met one of the best metal artist ever in the small town of Springerville.  As we travel we usually see some unusual piece of art.  Next you ask Willy or Joe who made that, and you are off on an adventure.  Many artist thrive on solitude and remoteness.  Years ago out in the middle of nowhere we met a person who carved furniture from wood.  We have met weavers, potters, and just about every kind of artist imaginable. Many times the art is the house itself. Creative people are fun to talk to, and fun to find. 

Flood of the insane

Ok more 4th of July BS.  Yesterday was the day, the day idiocy was on parade. When Winky and Kadizzle sat at the intersection in Springerville the flavor of the day was obvious. A moron in a jacked up diesel pickup truck went by. The goof was flying a big Trump flag and another one that proclaimed f**k Biden.  The truck was set up to deliberately spew the most obnoxious black cloud of diesel fumes one could imaging. Apparently it was meant to be an insult to the environment.  A little prior to that we had been in Alpine Arizona for the parade. Parking our vehicle we could see the stupid and proud of it signs again. The gate to an idiots ranchero was festooned with a big Trump Pence poster, a Russian flag with Biden on it, and a sign warning the little puddle of ignorance was a redneck paradise. There seems to be a direct relationship between the number of churches and Trump flags. What an insane mixture. The other day Kadizzle rode through Eager, a Mormon stronghold, but with plenty of other octanes of Jesus.  Some young guys were prancing about with signs that read Honk for Jesus.  Praying is strange enough, but honking a horn for the delight of Jesus is stranger yet.  Mentally the country is going backwards at the speed of light.  Maybe wars did have a purpose. Wars used to kill off massive numbers of fools.  Wars were darwinism on steroids. War has now become so automated that it just does not do the job anymore. 

OK, how about some more upbeat reporting. In Alpine Kadizzle noticed a vendor selling big slabs of trees. The slabs were on display to show off the wonderful patterns exposed when a tree is sawn the right way.  Big mistake. Kadizzle got Winky interested.  The forest dwellers that were selling the slabs were interesting and fun to talk to.  Winky started examining the wood and next thing you know we were the owners of a very nice piece of wood that would make a great table. This was stage one. In the course of checking each dead tree Winky was accompanied by Tony.  Tony was a woodworker and he gave Winky a quick education on what pieces were the best. In no time we contracted with Tony to make the table. Tony was enthusiastic and later in the same day emailed a picture of his progress. What started as casual browsing is now up to $180 worth of table with no legs. 

Today we are up early, five in the morning local time. The plan is to charge the ebikes and ride out to a mountain overlook in New Mexico. 

Among the delusional

Parade day in the heart of Mormon country is today. Looks like it will rain on the parade. An actual ground penetrating rain fell last night. Patriotism seems to be high around here. Various displays of the flag and red, white, and blue are abundant. Strangely the people who are being beat down the most by capitalism out of control are the ones giving it the most praise. Trump who supports no one but the rich, and loves to set up tax schemes to stomp on the poor is their hero. The people on the bottom know one thing. They know someone is screwing them. Problem is they are clueless who that someone is. This sets them up for abuse. Someone like Trump invents a culprit and sells the down trodden on the idea. Works just like a magician uses diversion. Look over there while I steal your wallet. Look quick it's Mexicans taking your jobs. Really, maybe you took my job and shipped it to China. The blatant nonsense of the Republicans is what amazes. Voter suppression is a classic. How do you hide the intent?

A hard climb

 The sun is fighting the clouds to come out and cook the Earth. It has been struggling to rain every day in this dry parched land. The bike is fixed, but there are two low gears missing. Seems like the story of Kadizzles life. For the times they are a changin. People don't want to work for nothing. The New York Times says a lot of older people just gave up and quit. People will not work for poverty wages, and businesses cannot get people to work.  CEO's of course get their same old 350 times what the line worker does. Life is good if you are where life is good, but if you are not feed the chickens and cash the welfare payment. 

Winky and Kadizzle wanted to do a little traveling this summer, but we seem to be stuck in the White Mountains.  This is not bad we could be stuck in Death Valley.  In the time we have been here we have covered a lot of ground by foot, ebike, and motorcycle.  It is a big world with people hidden in the woods all over the place.  The number of elk is astounding. You see them everywhere. This is a strange new lifestyle. We are camped, parked, whatever you want to call it beside Cliff's home. Cliff hit the jackpot when they built a cell tower on his property. The extra income has added a new dimension  to his economy. For many of our conveniences we zip into Cliffs house. The house has two porches with two entirely different views. Contemplating on the porch is frequently a pass time. 

Kadizzle is not a reader, but Winky convinced him to take up a book she says is one of the greatest. The book is Barkskins, a three hundred year history of lumbering. For a guy that does not read much in the hardbound sector this is a thick book. No matter where you are in history the theme is always the same, the have's robbing the have not's.  A lot of the story is how the Indians and settlers meshed, or did not. The simplest way to deal with the natives was to kill them and steal their land. In those days you did not have to work on voter suppression to rob the poor. The book is filled with French phrases and words. Now what is Kadizzle supposed to do look up all this French? You just guess. The Indians could be cruel, but the English were no better. One story was about a white man captured. The Indian women sewed up every orifice he had, and cut off his legs. Would be a nice solution to Trump. 

Shot up, busted, and broke

 Just picked up the bike from the bike shop. Decided to ride the bike around Eager, Arizona to try out the fix. The poverty, and people living in junky, shot up, junk piled, messy homes was all over town.  The illusion that " We are number one" is hard to sustain when you see some of the messes in the small towns in Arizona. Kadizzle will have to concede that North Dakota over all is one of the cleanest and best kept states in the country, even if the Trump flags defile the landscape. We have a poverty problem in this country, that stems from an education problem.  If you sit in one nice secluded place you might feel things are just fine, but if you travel about as much as we do into the small reaches of nowhere you would see the embarrassment this country has become. A European visiting our mess would be amazed about the promised land.  Entering most of the Indian reservations you will find the ditches strewn with whiskey bottles. The hoarded junk all over town in these little poverty stricken bergs is beyond comprehension. So many of the yards in Eager had a horse, a cow, or some other livestock. Junk seems to be the new status symbol.  Somehow we have failed big time. Seeing children living the way they do in this country is sad.  Kadizzle could have taken ten pictures today of children living in slum conditions that you could use in an add. We had the war on poverty. We lost. The rich won big time. The prosperous walked off with the cheese and left the ordinary man holding onto his pile of junk  in his run down mobile home. Of course God sent a savior to fix this, Donald Trump. 

Powdered Water

 Another hike. Finding the trail head meant driving into New Mexico deep into Mormon Country, and Trump country.  The first town was Luna. They could have named it Lunatic.  Some person insane with Trump fever put a full sized tractor trailer truck on a pole. It was an expensive truck to put on a pole thirty feet in the air. Of course the truck was flying a Trump flag.  Farther down the road the guy who probably put up the truck was walking his dog with a handgun strapped to his side.  We drove deep into the woods and parked the car. This was the middle of nowhere and we needed to descend down a very steep trail for 3/4 of a mile. If you go down you will have to come up.  After a very nice hike along a mountain stream we made the death hike back up the steep portion of the trail. The decision was to drive into the town of Reserve, New Mexico.  It was an old shot up little town where we had lunch. After lunch Kadizzle sat outside the eating place on a bench.  Out of the luncheria came a tall very skinny old lady. She held the door open for her husband.  He looked like a huge whiskey barrel dressed in an old grey T shirt, and bright red sweat pants cut off into shorts.  He was large in the horizontal not the vertical. His skinny wife held the door open for him.  He stopped in the middle of the door to catch his breath. Kadizzle expected the barrel man to die any moment as he hobbled out on his cane. We engaged in conversation about the possibility of rain.  It was dry around this part of the world with a record drought in progress. Kadizzle told the skinny lady he was bringing a truckload of powdered water to the area. Kadizzle told the lady how he once planned to take a barge load of powdered water up the Missouri to Lake Sakakawea. The Corp of Engineers would not permit it because if the barge sank it could cause a flood. Later when Kadizzle met the lady again she said at first she believed the powdered water story.  Then she realized it was a joke. Remember we were deep in Trump country where reality is flexible. Driving around and hiking the southwest the mind realizes how vast the wilderness is.  No matter how big the country is you can hike twenty miles into the forest and find a beer can. Out hiking the other day in a remote place Kadizzle found a golf ball. What was it doing there?  We were at the base of a cliff. Someone could not resist the temptation to drive a golf ball off the cliff above.