What do you do with an old power plant?

A Kadizzle reader called in yesterday with a strange proposition.  Make the Coal Creek Power plant into an art gallery.  It would be a one of kind transition.  Kadizzle worked at a huge power plant.  A modern coal fired plant is a big place.  If you turned one into an art gallery it would be a big one.  The concept would be interesting. There is room to display endless art.  Also there is room to allow an infinite number of artist to work in all the space.  Traveling around the U.S. you find little art communities in the strangest places.  There is an old cooper town in Arizona that has become and art center.  During the call Kadizzle got into his rant about how coal mines are reclaimed.  When you reclaim a coal mine you can make many things.  You can make a very nice park, nice lakes, golf courses, an airport, you name it.  When you move all that earth you may as well put it back as something you can enjoy. No, but no, in North Dakota a blizzard wiped out our imagination.  If if was a field of rocks when you started, it should be a field of rocks when you are done.  Creativity somehow does not flourish on he prairie. The prairie gets people used to blank spaces. 

Another Bike Ride

The two Kadizzlites went to Harmon Lake and took another nice bike ride.  Kadizzle is very frustrated with North Dakota.   The state is run by old white goats.  Winky reminded Kadizzle he is one. The old goats idea of a tourist attraction is a huge fiberglass cow, or fish. The state could spend some of the 6.8 billion on real recreation like the state parks and trails, but no.   The political hacks want to build a presidential library in Medora for Roosevelt.  Not many people go to libraries, and very few in North Dakota do.  If a person in North Dakota wants to get smarter they listen to KFYR radio and Rush, or tune in to Fox.  Real information is not a big seller in North Dakota.  The odds are if a person ever visits a library in Medora, it will only be once.  If a person goes to a park or trail it will be many times.  This is the age of the internet.  People need to read books, but our culture has changed.  Stupidity is killing us, but so is the accumulation of fat near the belt.  The North Dakota tourism department spends millions telling people to come here, but when they get here and see the giant metal grasshopper beside the road they are disappointed.  North Dakota has some nice outdoor places, but thanks to the goats most of them are damn near unusable. 

Goofy Conspiracy Theory

Everyone is abuzz about the conspiracy theory some so called science woman has going on the net.  Now a lot of people will not like what Kadizzle is about to write, but reality is reality and there is no simple solution to that.  Religion is a conspiracy theory.  It is the greatest conspiracy theory of all times.  What? Conspiracy theories usually have a motive.  Perhaps you want to discredit Biden, or Trump. You concoct some insane story.  Suppose you want to control or bilk a lot of people. You cook up religion.  In modern times the best cooker was the Mormons.  If you look into how that story was cooked you can find out a con man came up with the idea.  Today millions of people are fleeced by the Mormons.  Sorry folks, but all religions are just a means to take from some and give to others.  In discussions with Winky,  Kadizzle often ends up saying " You know what you know, and you don't know what you don't know".  Don't just make up something when you don't know.  It is easy and tempting, but can create a world of problems when your solution is just make us something then believe it.  No one knows how we got here or where we will end up.  It is that simple, accept it, don't make up some pleasing answer, and don't let someone sell you a pleasing answer.  Every church has an admission fee.  That should be your first clue.  To know how gravity works you don't have to pay anyone.  Of course churches start out with a fee offer to get you hooked, but in no time the collection plate will be passed around.  Think about it like this.  If some stock broker tells you he has a winning stock why did he do it.  The stock broker could simply invest in the stock himself get rich, and he doesn't need you or your money.  Pretty simple.  When someone tries to sell you truth you need to be suspicious.  Look at the God stuff.  It is complicated.  Why do people go to Bible study.   If God wanted to get a message across he could have a simple easily understood instruction book, but no.  Instead God sends a complicated incomprehensible book that you pay someone to interpret.  What kind of God would come up with that plan.  Of course we do not apply simple logic to religion, that would ruin the game.  So if you want a good story at a cheap price don't give your money to the church.  Send Kadizzle at least twenty dollars, explain what kind of fantasy you like and Kadizzle will tell you a story about how you are going to win the lottery if you just send him twenty dollars every week until you win.

A great bike ride

Winky and Kadizzle went to Harmon lake yesterday to ride the bikes on the wonderful bike path.  It was a great ride and perhaps Kadizzle removed some chicken meat from his mid section, doubtful.  Every time Kadizzle uses a nice bike path he thinks about the backward folks of North Dakota. There are so many places bike trails could easily, and cheaply be put in place.  It would help with the chicken meat pandemic.  Here in the Hazen area Kadizzle once lobbied for a bike path between Hazen and Beulah. Of course the Republicans objected to spending a cent. The road was going to be redone and it would have been a great opportunity and cost very little, but no, we just want to milk cows. There are two great abandoned rail lines here that would be very easy to make into bike paths.  One goes to Killdeer, and the other goes to the old mine north of town.  No, no, no the property owners nearby say.  When Kadizzle lobbied for a trail along the river the dolts said " People will burn our barns, and shoot our cattle."   This is the mentality you fight whenever you try to make an improvement for recreation.  Kadizzle used to work in the coal fields of Eastern Ohio.  When Consolidation Coal reclaimed the land there the coal company developed a nice park with many trout lakes, and airport, a golf course and horse back riding trails.  All of this was given, given, to the local government at no cost.  In North Dakota the mines could be reclaimed as amazing recreation area, but no, we need exactly what we started with.  Kadizzle once was employed at the Glenharold mine along the Missouri River near Stanton.  That land could have been reclaimed as a fabulous park with cabins, a very nice lake, and so on.  It would have cost nothing, but no, the land had to be put back into a lot of useless ravines.  A very simple thing that can always be done with a mine reclamation project is to leave the sediment ponds in place. This again would cost zero  The ponds would encourage wildlife, and provide water for cattle and fire fighting, but no we are backward people.  North Dakota wants to promote tourism, but will do absolutely nothing to actually build anything people might want to use.

Electrifying Winkie

Kadizzle has been urging Winkie to buy an electric bike.  She pulled the trigger yesterday.  So in about a week Winkie will be buzzing through the universe with Kadizzle at greater speeds.  Electric bikes are going to overtake the country.  Once you try one you will be hooked.  The bikes are fun and can save you a lot of fuel while they burn off the chicken meat around your waste.  You decide how much you want to work.  Most of the bikes have four assist levels.  You can get one anywhere from $1,500 to $8,000.  Someone small like Winkie could well get sixty or seventy miles out of a good bike. The bikes are made in every size shape and form.  If you want to buzz to the grocery store for a lemon it is far easier to hop on the bike than lunk a car to the store.

Buyers Remorse

Everyone has had that sinking feeling they bought a lemon.  Imagine if you bought a car and it just seemed wonderful until you went up a hill.  Going up the hill the car sputters and finally comes to a crawl.  That is our economy. Our economy is based on the concept that you can prosper by making the rich prosperous. That works great for the rich, but look how quickly the economy sputters when we encounter a hill.  The great depression made it clear giving the rich everything just does not work.  People awakened and realized the fruits of our labors had to be shared.  The rich where force to give back the absurd gains they made from exploiting working people.  Out of the depression came many safety nets for working people.  Unions forced some fairness into the system. All of this was gradually forgotten and eroded. The real disaster started when Ronald Reagan came up with the brilliant idea of trickle down economics. If you put enough money in the hands of a few some would be bound to fall out of their pockets into the hands of working people.  What an incredible fallacy.  Tax rates for the super wealth went from 90% to 14%.  Many of the super rich found ways to dodge taxes all together. Then the supreme court made it acceptable for the rich simply to buy the government. Game over.  The drug companies, oil companies, and those with the cash simply bought the government.  Now the whole system has come crashing down. The peasants are broke in about a month or two when the disaster hits.  The real question is are we going to get any smarter.  Trump and his gang of thieves wants us to believe everything is fine. The problem is China or the deep state. Are we really that stupid?

Candy from the prostitutes

Wow, Kadizzle just confirmed something he always wondered about. See this picture.

This is Echo Manor.  It was near where Kadizzle grew up.  Now hold on for the next picture. 

This is the back of Echo Manor.  Now for the story. If you look at the very bottom of the back porch picture you will see a little vaulted trellis.  When Kadizzle was a little boy of maybe nine or ten the gang would go in that basement.  Sitting in that basement in skimpy underwear were prostitutes.  They would give our gang candy.  Forever Kadizzle has wondered if his memory was correct and these women were really whores.  Well this morning Kadizzle was reading some history of Wheeling and found out indeed they were.  Kadizzle does not know how he came to find this candy patch, but does remember as kids we could sniff out candy.   As little kids we had no idea why these women were sitting around a table smoking cigarettes in their underwear, but now the truth be known.  Another peculiar thing about this house is that the top used to be used as an antique store.  It was probably a front for the other business.  Kadizzle remembers going to auctions there.  Older brothers and sisters somehow were enlisted to make false bids on sale items to get the price up. It was a very strange world back then in a very strange town.  Kadizzle's grandfather was mayor.  The tales grandpa could tell if he was with us. If you want the full story where Kadizzle discovered the history go to a blog called Weelunk. It is a blog about my hometown of Wheeling, West Virginia.

Another common story about Echo Manor is that it was a brothel run by the mistress of famed Wheeling racketeer Bill Lias. She drove a white Cadillac, the stories say, and it was often parked in the driveway. Some Wheeling historians disbelieve the story while others are quite certain it’s true.

Alma Mae Henderson was Wheeling’s famous madam. She did have a white Cadillac. And research indicates that while Henderson and Lias did not have a romantic relationship, Echo Manor was indeed a brothel. From time to time, visitors to the building offer nuggets of history: a delivery man once recalled that “the women entertained downstairs and lived upstairs.”

This is the mention of the information in the history of the house: 

What time is it?

Kadizzle got drawn into an article about how the virus will affect the expensive watch industry.  Who cares? What kind of world do we live in where people live in shacks and other people wear $220,000 watches.  What in the hell is going on when you are willing to pay that kind of money to know what time it is?  There are very few problems in the world that are simply not distribution problems.  When $200, 000,000 yachts flourish and people do without we have a problem.  When so many have three homes and so many more don't even have one, we have a problem.  What in the hell is wrong with people? When we have a surplus of labor we build war planes, pyramids, walls, but not homes, schools, and hospitals. What in the hell is wrong?  It is unleashed greed, and it is destroying the planet. Hope Kadizzle cheered everyone up today.

Ah the Badlands

The bike trip to the Badlands turned out well. Riding the ebike was great.  The trail was just about the right amount of challenge.  The Badlands are certainly a treasure for North Dakota.  North Dakota does have some wonderful outdoor places, however the people hear do not believe in recreation.  Work, work, work and grow something is all they think.  So many of the nice places are not made usable. Tourism here is giant cows, and other fiberglass and steel cafribles.  In other words junk.  Spending money to improve access to the nice parts of the state is strictly forbidden by the Republicans.  No place is quiet like the badlands.  The Kadizzles have traveled around a bit, and have seem a few places similar, but not exactly the same.

Ebike the badlands

Winky and Kadizzle may set off for the North Dakota Badlands today.  The goal is to go on the Ma de Hey Trail with bikes.  Kadizzle will take the ebike and Winky can struggle with the old fashioned bike.  Snakes and ticks may be a problem, but such is life.  If we can live through Republicans snakes and ticks are a minor problem.

We need some rain.  It is as dry as a popcorn fart and the fertilizer will burn the grass if we do not get some rain soon. 

The Garden

Winky always has a wonderful garden.  Yesterday she enlisted Kadizzle as an assistant.  In went the tators, the carrots, the peas.  Out will come some good eating.  We planted three kinds of tators, fries, hash browns, and bakers.  The birds were happy to go after the worms when the garden got watered.  This brings Kadizzle to a new war.  The birds have a right to live, but the cats don't respect that.  Too many birds are needlessly killed by cats.  It is the cats nature.  Kadizzle got a CO2 BB gun from Stroupini.  Cats will be shot without a trial.  Shooting anything is not a good idea.  We are all God's creatures,  even though Kadizzle is an agnostic.  Hopefully the cat will just get stung and realize the need to leave the birds alone.  In reality the chance of having the gun when needed is slim.  The next problem is the gun is a pistol.  Hitting anything smaller than a truck will be difficult. 

Long Ago and Far Away

Long ago and far away Kadizzle climbed under the wing of a small plane about 2,500 feet in the air. Kadizzle let go, the parachute opened. It was like the hand of god when that parachute jerked Kadizzle from horizontal to vertical.  To be suddenly stood at attention by gravity, air and faith.   It was early in the evening and the drift to the ground was slow and wonderful.  It was a cargo parachute. It was in Blacksburg,  Virginia.   What if that parachute had not opened.  That would have been the end of he game, but that is how life works.  Every little incidence in the end writes the story.

It would tickle me

With the new TV Kadizzle has started watching the series Outlander.  The series is set mostly in ancient Scottish times.  At any rate Kadizzle was viewing this morning when the Scottish leader of the rebels said to the British woman " It would tickle me to grind your corn".  You can decide for yourself the meaning the phrase, but it did sort of hit the funny bone.

At this point of the Trump insanity the poor cult members are twisting and churning to stay faithful to the idiot cult. Seeing some of the rationalizing for Pence failing to wear a mask is truly educational in regard to how hard people will try to support the idiot leaders.

Well it looks like an overcast day.  Winky wants to clean the house.  As Winky grows older she becomes more of a niggyfiddle.  Imaginary dirt is like imaginary virus, it is everywhere.  Even though old Kadizzle vacuumed the joint not to long ago he will be tasked with sucking up the invisible dirt once more.

John Prine -- That's the Way the World goes Round

Learning lessons over again

" I am going to sit right down and write myself a letter".   A lot has gone through Kadizzles mind.  One has to look inward once in awhile.  This brings us to today's lesson.  You made your nest now lie in it.  Those were the words of an ex boss in Ohio.  Long ago and far away Kadizzle was just married and needed a job.  Kadizzle called up his old employer the second largest coal company in the U.S. and asked if they had any jobs.  Kadizzle was shocked, they said can you come to work in two weeks.  It was a good job and Kadizzle could not refuse.  At first they said the job would be in Alberta or Denver.  Kadizzle liked both spots.  Well that ain't the way it turned out.  Kadizzle was sent to North Dakota. When the new bride arrived in North Dakota she said " You get us out of here as fast as you can".  Kadizzle went to his old boss in Ohio and begged for his old job in Ohio back.  Old Boss said " You made your nest, now lie in it".  Kadizzle returned to North Dakota and his new nest.  44 years later Kadizzle is still in North Dakota.  The new nest did not work out that badly.  There is a lesson in this.  At some point you have to lie in the nest you make.  Apparently you have to make your nest livable.  The big lesson is you built your nest, no one else did.

The pumpkins

These are Grandpa's newest prizes.  Cheech is holed up in a vacation retreat with her two favorite toys. Evie and Quinn keep Cheech busy.  Quinn has been accused of looking like Grandpa Kadizzle, particularly the belly.  So far all the grandchildren are proving to be stable geniuses.  Someday maybe they can replace Trump.

The bike ride

Confinement drove Kadizzle to the edge. The solution seemed to be getting some exercise. Kadizzle enlisted Stroupini to go to Harmon lake for a bike ride. Someone did a wonderful job designing this recreation spot.  The bike trail was laid out exquisitely. Kadizzle has done a lot of trail riding, but old Stroupini was not up to the difficulty of the trail.  The trail winds bends and goes along some cliff edges.  Kadizzle buzzed along, but old Stroupini had to get off several times and walk his bike.  In the end we made it around the eight mile circuit.  Kadizzle told Stroupini there was one last treat.  Earlier Kadizzle had noticed a very steep path that led back to where the truck was parked. It was on a 45 degree angle.  Kadizzle told Stoupine for a final treat we could go over this cliff.  Wisely Stroupini declined.  In a mental fit of dare to be stupid Kadizzle took off down the steep slope.  The brakes barely were able to hold back the weight of Kadizzle and the bike, but old Kadizzle made it to the bottom.  All in all it was a great day and a nice ride.  Stroupini built up his confidence and said he learned a few new tricks.  Forgot to mention the old farts made the trip on ebikes.

As a preventative Kadizzle drank a D.C. Trumpet cocktail last night to make sure he does not get the virus.  Two parts Lysol, to one part bleach.  Add ice, shake vigorously.  For a garnish add a little poison ivy.  Seems to work.  Has a nice side effect the farts don't smell.  Also seems to whiten the teeth.

The Kadizzle Home

This was the house where Kadizzle and his two brothers, and six sisters grew up.  This picture popped up on Facebook today.  This brought back memories.  This is where the insanity spread like the virus. See the right side of that porch roof.  Kadizzle remembers as a kid when we were going to jump off that roof with a blanket for a parachute.  Up on the very top roof there was a slate roof.  Kadizzle can remember sitting on the very top.  The slate he was on came lose and he slide clear down to the wide gutter thinking his life would shortly end.  Had it not been for the wideness of the gutter Kadizzle would now be dead or crippled. The most important part of that house is the porch and the steps.  People sat on those steps and that porch and talked for hours.  On the left side of that porch was a swing.  That swing will be put in the Kadizzle presidential library.  That swing was where is all started. Kadizzle was napping on that swing one sunny day. George Mattison walked by on the sidewalk below.  He shouted up to Kadizzle and asked if Kadizzle wanted to ride down the Ohio River with him. George was going to apply for a summer job at a coal mine.  Kadizzle went along. The next thing Kadizzle knew his career in coal mining started.  Coal took Kadizzle to Ohio, southern West Virginia, and ultimately to North Dakota.  It all started on one sunny day on that porch swing on 26 Poplar Ave in Wheeling, West Virginia.  Now, so many years later Colin, Louise, and Kathleen are dead.  Tom and Suzie are in West Virginia.  Melissa is in Portland. Amy is in Maryland, and Patty is in Arizona.  We were spread like leaves.  That house could write a book.  It would be an amazing tail. 

Don't Trust your lying eyes

People are buzzing this morning after the Trumpster suggested injecting a little lysol might clear up the virus.  Too many people seem to forget he is a stable genius.

My old neighbor was a stable genius, and incidentally a Republican.  My neighbor went on to the Trump cult in the sky, but Kadizzle misses him.  We were good friends and many times Kadizzle helped him.  Once we built his sun room together.  During construction of the sun room Kadizzle got to see the mind of a Republican in action.  Neighbor cut off a 2 x 4 too short.  Kadizzle was sent to the lumbar yard to get another piece of wood.  When Kadizzle returned neighbor said he solved the problem of the short wood,  he glued a piece back on.  This is the same neighbor that painted his truck with cans of spray paint.  You can imagine it looked terrible, but he thought it was great.  When Kadizzle first met the guy he took great pride in the bookshelf he built over the fireplace.  Looking at the book shelf Kadizzle noticed the trim sealed the books in.   If you wanted to take a book from the shelf you could not because the trim kept them in.  Pointing this out to the good Republican Kadizzle got this reply.  " Oh I don't need to get those books out, I already read them".  You can bet Trump does not have any books he has already read.  Whenever Republican neighbor and Kadizzle would get in an argument, neighbor would say " I am a genius, and I have a card to prove it".  Then from his wallet he would pull his Reader's Digest Mensa card.   It surprised Kadizzle he could pass any test, but Kadizzle later found out he had taken the test five times before he passed.  He was of course a stable genius just like Trump.  Kadizzle has always loved neighbors best quote " Education just confuses people".   Republicans believe that is the case.  College, science books, or just talking to a liberal can confuse a cult member.  The answer is simple just keep the TV on Fox News.

Raging Insanity

Trump daily stirs up the idiots.  Did you ever in your adult life think there could be a time when we had a raging lunatic for president and a major portion of the population would treat it as normal?  Did you ever think a mentally ill man would stand in front of a crowd and Americans would cheer for him? This is what we wake up to.  The idiot's conventions are becoming more prevalent. People are protesting to make sure they have the right to get sick. The virus nonsense happened pretty suddenly and this is how the dolts act.  Now think about a more subtle problem like climate change. Imagine trying to get the dolts to understand that. The Bismarck Tribune featured a letter from a dolt today that says there is no climate problem.  The dolt  says if there were the oceans would rise and glaciers would melt.  The ocean is rising, and the glaciers are melting, but the dolt has not found out yet. Dolts and science just don't mix.

Kadizzle is going stir crazy.  The idea has entered his head to take a trip up the inner passage to Alaska on the BC ferry.   To that end Kadizzle looked at the BC ferry site on the Google.  Somehow when you try to plan a trip they only ask where you are going.  No mention of where you start from. Seems like it might be fun  to get on a ferry with a car or motorcycle, then get off and on at various places.  You could explore the mountains then move along on the ferry.  Winky thinks they will never open up travel again. So who knows.

Last night we watched the Frontline show on the virus.  Trump made sure that situation was made worse.  It was like standing on the train track denying a train might come.

Alan Price - To Ramona

Manicure the yard

Winky says were going to work on the yard today.  Wow,  so far Kadizzle has hauled about four loads of yard rakings to the dump.  The yard is already so clean the birds are taking their shoes off before they land. Today Winky wants to scratch up the yard with the riding mower so we can have more stuff to pick up.  Our yard is about a foot lower since we have been hauling it away.  To save gas we may just put carpet down.

Unfortunately This is True

The guy with the microphone is Vince McMahon.  Trump appointed him to the committee for reopening the economy. Nothing but the best for Trump.

The Groundhogs are coming out.

Bismarck is supposed to have an idiots convention today. The Red Hats will show solidarity for stupidity.  One good thing about this virus is it should spread best among the Trump crowd.  Winky has been very strict about our sequester.  According to God and Winky we must quarantine for two weeks since we got back to North Dakota.  In Hazen you can see the social distancing breaking down. The fundamentalist carry on like normal.  The grocery store is doing a good job, but it seemed like one of the bars was open, at least there were a lot of cars there.  Doubt they are making face mask.  Out of boredom we have been raking the yard.  The yard is in tip top shape to get hit by spring.  Well here we go another day in homemade prison.

The next governor

Kadizzle wants change in the worst way, and this is not about an underwear problem.  Yesterday Kadizzle had a long conversation with Shelley Lenz.  Shelly is the woman running for governor in North Dakota. Kadizzle wants to see the greed dogs thrown from office in North Dakota.  The rich now own North Dakota. The current governor made some big cheese in the digital game and bought himself the job.  All three congressional representatives in ND are stooges for the rich.  John Hoeven's dad gave him a bank, Little Kelly Armstrong's daddy gave him some oil wells, and poor old Kevin Cramer was adopted by Harold Hamm the oil billionaire.  So North Dakota is in the hands of those who never want to pay taxes.

Creativity is the only way you can overthrow the rich.  You cannot out spend them. Kadizzle discussed ways Shelly could get some publicity and get her message across.  The elections in November will indicate how close to a dictatorship we are. Pay attention.

Good Morning Kadizzilites

Good morning.  North Korea and South Korea set off nuclear weapons last nigh.  Not really, what happened was Winky was watching television when the screen went blank.  Kadizzle was commanded by Trump's second in command to fix the television.  As Kadizzle tried to diagnose the problem Winky fired missiles, and some small arms.  Unless a cease fire was declared Kadizzle threatened to walk off the battlefield.  After trying everything in the book we decided the old TV was dead.  This meant the TV from the basement hat to quickly be brought upstairs to replace the wounded TV.  Now we heat our  house with the television and also use it to cook our brains so you can see time was short.  Finally we got the basement Television going and carefully placed Winky back in her chair.  Birds sang, a heavenly light came from the television and Kadizzle retired to some nice sleep music in his ward room in the asylum. What if we had not had a spare? It would be like no defibrillator during a heart attack.  The two engine plane is now flying on one engine.  There is a small tv in the kitchen, but it does not have the power to make us as stupid as we need to be.  A close call, but thanks to the concept of mutual destruction we are still alive.

Warren Zevon The Hula Hula Boys.{1982}

Will Change Come?

The NYT has an article with a subject Kadizzle has been thinking about. Will social change come from this virus foray?  If anything this mess has shown the inadequacies of our health care, and our economic system. If people suffer enough things change. That was the case after the depression.  The greed dogs more commonly known as the Republicans did a lot to reverse the progress that was made after world war two.  Now here we sit with one percent owning everything.  If people don't wake up we are well on our way to being a third world country run by a mentally ill dictator.  Wait we are there. Most crazy in this mess is we have enough for everyone  to live comfortably.  Why do people build pyramids when they need roads?  Look at the insanity of cars.  So much work goes into building cars when we need housing.  What in the hell is wrong when most families have three cars and a lot of families live in a shack?  That is a hard puzzle.

Smelling Rats

Cheech is not happy with the Kadizzles for the Dr. Shiva crap.  As Kadizzle listened to Dr. Shiva there were some rat fumes coming from the computer.  The ability to smell something fishy is not common among right wingers.  They listen to Trump every day and think he is honest. Imagine that. One thing Kadizzle wondered watching Dr. Shiva was where he stood on the political scale.  Some things that gave him away were his own books prominently facing the camera on the book shelf behind him.  Another clue was when he told how great he was very much like Trump.  The real cooker was when he got to the end of the program and asked for a campaign donation.  Rats cannot avoid being rats. Trump is a classic case.  Some people just cannot smell a rat.  That is how the Trump cult was formed.  You have to have no sense of smell for rats to still stand by Trump at this point, but it can be done.

Warning, warning, may have been duped

Kadizzle does not like to knowingly spread false information.  Cheech says this Dr. Shiva guy is not on the up and up.  Apparently he has produced some pretty bizarre stuff.  His presentation has some very interesting points, but it also has some things that make you wonder.  Winky must have mentioned this to Cheech, and Cheech warned us this may be fraudulent.  So be a good intellectualist and question all of the article.  As Kadizzle watched it he did sniff some strange BS.  This is not Fox News. Sometimes we admit our mistakes.

Maybe

https://www.facebook.com/va.shiva.ayyadurai/videos/547625379465700  This is a link to a Dr. Shiva. Now Kadizzle is not one for paranoid theories, but there is a lot of meat here.  Dr. Shiva has some very interesting insights into the virus problem.  Obviously the man is intelligent.  If you want a different view of the virus this is very interesting. He is not some way out right wing nut, give it a chance.

OK, back to reality.  The sun is out, but somehow the sun in North Dakota does not have the wattage to actually warm the place up. Kadizzle took the ebike for a ride yesterday. Passing near the grocery store Kadizzle saw three local characters. All three of them are notorious wandering gallywamples. It is like drawing three aces.  Gallywamples are people who are not quite normal. This can just be a simple case of stupidity, but usually there is some other flavoring added.  We all wander around in a cloud, but some clouds at least have lightening. That is the case with the cloud the gallywamples are in. Trump has an amazing ability to attract gallywamples. 

So here we go with another day in a luxury prison.  The Kadizzles are mainly imprisoned by the cold, the virus, and the normal bland life of a small town in the middle of nowhere.  In the old days when Kadizzle was an underground coal miner he had a realization. No one would be seven hundred feet underground in the dark if they had any sense.  That is sort of how it works here.  You would not be here unless you did not know better.  Sort of like being at a Trump rally. 

Morning has broken

Kadizzle has a mind that is infinity curious.  On solution to this are trade magazines.  Almost every profession has a magazine that they will send you free.  Sometimes to get one you have to make up a company name.  Kadizzle goes by Quinn Safety Consultants.  Anyway you can get trade journals on coal, electricity, and so many other things.  Somehow Kadizzle subscribed to a journal called " Tech Briefs".  This journal has been a favorite. It keeps Kadizzle up to date on the most current breakthroughs in technology.  The stuff that is coming down the road is hard to comprehend.  Battery technology is one thing that will be life changing.  There is so much going on that is so exciting it can not all be mentioned here.  Everything is going to change in amazing ways.  This morning Kadizzle read about a radio smaller than a grain of rice that can be implanted in just about anything relay data.  The spies of World War Two would have a blast with current technology. 3D printing has reached capabilities that are already unimaginable. The sensors for cars both inside and out will grow by magnitudes.  Technologist are almost able to duplicate the senses of bats for seeing without eyes. Solar power is also making leaps.  Now this seems unbelievable, and Kadizzle is going to have to read the article once more, but apparently you can generate power at night from a solar panel.  It seems absurd, but somehow the panel can produce electricity by emitting light. Like was written the Big K is going to have to read that one once more.  How about this a pressure sensor in your eye? If you want to find the next breakthrough in a stock market sweep get with this magazine.

Back to the real cold world of little town nowhere. The Kadizzles left AZ because it was getting too hot.  Well here we sit freezing our ass off.  Snow, imagine that sits out in the yard.  The only reason to be here in the winter is because you don't know any better.  Kadizzle has turned from a die hard to a seasoned snow bird.  Every year Winky gives Kadizzle grief for returning to the arctic. Better to live in a shoe box in he desert than a mansion in the arctic.

Trust in God and Trump

Supply and demand is the mantra of capitalism until it starts to work for poor people, then it is game off.  There is simply too much oil. That means the price goes down. That means working people pay less. That means oil companies suffer.  We cannot let that happen. President Trump who loves us all wants to prop up the price of oil. He does this for the poor guy driving to work, not for the oil companies. Just like the way he hides his taxes, there is a good reason, we just don’t understand it. Like religion we must take Trump on blind faith.  Although his policies seem to favor the rich we must accept that he is all knowing and really cares for us. None of us understand the mind of God, nor do we understand the mind of Trump, but both are our saviors and we must accept on faith what science has proven wrong. We now live in a world where truth and facts have been abandoned and all we have is faith.  Put your faith in Trump, God chose him for a reason even though we don’t know what that reason is. 

Everything an nothing

Here we sit. We have every convenience, we are warm, well fed, and lack nothing.  On the other hand we are in a social prison.  Unless we do some sort of hobby, or home remodeling we have nothing to do.  Winky and Kadizzle are outdoor people.  If we were in Arizona it would be time for an electric bike ride or Winky would be heading for the mountains.  A shut down Hazen is not too exciting.  In this modern era we are used to so much stimulus.  Now we are in jail.

The coffee was very good this morning. Now it is news time.  The media is doing a good job of attacking the rat in the White House.  Perhaps we will get the courage to rake the yard today.  We have no immunity to cold.

Ron Reagan: Not Afraid of Burning in Hell

Fell in a snore hole

Internet was so bad back in the desert we had to get up in the middle of the night to wake up.  It became a habit. So back in planet Arctic we slept for the first time. Sure enough wide awake at 1:30.  Winky was still tense from the ride home so Kadizzle tried to knead her back into softness.  It was 3:30 A.M. before we knew it.  With sunrise inevitable Kadizzle prayed he could fall into a snore hole.  Well he did and now the big body is trying to come alive.  Awaking from a snore hole is like coming out of surgery. 

Coffee, a full screen computer, and back at the old desk, that is life in the village.  A tour threw town showed how empty the town can be, but there is a trick, the town is this way virus or no virus.  Our home is not that large, but way larger than we really need.  After living in the shoe box all winter the luxury of multiple rooms is overwhelming.  Alexa is plugged in with her buddy mini google.  The wasteland of the internet is at our command.

Earth Module lands on planet boredom

Winky warned Kadizzle the boredom would rain down when the Earth Module returned to Hazen.  Well here we are.  It was kind of neat walking into the spotless home base.  The place was left spic and span since it is for sale.  This seems like a new luxury. Each of us took deluxe showers.  The big TV is fired up along with Alex, and the Google mini.  So now on command we can know the weather and what time it is.  What a long drive home.  Three days with the usual explosions of driving too fast or some other igniting comment.  Poor old John Prine died.  John Prine wrote out theme song ' In spite of ourselves".  It fits the Bickersons perfectly.  Our good friends in Alaska did their own version to honor both Prine and the Kadizzles.  Maybe Kadizzle will scoot on over to youtube and post it for you. Got it posted below. If you have not heard this song it is a must.

John Prine - In Spite of Ourselves - In Spite of Ourselves

Excited delerium

The poor fellow died of excited delirium.  That is what the coroner report said.  You can read it in the Bismarck Tribune.  Now if Winky every passes on surely that will be the cause.  I might not mind going that way myself.  Never knew there was such a cause of death, but it sounds like the perfect way to go.  It helps if the police stop you and beat you a little, but that is usually no problem. Almost once had it happen.  Up before the sun going to blast the Earth Module to Hazen today.  Back in the land of snow and ice.  Boredom will rain on the prairie as sure as the wind blows.  Kadizzle has been thinking a lot about another sailboat or maybe a motorcycle.  Here comes summer. 

An Ephiany

The sun is not up, be the Kadizzles decided to get up and start the world.  As Kadizzle awakened he had a realization. This virus has proven the whole world can take a two month vacation and life will go on.  We can get by on less.  Basically the virus has slowed down the economy.   The question is what is wrong with that? What if the world did take a vacation for two months.  Already the skies in India have cleared from pollution, the price of oil has dropped, and people have had an incredible amount of free time.  Do we need to constantly fly, shop, and consume.  The answer is clearly no.  This disease has shown the human race that we can relax.  Think of all the things that did not happen, yet we survived.  Think about the people who died. What if all the people who are now dead had two months vacation every year of their life.  It is possible the virus proved it.

Sitting in Wheatland, Wyoming

Here we sit after a long drive.  Traffic was a little less, but far more than one would expect.  A lot of stores were closed close to Denver, but farther North it appeared no one cared.  Train traffic is down, no airplanes in the sky, and truck traffic seems less.  The Denver Airport was amazing hardly a plane landing or taking off.  The western sky is free from contrails.  The air is certainly cleaner.  People seem to be out social distancing by walking around.  The wine has run out and this could be tragic.  Of course it is colder and tonight may be very cold.

John Prine

John Prine is dead and a lot of people will miss him.  No one was able to put life into a song better.  Kadizzle has always considered the greatest talent words and music that work together.  Three people stand out John Prine, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen.  Republicans do not listen to these people. If you ask someone if they have heard of all three and they say no, then more than likely you are talking to a Republican.  John Prine understood people.  He had empathy.  Republicans don't.  Can you imagine Trump listening to John Prine? Trump only listens to Trump, he reads nothing, and takes advice from no one but the mafia guys.

Well here we sit the sun is rising in Las Vegas, New Mexico.  There is snow over there on the mountains near the rockies.  We can probably see thirty or forty miles in every direction.  We are about sixty miles East of Sante Fe.  Today we will go through Denver and we cannot stop to see the Snoocher Bear,  and Ticklepinch ( Erin, and Sylvie).   Poor old Sylvie was supposed to star in a play that has been cancelled.

Dry camping means the generator is running outside and we have television news.  Wink is making egg salad for sandwiches.  Long day ahead driving to Wheatland, Wyoming.  There we will stay in the little city park.  Gas prices are as low as we have seen them in years.  Somewhere along the way gas was $1.45.  The virus curve is flattening, if only my belly would.

The Launch

The Earth Module fired out of the chute early at about 7:15.   Not too much excitement until we were near Heber.  At Heber an old goat pulled out in front of us and just about caused us to T bone him.  Unharmed we went on.   No much traffic, even the trains have slowed down. Usually there is a constant stream of trains delivering stuffed animals from China, but only saw one Walmart junk train today.  Now we sit at some wildlife refuge in Las Vegas, New Mexico.  Not a bad spot.  We have good internet, and TV.  First time we have dry camped in a long time.  Of course the dam water pump needed to be nursed into action. Winky has some great Chicken Marabelo warming up.  Not a bad place to spend the night.  Incredible view, we may stay here again sometime. 

Listened to Trump give his press conference today.  No person with a function brain could help by conclude he is a lyining, mentally ill, idiot.   Had to laugh twice his nonsense was so silly.  Now he found a new scapegoat, the World Health Organization.  How can anylone listen to Trump and not conclude he is mentally ill.  Everything he does is the greatest and the best. If Trump farted it would be the best fart know to man. 

Last Day in Paradise

Tomorrow the Earth Module heads North.  Winky has given in to the idea we take the normal route.  First we will head to some casino near Cochiti Lake.  Our favorite campground is closed.  Next night who knows, then South Dakota at Angusta Lake.  Then we should make it home.  Tire pressures have been checked, the cycle has been loaded.  All the big jobs are done.  Ken and Rita may take off today for Spokane.  Cliff will stay for awhile and hike with the rattlesnakes along with Ken.  Another year of trail work wrapped up.

Kadizzle hopes to do what he can to get some Democrats elected in North Dakota.  The Republicans have raped the state and it is time for ordinary people to have a chance at a better life.  Both daughters say they have given up on North Dakota.   When they see what redneck attitudes their old school friends who stayed in North Dakota have they just don't want to live there.  Young Trumpers could make anyone puke.

Winky is jumping around doing some final prep for the big leave.  A big decision not to do laundry had already been made by the boar of directors. 

Motorcycle up the mountain

Kadizzle took a nice ride up into the mountains on the motorcycle.  Everything is so lush and green and the flowers have exploded.  Just this moment the sun came up. From the Earth Module the big fireball can be seen rising in the East.  The windows are like a clock. The sun is now coming up in a window that looks farther northeast on the horizon.

The gang saw a rattlesnake on the road yesterday.  The snakes are out and plentiful Kadizzle has been riding the ebike through the paths in the brush.  Someday he is bound to come across a big rattler he cannot avoid.  If running over the guy makes him bite, it could be nasty. May start wearing the snake guards on the bike ride.

Heading North, Maybe

Blasting Winky out of Arizona is a delicate process.  Winky does not want to leave, but it is getting hotter here.  Kadizzle is ready to bust out of AZ.  Winky is making a precise plan to get back to Dakota.  The wagon train will go East of Denver and stay away from populated areas.  Winky loves worrying about the virus.  Making the trip without contacting humans will be interesting.

The weather here in AZ has been perfect.  Yesterday we fixed a small segment of the Arizona Trail that had washed out.  Fall will probably be a disaster here.  The grasses, and shrubs have grown so much that when they dry out it will be the mother of all fire problems.

Officially we quit working for the season.  The Forest Service always gives us a gift for our work and this year they gave us a nice folding camp table.

Kadizzle encourages old goats to volunteer.  If all the old goats in the country would leave the coffee shop and contribute to the effort the country would improve.

The Jihad

After seven years of fighting the slummers up the street who have established a junk yard in their yard there might be a glimmer of hope.  The city auditor told Kadizzle yesterday that the city sent the slummers a notice to clean up the mess.  In a week or two Kadizzle will be hack in Hazen to fight the Jihad in person.  It will be a miracle if one piece of junk is gone.

Back here in Arizona Kadizzle may go with the crew today and repair a washed out trail.  It is hard to get up before sunrise and get going.  A little more coffee may do the trick.  The morning air is fresh and not laden with virus.

Part of the morning ritual is reading the New York Times.  The simple minded just will not give up.  An interesting article about right wing propaganda was featured in the NYT.  Facts just don't phase these people.

When you think it cannot get worse.  Trump had the MY PILLOW guy on with him.  This guy is a right wing nut.  KFYR right wing radio occasionally does interviews with this guy.  Of course he is a sponsor on the propaganda show.  Magic pillows, wow how stupid can the red hats get.

Work

Kadizzle worked hard today clearing the local trails.  After finally getting the pushable string mower to run right a lot of trails got trimmed.  The isolation has resulted in a lot of phone calling. Stroupini, and Shanika have been donating daily reports from Hazen, and Mandan. Winky and the rest of the trail crew went up the mountain where they are trying to rehabilitate the trail to Davy Gowhen's grave. If you are interested you can look him up on the net. He is an old gold miner they buried where they found him.  Kadizzle gets the sense the disdain for Trump is boiling among those with functioning brains.  Of course the cult members are dreaming every excuse to stay in the club.

Nothing is happening

The Kadizzles are in a wonderful natural setting with flowers of the desert in full bloom, but boredom ie exuding from every direction.  We tore open an MRE meal and Cliff sampled it. Not too bad MREs are Meals Ready to Eat.  The meal is for soldiers, but some are used for firefighters. 

Took a motorcycle ride yesterday and saw a rattler on the road.  The lake is about full and maybe it will top out while we are here.  Winky is going crazy worrying about social distancing and spreading virus.  All is well with us, and our children are holed up in Denver,and Phillidelphia.

Donald Trump vs God on Easter PPV

Insanity

Kadizzle took Ken, Rita, and Winky out to hike.   During the drive the number of people around was astounding.  Although the campgrounds are closed people are everywhere camping in the woods and on public land.  It makes no sense.  The biggest crowd all winter and the campgrounds are closed.  These campgrounds are set up with plenty of social distancing.  There is not much about them that is conducive to spreading the virus.  This all means a lot of peace and quiet at our location. 

The Kadizzles slept in until the bright sun forced us to the coffee bar.  The internet has been terrible here.  Kadizzle has been fighting Verizon.  Why pay for full service when you get about half.  It was a silly go around with one of their managers.  Kadizzle asked why not just pay for what you get.  The guy kept saying we have different plans.  Kadizzle said when you go to the gas station they don't have a plan for five gallons, and a separate plan if you want to buy ten gallons.  All the gallons are sold at the same price.  Why not simply sell gigabytes at the same price.  The simple answer is that you can charge people for what they don't get and don't use with a clever plan.  Kadizzle would like to sick the class action lawerys on these greedy rats.

Republicans Unite

This is the time for Republicans to unite. Trump needs to have his rallies, invite the fundamentalist, go to church, shake hands and declare victory. Now is the time for Fox News to encourage all Republicans to expose the fraud of the Democratic virus hoax.  If Republicans get together in mass meetings people will see the liberal fraud.  This is Trump's chance to hit the Democrats hard.  Trump could kiss a Republican baby, and encourage others to do it as a blessing.  How better to enrage liberals than to use Republican social distancing.  All Trump supporters should hug and kiss just to rub it in to the liberals. Now is the time for Republican science to shine.

The new Kadizzle

There he is with his friends the new Quinnie, Cheeche's latest creation.  Multiple births is a chore, but Cheech pulled it off.  Grandpa is happy to welcome the gang.

What we could have done

Up on the mountain yesterday two old men spent hours repairing steps on a trail.  Now what if that $1,200 everyone is going to get was used to pay people to work on projects like this.  If you paid someone one hundred dollars an hour to help us they could have worked for twelve hours.  What happened to common sense? Back in the old days when they had to get cash to trickle they did public works. Why not now?  Why not pay people to do something useful?

Go up on the mountain.

Kadizzle is planning to go up the mountain with the crew today.  He is going to fix some steps on the trail up by the four peaks.  Hopefully there will be a burning bush and some tablets.  Maybe the new tablets will say Thou shalt not watch Fox News, Thou shalt not believe Trump. Thy shall tax the rich, Thy shall not vote Republicans.  Thou shall read science and factual information.  Thou shall put no god before thee and use common sense, facts, and science.  Thou shall not be greedy. 

Anyway if Kadizzle gets the tablets he will share them.  Does God have time to make new tablets?  God might be busy choosing the next president, starving some kids, or handing out some cancer.  God is sure strange.  You pray to God and ask him to do the right thing. Why do you have to ask God to do what he should do anyway?  Would you ask little Johnny to quit hitting his sister?  Seems like little Johnny if he was a good boy would not hit his sister.  Kadizzle just simply does not understand God.   God can control everything, but chooses not to.  God could shut off the virus instantly, but instead he choose Trump to do it.  This sure seems strange.  Weill if Kadizzle gets hit by lightening while he is up on the mountain, rest assured there is a God and he is just like a little kid who gets mad.  It seems God is a lot like Trump.  Maybe that is why God chose Trump.

Silence

Yesterday we helped chase everyone out of the campgrounds.  Kadizzle will spend the day very alone. It may be nice, the sun is up and bright.  Winky is going to hike up the mountain with Rita and Ken. The animals should love the place without all the troublesome humans.  Could be a good day for music.

The big question is will people get smarter?  The great depression made people smarter.  People saw through the trickle down economy.  Changes were made.  The rich were taxed, workers were protected, and things got better. 

Ronald Reagan led the way in the greed parade and Americans forgot all about sharing, unions, and the common good.  Me, me, me was the Republican motto.  Income inequality soared.  We became a nation of " I got mine, the hell with you".   Republicans invented the idea that if you worked hard you would be rich in no time.  It did not hurt to inherit a million or two for a good start.

Now we sit here with the whole greed economy exploded in an instant.  In 1978 the CEO made 47 times more than the worker.  Now it is 350 times what the working man gets.  All the benefits companies used to provide evaporated. 

Worst of all people got stupider.  Fox News spread stupidity faster than the virus.  People fell in love with idiocy and Republican lives.  Will be get smarter or sicker?

Shut down the forest

Today Kadizzle and the trail crew will help shut down the campgrounds.  The visitor center is locked and closed and soon the campgrounds will be also.  No sure it is such a good idea.  Few better places to keep people isolated than out in the wild.

Here we sit with the coffee and the sun popping up.  Winky is jumping around as usual to go to "work".   Winky is taking this virus isolation very serious.  The social distancing is strictly enforced by the Queen.  So far it is working. 

The lake here is just about full and maybe it will go over the top before we leave.   It would be neat to see the dam release water.  This dam shoots the water way into the air when there is a release.

Back to the virus game.  It is interesting that when it comes to helping people Republicans want to make sure the poor don't get too much, and secondly the money does not go straight to them.  In North Dakota there is 6.8 billion dollars that could help those in financial distress.  However, that money is hoarded to protect the rich from paying taxes.  Then you have Trump and his gang of thieves who want to have a 500 billion dollar slush fund to reward their friends. 

Kadizzle did a calculation and found that in North Dakota you could give every person in the bottom 20% economically 40,000 dollars.  Of course poor people could not be trusted with the money, so you could set some guidelines like paying them better, providing them with insurance, and so on.  Republicans just pretend like the money is not there.  The real irony is the fund is called a rainy day fund.  If ever it rained it has now, but it takes a lot of rain to flush money away from the rich.

Hammered

The retirement fund has dropped by one third in value.  Does that mean Kadizzle has to die sooner?  Another choice might be to cut back on life style.  That seems like the preferred solution at this time. Kadizzle was going to buy a new toy.  Maybe a new truck, boat, or motorcycle. Not anymore.  Now we are in survival mode.  The desert life is not bad, but at some point we will have to pull the plug and head north.  If nothing else the heat will drive us out. 

Things seem to be slowing down here and people are holing up more.

The Ride

Kadizzle and Al took off for our ride in the mountains.  All is well that ends well was the theme, well maybe.  We decided to take a new route.  Kadizzle did have a good plan.  Send Al ahead to look for danger.  It worked, Al went ahead and wrecked on a very steep grade.  The roads were all very bad and difficult, but this was a part of road that if you went down you could not come back up. Al needed to either go down or up. For awhile we puzzled.  We might make it down, but if the road was cut off or dead ended we would be doomed.  At last we decided to push Al's cycle back up the hill to where he could ride again.  At this point we found our had a leak in his radiator from the crash. Not good.  Kadizzle though oh no,  maybe we would have to leave the cycle here and come back with the truck to get it. This would be a very bad unpleasant trip in a truck.  It turned out the leak was not that bad and we could refill the radiator enough to get back to camp.  Without too much trouble we did make it back.  Kadizzle has realized he is an old man now 71 and terrible mountain roads are harder than they used to be.  Al said his cycle magically went out from under him.  Kadizzle had a minor similar incident. 

Terrible Internet

Hopefully today will be nice enough to go on a long motorcycle ride with Al.   Under siege from the virus keeping entertained is a chore.  Once irritant is the internet.  Our only access is through the hotspot on the phone.  Verizon does not have the capacity to provide service during peak hours, so if you want have decent service you have to wait until two in the morning.  Kadizzle is going to call Verizon on Monday and suggest if they have half service we pay half.  

Kadizzle may ride up to Nonsuch Rocks with Al.  Over on that mountain we may get off, look at the Indian site, and hike up the slick rock. One problem will be hiking in cycling gear.  It can be done, but no real comfortable.  

The whole virus thing makes one wonder about if people will come out of this thinking differently.  The NYT says how pollution in big cities has gone way down.  Can we learn from this?  Since the subject is learning Kadizzle might recommend a book he is listening to on the Google.  Sapiens tells the story of human evolution from some interesting perspectives.  Kadizzle rarely has the patience to plow through a book, but this one has got him going.  In the time of the plague nothing could be better than a half decent book.  Another reading blessing has been the magazine The Economist.  Kadizzle took them up on some cheap offer and now can read some good articles.  The Economist goes into the virus in great detail and explains exactly how the virus operates.  

Another interesting educational thing was in the NYT today.  They have a neat visual of how the virus spreads.  It seems they tracked the spread with peoples cell phones.  Your cell phone is following you around, and so can the government by tapping into it.  Kadizzle checked on Google his travel history via the internet and cell phone and was amazed how well big brother can track you for years back.  Kadizzle found he had gone places that totally slipped his memory.  The day is a little overcase and off to a slow start.  Stay well my friend. 

An Excellent bike ride on the Apache Trail

If someone comes to visit you in Phoenix you automatically take them for a ride on the Apache Trail.  It is a scary cliff hanging ride.  However, there is now a problem.  Last fall there was a rain that obliterated the roadway, but you can make the trip by bike.  So today we took off with Deb and Al to ride our bikes down the trail.  The scenery is some of the most spectacular in the country.  It is like a bike ride at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  Kadizzle had the electric bike and made sure he conserved the battery.  This was a mistake there was plenty of reserve power.  The road was terribly  washed out in many places, but the worst place was where the road hung on the side of a rock cliff.  Here the huge boulders the size of small homes sat in the road.  We could carry the bikes past the boulder, but thought it best to quit with the bikes and walk.  Al kept going with his bike and rode to the top where there is an incredible view.  The sun was in all its glory, and the temperature was just right.  Since Kadizzle was conservative with the battery outward bound he decided to go luxury on the way back and had plenty of electric assist.  If you ever get the chance to make the trip do it.

Pounding the same post into the ground

Kadizzle had a long conversation with the Hazen correspondent.  Stroupini was critical of the blog for pounding the same post into the ground. Stroupini suggested Kadizzle predict the future.  So here goes.  When we come out the other end of the virus game Kadizzle predicts people will be smarter.  They will see the fallacy of our economic system, they will understand who lies and who deceives. 

Kadizzle predicts things will get better.  When things fell apart in the depression people got smarter. We came out of the depression with better social safety nets, we decided to tax the rich, and people realized how much we depend on each other.  Kadizzle predicts this virus will teach us the same lesson over again.  Well maybe there was some post pounding in this, but unless Kadizzle gets different glasses it will be hard to see the world differently. 

Maybe the time has come

Long ago and far away Kadizzle spent summers on a family farm in West Virginia.  Call the place a farm was a misnomer.  In actuality it was an overgrown farm that had been abandoned around World War two when everyone left to work in the war factories.  Kadizzle's father bought the place and it basically served as a retreat in the wilderness of West Virginia.  The real beauty of the place was it's isolation.  To get to the farm which was nicknamed Bonnieville one had to first cross the Hughs River.  Normally you could drive through the water with some caution.  Other times you simply had to leave the car or truck and walk across the river.  If there was a vehicle on the other side you were in luck.  Once the river had been crossed a journey up the valley on a very poor road put you at the farm house.  The farm house had no electricity, no running water, but it did have two wonders.  There was a phone, and free natural gas piped directly to the house from the gas well.  The house was equipped with gas lights salvaged from old banks by my father.  The refrigerator was run by gas.

This virus insanity has inspired Kadizzle to consider going to the West Virginia wilderness and living in isolation.  The challenge would be the fun part.  You could work on solar power,  have a little lumber mill, and work hard to raise food.  Social life could be a visit to the Hill Billies over the hill.  Internet might be non existent. That might be a good thing. 

Existing in the woods might require very little outside input.  The biggest issue would be food.  The gas well would provide all the heat, light, and energy one could want.  Raising food on the West Virginia soil could be a problem.  Over the hill there are real hill billies.  They have made a science out of living in these woods.  They know how to harvest deer, blackberries, persimmons, and welfare checks.  They have survived just fine for generations.

The cost of living would be damn near zero.  The entire estate is about four hundred acres.  The tax on the land is miniscule because the land is essentially worthless.  My father paid 14 dollars per acre and some land was bought for 23 dollars per acre.   A social security check would go a long way there.  Boredom would be the biggest problem.  Back in the old days it was nothing to go three weeks without seeing a soul.  Sometimes some odd traveler would drive past on the road, which happens to be a state road that never gets attention.  Well let's just see if Trump can golf us out of this mess.

Mind Boggling

What you can sell people.  Religion is the classic case of fraud.  Getting millions of people to live on the basis of a made up fantasy seems impossible, but it happens.  Donald Trump shows us lying and fantasy in action.  Religion has sold walking on water, virgin birth,  and a host of nonsensical crap.  Trump can contradict his own lies within minutes and people believe it.  Republicans sell trickle down economics and the dolts buy it by the truckload.  What in the hell is wrong with people? Most people who go to the magic show ultimately walk out an know they were fooled.  How do the same people go to a Trump rally and never figure it out?

Now we have a hell of an economic mess and people relying on the mafia to fix it.  This virus insanity is doing so much economic damage. However, anyone who pays attention will quickly see the silver lining.  The lying will show up like a bump on the end of your nose.  The economic falsehoods will also become evident.  The deficit will be shot to hell.  Watching the unwinding will provide a lot of panic and entertainment.  Hopefully the little stooges like Kevin Cramer, Kelly Armstrong, and the gang will melt.

The real test will be the election.  Will people buy one more scoop of stupidity?  Wait and see.  It is a bad sign that we are turning to old white goats for answers.  Who created this mess?  Yup it was old white goats mostly Republicans.   So lets get some more goats to run things?

Up on the mountain

Kadizzle had not been up on the Four Peaks for a few years, but with a huge bucksaw on his shoulder he was headed up the trail.  The mission was to clear the trail of large trees that had fallen across the trail.  You can see for almost a hundred miles in every direction from the peaks.  It was surprising how quickly the old fashioned saw could go through a tree.  Rules and senseless regulations prohibit chainsaws in the Wilderness.  Certainly we want the wilderness to be quiet and peaceful, but sometimes common sense should prevail.

It was a nice day.  Several young people passed us working on the trail.   Talking to them later in the day it was amazing how quickly they sprinted to the very top of the peaks.  It is a very difficult climb and one this old man may never make.

Nested out here in the desert our little group is self isolating.  Hard to find a nicer place to hole up.  In the background Pence is on NPR with his suck up personality talking about the virus.  What a sad man who cannot see what a dolt is Trump is.  Pence is assuring us we can trust Trump.  How stupid can we be?

The Isolated Life

Where do we start? Winky is like a spinning top going into the future and finding some virus problem to worry about.  The Kadizzles sit in one of the most isolated places possible.  We are in an encampment with few people separated by a lot of distance.  We are in a gated community.  Only a few people are allowed in where we are.  Even as isolated as we are Winky can imagine all sorts of ways the magic death can get here.  If the virus can live for several hours then avoiding it is pretty hopeless.

Some good news is the virus has slowed down in China.   Perhaps China is over the hump.  In reality very little in our life will change. Maybe we will not go up to the marina to have dinner.

Maybe some more good news.  This panic will show the fallacies of a lot of systems.  Income inequality will shine out and people will see that no health care,  and not savings affect mostly the poor.  This exercise will show how fragile the existence of so many is.  The Democratic Hoax has already shown all but the most hard core what an idiot Trump is.  Anyone who cannot figure what a liar Trump is by now has a real problem.

Ideally we all are getting smarter and many myths about the world we live in are being destroyed. 

What about trickle down?  If rich people can trickle on poor people and that is how the economy works, then now is the time for trickling.   Trump should demand trickling to start immediately.

How dead can you be?

Forty thousand people get killed by guns, no one cares.   A few people so far have had death by virus.  Solving the gun problem is simple, but not much fun so forget about it.  Now, lets have some virus hysteria.  The virus is a problem, but how does it merit so much attention when other problems are ignored.  If a gun nut goes to school and shoots your kid, you kid is dead.  The virus on the other hand may make your kid sick or enable your kid to give it to grandpa, but it more than likely will not kill your kid.  The virus is going to wake people up to reality.  If people have awakened to the idiocy of Trump we have already won a major victory.

All of this reminds Kadizzle of his all time favorite cartoon.  A man is tied to a post and he is about to be executed.  One of the men assigned to shoot him offers him a cigarette.  The man about to be shot says " No thank you, I am trying to quit'.    This is the state of the United States.

Trumpazootic

Our country is in the midst of an epizootic.  The epizootic is related to the Trumpazootic.  Symptoms of the Trumpazootic are excessive lying, a sense of self aggrandizement,  and the denial of science.  Often the victim also has an extremely greedy self serving personality.

Back to reality.   Kadizzle spent hours with the weed wacker trimming the grass.  The desert is growing as fast as the lake is rising.  Winky and Kadizzle are self isolating.  We have been for six months.  Our biggest danger is the lack of internet service.  Verizon is terrible here.  Sometimes it works in the morning, and late at night.  During the day it is helpless.

This whole mess reminds Kadizzle of a boat.  When you buy a sailboat you think about how the boat will perform in a storm.  Just about any boat will sail, but when the wind blows the game changes.  Seems like an idea for choosing a president.  The storm is testing Trump and the sails are ragged and the the mast has fallen.

Lake is rising

Lake Roosevelt is coming up.  The lake must have risen a foot last night.  At this rate all the boat ramps will be flooded soon.  At last sunshine, but it rained more in the mountains yesterday.  Self isolating is something we deal with everyday here, but the frustration of the internet is driving us crazy.  Verizon is too cheap to put in another tower so we skimp by.  Hat to reset the breaker on Winky she is going nuts because her phone will not work as a hotspot.  The verizon guy was no help.

Cheech says Quinn our new grandchild is a giant.  The poor kid is being accused of looking like grandpa.  Not much happening here at lake wobegon. 

Kadizzles are isolated

If the virus is going to get us, it will have to work hard.  The Kadizzles are far from most people.  We just stocked up on food and should be able to eke out a month.  Kadizzle has even squirreled away some MRE's.  None of this takes into account the food little Joey has stored down in the belly department.  Isolated is the word.  In the desert we sit with other volunteers scattered in this campground.  We even have a gate to keep out unauthorized people.  Who knows.  Few things are foolproof.

The lake here is rising quickly and will soon be over the huge parking area down by the boat ramp. The road to the boat ramp will go under water.  This would be a great time to raft the Salt River.   After being womped by the stock market life takes on a different tone. 

A little good news.  The credit card insurance for rental cars paid off.  They will send a check to cover the bumper scratch in New Zealand.  Always remember you have that coverage with your credit card. 

How about a little rant?  What does it take for the Trump Cult members to see what a liar the man is?  Trump goes on national television and lies.  His own people explain how he lies the next day, yet the cult members just keep following him.  Trump said anyone can get tested. The next day the people who know said there was no way to get people tested.

There goes the sailboat

Old Kadizzle has been thinking about buying a nice big sailboat.  Well the money instead went up in flames with uncle Trumpster and his virus.  Kadizzle has lost in his retirement account way more than what the boat would have cost.  Now it appears an inflatable raft is out of the question.  The loss will be worth the price if it results in the demise of Trump.  The liar was on television last night with his lips moving.  Someone else was operating his mouth to make sure he did not let his brain run it.  However, it did not work.  The market is plunging today.

We are holed up in the desert.  There is probably no better place to be.  We are far from anyone in our little shoebox.  We have enough food for a month.  Perhaps we will have to kill a Javelina and eat it or make some rabbit stew.

The desert becomes the prarie

Walking to the executive suite Kadizzle was amazed by the grass growing in what is supposed to be a desert.  The transformation is unbelievable.  What was hard baked ground that looked like potter is now lush with grass two feet high.  Walking on the grass can be dangerous it may lift you in the air it is growing so fast.  What rain can do to the desert has to be seen to be believed.  If all this grass and vegetation drys like it will the fire hazard will be incredible.  This fall could easily be an inferno.

Angels Wings

You can see them from twenty miles away, the angels wings.   High on the side of a mountain are the tailings from an asbestos mine that went defunct many years ago. The tailings form white wing looking images.  Our band of adventurers all had a trip to the mine on our bucket list.  There is a road to the mine, but it is impossible to drive any vehicle on the boulder strewn road. Kadizzle decided to bike as far as he could on the road. The rest of the crew would walk.  After biking a mile or two even Kadizzle could go no further so he pushed the bike up the boulder strewn road.  The idea was that there may be some good stretches where he could ride. After a great deal of struggle and leaving the bike behind Kadizzle made it to the old mine site.  The rest of the crew got there about the same time.  The view was incredible.  We were five thousand feet higher than the lake where we started our trip.  The mine entered the mountain from a cliff side.  Somehow the miners had carved out a little road to get to the mining area.  Kadizzle went in the old mine to try to see the vein of asbestos.  Maybe a better description would be the layer of asbestos.  It seemed like a lot of work for a layer of asbestos only inches thick.  Back inside the mine it appeared the thickness increased.  Strangely it appeared the miners lived in the front of the mine.  There were old bed frames there.  The price of asbestos must have been very high at the time the mine was active to make such a difficult undertaking worthwhile. It might have been mined around world war two.  Kadizzle will do some googling and get back.

Wow

Set  a new record for losing money.  At 71 Kadizzle lost more today than he ever earned in most years. Having a total idiot for a president has its benefits.  Can you make a bad situation worse, yes.  Trump can poison any situation with lies.  Hopefully all will end well.  Amazing incompetence is all you can say for the old Trumpster. 

Shot out of the saddle

Planning for the future is related to retirement savings.  The stable genius does not give Kadizzle much faith.  The stock market is in free fall this morning, and the Trumpster is lying at a record pace.  Can Trump kill the virus with lies?  Who knows, but the stock market cannot not seem to believe the stable genius.  Kadizzle has to put some dreaming on hold.  No new motorcycle or sailboat.  In a crises what you want is a lying stable genius.  To make matters worse Trump has surrounded himself with idiots that believe him and make up their own fantasies. 

So in the middle of the night Winky decided we will hike up to the Angels Wings.  That is an old asbestos mine at the very top of the mountain.  Kadizzle was not real enthusiastic about the trip, but decided to go as far up the mountain as possible with the electric bike and then hike.  The road up the mountain is impossible even for a jeep.  Should be interesting. Kadizzle rode the bike partially up that route last year.  The brakes got extremely hot coming down with the large lump in the saddle.

I have been to the mountain

As Kadizzle fingers the laptop the ebike is charging. Yesterday the ebike took Kadizzle up the mountain with 11 % of the battery.  This morning another trip up to the cliff dwellings.  Each spring the National Park has a little display and free admittance to the Cliff Dwellings.  Our trail crew sets up a booth to inform people about the hiking and amenities the Tonto National Forest has to offer.   

Cause and effect.  The internet service here was terrible yesterday.  Kadizzle threatened Verizon with a class action lawsuit.  The net is working so much better today.  You just have to put the fear of God in them. If Kadizzle remains this delusional he will become a republican.

Summer seems to be rolling in.  The nights are warm and the rattlesnake reports are rolling in.  Every morning Kadizzle checks the executive suite for a lurking snake.  The board meeting might go a lot quicker with a snake present.

Kadizzle has been fiddling with the canal trail.  One major problem the lake is rising and may come up and flood the trail.  The canal was built as part of the original dam project.  The canal was an amazing accomplishment of human labor.  The canal was dug by hand around 1907.  There were 19 tunnels needed on the 23 mile canal.  It is just hard to imagine the work that went into the ditch.  We are trying to establish a trail along the canal for horses.  Well that is all from Lake Wobegon for now.  Whoops, almost forgot. Kadizzle is going to take on a book " Sapiens".  Honest Omar the book is something you might enjoy, if you have not already read it.

Canadians

The Canadians have poured in to our campsite.  Old friends from Canada gathered last night for evening drinks.  The Canadians claim they have a leader as bad as ours.  We are still waiting for Darch and John to show up.  That would give us a total of six.  Often it seems Canada gets way better use of our parks than Americans. 

Today we go up to the monument or shall Kadizzle say the Cliff Dwellings.  At the monument our trail crew will represent the National Forest Service for the annual free day and exhibit.  This is the day we try to spread the word about all the National Forest has to offer.  It will be a nice day and food trucks will appear to serve the crowd.  There will be flint knapping, reptile displays,  primitive fire building, and many other displays. 

The rattlesnakes are out

Once a couple people say snakes have been spotted life changes.  Going out at night takes on a different feel.  Watch where you step.  Cliff saw a big snake up by his camp.  Snake time is  alert time.

The real snake is in the White House.  Biden will just be the same old same old kissing up to the same gang that keeps the mess going. We need bold, we need different.  Incremental change does not work.  When you are drowning underwater you have to immediately come to the surface.  Coming up slowly an inch at a time does not work.  The peasants are drowning. Read the article in the New York Times about how people with no college education are dying early.  Incremental change hopeless.  In the background the stock market is down eight hundred.  Here goes another day.

Monkey Jumper

Sylvie has been accepted to the Denver School of Arts.  This was her reaction.  Love this little bug that has turned into a big tall bug.  She is an incredible actor, writer, and artist.  Of course Grandpa is not biased.  She is also a stable genius and uses the best words.

No, you can't give me money, and you can't work for free

A Canadian friend wants to work for free for the U.S. Forest Service, but Canadians are not allowed to volunteer.  What?  Somehow the government thinks this takes work away from Americans.  What? Some things you cannot have too much of, volunteers is generally one of the things.  The Forest Service is very fortunate because some very well qualified people offer to help for free.  Kadizzle will attempt to get this mess figured out this morning.  Getting an answer from da goberment is not easy.  The phone people move you to someone else and put you on hold.

Well the Biden news.  Same old, same old.  Are we going to get the same old crap once more from the same establishment democrats.  Yes, nothing is going to change it looks like tweedle dee and tweedle dumber.  Fooling the stupid is just too easy. 

A big empty plane

Who will pay for the gas?  In the Airbus the seats were eight across, but well over half were empty.  Here we are back in the desert.  Thankya Jeusus and Donald Trump.  Wait, I think they are the same.  OK, we are back in nowhere away from the ant colony in Philadelphia.  The new grandson is great and for sure one more genius added to the clan.  Big city life, you can have it.  Cheech said she did not want to be in a shoe box in the desert.  Kadizzle will stay in the shoe box.  Open the door on the shoebox and it is miles of peace and quiet.  The simple minded idiots who have to do the macho driving in big cities need to be rounded up and shoved up Trump's ass.  City folks have lost touch with reality, they think the entire world is paved.  Prices are insane.  Four people have lunch $120?  Tickets to the flower show 49 bucks?  City planning, no such thing, just let the mess expand like a mold.  Interstates are like the root ball of a plant.  Population is out of control and the planet is reaching the limit.  Hard to be optimistic.  Today a dose of sunshine, and maybe a bike ride.

East to West

Back to the west with the gun toting cowboys.  Sunshine, warm air, and silence.  No simple minded dingers driving noise wagons down the street.  Arizona has coyotes.Philadelphia has manly men who drive loud booming cars.  The noise attracts females, or maybe other idiots.  Urban insanity is not Kadizzle's cup of tea.  Thousands of people living in boxes with televisions, glued to computers and cell phones plugged in their ears. 

Airports full of people scrambling like ants.  Planes with rows of vegetables packed for shipping.  Four hours in the air spewing jet fuel into the pollutisphere. 

The Mother of All Flower Shows

Perhaps it is the biggest flower show in the world.  The crew went to the show.  It is a wallet buster. $48 per ticket.  A little high for a flower show, but it was packed with people.  Amazing what can be done with flowers, but a good walk in the forest, or desert would be Kadizzle's choice.  In New Zealand the free flower show in an abandoned rock quarry was a way better show.  The whole idea that people who rarely interact with nature on a large scale can get so excited about tamed plants.  Wild plants in wild places seem a lot more intriguing.

Will the virus rid us of Trump? We can only hope.  Trump's response to the problem has blasted our retirement savings with a major shot. Trump and his gang rejecting science and the truth seem like a bad combo to face any problem.  Can he lie his way out of this one?