Once again the sun has risen.

Getting of dead center is impossible with Mrs. Kadizzle in command.  Should we go to A, or B, or maybe skip that and go to C.  Well three of us could go to A, and those who have not been to B can go to B. No we should all go together.  Ok, then maybe we should just go to C today and A and B tomorrow.  Well if we all go together we need to wait for the baby's nap to end.  Ok.  Well two of us could hike, and those who do not want to walk could go to A.  Well if we go to B we could be back early to start cooking.  Yea, now that we have been discussing this for an hour it is too late to go to A and B, but we may have time to go to C.  No, C will be too crowded so we need to go to B.  Maybe we could sit by the pool and read while the leader makes up her mind.  As the clock approaches 11 someone will say " We should have lunch before we go or pack a lunch".  Well since it is so close to noon we may as well eat here.  Now we can eat lunch and that will mean we cannot leave until 1.  Since my sister is coming for dinner we will need to be back by three.  With so little time we may as well just stay here.

Long ago and far away

Fran and Kadizzle are alone at the vacation house.  What we have in common is a big family. Kadizzle comes from a family of nine, and Fran from a family of 7.  The mingling crowd reminds us both of growing up in large tribes.  One childhood memory is waking up on a Saturday morning.  Almost without fail some friend of an older brother or sister would be sleeping on the couch.

Mrs Kadizzle comes from a family of two children.  One's outlook on life has a lot to do with siblings. As one of nine you learn a lot of diplomacy, and other social skills such as how to conduct a war by age ten.  Kadizzle can remember sibling battles. Kathleen was always pretty good sized. When she decided which side of the conflict she would join that usually meant that side would win.

Now we are enjoying two grandpa's, two grannies, two son in laws, two children, and two grand children.  Two of Kadizzle's sisters's plus a nephew may show up latter and another nephew will come in later from Richmond.  This will be like the Battle of Little Big Horn where tribes came from all corners.

The America's Cup AC75 boat concept revealed.

Terrible Nest of Liberals

Even the Democratic convention would not have this many liberals in one place. The extended Kadizzle Klan has gathered and the morning update is taking place.  This is not the Klan Trump is associated with.  Baby admiration is a consuming task. Evie is charming with her smile.  Cheech is reading to her 9 month old " Is there room on the broom?".   The curiousity of a child is amazing.  Sylvie is using up her allotted cartoon time.

With this crowd hammering a plan together will take until noon.  Kadizzle may take Uncle Ben on an Indian hike to see some hidden pictographs.  Sylvie is determined to spend another eight hours in the hot tub and pool.  With ten people the dishwasher runs almost constantly.  Praise the lord we got some good cooks here and Fran made some great fajitas last night.

Weather is cooperating with plenty of sunshine and the right temperatures.  Everyone is doing their morning updates to see what Trump is up to.  Watching the Republican pickle with Roy Moore is a lot of fun.  The evangelicals have to support the teen dater.  The same evangelicals that voted for Trump the grabber.  People always say Jesus loves sinners, well he has a couple good Republican sinners to lavish his love on as they destroy the tax code and health care.

Over medicated

Uncle Ben and Kadizzle sat by the fire pit. The whole clan has arrived and we have a reunion.  Would you like a little more heart medicine Uncle Ben? I will have some to.  Kadizzle soon somehow made it to bed. As we say over served.  It has been a long time since Kadizzle has been so badly over served.  Normally Kadizzle is a wine drinker, but somehow he ended up drinking the Makers Mark straight. Not a good idea. The Makers Mark was supposed to be for the Moscow mules. Hopefully a lesson has been learned.

Awakened by Smiley Mc Gumphley and her mom Kadizzle got to see the new joy.  Sylvie was up and adoring the little nine month old.

So the day begins and we get to pretend that we are rich living in Sedona for a week.  This is a big jump from the Earth module.  Four bathrooms, a pool, hot tub, more TVs than you can count, and a separate living area on the far side of the garage.  From Denver, Philadelphia, and Richmond everyone poured in. Now we have to plan some adventures.

Evie and Sylvie

Up early and heading to Sedona.  Mrs Kadizzle rented a super deluxe home for the tribe to gather.  God seems to want to get a message to Kadizzle. God has sprinkled girls into Kadizzle's life.  Six sisters, two daughters, and two grand daughters.  The new prize Evie will be the hit of the show.  Evie is now nine months old and the smiling champion of the world.  Sylvie was nicknamed Ticklepinch, and Evie is Smiley McGumphley.  McGumphley has the most charming smile and always seems in a good mood. McGumphly is just becoming mobile and her mom is in for some real work keeping track of a crawler and soon walker.  The plan is to stop at the cafe in Payson for a great breakfast on the way. 

Somewhere on this blog a video will appear called weightless.  It is an absolute must watch. If Kadizzle was fifty years younger he would master what this guy does.  You must watch it.

Weightless - Jean-Baptiste Chandelier

The Con Man

The United States needs a con man hall of fame.  It could have a section for car salesmen, aluminum siding salesmen, and even one for vacuum cleaner salesmen like Kadizzle once was.  Conning idiots is an America tradition.  In the old gold mining days the most money was made from selling stock in non-existent mines.  Crooked preacher are about the most successful con men and a large part of the Con Men hall of fame should be devoted to those crooks.  Who else gets to steal tax free?  The drug companies are moving right up. The Oxycontin con made 14 billion for the Sackler family. 

Now we need a statue out front of the Con Man hall of fame.  You guessed it Donald Trump.  At a minimum the Donald will Con the American public out of 1.5 trillion witch will go to the rich. The Donald just so happens to be the rich. 

It would be nice if South Dakota could have a Mount Con More.   Carved out of greed there could be a giant stature of Trump,  a famous crooked preacher,  and maybe a Wall Street guy.  A Con Man is special. Anyone can walk in a bank with a gun, but a consummate liar like Trump who can smile and lie is something special.  In North Dakota we have Kevin Cramer, a mini Con Man aspiring to be Trump.  Smile, lie, tell the Hooplehads what they want to hear.  Promise them guns, and Jesus.  Explain to the Hoopeheads if they give the rich enough money some is bound to fall out of their pocket and right back on the simple minded.

Look back at Al Capone.  Sure he was a bad guy, but at least he made beer available to the working class.  None of the famous crooks of the past remotely compare to Trump.  Trump openly brags about groping women and the Christians giggle with delight and elect him.  According to The New York Times Trump lies on average five times per day.   Even the most crooked preacher has a hard time beating that.  Trump gets Kadizzles vote for best Con Man ever.  Hitler might have given him a run, but keep in mind Hitler had a bunch of depressed people to work with.  Trump is fooling stupid people, but they have a car, a big screen TV, and plenty to eat.  Religion was the original con, but Trump gets a prize for conning the religious.  Now that is an accomplishment.  That is like the guy who robs the drug dealer.

A lot of nowhere

For the second time in a week we made another adventure into the middle of nowhere.  The trail crew had great trepidation about allowing our boss Red Chief to drive this morning.  The road for twenty miles hangs on the edge of a cliff.  God smiled on us and Red Chief could not make the morning trip. Kadizzle drove grandpa style and we all survived.  Hiking way into no place Mrs Kadizzle, Emily, and Cliff went ahead on the trail and trimmed brush. Kadizzle worked on the tread of the trail .  Red Chief was supposed to come in a separate vehicle and do the chainsaw work.  At about one Red Chief finally showed up. By then everyone was hiking out.  Red Chief and Kadizzle took off back down the trail and cut about twelve trees off the trail .  Kadizzle had to ride back with Red Chief.  Only one near death experience occurred on the treacherous road.

Back at the Earth module Kadizzle has had his two Moscow mules and  is relaxed.  The Flumper came by walking the dog. Mrs. Kadizzle is just about to serve some gwuanple, so that is all for now.  See you in the morning.

Going up the mountain.

Today with our leader Red Chief ( Our Forest Service Boss who has a red beard) we will go way up on the mountain to cut logs off the trail.  While we are up there perhaps we can bring down a new set of the ten commandments.  Thou shalt destroy Obama care, Thou shalt protect the rich, Thou shall lie and tweet as often as needed.  Kadizzle is sure there will be a burning bush, perhaps George or his dad. 

So five of us will pack into the trail truck.  Just to get there we have to leave as early as possible to get anything done.  At five in the morning Kadizzle sits here with his coffee.

One big problem we face this morning is having Red Chief drive.  Red Chief is the boss, but he is a young guy and a scary driver on mountain roads.  Kadizzle is trying to think of a diplomatic way to tell Red Chief that Kadizzle should drive, otherwise there will be four terrified people riding along on the cliff edge roads. 

Remote is the best word for where we are going.  At the end of the 23 mile long mountain road is a trail sign.  It has a picture of a man lost ten years ago. The sign ask hikers to report if they find any remains of him.  Well here we go.

Poke em in the eye

Today's assignment.  Read Tom Friedman's article in today's New York Times.  Friedman dose an excellent job of explaining how Trump is driving our country into the ground while giving China everything China wants.

Kadizzle has an older brother that is 76.  Kadizzle spoke with him on the phone the other day. In the course of the conversation big brother mentioned how much he likes Trump.  My nephew Tom's son took over Tom's contracting business.  Tom serviced coal mines along the Ohio River and did very well at it.  Now comes a guy named Bob Murray.   Bob Murray has been a crooked coal operator for many years.  Murray is just the kind of guy Trump would love.  In fact Murray has donated to Trump, and in return Trump has given Murray's coal mines a sweet deal to avoid regulation.

So my brother also told me Murray owes my nephew a million dollars for work his company has done for Murray.  Murray is just like Trump. He plays the fundamentalist like fiddles and has no morality. Murray operated a mine in Utah. Murray got so greedy with his mine he took out too much coal. The mine collapsed and killed miners.  Like Trump Murray took no responsibility.  Murray should have gone to jail, but blamed the collapse on an Earth quake.

So Murray is bilking my own nephew, and his father loves his fellow crook Trump.  Like so many crooked people Murray raises money for Trump.  How does this work. Murray tells my nephew he needs to donate money to the Republican party. My nephew donates five thousand dollars.  Murray calls back and says it should be ten thousand.  The implication is just pad your bill and put the contribution in the bill.  Plain and simple this is money laundering.  It allows Murray to donate money to Trump and it does not show up as coming from him.  So Murray and guys like him are putting the  heat on their suppliers to help the Republicans.  The whole thing of money in politics stinks.  Keep in mind the glorious Trump said he was so rich he would pay his own way.  Ya, sure ya betcha.  Trump has manged to create the most crooked administration in the history of the country, yet the people like my brother love him.  The saddest thing about the whole deal is what Trump is doing to future generations.  Trump's tax scams for the rich will toss our children into finical hardship. Trump's destruction of the environment will make life miserable for the world.  Trump's incomprehension of the economy will put our country in a tail spin, but if all this worries you watch Fox News and get that warm fuzzy feeling when the support Trump's lies.

The Flumper came by.

Kadizzle will try to protect the anonymity of the flumper.  It is doubtful anyone who reads this will ever encounter the flumper.  Well in the mind of Kadizzle a flumper is a fish out of water.  Everyone has seen a fish laying on a dock or in the bottom of the boat. The fish can't do anything but move in a hopeless fashion.

The flumper who does not believe in pets came by walking a dog.  The dog did not belong to the flumper, but he got assigned to walk the dog.  Speaking to the flumper he said animals were only to be eaten or work for you.  He would never tolerate a dog in his house.  The flumper has no hobbies, no interest in anything and lives the most vanilla life imaginable.  The flumper  has no desire to go anywhere or do anything.  Naturally the flumper is overweight.  When not working he wears those huge shorts that you could put a person in each leg.  Other than eating the flumper does not seem to have any bad habits. He does not watch television or surf the internet.  Whoops, wait, the flumper does have a bad habit.  Snoose,  or in English snuff.  Speaking to the flumper Kadizzle noticed that some of the spit from the snuff was going up his nose and some dripped on his chin. 

If you met the flumper you would think he was born without a personality.  If you did not dig a little you would think he was a misplaced hillbilly.  His language skills are those of a hog farmer, which once he did for his parents. However, Kadizzle did pry out of him that he knew something of quantum physics, and has a degree in electronics.  If the flumper is trying to hide his education he is doing a dam good job of it.

Now a strange aspect of the flumper.   If you encountered him you would think his life style would involve living in a hovel. That is where you would be surprised. The flumper has a penchant for cleaning.  He insist the work place be kept clean and he voluntarily cleans the lunch room, the rest rooms, and any part of his work building he can.

The flumper is a nice guy and is probably liked by most who encounter him, but you could have a better conversation with a post than with the flumper.  Not interested in going anywhere, doing anything, reading anything, or watching anything the flumper leads a strange life of what seems like acute desperation.  Is there a potential Mrs Flumper out there?  Unlikely any but the hard core could get past the snoose.

You would think from all this the flumper would be a night clerk in a hotel or a security guard, but he actually has a decent job.  The world is strange, and trust me it is full of strange people. People who would vote for Roy Moore, or Donald Trump, and then praise Jesus.

Please adopt little Joey

Kadizzle is putting Little Joey up for adoption.  Carrying him up the mountain yesterday was too much for a 68 year old man.  Little Joey is pretty well behaved, except when he is hungry, which is all the time.  Kadizzle has been pregnant with Little Joey ever since he was 35.  Little Joey loves to eat.  He rarely walks by a cookie, or candy.  His favorite meal is every meal.  If one is good two are better.  Joey likes butter on his rolls, syrup on his pancakes, and an extra slice of anything that ends in pie.  Little Joey's math teacher could never get him to understand pie 3.14.   He could understand cherry, apple, and juneberry.  When Kadizzle ran for the legislature way back when Little Joey insisted Kadizzle make it a law that pie could not be served without vanilla ice cream.  Latter today we will drive him to the orphanage around dinner.  If the food is good maybe he will not cry.  Please help.  Send food that will keep to the Little Joey fund.

No country for Old Men

Kadizzle revisited Pueblo Ruin yesterday.  We did not get back to the Earth module until 7:30 at night. If Kadizzle learned anything it is how old he is.  Coming down from the ruin Kadizzle kept thinking this is equivalent to hiking up out of the Grand Canyon.  A couple times turning back early seemed very tempting.

Just driving to the place where you start walking is a chore.  After 20 miles of gravel road with plenty of washboard surfaces you finally cross Cherry Creek for the last time.  Now the road gets absolutely terrible. About three or four miles of nasty, nasty road the jeep finally reaches the departure point.  Along the drive there is a boulder the size of bulldozer.  Stopping one person gets out and watches as the jeep squeezes behind the boulder.

Totally exhausted Kadizzle showered and went to bed without eating.  The soreness may take a couple days to go away.  Another thought coming down was how important hiking poles are.  Kadizzle would have fallen numerous times .   When you fall on this trail you can go down hundreds of feet.  One of the bizarre features of the trail is you do not realize how precarious it is unto you see it from the other side of the canyon.  Give me some time and I will try to put some pictures on here.

Early

Last night Kadizzle drank more wine than prudent, and suffered all night with fire belly.  Up at 4 A.M. and out of bed at five.  The young couple we had dinner with will show up shortly and we will head our for a difficult hike.  The hike was hard three or four years ago and the body has not improved since then. The goal is to go deep into a mountain canyon and visit an well preserved ruin.

The strange thing about the ruin and the two others close by is the location.  Whoever lived there was there to protect themselves.  It would be a difficult place to live all year around.  Hunting or farming would have been a long daily commute.  If someone did attack it would be like attacking a castle.  There is no draw bridge, but there is such a narrow path into the place that you could knock you attackers over a cliff one at a time easily.   The dwellers must have had food and water stockpiled.

All Indian ruins in the Southwest have suffered from over visitation.  The one we will visit today is so difficult to get to only the most hardened search will take the time and effort to get to them.  That is why they are well preserved.  Sadly there is not a ruin anywhere that has not been vandalized by pot hunters. At every ruin you can see where pot hunters have dug.  One thing you notice at any site that has wood is the small bore holes made by researchers.  By taking a plug of wood from a roof beam or whatever the date of the dwelling can be determined by the tree rings. It is an interesting science.

Old Kadizzle gets religion.

In the middle of nowhere where we now sit there is no television.  That means you might accidentally get smarter reading something.  To keep ourselves from going boredom insane we subscribe to a couple magazines.  One that Kadizzle has read on and off all his life is The New Yorker.  The cartoons alone are worth the price.  Additionally the magazine has some really good articles on the rodents that abuse our country like Trump, and the Sackler family.

Now to religion.  The latest issue has an article on Martin Luther.  What inspired Kadizzle to read it is a mystery.  The article turned out to be enlightening.  What really got Kadizzle's attention was how the church sold indulgences.  It would make a time share salesman blush.  You could buy a certain amount of time out of purgatory.

Reading about the church in the time of Luther reminded Kadizzle so much of how the Republican Party works.  Now you can buy indulgences from congress.  Bilking the stupid has been a centuries old game, and no one does it better than religion.  No product is better to sell than fantasy.  Fox News has perfected fantasy in modern times. Trump is the king of selling the fantasy.  So politics has become the modern religion, and lying to the stupid has continued to be the most effective way to bilk the masses.

The religion of today is as absurd as the past.  Trickle down is the religion. Give me money and you will prosper. The church always pulled that trick, now the Republicans are pulling that scam on behalf of the rich.  It has been a long time since Martin Luther yelled scam at the Pope, but here we are again hundreds of years latter with Pope Trump, and his gang of Republican Cardinals fleecing the flock.

Back in the Earth Module

Back into the tiny space that is the Earth Module.  Sleeping with the windows open and enjoying the cool night air is a blessing.  Sunshine almost every morning is great.  Speaking to Shaneka back in Dakota it was kind of sad. The poor guy is back there in the snow and freezing weather.  Once you convert to escaping from winter dread life takes on a different tone.

Tomorrow we are looking at doing a hike we have done once before.  The plan is to go to Devil's Chasm.  Three of the best Indian ruins anywhere are up Cherry creek.  What makes them good among other things is the incredible difficulty getting to the ruin.  First you have to drive 23 miles down a gravel road, cross three creeks, and finally drive up a road most vehicles cannot negotiate.  Then you start the hike.  The hike is up a very steep narrow canyon.  You climb up a waterfall, and at some point you crawl under a boulder the size of a house.  After all that you have to climb an impossibly steep slope and at last you are there.

Guest editor.

Here Kadizzle sits with his little sister Patty in Cottonwood.  Patty has read a couple of these post and helped make corrections.  Always keep in mind two things, Kadizzle is not that bright, and this nonsense is written at lightening speed.  Patty pointed out the difference between made, and maid.  There was another problem with cloths and clothes.

Patty was born with the family sense of humor.  Kadizzle has been thinking about standing up by Walmart with a bum sign to beg for money.  Kadizzle would like to have a clever sign.  Patty said one bum has a sign that say 'Too ugly to be a prostitute".   So back to Lake Roosevelt we will head today.

Houses were different in the Early Years of Wheeling

If you lived in a castle in modern times you would wonder what all the things in the castle used to be used for.  Growing up in a house built in 1914 on Poplar Ave in Woodsdale you would notice the artifacts of the past.  When the house was built there was a gas fireplace in just about every room. That is how the house was heated.  The wood work in the old homes was elaborate and would cost a fortune to duplicate today.  Labor and wood were  cheap in 1914.

One thing people would notice about the houses in Woodsdale that people must have had a live -in maid or servant of some sort.  Many young women were pouring into our country and they needed jobs. Once again it was probably not that expensive to have some live in help in the 20's and 30's. The houses had a back set of stairs so the help could make it to the attic without disturbing the home owners.  Attics were where the servants lived.  Many attics had sinks and perhaps a bathroom for the help.  Some homes had living quarters above the garage.  Relics of that time are still in a lot of the houses. There were speaking tubes.  Brass tubes you could speak into and have your voice carried from one part of the house to another to serve as an intercom.  Another appliance that may still be on a lot of the homes was an ice box on the back porch.  The iceman would deliver the ice into a box on the back porch.  As a kid I remember discovering an old gasoline tank in the yard.  Some homes had a supply of gasoline and a rudimentary pump in the garage.

Even in the 1950's there were the old fashioned fire alarm boxes on the telephone poles.  To send an alarm there was some contraption you manipulated.

The houses were built for the time.  With electricity sparse people did not have so many lights for the interior of the home.  To provide both light and ventilation the answer was very large double hung windows.  Slate roofs were standard on those houses.

A bad habit we had as children was playing on the roof.  It is amazing no one got killed.  The roofs were high and it would be about a three story fall if you went off.  One day in the early spring I was on the roof enjoying the view.  The slate I was sitting on came lose and I headed toward the gutter.  Certain death seemed approaching. What saved me was the wide gutters built on those houses. The gutter was almost two feet wide.  I would be dead if it was a modern flimsy gutter.

A special feature of the old homes was the clothes chute.  At a young age I could get in and out of the chute on the second floor.  The chute enabled the home owner to throw dirty linens and clothes directly down to a catch bin in the basement.  One day I decided to show Stephen Leibold how I could get into the chute.  I must have grown a little since my last try.   I got into the chute through the little door, but once in the chute cold not get out.  My knee had me jammed in there.  I could go down but not up. Steve somehow found my sister Amy.  Amy held my arm to keep me from dropping to the basement floor.  All my siblings were in the basement piling up soft things for me to land on.  In my head I imagined the fire department coming and tearing the wall apart to get me out.  My father would go crazy when he got home an found out about this adventure.

Amy was straining to hold me so I figured I could start sliding down to the basement.  Now by good fortune there happened to be a little door in the kitchen to access the chute.  When I got to the chute where part of my home made rescue crew was peering in, I was able to rearrange my knee and get out without having to parachute into the basement.  Very relieved I remember going to the basement and seeing the huge pile of clothes awaiting the quasi Santa Clause to drop down the clothes chute.

Too many letters

Kadizzle must be honest, he enjoys irritating Republicans.  It is something like the joy you get swatting a fly. Part of the fly swatting is writing two letters per month to the Bismarck Tribune.  The letters are about as random as this blog.  Who knows what they might espouse, but they do have the commonality of pointing out the foibles of Republican thought.

Part of the daily up date is to read the letters to the editor in the Bismarck Tribune.  In the Tribune letter section there are two other perpetual left wing letter writer guys who also shoot barbs at the conservatives.  This morning The Tribune published a complaint about the fact that Kadizzle and Larry Larsen write too many letters.  This has gone on for many years, and Kadizzle has people come up to him on the street and tell him they enjoy the letters.  The Tribune is a sorrowful paper and desperate for anything to fill the pages.  Like so many newspapers they refuse to be controversial or offend any of the powers in the state, so it works out well for them to have someone else do it for them.

More than once someone has written the paper suggesting that no letters be published they disagree with.  Kadizzle wonders why if these people who would like limit free speech don't just write their own letters.  Kadizzle got a good laugh when someone from the Tribune told him that people called and thought Kadizzle is paid to write the letters.

Brother in Law Ned who probably thinks Kadizzle is a little off kilter had a long conversation with Kadizzle in the kitchen this morning.  Ned is strong on live and let live. Ned also feels it is pretty hopeless to educate the Hoopleheads.  As the sun came up round and round we went with the pros and cons of being politically active.  Ned on more than one occasion suggested Kadizzle go to Walmart.  Walmart in Cottonwood is an education.  If you want to meet the unwashed masses, the gun totters, and the Republican base a visit to Walmart is in order.  Seeing the throngs of the hopeless would discourage anyone.   The CEO of Walmart is making $8,000 per hour.  The busted flat recovering alcoholic greeting you at the door gets $8.00 an hour.  What a wonderful world. We can all be the CEO, we are just too lazy and don't try hard enough. Right Trump?