Where you find them

Kadizzle always wonders who reads this nonsense.  Yesterday Kadizzle went to the boat to putter around.  On the way back from the lake it looked like something was amiss up ahead on the road.  As Kadizzle got closer he noticed the hood was up on a car.  In North Dakota that is a signal for help.  Slowing down to check if help was needed Kadizzle was greeted with "It's Kadizzle".   Standing beside his perfectly restored car was an old friend from Kadizzle's days at work.  Kadizzle had not seen him for a long time and at first did not recognize  the old comrade.  Who could be greeting Kadizzle with the secret password on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere?  Slowly the mind kicked in and Kadizzle discovered another reader of the morning drivel.  This means all things are possible.  So Trump if you are reading this after you watch Fox and Friends welcome aboard.

Donald if you call this fake news, in this case you are correct and it will be one of the first times you accidentally tell the truth.  Kadizzle did have to admit the Donald may have pulled one off with Korea.  What does a crazy dictator fear?  Of course another crazy dictator.  So having an insane president can be parlayed into a peace negotiation.   What kind of agreement will they sign? Two lying, scoundrels sign an agreement, where does that get you?  The virtues of insanity should be the biography of Trump. 

The lake is still covered with ice, but it is looking pretty rotten and may not last the week.  The boat is for sale, the house is for sale, but nobody wants either one. Both may be over priced, but that is a sign for the heavens above we are supposed to stay put.  It does mean thins have to be spruced up.  Mrs. Kadizzle lives in fear someone may actually want to see the house.  What if someone comes and sees a peanut on the floor the elephant dropped?  Sale over. 

The great plan is to sell out in Hazen and end up with enough cheese to build a house in Arizona.  Then if the boat does not sell life will be in reverse.  In the summer the Kadizzles will live in the Earth Module in North Dakota, presumably somewhere near the lake.  In the winter Payson Arizona will be home.  If the plan works out the home will have two extra bedrooms for anyone to use if they read the blog, are ordained liberals, or members of the Crazy Club.   It will be a temporary mental institution.

A year of change

Last night the Kadizzles gathered with local friends.  It was time to swap news of the winter and local goings on.  Things are changing.  People are making life style changes.  Moving to Bismarck, or some other location.  Once you retire in Hazen it seems you need more than watching snow melt to keep your mind going.  At some point you have to realize Hazen, and Beulah are bedtime communities for all the local coal mines, power plants, and perhaps even farmers.  Get your pile of money and get out.  The lake is all this area really has going, and few take advantage of that.  So you can fish, hunt, boat, and have coffee with the delusional.  This is Trump land, and that is why a lot of people want to escape.  Both the Kadizzle kids say they could not come back to the land of guns, Trumpets, and drill baby drill.  North Dakota with the advent of Trump has taken vast pride in just how stupid and uninformed we can be.  Local radio blares mini Rush Limbaughs, and the real rat himself.  The newspapers never do any real reporting and pumping up the right wing dolts seems a given. Sorry, but the rantalator got going.

Stroupini and Kadizzle sat on the boat in the boatyard and shot the shit in the sunshine yesterday.  The boat is chomping at the bit to jump in the water and sail away.  It is a bit of a problem with an ice covered lake.

The other day we went to a meeting for slip renters. We got to listen to the state people tell us how the state is having budget problems.  In this oil rich state there is no money for the common good, but drive around and see multi million dollar homes popping up.  How does that work?  Is there something wrong with trickle down.  No, trickle down means trickle from the billionaires to the million airs.  It has nothing to do with the old working people.

What about taxes?  Nope, nope, nope.  You can never, ever raise taxes.  Even if you have a war. In the old days when they had a nice war the rich were asked to help pay. Bush put an end to that shit.  Now if you want a nice war it is put on the credit card.

With no taxes the schools, and roads will fall apart.  So what you idiot.  The rich have their own schools, and they use jets not roads, so why should they pay for your kids to go to school.  God and the rich provide us with everything.  That is why we pay god on sundays, and the rich the rest of the week.. Sorry, too much coffee, and the rantalator got going again.

Well the sun is out and if the wind doesn't blow us over it might be a nice day.  The penguins are moving north so spring must be coming.

The idiots convention

Imagine you are sitting in a garage with two piston brains.  One is so stupid he is almost incoherent.  The other is actually smart, but uneducated in the traditional sense.  The brick dumb one just makes noise, but the other fellow is an old friend and reads good literature, and would be a different intellect if he had been exposed to the right education.  The topic is politics.  If you see a person with meth rotted teeth you know what happened.  They got their brain rinsed with chemicals.  Well this is sort of like the same think, but Kadizzle is talking to a guy who has had his brain rinsed with Fox News, Rush, and the usual suspects.  How do you explain to someone how Fox News works?  The discussion went round in circles as it usually does.  Kadizzle was accused of being a liberal elitist.  Then it hit Kadizzle what education is all about.  Education comes down to one simple thing if it works.  Education is about honing one's  ability to distinguish fact from fiction.  Unfortunately the Trump supporters believe that if you hears something you like, it is true.  If you think the poor are welfare cheats, and you like the idea, and Fox tells you it is true then the matter is settled.   How do . you break through this mind set.  Well if you tell someone the brakes on their car are inadequate and they don't believe you, you have to wait until they have a wreck.  So that is the Trump problem in a nutshell. 

Down at the Crazy Club

The cookies and brownies sat on something that looked like an antique hat box.  Down at the Crazy Club we had a nice turnout to celebrate Stroupini's birthday.  The head of the South Dakota Chapter showed up, our new member Luan was seated with the rest of the gang.  Shanika drove up from Mandan.  One of the first things discussed was making the bathroom into a confessional. It would be convenient. The tiny bathroom sits in the corner.  This all came up because Kadizzle let a secret leak. Kadizzle told Luan's husband a funny story she told at the last meeting.  He was not happy about it and Kadizzle was severely chastised.  So the idea was floated to  have Shiny go into the confessional and Kadizzle could confess his sins through the keyhole.

Shanika came to Hazen to attend the meeting, but also to go up to the lake and fish for Northern.  Kadizzle and Stroupini went up to watch him fish hopelessly.  Giving up on the luckless fishing Kadizzle and Stroupini went over to smell the boats hoping for spring to come.  Next a trip to the hamburger joint over by Riverdale.  On the way back we stopped to see Honest Omar's old ship. The new owner supposedly is going to fix the cracked keel.  So this is an update for Honest Omar on his old boat. Perhaps Honest the leak you always had a problem with was coming through the keel?  Sure miss Honest Omar and his sweet wife who was the Julia Childs of Lake Sakakawea.  In the good old days you cold drop in on Honest Omar after a weekend of sailing and enjoy a glass of wine and a fine meal right there one the docks.  Get another boat Mr. Omar.

Here we go

The realtor showed up yesterday and when she left there was a for sale sign in the yard.  We pulled the plug.  So this could lead to a massive head ache, going broke, and more adventure.  The plan is to somehow live in Payson AZ.   Like simple minded dingers we bought a lot there and in no time we may be into a massive mess building a house and going broke. Then again we may never get what we want from the current shack which means we will be back to square one.  So let the wheel spin and lets see what happens.

One of the things selling the joint means is fixing all the little blemishes, and god knows there are plenty.  After you get everything fixed why move?   Boredom seems to be one big reason.  On this flat prairie one can get lulled into an insanity based on blankness.  With Jasper Littlebottom's unbounded energy she has to be hiking all the time.  This brings up the next subject.

Jasper and two other high energy people are planning on doing a 250 mile hike on the John Muir Trail this summer.  The planning for this hike is much more complicated than the invasion of Normandy.  Hours and hours of phone conversations on what to take.  Do we take two green beans or three.  Jasper has had to purchase every conceivable type of trail food to test.  The trail bars come in the mail and have to be sampled.  You must have the perfect everything from water filter to shoes.  The cost per mile for this hike will bankrupt us before a new home does. 

Jasper is even doing practice hikes.  Yup,  Kadizzle had to go to Beulah yesterday so we pitched Jasper in the car with her pack loaded to hike back from Beulah.  People are like cars they wear out.  Jasper is going to be worn down to nothing before she even starts.

More than you can shake a stick at.

Growing up old Kadizzle worked with an old farmer.  That old farmer had a lot of hillbilly expressions. " More than you can shake a stick at" , was one of his expressions.  Well get your little fingers dancing on your keyboard and head on over to the New York Times.  Read the article about how Mueller is uncovering all Trump's fraud.  Trump is entangled in more crooked dealings than you can shake a stick at.  The ability of Republicans to deny Trump's sins is amazing.  If Trump touches it you can bet fraud is involved.  Trump is Satan's best friend.  If Satan wanted to destroy Christianity no better partner could be found than the Donald. The old Trumpster has turned decency upside down. Rob the poor, bilk everyone, worship money. 

The Sun Also rises

Today the good weather will explode.  Yesterday Kadizzle made a trip up to the boat.  Finally you can cross the boatyard without wading in snow.  The game is on and it is time to polish, and fill the boat with crap.  It takes about a pickup load of junk to prepare the boat.  The sails have to be put on, the cushions hauled up there and on it goes.  It all leads to a good place.  The sail finally goes up and the wind gently propels the good ship Sovereign down the lake to some peaceful cove.  With a glass of wine and thoughts of the steak on the grill you sit there and watch the geese with their young swim around. 

Shanika wants to go up to the lake and fish for Northern.  When there is a big enough gap between the shore and the ice the Northern fishermen line the lake trying to catch one of the big aggressive fish.  Bob up the street and Kadizzle toured the lake settlements yesterday.  Beulah Bay has experienced acute prosperity.  A development of million dollar homes has sprung up. Oil money or Republican graft must be the root cause.

The slip renters met with the Park and Recreation department in Washburn on Thursday.  A lot of empty promises were thrown out.  The state is in a crises because the oil wells in western North Dakota are not pumping the prosperity the state was counting on.   Republicans reduced the taxes on the oil gang which only made matters worse.  So the state is going to try to cut the budget for everything.  Trickle down just will not trickle.  Could we just tax the people who hit the jackpot and are building huge houses in Beulah Bay?  No, no, no, we need to cut back on everybody else. 

Driving about one sees the new Republican mentality.  The hell with you I got mine.  In the old days people used to band together and build roads, schools, and things everyone could enjoy.  No more.  Now you get stuff.  You get as much stuff as you can.  What do you do with your stuff?  Well first you build a house with three or four garages.  You fill the garages, but you still cannot store all your stuff.  Now you build a big ugly steel shed and put more stuff in the shed.  If you still need more space for your stuff you rent a storage unit.   You fill it with stuff.   You have all this stuff you never see or use, but you got stuff.   You have a population of idiots that voted for Trump because you bought stuff instead of schools.  You have slummers cropping up everywhere with their stuff scattered in their yard because you will not pay working people.  You used all your money to buy stuff not pay people.   The ocean is full of floating plastic stuff.  The roadsides are full of stuff, but there is no money to operate the parks because we need money for more stuff. Trains pull stuff from California to New Jersey.  The stuff in the trains comes from China.  China takes our garbage and makes new garbage.  Making stuff pollutes the air,  and the air is full of stuff.  We breath the stuff and we get full of stuff, and we die from the cancer the stuff causes.  Well I got to hall some stuff up to the boat today.

The Battery is dead on Spring

Spring just cannot seem to get going in this god forsaken frozen tundra they call North Dakota.  We have been beating the tiny scraps of snow with shovels hoping to get rid of the devil they call winter.  What causes wind towers to sprout up everywhere here. Well of course it is the wind.  Today it will finally be sunny and nice, except for the goddamn wind.  The wind will melt ice, praise be unto Jeeesus for that.  The lake is sitting up there with what people say is thirty inches of ice.   Apparently the calendars are broken. Thirty inches of ice and it is April whatever.  Summer will come and be gone so fast our heads spin.  Another thankya Jeeesus we did not stay here and endure the whole winter.

Decline

Pretend like it is not happening. That has always been a good solution.  Here in the heart of North Dakota coal country the ability to burn the crap is slowly coming to an end.  Kadizzle's whole career was involved in burning coal.  The simple minded say that means Kadizzle cannot be critical of anything the coal industry does.  A lot of things make sense at one point in history, but times change. Republicans are not prone to admitting change.  Lignite coal is a filthy low grade coal no matter how you slice it, but it is our coal.  It is like our president.  He is a terrible man, but he our president.  Now there are two lines of thought. We should support him because he is ours, or we should realize what a mess we have.  Now, back to coal.  The coal fired power plants are getting old and inefficient. The plant at Stanton has already closed.  Leland Olds has been limping along for years.  Two big things are giving coal fits.  First is natural gas, and second is wind power.  Natural gas is now cheap and plentiful, so plentiful they are just flaring it in western North Dakota to get rid of it.  The problem with wind power is the wind goes up and down.  To match demand that means the coal fired plants need to go up and down. That is hard on the old coal fired plants.  A coal fired plant takes time to go up or down.  On the other hand a gas fired turbine can quickly respond to high demand.  Gas burns much more cleaner than coal, and is more efficient. 

In coal country everyone keeps repeating the mantra "clean coal".  When you try to clean anything you burn you almost always use energy to clean it.  So when you put more and more pollution control on coal you end up using more and more of the energy just to clean the exhaust.  In the end if the Republicans fail to face the reality of coals demise the coal towns will be ghost towns.  So North Dakota needs to come up with a new game.  Kadizzle thinks the new game will be nuclear power. What?  While people have been sleeping big advances in nuclear technology have been made from an efficiency standpoint, and from a safety point of view.  If North Dakota got ahead of the curve and actively embraced nuclear we might survive, but that is unlikely.

The Crazy Club

Imagine a shortage of chairs at the Crazy Club.  As Kadizzle walked in there was Shiny, Stoupini, Marsha,  and a new member, Mrs Flower.  Now the Club has reached parity.  There are as many crazy women as men.  Mrs Flower is a nice fit, she is outspoken and plenty crazy.  Bev from South Dakota will be here next week.  Hopefully we can have the biggest meeting ever.  Perhaps Shanika can come up from Mandan.  We need to do something special.

Mrs Flower gave an excellent report on her trip to Roatan with her husband.  The report has inspired Kadizzle to consider Roatan a good place for a family gathering.  Roatan is of the East coast of Honduras.  Kadizzle checked it out an you can rent some nice beach side bungalows there pretty reasonable.

If you are subdued, shy, or easily offended, you do not want to be in the Crazy Club.  People speak their mind out loud at the club and if you think someone is full of it, no problem tell them right away.  The Crazy club has no qualms about gossip.  It is spread like butter on toast, and has about as much truth as a Trump cabinet meeting.

What do you do on a dreary day in Hazen.  Thankya Jesus for the Crazy club.  The basis of the Crazy Club is the Brooks House.  Just for historical review remember the Brooks House was originally the town phone company.  It is actually just a house where an old lady lived and operated the switch board down in the living room.  It must have been something in the days of the party line.  Now, it is a little art store.  It has all the wares of the local artist.  It does less business than the funeral home.  Shiny is good with arranging things and retail so she has it fixed up real nice.  Maybe Kadizzle can get some pictures today and post them here.  The little room has some nice windows, and comfortable chairs.  It ends up being a good place for group therapy.  It is like a bunch of mentally ill people who cannot afford treatment getting together for some kind of self cure that doesn't work.  You walk out thinking you are normal because everyone around you was the same as you are.  Of course the delusion is created because everyone in there was nuts.

Beat on the Snow

Jasper Littlebottom was out in the driveway beating on the snow before the sun went down.  Kadizzle gets a little obsessed with the idea also. It seems like there is some magic in trying to get all the ice off the driveway and street.  It is really a hopeless undertaking, but it makes you feel good to cut the ice into smaller chunks and force it to melt.  The Kadizzles have just become too accustomed to the warm weather of Arizona. Waking up in the morning and going outside with a T shirt is a thing that is a long way off in North Dakota.

Even with Trump puffing up the coal industry things are looking dim around coal country in North Dakota.  Republicans think you can stop the future from coming, but somehow change is inevitable. North Dakota has the dirtiest most worthless coal in the country, yet the politicians want to hang on. In the last few days Kadizzle has talked with some insiders in the industry.  Things are not looking good.  The gas plant in Beulah is scheduled to lose millions for years into the future.  The Spiritwood plant near Jamestown is struggling as the malt plant shuts down. The mine at Underwood is in high cover or to put it another way the coal is getting too deep to get out of the ground cheaply. Rather than face the future and go to nuclear power or come up with something new the brain dead Republicans want to outlaw wind power.  A dolt woman in the legislature in Beulah wants to tax wind power so it cannot be so competitive.  If solar comes on strong in North Dakota there will be a tax on sunshine. Maybe that is why it has been so cloudy. 

The North Dakota legislature is really a sleeping club for old white goats.  The goats snore away until a vote is needed. They awaken the goats and ask them to raise their hand.  The goats have no idea what they are voting for, but after they vote they give them lunch and put them down for the afternoon nap.  There is only one party in North Dakota. If you want elected, promise to do what you are told, buy a gun, join the NRA, and profess your love for tax breaks to the rich, and the Republican Jesus.  Almost forgot, you have to be from North Dakota. No outsiders, that might contaminate the goats sleeping sessions. If you get elected you have to give the Republican motto " If you believe it, it is true".  On the test you will be asked one question "What does education do to people?".  The correct answer is " Education confuses people".  Now you can vote and sleep with an exclusive crowd.

Sleepy Town

The tide of boredom rolls into our little town like gravity itself.  The streets are deserted, but the simple minded idiots are starting to roam the streets with their roaring cars.  Driving no where with a loud muffler seems to be the new sport of idiots.  It makes no sense, but it might be a redneck mating ritual.  The piston brained driver makes loud noises with his car to attract a mate.  If the dinger does find a mate it will be a female as devoid of intelligence as the noise maker himself. Now what kind of off spring do you think these two will produce.  McDonalds needs these people so it is not all wasted breeding.

The snow still sits around in piles and the lake is frozen solid.  They may as well cancel summer this year.  Driving around to check out the town on our return Kadizzle sees a lot of empty brand new real estate.  Out on the west end of town are about six new homes all with for sale signs that have been on the market for about a year, no takers.  The city got behind some new senior housing.  Again over thirty little senior apartments brand spanking new.  One is occupied.  If the oil boom does not get cranked up full bore we got a problem here.

Lift in the Arctic

After great consternation with the boss Kadizzle just got the Earth Module to it's summer home beside the house. The boss insisted it would not work and be a painful experience. It worked out fine and now one more job is done. Part of the goal is to let the sun hit the driveway.  With the ground frozen we did not have to plow up the yard with wheel tracks. Checked out the Sovereign up at the lake. It was like seeing an old friend. The boat came through the winter well and is raring to go. A big problem is a the lake is still frozen solid. 

It is time for a life change and the Kadizzles are throwing the dice.  The boat is for sale, and the house may soon be. If someone meets our price we may be building in AZ in the small town of Payzon.  If no one wants to pony up the cash the Kadizzles will just keep on keeping on.  Such is life.  So many of our good friends are getting shot up with the prizes of aging. The sand is running through the hour glass and there is more sand on the bottom than on the top.

Being back in the house does have it's benefits, all the showers you want, music in every room, stores nearby, and plenty of room to make a bigger mess.

Had an informal meeting of the Crazy Club on Shiny's back porch. Elected Stroupini philosopher emirates. Then we looked up the word emirates to see what it means.  If you ever have a strong desire to see nothing Happen, or watch snow melt come to Hazen. The streets are empty, the stores are deserted, and the big excitement is the sun going up and down.

Summer is bound to come bounding down the pike in a week or two then it is mow, mow, mow, and weed, weed, weed.  So the Earth keeps spinning and orbiting the sun at 67,000 miles per hour. No wonder we are getting older and worn our. 

Daniel Norgren - Everything You Know Melts Away like Snow

What is your political view?

This little illustration says a lot about how you think.  The one on the far left seems to sum up the Republican view of life.  Republicans don't care for the one in the middle, nor do they particularly care for the one on the right.  Think of the tall guy as the rich guy.  The tall guy wins no matter what.  The inheritance tax is a classic case.  If you get a bundle just because someone died you get to see the game. Not the case if you are born poor.  If your parents don't set you up you have to get your own box to stand on.  Republicans say "Dad can give you his box".  Now explain how that is fair?

The Earth Module returns

Not even six A.M. and Kadizzle is up drinking coffee.  Still dark out, but the ground was covered with snow last night.  A bit of a shock after waking up every morning to sunshine and desert.  Cory had a picture on Facebook of a big rattlesnake up on the Frazier trail which we work on all the time. So perhaps it was time to get out of the desert.

Back in Hazen a visit to the Crazy Club was mandatory.  Old Shiny and her little dog were still at it trying hopelessly to peddle some art to a town that is asleep.  Asked City Hall to do something about the old jalopy pickup truck that has sat in the driveway up the street for five years.  Same old answer,  "If we make one person obey the law, then we will have to make everyone obey the law".  Seems like something out of the Trump administration.

What do you do at 5:30 in the morning?  You read about Trump's similarity to a mobster boss.  Everyone agrees, even his own people that Trump is incapable of telling the truth.  Most figure he lies about six times per day.  The F B I director Trump fired just came out with his book. Trump is so similar to a mobster according to the book.

To make sure the world is still spinning Kadizzle visited the Fox News site on the internet.  A little amazed Kadizzle found Fox was telling the Hoopleheads about the FBI directors comments.  Of course Hannity who is about as delusional as you can get puts the Fox Spin on the story.

So we have according to some of the NYT columnist tribalism.  We have the fundy tribe of evangelical nuts, the gun tribe, the redneck tribe, the trickle down tribe, and have to admit the liberal tribe.  Each tribe has it's own mythology. 

The truth no longer exist.  There used to be measuring tapes, calculators,  measuring cups, and all sorts of devices that could help you get to something similar to the truth.  No more, now we believe in the rain gods, the trickle down gods, and the "Deep State".  Nothing is what it appears.  If there is a pot hole in the street it is a false flag by the city to stir up a drive for taxes.  Just make life easy and believe whatever you want.  This is certainly the best way to save on an education. 

Peace and Quiet

After the intense city life of Denver we sit tonight atop a hill overlooking a beautiful lake on the East side of the Black Hills.  Such a change.  Just walked by eight mule deer. They watched me closely and I watched them. They figured out Kadizzle was harmless.  Sun is slowly sinking and kept it's warmth up until the very last.  Tomorrow we will hopefully get up and be back in the land of frozen. 

Those annoying Facts

A Day of Murals

Today we walked miles through the streets and allies of Denver.  Denver has some program in place with has encouraged murals to pop up everywhere. Denver feels like a different city somewhere in Mexico or a strange land. It is fun to see hundreds of these things and one sees how diverse the human mind can be. You have to admire people who can let something flow out of their head and onto a wall.

Our passes through Denver are always enjoyable. The city is growing at an unbelievable pace, and generally speaking doing a good job with it.  Coming from the remote part of Arizona into the vast suburbia is a big change.  Eating and Drinking are major productions in Denver.  If any thing has a garage door on it you must make it into a brewery.  You cannot go fifty feet without finding beer flowing and people sitting around tables consuming it.  Yesterday the Kadizzle clan went to Firehouse 26, which no longer puts out fires, but does put out beer.  This place will actually can a beer for you to take home. Some friends sat at our table and one guy had a very big can of beer.  They had just canned the beer for him to take home.  It looked like a big beer you might get from the shelf anywhere.  Coming from Hazen, North Dakota where you have to travel 75 miles to find a couple of good eating places we are blown away by the infinite variety of eating places in Denver. In summery, murals, breweries, and restaurants, that is Denver.

Mass Transit

Every visit to Denver the Kadizzles use the new light rail system.  The rail system is a great asset for Denver.  A couple blocks from our daughter's house we can jump on the train and zip downtown.  Best of all you can take your bike.  If you don't want to take a bike Denver has free bus service up and down the main part of town.  Once this system is completed to Boulder life will be even better.  To add icing to the cake the rail system goes right into the Denver airport.

Hopefuly the Earth Module will be en route to North Dakota on Monday.  Weather will be the deciding factor.

Kadizzle is in a constant fight against the forces of evil.  As readers of this diatribe may know Kadizzle had a kerfuffle with Congressman Cramer.  Kadizzle put 23 dollars down the shirt of the Congressman.  Kadizzle did not shove, punch or assault Cramer.  A variety of right wing media people have sought to distort the incident into something it was not.  Two of the people who portrayed the incident incorrectly are right wing touts for Trump.  Scott Hennen does his best to be a mini Rush Limbaugh on KFYR radio.  On Facebook Scott Hennen claimed Kadizzle "shoved Cramer around".  This is quite different from trying to give Cramer money to pass on to a distressed mother.  Kadizzle asked radio host Scott Hennen to call him and discuss what actually happened.  Rather than hear the truth first hand Hennen persist in his lie and refuses to give Kadizzle a call.  Distortion is the new standard in reporting.  Sensationalism is the key to Fox News, and it's imitators.  The truth is of little value.

Six beans or four beans

The famous Jasper Littlebottom is engaged in planning her hiking trip on the John Muir Trail in August.  Never in the history of mankind has an assault been planned in such detail.  As Kadizzle sits here three air mattresses are laid out on the floor for a total cost of $500.  Littlebottom intends to practice sleep on each one to insure she picks exactly the right one for the great hike.  The losers will hopefully be returned.  With her buddy Deb they have discussed details of the 225 mile trip for hours on the phone and in person.  No detail can be overlooked.  How much does the toilet paper weigh?  How many sheets will we need?  On Wednesday will we put three green peas in the soup or four?  D Day was do da compared to this planning.  The research also goes on forever.  Hours spent on the internet.  What shoe, what underwear, what flashlight?  Now what Kadizzle fears most.  A lot of this stuff, which they do not give away may only be used once or twice during the rest of our life.  So this adventure will be pricey.  The good news is it means Kadizzle has an athlete in bed beside his lump of a body at night.  Kadizzle may be without adult supervision for up to three weeks this summer, and there could be some long stretches of peace and quiet.  Now Littlebottom just expressed some doubt she may even make the trip.  If she cancels quickly we can avoid the $80 dollar bear proof canister for the hiking food.  Oh yes the hiking food.  First it is expensive, but then comes the testing.  So you have to buy the food twice. Once to test it, and then once when you actually take it on the trip. Hope the bears enjoy the expensive food. If only Kadizzle could eat dehydrated food and get himself dehydrated.

Standing on the Bridge

Yesterday Kadizzle stood on the bridge over the railroad tracks in Denver.  No, the plan was not to jump. The plan was to watch the coal train pass underneath until the end of the train. No doubt the train load of coal had come from the Powder River Basin and was headed to some power plant.  At first tKadizzle assumed it was a 100 car train, which is typical, but then he concluded it must be about 125 coal cars long.  Each car holds 100 tons.  So do the math, that is 125 thousand tons of coal.  It took a long time for that train moving at about five to ten miles per hour to pass under Kadizzle.  As he stood there he though about how quickly that coal would be burnt to make electricity.  He made up his mind to do a calculation when he got home.  How much coal per hour do we burn in this country? The amount is staggering.  If the calculations are correct the United States burns 3.1 million tons of coal per day.  What that means is that train that passed under Kadizzle will be burnt up in about an hour.  It took about twenty minutes for the train to go under the bridge. To look at that much coal an imagine it burning almost as fast as it went by was a shocking thought. No you have complete idiots that think global warming is not happening. If those idiots would give the matter some thought, perhaps they would think differently.  About every three miles there is a super tanker heading toward our country with oil for us to burn.  This does not include the oil we produce domestically.  Add that to the coal, and the natural gas, and just try to imagine what we are putting into the air.  At any given moment there are six thousand planes in the air spewing the kerosene they burn into the clouds.  Our planet is on a course to disaster. Remember this is just the United States.  Think about China.

How long did it take to put that carbon into the ground?  It took over five million years to put the carbon for the coal into the ground.  Does any reasonable person think you can release into the air something that it took five million years to take out, and have no problem.  We are doing in a hundred years what took the Earth five million years to clean up.  Do you think we might have a problem?

The Meltdown

Sylvie, my little wonderful granddaughter just had a terrible melt down.  She got new roller shoes for her birthday and she wants to wear them to school. Like Trump not getting his wall she did not take it well.  The whole explosion made Kadizzle think about being one of nine children. The meltdown created chaos at breakfast.  In a family of nine meltdowns were unknown.  There simply was not room for that kind of activity.  It is such a procedure launching one kid to school Kadizzle cannot imagine how on Earth nine of us got launched in the morning.  Kids had to take care of themselves.  Kadizzle can remember trying to find his cleanest dirty shirt to go to school.  The big sisters took us to school and we walked.  Big sisters brought us back.

Sylvie is a member of a tribe. Her tribe has one person.  That is entirely different from a tribe of nine.  Sylvie has no clue the good life she leads.  Sylvie has been on expensive vacations Kadizzle could never have dreamed of.  Sylvie has probably flown as many miles as a nine year old as Kadizzle has in his career.  Simply snap your fingers Sylvie and what you want will appear or be ordered. Not only does Sylvie have her own room, but it is equipped beyond the belief of a member of the nine tribe.  Clothing?  Hand me downs were so common in our closet.  Not Sylvie, she has a selection that any kid would envy. 

All things considered she is a wonderful, brilliant, talented, little girl, but keeping her from being spoiled as an only child is going to be a major undertaking.  No will be the hardest word she will ever learn.

The Water to the Earth Module Froze

Actually not a big problem, but when Kadizzle got up to pee he found the water to the Earth Module frozen.  A little warm water on the outside faucet and we are back in business.  Sitting above Colorado Springs the Temperature is now 31.   One more degree and no worries.  The park we are in was built in 2006.  Colorado did not spare the money.  It is a nice park with a good view, good trails, and a lot of nice facilities.  Cheyenne Mountain State Park is right next to Cheyenne Mountain which contains the NORAD center.  You know the place the next nuclear war will be run from.  More than likely the Russians, and maybe even North Korea have a bomb centered on the Earth Module.  So we are just one Trump tweet away from glowing for eternity.

Kadizzle set out for a short hike yesterday and quickly found himself on a long hike.  The maze of very nice trails here led him on a long walk, which was good.  As he walked he wondered why more parks like this could no be build instead of all the silly military nonsense.  Had our country not pissed away trillions on silly wars and equipment even the poorest person would live in the lap of luxury.  Just keeping all the planes and helicopters constantly buzzing cost a fortune, but so what it makes the military contractors rich, and that is our real goal.  Reagan is the Republican Jesus, but if it had been Eisenhower the world would be a better place.  Now we have Trump.  Did anyone ever think we would sink this low.  With Trump in the White House the swamp is about to flood the place.  Trump has proven what a thick seam of idiots we have in this country. 

Kadizzle was in the coal mining industry most of his life.   In West Virginia and Ohio the coal might run from twenty eight inches up to nine feet thick.  In North Dakota maybe it got over ten or twelve feet thick.   When the day came that Kadizzle got to tour a mine in Wyoming he was blown away by coal seems over one hundred feet thick.   Now, back to stupidity.  Most Americans thought the seam of stupidity in our country did not run that thick, but Trump showed us we had a vast supply of idiots no one ever dreamed of.  Fox News has been mining idiots for years.  They are out there and ready to be picked.   Idiots like simplicity, and that is what Fox and Rush Limbaugh have in abundance.  There is a simple paranoid explanation for everything, and the idiots want to hear about it.  The most precious commodity the media now has to offer is fake news.   Ironically the best salesman of fake news is now president, and he spreads it like peanut butter on the Hoopleheads.  They love it.  Will the day of factual information ever come back.  Not likely very soon.

Electric Mobility

The Earth Module landed in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Saturday was to be a day of rest before journeying  on.  With the truck unhitched we meandered into the town from Cochiti Lake.  Kadizzle had made arrangements to rent an electric bike.  Kadizzle has been seriously considering the purchase of an electric bike for some time so this seemed like a good chance to try  another one.  From the train station where the bikes are rented Kadizzle took off and surveyed the town.  Getting about on a bike is so much simpler than a car.  You can use the road, paths, or in some cases the sidewalk.  A nice feature of the electric bike is you can give a little boost to take off at a traffic light by twisting the throttle.  You set the amount of assist you want.  These bikes are perfect for exploring a dense part of a city.  Eventually Kadizzle found the way out into the country side and was able to try some windy bike paths with some steep grades.  It was nice to just give the bike a little juice to get a start up the hill.  On the level the battery seemed to be hard to wear down, but once on the steeper gravel pathway the battery did start to deplete.  The path followed the railroad tracks leading to Albuquerque.  When the bike was returned it still had about one third of the power left.  It seemed like the whole ride was around twenty miles.  Keep in mind Kadizzle has some meat on his body.  Of course the more you pedal the longer the battery would last.  Currently the Yamaha is strapped to the back of the Earth Module.  An electric bike would be a tremendous weight savings and it would serve about 80% of the duty the motorcycle does.  However, if you want to go up a steep mountain grade with rocks you better by on the Yamaha.  Kadizzle would recommend an electric bike for people doing the RV life.  It would be great for exploring and getting small amounts of groceries.