The Bud Light Brain

As we picked up trash yesterday along the Salt River it became evident the worst offenders were Bud Light drinkers. About 80% of the trash was Bud Light.  It was the Bud Light drinkers who elected Trump.  Trump wants to make American great again.  His drinking buddies could " Make America Great" simply by putting their beer cans in the trash can.  America will not embrace returnable cans and bottles so people have to go out and manually pick up the trash of the degenerates.  The tobacco industry was forced to put warnings on their packages.  Why not make beer companies put a large orange label about littering on their product.  Strangely most of the fishermen along the river are blue collar Bud Light people.  Why do they pollute the very area they enjoy?  In Arizona when the simple dingers throw their beer cans beside the highway it means someone has to wade through thorns to pick the cans out.  Of course it is also a good opportunity to encounter a snake.  The beer companies could run adds during football games making some strong statements about the Bud Light rodents.

Another Trail Day

Up very early in the Earth Module the crew as usual is getting up to date on the Google.  The coffee is made and the second cup will be coming up soon. NPR is in the background trying to explain how lying makes no difference to Donald Trump.  The radio says it is 45 degrees.  Cliff by text says he was also up early.  Little Mike will not be with us today he has to get his fifth wheel to the point he can move it for repairs.  The big task today it deciding what to do.  Our Canadian friends were cleaning up the United States yesterday. They picked up eight bags of trash, left by white trash.

Yesterday Kadizzle rebuilt a lot of cairns.  Cairns are used to mark trails and are simply a pile of rocks. There are some purist who think cairns should not exist, so they kick them over.  Many times we have relied on cairns to help us navigate and get out of the wilderness. In fact there are times when they could be a life or death deal.  If you are hurt, or darkness is descending, and you need to get off the trail quickly, the cairn may be of great help.  Cairns go back a long way.  The pioneers used them and even to this day you can see a cairn on butts in the west.  In Ireland rock cairns are often considered art.  The cairn kickers think the outdoor experience should be devoid of man made influence.  The simple fact you are on a trail means you have violated that rule.  Take your shoes off it you want nature. Some people do.  No matter what you do you cannot escape the noise of jets overhead.  As we worked yesterday the moisture in the air and the clouds made the jet noise extra loud.  At any given time there are six thousand jets in the air.  During certian times of day an aircraft goes over about every five minutes.  We are in the area where planes are either climbing out of Phoenix or descending into Phoenix.  Either way it is noisy at times.  You can almost tell the time of day by the jet noise.  In the morning you know around six the first planes will go over.  About 7 there will be a string of plane lights in the air landing.   Many times right over us the planes down shift, or cut back the engines.  The effect is this giant whoosing noise.  So here we go sunny, but cool.

Mother of all Trail Crews.

The Forest Service truck will have four occupants as we head toward the trail.  Two more people, Barb, and Jeff will join us on the way.  We will attack the trail with six people, a new record. Barb and Jeff are good Canadian friends who just want to help the struggling U.S. today.  Like so many they are dazed by the insanity that has gripped our country.  The crew is still up against the same problem.  We have most of the trails under control at the lower elevations, but the upper end of the trails near the Arizona Trail take so long to get to.  Now winter is starting to set in and it will be even more difficult to get to the top.  Snow will soon be at the upper elevations. Snow should get the streams running when the snow melts in the sunshine.

Back home in Hazen it is apparently snowing and blowing. Happy not to be there.  The house may get eight to twelve inches of snow.  The Lake Roosevelt area is desperate for moisture.  The lake is extremely low, and is a reminder of when Lake Sakakawea had such low levels.

NPR radio is playing in the background and they are talking about how Trump is upset about voter fraud that let Hillary wind the popular vote.  For four years we will deal with that insane man.  The truth has no relevance to Trump.  Trump just makes up anything and shoots it out.  The simple minded soak it up.  One day he claims the sky is blue, the next day he says it is brown. All Trump's idiots forget that yesterday he said it was blue.  There has never been a more insane or blatant liar elected president.

Sitting around the fire

The propane had to be put back in the Earth Module after the bottles were refilled, then Kadizzle had to finish cleaning the battery terminals.  As the little tasked ended Kadizzle saw flames over at Cliff's.  Cliff had a nice fire going and was burning the wood from his landscaping clean up.  Kadizzle wandered over  and on a cloudy overcast day the bullshit flew.  It was actually a little venting, bullshit, and just good conversation.  Mate did not appear until late in the game, so there was plenty of time for gold old man talk.  Finally Mate came over and we discussed tomorrows trail plan.  At some point we called little Mike to see if he was up for the trail game tomorrow.  Now the plan is to go to Tule Trail and get done what we can.  And that is the way it is at Lake Roosevelt.

Grandpa has no one to play with

After inspecting houses in Payson Kadizzle glided back to the Earth Module which sad lonely waiting for us by the lake.  Waking this morning without Sylvie's gleaming blue eyes was sad.  Grandpa had so much fun with his little girl.  Meanwhile Grandma is putting up all the art Sylvie made for us in the Earth Module.  Just seeing the little bug brimming with energy is a delight.  Sylvie inherited the energy gene from Grandma.  Sylvie cannot sit still for any moment.  Constantly she is working on her gymnastics abilities.  She spins across the room and ends up with her feet pointing at the ceiling while she is braced upside down standing on her hands. Sylvie's constant workout has resulted in a little bundle of solid muscle.  The girl is going to be a natural athlete. Grandpa had to sit with Sylvie and review Simon Bile videos on youtube. Simon won the gymnastic Olympics.  So here Granpa sits in the Earth module with NPR in the background and forced to entertain himself.  Well Kadizzle will wander over and see what Cliff is up to.

Mini reunion

The little energy bunny is in the car headed to the Phoenix airport.  A sudden silence has descended on the place.  Sylvie cannot stay upright. She has her granny's energy.  Constantly she is doing handstands, or some sort of gymnastics routine.  Every morning grandpa awoke to a balance beam demonstration on the end of the bed.

Last night at sister Patty's house Kadizzle's oldest sister Melissa and her husband Bob were there with Sylvie's second cousin Savannah.  The two were born within months of each other and it was their first meeting.  Patty who is wonderful with children kept them busy with a massive crafts project.  So Kadizzle had the two bookends in the family, Patty the youngest, and Melissa the oldest.  A family fact was brought up. Our mother had 9 children in 12 years.  Now that is some serious reproduction.  Of the nine seven are still on planet Earth. Louise and Colin departed early into the universe of the unknown.  We all learned a lesson from being in a big family. No one had more than two children.

Today we will head back to Lake Roosevelt to resume our lives as trail maintenance people.  Massive amounts of leftovers will be accompanying us. The latest advice for living is to invest in experiences, not things.  Seems like good advice we had a great Turkey experience with more than enough hiking.  After yesterdays hike the total mileage just for the week was over ten miles through some very nice country.

The now motorcycle tires came and now have to be installed. The tires may attempt Kadizzle to go places he should not at a speed he should not.  Kadizzle is in the phase of life where you buy your last set of toys.  The temptation to buy an adventure motorcycle and take some longer road trips is knocking on the door.

Heads stuck in computer screens.

Here we sit one day after Turkey day starring at the computer screens.  At one time it seemed like computers would emerge as great time savers.  Nope, computers and phones now are time wasters beyond the imagination.

Meeting people and relatives Kadizzle is still hearing tales of stunned humans wondering how we went off the deep end with Trump.  The number of people depressed or actually sick is amazing.  It seemed like our country had made some progress, be it ever so little, and ever so slowly, but now we have fallen backwards in an unbelievable way.

As expected Trump is appointed the worst, most unqualified people possible.  Fundamentalist, and science deniers are among his favorites.  Trump appointing fundamentalist really takes the cake.  This foul man pretending to be religious. l

Kadizzle is taking a wait and see approach.  According to the silly Bible thumpers god often uses evil men for good purposes.  That is the best we can hope for. 

Blasting down the trail

Well here we sit waiting for the magic turkey moment. The gang just completed a six mile hike in the Sedona area.  The little Sylvie is the best hiking 7 year old this old grandpa ever saw. Old gramps could not keep up with her and she was still going strong after six tough miles.  Little Chicken legs has endurance.  The weather here is just about perfect.  Soreness will surely set in.  Hope everyone is having a good Thanksgiving.  Great for Grandpa to be able to spend the holiday with Erin, Sylvie, and Fran.  Old Cheech just moved into their new house in Philadelphia.  Cheech will pop with the next grandchild in February.  Granpa loves little trouble makers and cannot wait. It looks like Sylvie wants to play waitress again today, so that means good wine service.

Crazy Club Thanksgiving

Kadizzle called in yesterday for a report from the crazy club.  Shiny and Stroupini are going to have Thanksgiving dinner together at Shiny's abode.  Kadizzle suggest all the dues collected this year should go to the feast.  Stroupini said it looks like the Crazy Club headquarters may be shut down for the winter, and perhaps longer.  This is a sad state of affairs.  The climate at the Brooks House is perfect, comfortable chairs, and great decor. This could be a crisis if a new meeting hall has to be procured.  Maybe it could be moved to the sewing shop Rita has.  Rita is like a magnet for crazy people.

Losing things on the trail.

If you read yesterday's story you might recall the bet Kadizzle made with his granddaughter Sylvie.  In the course of the bet Kadizzle actually put $80 into Sylvie's possession.  Kadizzle won the bet and demanded the money back.  Awakening yesterday morning Kadizzle realized his wallet was gone.  After a very intense search of the house the only conclusion was the wallet never made it home on the day of the hike.  The most likely location for the wallet was where the bet was finalized. Sadly that was as far up the trail as we went. This meant the whole hike of three miles or more had to be done over.  The wallet had credit cards, social security card, medicare card, drivers license and much more including eighty dollars. So off we went to rehike the hike. Good luck prevailed and Fran found the wallet in our bed.  Several miles into the drive we got the good news by phone and turned back.

The whole incident was like the time in Alaska where the car keys actually were lost at the top of a mountain and indeed the hike had to be repeated.  When you sit on the trail, fall on the trail, or do anything out of the ordinary look around. Once high on a mountain in Texas the GPS was left when we sat for lunch.  Back we had to go.

Indian Rock Art

The clan set out yesterday to see where the ancient people of the Sedona area lived.  After visiting the regular sites the natives built for the tourist we decided to go off on our own.  At the petroglyph panel at Palitki the lecturer had given Mate some clues about the location of a panel few get to see.  Down the rugged road and back to a trail we had hiked years ago we went.  With a keen eye Mate found the obscure trail that led up a side branch of the main creek.  Soon we discovered the panel.  Sadly the panel had been badly vandalized and it was hard to tell which pictographs were real and which were not.  However,  there were some very interesting depictions we had never seen before.  The most notable were the giant snake drawings.  The snakes appeared to have a strange rattle on the end.

After thoroughly checking the art it was time to head back. Sylvie was very nervous that we were lost. Grandpa told Sylvie she could have the four twenty dollar bills in his wallet if he could not find the trail.  Luckily grandpa found the trail.  On the way back hiking navigation skills were the days lesson for Sylvie.  For the test Sylvie was put in front of the group and successfully led us back.  At one questionable point Sylvie was correct, and her mom was wrong.

Looking out the window the hot air balloons just took off and headed south.  Soon today's adventure will begin.

Up in the Morning

About to fill the second cup of coffee. Mate is making sandwiches for today's adventure. The old body will have to chug up the red rock with the little Sylvie in tow.  Last night Sylvie got the bee in her bonnet that she wanted to play waitress. She did an excellent job.  First she instructed us to " Just sit there and enjoy yourself".  Next she brought drinks.  She set the table, made name tags for the plates, cleared the table, and even helped with the dishes.  When Kadizzles kids were little he liked to give them random rewards for doing good deeds.  Sometimes when the kids would bring home a good report card Kadizzle would just say great and give them a hug. Other times they might get five or ten bucks.  It was the old random reward psychology trick.  Kadizzle called the little blond waitress over and gave her a twenty dollar tip.  Her eyes beamed and she continued about her duties.  Perhaps Sylvie will invest the tip in a nice Christmas present for Grandpa.

Being an Old Guy

67 years are taking their toll, but Kadizzle can still walk, hike, and ride a motorbike.  Kadizzle has been contemplating buying another adventure bike.  The little Yamaha 250 is adequate to kill yourself in a rocky crash on a mountain road, but if you want to get killed at 70mph going off a cliff on a nice windy road you need more cc.  Old goats get enamored with toys and it is not long before they sober up and abandon their latest bucket list toy.  Phoenix is the perfect place to shop for the toys abandoned by old goats. Since most of the goats have money they often are willing to take a beating when they sell their toys. Kadizzle has been thinking about a Yamaha Super Tenere or maybe a Triumph Tiger 800.  Another possibility is to go back to the KLR 650 Kadizzle had last summer.

Now there are a couple of problems.  How would Kadizzle get the damn thing back to North Dakota?  Ride it is the obvious answer.  That is a long ride.  Leave it here an only use it in the winter?  That is too much cash to stash.  So on goes the thinking.

An adventure bike will go down the road all day at 80mph and get 50 mpg.  You can pack enough to tent, and you can get up some pretty bad roads to find a place to tent.  Crashing on a heavier bike on a bad road is not good. Just getting the thing upright is a challenge for an old man. With Stoupini Kadizzle made the trip on the KLR to Port Townsend from Hazen last summer.  On some days we did five hundred miles.  Two or three hundred a day on a cycle is plenty.  Well the wheels keep spinning.  One possibility is just to own the machine for the winter.  Ride the roads of the Arizona wilderness, then sell the beast in the spring.  Pondering.

Sacred Mountain

Rain fell on the desert last night, and the smell in the desert permeated the world.  Nothing compares to the smell of the desert when rain hits.  It is a good refreshing smell.  Yesterday we went to the rock art site at the Double V Bar Ranch.  The rock art is the native version of a sun dial.  For six minutes every year a shaft of sun light points to a specific spot on the rock art.  Imagine the Earth in such alignment as to move in the entire orbit in space and return to precisely the same spot a year later.  Very accurate and delicate clock indeed.

Next we went up Sacred Mountain and fund such an abundance of pot shards.  Erin had great fun discovering all the pot parts thrown from the top of the mountain six hundred years ago.  One can wonder in amazement at the sheer number of people who inherited this area so long ago.

Awaking each day in this new world of Trumpism seems odd.  The world seems on hold as we wait for the insane man to light the fuse of his administration.  What kind of explosion will it be? As the Trump rocket climbs into the air will it explode in a harmless fashion like so many fireworks do or will it rain down destruction on everyone.  Trump is a con man who will do what it takes to enrich himself.  Kadizzle read an interesting article by Paul Krugman in The New York Times today about how Trump will try to set up a system to enrich his buddies as the country tries to rebuild the roads and bridges.  When Republicans privatize prisons, roads, bridges, and schools some crook always makes a bundle.  Right here in Arizona the school system has been turned into a bucket of fraud by dreaming up these charter schools.  You take an abandoned store front and turn it into a school.  You can see it everywhere here.  Some clever hacks siphon off funds meant for the education of our children and you call it progress.  Trump will find hundreds of ways to redirect money to scammers.  That is his specialty.  America will be great again, great for fraud, great for cronyism, great for bribes, and great for kickbacks.  So here we sit the fuse has been lit.  The bomb will not go off until the worst man ever elected president in our lifetime is sworn in.  Trump has not an once of dignity. The scheming has already begun.  The foxes that will guard the nations chicken houses have been chosen.  Racist, war mongers, and cheerleaders for his majesty are all being rewarded for stirring up the Hoopleheads the brought the king to power.  What a glorious time we have to look forward to.

Bragging.

Old Kadizzle is ensconced in the enclave with his grand daughter Sylvie.  Now for the bragging.  Sylvie is an amazing writer. Kadizzle just read her illustrated story about finding a dog in the back yard. As a second grader she writes better than her grandpa, illustrates better than grandpa, and her talents go on.  She is an incredible artist.  All of this and Sylvie is in second grade.  Do genetics matter? Both of Sylvies great grandmothers went to prestigious art schools.  Aunt Cheech is a professional designer.  Both parents of the little prize are professional writers.  So grandpa hopes, and the evidence indicates the little bumpkin has inherited a wealth of talent.  Now, the talent has been fertilized at great expense, but the payoff has been well worth it.

Pretending

Here we sit in someone else's house in Sedona.  A nice house with an expensive view. For a week we can pretend like we are the well to do.  We can only afford to be rich for a week, after that back to the Earth Module and working for free.  For a week we will have luxury showers, and all the accouterments of the rich and famous.  In a  vast kitchen mate is unpacking the groceries including my two bottles of heart medicine from the vineyards in Australia.

7:55 is on the clock and the daughter and her gang will not even land in Phoenix until 9.  With the expansive nighttime view of Sedona here sits Kadizzle on the side of the hill pecking on the keyboard.  People come here and think they experience the place.  Maybe they do, but the real experience is out away from the fribble shops and the yuppie beer joints.  All things considered Kadizzle would rather be about five miles south of town out in the desert in the Earth Module where we usually stay.  Out there the stars are blinding, no noise, and lots of quite.  Here in McMansionville it is the hustle bustle of a mini New York or something.  Unbelievable traffic.  It is a lot like the Grand Canyon.  Most people come peer over the edge and leave thinking they experienced the Grand Canyon.  Shanika took a helicopter over the Canyon last year and had a good buzz, but you cannot get the feel until you put one foot in front of the other and walk to the bottom.  Kadizzle is probably being a bit of an ecological elitist, but I am doing the typing so that give me liberties.  Maybe it is time to do a nice turkey cook in the shower.  This old plump turkey can jump in and baste himself with soap and shampoo.

Now this did stir a strange thought.  Humans have intervened in the breeding of animals and modified them to suit our needs.  The net results Kadizzle discovered the other day is that male turkeys have been turned into such big breasted animals they can no longer breed the females.  The solution to this problem is something you will have to read and figure out for yourself, but it has created a new job description.  So that is it from the land of the pink jeep.  Pink jeeps if you have ever been to this part of Arizona are the most obscene slap in the face to the remarkable scenic wonders of this place.  Somehow it is just like having whores working in front of the White House. It just aint right.

Turkey Day in Sedona.

Packing and removing each item we will need from the Earth Module.  The crew of two is moving to Sedona to meet the little Sylvie, and her parents. Together we will celebrate Turkey day.  Kadizzle has been reading The History of White Trash in America.  A lot of our history is terribly misportrayed.  Turkey day is full of false history, but that does not make the dressing taste any less delicious.

Yesterday Kadizzle took a motorcycle ride with Jeff.  Kadizzle picked a bad line up the steep mountain road and quickly paid for it.  Kadizzle did what he called a "Walkaway" .  As the motorcycle crashed Kadizzle deftly stepped off and walked away as the cycle went down.  Normally one ends up under the motorcycle.  The next challenge was to go up a very steep road full of baby head boulders.  Jeff waited at the bottom to see how Kadizzle did.  Kadizzle boomed up the road.  The back tire spun, Kadizzle lost traction,  and then the pirouette happened.  In a deft manipulation Kadizzle managed to turn the cycle around and head back down the steep road.  Kadizzle himself was amazed he was able to stay on the cycle.  Jeff thought the move was a well planned well executed turn.  Nope, it was just pure good luck.  Jeff had been telling Kadizzle how bad his tires were.  This little incident convinced Kadizzle that indeed the tires were shot.  The hard part of the road was cancelled and good judgement prevailed. Normally good judgement never interferes with attempts to get hurt, but age ultimately teaches you something.

The Hoopleheads and the Dingers

In about an hour we will be at a potluck meeting and 95 percent of the people there probably voted for Trump. So what?  All of these Hoopleheads, and dingers are working for The Forest Service.  Trump and Republicans would like nothing better than to sell of public lands and destroy the Forest Service.  The same dingers and Hoopleheads are living on the edge.  All that gets them by is medicare, and social security.  Trump and his gang want to destroy both medicare and social security.  The mind of a dinger is special.  You need a gun, you need a wall, and you need to make America great again.  The people who will get hurt the most by Trump and his gang are the ones who wanted him the most.  All the Hoopleheads know is things are not going well for them.  Their trailers are leaking, they don't have the money to replace their rat wagon, and things just are not right.  The dingers have no clue what caused this mess, but they think simply picking someone else to rob them is the answer.  Trump has appointed some mean rotten people already.  In no time at all Trump will be funneling tax breaks to the rich.  It will take the dingers and Hoopleheads a while to realize you cannot build a wall, give tax breaks to your buddies and destroy the spending power of the simple minded all at once.  So lets all get together and watch America become great.  Sure hope old Kadizzle is mixed up and wrong, but there is nothing on the horizon.  To really top it off the old Trumpster will push on global warming gas pedal.  Here we are frying ourselves on planet Earth and the old Trumpster is appointing people left and right that say global warming is a hoax.  Wow, and the most amazing thing in all of this is the silly fundamentalist.  Now, they will see how the old grabber of women's genitals pushes their agenda.  We are going into a new world at least it will be exciting to see the fox in charge of the chicken coop.  Good luck chickens.

Redneck fire ring.

The trail crew with one new volunteer headed up the Chilicot Trail.  As Little Mike the new member, Mate, and Cliff went up the trial Kadizzle stayed back to work on the parking area .   Redneck dingers love to build a fire pit right in the middle of the parking area.  This seems to be almost an essential religious thing for rednecks.  Kadizzle had to remove all the rocks, and there were a lot of them.  Also the white trash people have to leave trash.  So that had to be cleaned up.  Every good redneck has to improve his shooting skills so the rednecks had to leave a shot up propane cylinder,  and some shot up beer cans.  Naturally this resulted in shell casings all over the place.  Then there is the pee paper.  Women are the culprits here.  So the pee paper had to be picked up.  After cleaning the parking area Kadizzle headed down the trail to join the rest of the crew.  We did a six mile hike in some steep country.  Worn out we finally got home to watch a few episodes of Fargo on the TV.

This morning everyone who is a volunteer will have a potluck with lectures on not to even think about shooting people, safety, and being a good volunteer.

Don't get conned

Kadizzle is now qualified to work with prisoners in an effort to make America Great again.  As we gathered to wait for the class to begin it was story time.  One of the people there had already been working with prisoners at the landfill.  Landfill launched into a story about how a prisoner found some sort of fish head in the garbage. The inmate knew he would get strip searched every day when he returned to prison.  Part of the strip search is the old bend over and spread your cheeks.  The prisoner placed the fish head in a strategic place.  Back at the prison when he pulled down his pants, bent over, and spread his cheeks you can imagine where the fish head appeared to pop out.  Well you got to have some fun in prison.  The guy told the guard " How did that get there?"

So all morning we learned about prison culture, gangs, and watching prisoners.  One rule, you can only address them by their last name.  According to the class they all want to con you into doing something for them you should not.  Kadizzle is used to being conned by his wife who tries to con him into doing something he should do.