Crumbling

Each of us has driven by an old building along the interstate. The roof is sagging and the wood is coming apart. That is crumbling. People crumble. Do you have a plan to crumble? Moving close to the kids is one way to crumble. Downsizing is another. Facing the reality of crumbling is part of life. Someday you have to use glasses to read, the volume on everything has to be turned up. Yup, you are crumbling. Holding on to things, and going down stairs slowly, yup crumbling. The brain crumbles to. Forgetting, can't remember names, walking in a room and forgetting why. The reality you just can't do it anymore. Worse yet, you don't want to do it. So do what you can today, and enjoy what you can today.  Tomorrow you may not be able to.  

Where to?

 Here we sit trying to figure out where to go today. Winky wants to go up to Parker Canyon and find out how the canyoneer people get down in there. Kadizzle wants to ride the ebike, but one spoke is broken. So Winky and Jackie are trying to look on the google and figure out where you drop into the miniature Grand Canyon. 

Kadizzle fired off an email into the wild. A writer for the NYT had a nice article on work, and how people are abandoning it. The problem is that work is not shared. About one third of the population does nothing. That means the rest have to do a lot. If we did not work in an infinite greed system no one would have to work more than three days a week. Europeans have figured out working to make someone else rich is insane. In Merica we are having a hard time figuring out we are on the plantation of the rich. 

Rampant Insanity

 Sitting in the car in the parking lot at the grocery store in Payson Kadizzle noticed a degenerate type ride in on a bike. The bearded fellow dismounted the bike and went in the store. When he came out he started yelling obscenities into the sky. Kadizzle was jealous. It seemed like the thing to do. Our frustration with getting into our new home is getting to the point where we may have to yell into the sky. The home is essentially done, but now we are in a bureaucratic battle over a certificate of occupancy. Because of delays the cost overruns are mounting. Now we cannot get hold of the builder. He will not respond to text or phone calls. 

Every day Kadizzle gets more evidence the mental illness and stupidity are thriving. The political manipulation that is seeping into the minds of young people is frightening. Republicans have mastered propaganda. Perhaps the Russians have influenced the Republican party with some great ideas. Whoops, maybe Kadizzle is getting paranoid. Trump was a Russian dream come true, but now you have about six wannabee dingers already elected trying to do the Trump spin for the Hoopleheads. Sadly it seems to be working. Then you have Joe Manchin, a Republican plant in the Democratic party. His little buddy the woman in Arizona who also is helping screw up the one car funeral. 

Yesterday Kadizzle talked with a young guy about 28. He is the contractor building a sewage dump for the Forest Service. Seems like an intelligent guy, but like so many has fallen under the spell of the Fox News spin. People associate with people and the misconceptions spread like wildfire. Everything is now Joe Bidens fault, even thought Trump lit the fire. So many have very little understanding of how the economy or the government functions. This was the country that tackled polio, and won. Just thing about how far backward we have gone. 

Virginia

Making up some nonsense and selling it is an old tradition. Republicans have perfected it. Always add an element of fear. Hell was the original seasoning for selling religion. Republicans turned critical race theory into a best selling paranoid right wing game, and it worked. The Hoopleheads love to be worked up about Mexicans invading, Bill Gates putting microchips in the vaccine, and Hillary running a sex ring. Hoopleheads have Christmas and Halloween all year, terrific fantasies, with some scary stuff. The Hoopleheads are just children that are sixty years old. They can be told pretty much anything and they will believe it if it sounds fun. Churches were the first to figure out you could make up a story and sell it at a profit. Now the rich never want to pay taxes. What do they do? Buy the government and then run the government. The best story the rich have sold the poor is that the poor are the problem. The plantation is dire straits not because the master built a mansion, but because the slaves don't pick the cotton fast enough. Is that hard to understand. Now the good slaves have to understand it is the lazy slaves who will not show up to pick cotton that are causing the problem. Forget about all that wine the master imported from France. The best thing to do is cut back the food ration for the lazy slaves, then they will have to show up and pick cotton. Is that hard to figure out? 

All this nonsense reminds me of my old friend Daryl. Kadizzle for lack of anything better to do would help Daryl deliver the milk to stores around Hazen. One day we had to take some milk to Cenex. Daryl was taking the longest most obtuse route to get there. Daryl was obsessed with gas prices. Kadizzle asked Daryl why he was taking such a long route to the store. Daryl replied " I have expensive gas in the tank, I want to get it out and put cheaper gas in".  This is the way Hoopleheads think. 

Four Peaks Hike

Winky and Jackie are going to hike up the Four Peaks, not Kadizzle. That is a very difficult hike and taking little Joey up there would be a chore. Kadizzle is a bit upset with the Virginia election. It was just too easy for the Republicans to fool the Hoopleheads there. Using the school gambit they got to many soft Democrats to vote Republican. Nonsense about critical race theory abounded, and it worked for the Republicans. Are people that stupid? Yes, yes, yes. This so much reminds Kadizzle of a friend who did very well in business. The friend purchased water with natural hydrogen, and paid dearly to get the natural hydrogen. What she bought was natural stupidity. In case anyone is confused there is no natural hydrogen, natural H2O, or natural element of any sort. Sulfur is always sulfur, iron is always iron, and you cannot grow organic aluminum. However, confusing people and taking advantage of them is so simple. The water with natural hydrogen was selling for $24 for two gallons. A simple question would be " Where do you get natural hydrogen".  Nope if it says it on the box or on the google, then it must be so. Republicans know simple minded people do not ask too many questions. 

Part three. How not to do anything. Yesterday we had a meeting with the boss. The boss explained for some time how to use a chain saw. After informing the trail crew all the safety issues of chain saws the boss said no one was ever to use a chain saw. After the meeting several people wondered why in the hell would we spend time going over chains saw safety then be told never to use one? If you don't want to do anything in the Forest Service Culture there is a secret method for stopping all progress. Kadizzle has suggested he use a little tractor to fix the local trails around the campground. He has done this for two years. The new boss said no. There might be Indian artifacts that could be disturbed. They put the trail in originally with equipment, but we cannot maintain them with equipment. Any improvement that someone does not want to undertake can quickly be stopped by saying " We will have to do an archaeological survey. It works, progress is at a standstill, so that means we never can improve anything. Want to put in a new trail? No, an ancient person could have dropped an arrowhead just about anywhere. OK, so lets do the survey. Oh, that will take reams of paper work and months to get approved. Ok, lets just forget about it. Works every time.  On the other hand if you do want to do something then just sort of ignore the possibility that natives once used the land.  A great example is digging a hole anywhere. Even if a survey is done it only affects the surface. People from three hundred years ago could be buried anywhere. People were not buried on the surface. So even if you do a survey, you have really accomplished nothing. Now, consider Arizona. About 2/3 of the state is federal land. That means a vast area that keeps the Archaeologist in business. 

All of this reminds Kadizzle of the old days back at the coal mine in North Dakota. Someone needs to fund Archaeologist, so the Archaeologist dreamed up the idea that they needed to excabate two Tepee rings on the mine for 70 thousand dollars.  Carefully with tiny shovels, and brushes they uncovered the earth on the first tepee ring. According to them they did not have the money to do the second ring. Code for we can make more money not doing the second ring. So the professionals asked us to use one of the biggest motor graders made to plow the second tepee ring. The huge machine just turned over the soil and if there had been a treasure there was a good chance they never would have found it or it would have been destroyed. This made it pretty clear it the whole thing was just a ploy to make money. The first ring revealed nothing, and the second ring didn't either, but some company made 70k on the deal. 

Candy for the Hoopleheads

Rob Port is a right wing writer for the Fargo Forum. By some remarkable circumstance he got Covid and has become much more liberal. A very strange twist of events. Port wrote and article about the simple minded Republicans that have written over a dozen bills for the special session of the North Dakota legislature. The bills are nothing by candy for the Trump cultist. Bills about Critical Race Theory, Bills about mask freedom, and so on. Anything that will appeal to the most poorly informed conspiracy followers has been proposed as a law. If the Hoopleheads wanted witches outlawed, the Republicans would oblige to get their votes. The pandering is sickening. The special session was called to deal with distributing Covid money. So the Hoopleheads are suggesting laws that witches cannot get Covid money. Soon the Supreme court no doubt will totally destroy the constitution. The down hill slide is here. 

Living in a Fantasy

Each of us lives in a fantasy. The wonderful part is we invent our own fantasy and believe it is reality. We can watch Fox News, or go on the internet and find the information we need to back up our fantasy and prove to ourselves our fantasy is reality. Of course those around us have their own fantasy. So often the fantasies collide. The vaccine is a hoax, that is reality for some, and a fantasy for others. There is no reality except the one you have invented. Often we bump up against reality, and it is a constant problem. However, there are a thousand ways out. " It is god's will".  Worried about dying, just invent an after life. Concerned about global warming, just deny it. Don't like insurrections, ignore it and find a Republican to tell you it was nothing but tourist. See how this works? Now if you are starving or have cancer you may have to adjust your fantasy. Here comes the problem. Not everyone shares your fantasy. This is how wars and religious messes start. Well it is Monday, and Kadizzle has to get to work on his fantasy.  

Moving Bill

Moving Bill has been a week long process, maybe more. People accumulate stuff. If you decide to get in a pickup truck and drive to Arkansas not much will fit in a pickup. The Forest Service gives some volunteers a small container to store things. It is finally empty of a kayak paddle, a solar panel, motor oil, a portable generator, many tools, and so on. Where did the stuff go. A lot is now in the back of our bathroom. When people move often junk moves. Someday Kadizzle will have to move the treasures once more. The grand finale will be lifting Bill's bed. Since his surgery Bill dare not do it himself. What will be under the bed. Bill said he found five thousand dollars under the silverware holder. Unfortunately he put it there and forgot. It was not exactly a windfall. Maybe there is a fortune under the bed, or some old girlfriends. Today we may find out. 

The Forest Service is still dragging their feet and we have not yet been authorized to work. Not such a bad situation. 

The Day the Mexicans disappeared

 Someone made a movie called " The Day the Mexicans Disappeared". It was a science fiction satire on California. One day the people of California woke up and there were no Mexicans. Well Old Kadizzle just rode his bike down to where he Forest Service is installing a new dump station for RVs. Seven guys getting ready to pour cement. One caucasian, and six Hispanic. If if were not for the people of Mexican descent in Arizona the state would come to a halt. The Republican insanity of shooting your foot off in Arizona is insane. All the hard work is done by people whose parents were from Mexico. They are all nice hard working people with a good sense of humor. Arizona's economy is held together by these people, yet the Republicans do everything in their power to make life miserable for them. If they formed a union Arizona would instantly be incapacitated. As stated before they do it all. Drywall, lay pavers, framing, roofing, cement work. In just about every case they are exploited. Some white guy gets ten Hispanics to do the work and he gets rich from farming them out. Sorta like the good old days of slavery. Now there is a shortage of people willing to work. The border has people lined up to come here and make the beds in the hotels and put the roofs on. Nope, the Republican want to make the Hoopleheads happy by suppressing these people. Of course the good Christians who voted for Trump are all for going to the border and shooting at families wading across. What has Trump made us into?

Ran across this video

Came across the video below of Lake Roosevelt where we are. The video is of the western end of the lake, we are farther down. May give you some idea of the area.  

Lake Roosevelt, Arizona (Mavic 2 Pro)

Obsessed with Stupity.

Gimble, I hope you don't read this. Gimble is the guy who is hiking the AZT.  Gimble thinks it best to hike the trail wearing sandals. His rational is early humans hiked barefoot. Kadizzle tried to point out the Indians in this area did not go barefoot. Now Gimbal has the problem that thorns and other nasty things are penetrating his feet. The solutiion is wear some decent shoes, but obsessed with some strange idea he will suffer with the footwear he has. Otherwise semi rational people seem to be capable of logical thought. Kadizzle pointed out to Gimble that Eskimos did not go barefoot. Gimble said there is a guy hiking the trail barefoot. The question is why? People like to challenge themselves and often adopting some goofy idea is the challenge. Some people get the idea radio waves are dangerous and think cell towers are dangerous, and so on. It may be true, but being obsessed with some unproven nonsense is a strange mental state. The whole health food industry relies on crazy ideas and people that adopt them. Republicans know some people love the idea of being stupid. So you tell these people something stupid and help them believe it.  A friend in Payson said he went into a library and the librarian believed Biden has been assassinated. She also believed a host of other insane ideas. Keep in mind this person is a librarian. You may remember Kadizzle wrote a story long ago about the librarian assistant in Hazen, who did not read anything.  Adopting some silly idea with no proof and running with it is strange, but very popular. Religion is the classic. A myth becomes reality. 

Picked up a stray

Kadizzle gave an Arizona trail hiker a place to stay last night, a beer, and a gin and tonic. The fellow pitched his tent near the Earth Module. Seems like traffic on the AZT has picked up. Hikers have to come down from the mountains for supplies and in this case the guy needed some money. He will have to hitch hike into Globe for money. 

Our trail crew has not yet been put to work. Cliff brought his camper down from the White Mountains. Ken and Rita are back and just bought a little refrigerator to sit outside their camper. Old Bill is pretty well recovered from his surgery. Bill is dragging up as they say. Kadizzle has been scavenging all Bill's old hoarder stuff. Jackie will be a new member on the crew this year. Jackie has a PHD in psychology, and used to be a college instructor. Our crew can use a good mental tune up now and then. 

The coyotes went nuts last night right under our window. Soundly asleep were awakened by the deafening scream of the wild dogs. 

One of the worst parts of establishing a new home has been mail, and money. Transferring banks, and credit cards is a mess, but nothing compares to moving mail. During the past year we have been using three different addresses. If you want a mess try that. The great combination is the credit cards and the mail. The credit cards are tied to your address. We are using a friends address in Bismarck. 

Winky is going to hike in the mountains today with Jackie. Kadizzle will have no adult supervision, yea.  More than likely will continue to help Bill pack up for his move to Arkansas. 

80 Years Old

My older brother just turned 80. His son took over his contracting business. My nephew's company takes care of the surface facilities for underground coal mines. Bob Murray who died, and was one of Trump's crooked buddies bought the coal mines in the Ohio Valley. The mines are going broke and owe my nephew well over a million dollars. Bob Murray who bought the mines is a typical crooked Republican. Murray used to be head of North American Coal. Murray's greed caused the death of many miners in Utah when a mine he owned there collapsed and killed the miners. Murray took too much coal out and the mountain caved in and killed the men. Murray blamed it on an earthquake and walked away. Republicans scammed my brother, and of course he is still a strong Republican. 

Part two. Kadizzle had to quit reading the New York Times this morning. It was just too depressing. Republicans now claim their right to privacy should keep the IRS from collecting taxes. The Republicans are selling the idea that the IRS has no right to know how much money you make. The sad thing is how absolutely stupid the public has become. The Republicans can rob people in broad daylight and tell them they are just removing the money from the bank for cleaning purposes. The American public has become so ill informed that collapse is eminent. It is reminiscent of when white people plundered native tribes. 

Grab some as it goes by.

Las Vesgas was the first to figure it out. Let the money go in a circle and grab some as it goes by. Take people's money, give it back, but grab a little as it passes by. Credit card companies make billions on this model. Insurance companies rip us off on health care, and every other type of insurance. Grab some as it goes by. Then you have the realtors. Same thing, grab some as it goes by. All these so called businesses are just sophisticated theft. Just get between someone and what they are trying to do and steal a little money in the process. Call it a service. People lived prior to credit cards. Other countries do not have health insurance, they just pay to take care of everyone. Nibblers, that is what the Insurance companies, and title companies are. The Kadizzles are purchasing a new home. The title company is a terrible nibbler. They want to charge us $200 for notarizing some documents. Most banks will do it for free. Credit card companies have a classic nibble. It is the late fee. Kadizzle has called the credit card companies and told them " I am not paying".  They say " Thank you, we will take that charge off your bill".  Kadizzle has done this dozens of time. How many billions have Credit card companies bilked people out of? The nibblers are everywhere. Do you want tires with your car? That is extra. Oh, you don't get batteries with the flashlight you just bought. On it goes. The best nibblers force you to buy something through the law. Only funeral homes can sell caskets. The best trick is to prevent competition. To give a massage you have to be licensed. What? Haircuts are another example. You need a license. Who invented these laws? Guess who. 

A Rant

Like a shadow that follows Kadizzle around there is the Republican Party out there doing evil every day. Years ago no one would have dreamed how blatant the Republicans would be about their evil tricks. Voter suppression? Invading the Capitol? and all sorts of underhanded tricks. Republicans cannot win honestly. The most devious thing they have done is take over the brains of the Hoopleheads. With Fox News and right wing media. Republicans own the dolts, the Hoopleheads, the simple minded and those who never can be bothered with deep thought. Kadizzle encounters these people and after a brief chat you can hear them echo the latest talking points of Fox News, or some insane right wing broadcaster. If you believe it, it is true. That is the motto they live by. Biden snapped his finger and raised gas prices. The virus is a hoax. Most amazing about the dingers is how they support the very people who are doing them the most damage. Then dingers do not have health care, they are living on next to nothing, have no teeth, no dental care, no future, yet the dingers blame it all on other poor dingers. Then Dingers just cannot see how they are being robbed by the rich. 

Gathering of the Tribe

 Jackie rolled in yesterday in her Snodpod. That is what she calls her camper. Jackie will be part of the trail crew. She is a very tough hiker. Yesterday Marty and Annette visited, two more strong outdoor people. Annette is going to hike across England for the second time. One thing about the people we know from our outdoor life is they are hearty people. Kadizzle could go through the list and name so many people over 70, and some 75 who are hiking up mountains, riding mountain bikes, repelling, and rafting. Can think of none that are Republicans. Oh the places they have been. Amazing that if you just sit in the right place the people you will meet. Just sitting in front of the Earth Module we have met some very nice interesting people. What happens is people wander by, but no one would wander by where we are unless they had an sense of adventure. We are in a campground, but where we are is closed off to the public. So when someone comes by our place on an ebike or on foot they have to be doing a little exploration. Usually we invite them to sit down and in no time we are having a beer sharing adventures and the Kadizzles are explaining the area to them. Swapping stories about how to explore Utah, New Mexicao, and the southwest enables everyone to share special places. One big item that works well is finding wonderful camp spots. Yesterday Marty wanted to find a crysilated cactus.  About one in two hundred saguaro cactus. These cactus grow in strange fashion and Marty is a photographer. Kadizzle drove Marty up towards Peter Bigfoots and showed him a nice example. On the road up to Bigfoot's it was amazing what the recent floods had done. Huge pieces of concrete meant to protect the stream side were tossed about. 

Til the Next Time I'm in Town

In Hell I'll be in good company

 Sister Patty put Kadizzle onto a song " In Hell I'll be in good company".  Has some damn good whistling in it. Find it and listen. Now to the theme. Think about it. Would you want to be in heaven with all the simple minded fundamentalist you met? I don't think so. If you were ever going to live with vanilla people heaven would be full of them. The fundies are not exactly original thinkers. Of course if you go to hell Hitler and Trump will be there, but you can punch them in person. One bad thing about going to hell will be the Republicans. Every Republican will be in Hell. It will be strange because the fundamentalist Republican will be there. Hell will be interesting. Back in heaven they will be eating hot dish and singing, but in hell there will be plenty of wine, and other enjoyable vices. Back up in heaven it will be all praying, and reading the bible. Your feet will be sore from walking on the gold streets. Back down in hell you can meet all the crooked preachers. Pat Robertson will be there and of course Joel Epstein. In hell you will be able to find the details of how Nixon cheated. Hell will be crowded, but it will not be boring. 

They are out there

 They are out there, and it scares Kadizzle. Peddling the ebike around the campground yesterday Kadizzle saw one of the new camp host. Kadizzle decided to introduce himself to the fellow. In no time the guy was bellering about the government. Sometimes it take a little time to figure out if a person is a right wing nut or not. Then Mr. Beller said " Things were great until we go this president and his wife the whore". Kadizzle sensed he was talking about Biden and saw an opening. " Oh you mean Trump" , Kadizzle said. It was like Kadizzle stabbed the Hooplehead in the heart. Quickly the simple minded dolt tried to end the encounter. This guy had a solution for everything, shoot it. The campground was having a problem with water from some work being done for a new sewage dump. Mr. Beller said he would shoot the worker if he did not have water when he went to the shower house. Guns, are great, you have a problem, just shoot it. It might be your wife, your neighbor, or your dog, but just shoot it. Did you ever tear apart some lumber expecting a little rot and find out you had a lot of rot? Well, that is the United States.  The country has a lot of brain rot. Look around and if you see Trump flags, and bumper stickers you are seeing brain rot. Do you think we are done with idiocy? Nope, they are out there and listening to bizzare radio, and television. 

Before Kadizzle met the Trump dinger he ran into an older couple. The man was wearing a Biden T shirt. Kadizzle was amazed it was like seeing a diamond in a pile of manure. Kadizzle mentioned the shirt to the fellow and at first the man seemed to think Kadizzle was a Trump Dinger, but in no time Kadizzle let him know he was happy to see someone with a functioning brain. Kadizzle warned the fellow he was deep in the land of rednecks and could get shot. He had no fear. 

Everything is Biden's fault according to the new Republican mantra. They think they can do to Biden what they did to Obama. If your car gets a flat tire, Biden put a nail in the road. If your dog dies, it was Biden. It worked they kept Obama from doing anything. 

Morning in the Earth Module

We live in a tiny home. The distance from the bed to the coffee maker is about twenty feet. Kadizzle is up pecking on the tablet, but Winkie is still back in bed watching the moon set. It is about six A.M. , still dark. The routine is make the coffee sit down and get up to date while the sun struggles to rise. Do people really need huge homes? In this tiny little dwelling we have everything. Most important we walk out the hatch and there is the world. It is not a world of malls, and freeways, it is a world of mountains, coyotes, hummingbirds, and silence. Although the Earth Module is small the yard is hundred of square miles. Kadizzle likes living cheaply, and it does not get much cheaper than volunteering for the Forest Service. The goberment provides us with water, electricity, sewer, the  executive suite, parchment on rolls, and other necessities. For this they ask us to work 24 hours per week. It is like an adult CCC program. Why not put all the people sitting around with a cork up their exhaust to work. People could do a thousand simple jobs. Dave our closest neighbor is busted flat, but he gets up and makes wonderful signs form wood for the Forest Service. You know those trail signs, those nice signs you see in the National Parks, they don;t just grow there, Dave makes them.  Bill fixes the toilets, Tony trims the trees, and on it goes. No one gets paid, but the job gets done. Why not take the bums from the cities, bring them to the country, give  them a little shack and ask them to do what they can? 

The country is plagued with stupidity and greed. The greedy exploit the stupid, it is that simple. It works for the rich, but is very hard on the stupid and poor. 

Fall

Fall is here and it is a great time of year. The temperature is just right. We are trying to rehabilitate our fellow camper Bill after his bowel blockage surgery. Bill seems to be doing fine. 

On the way peddling up to Bill's Kadizzle got a call from Tom Hammerel in Bismarck. Hammerel wrote a letter criticizing Kadizzle's left wing letters in The Bismarck Tribune. Kadizzle tried to reach him to straighten him out. Strangely as often happens when there is a confrontation with those on the other side we get along fine. Had a nice conversation and Kadizzle discovered Hammerel used to be the landman for the Glenharold Mine where Kadizzle worked. Strange world. Mr. Hammerel said Kadizzle distorted the truth. The truth is the three stooges who represent North Dakota will not support the IRS so the IRS can collect the 900 billion the rich will not pay.  Look it up yourself, that is not a distortion. 

Picking up the tablets

Yesterday Winky and Kadizzle set out on a hike up the mountain. We did not see a burning bush, or have an tablets to bring down. For many years we wanted to get up above a small cliff dwelling by the falls at Workmens Creek. After a long slog up an abandoned road we reached an area with a great view. Winky thought we would find another ruin. No such luck. Fall hiking is always great. 

Today Kadizzle has been going back and forth by email with a church lady who rights for the Fargo Forum. Kadizzle asked her some puzzling questions, but got no response, but fluffy feel good stuff. Asked why God lets children suffer. Either he can control things or he cannot. What puzzles Kadizzle is why you have to ask God to do the right thing. If you said to a normal person quit kicking the dog, more than likely they would. A normal person would not ask you to form a prayer circle with twenty church members and then ask to stop kicking the dog. If anyone can explain how God decides to do things based on prayer please let me know. Another great puzzle to me are God's instructions. Over 2,000 years ago God gave us some very confusing instructions, and then apparently he walked away and never said much more, unless of course you are a Mormon, then he did an update. For most people all they have are very unclear instructions. Then net result has been every variation of religion imaginable. Would't clear instruction have solved that problem. Some might say the ten commandments were pretty concise instructions, but Trump could not seem to figure out any of them. So here we are burning the planet down, and letting people starve while we send billionaires into space. God could have given us a formula for taxes and the minimum wage. Nope he thought we could figure it out and would not fight about it for a hundred years. Now with modern technology couldn't God email us, or send us a text message about what to do. God did use the technology of the day when the Jews used scrolls. Does God use the internet? Why instead of praying can't we just email to god@gmail.com? Instead we wander around in a daze so confused some of us think God wanted us to vote for Trump. 

What a life changer.

Today is our oldest daughters birthday. 44 years ago the universe changed. Winky brought that bundle home and it was game on. Kadizzle always remembers coming home from work at the mine and finding Winky with the little girl in her one piece little sleeping suit on the floor on a blanket. Winky was pretty happy with her prize. 

Erin was an active and very intelligent little kid. It seemed like in no time at all she learned to read. At four she was reading. It was time for Erin to go to kindergarten the school tried to turn her down because she was too young. Winky is a difficult woman to say no to. The administrator thought she could solve the problem by testing Erin. Apparently the administrator thought Erin would fail the test and it would be problem solved. Nope, Erin passed with flying colors. Still the woman tried to dissuade Winky. While waiting in the lobby to see the admittance person Winky read an article that suggested capable kids that are too young be allowed to start school. First, Winky asked the lady what she thought of the Teachers magazine she perused in the lobby. The woman said it was a good source of information. Winky put the hammer down and showed her the article suggesting Erin should be allowed to attend Kindergarten.  Erin thrived in school and went on to be a strait A student, and eventually went to one of the top 7 liberal arts schools in the country.  Erin excelled at track and was on the team that won the state track meet five years in a row. Then tragedy struck. A knee to Erin's kidney during a basketball game almost killed her. Her kidney was split into three parts. No one realized she was bleeding to death. After a night of surgery she survived. The injury haunted her for years, but she managed to produce a wonderful grandchild that is just as athletic and smart as she is.  After the first great success with a girl we decided to have another one.  Her sister is just as wonderful and talented, and has given us two little bumpkins. We are lucky parents to have two such prizes. 

Looking for an Indian site in the Sierra Ancha Mountians

 The big boss wants to discover a new Indian site high in the Sierra Ancha Mountains. We know of a site there that is well hidden and hard to get to. Winky thinks there are other sites nearby. It will involve some serious climbing. The strange thing about the sites in these mountains is how defensive they are. Kadizzle believes the people who lived down here in the valley where we camp were at times forced to run into the mountains when they were attacked. Living full time up in the mountains was not practical. There is no farm land there, and the only source of food would be game. The drive up into the mountains is very nice. Once we are there we will have to unload the ebikes and ride about two miles, then the hike will start. 

Poor Old Bill

 Kadizzle wandered over to Dave the sign guy to borrow a ladder. In the course of the conversation Dave asked why an ambulance was over by us at five in the morning. Kadizzle knew nothing about it, but came to discover Old Bill had been taken to the hospital with a bowel obstruction. Bill is a great guy and has a wonderful sense of humor. Bill is the volunteer maintenance man and not much would get fixed around the campground without Bill. So Bill is laid up in Globe and has had surgery to fix him up. Hopefully he will be able to come home today. We may have to go get him. Bill lives in a small camper about two hundred yards from us. 

The trail crew is slowly migrating back. The task will be massive to clear the trails. The brush took off dramatically with all the rain. In addition to the brush the trails washed out in many places. 

Homeless Vagabonds

yUp to Payson today to check progress on our new house, or maybe more accurately to check on the lack of progress. The calendar says it is October 15. The house could or should have been done easily by the end of August, but there have been a thousand excuses, and delays. The children and grandchildren should be her for Thanksgiving. We will indeed be thankful if they have beds to sleep on, tables to eat on, heat, light, and water. The location of the new home is one of the reasons we jumped into the mess. The house will sit high with a good view of the mountains, but there is the danger other homes will be built nearby to diminish the view. Once thing we never thought about is the construction of other homes that will go on for years. Live and learn. Strange the only homes we have ever owned were built for us. We should have learned a lesson or two from the first go around with a contractor. 

Sprawling Wasteland

Yesterday Winky and Kadizzle drove deep into Phoenix. Phoenix is a vast sprawling wasteland of the same stores, the same roads, and the same mess spread over a vast area in the desert. The inability of humans to plan and construct a decent city is on display. Hundreds of years ago just about every civilization could lay out a town with some character, and respect for the planet. Now we have these vast pollution factories spread all over the country. Visit Denver, Baltimore, the entire East Coast, or any metropolitan area and you find the same thing, a giant mess. When you go somewhere in the United States it is as if you went no where. Everything is the same. Boxes, little boxes, everyone lives in little boxes, nice boxes, sorrowful boxes, rat infested boxes. Our communities too often look like the cattle feeding complexes that have grown out of proportion. Transportation is the devil. The year is 2021 and we are still tied to cars like our umbilical cord. Mass transit is possible, and so many things that could make walking and biking possible just have not been done. When will we realize it is quality, not quantity?

Bum Walkers

 Winky watches birds and tries to identify them. Kadizzle likes to watch bums. Bum walkers are a special bread, they just walk down the highway. Where are they going? More than likely they don't know. Some bum walkers ride bikes, some walk around cities, and some settle down in to a quasi sedentary life. Did these people just give up? Maybe they are content and happy. In Springerville there is a bum bike rider. He seems to appear magically here and there all over town. Where do these people go at night?A lot of people just could not conform to the nine to five life. In the course of our travels we have met many living on the edge. Their lives are often more interesting than the guy who sat in an office for thirty years then died. The bum walkers have seen a lot, and moving is in their blood. They may have a good attitude. Maybe things are better right around the bend or ten feet down the road. 

Raining Mud

Strong winds are rare at our campsite, but last night the wind was blasting. The wind stirred up dust. Once the dust was in the air it rained. Waking this morning the car was coated with muddy rain drops, so was the  truck and camper. It appears the air is still full of dust. Another rain to clean the air would be nice. 

Last afternoon we had new friends at happy hour. Mary and Steve are ebike riders. The four of us took a tour up into the mountains where they had never been. The camp grounds have cleared out from the weekend. Consequently the internet service has improved. 

The tarantulas keep visiting. The large spiders are amazing. One has made home under our camper. They don't bother anyone, but are fun to watch. Kadizzle also enjoys watching the soaring birds in action every afternoon. The birds defy physics they way they fly. Somehow they go into the wind without flapping their wings. Also they seem capable of just hanging in the air. They must be experts on updrafts.  

Coyote Morning

 The howling would not quit. The Coyotes were close to the Earth Module. First Winky saw them down by the executive suite, then Kadizzle walked over with the binoculars and got a good look. Dave's dogs howled back at the miniature wolfs. Kadizzle got within about 75 yards. The desert dogs looked right at Kadizzle, but did not seem to mind. They seemed to just be sunning and howling. Seemed to be about five of them in nice condition. Finally they saw Kadizzle and decided to leave. The howling must have lasted an hour. Sometimes at night they come right under our windows. 

Winky just reported from her news post across the table the Saudis gave Trump fake furs. 

Ebike Warriors

With the beast truck we drove into the mountains carrying the ebikes. After we dismounted the bikes we took off toward Aztec Peak.  Edward Abby stayed in the fire tower there and wrote some of his books. The first thing you encounter is about a 700ft waterfall. Not much water, but still spectacular. Above the fall is a very unique Indian ruin few can get to. After several miles of peddling we came to a small ranch. Although the no trespassing signs were evident Winky had to go on and the people at the ranch gave her a little chew. There are these strange pockets of private property deep in the land owned by the Forest Service. The scenery on the ride was hard to beat. It took 50% of the batter to make the climb and Kadizzle was nervous about running out of power, but did make it back with 30% left. It was a nice downhill coast on the way back. Today is starting with crystal clear skies and a nice temp. Bill our only neighbor says he is throwing in the towel. Bill plans to go to Arkansas. Bill is a lot of fun at happy hour, and with him gone it will not be the same, but some of the regular crew should show up before long to fill the gap. 

Bragging Grandpa

Twelve year old Sylvie tried out for the Denver Opera and got the role of understudy for two positions. A professional actor is actually doing the role. Sylvie will be paid well for a twelve year old. It will be a lot of rehearsals, and hard work. She has already done some paid commercials. Sylvie has such a broad range of talent. Currently she is enrolled in the Denver school of arts. Her artistic ability is also amazing. Sylvie has lived a charmed life as a twelve year old and topping it off she is a good athlete. At 9 Sylvie had the main role for Marry Poppins and did an excellent job. 

Grandpa thinks back to playing with Sylvie in the basement. Grandpa always played the role of the customer at the coffee shop or the hair dressers shop. Once Sylvie played three different owners of hair shops. One had a British accent and Kadizzle would go from shop to shop to have his hair done. The name of one of the shops was the Wow shop. It all paid off now the little snoochel is a backup in the opera. 

A dollars worth of Hope

 The damn credit card would not work. Kadizzle had spent most of the morning going around in circles with the credit card company. After about the third call to the credit card company Kadizzle needed to test the card to see if it worked. The lady in the grocery store said buy a lottery ticket for a dollar to see if the credit card works. Kadizzle bought the ticket and the card worked. Problem solved, but what about the next problem. What would we do with the six million dollars when we won? It would involve bankers, investment peoeple, and so much more. Then there would be struggles over who should get help with the money. It seemed like a big task. Getting rich could be a lot of work. So Wednesday came, and we lost, we did not win one cent. Whew, that saved us so much work. So what are you buying when you buy into the lottery? You get to have a fantasy for a few hours or days, then back to reality short of the money you pissed away on the lottery. Now, if the simple minded would invest in damn near anything with the money they spend on the lottery, they would be far better off.  What is hope worth, and how much should you buy. This, Honest Omar brings us to religion. With religion you spend a fortune for hope. You pay dearly to have ever lasting life. Again if you invested the money you were giving to the church you could have every lasting television, or wine. Hope is a strange commodity. Yesterday Kadizzle waded into the lake to cool off. Two fishermen came. They had hope. It gave them pleasure.  You can have hope for very little if you just try. 

Once Upon a Time

During his career Kadizzle worked with a lot of engineers, and many times people assumed Kadizzle was an engineer. Engineers are often confused about what would not confuse ordinary people. Details sometimes overwhelm engineers and they get blinded. Once talking on a lunch break with the guy running the mine who happened to be an engineer, Kadizzle wondered out loud how much energy he could use up to lose weight if he walked up the boom of the dragline. The boom was about 150 feet in the air. The engineer said it would take as much energy as walking on the ground 150ft. To an ordinary person that is so obviously wrong. Walking up a 45 degree angle takes way more calories than walking on level ground. Kadizzle was stunned by the poor thinking of this man.  Well, that gets us to today. Winky wants to hike up a very steep trail. Kadizzle needs the exercise, but is not inclined (no pun intended) to walk up the steep mountain grade. It is all steep. In fact it is one of the longest steep hikes around. So here we are early in the morning facing Mount Everest. Given the choice Kadizzle would far rather ride the bike. 

Phase two of this morning's thoughts. Words, words mean something. Republicans have become masters at distorting the meaning of words. Their most famous perversion was the inheritance tax. They changed it to the death tax. Now the good old liars have taken the word socialism and made it into a evil thing. In the old days the key word was communism. Communism used to be the perfect scare word, but it fell out of favor when Russia fell apart. Now the word is socialism. Your typical simple minded dinger has no clue what socialism is or how it works. Add Democratic to the word socialism and the Hoopleheads are totally lost. All you need to know if you are a brain dead cult member is that socialism is evil and must be stopped. It must be stopped as the Republicans know because it could result in taxing the rich. Anyone capable of using toilet paper knows taxing the rich will create doom in the world of the Trump cult. After all no one else has agreed to trickle on the peasants, but the rich. The rich give us work polishing their cars, carrying their luggage, and cutting their grass. We should not ask them to share. There is nothing wrong with 400 families having as much wealth as the rest of the country combined. We only need 400 families to trickle on us and bring us the money to buy at Walmart and McDonnells. Not only do the rich trickle on us, but now they have made it possible for anyone with a billion dollars to take a ride into space. Few know how grateful we should be. 

The Earth Moved

 Kadizzle has wandered and hiked a great deal of the country. In all the wandering the thought about how the mountains and valleys were formed has always been present. How was so much material moved? Yesterday we found out. Coming back to the Earth Module from Payson the road was blocked by sand and mud eight feet deep. To get home we had to drive an extra 140 miles around the blocked road. A highway employee attempted to walk across the mud and sank to his waist when he broke through the crust. Kadizzle had an idea. Call bill and have bill come to the other side of the blockage and pick us up. Nope, that would not work. They had the road blocked two miles back and we had groceries. Also they said to walk around the mess we had to go off the highway right of way. This meant an impossible walk. We gave up and made the drive. After you spend some time in the southwest you begin to see how easily water can make something like the Grand Canyon.  Water can move a lot of material. It will take several days and hundreds of truckloads to clear the road in just this one spot. Climate change is going to bring a lot more of this problem. 

Cliff rolled in

Cliff rolled in late with his Hobbie sailboat in tow. The dining table for the first time got turned into a bed. Cliff said the cushions were too stiff. At this moment rain is pouring down. The clouds struggled all night to produce some decent rain. Winkle says we we go to Payson today to harass the builder. Seems like everything is gong south. The economy is in a tizzy, the Democrats cannot get out of first gear, and the rich have been caught hiding their money. When the Republicans finally make it illegal to tax the rich they will no longer have to hide the cash. Maybe you read it, but South Dakota is one of the many U.S. tax havens. Hard to believe we as a country rank second for helping scoundrels hide money. 

Raining hard enough to obscure the mountains. The weather in Arizona has been extremely wet this summer, even so lakes are low, and technically we are in a drought. Kadizzle's generation has made a mess. If the young do not wake up and put up a good fight the game is over. The human race is pushing itself out of existence. The greed dogs don't care, as long as they got their Trumpers it will be a battle. Who controls the vast supply of stupid people? No doubt it is the Republicans. The ignorant love being fooled and it takes a certain type to rob old ladies. No one personifies this like the stump preachers on TV. Those scoundrels know exactly how to peal a stupid person. Just tell them a story. Trump knows the trick and we must pray that evil rat does not come back. Well, have a good day, it looks like we will have a wet one. 

Six A.M.

Up very early, reading the NYT, and getting up to date. The world seems relatively calm. The democrats are self destructing. The two traitors, Joe Manchin, and whatshername from Arizona are fake democrats helping the Republicans commit their usual greedy evilness.  The sun is finding it more difficult every day to rise. This morning it is six A.M. and still dark. The temperatures are moderating. We checked out our home in Payson. The traffic there is insane for a small town. Weekends have hundreds of outdoors people moving through. Strangely once you get off the main streets it is peaceful. 

Building a home is a taxing series of tortures. Things move so slowly. Now we have a major problem, the water supply for the development has run into a pump problem. Of course this may cause more delays, and delays mean more interest payments. The cost overruns are scary. We sold all our furniture, so that will be another major expense. Hopefully we can die in style and broke. 

Wild Monkeys

 Kadizzle and Winky are visiting sister Patty in Cottonwood. Also in the visitation process is nephew Patrick, wife and children. The first children are twins, two little energy bundles, and the third child is nine months old. Controlling this group wild monkeys is a chore Kadizzle is glad that someone else has to undertake. Last night we went out to eat and the game was on. 

Cottonwood, Arizona seems to be thriving. Cottonwood is close to Sedona, but Sedona has become a crowded tourist mess. The net result is a lot of people head on down the road to Cottonwood with a much more livable atmosphere. Old Cottonwood has a couple of rich guys who have restored the town to prosperity with all kinds of good eating places, which presents a big problem for fat guys. 

One phenomenon that makes Kadizzle wish he was armed are the mentally ill that drive loud vehicles and make a point of being obnoxious with them. The worst of the worst are the pickup truck drivers. They have a game of making a lot of noise and they have added to their repertoire "rolling coal".  What in the hell is that? The simple minded have equipped their diesels so they can spray raw fuel into the exhaust. The result is they can emit a cloud of black smoke that will block the sun. In close competition for the obnoxious human award are the loud motorcycle guys. These morons have a masculinity complex and somehow feel making a big noise makes them bigger.  Now to step up the stupidity the truck guys fly huge Trump flags. s

Where is law enforcement with these simple minded idiots? Enjoying a meal in Cottonwood why do you have to have a thundering mentally challenged Trump cultist destroy the tranquility?

This sure is going to teach me a lesson

For some strange reason Kadizzle keeps thinking about an H.L. Menken story. A man in Boston was about to be hanged. The man was asked if he had any last words. The man replied " This sure is going to teach me a lesson".  This story reminds Kadizzle of the people who will not get vaccinated, the mind set of the Republicans, and so many other simple mined people. Now, if anyone knows where Kadizzle can find the exact story please send the information. Kadizzle would like to read the actual story .

The Tipping Point

 Up very early pecking on the communicator. Reading the New York Times. The world is going to hell in a hand basket. The rich have stolen everything and left the peasants with nothing. Ignorance is raging, and the dark ages are upon us. You heard it here first. Capitalism has failed. It created nothing but vast armies of poor people. Reading about the Dollar Store in the NYT tells it all. The company will not pay people, they cannot get supplies, and on it goes. 

Yesterday Kadizzle encountered two right wing dingers. One was hopeless the other had some insight. What dinger number two said was interesting. He voted for Trump, but admitted Trump lost and was mentally ill. He even said he did not like Trump. The interesting thing he said was he knew Trump lost because so many of his right wing friends admitted they could not stand Trump and would vote for Biden. 

What the Republicans have pulled off is very simple. The Republican game has been to blame the poor and welfare for all the problems. It works with the dingers. The dingers cannot understand who the real thieves are. The real thieves have billions. The welfare people use two percent, that is right two percent of the GDP. The welfare cheats are like a car that gets 299 miles per gallon.  The bottom 20% of income earners on use up 2% of the pie, while the richest 400  families have half the wealth in the country. Blaming poverty on the poor is insane. The poverty is created by the same people who ran the plantations. Kadizzle started to read about the mess in Britain, but it was just too depressing. There is no problem, except a distribution problem. When you give all the cheese to one rat the other rats starve. It is that simple, but Republicans say sharing the cheese is socialism. 

Living on the edge

Mr. and Mrs. Kadizzle have been traveling about in the winter for 22 years. 95% of the travel has been in the southwest. Since our winter travels have always involved a camper of some sort we have met a lot of other people in the wild and on public land and in parks. People of limited means adapt to life without much money. One way they do it is living cheaply. This means they live where they can. The luck ones have a vehicle and a camper to pull behind.  They move with the weather. Now to the point, most of them have an interesting story to tell. Many of the itinerant did have a good career or job, but something went wrong, it might have been a divorce, an investment, or a health problem. Most of these people are not mentally deficient, they just sort of gave up, and are actually happy not having the usual hassle of fighting to survive right to the end. A whole lot of these people have traveled widely. For years Kadizzle has sat down outside with these people an heard their stories. Almost always they have an interesting story, and got to the place in life where they are by some interesting twist and turns. The people moving about have adaptive skills. Living on little or no money is a skill. Money from social security or some small pension is sent somewhere, and then on to them as they move. Most importantly is they find a cheap location. That location can be on the beach, in the mountains, or anywhere cheap. People on the move help each other. Not all people on the move are hard pressed for cash. We know several people with plenty of money who have no permanent home. Many of our traveling friends stay with other people who have homes occasionally. We have hosted our friends, and have stayed with other people we met on the road. Had some great experiences doing it. Life is what you make it. If you want to sit home with a cork up your *** that is your choice, but living a life, rather than reading about someone else's life is our choice. 

Prisoners and ebikes

 As a volunteer for the Forest Service Kadizzle ends up interacting with the prisoners who do so much to keep the place running. Yesterday Kadizzle could see a young worker dressed in his orange jump suit eyeing the ebike.  Kadizzle told the guy to hop on and give it a try. He was about the fifth or sixth incarcerated fellow to ride the bike. After sitting around a jail a ride on a ebike is a big thrill for these guys. The fellows who have committed some low grade crime are the saving grace for public works. They contribute millions to our society, and love to get away from the encapsulated life. North Dakota could accomplish so much by following what Arizona has done. Keep in mind these guys love to get outside and work, these are not chain gangs. The prison system in Arizona is very strict with the people that do public service. It is so well liked by the men who do it that they make it a point to work hard, be polite, and get the job done.  Covid shut down the workers and it very quickly shows in how the campground we work at goes downhill. The biggest fight here is the brush. In just two days the eight guys have rehabilitated two big campgrounds. These guys do everything, from digging up the water lines, to chainsawing the trees. 

If you talk to the poor fellows you soon realize they came from disadvantaged backgrounds. You get to see first hand how our society fails. People get depressed and take drugs, steal, and commit other crimes. It can be depressing to watch billionaires take joy rides in space ships while you don't have the money for gas to get to work. 

Poor by choice

 Kadizzle just got a cup of coffee and looked out the window toward Dave's camper. The thought ran through Kadizzle's head about Dave. Dave provides a service. Dave does a great job of fixing the signs for the National Forest, and he also makes new signs. Dave does not get paid for his work, but Dave is able to scrape by because the National Forest Service gives him a place to live with free sewer, water, and electric. There is a lesson in this we will get to later. First, another volunteer, Bill.  Bill is like Dave. Bill is the only person who is repairing all the odds and ends that make the place work. Bill most importantly takes care of the plumbing, and the bathrooms. 

Now to the point. Both these men are making a useful contribution to society. Both have a marginal income, and are able to make it working for free with the basics provided. How many people could be just nudged a little to become productive? Forest Service volunteers work mostly unsupervised and are asked to work for 24 hours per week. The volunteers save the Forest Service millions of dollars. Almost forgot Ken and Shirley, Shirley works at the front desk of the visitor center, and Ken does odds and ends. 

As a nation we can make it work. The big problem is a will, and of course the Republican greed dogs.  Yesterday Kadizzle could have damn near cried as he rode his bike through the deteriorating campground down below here. 40 million dollars was spent to provide one of the best camping facilities in the United States, but there is no money for upkeep. Meanwhile the billionaires are taking joy rides into space and Bezos is making 12 million dollars an hour. There is no poverty problem, it is a distribution problem.  The New York Times reported that billionaires pay 8% tax.  Even the lowest working man pays more than that. Trickle down has been a massive failure. Now, 400 families have as much wealth as the rest of the country. Our only problem is the Republican Party which makes this greed possible. The lives of so many people could be massively improved, but the Fox News mentality has put the Hoopleheads into a self induced poverty coma. 

A pleasant rain

Rain in the desert is always welcome. Like the mountains we left this desert is lush. Somehow moisture that usually goes north is stopping here. One thing Kadizzle noticed last night as the sun went down the nice smell of the desert. Kadizzle had a gin and tonic and fell asleep in the chair out in the pleasant warm air. Settling in may take a couple days. The refrigerator has to be stocked, lines hooked up, and the wi-fi booster installed. At Cliff's the cell tower was about two hundred yards away. Here the service is often terrible. We both agreed it is a little quieter her. It was plenty quiet at Cliff's, but you could hear car noise once in awhile. There is no logging or logging trucks here. This forest is oriented more towards recreation and grazing. As our winter friends trickle in it will be nice to see them. The Canadians still cannot get here, and there are a lot of good Canadian friends we miss. 

Here we are on planet Tonto Basin. It is a different world. This is the desert, but thing have grown incredibly over the summer. It was so good to land the Earth Module and see our old friend Bill. Bill had a good summer and that was nice to know. Parking the Earth Module was slightly easier than inventing an atomic bomb. Winky insisted she have a good view while washing dishes. This meant we burnt ten gallons of diesel fuel moving the Earth Module into position. Why live on one planet all your life. There are at least a dozen planets on Earth. Each is different. We were in the mountains, but the mountains here are entirely different. The plant life is different, and it seems like more people carry guns. It feels like coming home. Strange to live in an Earth Module. Tomorrow we will have to hook up the sewage line, that will be fun. All those little items. The solar lights will have to be put back in order. Bill said there are plenty of rattlesnakes, so we need to be careful. As usual Kadizzle saw an armed redneck at the grocery store. Kadizzle had to resist asking the fellow if the onions or the celery was dangerous. This area has a serious infestation of Trump dolts. One stretch of highway has both sides lined with Trump dolts flying the Trump dolt flags. Saw a new dolt flag that said Trump 2024. Yup there are plenty of slow learners.,  

Hook up the Earth Module.

Today is the big day. The Earth Module will disconnect from shore power and connect to the truck. Down the road the show will go.  Like birds on the wing the Kadizzles will seek a warmer climate. The module will drop from 7,500 ft to about 3,000.  As Honest Omar would say the lapse rate will change.  The rattlers will still be active down in the basin. Old winter friends will reappear. Changes in latitude, changes in attitude. The summer was pleasing. Winkie and Kadizzle explored a vast new wilderness. A new routine will start. Work will be in the mix. Three days a week we are supposed to simulate work for the Forest Service. 

Ignorance thrives in warm climates

Millions were pissed away on the Arizona audit. Today they admitted there was no fraud. In the old days education meant something. No matter what school you went to you learned a few basics. That day is gone. You can no longer rely on meeting people who have a clue about history, science or math. Trump showed us how dangerously dumb we have become. Kadizzle is somewhat of a history person, mostly by accident. Kadizzle was forced to learn some history in college to avoid being shot in Vietnam.  Of course history is taught completely wrong. It is taught as a memory contest of dates, and event. History should really be taught about concepts. How did Hitler come to power? How did an advanced country like Germany embrace an insane lunatic like Hitler? Well, Trump answered that question for us.  Control the masses of stupid people and you control the country. In our country the Republicans have worked long and hard to make the simple minded scared, and feed them Fox News baloney.  It worked. We know for certain there are 74 million certified idiots in the country. A key tool for spreading ignorance is religion. Religion says don't believe the obvious, instead believe whatever you want. As long as you get a big group of people to believe something, then it is true. It works for Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, you name it. If a lot of people believe something it must be true. If dad believed, and mom believed it, it must be true. Facts are whatever you want them to be. How can you verify your beliefs. Simply turn on Fox News, or consult some expert that can give you the lie you need. A key to Republican success, and the success of religion is to get people to distrust reality. There is of course the devil working behind the scenes, not to mention angels and saints. Once you rinse reality from your brain the thoughts you can cook up are endless. 

Magic refrigerator

 The Earth Module has been pretty good to us in the last year, but it has found our weak spot. The refrigerator quit working about two months ago. We hauled the whole damn camper to Showlow and the RV people told us there was nothing wrong with it. It worked for about two months and quit two days ago. RV refrigerators will run on gas or electric. Now it is working on gas, but today we will see if it will run on electric. This is just going to be one more hassle. The home building in Payson has become insane. The contractor is having his share of problems getting materials, labor, and hooking up the utilities. The stove finally came with a dent in it. Took a major intervention to get that mess cleared up. Home Depot does not seem to realize they are sending us another stove. Somewhere down the road we may have one, two, or maybe three stoves. Since employers are so hard up for employees the dolts have been hired. This adds to all the problems. In retrospect we should have chosen a good nursing home and moved in. There should be cages for people like us. The compound could have a lot of nice amenities. Kadizzle wanted to travel as the final years are burnt up, but it looks like the Covid insanity will put a stop to that. We are living in a time of the Trump mental plague. One thing Trump let us know is how many brain dead people are walking the streets. The brain dead live on misinformation, and reality just does not penetrate the lead shield around their dead brain. What me worry, seems to be how they operate. Stupid and proud is the new Trump motto. 

Morning at the Casino

Up very early, 4:30. Kadizzle is a notorious cheap use your own expletive. Most casinos will give you ten or twenty dollars to get you started in the pocket cleaning process. A worker at a casino in New Mexico told us how to turn the free gambling into cash. At the slot machine when you use the card they issued you for your free gambling you cash out every time you win. If they gave you twenty dollars worth of play, then you may end up with 22 dollars or maybe 18 dollars. The important thing is not to put any of your own money in the machine. Kadizzle used to just go into the casino and get his money, but now apparently they have wised up. They gave us twenty dollars of chips last night, but said we could not use it until today. At eight when they open Kadizzle will have to go get his refund. A friend came down from North Dakota. He wanted to see the great fountain at Fountain Hills. The fountain erupts every thirty minutes. We parked in the casino parking lot. Kadizzle said to Dave, why don't you go in and get your free money. Dave was too lazy, so Kadizzle took Dave's drivers license and joined the casino club for him. When Kadizzle did the gambling for Dave he harvested 32 dollars. You can only join the club once per person. Anyway during our travels we have probably made a couple hundred bucks this way. When we got stuck near Santa Fe we won enough to park at their RV place for two nights free. Kadizzle liked being cheap and is amazed at how people just walk over money they could pick up. Yesterday our builder had to put 350 gallons of diesel fuel in a generator. Kadizzle asked him if he knew there was no tax on fuel going into a generator. The builder was unaware of the fact that fuel used for non highway things is not taxed. Using non taxed fuel would save the builder almost one hundred dollars on his fill up. Too many poor people are poor just because they have no economic sense. Investing in tattoos and chrome wheels for their car they  usually do not get a good return on their investment. 

Downstairs the casino will open at 8:00 A. M.  The people will stream in to put their social security checks in the slot machine. They will remember the one time they won and forget the ten times they lost. Kadizzle is offering a service. Simply give Kadizzle your money. Kadizzle will put it in the slot machine for you. Tell Kadizzle if you want all your money to disappear, like it usually does or if you want him to stop if you get ahead. This is a pocket cleaning service. You can have a drink, or a meal while Kadizzle makes your money disappear. Think of the time you will save. Kadizzle can email you and tell you that you lost.  Kadizzle charges ten percent for pocket cleaning. If by accident you win a large sum, Kadizzle will get ten percent, but most people want their pockets cleaned correctly and that means Kadizzle must stay until all the money is gone. There is an extra charge if it take more than the allotted time to get rid of your money. 

Back to the Apache. There is one problem with Indian casinos, if the Indians get their pockets cleaned they suffer along with the white man, and this happens. Who knows, but more than likely there are some good crooked people involved just like in Las Vegas. These are the people that understand math, and the correct way to pay bribes. They need to be paid too. 

Apache revenge

 Sitting in our room of the casino in Payson we are three floors above the white folks giving the country back to the Apache below. Kadizzle always said there is no better tax on stupidity than gambling. People in front of machines with their minds blown to shreds by the flashing lights. We came to Payson today to bring our worldly belongings and put them in storage until the new palace is done. Things were hopping and the deck is about done the Mexicans are going to lay pavers tomorrow. The stock market fell through the ice today. Everything is in short supply, especially labor. People are at the border clamoring for work, but Republican cannot figure out that labor is essential and our economy is falling flat because white folks will not work for slave wages. Two thirds of the work done on our home was done by immigrants. The white folks skim off the profit. The white folks skimming the sweat from the Mexicans are all Trump supporters who cannot figure out where Mexicans come from.  Apparently the Trumpers think the Mexicans come from Phoenix.  Our house would have been done two months ago if labor was available. 

Life of confusion.

Honest Omar weighed in and straightened Kadizzle out on the lapse rate. Omar has an extensive knowledge in aviation, and is the go to man on aircraft questions. Omar solved a debate the other day and he may win a Kadizzle T shirt at the end of the year. Bake to the " lapse rate", of course Omar would have to use some technical word, but that is the rate it gets colder as you go up. The correct lapse rate per thousand feet if Kadizzle has it right this time is 3.5 degrees per thousand. Anyway it is colder in general at Payson than at Cottonwood. That is why we will live there. Instead of adjusting the thermostat we will drive up and down the mountain until it is comfortable.  Since most people pretty much stay at one altitude they do not realize the effect. However, since the Kadizzles are constantly changing altitude all sorts of things happen. The potato chip bags swell as you go up the hill, the bottles pop, the ears pop, and so on.  Until you have lived in the mountains you do not realize water boils at a lower temperature. This means cooking takes longer. 

We are in the process of loading stuff to go to the new home. With luck we will at least be moved to Tonto Basin in a week or two. That will put us much closer to the house. What a hassle. If you are old, don't build a new home, repeat don't do it. The stress is just too much for old farts. Winky has about lost her mind picking out colors, light fixtures, door handles, carpet, tile, flooring.  On it goes. When you build a house you do not know what you are getting. You have to accept the final product. Of course there is the contractor routine. The house could have been done in June in my estimation, but, but, no. Of course there is the virus. 

Winky just called me on the phone. She is out in a field looking for a piece of old wood to make the mantel. Whoops, whoops, she just called again, bring a tape measure. Kadizzle has to hop on the ebike and run down the road to check out an old piece of wood. We were trying to move some things today, but now the whole game just changed we have to salvage old wood. Such is life

Up the mountain.

Kadizzle is up early and will head up the mountain before too long. Elevation is everything in the southwest. Currently the carcass sits at about three thousand feet. At the new home the carcass will be around five thousand feet. Back in the Earth Module it will be 7,500 ft. Going up means going down in temperature. It is about two degrees per thousand feet. 

A daily ritual is reading the NYT. Insanity and stupidity are blossoming like algae. Kadizzle is always amazed how many people do nothing. So many people wander around on pensions, or social security, and of course a little retirement investment money. A guess would be forty or fifty percent of people produce absolutely nothing every day. You can drive through this country and find so many towns with no major industry. Somehow we live by selling each other hamburgers. Cottonwood where Kadizzle is sitting at this moment has no reason to exist but serving food to a bunch of retired people. The town has every type of eating place multiplied by ten. Urban sprawl has made a complete mess out of the entire country. Crappy unplanned shopping mall polluted rat messes are in every town. Towns have very little character. Phoenix wins in the category of urban sprawl. The city is like someone spilled a bucket of humanity in the desert. 

Well thankya Jesus there are still wild spaces the Kadizzles can inhabit. So many people seem to be stuck in a box with a TV. That is life in America. Kadizzle was never pasted behind a desk, but how many Americans now just sit and get paid to stare at a computer screen. Maybe the peasants of long ago had it better. At least they could be outside. Well the rambling is done, time to start the day. 

Crazy likes warm

Sister Patty took Kadizzle down by the Verde river where she runs the community center. After the electric bikes wizzed down the hill we stopped to talk to a volunteer at the little hiking trail they have which follows the river. The fellow seemed like he had some bolts loose. He was wearing a body camera like the police do. Kadizzle asked him what the camera was about and he said it enabled him to get good wildlife pictures.  Kadizzle took off on a ride through the little sanctuary by the river with the ebike.  When Kadizzle returned to where Patty was standing he could hear loud shouting in the woods. A range war must have broken out. Apparently Mr. Camera encountered a person on the tail with two dogs. The dogs were unleashed and Mr. Camera and Wild Man were  yelling at each other. Expletives were flying everywhere. The two men obsessed with insanity came over towards Patty and Kadizzle. Patty tried to calm down dog man. After more shouting camera man left yelling he paid five thousand dollars to have his dogs trained. Apparently dog man and camera man had had encounters before. Of course the real reason for the camera now was evident.  Camera man called the sheriff and we were off to the races. Later in the day the sheriff called Patty and she said things were under control it was just the normal insanity. 

As the day went on Kadizzle met a few other people with loose bolts. Crazy people can live cheaply in warm climates. The North Dakota saying is really true " The cold keeps the riff raff out" .  It is hard to live under a bridge in North Dakota or sit at Walmart and beg. On the other hand down in Arizona you can be insane very inexpensively. 

Now we come to guns. No doubt if the two crazies at the river had guns there would have been a  shoot out.  Arming idiots is like letting a smoker carry a gas can.  Texas always has to outdo every other state for stupidity. North Dakota likes to imitate Texas. It seems we have reached the tipping point of any rational thought. The country is more than likely going to slide down the hill to a third world dictatorship. 

The town dolt

 Remember the old westerns? They had a town drunk. The guy slept at the jail. The modern version is the town dolt. Strangely every town now has a dolt that drive around with a loud pickup truck. The dolt has two large flags flying from the back of the truck. One has to be a Trump flag, and the other can be an American flag or a " Don't tread on me flag".  Of course the dolt will have an NRA sticker on the truck. Ideally the dolt truck will spew black smoke. Springerville has one or two dolts. We had dinner in Cottonwood and the dolt kept driving up and down the street. In the old days if you were an idiot or simple minded you at least had enough sense to keep it secret. Now things have changed. Trump showed the ignorant how to take pride in their stupidity. It worked. The simple minded now put stickers on their car, flags in their yard, and proudly declare " I am just not that smart". This has been a great service to normal people. Now you don't have to guess, you can just say " Oh, your an idiot, that makes things much easier".  Kids can play a new game during long drives. " Look mom, there is an idiot".   Ok kids let's see who can spot the most idiots? NRA stickers count for five points. A Trump sign in the yard or a Trump flag is twenty points. A dolt truck is 100 points. 

Morning in Cottonwood

 Sitting in the cool morning air on my sister's porch. The heat will come soon. After excellent barbecue last night the fire belly set in and Kadizzle did not sleep well. Visited the new home yesterday and little if anything was being done. The deck is almost complete, and the big excitement today may be the arrival of the cabinets. The garage doors are the big item now to complete the new hilltop palace. Old people should not build homes. 

Have been in a huge facebook battle over the issue if young people want to stay in North Dakota. Once you engage the Hoopleheads you find they are not very articulate. Always they say you are mean if you criticize the Republican Taliban. The simple reality is intelligent young people do not want to be ruled by old white goats. 

Your mourning assignment

 OK, wake up. Below is a song about the Hula, Hula boys. Whomever wrote it had a great sense of humor. Your job is to listen to the words carefully. There will be a test, and you will be asked about the Hula, Hula boys. Now, get to work. 

The Hula Hula Boys (2007 Remaster)

Let Life Happen

 The big boss just took off. She needed to get some test done in North Dakota. Kadizzle is in the wilderness alone. Another bright sunny day has fallen from the sky. What to do? Well there is that motorcycle, why not hop on and just see where it goes. Putting along the wheels turned until it was time to make a steep ride to a wonderful lookout point. Before Kadizzle got to the top he could see a white truck up there. Kadizzle knew it would be someone spotting for elk. Sure enough the guy was just getting out of the truck with his gear. To the puzzlement of Kadizzle the man after a little talk said " I know you". Kadizzle was a bit shocked, not only did the man know him he told Kadizzle were Kadizzle lived. Quickly the mystery was solved. The elk spotter explained he was the UPS man who always came with our packages. Out of uniform, and without a UPS truck Kadizzle did not recognize him. 

Kadizzle could see he had some very nice equipement for spotting elk. In his head Kadizzle hope UPS would let him look through the scopes and binoculars. He had a $4,500 dollar scope, and some $2,700 binoculars. After he set up the tripods he invited Kadizzle to take a look. For the next three hours Kadizzle had a great time observing the various herds of elk. The bulls had their harems and were enjoying life. UPS had a brother in law that was a guide. The guide was down below somewhere with a rich guy trying to find the perfect bull.  Our job was to evaluate the bull and guide them to it with their bow.  About two miles away the guide and hunter had parked their white truck and began to walk toward the elk. It was a long walk and the elk came towards them. Strangely hunters did not meet elk and the elk ended up at the pickup. Had the hunters just stayed in the truck they might have had a good shot.  Anyway there was another nice bull we tried to guide them toward. The problem was we could not find the hunters.  Meanwhile an Indian woman and her spouse joined the spotting party. They had already harvested their elk. The way the woman could spot elk must have been some Indian magic. Her ability to find big elk from two and three miles away was amazing. She was just having a good time pointing out the elk to us. It had to be her native American blood. She would explain every habit the elk had. She knew when they would go where, and when they would go for water. It was like being with an Indian in the old days when they must have known every elk by name. 

The drama was playing out so slowly. Finally we saw the guide and the hunter laying down under a pine.  Kadizzle is not an elk hunter and did not know why they did not continue to stalk the elk,  but UPS explained that since the elk were lying down in the shade you could not walk up on them. It was a stalemate. It was late in the day and Kadizzle decided it was time to give up. Will have to ask the UPS man how the hunt turned out.  It was a lot of fun just looking down from above and watching all this unfold. 

Keeping Winky Happy

Winky is the descendant of mountain goat. Her heart was set on hiking deep into a mountain valley on the edge of New Mexico. When you hike down your mind keeps focusing on the hike up. Nothing is worse than a long hike with a mountain climb at the end, but that was yesterday. The hike out was a chore. Kadizzle kept looking at the GPS. Kadizzle attacked the mountain a quarter mile at a time. Walk, find shade, walk again.  On the way out a couple of young guys came up the train on horses. They were hunting. The horsemen showed us some video of giant elk they had spotted. The normally empty mountains were teaming with elk hunters. One of the horses lost a shoe and the rider had to walk. He explained to us this was not horse country. Indeed, it was not. The trail was a steep rocky mess. When we finally reached the summit, it was about a half mile downhill to the cold ice tea in the car. Kadizzle kept himself alive by thinking about that ice tea. He drank the full quart.  At the trail head hunters were gathered packing more mules to head into the wilderness. Early in the hike we encountered two young guys hunting. They said they had shot an elk the day before. They were headed out to find the wounded or dead animal. What a shame to not find all that wasted meat. Kadizzle would not want to hunt elk.  If you get one you have to pack out the carcass. Hauling something that big up a mountain slope would be taxing and take many trips. Of course you have to cut it up first. What a game of hide and seek the hunters play. Forgot to mention this is just bow season. That means you have to get pretty close. Seems impossible. 

The Scott Hennen Jihad

 Scott Hennen is one of the most toxic liars in North Dakota. On his radio show he lies, distorts, and weaves conspiracy theories every day. Today in the Fargo Forum he responded to many of the letters I have written to the Forum about his deceit. Of course his column was just more of his lies. Hennen who stirred up Trump supporters admitted he was at the Capitol, but he was just covering the news. 

The Republican Taliban

Strangely some people like having the world managed for them. Some people like the military concept where you don't think, you just do what you are told. The people in the Trump Cult like the idea of a strong idiot running the world. It means thinking is no longer a requirement. Religion provides that wonderful system where you give up thought and let someone else do it for you. However, abdicating your right to think never turns out good. Once you put faith in some goofy psychopath it is all downhill. Playing on the simple minded who find thinking painful the Republicans seek to keep funneling wealth to the rich. Manipulating the Hoopleheads is just too easy.  Anyone can play to the emotions of the Hoopleheads. That is how Hoopleheads work they don't think, they just react to emotions. So you play on the fear, hate, and basic emotions of the simple minded and you got em. 

Slowly our country is turning into a mass of uneducated people ripe for the status of third world. Like so many south American countries we now have a class of immoral rich people willing to put us all into poverty. 

 

Megan's little man

As a child daughter Megan used to spend hours playing with the little characters she had.  Now Megan has two live monkeys that make her so happy. Quinn, the little monkey above is just learning to talk.  He keeps Megan entertained. The monkeys also keep the grandparents entertained.  Almost every morning we watch the gang on facetime. The ability to see the grandchildren on the phone keeps us in an upbeat mood. Quinn is a little over 18 months. It is fun to see him acquire language, and other abilities. He has already mastered eating like his grandpa. Big sister Evie and Quinn are good buddies. They play in the stream together, and Evie is a good big sister. 
 

To build a home

 Yesterday we took a very scenic drive to Payson to check the progress on our new home. The setbacks from the situation with covid is driving us over the edge. Old people should not engage in building a house. Dealing with contractors, and ordering materials is not a job for the feeble minded. The house has been under construction for about seven months.  It seems like the home should have been completed by now, but, but.  Right now the garage doors are not coming until October 6th.  We cannot move in until the entire house is done. Hopefully the cabinets which have been a delay item will come next week. There is always some magic item that holds up everything. Then add to that the painter got Covid. 

For Kadizzle the biggest insanity is picking out colors.  Winky has made it far worse than a United Nations meeting. You need a color for granite. Granite, a mother of all headaches. After a couple 200 mile trips to Phoenix to pick out the rock her majesty had the two huge slabs picked out. Nope, it did not stop there.  The granite place will only store it so long.  A battle erupted to get them to store it longer because of delays. Could not get the stove we wanted. Somehow a stove was going to get shipped to Bismarck. Caught that when the stove was in Minneapolis.  Fixtures are going back and forth in the mail. The loan is a crazy hassle. The delays mean we lock in an interest rate, then unlock it. 

Stay where you are fix you current home, do not build another.  So if the universe will cooperate we may be in the house in mid october.  One thing we never considered is the house is being built in a new home area. What does that mean? It means homes will be under construction with the noise and hassle for a year at least.  Kadizzle could go on with the crazy delays and problems, but here is not enough ink in the computer. 

Shot at and missed

Our hike was disrupted yesterday when Cliff called to say he had a positive test result from the Republican virus. Of course this set Winky into a panic. She is scheduled to fly to Bismarck. Quickly we called and got an appointment for a covid test. Cliff had been good about following protocol, but he went to a dance in a bar and apparently that is where he caught the bug. Since we are living close to Cliff for the summer we were lucky, so far. Cliff told us he might have been exposed so we took precautions, although not perfect. By some miracle we did not get the virus. We still did not get the results from the main test. We only have the results from the quick test. We both feel fine so things seem good. It is amazing that the Trump warriors are so willing to kill children, and grandmas. We are in the heart of redneck country where people are about as selfish as possible when it comes to protecting others. Within three days we should get the results from the full test. So far our outcome is looking good. When we got our test yesterday they gave us a court order to quarantine. The rednecks would be upset if they actually read the material they are given at the test site. The goverment told us to stay home. Can you hear the Trump cult yelling. " I got my rights to kill children".  The rednecks care about children only to the extent they don't have to wear a mask".

Almost at sunset

As the sun goes down the wildlife awakens. Yesterday was a 16 mile ride on the ebike through the wilderness. Kadizzle decided to repeat the ride backwards on the motorcycle about twenty minutes before sun down.  We discovered a beautiful hidden mountain valley a few days ago. A rustic difficult road winds up the valley and becomes very steep. The perfect road for a nice challenging motorcycle ride. After Kadizzle emerged from the valley and a little trek through the quiet woods Kadizzle looked over into a mountain meadow. There they were two huge bull Elk.  One was the biggest Kadizzle ever saw. Forgot to mention the elk cow that jumped out on the trail earlier.  Seeing the big elk was exciting.  After the elk surprise the ride continued. It appeared a road led to the top of a peak. Somehow we had missed the road before.  Just as the sun was going down Kadizzle stopped on the peak and could see the entire world below. The sight was incredible. In the background the sun painted the clouds tha special evening red. Another ride with the camera will be in store to capture that view. 

Indian Springs Trail

 The Indian Springs trail video below is just one Kadizzle pulled from youtube. We did the trail on our bikes and this is someone elses hike of the trail. Watch it if you want. 

Indian Spring Trail Big Lake Arizona / July 10 2021

Rockets

Waking up is a dangerous process. Sometimes when Winky wakes up she is not in a good mood. When this happens she fires Katyusha rockets at Kadizzle. A video is provided below so you can see what breakfast is like when Winky is displeased. The Russians developed this rocket.  

BM-13 KATYUSHA ⚔️ Soviet Multiple Rocket Launcher [REVIEW]

Two Old People and a bunch of electrons

 Kadizzle sits on Cliff's porch and the hummingbirds buzz at twice the rotor speed of a helicopter. They are so maneuverable it is hard to imagine. Although there is plenty of sugar water they fight all day over the water, much like humans. Winky has the energy of a hummingbird. Under her command we loaded the magic bikes with batteries and headed toward the Indian Spring trail. Off through the woods we went buzzing. High in the White Mountains it was a perfect day. Rain must have poured down there recently.  Parts of the trail were just streams running down the trail. Winky decided to take a side trail. We had to cross higher than normal streams on the bikes.  Kadizzle decided the best way to do it was just power down and fly across. It worked. A bit bashful Winky walked her bike across and paid the price of wet feet. Kadizzle has close to 4,000 miles on his bike. That is a lot of peddling, and battery charging. A nice part of the ride was along an old railroad grade used for logging. 

The Republican Taliban

Inch by inch the Republican Taliban is stealing our democracy. Texas has fallen. The Republican Taliban attacked our Capitol. Stupidity has become respectable. Flying a Trump flag in front of your home is an announcement to the public you are proud to be ignorant. Behind the Republican Taliban are the people on top. 400 families own and run the United States, they fear taxes more than anything. The Republican Taliban is their tool to manipulate the simple minded. Religion is something the rich don't believe in, but know is the key to manipulating the simple minded. Look at Afghanistan what do you see?People carrying guns. Look at Texas, Arizona, and other redneck Trump states, what do you see, the gun slingers.  The Republican Taliban is like termites. They are in your house destroying it without you seeing the damage they do.  If your house is infected with termites you just sit there until your house crumbles. That is the United States, and the Republican termites are eating our very foundation.