Two Worlds

When two worlds collide. Kadizzle sits about a block from the control tower for the original Denver airport.  Erin's house is about where the parking lot would have been.  Imagine the size of the old Stapleton airport. It would have been miles wide and long. When the new airport was built miles out of town the old airport was turned into prosperity village. Not exactly, but now there exist for miles in every direction housing that was very carefully planned and laid out. In many ways it is a great place to live.  Every home is immaculately landscaped. If you live here you have a decent job. The kids are all spit shinned and have no clue of the word suffer.  

Many blocks away is the old fashioned area where reality still exist. There is a distinct line between the new and the old. A lot of the old is being bought up and transformed into better housing. 

Kadizzle buzzes about on his bike and it is a world of no problems. A few times a year visiting our children we go into these oasis of nirvana.  Of course when we leave we drive through the real world with the mess it involves.  Why can't everyone have a decent house? There is enough wood, steel, grass, and all that is needed for everyone to live the good life, but it seems impossible to solve the distribution problem.  It is very simple math. When Willy takes six, and Mary takes four, maybe Rastus will not get any.  That is how the world works and the Trumpsters love it. 

800 miles one day

 Old Kadizzle awoke early and installed a light fixture on Dina's kitchen ceiling. Nothing went right so a one hour job turned into a two hour job. With a late start Kadizzle headed fro Denver a mere 800 miles away.  The radio played tunes from the phone all day and it was nice to drive through green country that we usually see as brown.  Now at Snoocher Bears house having coffee in the morning. The sleep refreshed the old man, and a bike ride around Denver will be on the list shortly. May put the bike on the train and go down town, or may just ride the bike to town and take the train back. Kadizzle may just leave his road bike in Denver with Erin so he has a decent bike when he visits.  Urban sprawl is something that never ceases to amaze.  Bismarck has splattered like spilled coffee in every direction.  What if you could know how many people were in cars at any moment. There are 40 million cars in this country and if even a third of them were on the road that would be a lot of people. The add the people up in the air. At any given moment there are six thousand planes in the air.  Do the math. 150 times six thousand.  The reality is a very small portion of the population actually does anything.  Most people under 18 do nothing, most old farts over 65 do nothing, and a whole bunch of people between 18 and 65 do nothing. That means a very small portion of the population has to do the real work.  Isn't it wonderful? 

North Dakota's Pulitzer Prize Winner

 Today Kadizzle will travel to Bismarck to meet Dina.  Dina is one of the Bad Ass Grandmas who took on the corrupt Republicans in North Dakota and won. Dina has been a friend from way back and Kadizzle had many happy moments of joy with Dina and Bill in the sailing past. Now for the icing on the cake. Dina arrange for Tony Bender to be at here home to meet Kadizzle.  Kadizzle has admired Bender for his wonderful writing and political satire in the Fargo Forum.  Bender is an amazing writer and should get the Pulitzer prize.  The Trumpsters don't like Tony, which is the best endorsement anyone could have. Bender is a supreme humorist. Humor is one thing you will never find in a Republican with a stick up their backside.  So today will shape up to be a great day. 

The Truth is nothing more than a state of mind

Your world is not my world. Each of us lives in our own world. We each look out a different window. We are not seeing the same thing. Our minds invent our reality. It is impossible to see things for what they are.  We are artist. We paint the world to resemble what our mind wants to see. We don't see ourselves, we imagine ourselves. The reality we live in is one we manufacture. We live in the illusion that we are all in the same world.  We are not. If two people are in a room, there are two worlds. Time does not pass the same for any two people. The rain doesn't smell the same, the flowers don't provide the same thrill. Understanding that that person next to you is in a different world or maybe a different planet is crucial. What seems irrelevant and insignificant to you is the sun in their universe. We invent the world we want.  We will see evil where someone else sees virtue. We will see difficulty where someone else sees a challenge. Life is an illusion. You cannot escape your  imagination, nor can you separate it from the world. 

Our lives are ruled by probability.  How likely is it you will get cancer, hit by a car, live to be one hundred.  No one knows, but each of us perceives the probabilities differently.  Our perception of probability shapes our existence. Every move we make we base on the likelihood of the outcome. Most of the time we are wrong, but that never changes our view of the world. 

Who are your friends?

Your friends accept you for what you are, who you are, how you are, where you are, when you are whatever you are. Friends can and will be honest with you. Friends return the favor. Friends understand how to disagree with you. Friends forgive you. Friends stick with you. As the old saying goes the proof is in the pudding.

Hillbillies make good friends. With some strong hillbilly genes, and jeans, Kadizzle feels he can speak for the mountain people. When you meet a person from the hills they size you up.  Don't show up in a shiny suit. The people in the hills may seem backward, but one thing they learned is to beware of strangers. Now for the good news.  If you treat a mountain man right, and he sees your soul, and finds it good, you are in. If they give you something, it is a token of friendship. It might be some potatoes, some plants, a sack of apples or a knife, but it means you have been accepted. You have made a friend for life. There is one rule, don't ever cross him. Don't steal his pig, always invite him in to the table, and help him when you can. 

Kadizzle once was a professional safety trainer.  He did his work in West Virginia, north and south, Ohio, and North Dakota. In the course of his career he taught first aid, and many other things to coal miners. Over the years it was thousands of classes. Kadizzle can tell you one thing for sure the most grateful people were the coal miners deep in the mountains of West Virginia.  The memory is still there of ending a class of safety for coal miners deep in Appalachia. A miner was designated to give Kadizzle a nice new pocket knife. It was a token of their appreciation for the fact that someone cared about them.  At another rundown remote mine Kadizzle showed up an had no lunch. The old coal miners noticed and offered to share their lunch.  That was way back when Kadizzle was about 23.  Since then after hundreds and hundreds of coal miners Kadizzle has never met any kinder than the ones in the toughest coal fields in the country.  If you crossed these people they would shoot you, but if you respected them they would die for you. 

 

The Rain Came

Sound asleep the thunder shattered the pleasant dreamy state Kadizzle was in. The magic from the sky fell to the ground and provided some relief from the heat and the dust. It seems hard to believe that so many are still in denial about our changing climate. Many years ago we moved to North Dakota.  Our first years we experienced some extremely cold weather, and an entirely different climate than what is now found in the Dakotas. The temperatures have been warmer every year. The question is why? Kadizzle spent his career in the coal industry. The Earth took millions of years to sequester the carbon tied up in coal and oil. Does any rational human think you can release all that carbon in a couple hundred years, and not have a problem. Some of the coal seams in Wyoming are 160ft thick. Kadizzle visited one of those mines where a 100 car train is loaded every 15 minutes. The coal is burnt as fast as it is mined.  Imagine in your home if you threw the garbage on the floor every day.  How long would it be before your house filled with garbage?  Who cares the TV works, the lights come on and we can air condition our way out of this mess.  Just ignore reality and it will go away. 

Planet Prairie

Awakening on the prairie is entirely different from the other planet we were on.  The green is the best aspect of the morning. The desert was having such a hard time turning green. Even though there is a severe drought in the Dakotas the grass has managed to produce some color. 

We are ensconced at our old friend Ray's house.  Ray was unique and so is his home.  One part of the home was a manufactured home. At the time he needed a home in a hurry and did not have time to customize it, but when there was time he added a marvelous addition. Ray was an artist so he let light pour in everywhere, which is a blessing. 

So we are tasked with loading all our possessions into a utility trailer and heading south to Arizona. The economy here in the Hazen area is in flux. Hopes are up that the gas plant can be converted to produce hydrogen. On the other hand the Luddites are still trying to turn straw into gold. The local Luddites think they can make coal burn clean by stopping the construction of wind power. Yesterday had a conversation with our old neighbor who is an engineer for a power company. He realizes the silliness of trying to burn clean coal. The process if it could work would be so inefficient that most of the energy would go to the cleanup process and not into the power lines.  One must keep in mind this is the heart of Trump country where you can believe anything. 

Scaring the simple Minded

Yup, they are coming for our guns. Just my notification from the NRA, Biden will be confiscating guns. Once you take the pledge of allegiance to the Trump Cult you enter a world of make believe that welcomes you every goofy theory on Earth. In Arizona you have bamboo ballots shipped here from China.  Of course you get to divorce yourself from logic, science and any of those other nuisances that involve facts. 

The real beauty of the simple minded is how they can be tapped for cash. The NRA is in big trouble since they have been charged with fraud. The NRA needs money.  Well, simply send out a gun letter to the simple minded and ask for money and new members. TV preachers have always known how easy it is to rape the simple minded with Jesus at their side. Know one knows better than the Republicans what a gold mine the stupid can open up.  Just scare the simple minded and harvest their money. You need nothing new, just use the good old guns, gays, god, and a few conspiracy theories.  How many dingers are there? Just look for the bumper stickers and the flags. Now if you extrapolate you figure for every Trump flag flying there are a few more in the bushes. However, it is simpler than that, just look how many idiots voted for Trump twice.  74 certified idiots is a lot of idiots, and the country is infested with them. 

A Long Drive

Praise Jesus for out friends that are providing us with a home back in North Dakota. With a nice guest house on their farmstead near Stanton they graciously let us move in. Ten hours of driving from Denver to Stanton is a long haul. The greeness of North Dakota compared to the dryness of Arizona is very nice.  So much of the time when we drive north and south everything is brown.  Good to see it with some color. The task of moving our junk to AZ are before us. 

There is no poverty

Its morning in America. Kadizzle is in an upscale neighborhood where his daughter lives. There is a landscaping war going on. The yards are wonderful, and beautiful. First world countries do live well. Wandering around it occurred to Kadizzle that the rich spend more on dogs and landscaping than most of the world spends on just trying to get by.  Once upon a time Kadizzle learned that the average person in India used 2 gallons of gasoline a year. On this little street where my daughter lives there are 13 dogs.  Have you noticed the dog food selection in the grocery store, or anywhere you go? We spend enough on pets to save millions of children all over the world from hunger, starving, and so many diseases, but who cares we are special, and after all we brought the world cell phones and TVs.  It never ceases to amaze Kadizzle that poverty is a human invention. You simply give some people way to much, and make sure the people you enslaved don't have enough.  OK, it is now time for someone to say " Why don't you sell everything and give you money to the poor".  Well how about this, the old Ben and Jerry's idea, the boss can only make 40 times what the janitor gets.  How about no one gets a three million dollar home until everyone gets a 200,000 dollar home.  How many billions does Jeff Bezos need before he is happy?  How much do you have to pay someone to invent diet Coke?  Trump showed us one thing, there is no shortage of stupid greedy people packing guns.  Why not wake up?  Poverty is man made.  When apples fall from the tree and no one picks them up, it is not the trees fault. 

Donut Wagon Arrived

 Erin just came back with the donuts. Ah, a bear claw to believe in. Sugars will be coursing through the veins.  The Kadizzles are ensconced with Erin, Fran, and Sylvie enjoying the status of grandparents. Sylvie is now taller than grandma. Their dog Danny is a Wolly Brumpus, a walking ball of fur that insist on attention. The future of a teenage granddaughter is like walking into a war zone.  Shopping is mandatory when one visits the big city, so we already got the REI store done.  Only dropped $25 there a massive success. May have to take a long urban train ride to Ikea to get ideas for  the new home.  Rain in Denver is such a foreign experience. It has not rained in Arizona sine the early 1800's. The huge white cargo trailer sits out on the street waiting to haul our load of belongings from North Dakota.  Gravity waves are always dangerous. Eating donuts can bring on a gravity wave. Sadly a wave worse than that is a stupidity wave. North Dakota has been hit hard as the Trump Cultist suffer in the fog.  The three stooges, Kevin Cramer, Kelly Armstrong, and John Hoeven are still loyal to the Big Lie gang.  Going from Arizona to North Dakota is a trip from one redneck stronghold to another. However, one must give Arizona credit for at least voting against Trump.  North Dakota is still stuck in the fog and the muck. 

Aggressive Drivers

Aggressive drivers should be pulled over, severely beaten, and shot. If you ever pulled a large trailer and dealt with the idiots that see driving as a carnival game, you would agree with Kadizzle.  Yesterday we drove 636 miles from Arizona to Denver.  The dolts that love to weave in and out of traffic make the trip miserable. One of their favorite stunts is to pass you on the right while you are slowly trying to pass a tractor trailer truck.  They shoot between you and the bigger truck with inches to spare. Instantly you understand road rage.  Then you get in a line of traffic and since you are pulling a heavy load you leave plenty of stopping space between you and the car in front. The simple minded cannot stand to see that empty space and they pull in.  

In this modern day of technology computers could catch the mentally impaired driving.  In Arizona they had computers that automatically ticked goofs.  Accidents went down, but the right wing idiots saw this as an invasion of their right to kill people, just like the gun nuts have a right to make sure school children get killed. 

Prayer Meeting at the Credit Union

 The Kadizzles are establishing a new residence in Payson, Arizona. To do so requires a new banking set up. Kadizzle went to the credit union yesterday to open an account.  The young fellow at the credit union said Kadizzle had to establish residency in Arizona. After going in circles for a little bit it seemed Kadizzle did not have an Arizona drivers license, he did not yet have a mailing address in Payson, and it seemed like he could not join the credit union.  Kadizzle asked the young clerk to tell him all the things he could use to qualify.  The fellow read off a list of things that would make Kadizzle eligible. You could join the credit union according to their requirements if you worshiped in Arizona.  Kadizzle laughed when he was told this and said to the young man " Lets start praying".   Kadizzle bowed his head and prayed that there would be lots of money in his new checking account. The young fellow was confused and said he needed to check with his boss.  The big cheese was in an adjacent room.  Kadizzle walked in on them and asked them if they would like to pray with him.  It all worked, Kadizzle is now a member of the Copper State Credit Union.  However, prayer does not seem to work.  There is only five dollars in the checking account.  Honest Omar, if you are reading this it proves " The lord works in strange ways", and apparently uses credit unions.  Of course Republican Jesus uses a good old capitalistic bank.  All of this resulted from Jesus chasing the money lenders out of the temple.  No doubt he joined a credit union after that little kerfuffle. 

To Build a Home

Up at five A.M. and off to Payson, AZ.  Meet the plumber.  Tell the plumber you want water and sewage.  The trip from Springerville to Payson will be over one hundred miles.  So here we go. The coffee is just about gone, the brain awakened. 

How does the brain work? Kadizzle could not remember the name of someone he used to sail with.  For two days he searched his brain.  A picture of the man was clear in his brain. This morning Kadizzle searched his brain backwards and first came up with the name of his ex wife.  At last the last name of the man. From there it was fairly simple.  As an old person Kadizzle is digging though his mind. For some reason memories are popping up everywhere. It seems like reviewing a book, or a movie. Towards the end of life is that what your mind does, a review?

Arizona is in a severe drought.  The mountain disappeared in the smoke from the fires. The planet is burning up, and no one notices. We are like the wild animals that become used to humans.  The deer in parks will just walk right up to you.  They seem to have forgotten humans are deadly.  Stupidity is deadly, the Republicans seem to have forgotten. 

Found the Loggers

 After a fruitless day yesterday trying to find where those logging trucks come from Kadizzle found their hiding place today.  The motorcycle took Kadizzle about fifteen miles into the forest. There the machinery was operating. A guy with a prize winning belly was running the stacker that loaded the trucks. Since no truck was there to be loaded the belly fellow came over and we had a good chat. Turned out he was the owner of the outfit.  His belly hung down a good four or five inches over his belt. Kadizzle told him that must be his store of cash from the pulp outfit he owned.  The owner had to jump back on the loader when a truck came.  However, the crew was starting to break for lunch.  Kadizzle had a good chat with to young guys, that seemed very well educated, and enthusiastic.  One machine had fifteen controls. The machine on tracks picked up the logs the skidder brought to him.  The machine could hoist the log, and skin the limbs off in a very proficient fashion, and then cut the log to length.  This was not old fashioned logging. Everything was done by machine.  The skidder operator and Kadizzle had a nice lunch on the tailgate of his truck.  Soon the guy who ran the feller buncher pulled up for lunch.  Kadizzle was shocked when out of the machine popped a kid who looked ten.  Kadizzle turned to the guy on the tailgate and said " You got to be kidding me that kid is hardly ten".   A moment later his dad got out of the machine.  Apparently the kid was along for the ride.  It did appear the way it happened the kid was the operator.  The machine did not cut trees with a saw as Kadizzle had presumed.  Two hydraulic blades could cut down a 16 inch tree like scissors.  This crew was selectively cutting trees and the forest looked vastly improved when they finished.  It was a pleasant way to learn about how pulpwood is made into pellets for the new fangled wood stoves people are using to heat their homes. 

A Note

 If for some strange reason you read this blog and would like to see the videos, that may accompany it, You can see them on Facebook. Kadizzle is too lazy to add videos most of the time to these musings. However, it is very easy to put videos on Facebook. If you are not a friend on Facebook it would be easy to make you one.  You can email me at dakotaquinn@gmail.com and let me know who you are, then request that you become a friend.  Recently a few videos of our travels have been put there.  Perhaps if the laziness is cured and the technical things learned they can be posted here. 

he Water Froze

At three in the morning Winky tested the water.  No water. The temp outside was 25 degrees.  The panic ensued. Kadizzle went to Cliff's house and got a bucket of hot water which he poured over the standpipe. The water came on.  So here sits Kadizzle at 4:30 A.M. 

Let's review yesterday.  After two days cooped up in the Earth Module due to high winds on the planet Earth, we had to get out.  Off to the third highest peak in Arizona we went.  It was a three mile hike to the top and the trip up and back wore old Kadizzle out.  A remarkable thing on our recent journeys in that area are the number of downed trees.  To believe it you have to see it.  Apparently in 2008 there was a terrible forest fire around here.  The fire killed and weakened an incredible amount of trees.  The landscape looks like someone spilled a giant box of matches everywhere.  The amount of lumber that went to waste is beyond imagination.  Once the trees are dead they can easily be blown over.  However, even the live trees have a hard time against the strong winds.  Some gust hit sixty the other day.  Winky decided to count how many trees fell across the trail.  In our three mile hike we had to cross over 90 trees that fell across the trail. In some cases these trees were three or four feet in diameter.  Up and back that meant we climbed over 180 trees.  When we reached the top the fire tower was in pretty bad shape.  Kadizzle was a bit surprised how much work the vandals went to in order to inflict damage. Most vandals do not do difficult hikes to do their work, but every window was busted out and some dolts went to great effort to damage the solar panels. 

Hopefully this is the last cold spell we have to fight.  Today's great feat will be dealing with out refrigerator.  The damn thing is less than a year old and has given up the ghost.  We may to haul the Earth Module sixty some miles to have it repaired.  First we will have to go around in circles with the manufacturer.  Never, ever, buy a Norcold refrigerator. The old Dometic in the other Earth Module worked fine for over ten years. 

The Wind Blew our Brains out

 Winky and Kadizzle rarely watch television, but winds with gust of up to sixty have pinned us to the Earth Module for two days.  We binge watched a Danish TV show RITA.  Have to admit it was very well done. Now we started another one. Marvelous Mrs Maisel is our next one to conquer.  Winky has an old playmate acting a major part in this series.  Hopefully the wind will die down tomorrow and we can get outside.  The eibke and the motorcycle now have new back tires so some adventures are in store.  Being confined to the Earth Module for two days in this wind disaster has been taxing.  Kadizzle opened the door and about blew it off it's hinges. 

The Curse of The Rusty One

 Kadizzle has sailed a lot of boats, but none have been cursed like the Rusty 1.  Remember the little yellow sailboat Stroupini brought to Arizona for Kadizzle? It seemed like it would be a lot of fun.  Not so. Fist the Rusty 1 fell of the trailer. Ok it was stupidity of Kadizzle.  So that was $550 dollars down the drain to repair.  Then the Rusty 1 threw Bill and Kadizzle in the water.  Fortunately we were near the dock. The last straw was when the Rusty 1 pitched Kadizzle in the drink. It was time for that boat to live with someone else. Well, the new owner is under the curse. The new owner lives in New Mexico.  No state has more bizzare rules for ownership.  New Mexico requires the boat and trailer to be licensed and titled.  Since the boat came from North Dakota which requires basically nothing, there is no good way to get the boat legal in New Mexico. A notarized bill of sale will not do it. 

The new owner is a nice young guy stuck with a useless boat in his driveway. Kadizzle wants to help him.  How can we prove to New Mexico he owns the boat. Kadizzle had one idea.  Kadizzle will call the local sheriff in New Mexico and say the boat was stolen.  Perhaps the sheriff will ask Kadizzle to prove it was his boat.  Using the New Mexico rules the sheriff will not be able to affirm it was Kadizzle's boat.  Now the fun begins.  The new owner has a stolen boat, but the sheriff cannot do anything, because there is no way in New Mexico to determine who owns the boat.  If the sheriff asks Kadizzle to prove he owns the boat Kadizzle will not be able to do it to New Mexico standards, but if they do accept Kadizzles ownership, then they will have to accept the new owners paperwork, because it is the same. Kadizzle gave the new owner a bill of sale.  It may come to a strang end.  Kadizzle will claim the new owner stole the boat.  The sheriff will agree and give the boat to Kadizzle. Kadizzle will tell the sheriff he is giving the boat to the new owner.  Now no one can deny the new owner owns the boat.  Kadizzle will then insist no charges are pressed against the new owner.  Only in America do we have such an insane bureaucracy. 

The Gold is falling

Gold is falling from the sky. Rain at last has come. Rarely has rain seemed like such a blessing.  Maybe the streams will run. Yesterday we rode six miles in a giant circle up on the second highest mountain in Arizona at 9,500ft. Was a nice ride. It was striking to see the damage from forest fires.  The amount of wasted lumber is saddening.  With the rain we will be confined to the Earth Module. 

Every time you think the Republicans can get no more absurd, or lie more blatantly, they do. The denial of the insurrection is an incredible erasure of history. 

We sit here with the electric fire place blazing.  At one time Winky and Kadizzle thought electric fireplaces were gaudy and silly. However, we have grown to love the imitation.  The ability of the fire to mimic a real fire is amazing. The blasted thing does put out heat and you can stand in front of it an get warm.  Winky said it will be great in our new home.  You can have a fire with no heat.  

About a year ago we went to the largest flower show in the world in Philadelphia. At  the exhibition there was a fake fire.  Kadizzle saw it from a distance and was amazed they would allow a fire to burn in the open with no protection for kids. The fire looked so real, he thought it was real. Kadizzle had to go see the fire.  Up close he realized it produced no heat.  The salesman was there and explained to Kadizzle the fire ran on water. It used about one or two gallons a day. With the magic of science the water was vaporized and a laser was played on the mist. It gave a very real impression of fire.  No there may have been a problem. You could put your hand in the flame and it would only get wet.  This could be very misleading for a young child unfamiliar with fire.  

It rains dirt

 Unable to sleep Kadizzle got up and perused the New York Times. An article on drought caught his eye.  It is dry here. The soil around here has a lot of volcanic ash. It is like flour when it is dry, and for it to get airborne is not problem. It did rain about thirty drops the other day. Not enough to even wet the ground, but the raid did do one thing, it deposited dirt on the windows. When the raindrops dry out the dirt is left behind.  You can smell dirt in the air all the time.  Sadly we lost four years fighting climate change when Trump was president dolt. Humans are amazing. If you fry them slowly they don't know they are being fried. We have be going to Arizona for the winter for the last ten years or more.  It has been burning up. Everywhere you go you see the scars from the forest fires, you see the dugouts for water empty.  It is a crises, but who cares we have a flat screen and a nice pickup truck.  That is the American standard. If your TV works there are no problems on the planet. Now if the guy who does  not have cable TV or anything to eat fires a rocket at your house that does create a problem. Thank god that is happening far away and it is not our problem. We are making kazillionaires like Bezos.  He is building a 500 million dollar yacht. There will be a smaller yacht that follows it around with fuel and sandwiches.  Jeff Bezos does not have a problem. Jeff has poor retired people filling boxes full of Chinesium at his labor camps. It is a wonderful world. 

A Little Lost

Boredom set in and the crew headed out to an unknown destination. We decided to hike to the top of what was called a knoll on the map. The knoll would 9,000 ft elevation.  The truck rumbled about five miles up a dirt road, then the ebikes took us another mile or so. Off the ebike we headed into the pine forest. Following elk trails and old logging paths we made it to the top for a great view.  The final part of the hike involved some scrambling over large rocks. On these uncharted hikes Kadizzle likes to make some mental landmarks, but he did not account for the fact that the rocks on the top of the ridge made a gentle U.  When the time came to head down the two bullheaded hikers decided to take different routes back to the bikes.  Kadizzle figured if he kept edging left he would make it back to where they came up. It soon became evident it was not working.  Now Winkie called him on the cell phone and asked where he was.  The simple answer was he did not know.  After taking a little time to orient himself with the gps he thought he had an idea of the right direction. The terrain was very confusing. The GPS was supposed to make a track Kadizzle could follow back, but somehow the Gps shut itself off.  Using the phone GPS Kadizzle again tried to electronically get back.  The GPS pointed the direct route, which was not possible because of the steep terrain.  After Kadizzle navigated for awhile he did come within hearing distance of Winkie.  In the end Kadizzle realized the importance of leaving GPS crumbs.  That would mean you mark a series of points that you can reference.  Normally we mark the car, which in this case Winky did and she had the GPS with an effective track. Kadizzle is going to tighten up the procedures, and use the more sophisticated GPS next time.

I've Been everywhere sir, cross the desert fair sir, traveling I've done my share sir.

 Yesterday the Blurtons pulled in with their Mercedes camping van. On and off we have met them in various places in the southwest. For hours we talked about different places and travels. Like so many they have moved about the Western United States from Mexico to Alaska for years.  When mobile lifestyle people get together it is always a massive exchange of travel information.  With traveling friends you will always find places that are not in the books or guides. If we have not been someplace we have met someone who has.  Discussing the trails, bike rides, hikes, repelling, and all that goes with exploring is fun.  

Winky is demanding activity today. Kadizzle want to go on a bike ride on an old railroad bed. Winky wants to hike up Bald Mountain.  The wind is terrible, so both seem miserable.  Stay tuned. 

Hike A Bike

Hike a bike is a technique for hiking and biking at the same time. Kadizzle has gotten into this mode. You ride where you can and you get off and push when you have to.  Kadizzle has invented a new game called Columbus. You take off  thinking you know where you are going, and sometimes you get there, but it isn't where you think you are.  You do this by making a circular route in your head you have not been on before, then you take off into the wilderness and hope you come out where you planned. Yesterday the hike a bike was up onto a plateau.  At first there appeared to be some Big Horned sheep, but they were antelope.  Antelope was the beast of the day. Kadizzle encountered them again farther down the trail.  After riding over some fairly rough ground on the ebike Kadizzle came to a dead end in the canyon he was riding.  Now it was time to push the bike up a steep rock strewn hill with the hope there would be an easy way back to the Earth Module.  Reaching the top things turned out as planned there it was the gravel road, right where it should be.  The question was how far North on the gravel road was the explorer?  Turned out just fine it was about a two mile downhill coast back to base.  Traveling this country one quickly finds out the animal tracks and droppings are everywhere.  Game trails provide clues to how to get from here to there.  

For dinner yesterday Winky wanted to go to the Irish Pub down the road. The pub is in the middle of nowhere, but a very nice little place where we ate on the porch.  Sitting on the porch we were able to watch the herd of elk on the other side of the road.  Very pleasant way to eat the corned beef and cabbage, with bread pudding for desert. 

The dinner wrapped up helping an old couple get back in their car.  The poor old guy had just come down with a bad case of Parkinson's disease.  His wife pulled the car around to the handicapped ramp and Kadizzle pushed the guy in his cart to the car.  Not to long before Kadizzle may be riding a cart instead of an ebike.  It felt good to give a hand to this old husband and wife trying to enjoy a meal on the porch with us. 

This gets to crumbling. The reality we are reaching the crumbling stage of life. Like and old building we will just slowly crumble into the ground. Building a new home we are keeping crumbling in mind. It all has to be on one floor and the doors have to be wide and the shower accessible. As you age you can always pretend you are in worse shape than you really are.  You can say in a shaky voice " Sonny can ya get me my slippers".  " Sonney can you pull my car up front, I am having a bad day?"   One strange thing about being older are senior discounts. Most of the old goats have money, it is the poor young kids who need the discounts.  Winky sat still yesterday so it means her batteries are recharged and we will have to do an adventure. 

Come Visit

The roof trusses went up on the new home.  An old friend asked if there was a guest room for golfers from the East. Yup, one of the great pleasures we anticipate from our new home will be the ability to host guest. Unless you are an extreme pain in the ass, you are invited. Over the years we have met so many wonderful people. The home will have two extra bedrooms. The reality of North Dakota was people just did not see it as a place to go.  On the other hand Az, does attract people. Arizona has downfalls.  Phoenix is a vast wasteland of concentration camps for old people. Contrary to most peoples perceptions Arizona is not all desert.  Sure it is dry in a lot of places, but if you go to the right places Arizona has a lot of forest and mountains. Kadizzle does not particularly like rank desert, but it can be entertaining in short spurts. Arizona is heavily infested with Republicans, and Trump cultist.  They can be tolerated. Of course you have a strong gun culture.  It does promote good manners.  Like so much of the western United States there is the attitude I am free to slum up my place as much as I want. This is reflected in the chain link fence culture.  You collect a bunch of junk and fence it in so no one will steal your old rusted car.  Fencing is something Republicans love to do. Republicans always like to make it clear this is mine and you ain't getten it.  The whole Republican world is based on the concept poor people want your stuff. Those poor people incidentally are who you stole the stuff from.  

Ok this inspired a rant.  Go to Phoenix and guess what you will find.  Every home has a cinder block wall surrounding the property five feet tall. Now think about this?  How many cinder blocks is that?  Well if you took all those cinder blocks or for that matter all the money spent on fencing and you built homes instead of walls the poor people would have homes.  Those walls are to protect you from poor people. If the poor people had stuff they would not need to steal your stuff. So do you build a wall or make sure the poor people have stuff. The answer seems obvious, give the poor people a job, a home, and an education. Republicans despise the concept of sharing.  Republicans cannot grasp the idea that they love exploitation. Slavery was exploration. Today we have Walmart slavery, and Amazon slavery.  The people who work for Walmart and in the Amazon warehouses are slaves.  The do not have homes with five foot walls.  Of course the Republicans will all say " If they just got off their ass and worked like I did they would not be in that mess" (They always leave out the part that their daddy gave them plenty of bucks in his tax free will).  More than anything prosperity comes from someone else giving you a good start.  Poor people do not have that someone else.  So back to the old theme.  Here we are in a world with plenty of everything, but the greedy have created poverty and starvation because they took way more than their share. Kadizzle quit that socialist crap.  Now we demonize goverment sanctioned sharing. Any goverment that taxes people is socialist. Taxes are forced sharing. If you tax someone and build a road you have forced them to share, but we voted on that.  Of course you did. That is what democratic socialism is.   You vote on how resources are going to be used, but that might mean I will not have enough for a five hundred million dollar yacht like Bezos.  Too bad, grow up and get along with a one or two million dollar yacht, but what if I never have enough? Well then vote Republican. 

They erased the road.

 Taking off on a cross country jaunt is always fun. Getting from point A to B when you don't know the way is a puzzle.  Yesterday Kadizzle explained to Winky fifteen times how he was going to make a circular trip.  To make the trip Kadizzle had to find a road.  Winky decided to go on the venture.  After ebiking for a while on a known road it seemed impossible to find the road which was on the map, but was not in reality where it was supposed to be.  Kadizzle figured it was an old abandoned road.  Kadizzle decided to take off down a drainage where the road should be.  Winky said the hell with that and went off on her own back toward the Earth Module.  As the ebike drifted downhill over trackless ground Kadizzle began to wonder about the wisdom of his adventure.  There did seem to be some small signs of an ancient road, but it also seemed like a major effort had been made to obliterate the road.  As Kadizzle went farther into the valley there were several stock dams so that meant there must have been a road at one time.  Kadizzle found himself in a narrow stream bed where it seemed there could never have been a road. It was decision time.  Consulting the map on the phone it appeared the nonexistent road was up out of the little canyon. Kadizzle pushed the ebike up the very steep slope and signs of an ancient road appeared.  All seemed well until Kadizzle got to a place where the supposed road hung to the side of a hill.  Someone, probably a government agency went to great lengths to destroy the road or make it unusable.  Whoever did it surely wanted no one using the old road.  There were steep piles of material heaped on the road.  Thankfully an ebike could be pushed over them, but nothing else could have made it past the obstacles.  Finally the road took Kadizzle down to the highway where he expected to come out. 

Winky wants to go hiking today up in the same general area. We will see what happens.  

Winky is insisting today Kadizzle read Heather Cox Richardson.  No doubt she is the most scholarly commentator on the nefarious tricks of the Republicans.  Highly suggest you read her recent remarks. 

Elk and Big Horned Sheep

Winky stayed back at the Earth Module while Kadizzle fired up the ebike.  Kadizzle took off into unknown wilderness.  The bike took the large lump up onto a plateau that seemed to go on forever. The ride went through some nice country, but ended in a dead end.  Again Kadizzle sought a different road.  This road also ended in a dead end. However, it was near a small peak that would reveal the location.  Climbing the peak Kadizzle saw a herd of Elk. Some small animal ran through the Elk, either a coyote or perhaps a Mexican wolf. The view was magnificent.  Kadizzle decided he could not find a road into the valley below.  On the way back a road was found and Kadizzle had a much closer encounter with the elk.  Now Kadizzle did get to the Sipes Wildlife area road.  Returning on that road Kadizzle looked diligently for the Big Horned Sheep.  When he just about gave up there they were right in front of him on the road.  One clearly had an electronic collar and they all had ear tags.  It turned out to be a great ride. Kadizzle may do another ebike exploration today. 

Second Post Today

 The song Mexican Daydream is playing in the background. Somehow the music brings back memories of all the incredible Indian sites we have visited in the southwest. Think about being a native American wandering about. You get first pick on any place you want.  Those people knew how to find the most amazing sites. Yesterday we visited the Sipes Wilderness area where there is an amazing site.  The pottery shards there were astounding.  Have never seen any collection displayed on the ground like it. Hundreds of pottery shards with designs to amaze.  The location of the little place that may have had eight to fifteen families was like so many others, damn near perfect. The scenery could not be surpassed, and of course the game and water were both at the doorstep.  The people who occupied these places could have had a very peaceful simple existence.  Used to think when we first discovered it Calf Creek Canyon in Utah was the ultimate. It was an incredible canyon with a trout stream running down the middle, a waterfall with a wonderful pool above and below.  Mule Canyon in Utah also has an unbeatable cliff dwelling with a natural swimming pool right out front.  The natural places these people found and settled make you have great respect for their ability to live in harmony with nature. 

The New Headquarters

Up very early we headed to Payson, AZ yesterday to take care of some details on the new home. Also had to go on to Phoenix to pick out some colors to match the new counter tops.  Going broke is hard work. Seeing the walls up was a good feeling. The goal is to have the family in the new home for Thanksgiving. 

Most exciting was seeing a huge Elk causally walk through the yard. What fun it will be to have Elk graze in the neighborhood. National Forest surrounds the new settlement and hiking will be across the street. 

The amazing Republicans.  You get thrown out of the party if you tell the truth.  Wow, did anyone ever think it would come to this?

A Day in the Life

Cissie and Cliff are out for a morning hike. When the boss gets back we will go for an ebike ride up to the Sipes Wildlife area. It may be a sixteen mile trip like Kadizzle took yesterday.  The bike came back on the paved road and hit 40mph going down the hill. Kadizzle could have hit 50mph, but thought it imprudent. Today may wear a helmet and give it a try. 

Cliff invited us over for coffee at his house about 200 ft away.  With the fire going we talked a lot of philosophy, politics, love life, and what ever came up. Good morning.  

Cliff is into spirituality.  Not sure what that means. Kadizzle is into confusion. Kadizzle does not know how this all started or what will happen when it ends.  Who or what made this conundrum is a mystery, and that is just fine.  The human tendency to just make up stuff is dangerous, leads to wars, crime, you name it. Simply admitting you don't know or are baffled has a lot of benefits. Most organizations that make up a good story explaining the unknown charge for it. The Mormons, and most religions get ten percent to sell you a complicated story.  From an investment standpoint it is very poor.  If you invested ten percent of you salary, then gave it to people in need directly without the church taking a cut, everyone would win, but you don't get promised eternal life or forgiveness for your sins.  Do the math it probably cost a million dollars to get forgiven for your sins.  If you invested ten percent from age 25 to 50 you would be farting through silk, and doing way more good than building some huge edifice with stained glass windows.  Here comes Cissie and Cliff time to go. 

Heavy Duty, and Hartbreaker

 Just finished a facetime chat with Cheech, my youngest daughter. Her two children have a wrestling match with their dad every day. Evie goes by the name Hartbreaker, and Quinnie goes by his wresting name Heavy Duty.  Both of them dress up in their intimidating wrestling outfits and take on their dad Sam.  So later today Kadizzle will be able to watch the match.  Maybe Kadizzle can get some pictures of the grandchildren in their costumes. 

A few purchases Kadizzle really enoyed.

 Yesterday the ebike hit almost 3,500 miles.  Kadizzle has peddled that bike across the country and about half way back. The old Yamaha xt250 has also been a pleasing purchase.  Last but not least was the S2 10,3 sailboat.  Kadizzle made a huge mistake selling that boat and he misses it like an old friend.  Would buy it back if he could. 

Back to the ebike.  Cannot recommend it enough.  If city people would use ebikes instead of cars so much would be accomplished. Even if you ride to the city then use the bike. Kadizzle has been trying to convince his children to get one.  Riding a bike in Denver is so much better than a car.  You can buzz downtown on the wonderful bike paths.  Winky just asked what I was writing.  I told her it was the three things I liked in my life.  She said did I include her. Kadizzle said no, it is just things I purchased.  Well I guess I have to include Winky.  She has cost me dearly, but been a good product.  I am sure it cost me well over a million to have Winky, but then there is the cooking, ect.  Winky has run very economically.  She buys few cloths, is a good shopper, cooks better than the best, and has been a great mom and grandma.  Last but not least she has the strength to endure a mean old overweight, unkempt lumpy, lazy husband. So Winky was well worth the purchase price. 

Sleeping well

Dream, dream, and then dream some more.  Kadizzle and Winky both slept well last night.  Cliff got up real early to go hiking with his group.  Winky did not want to go so early so she is going ebiking with old Kadizzle.  Should be fun on some new trails. 

Mornings are peaceful here. Kadizzle has been making his own sun clock. There is a pole in the yard. Kadizzle placed a rock on the shadow at 12:30, then another rock at 1:00.  Walking to the new executive suite at Cliff's house Kadizzle noticed how the shadow is cast so early.  That shadow has a lot of moving to do.  The Kadizzles have never lived this far south in May.  The sun seems to act strangely and we both are very confused about North, East, South, and West. 

Neither of us has ever lived consistently at such high altitude.  We are at 7500 ft.  The sun is much stronger.  The nights cool quickly.  The air is dry and you drink more water.  Overall it is probably healthier. You have to breath more and all work is just a little harder. 

Here we sit

 Winky is over there cooking up a great breakfast.  Out the window the four wheelers are gathering. They are going to drive through the mountains.  Get in a line and drive over gravel. Stir up dust. The first guy gets to breathe clean air. Everyone else will dine on dust. Who would want to do this?  Yesterday Winky and Kadizzle again took an ebike ride. As usual we sort of got lost in the woods.  Gradually we got to the top of the terrain.  We found a good road that took us back to the truck. In the end it was a nice ride. Fo about five miles we glided downhill reaching speeds of close to thirty miles per hour. 

Republican insanity has reached a new high. Here in Arizona the Republicans have hired the Ciber Ninja's to recount the ballots.  Wish this was made up, but this is true.  Now to top that off they are checking the ballots to see if they contain bamboo.  If the ballot has bamboo in it that means the Chinese interfered in the election.  Can they get any more goofy? Yes, if you tell the truth in the Republican Party you will be thrown out.  Ask Liz Cheney.  Of course North Dakota Republicans are on the bandwagon trying to be every bit as simple minded. 

The Peasants

 Sitting in the parking lot of the super market Kadizzle watched the low paid employees scuffle about. The sheer number of people living on subsistant wages is frightening. These poor people are lost in the wilderness. Their income goes up in the flames from their ciggarettes, and tattoos.  They push the hamburgers out the window, and the grocery carts back in the store.  This is what it must have been like in the days of slavery.  Suffering people were taken for granite. Our economy relies on exploitation. Bezos makes billions from Amazon while people's grandma shuffles around in the warehouse for peanuts.  The nightly news shows toddlers starving in India and Africa while the yachts sit idle in the Mediterranean.  Off the coast of Chile the fishing boats bring in protein that is fed to our dogs while many in Chile lack protein.  

Working old people

Two old goats spread 8 tons of gravel yesterday around the Earth Module. Today we will do another 8 tons.  Winky and Kadizzle spread the gravel with a wheelbarrow , shovel, and rake. The plan is to keep the dust down.  The same old grandpa that pulled his dump truck into the driveway will show up this morning in his overalls and cowboy hat. 

Kadizzle awaked and did the daily update. Kadizzle was pleased to see the letter he wrote yesterday to the Fargo Forum was published today. Firing a good stinger on the Republicans is a great way to start the day. 

Cliff has a cell tower right on his property where we are staying. Wow, does it make a difference. Now we can see our grandchildren with a sharp clear picture.  Then internet works all the time.  Amazing. 

Now if you want a dose of insanity watch the movie FLOWERS on Netflix.  If you think you have an insane family the Flowers will show you how it is done on a professional level.  Make sure you go past the first episode. 

A nice bike ride, ya sure ya betcha

 Cliff told old Kadizzle he could ride the ebike, while Winky and Cliff went on foot on the Indian Spring Trail. Cliff assured Kadizzle it was a fine bike ride. Kadizzle decided to go in the opposite direction on the loop trial so he would meet the other two on foot.  Off we went. Kadizzle found the trail nice and figured he would quickly complete the entire seven miles in no time.  Things changed rapidely.  In this area there had been fires, and blowdowns. Soon Kadizzle encountered large trees across the trail. Each time he came to a tree he had to go over, under, around or through the mess.  As he went farther and farther into the forest he assumed the tree mess would improve, it didn't.  Should he turn around or continue with the struggle of picking up the heavy bike every hundred feet to hoist it over a log?  Digging himself in deeper he began to see that he was making no more progress than if he were walking.  At last he came to the old railroad grade and hope emerged.  False hope, the railroad grade also was also blocked by trees.  Halfway through the trip Kadizzle ran into Winky and Cliff.  Winky said the trail was worse with downfall where they came from.  However, Cliff said it would be best for Kadizzle to continue in the same direction he was going. Winky said Kadizzle should turn back.  Fortunately Kadizzle took Cliff's advice and found a logging road Cliff had seen. The logging road got Kadizzle out of the maize.  On good roads Kadizzle made it back to the truck in no time. In the end Kadizzle got an upper body workout lifting the bike hundreds of times to clear logs.  Next time Kadizzle starts down a train and finds out it has not been cleared he will turn around. 

Time for a rant

 Kadizzle needs to rant, and vent a little.  Our country is in peril. Republicans have infected the country with a special kind of ignorance that is spreading like wildfire. Republicans have enabled people to divorce themselves from reality, and embrace any fantasy they like. How does this work? Drive around America, poverty spreads like a fungus. Poor people want to slash out at someone.  Trump gives the poor and the ignorant a chance to give the finger to the world.  Simple minded people thrive on fantasy. That has always been the secret to selling religion. Give people permission to believe in nonsense. Trump is a new religion. Trump helps people believe in the world of make believe.  Sadly the poorly educated are so vulnerable to simple explanations based on nothing.  Raping the ignorant has been the story of humanity since the first God was invented. People love Gods.  Once you embrace the God jazz everything becomes clear, because you are living in a fog.  Reality is never pleasant. Escaping reality sells beer, cigarettes, and drugs.  Trump and the Republicans are a drug.  Trump allows people to think their failure is not their fault. Some evil spirit such as China or Democrats has created the problem.  Science has brought us so much.  Name one thing fantasy has accomplished.  Religion, and Republican thinking are fantasy. Both funnel money to the rich.  Look how religion has always funneled money upward to build huge churches, and enable the priest and nuns to live off the poor.  Republicans are about nothing but protecting the rich from the poor.  It is that simple.  All the Republican rhetoric is just about keeping people from taxing the rich. You can twist it, turn it, spin, lie about it or do as you wish, but every Republican scam is about making sure resources are unevenly distributed to the wealthy.  Our country is now in a pandemic of stupidity, and Trump is the infector. 

Living a constant high

 Our new location puts us at 7,500 ft.  The body is adjusting. Using the oxygen monitor we bought for Covid Kadizzle finds out he is running around 91% oxygen saturation.  Normally the oxygen in the blood runs about 95% or better.  Is this due to the altitude? Do seem to be more lethargic. Hopefully the body will adapt. Yesterday we took a drive through the local wilderness.  The terrain is a lot like the mountains in Montana. There is still snow on the highest peaks. Vast meadows and mountain lakes are nearby. 

Today Winky is taking an early hike with Cliff, and Kadizzle will hopefully get the motorcycle flat tire fixed.  The west is suffering from a severe drought.  Locally the volcanic soil is so dry it is like flour.  The dust is everywhere and a bit of an annoyance.  There are a lot of elk around here, and hopefully some will show up nearby.  Saw some antelope yesterday. 

Reading the New York Times this morning Kadizzle came across an article about living in a bubble.  Kadizzle looked up former home Hazen.  It was a bubble of Republicans.  Check out where you live to see how bad the infestation of idiots is.  The country is frightening. You must have seen the news,  thirty percent of Americans think Biden did not win the presidency.  The country is split.  Idiocy is rampant. People have so readily adopted any reality Fox News puts out.  Science has faded into the background, and roll your own stupidity is the new driving force. 

Lost in the Wilderness

 Old Kadizzle took off on his ebike to explore the new wilderness we moved into.  The ride was very pleasant through a quiet environment. Kadizzle had it in his mind from something Cliff told him that the ride could be made into a loop that came back close to the start.  On and on Kadizzle peddled but the road just kept going.  It was a wonderful ride, but the battery was getting lower and lower.  Could he make it back? Soon it became evident the road was never turning and heading the right way.  Now Kadizzle decided he better pedal harder and save electricity.  At last it seemed like the road might come back to pavement, wrong.  Although the ride was many miles long there was absolutely no one back in the woods, but finally a couple of gas buggies came by. Kadizzle asked the people where he was and how he could get back.  Wait something is left out. Kadizzle's phone was dead.  After getting new information it looked like the most prudent thing to do was go down the backside of the mountain ot a town called Eger.  Kadizzle new he could get from Eger to Springerville, and then back to Cliff's.  The problem was it was a long way.  Fortunately the road to Eger was all down hill.  Keeping an eye on the battery it kept inching downward.  Kadizzle figured he had to go about twelve miles, and there was one big hill in the way.  Along the road Kadizzle met a girl running and asked to use her phone so he could update Winky on his predicament.  With 8% left Kadizzle made it back, but a short ride turned into on of the longest.  The ride may have been between 25 and 35 miles long.  In the end the whole thing was enjoyable. 

Earth Module Lands on New Planet

 Here we are, we landed near Nutrioso, Arizona.  The Kadizzles are bumming off our friend Cliff. Cliff has a nice place with his own cell tower on the corner of his property.  Winky is over making arrangements with Cliff for a morning hike. Kadizzle may not be able to get his old body going. We are at 7,500 ft so we need to get used to it.  Stopped at the new house yesterday and it looks like the walls are going up.  On the way here we checked into a volunteer job near Heber, AZ.  We may not take the job.  We would stay at a camp for various groups. The spot is not really that private, and it is too much activity for old people who enjoy solitude, peace, and quiet.  We may just base out of Nutioso. We have to go to ND to get our furniture. That will be an adventure.  A lot of new ground to explore here.  Will try to post some pictures.  

Moving Day

Jumping around like drunk frogs we are getting ready to move to our next adventure. Our next location may be the White Mountains or Bear Canyon Lake.  Imagine moving your house. Of course Winky gets nervous when we move and wants to put it off for another day, and another day. If the plan works we will be moving to Heber, AZ and doing some volunteer work there. 

Let The Mystery Be - Iris DeMent H.Q. Religious people please listen carefully

Urban Sprawl, Rural Poverty

Yesterday the Kadizzles drove to Phoenix, Scottsdale to be correct. What do you see when you drive in America?  You see some wonderful scenery, but also urban sprawl, and rural poverty.  Urban sprawl is insane. We experience it on the East Coast, Along the front of the Rockies, and of course around here. Then you have the rural junkyards and some Indian reservations are in pretty poor shape. America, good old America.  In Scottsdale at the airport there is nothing but a pile of private jets. Meanwhile the people who did not quite make it are living under the bridge. Poverty is an artificial construct. It always has been.  The old kings built castles while the peasants lived in shacks. Nothing has changed. Since the rich now move in jets why not let the roads and rails fall apart.  Why waste money on health care for the peasants when you need a new yacht? Buy yourself a congressman, and get yourself a few nice tax breaks. Why pay taxes at all? Most of the big corporations cheat and pay nothing. Needs some votes? Buy a Fox News and fill the Hoopleheads full of nonsense.  What a wonderful country. Then nicest thing is the lottery.  Everyone who wants to be rich merely has to go to the gas station and buy some lottery tickets. We are all going to be filthy rich, it is just a matter of time. So the best thing to do no matter how poor you are is to support all the benefits for the rich because someday you will be the one cheating the poor. Just be patient and vote for Trump if you get a chance. 

Just Keeping UP

 

No Country for Old Men

 Things that used to be easy and stressless are not when you are 72. Building a new home is stressful. The Kadizzles are building a home in Payzon, AZ.  The idea was a home with the right climate, and plenty of outdoor adventure.  The home is rising from the ground.  Problem one. The builder of course wants to squeeze as many homes as possible onto the land.  Our lot is on a culdesac, so that means it is pie shaped.  Kadizzles are not too happy with how the home will be close to the next home.  Now we are picking out granite, tile, and cabinets. Thankfully we have a designer for a daughter, but she is in Philadelphia.  Winky and Kadizzle will be tied up most of the day picking out granite.  This is no easy task. We will have to drive to Scottsdale about one hundred miles away.  They will only hold the slabs for a short time, same with the appliances.  The building boom makes all this much more difficult.  Perhaps we should have stayed in the little Republican hamlet of Hazen. 

Einstein and God.

When Einstein gave lectures at U.S. universities, the recurring question that students asked him most was:

- Do you believe in God?

And he always answered:

- I believe in the God of Spinoza.

Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, along with Descartes.

(Spinoza) : God would say:

Stop praying.

What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to sing, have fun and enjoy everything I've made for you.

Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying they are my house. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That's where I live and there I express my love for you.

Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing. Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don't blame me for everything they made you believe.

Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can't read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son's eyes... ➤ you will find me in no book!

Stop asking me "will you tell me how to do my job?" Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you or criticize you, nor get angry, or bothered. I am pure love.

Stop asking for forgiveness, there's nothing to forgive. If I made you... I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies... free will. How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How can I punish you for being the way you are, if I'm the one who made you? Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? What kind of god would do that?

Respect your peers and don't do what you don't want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life, that alertness is your guide.

My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing here and now and it is all you need.

I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.

You are absolutely free to create in your life. Heaven or hell.

➤ I can't tell you if there's anything after this life but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is not. As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.

So, if there's nothing after, then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is, rest assured that I won't ask if you behaved right or wrong, I'll ask. Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?...

Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don't want you to believe in me, I want you to believe in you. I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.

Stop praising me, what kind of egomaniac God do you think I am?

I'm bored being praised. I'm tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. Express your joy! That's the way to praise me.

Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what you've been taught about me.

What do you need more miracles for? So many explanations?

The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders.

- Spinoza

Morning in America

It is a quiet calm morning. Seems ominous like it may rain. That would be glorious. Coolness pervades, but not for long. 

Yesterday Kadizzle took the daily ebike ride around the camp site.  One part of the ride parallels the lake.  Three grown men were out there in their fishing boat with a flag. One was posing for a picture. The flag proudly said " Fuck Biden".  This is the legacy of Trump.  Kadizzle wanted to yell an obscenity at them, or make a rude gesture, but what does that do? These men are making a public declaration they are idiots.  What more needs to be done? 

A long time ago Winky and Kadizzle briefly worked with a guy that sold black light flashlights.  What was the purpose? You could shine the light at night and see the scorpions if any were around. It made them glow.  Trump has made the idiots glow.  Now you can spot an idiot easily.  You know where they live, what they drive, and even see them fish.  People who self identify as idiots save us all a lot of time. 

Twenty miles on the ebike with Winky

 Winky's energy is endless. The boss of our organization made old Kadizzle get up and drive the ebikes to the mountains. Once there we set off to look for an Indian cave we never found. After asking a few four wheelers we realized we looked in the wrong place, but pedaled through some very nice scenery.  High in the Serra Anchas.  

The New York Times has an article about the movie Nomad.  A lot has been written about the movie.  We live among the Nomads and actually we are well to do Nomads.  We have a new truck,and a new fifth wheel.  Kadizzle loves the hard scrabble Nomads. They are very interesting people.  Bill comes over every afternoon and we have a beer with Bill. Bill is a true Nomad.  He was a professional machinist and a man with some very good skills. He has  lived in tents for five and  three years at a time. Bill can laugh and is fun to talk to.  Bill is very good a firing a stinger on Kadizzle.  In the past Kadizzle has written about Gary, and Duane, other people eking out an existence. Bill has more honesty, and morals than your typical person living the life chasing money.  The Nomads are easy to make friends with.  Working together is something essential for the Nomad life.  Giving things away, and getting things for free are all in the game.  Although we have way more cheese than Bill he has given us several useful items.  We try to give Bill a meal, some beer, or whatever we can. The tribal life is way better than the Republican life.  Does it really matter? Most people eventually realize what matters and what does not matter. Nomads know most things in life really don't matter.  Being warm, having something to eat, and the ability to move do seem to matter. Little else does.  Recently Winky and Kadizzle spent some time with a woman who was a van Nomad.  She made a living editing books. We once met another woman who did the same thing.  Kadizzle needs a Nomad editor.  There are many women Nomads whose life has gone to hell when the husband split. Nomads have good stories.  Bill told me a good story how his son in law went to prison. His son in law had a job at the post office.  A casino sent their daily cash bag by mail. The man decided to take a couple bags worth a couple hundred thousand dollars. It did not work out. Although he claimed he found the money, and had his young son testify to finding it beside the road, the court did not buy it. Reminds me of the story Gary told me about robbing the ice cream truck company and ending up with hundreds of pounds of change. 

Mount Ord

 

Yesterday Winky and Kadizzle rode the ebikes up Mount Ord. The view from the top was incredible. The collection of antennas on top of the mountain was unbelievable because it is the second highest Mountain in the area.  If you want to take the trip watch the video below.  Will have to see if Kadizzle can post some pictures from the top. Amazing view, one of the best ever. We peddled up to 7.500 ft. 

Today's news the Rusty 1 was sold. That ornery boat had to go. A very nice young guy from New Mexico bought the boat and hope he enjoys it. That boat kept trying to drown Kadizzle.  Tomorrow Winky wants to go up in the mountains and ride some more. 

Mount Ord highlights (Arizona scenic drive / off-road trail)

Up Mount Ord

The second highest mountain around here is Mount Ord. Of course Winky wants to go up it. We are back a our base camp and will move the Earth Module in a few days up to the White Mountains. Mount Ord was once used in the Indian wars as a message point of the old fashioned devices they used to signal with the sun. Kadizzle cannot remember the name of the device, but it could be used to send a message from Flagstaff to Tombstone in 45 minutes. It was crucial in the defeat of the Apaches. Winky just came in the door and reminded Kadizzle it was called a Heliograph.  Look it up the history is interesting. The ebikes will hopefully take  us the six miles up the mountain. The ebikes are charging. Winky cannot stand still and a trip up that mountain should wear us both out. Cliff is pulling his fifth wheel up to his home in the White Mountains. We had a nice drive back from there yesterday. There is some wonderful country, but also some serious urban sprawl and professional slumming. Kadizzle had no idea how big a population was living up in that area.  A lot of summer homes. People trying to escape the heat in Phoenix. Why people have to accumulate trash?

Life on another Planet

 Here we are in Springerville.  Way up in the White Mountains we went for a hike in an entirely different environment.  No more desert, now tall pines, mountain streams, and a totally different ecosphere. This is where we will bring the Earth Module in a few days. Cliff is graciously going to let us park by his mountain home with water and electricity.  

The town of Springeville is thick with Trumpites. The gun store is sold out of ammunition. Not a box of any kind on the shelf. A big war is brewing. and they are ready. 

Strange to be cooler, and walking in a pine forest.  Elk are everywhere. The drive up here is very scenic. If you ever get the chance to drive through the Salt River Canyon do it.  The Canyon is a chasm you don't often get to see.  Imagine being able to drive down into the Grand Canyon and up the other side. 

Game on

Up early with fresh coffee. Hook up the trailer and head to Springerville. Fist step in escape to cooler mountains. The Earth module will stay behind as we move the utility trailer Al and Debby lent us to Springerville. Inside is the motorcycle and some other junk. The desert is turning green, but lacking the moisture to bloom the flowers. Here it comes, the sun just jumped over the mountains. Looks like a warm day. Should be a nice three hour drive.  The exciting part will be going through the Salt River Canyon, a mini Grand Canyon you get to drive through. There will be some driving through poverty stricken Indian reservations. No excuse for poverty in this country.  Greed stricken Republicans have robbed so many of the chance for a decent life. Sorry Republicans, but such is life. The sun on the mountains early in the day is a wonderful site.  In the background the fishing boats are roaring out to capture the prey.  Here we go. 

Dwindling Down

Winter volunteers are migrating to cooler places. Steve took off for Colorado, Kadizzle and Winky are about to move to the higher mountains, Ken and Rita went back to Spokane, Cliff may go to the Grand Canyon, Bill says he may go to Montana, and Helen will go to California. The people you meet. Al and Deb took off for Lake Powell. So down the road we will meet again. Like the days Indians roamed the west the tribes meet and disperse. 

The desert is doing it's best to bloom.  The lack of water makes all the plants struggle. Today Winky is going to go pick out tiles, and other surface material for out new home.  Kadizzle will pack the trailer to move junk to Springerville. Change is coming. 

Jeeps doing Reno Pass where we rode motorcycles

The soldiers made it and so did we

 The road over Reno pass was abandoned by the early military because it was so steep and difficult. Al and Kadizzle took on the boulder strewn road on the motorcycles yesterday.  The narrow road has a very steep drop off as it hugs the mountain on the way to the pass. Kadizzle cannot determine if he has become a better cycle rider or a more stupid on. Facing a small cliff and rows of boulders you either need stupidity or skill to challenge them. We made it to the top and rode out the ridge. The entire ride was very challenging. Fortunately Al noticed Kadizzle's cycle tire was flat.  It was so rocky Kadizzle himself did not notice. After pumping up the tire a few times we made it back. Recovering a motorcycle from that mountain would be a real chore. 

The little Yamaha 250XT impressed the old man.  Looking at that little cycle one would not guess it was capable of the rock hopping it did. Kadizzle has a rule not to do this kind of trip alone.  We carried the satellite communicator to call the helicopter if need be. A friend had a terrible crash in a nearby mountain and they had to hike to the top for phone service so he could be helicopter rescued. 

Maybe some getting ready to pack up today.  

Pack up the Wagon

 As the heat builds the need to move north into the mountains increases. Looking around while walking back from the executive suite Kadizzle realized all the stuff that has to be moved.  Trying to stay light makes being a nomad hard. That brings us to the book Nomad. We watched the movie in Florida.  Kadizzle found it boring. Maybe it was boring because we live among the Nomads. Van Nomads are just a subset of the overall group trying to live on the road. A lot of people living the traveling life are not poor.  Many people are scraping by on Social Security. Dry camping is the common term for people not hooked up to anything. That means solar for electricity, find a place to dump sewage, and find some water.  All. these things can be a challenge. Our society needs and overhaul.  People should have a basic means to survive.  When Jeff Bezos of Amazon makes and additional 64 billion during the pandemic it is time to wake. up and make him pay people rather than enslave them.  Then on the very bottom are the bum walkers. These are the people you see walking down the highway pushing a cart or on a beat up bicycle with a dog. The bum walkers are truly destitute.  Who knows where they sleep. A lot of the marginal people are there because of poor planning. Then there are the people from busted marriages, and dead spouses.  The plan falls apart when someone dies. 

The Garbage Man

Kadizzle used the little John Deere tractor to scoop up spilled garbage at the transfer station yesterday.  We miss the prisoners. Usually it is their job to clean up the mess of spilled garbage, but the virus has imprisoned them. Waste, we waste, and then we waste. Plastic is the bane of humanity. Tons of plastic get buried every day. A thousand million years from now there will be pockets of solidified garbage that will amaze the geologist of the future.  Maybe when the oceans dry up plastic will form a layer like the Great Salt Lake.  Maybe when we burn up the planet plastic will blow about the planet from violent winds as on other planets. 

Horton Spring

If all goes well the Kadizzles will have a new home in Payson, AZ. in the fall. It will be an entire new area to explore.  With out friends Al and Deb we took an eight mile hike to Horton Spring yesterday.  The exosphere up in the mountains is a different world from life here in the desert. The smell of pine is always refreshing. Hiking up the trail the stream was dry for the first small portion, then the water suddenly was a good sized stream with fish.  After a long slug there it was the spring. This was not the typical spring, it was water gushing our of the rocks and roaring down the mountain only to eventually disappear. Although the walk was relatively gentle Kadizzle managed to end up sore.  Kadizzle's muscles have become attuned to riding the ebike, not walking. The trail had no signs prohibiting ebikes, and someday we may ride it. 

The American medical system is insane.  For about a one hour visit to the emergency room for a kidney stone Kadizzle is being billed over four thousand dollars. Today we fight the hospital billing department. 

Down the Canyon

 Two couples and a dog headed down the Campaign Creek slot canyon.  This is not a hike for the timid. In order to get to the bottom one must get down several drop offs. The drops are in conjunction with small waterfalls. Each drop off involved rigging a rope, and lowering Debbie, and coaching the dog to come down. On some of the drops we videos.  After the hike laughing at the videos provided a lot of fun. 

Today the crew is going up near Payson to hike to Horton Spring. This hike will be in the mountains and should be cool and relatively easy. 

Up to the canyon

Today we are going up the mini slot canyon.  It may take some climbing down ropes. Debbie's arm is not good so we will have to lower her in some places.  Al has invented a rope harness to do this. Then there is the dog, Zuni who will also have to be lowered.  Add to all this the logistics. We will leave the electric bike or truck at one end of the canyon and the other at the other end. This will be some juggling. Of course we will have to walk in the water, just one more complication.  

Days are slipping by

Most of our beloved trail crew has gone north for the summer. Winky and Kadizzle are sitting in the Tonto National Forest while our new home is being built in Payson, Az.  The foundation is complete and like a flower sprouting from the ground the home is growing.  Al and Debbie pulled in beside us yesterday with their camper.  This means we have to plan some local adventures.  Perhaps we will go toward the Doll Baby Ranch. Winky and Kadizzle took a bike ride into some entirely new parts of the planet. The Doll Baby Ranch is near the East Verde River. It is close to what will be our new home.  There is such a vast new area to explore by foot, bike, and motorcycle.  Hundreds of new forest roads, streams, springs, and Indian sites. 

The logistics of moving is a mess.  First everything has to be moved to Cliff's in Springerville, and then we have to take the huge trailer to North Dakota to get our junk collection.  Money is flying out the window at a frightful pace. Winky is sitting over there picking out new appliances.  Those hoping to inherit need to make other plans. 

Had a nice afternoon soiree yesterday, with Bill, Al, Deb, and Cliff.  All friends we have met in our RV adventures. Bill has a wonderful sense of humor and is a pleasure to have with his wicked sarcasm.  Bill may spend the summer in a tent in Montana. Bill is in his mid seventies and it seems odd he will be perfectly happy living in a tent, but he has done it for five years at a time.  The scattering of the tribe seems like the old Indian days. We come together and move apart. Al and Debbie have no good idea where they are going except to the North West.  Cliff is first going to the Grand Canyon to volunteer, and then play it by ear. 

 

Rampant Paranoia

 Sitting in the shade talking to someone new you recently met. The conversation goes all over the place. Inevitably Kadizzle has a bad habit of turning things towards politics. This person who seemed intelligent, rational, and normal slowly reveals they are into the insane conspiracy theories. The popular right wing crazy idea is that Obama is secretly running the government. Where is this insanity coming from. Kadizzle needs to check.  Rush is dead.  Is Fox firing out these lies? There must be some popular nut radio or internet person dreaming up this insanity.  The Republicans find paranoid people a gold mine of votes. Making the Hoopleheads dance with crazy ideas is game on for the Republicans.  Fear is the name of the game. Someone is after your money, and your gun, and they don't want to let you talk to Jesus. The country is in a swamp of stupidity, and uninformed people. We are living in a country of the rich for the rich by the rich. The absurdity is the poor support those who are smacking them down the most. This is one amazing plantation where the slaves love the master and thing they will strike it rich picking cotton. 

One more time

 Distraught that there was no wind Kadizzle sat on the dock debating if he should just take the Rusty 1 out of the water.  A little breeze piped up and motivated Kadizzle to go  out again.  After a short sail a big wind came up and overturned the Rusty 1 for the second time. Someone must watch over old Kadizzle. When the wind hit Kadizzle was sailing towards two lime green kayaks being paddled by two senior citizens. The plan was to sell them the Rusty 1.  The old gentleman who paddled toward the wreck immediately said he knew how to upright the boat. One could not have better fortune than to immediately have someone show up with an unusual skill.  After a lot of struggling we managed to upright the Rusty 1. The wind was still going strong. By this time a nice gentleman came out in a pontoon boat.  Kadizzle was able to get back in the Rusty 1.  The boat would not sail as it should.  The rigging was wrong and messed up. Somehow Kadizzle managed to get the boat to shore.  Cliff had been up the lake in his trimaran. Cliff showed up and helped Kadizzle relaunch the boat.  The Rusty 1 would just not sail right the jib was out of control and the boat would only go on the port tack.  After struggling for a long while straining to control the boat Kadizzle gave up and once again sailed ashore at the wrong boat ramp.  Cliff made it back to camp and sent Winky to rescue Kadizzle.  After more struggle getting the boat on the trailer the job was finally done.  The Rusty 1 is cursed.  The little boat just does not have any ballast and it has a knack for turning over. When the old fellow came out to rescue Kadizzle in the kayak the first question was " How long have you been sailing?".  Kadizzle answered. " I am too embarrassed to answer". Kadizzle thought he had conquered the quirks of the Rusty 1, and like an idiot failed to secure the items onboard.  Now all the tools and a few other things are too deep to recover.  To remind Kadizzle of his age and his stupidity he is sore all over.  Put it down to a slow learner.