Down to Six

Yesterday Kadizzle lost a sister.  Kathleen passed away at noon. That leaves six of us out of the original nine.  Kathleen was taller and bigger than most of us.  When a family squabble would break out among us Kathleen was like Russia.  She was a big country and when she chose a side that side would win.  A fond memory of Kate as she wanted to be called was watching her on the diving board.  The sisters went to the YMCA and did a lot of trampoline work.  Kadizzle tried all the time  to be good on the diving board.  On a good day Kadizzle could do one and a half flips before hitting the water.  Kate was a much better diver and could do some amazing dives.  At the time like every member of the family she was in athletic shape.  Later in life like everyone else she put on some weight.  Always in later life Kadizzle would look at Kate and see her as a shapely diver,  not one afflicted with gravity.

Kadizzle and Kate turned out to be the two writers in the family.  Kate was into history and wrote many articles about West Virginia History, Wheeling History, and also wrote several articles for the West Virginia state magazine.  She ran a blog site for the neighborhood where we grew up.

Our home town of Wheeling, West Virginia had some incredible cemeteries.  The old rich folks had astounding grave markers that today would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Kate did a historic cemetery tour every year with friends.  As part of the tour the guides dressed in period costumes. Kate loved to make costumes.

So last night Kadizzle laid in bed and thought about how we are being picked off.  By no means are we being taking in order.  The original shock was when Colin died at age 49.  That inspired Kadizzle to retire at 50.  Louise who is fourth from the beginning got up in the middle of the night and went to sleep forever on the couch.   Now Kate is gone.  So Melissa the oldest, Tom,  Amy, Suzie, myself, and Patty are still in the game.  No one is looking forward to the next dice roll.

How much do we need?

The thought just flashed through my mind sitting here in the Earth module, how much do I really need? If I need to eat there is a table right over there.  On that wall is a TV. There are two comfortable chairs. The view if we had to pay for it would be worth millions.  The bathroom is just fine.  One good shower will come from the water heater then person two has to wait 15 minutes.  The stove is right there and Jasper Littlebottom  cooks up a storm.  Everything is about three steps away.

Back at the mansion in North Dakota we have a basement with two bedrooms. Sometimes it seems like months before we ever even see them.  In the upstairs in ND the living room is rarely used. The fireplace often goes for a year with no use.  There is no yard here, but the one in North Dakota takes money, hours of work, and waste water, fertilizer and time.

The Earth Module is about eight feet wide and 27 feet long.   The living room at home is almost three times bigger, but you cannot hook a truck on the living room and move it to the side of a mountain.  We have great neighbors in North Dakota, but the nice thing about the Earth Module is if the neighbors are mean or noisy, just hook up and move.

The Earth Module is so small heating it is a snap.  If one wanted the solar panel could be hooked up and the sun would provide the electricity.  Worst case scenario in the Earth module would be buy some propane now and then, but it is magnitudes cheaper than the home place.

Cold outside? No problem with an Earth Module, just move farther south. Too hot, go farther north.  Taxes?  What are they? No property tax no house payment.

So this all comes full circle to one of Kadizzle's rules to live by.   " A man is rich in accordance to what he can afford to do without."

Will the sun come up?

With the government shut down Kadizzle sits here looking out the window.  Will the sun come up? There seems to be a sliver of light.  Remember the old saying about the rooster crowing?  The Rooster thought his crowing was what brought the sun up.  That chicken ended up on the table fried.  If only the chickens in Washington could be fried. 

The heat puff is going full bore.  The thermometer in the bedroom read 41 when we awakened.  Now in the main salon it is cozy and warm as we drink our first cup of coffee.  Mrs. Kadizzle is chomping at the bit with an unexplained desire to wash the sheets.

It looks like a trip to Globe is in order for groceries today. Kadizzle will get to try out his new credit card and see if he actually gets thirty five cents per gallon discount on gas.  Later to day an old North Dakota sailing friend will show up and join us for some exploring and hiking.

The clock reads 7:08 and they seem to be having problems getting the sun up.  It is getting red in the East. 
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The walker

Grandpa and Grandma just got a joyful video of Evie putting along pushing a cart learning to walk.  So much fun to see the little girl make such great accomplishments.  Videos of Sylvie skiing, and Evie learning motor skills are a delight.

Now the bad news,  It wasn't but a couple weeks ago Kadizzle was in a Florida nursing home watching seniors progress with their walkers.  Here is Evie about to turn one, and it makes Kadizzle realize someday there will be an Evie about to turn one hundred.  The future is something we would all generally like to ignore.  Time has a way of working with the sun to fade everything. Our strength fades, our sight fades and so it goes.  There is hope, spring, springs eternal  The old life is replaced by the new. 

The big question comes. What do we leave for Evie, and Sylvie?  Do they get clean oceans, air, forest, trails, waterfalls?  We can ignore the moving hands of the clock or we can embrace the future.  Kadizzle feels like he lived in a somewhat golden age.  Never hungry, never cold, never really wanting, a good life unfolded.  So much of what Kadizzle enjoyed came because of the people before him.  Soldiers saved our country, scientist made life better, teachers taught us to learn and enjoy, but now there is uncertainty.   Going backwards has been made acceptable. Selfishness has reached a new popularity, religion has been turned on it's head, community spirit has disappeared, and the workplace has just become a means of exploration.

So we had our fun, and now our fun is watching the little ones enjoy life.  Are we going to sit idly by and let Donald Trump usher in the Dark Ages?

Still Alive

When our kids were growing up we often thought they had two sets of friends.  They had their lake friends and their town friends.  Since we sailed every weekend the kids got to see their lake sailing buddies weekly.  Now as adults we still have our sailing friends, and have added our RV friends.  So from winter to summer it is like the stage set is simply changed.  Living in the small confines of a sailboat in the summer and the small confines of the Earth Module in the winter.

Sailors and winter travelers all have that need to roam and explore.  The sailing friends have pretty much been the same people for many years, but in the camping life new people constantly come and go.  On the lake you gather up in a bay here or there.  In the southwest you bump into friends in Utah, Nevada, or Arizona.  Since we have wintered and worked for The National Forest Service we are mostly in the same place all winter, but that works too.  Our traveling friends stop for a week or two and we hike, eat, and lounge together.  The natural order of things is that one person is introduced to another because we all have the same interest.  Everyone likes to hike,  biking is also common.  A few of the men like to explore the back country by motorcycle.

Everyone finds little gems of places to visit.  There is a vast supply of nooks and crannies to park campers.  Inevitably we end up at home in North Dakota and some of our traveling buddies stop by. Another certainty in this life style are invitations to nice home bases, and other adventures.

There is an international flavor to all of this also.  About half our winter friends are Canadians.  A few times we have become close with some Europeans.  The mixing and matching is always fun.  The great thing about this play are the characters that keep changing.

So as life would have it this winter a lot of our sailing friends are in the southwest and we will get a chance to share some trails with them.  In the end life is what you make it. If you want to sit on your ass and watch television that is your choice, but until they develop 3D television you will miss a lot.

What?

You have probably had the same experience Kadizzle has had many times. You meet someone new. The conversation goes well and then suddenly it takes a turn.  The person veers off into insane conspiracy theories.  The Trilateral Commission was a typical one.  A bunch of secret bankers that run the world.  Now the Republicans are trying to fertilize a new one, the Deep State.  Once you make up a magical organization all you have to do is blame everything on it.

Remember if you are an old fart the whole McCarthy thing.  Communist were everywhere and every evil was caused by communist.  It all blew up when McCarthy decided just about everyone who disagreed with him was a communist.  You could not tell a real communist from an imagined one.

Well the communist went down the tubes.  So now we need some good old fashioned imaginary enemies.  Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News are right there to help.  A popular new boggy man are socialist.  Your typical American really doesn't know what socialism is, so it is just great to use socialism as the magical enemy.  The whole idea is to exploit ignorance. The problem with socialism if you really understand it is the success socialist countries have had. Socialist countries have better education, better health care, happier people, and participate in fewer wars.  Another aspect of socialism is the number of socialist organizations in our country.  The police , the garbage men, the fire department are all basically socialist organizations. They are owned by the people and serve the people and no profit is involved.  Take this a step further. In North Dakota you have socialist gas stations, socialist phone companies, socialist electric companies, and the list goes on.

Fomenting conspiracies has always worked to fool the simple minded.  The crusades were a good example.  Blaming the Jews always is reliable.  Now of course you have the Donald stirring up hate for shit hole countries, Mexico, and all of Africa.  We are good people, but bad people are out to get us.  So give me some money for guns, and walls and I will protect you from socialist, shit hole people, and anyone that is after you.  Are we really this stupid?

A day off

A sleep in day, no working on trails.  So the Kadizzles are us doing the usual update with NPR in the background.  A crazy world, is alive and spinning.  A president, mentally ill, absolutely immoral and crooked, yet about 36 percent of the population is blind to the facts.  ( It will be useful if you watch the Pink Elephant prank video posted nearby)

38% of the people you meet, talk to, buy from, live next to are incurably stupid.  Logic, news, reality, just does not penetrate their minds.  Trump lies with every breath, and 38% of Americans just don't notice.  Within hours he Trump contradicts himself. Trump tells people he lied about Obama being born in Kenya.  Trump lies and says he will give out his tax returns.  How can you miss his lying?

This whole miasma is illustrated by the pink elephant video.  Fox News pulls the pink elephant everyday on the public and it works. 

Pink Elephant Prank

Pink Elephant Prank

Time is marching on

Sometimes it seems like time speeds up and then other times it slows down. Now the Earth has tilted toward spring.  So here goes another cycle.  In no time at all it will be boat launch time.  Summer will wisk by.  Sometimes it seems like the spinning of the Earth is getting faster.

 NPR just said crude oil prices are on the rise.  North Dakota will maybe go into the boom cycle.  Oil is a strange barometer for the world.  Every time the price goes up the oil wells start pumping and drive the price down. Western North Dakota had a lot of stuff sitting idle.  It will be interesting to see if breath comes back to the Williston area.

The Kadizzles sit here drinking coffee working on the morning update.  In the background NPR gets us up to date on the crazy man who pretends to be president.  NPR says a majority of Americans think Trump's first year is a failure.  Of course he is still popular with the delusional.  The chief rodent gets some nasty scores on his polling. 

We will start the day clueless of what we are going to do today.  There will be six of us possibly crowed into a pickup truck headed into the wilderness.  Six people working for free while Trump shovels tax cuts to the rich.  Trump and his gang of thieves are starving the government so the parks and forest fall into disrepair.  Who cares?

Things that wind through the Wilderness

There is way more wilderness in our country than most people can comprehend.  Yesterday Kadizzle set off by himself to find a trail. For days our trail crew has been working on the Sycamore Creek trail. We have been clearing and improving the trail.  A major project is finding the trail.  That was Kadizzles goal yesterday.  Who made these trails is a question one always wonders.  Was it Indians, was it miners, was it cattle people, was it the CCC, the Forest Service, who made the trail.  It might have simply been animals.  Usually you can tell if the trail was an old road. If you see some stone work it may have been cattle people or the CCC.  Often the trails go to a spring.

When you drive along the road and look at the mountains you don't realize how much land is between you and the mountain peaks.  You think there is very little, but just get out and walk, then you will find out how much wilderness there is.  So much of our work is related somehow or other to the Arizona Trail. The Arizona trail goes from Mexico to Utah.  It is 800 miles long.  Often we meet people who are walking that 800 miles.  This is not a walk in the park.  Around here water is a problem.  If you are going to walk the trail you may need a support person that places water at certain key points.  Finding your way can be at times tricky. The trail is not always a trail. Sometimes the trail is a road, and sometimes you come down out of the mountains to cross a bridge.  People on the trail will see land few people ever get to see.  Think about your typical person.  Most people only get to see the country from a car or airplane. Cars and plains are limited to where they can go. 

Bum Update

The sun set just a fraction of time ago. It is dark and how quickly things cool down is amazing. Mrs. Kadizzle is cooking onions for her chili.  The onion fumes are burning old Kadizzle's eyes.  Today got off to a slow lazy start. The plan was to take Cindy the horse camp host up the mountain so she could understand how the trails ran.  The trail system is confusing and takes awhile to learn.  So up the road we went bouncing like ping pong balls in a clothes dryer.  Cindy got to ride on one of the nastiest roads around, but we did show her how the Frazier Trail ran up to the Arizona Trail.  Since we were already up there we went on to the Cotton Wood Trail. Cindy was impressed with the natural beauty back in the wilds.

After our exploration Mrs. Kadizzle took off on her bike and Kadizzle rode the Yamaha toward Windy Hill Campground.  After giving the mostly empty campground a good once over Kadizzle turned toward home. Up ahead was a car with the hood up. As Kadizzle approached he realized it was Mr. Bummore.  The bum staying at the horse camp.  Perplexed that his car had severyly overheated Bummore was waiting for the car to cool to where he could drive it again. Kadizzle tried to help by fetching water for the radiator.  Bummore managed to get back to the horse camp where his strange collection of junk lay scattered about like a garage sale. 

How do people like bums like Bummore think.  Bummore has owned his car for three months and is a clueless mechanic. The bum mindset is special.  A bum has about a 24 hour look into the future. Bums don' think in terms of what will happen next week or two days from now.  Bums live in the present. The car runs right now. I have food right now. Bums don't think about what will happen when the car breaks down, as a bum car surely will.  Bums don't think about what will happen when it rains,  or there is no fuel to cook the hot dogs.  So Bummore is over there in the horse camp stuck with a car that will never make it out of here.  No matter which way you go there is a steep long, long hill to climb.  That is exactly how the life of a bum works.  A bum sinks into a low spot and is faced with a steep climb.   Bummore said he was going to leave tomorrow and head for Payson.  Stay tuned. Perhaps Kadizzle can give you an update tomorrow.

Another Bum or scholar

If you have read this nonsense for a long time you might remember stories about Gary, Kadizzle's old bum friend. The other day Kadizzle rode down to the horse camp on his motorcycle.  The makings of a bum nest were apparent.  Not sure of this bum's name, but Kadizzle stopped for a chat.  Here is a guy living out of his car and sleeping in a tent. Who knows if he paid the fee to stay there or not.  All sorts of stuff was stacked on the picnic table.  A combo cot and lounge chair was on the gravel.  The tent was set up and as is the custom there is a bum dog.  Like Gary this guy seemed to be a reader.  He said he had been a radio dispatcher for the fire department.  Talking to him for awhile he seemed reasonably intelligent.  At some point he said " I was once told I have a good face for radio".   He did not have the best of teeth.  Bum's don't seem to go to dentist.  Stopping by on a different day the new guy in the neighborhood said he was going to the star party up at the National Monument.  How many people are wondering around trying to survive from one camp ground to the next?

Johnny the Historian.

Johnny is 88 and has a sharp mind. Between Johnny and his dog Bessie they know where abosolutely everything around Roosevelt Lake is. The reason Johnny knows is because he helped built it all from the roads, to the trails, to the buildings. The Forest Service considers Johnny a walking blueprint. When you need to know the location of a pipe, or an electric line get Johnny.

So today we hopped into to the car with Johnny to see the old CCC cabin on the other side of the lake. Of course Johnny knew the whole history.  The cabin is fed by a spring. We walked about half a mile up to the spring. The spring seemed in an abnormal place. It was out on a ridge. The water must have come from the mountains above.  After the tour of the cabin Johnny showed us where the old CCC powder magazines were.

Then there were six

A sister is soon to meet her demise. Kadizzle is one of nine kids.  Who knows what the parents were thinking, but they turned us out like a factory.  Sadly the first to go was my younger brother.  A heart attack suddenly and unexpectedly shot him down.  About two years ago another heart attack got number four.  The whole thing seems like a dice game.  When you hit this age you see the other leaves drop from the tree and you know you are on that tree and the wind will blow.

Nine kids sewn like seeds in the wind and into the world. Each of us went in a different direction. The tides of life pushed and pulled us into deep water and onto the beach.  The stories and adventures along with the tragedies, and the victories are all there.  All things considered there was a lot of success.  The gene pool mixed and churned and produced nine variations of uncles, aunts, grandparents, and generations back through history.

Nine people can make a lot of choices, and God knows we did.  We lived in California, West Virginia, Oregon, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and Arizona. Mix us together and you were sure to get stories and laughter was a given.  Our parents did not live to see all the successes, and thank God they missed some of the failures.  One thing we all leaned two kids are plenty.  No one had more than two.  If you leaned nothing else you got a passing grade for realizing the folly of over production.  Often Kadizzle says to himself, what were they thinking.  Then he realizes since he was near the end of the line it was a good thing they were not thinking.

So one by one we will be picked off.  No one escapes.  All the money, all the prayers, and all the medicine cannot keep us going forever.  If there is one lesson be kind, enjoy, and be thankful.  In the end it is each other we will treasure.  Someone shaped us into who we are.  A lot of Kadizzle got shaped by eight other people that ate at the same table, surrounded the same Christmas tree, and shared the same home.  So here we are 2018.  How many more mile post will we make.  It is a time to reflect, and a time to watch the children, and the grandchildren flourish with joy.

An old Favorite

Hiking and working on the trail yesterday Kadizzle got to see one of his favorite displays.  Since the Air Force practices with jets here about once a week we see them scream by.  Yesterday a jest dropped right down into the canyon Kadizzle was in. It seemed so close it might blow his hat off.  The canyon is long, deep, and narrow.  Kadizzle was in a great spot to see the guy go overhead by about 200 ft.  The technology is amazing.  How can someone fly like that and not crash.  As the pilot went over the rest of the crew farther down he did a roll then ducked over the next mountain.  It was better than an air show.

Robots don't pay taxes

Reading and article in the NYT it just hit Kadizzle robots do not pay taxes. What does this mean? It simply means Trump has pulled off an amazing win.  You buy a robot to do the work of six people. The government loses six tax payers. The company makes more money and Trump set it up so corporate taxes are lower.  Six people are out of work and the corporation gets a tax break.  So the rich get richer, and the economy no longer works.  It will take awhile for the deficits to kill us, but it will surely happen. Meanwhile the rich and the Republican sing to the bank.

In the end it cannot work. Society will have to change.  Democratic socialism is the only answer. Europe has embraced it. Most Americans are clueless about what it is.  When the old economics does not work, you have to share the work and share the results of the work.  The rich will fight it to the end by buying all the legislators they need. In the end it will fail. You cannot buy love,  and you cannot buy your way out of a society swamped in poverty.  Fair distribution of the fruits of labor is the only way around the looming mess. Usually the fairness comes from a war, a depression, or some sort of massive social change that is not good for the ruling class.  Class warfare is on, get you economic gun ready.

Two nasty roads

Kadizzle played a giant round of dare to be stupid.  Larry is doing photography for our volunteer group that works for The Forest Service.  Larry is not familiar with the roads and trails so Kadizzle took Larry into the back country.  More than once the thought " Maybe I shouldn't be doing this" went through Kadizzle's mind.  The first road we traveled is so steep that gravity may overtake the ability to stop the downward motion.  To be safe Kadizzle got out and walked down the road to test for just how slipper it was. We tried to get a jeep, but ended up with a four wheel drive truck.  The second road was just as bad. 

Larry managed to get some good shots even though it was a nasty day.  Click on this one and enlarge it. 

Rain in the desert

At last the rain has come. Not much, but it did settle the dust. The area needs a lot more to get anywhere near average. Of course climate change is not a problem. Talking with some Forest Service employees Kadizzle found out they have a prohibited word list supplied by the Trump gang.  You know you have a problem when the government tells it's agencies which words it can use.  Can you use the word biggly?  Trump won biggly you know and the American public lost biggly.  Trump has told us he is a genius and he has good words.  Wow, what a combination, a genius with good words.

With the rain the trail crew has to cook up something to do today.  One task might be patrolling for litter.  It would be nice just to hide in the bushes with a stick and jump out to bop the people who throw the Bud Light cans down.  It is the deplorables that voted for Trump that are the same people throwing beer cans.  Only a deplorable would just toss a beer can out the window.  The worst thing anywhere are cigarette butts.  People willing to kill themselves for a puff of poison have very little qualms about tossing the weed butts on the ground.  Since this is an attack on degenerates may as well add one more group.  Now everyone likes a campfire, but clean it up when you are done, and you don't get to make your campfire in the middle of the parking lot.

IQ test

Got up today and measured my IQ.  Next I realized Trump and I measure our IQ the same way.  We go in the bathroom and stand on this little square platform. It gives you your IQ instantly. Like Trump mine has been going up steadily.  Around Christmas it started to surge.  Strangely when I exercise my IQ and blood pressure go down. Like Trump I have realized my IQ can go up if I eat at McDonalds and lay in bed with Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Most people do not have an IQ over 200.  Kadizzle does. You see a lot of people with high IQs driving the electric carts at Wallmart.  There is good evidence high IQ people voted trump into office.  My IQ machine will read your IQ in lbs or kilograms.  You are smarter in pounds than kilograms.  That is how I got really smart.

Trump has taught me a lot about being intelligent.  All you have to do is simply declare yourself intelligent.  Can you imagine Trump at a job interview.  "What do you consider your greatest strengths?".  " I am really intelligent, biggly stable, and I have a big button".  "What do you think would be a good strategy for acquiring wealth?"  " Start by inheriting money, then buy things without paying your bills, hide your income tax, and go bankrupt a couple times if you need to".

Our children need a role model, and we are so glad Trump has shown them what skilled lying, nasty talk, and broken promises can do if properly applied. 

I am mentally stable and a genius.

I am mentally stable and a genius. Well I am not really sure.  The other day I put on my "Make America Great Again" hat to see what it felt like to be an idiot.  Well last night I did another experiment.  In Payson the other day Kadizzle saved $1.20 buying gas with his shopping points.  Then the experiment started. With the big savings Kadizzle bought a lottery ticket.  That put Kadizzle on schedule to win 570 million dollars last night at 8:49.  Like a Trump voter Kadizzle had to work for several days to figure out how he would adjust to his new bank account prior to winning.  It took up a little time and the whole job of how to spend the money never got done.  It simple a lot could just be given away.  As the clock ticked toward the chosen time the excitement got too much to bear.  8:59 came and the numbers were chosen.  Not a simple number came up that Kadizzle had.  Kadizzle felt like an idiot that just pissed away $2.00.  Two dollars worth of idiotic dreaming.  No problem Kadizzle is winning every day as Trump makes America great.  Just as he promised Trump has boosted the stock market. Trump gave me a dream for free.  All Kadizzle had to do was believe just like he did with the lottery ticket. Trump has a big button, and he is a stable genius.  No more money going to the lottery, but a thank you note going to the Republicans for the free fantasy they provide every day.  Now the Republicans have a better scheme. You don't give your money to the lottery , you just give your tax dollars to the rich.  This works as well as the hat, Kadizzle feels like an idiot.

Listen to the Elders

Emily the youngest member of our trail crew is going to take off for Mesa on a bike.   At 37 she may wish by the end of the day she listened to the old goats.  Emily is going to ride down the Apache trail. The Apache trail is over twenty miles of gravel and the road hangs on cliffs for most of the way.  Now add to this mix cars going by with tourist constantly stirring up dust.  If Emily makes it she will wish she had never attempted the ride, but who knows.  Kadizzle and Mrs. are headed to Mesa today to see friends.  If we connect with Darch Kadizzle may try out his electric bike.  The helicopter just took off beside our camper. The Game and Fish department is doing their annual survey of game.  Last time they saw  a mountain lion with cubs. 

Since Trump let everyone know he is " a mentally stable genius"  Kadizzle has decided to let the world know he also is a mentally stable genius. Just in case anyone forgot.  Unfortunately I don't have a big button. My little button keeps coming lose and Mrs. Kadizzle tells me to zip up my pants.  Someday Kadizzle wants to have a big button like Trump.  We can all feel so much safer and better now that Trump has assured us he is a genius and a mentally stable one at that.  So strange so many of his staff call him a ******* moron or idiot.

Kadizzle in Wonderland

The news is running on NPR in the background.  If someone had predicted a man advocating grabbing women by the private parts would be elected president ten years ago people would have said " No way".   No one would believe we now have a president who plays with nuclear weapons like fireworks.  A man with the mind of child is president.  Most incredibly so many of his own staff call him an idiot a F***king moron, and so on.  We have a political party that has nothing but disdain for the truth, science, and reality.  Income inequality is insane.  The  stock market clearly shows as the train runs down the track headed for the most amazing crash the people on the train are in the bar car enjoying the ride.  The guy on the news right this minute is talking about the U.S. borrowing.  We borrow to finance the stuffed animals we buy from China at Walmart.  While our roads and bridges fall down in front of us we give the richest family in the world, the Waltons, a 52 billion dollar tax break.  In my little town Kadizzle thought the people in charge had some sense. The guy who ran the gas plant went to a Trump rally and then voted for him. The guy who used to be mayor voted for Trump. Have they learned anything, no.  Now they are in the fairyland watching Fox believing Santa will come their lottery ticket is the right one, and Jesus loves greedy bastards like Trump.

How dry can it get?

Yesterday Kadizzle stood on rocks where last year a waterfall raged.  Every stream is bone dry.  In all the years the Kadizzles have been in the Roosevelt Lake area it has never been this dry. In past years the snow on the mountains would melt and always keep a little water in the key streams.  As we hiked toward the dry waterfall Kadizzle was sure there would be a pool of water.  Nope, just a pool of dust.

Humans have a unique ability to ignore a calamity.  California burns, so what?  Various crises loom and slowly sneak upon us.  Once upon a time people from all over the country were sent to Arizona for the clean air. No one noticed but the clean air is now yellow.  We are drowning in our own filth and we elected a president who wants to roll back any hope for improvements. 

Not long ago Kadizzle drove through Pensacola, Florida.  With brother in law Ned we drove his aunt Amy around the old neighborhood where she used to live so she could see her old house.  The neighborhood has become a run down poverty soaked suburb.  Later Kadizzle remarked to someone about the poverty.  They looked puzzled and seemed to be asking " What are you talking about?".  Then Kadizzle realized the dilemma.  Most people don't drive through the bad areas of our country. Most people can make it to work without seeing the mess where the other people live.  Our country has been divided into the haves, and the have nots.  On a worldwide scale we have the same mess. The people in developed countries don't see their neighbors living in squalor.  If I don't see it, it does not exist. This concept eventually catches up.

Star Wars Idiocy

The trail crew went to a Star Wars Movie yesterday and then had a nice dinner.  The Star Wars movie was terrible.  The sound was so loud Kadizzle tore up part of the popcorn bag and stuffed it in his ears. Kadizzle is hard of hearning and that helped little. As a former Safety professional there is no question any workplace with noise levels like that theater would be in violation.  Every Star Wars Movie is exactly the same.  The last one Kadizzle endured was in the Red Rocks amphitheater near Denver.  Same crap, same problem with noise.  Star Wars is the Fox News of the movie business, just a dumbed down fantasy the simple minded find entertaining.

So here we are in the new year. It will be a special year. Up is now down, good is bad, rich is poor, and dirty is clean.  Trump has obliterated common sense, science, morality, religion, and common decency.  Truth no longer exist and perhaps has been lost forever.  That is the bad news.  Apparently the stock market could care less.  Again nothing makes sense.  The clock is ticking and we are all getting older. Worst of all is aging.  Our old bodies are slowly giving up.  Eyes can no longer see like they used to and ears have been blown away by a life of too much noise.  Then of course there is the gravity.  We all know the gravity has been turned up to almost max.  Well we will do the best we can and fight a noble fight to bring back democracy. 

The Celebration

The motley  crew of brush hackers will celebrate New Years in Payson.   The plan is a movie, and a dinner.  Kadizzle and Mrs. have been watching a Netflix series.  The series is A PLACE CALLED HOME.  The setting is in Australia in 1953.  The story is in the style of Upstairs Downstairs.  It is always amazing to see something that is put together with no car chases, shootings, or the usual drivel that keeps churning out of Hollywood.

The story revolves around a rich family that has a gay son.  The son married to cover up his homosexuality.  His wife gradually catches on.  It is interesting to see how attitudes have evolved since 1953. 

So here comes a new year.  It will be hard to surpass the insanity and unbelief of 2017.  No one would have ever guessed how deep stupidly runs in our country.  The number of Hoopleheads and the ease with which they can be manipulated is something that took every thinking person by surprise.  It is like finding our your house is infested with termites.  Europe should have given us a clue.  The British voted to leave the European Union.  English Hoopleheads showed us how easy you can shoot your own foot off.  Of course our Hoopleheads had to out do them.

So the question is will we come out of the fog in 2018?  Will the Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity liars prevail or will science and reason come back?  There was something called the Dark Ages is this era coming again.  The depression was brought on when greed got out of hand in the thirties.  Social safety nets restored sanity.  Now with glee the prosperity we had from a healthy middles class is being shattered in the name of trickle down economics.

The Heart Attack

Early yesterday Cliff took Bill to Globe.  Poor old Bill was having a painful heart attack.  This morning Bill will have surgery.  Bill is a skinny little guy that cast no shadow when he turns side ways.  Bill has been volunteering for a long time.  A retired machinist Bill is a great guy to have when you need something fixed. 

So this is the world we live in.  Bill works for free, and contributes to the goodness of the world.  Our leader the most vile man ever elected president, and his Republican buddies want to screw Bill out of health care and anything else they can. Trump will give every person with an income of one million dollars a year an additional $69,000 dollars. Meanwhile people don't have a pot to piss in and work for free.  What kind of a country gives a four percent tax break to someone who doesn't need it and a one percent break to those on the bottom.  The greed driven insanity of the Republicans is hard to take when you see a good person with nothing working for free while the Republicans set it up so the Walton family of Walmart can pass on 52 billion tax free.  The insanity only gets deeper when you read how the  " Christians "  ushered in this reign of greed.

There are so many people doing so much good with so little, then you have people like the Koch brothers, some of the richest people in the country, waking up every day trying to destroy the working class.  From the Republican perspective poor people are just lazy welfare cheats.  Perhaps Republicans should spend a day picking fruit or trimming trees.  The Waltons have no problem with grandma standing at the door of their Walmart making minimum wage while the CEO gets $8,000 per hour.  That blasted lazy grandma should have gone to Harvard and become a nuclear physicist.  It was grannies fault her parents could not afford to send her to private school.  So along comes the Republican Jesus who approves of all this.  After all the Pope lives in splendor while the peasants in South America pick the coffee beans by hand.  One of the Walton ladies built a 600 million dollar art gallery in Bentonville Ark.   Who cares if the bridges are falling down and the subways in New York don't work, enjoy the art.  So this year the Republicans will try to take away social security, health care for poor children, and build up the bloated military.  Meanwhile Bill has surgery today and maybe he can recover and come back and work for free so more money can be available for Trump to golf.

A Run to town

The horse ladies in the articles below are coming for dinner, so we have to make a run to town for supplies.  Looks like another perfect day.  Yesterday Bernice the horse lady said she has been bathing in the lake.  Bernice is 64, Kadizzle has jumped in some cold water, but would not voluntarily get into the lake to wash.  There are solar showers in the campgrounds here.  Even a lukewarm solar shower would be a great leap over the lake.  It is amazing how people can acclimatize.  Since we come from North Dakota our idea of warm is different from the people who live in AZ.  On a lot of days we are in shorts and a T shirt, the natives are bundled up like it is a blizzard. 

Montana woman riding horses across the country and back

Lady Long Rider

When old Kadizzle gets bored he takes a short ride on his one cylinder steed.  The trip often starts by visiting the horse camp down below our encampment.  Today as Kadizzle rode through he met Bernice.  Bernice did an 8,000 mile ride across the country last year and is working on another this year. Bernice lives out of a tent and packs her stuff on two horses.  Right away Kadizzle knew Mrs. Kadizzle would have to cackle Bernice.  So the cackling started.

So Kadizzle hauled the Mrs. down to the horse camp.  Bernice's friend another adventure lady shared stories with us.  If you want the full story you can go to Bernice's facebook page or check out her story at www.endofthetrail.com.  Strangely Bernice was formerly a classical ballet instructor.  Ironically she knew the woman that taught our children ballet in Hazen.  Little did we know the woman who taught our kids was a very well know dancer.  Bernice will soon be riding and camping alone on the Mexican border.  All the brave gun totting hombres should take a lesson from this woman. 

Strangely some of the most famous long distance riders by horse come through our horse camp.  The people who made the movie Unbroken stopped at the horse camp.  That was the guys who rode  from Mexico to Canada.  

Talking to Bernice it was interesting to note that the horse culture is like the RV culture.  Some well to do horse people stop and fiddle with their horses, combing and pruning and then go for a 45 minute ride.  Returning to their elaborate horse trailer and motor home that was the day.  You see this with the RV crowd.  Old willy pulls up in his half million dollar mother home and immediately gets out and starts to polish.  On the other end of the spectrum you meet hikers with nothing buy what they can carry on their back.  In Bernice,s case she has nothing but what she can carry on two horses.  Apparently the horses only food is what they can forage.  The horses of the rich get taken to a McDonalds at the end of the day for straw and hay burgers. 

Well Mrs Kadizzle and Bernice are out riding each with a can of beer, so Kadizzle will just have to live on peanuts till they get back. 

Can you smell a scam?

Yesterday Kadizzle was contacted on Facebook by an old friend.  It was not really an old friend, but someone who had hacked into his account.  The communication had the smell of a scam.  Sometimes it is fun to play along with scammers.  Kadizzle would get the call from the guy in India doing the Microsoft scam.  The fellow with a strong accent would say punch this key and that key to fix the so called virus. Kadizzle would pretend like he was doing it and act confused.  The whole thing took up a lot of the scammers time and eventually the scammer figured out he was being scammed.

There are more sophisticated scams like the ones the Republicans do.  They tell a bunch of idiots they can get rich by giving tax breaks to the rich.  Religion has always been the most productive scam.  Look at how religious leaders have raked millions from ignorant poor people who think they can donate their way to heaven.

Casinos are the next best thing to religion for scamming people.  Both religion and casinos are legal, but only religion is tax free.   Casinos do let a few people win to make the scam look legitimate.  Republicans let a few people win to promote their scam.  All good scammers know you need to make it look like you can win.  Every good Republican will say that all you need to win is persistence and hard work.  Usually your persistence and hard work come out better if you father gave you a bank or a car dealership.  Donald Trump brags how he is a self made man with a gift of a million dollars from his father and a loan of another eight million.  Didn't your dad give you a million and lend you eight.  No, problem, just work hard. 

Imagine a hundred yard dash where your competitor gets a fifty yard head start.  Now your Republican competitor will tell you when he wins you were just lazy, did not practice enough, and were not motivated.   So the poor are a bunch of welfare cheats.  The guy born in a mansion just cannot understand why the ghetto dweller ask for help.  Now want some whipped cream on your fantasy.  Republicans feel they do not have enough of a head start so they want to do away with  the inheritance tax.  At one time you could only inherit one million dollars tax free.  It went up to 3.4, but that is not enough of a head start.  Republicans want to totally eliminate the inheritance tax, which will mean the Waltons who own Walmart will pass on 52 billion tax free.

Back to the hundred yard dash.  Imagine being in high school and lining up for the race.  The referee tells you competitor he gets a 50 yard head start.  You object and ask why.  The referee explains it is just like the inheritance tax.  You competitors father won the race when he was in high school, so his son get the fifty yard head start.  Seems like perverse unfair logic, but Republicans believe this and have sold it to the working class as part of the greatest scam on Earth.  Now every good Republican will tell you " They earned it they can do whatever they want with their money".  Now comes the problem.  The people who inherit the cash did not earn it, but they can do whatever they want with their money.  If they want to give it to their kids remember it is their money.  So now it goes on for generations. 

What is welfare?  Most people believe welfare is getting something for nothing.  So if you are the sperm of a rich man and you win the race to the egg chances are you will get welfare, or should we say something for nothing.  What happened to good old fairness and equality.  Well we all stand an equal chance of being born the child of a rich person. 

Find the Trail

The clock says five thirty A.M.   Today's mission is to go to the top of Four Peaks turn right and find the top of the trail we have been working on.  Five of us with Kadizzle driving the jeep will make the trek.  Kadizzle will try to come up the trail from the bottom after he drops off the top crew.  This year the mission has been to complete trails at the top.  Many of these trails have gone into disuse and will be lost forever if we do not re establish them.  An interesting aspect of the mountain trails is how they go through exospheres.  On the top the trails are in a pine forest.  As the trail descends the vegetation changes from wet to drier and drier.  By the time you reach the bottom you are in a much more desert environment. This all happens in a matter of five miles. 

Overwhelmed

Someone said the current drought in Arizona is similar to one that ended the Anasazi culture.  People can obliterate the natural environment that sustains them.  Get your little computer thing out and put an app on it called Flight Tracker 24.  The app will show  you every plane in the sky over the United States and a lot of the world.  Until you zoom out the entire country is covered with planes.  Usually there are 6,000 jets in the air at any given time.  Think about the amount of fuel being spewed into the atmosphere. 

Kadizzle spent a major portion of his life in the coal industry.  Few people realize the rate of coal consumption in this country.  Until you see coal pouring off a conveyor belt into a power plant volume is hard to comprehend.  Our mine produced 23,000 tons a day.  The power plant burnt that much.  The plant we supplied was just one of thousands in our country.  A coal train leaves the Powder River Basin about once every 15 minutes.  Each train has one hundred, one hundred ton cars.  So that is ten thousand tons.  Think of  your bedroom.  One train car of coal would fill your bedroom with coal.  That is a lot of carbon.  Most of us think electricity just magically happens. It does not.  The carbon dumped into the air every day took millions of years to be sequestered by turning into coal.  What took five hundred years to put in the ground we will take out in one hundred years. 

This is just the tip of the problem.  If you went up and looked down from a satellite you would see a line of oil tankers coming from the middle east to the United States.  lt would be one long line bringing us fuel to burn in our cars.  At any given moment at least 20 million cars are running. Then there are the trucks, trains, buses, and who knows what.  Can you dump all this crap into the air and really expect nothing to happen? 

On the other side of the game are the plants trying to suck up the carbon we a spewing.  The problem is we are wiping out the plant kingdom at an alarming rate.  The jungle is being destroyed, the oceans are being polluted, and the system that cleans the air we pollute is being blasted.

The entire mess reminds Kadizzle of a story he was told two nights ago.  A fellow trail crew member told of a man he had as a friend.  The man's wife disappeared.  The wife was a hoarder and had a separate house where she did her hoarding.   Searching for the woman cadaver dogs were used. They checked the hoarding house, but did not find her.  The husband decided to clean out the hoarding house and found her body buried under the stuff she accumulated.  There is a lesson in this.  We will be buried under the stuff we accumulate that we don't  need.

Little Spaces

While many wander about their McMansions the Kadizzles visit friends living in boxes.  RV life basically involves living in a little box.  Simplification has it's rewards.  Everything is close.  Stumble out of bed and right into the living area.  Nothing is far away in an RV.  The coffee pot is an arm/s length from the easy chair.  The dining room, living room and kitchen are all about four arm lengths away.  Keeping things orderly is important in small spaces.  Inventiveness thrives in small spaces.  The place heats up instantly in the morning.  Usually we put out a heat puff, that is we turn on the real furnace for a few minutes.  After the big heat puff a little electric heater does the job.

Yesterday we had another dinner with friends. Turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and yams.  We gathered around a little table in a small space.  It was a cozy and nice visit.

Today it is back to trail work.  Kadizzle will probably drive the crew deep into the wilderness to drop of Mrs Kadizzle, Rita, and Ken.  The plan is they will hike down the mountain and Kadizzle will meet them at the bottom.  The radio is saying this will be the coolest day of the week 68.  That is great news when you hear there is a wind chill in North Dakota of forty below.

There are starting to be hints that the bubble may burst.  Trump and income inequality are setting the stage for a disaster.  It would almost be worth it to see Trump and his gang of robbers get their comeuppance.  The old question of when to hold them and when to fold them is the theme. 

Pray for prime rib

Our first Christmas away from home in 35 years, but a nice one.  Last night a bunch of volunteers sat by the campfire eating delicious prime rib cooked to perfection.  All the other goodies were equally a delight.  Sitting by the fire sharing adventures and stories one could not help but be amazed by the diversity of experience a bunch of old travelers can conjure up.  People with the urge for wandering and change are always fun to gather with.

A lot of talk centered around lumbering.  Jim and Valerie raised their kids deep in the Canadian woods.  all the lumber for their home they cut and milled themselves.  As a sideline Jim and Valerie have become loggers.  Stories of dragging logs out of the woods with a horse stir the imagination.

A lot of people spend their life with their head in a book or just looking out the window.  Some people open the door jump through and see the world that is out there.  So the sun is working it's way up over the eastern mountains, the coffee just finished brewing, and here we go.

Home made bread

The Christmas spirit is striking the Arizona desert and friends are showing up at the Earth Module door with goodies. Rita and Ken stopped by with home made bread.  It was still a little warm.  It brought back memories of Kadizzle as a child on a farm in West Virginia.  The old farm women would make fresh rolls every morning.  Butter and home made black berry jam drew out the wonderful essence of the bread.  Cory and Nicki came by with cookies.  Today some campers invited the Kadizzles to a prime rib dinner. Oh life with friends is good.

The sun is up and bright and it should be a nice day.  Winter is doing it's worst to the desert, but bad is pretty damn good. It will get to the high sixties or seventy degrees today.  Yesterday the Native Americans poured off the reservation into Globe to stock up on all the poison white men have invented for them.  A modern attack on the natives would involve flying over them dropping potato chips, sugary drinks, and alcohol.  The best defense for the natives has been casinos that empty the pockets of the white man.  Selling cheap cigarettes to the white man has also been a good defense.

Up the road a couple hundred yards Johnny is hunkered down with his daughter and son in law. Johnny was here when they built the place in the 90's.  Johnny does not do much, but he is a living breathing blueprint.  When you need to know where a water line or electric line is buried Johnny is the one to ask.  Johnny is an American classic. He is just a nice old guy with a little white dog named Bessie. Bessie and Johnny seem to spend a great deal of time just driving around.  Johnny at age 87 is painting his motor home by hand.  It is turning our fairly well.  Johnny goes to Alaska for the summer and catches fish for everyone.  Johnny gave us some nice salmon  and cod.

The Kadizzles have been winter traveling for 18 years.  We have met so many nice sharing people.  A lot of Canadians have become good friends. Canadians have figured it out.  They take care of each other and don't bitch about taxes.  They have health care.  Don't recall ever meeting a mean Canadian.  Back here where we love to drive people into bankruptcy and poverty we all have to carry guns so no one steals our Christmas cookies.

When all is said and done it is our friends we treasure the most.  A shiny car, a big house, or a private jet will not bring you cookies.  A dog will treat you better than a Republican.  A dog will try to scare away a bear.  Dogs lead blind people around.  Republicans would steal from the blind and leave you in a wheel chair with a bear after you.  So merry Christmas enjoy getting trickled on.

Tax Cut or better world?

Kadizzle just drove through the ramshackle south.  Would Kadizzle be willing to pay a couple thousand more in taxes to help clean up the mess we now call America?  Yes.   What would it be worth to know children were taken care of?  Kadizzle is willing to pay?  What about decent schools?  Kadizzle will pay. 

Now some good Republican will be reading this and say " Go ahead, just send the government more money".   What good would it do if one person sent a check to the government for a couple of grand? Really no good.  It only works when everyone chips in.  Imagine if you didn't think people should smoke in an eating place and the owners said, " Well then why don't you just stop smoking?".   The silly argument of Republicans just does not work.

How many people have had a nice vacation ruined by having to drive through a poverty stricken area? That poverty was created by greed, and people like Donald Trump.  Dance, sing, watch Fox News, but the reality does not change. Poverty is caused when one group take way too much.  The slaves worked hard all day, but they had nothing because the plantation owner took it all. Hard work did not solve their problem, but Republicans say that is the answer.  The poor old bastard at the door of Walmart greeting you gets if he is lucky minimum wage.  The head of Walmart gets $8,000 per hour.  So the problem is the person at the door just does not put in enough effort. It is not the greed of the CEO.  Who buys that shit? Who thinks one man deserves  all the cheese and the other guy is supposed to get by on Welfare?  The answer is all the good Christians.  All the good Christians voted for Trump.  Trump just gave the rich the biggest tax cut in history and did all in his power to destroy health care for children.  Good Christians?  There is no such thing.

What fun is it to live in a world full of suffering, suffering that is totally unnecessary, suffering that is caused by greed.

They passed an Ordinance in this town

They passed an ordinance in our town they said
we would have to tear it down.

That little shack out back that is so dear to me.

Though the health department said it’s day was over and dead.

It will stand forever in my memory.

Don’t let them tear that little brown building down

There is not another like it in this city or the town.

It was not so long ago I went tripping through the snow

Out to the house behind my old hound dog.

Where I would sit me down to rest like a snowbird on it’s nest

And I would read that Sears and Roebuck catalogue.

Oh I would hum a happy tune peeping through the quarter moon.

As my daddy’s kin has done so much before.

It was in that spot daily cares could be forgot

And it gave the same relief to rich and poor.

Now it was not a castle fair, but I could dream a future there

Build my castle to that yellow jackets drone

I could orbit round the sun fight with General Washington

Or be king upon a golden throne

It was not fancy built at all we had newspapers on the wall

It was airconditioned in the winter time

Oh it was just a humble hut but it’s door was never shut

And a man could get in the door without a dime

Put the hat on

Yesterday Kadizzle put on the green Forest Service hat and headed up the trail with the trail crew.  It was refreshing to be deep in a natural setting away from all the insanity of a country covered by cars, asphalt, and fast food places.  The southwest is dry, but about two miles up the stream there was some water squeaking out of the ground.  How do the plants make it?  As always there were no animals. It seems so strange to travel through so much land and not see any deer, bear, even squirrels.

In order to make America great Kadizzle and his crew try to make the trails great.  One controversial thing on the trails is carrion's.  People pile up rocks to mark trails.  Generally this is a good thing, but some purist feel it is an intrusion on nature so they kick over the markers.  These people are known as carrion kickers.  Well it seemed like a carrion kicker had been on the trail so Kadizzle re established  many of the carrions.   Besides building rock markers Kadizzle cleared brush.  The cat claws are the meanest most determined brush.  In the course of removing the little bastards Kadizzle's hands are chewed up and bleeding. 

The great thing about working for free clearing trails is knowing that it frees up money for the federal government.  That means there is more money to give tax breaks to the rich.  Out there in the fresh air helping the rich is a great feeling.  It would sure be nice to think we were freeing up money so people could have health care, but the rich are going to trickle on us.  Getting trickled on is a wonderful experience.   To see the happy people at Walmart getting trickled on, and the counter people everywhere getting their massive tax breaks cannot but help one get in the Christmas spirit and love the Republican Jesus.

Raping the ignorant

Kadizzle slept at a rest stop expecting the tractor trailer to start in the middle of the night. Sure enough the driver got cold and the rumbling of the truck continued through the night.  Ned and Kadizzle took of very early and made it back to the Earth Module by afternoon.  The tour of the south has ended.  The impression of stupidity and poverty lingers.

The flourishing of ignorance has really been driven home.  If you have read this blog earlier you know during the tour of the south we spent time at a hoarders house.  The hoarder shocked Kadizzle by telling him she believed the shooting of children at Sandyhook never happened. It was fake news.  Of course this woman was a Trump supporter.  Now Kadizzle sits here shocked that Trump pulled off the biggest robbery in history with his tax fraud.  The abundance of the poorly informed, and easily fooled is frightening.  NPR just had a segment about how the life expectancy is going backwards.   Laying in bed last night Kadizzle realized the United States is a third world country.  Driving along the border as  we did you could see no difference between Mexico and the United States.   Trump has assured the status of our country as a third world country.  The every day working person will slip into poverty and the rich will reap the rewards of trickle down.  Simply lying and lying was all Trump had to do. Hitler did the same thing. It works.  People want to hear lies that let them believe a fantasy. Tell a fat person they look great and what are the odds they will believe you.  Tell some dolt they can win the lottery, it works.

Today's mobile excitment

Weavers, jammers, and sniffers in abundance.  Weavers are the aggressive drivers that shoot for any opening on any side just to advance three car lengths in the race to nowhere.  It is the jammers that the weavers take pride in defeating.  The jammers get in the left lane and slow the weavers down.  A weaver is a frustrated idiot that imagines he is a race car driver.  Now the sniffers drive behind you and get so close they can smell your underwear.  Usually a weaver first comes up behind as a sniffer.  All sniffers are not weavers, but most likely they are.

So Ned and Kadizzle are watching the game of sniffers, weavers, and jammers on the way to Pensacola.  To add to the adventure it was raining.  Suddenly the tractor trailer in front and to the right had the front wheel on the left start to wobble.  The entire wheel came off the truck and headed across the median strip into oncoming traffic.  Fortunately there was a large deep puddle in the median strip that stopped the truck tire before it made it to oncoming traffic.  Someone more than likely would have been killed or badly hurt hitting a truck tire at 75 mph.  Kadizzle believed the entire wheel came off including the rim.  Ned thought only the rubber exited.  The truck managed very nicely to get off the road, but with no wheel it did throw some debris onto our windshield. 

Today we begin the entire journey back to Arizona.  We have to stop at hoarding headquartes and pick up some items.  Two wrecks per day is the standard for the run so let's see what they have scheduled for today. The dingers have no respect for speed or physics.  Of course half the drivers are on the phone which only adds to the roller derby fun.  Kadizzle wishes he had brought his motorcycle helmet.

What does it feel like to be an idiot?

Ever wonder what it would feel like to be an idiot? Kadizzle thought he would give it a try.  This morning with the idiot hat Kadizzle went to a car dealer, sure enough he was treated like an idiot. At the gun shop the guy just beamed as Kadizzle walked in the door.  The payday loan guy started drooling. The insurance salesman could hardly hide his glee.  When the vacuum cleaner salesman showed up at the door he must have spread the word.  The scammers seemed to come out of everywhere.  That special look seemed to appear on people's faces that says you are not too bright.  At the right wing coffee shop Kadizzle was treated like a professor.  Too sweeten up the experience Kadizzle said "Fake News",  and Bigly, and so much winning you will be tired of winning.  The Klan guys asked Kadizzle to join.   Strangers would go by on the Interstate and give Kadizzle the finger.  Do you think Kadizzle was dumb enough to wear the idiot hat into a place where the waiters were black?  Not taking that chance.  The taste of spit on a hamburger ruins it.  People come up to you and say " How's that tax break working?".   How can one red hat make such a difference?  Try it for a day.  Be an idiot just for a day and see how many are in the club. 

Van Hotel

Kadizzle slept well by himself in the van.  After a forever drive from Pensacola we made it back to Dickinson, Texas.  The two predictable slow downs in traffic were not that bad.  What was amazing to see was the weavers.  Weavers are usually young extremely stupid drivers that act like they are in a race they can win.  The weavers zip across lanes and love to panic normal drivers with their dangerous moves.  An occasional weaver would come by us on the trip and it was fun to see the idiot jockey for position.  As we approached our final destination the weavers got thick.  Weavers cause wrecks and of course they did cause a final wreck which was being cleared up.

With modern technology weavers could be caught by computers.  The erratic driving of the weavers could be spotted by a computer and modern cameras could capture the license plate numbers.

We are once again at the hoarders house.  Three adults are discussing and admiring the hoarding stash in the garage.  The hoarder assistant is calling the garage their own grocery store.  Kadizzle has seen small grocery stores that have less.  If one of anything is good 16 is better.  Maybe Kadizzle can sneak a picture of the garage hoarding.  Thankya Jesus this is a clean hoarding association.

This house is ready for either Armageddon or the apocalypse.

David Suzuki speaks about overpopulation

Will the Bubble burst?

The stock market is cooking.  Who knows why? Some nagging voice tells Kadizzle the bubble is going to break.  It always does.  The United States has become a country that produces nothing.  People spend like drunks, so many have nothing but service jobs, and low Walmart jobs.  How can we sustain this mess. All messes are usually sustained by borrowing.  Now the Trump gang has come up with a scheme to give the rich a tax break and put it on the U.S. credit card.  Sounds great, but will the world buy it. When one really thinks about it our country is falling behind. We have the worst health care, we are behind in education, and by most measurements the country is no longer even in the top five on most major measurements.  Yet we cruise along blindly thinking we will never run out of gas.  Our prize dolts will not address climate change, healthcare, science, or the fact that we are slipping into a third world economy.  The band played as the Titanic sank.

Our economy is based on grow, grow, grow.  It simply will not work.  There is an interesting experiment where you put some bacteria in a test tube.  The number of bacteria double every minute.  Everything is fine until 59 minutes go by.  The last doubling in the last minute kills all the bacteria. We live on or in a test tube.  Every so often the pollution doubles, the population doubles, and we all pretend like the planet is limitless.  An economy that works on more, more, more consumption is doomed to fail.  The cat lady starts with one cat, then two, then three, and soon she is overrun with cats.  The cat ladies belief in cats eventually creates her demise.  Bulletin, I found the youtube video. It appears above this. Watch it, there will be a test.

I pity the country

Stranger In My Country

The margin is thin

Recently Kadizzle remarked in a letter to the Bismarck Tribune that the United States was in danger of becoming a third world country.  After touring Pensacola, Florida today it looks like the margin is very thin. The ramshackle poverty in the southern U.S. is widespread.  Kadizzle used to marvel at some of the messes he saw in South America, but you could substitute too many  communities in the south in a picture and you would never know the difference.

It is inconceivable that our country would build a 21 billion dollar wall, spend so much money on military nonsense, and give more money to the rich when so many have so little right here.  The sad thing is so many in our country don't travel enough to know what a mess the country is.  Ned and Kadizzle will travel four thousand miles in 12 days across the south. The shot up, run down, junk infested mess is like a cancer on our country.  Those with money fly over the mess, drive around the mess, or simply never see it.  As a country we have wasted so much, and piling garbage everywhere has become a way of life. Junk cars, billboards, and the detritus of prosperity has stained the place we live.

Kadizzle has had battles with the commission in the city of Hazen about the slumming that goes on there, but the Hazen slummers are armatures compared to their warm climate friends.  When the oil boom broke out in North Dakota the southerners rolled in.  Kadizzle was mystified about why they parked in the yard, on the sidewalk or with no regard to the zoning laws.  Seeing their home base explains it all.  Zoning and ordinances don't exist in the south.  If you can park or pile it, you can keep it anywhere on your property.  So as usual you have the haves, and the have not's.  Trump wants the have's to have more, and the have not's to have less.  Waking up the Hoopleheads seems impossible, but Alabama has given people hope.

What are they thinking?

Here Kadizzle sits deep in the south.  Kadizzle just completed his first visit to a nice nursing home.  Ned has an aunt there we will drive to the Houston area for a memorial service.  Ned and Kadizzle ate breakfast at the nursing facility.  Every person in the care of the facility was white.  Almost every person that was giving the care was black.  Now think about this.  You are white, you have been mean and nasty to black people your entire life.  Now you are an old fart and guess who is going to take care of you?  That's right, the very people who you did everything in your power to drive into poverty and misery.  To Kadizzle's amazement the black staff was so nice, and so accommodating.  All the old white people seemed to love the staff and everything was peachy. 

This all brings back memories of George Wallace.  George Wallace sold racism like few before him.  Remember when Wallace got shot in the back?  Guess who took care of George and pushed him around in a wheelchair for years.  Yup, a black man.  As mean and nasty as old George Wallace was he finally came to grips with his racism and gave it up.  Before he died he was a civil rights advocate and his daughter went on to be a good person. 

The long and short of it is when you get in a bind you never know who you will need.  In the south you can pretty well bet when you are old and shot up some black person will be your care taker.  Do you want the person you abuse today to be your care taker?  Do you want to let the black person pushing your wheelchair in the nursing home to know you voted for Roy Moore?  Very strange world we live in. 

A long time ago when old Kadizzle worked in southern West Virginia in the mining camps, black people and white people seemed to get along pretty well.  There was a simple reason.  Even the dumbest brick could realize that if you were underground and a rock fell on you and pinned you, it might be a black man that had to get the rock off you.  So no matter how stupid you were you did not insult or defame the black people you worked with. 

The nursing home tour this morning was like a preview of the future.  Kadizzle really had never been in one of these places.  This one was pretty upscale and had a lot of amenities.  Lord help you if you go to some busted up place because the Republican stole your social security.  The rich can afford nice black people, but it seems certain all the rednecks might end up in some sorrowful place where the help is not well paid.   Imagine and old Klan  member in a nursing home staffed by black people.  There is some sort of strange justice in this world and the racist may have their comeuppance.

Everyone at the home seemed to be friendly and doing pretty well.  Two old goats were sitting out in the sun smoking cigars.  Everyone had wheels hooked on them somehow even if seemingly they did not need them.  The staff must somehow convince each tenant that at any moment they might collapse. If you were not in a wheelchair they had you push a walker.   Some old coot went by pushing his walker faster than Kadizzle could run.  There were many people pushing walkers who probably should have been pulling golf carts.  Several people seemed to be in the home because of sheer laziness.  This could happen to Kadizzle.  What are you in for?  Oh, I just got to lazy to cook my own breakfast or make the bed.  At this point Kadizzle has no made up his mind.  The two choices if it ever comes to that are ask someone to shoot me or join the gang at the home.  All things considered the inmates did not seem to have it so bad.  Boredom would be the overwhelming problem, but a good case of dementia or Alzheimer would solve that.  In summary be nice to everyone, you never know who will have to pick you up off the floor or leave you there.

The Fog of Ignorance lifted in Alabama

Kadizzle did it. He swung the vote. For the first time Kadizzle drove through Alabama today.  Miracles happened. Something was special about the day. When the car in front of us did three NASCAR flips and landed upside down Kadizzle knew it would be a special day because the woman driver crawled out the window unhurt.  God took the curse of stupidity off the state long enough to get rid of Trumps molester cohort.  Does this mean the fog of ignorance will lift from the country? Will gravity be put back in force?  Will science become real again? Will people respect the truth? It can happen.  The Republican Jesus of guns, cradle robbers, and vagina grabbers fell in the south.  The clouds parted, light shown upon the lies of Trump. Please let this spread.

What would it be like to be an idiot?

Kadizzle is sitting here and about four feet away is the " Make America Great Again" hat.  The hat will go with us.  Kadizzle is wondering if he has the courage to put it on and go through a day disguised as an idiot.  What is like to publicly pronounce you don't have an ounce of brains, morality, or decency? It might be fun to walk around knowing a lot of people will look at you and figure you have lost your mind.  What would happen if you went to a car dealer?  They would lick their chops.  Every where you went people would see and know right away you were an easy mark.  We are deep in the land of the people who brought us Trump.  Who knows maybe we will get a free donuts.  Will the hat work when we get stopped for speeding?  Well it remains to be seen if we will get the courage to wear it.

Undisclosed Location

Kadizzle would rather not disclose where we stayed last night, but suffice it to say it was with a hoarder.  Kadizzle slept in a room with yarn skeins stacked to the ceiling.  Estimated there were five hundred or more in the room.  This house is about a 7 or 8 on the hoarding scale.  There are themes.  A large stockpile of food, lots and lots of tools in the garage, and seems like chairs.  There are chairs everywhere.  Of course stuff is stacked on the chairs so you cannot use them all.  No shortage of fribbles.  Six little wiggling fribbles greet you on the refrigerator.  Incidently there are three or four refrigerators.  In the bathroom there are spares of everything.  Six brand new tooth brushes on the counter, and cans of shaving cream everywhere.  Thankfully the place is clean.

So off we bust towards Pensacola today.  At this point we switch vehicles to a nice Chevy Tahoe.  The ride should be nice and a little quieter.

Hold the press, hold the press.  Kadizzle just forgot there are hat's here and we scored a genuine " Make America Great ".  This is going to be fun wearing the hat. 

On the road

Kadizzle is up at six in San Antonio.  Awakening in the Garage MaHal.  Ned and Kadizzle wandered into San Antonio after dark and met with an old childhood neighbor from Wheeling. Thankya Jesus he put us up for the night.  Kadizzle got the very nice garage apartment all to himself and got a good nights sleep.  A vast improvent over sleeping in the van.  

Yesterday was one of the longest drives ever.  From Demming, New Mexico we drove and drove.  The striking thing about the the southwest is the vastness, and next is the ramshackle disordly developement.  One cannot help as you drive along the border,  which we did all day, that 21 billion could sure make a lot of improvements other than a wall.  Ned hates Trump so much he does not permit Kadizzle to mention his name.  Trump must be reffered to as 45.  Trump is an amazing idiot, and the man has never even visited most of the United States in any meaningful way.  Trump has flown over a lot, but until you get out and walk, drive, sleep, eat, and live on the ground you never see the country.  Trump like so many of his ilk have no idea of how vast the poverty is in this country.  People living in shacks will get to see billions go up in flames with the great wall. L

Driving across America you cannot help but think what a vast mess it is.  So many cities with the worst developement and zoning.  Each rat infested town is pretty much the same with the strips of car washes, hamburger friers, car dealers and the normal mess of check cashing, Walmart nonsense.

Maybe it is winter and that makes things worse.  A few green leaves hide a lot.  Today we bust on over to Houston.  

Yesterday’s big thrill was a motorhome on fire beside the highway.   The thing was cooking pretty good and it was surprising the police let people drive by so close.  It occurred to Kadizzle that  no down there were some propane tanks in there cooking.

No liftoff

Well we are getting nowhere. Ned is still getting up to date and it is 8:30.  Patty and Ned watch too much simple minded TV, but some of it is funny.  Below Kadizzle posted Father Ted.  If you need a laugh watch it.  Some of the Irish humor is always good.  Kadizzle has been on the Facebook with other liberals trying to figure out how to fight back. Tony Bender who runs a newspaper he owns is a good focal point for intelligent rebuttal to the Hoopleheads in North Dakota.  Yesterday there was a very good editorial about the Republican rot in the New York Times.  The editorial has a lot of people stirred up and hoping the Republican rot will eventually lead to the demise of the greed driven outfit.

So if we ever do get going we will stop to see Mrs. Kadizzle and pick up some supplies.  Mrs. Kadizzle said on the phone she invited a young lady hiking the Arizona trail to spend the night.  Mrs. Kadizzle enjoyed talking to the youngster about her adventure.  It is a very long hike from the Mexican border to Utah.  Some of the toughest parts are right where we work on the trail.  Mrs. Kadizzle and the trail crew have finally busted through the Deer Creek Trail.  Two started from the top and two started from the bottom.  They met and each group kept going to get the vehicle the other group left.  Now that the trail is re established the clearing can begin.  A big job.

Are you bored and do you need to laugh