Where's Hazel? Pet Hazel. Hazel's dreadlocks are
trimmed smooth and soft.
 10/6
Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, Pie Town
Same as last year. Sort of. Not as many drinkers. More
spread out of course. On the front porch at the Wall of
Boots of Nita’s Toaster House Hiker Hostel on the CDT.
 Return
trip: Pie Town to Tonopah
I had a dream about me last night where I was somehow in an
RV that was as big as a duplex house. But you didn't drive
this RV you just told the house where to go and you were
there. Problem was the other half went along for the ride so
we kept going to unexpected places.
Nita's long driveway was a teeny bit slickery when The
Cat Drag’d Out from Summer Camp to get started down
the long hill to Winter Quarters Bay at Tonopah but she made
the slalom without sliding. I later realised Karma was
saving all the mishaps for later. Getting started a day late
and a few dollars short I planned to not spend a day picking
up trash at my favourite u.s.60 Red Hill Rest Area. There
will be another opportunity next year.
First stop was for propane in Quemado. Filling the upper
onboard tank and two bottles in TinyTruck went well but when
I turned off the upper tank prior to departure I found the
valve leaking. With the valve full on the leak stopped but
with the valve off propane was leaking around the packing
nut. Oh Well, valve on, let’s drive.
Taking the secondary direct route my secondary stop was
Wally World Caravansary in Show Low. Here was where I found
a small puddle of glycol on the tarmac under “The CAT in The
Back’s” main radiator. Oh Well. This was only a small leak,
not the massive hemorrhage of a few years ago that required
a tow job. (See the end of Letter 17c
for that Tale of Woe.)
Third stop was at the Height of Land on s.r.260. Climbing up
from Show Low I spied a blossom of steam emanating from a
big white pickup and a fifth wheel trailer. My first thought
was of Nancy and Ward and their wheels. By the time I was
close enough to see the truck was not theirs the steam had
turned to black smoke. Several additional Residence Vehicles
stopped and we all emptied our ABC extinguishers on the fire
but the burning truck was already fully involved. Total
loss.
The rest of this road is mostly downhill so let’s get going.
The saga of the radiator goes on and on between visits to
Food Bank, doctors, wiring Paul’s new capannoni and shako,
and all the unplanned other things such as roadside cleanups
and parties of one sort or another. The radiator was
eventually drained of seven gallons of coolant (I’d saved
the jugs from the last filling for just this occasion.) and
carried off to Commercial
Radiator Service in Phoenix. They did a splendid job
of fixing the leak. We’ll come back to the
reinstalling later.
In the meantime I’ve been using the propane in the tank with
the leaky valve. Have to empty the tank before I can repair
or replace the valve. That becomes another interminable
project.
 13 October, Tonopah, AridZona
48f here this morning. Heat is on. Poll Worker Training
yesterday went well. Now I know all about the Poll Worker's
Dress Code and am fully qualified to tell voters where they
can stick their ballots.
Yesterday I replaced both 5# fire extinguishers that I used
on the truck fire by the side of the road. 120$ worth of
Good Deed that didn't do any good at all except to show me
a: how useless a 5# ABC is against a fully involved truck,
and b: that my 20 year old extinguishers were still
functional, and c: they are not worth the cost of a
refill--buy new. Part of the "not worth the cost" is that
greater than 12 years old have to be re-certified.
My uncle Sir Issac told me; he said: I was thinking about
gravity the other day; without it all you have is gravy.
17th Autumnal Equinox Letter Posted
All day typing, cutting, pasting, inserting images... And
then the upload failed. I don’t understand. The error
messages are meaningless. What’s broken? The internet? My
router? Computer? Website full? I need professional help.
Food Bank Wenzday
At Lowe’s, shopping for hose clamps to repair a propane
leak, I was confronted by displays of gaily wrapped empty
boxes and fake trees and “Season’s Greetings” placards. WTF?
The Seasons have yet to get past Halloween let alone
Thanksgiving. Why are we always in so much of a hurry?
Found on a scrap under a pile of old mail:
who will have the trial of
cleaning up after me?
Fun despair hope anger
for richer or for poorer
an adventure or what...
Please feed the cat.
|
Cousin Scotty Died on Halloween?
 Interesting that my mother and her
sister each had four boys. Pretty much one for one tho Aunt
Kay had the head start. David was a year older than me.
Scotty, his brother, was third, matching up with my brother
Teddy. Now I have a lot of new entries to make in the family
tree book.
At Risk of Intemperance [war is not...]
 November
11th, Veteran’s Day and Doctor Day. Annual physical at my
HMO PCP, more on that later. On the road to and fro much of
the chatter on the Ham radio concerns Thanking Vets for
Their Service. As with “Christmas Music” before we even get
the Thanksgiving Turkey thawed, the maudlin thanks is tiring
after the first two or three. Let me write this about that:
Veteran’s Day. The war mongers are out in force today. All
the talk is how thankful “we” are for their service. Some
folks were going on about three generations of their family
serving. “My father was... and I worked for the VA...” Why
does that count any more than the trash collectors or the
school bus drivers? I was tempted to climb on the band wagon
and tell how my father built the destroyers and my three
brothers and one sister were in the army...and I helped
build the satellite communications networks you used to call
home from the front. I also made the anti-war posters for
the kids to put up in their high school.
There is no question in my mind that the veterans who were
conscripted deserve to be thanked, and those who volunteered
and served in World War II, but beyond that? No! And
especially not those who enlisted. “...burn women – kids
villages...I wanna kill...”. They need no thanks. The
truckers and the school teachers need thanks, not enlistees.
Enlistees need forgiveness for they knew not what they did,
what they were getting into.
Covid booster wenzday, flu shot today.
Annual visit to the vampire for Physical Examination a la
Arlo Guthrie. Blood draw, blood pressure, height, weight
(Their scale always has me five to eight pounds heavier
than my scale. Must be all the textiles.)
News From Q’Fest and Magic Circle
I'm looking forward to being there if for no other reason
than to take a break from fixing all the brokes. This week I
have replaced the chassis battery in The Cat Drag'd Inn
and sent the main radiator out to have the leak repaired.
Last week was annual physical examination a'la Guthrie and
the second of two roadside trash pickups. Next week is a
visit to my DermaDoc. Somewhen here is Thanksgiving if I can
find the dinner through all the Xmass Decorations and Out of
Season "Music". I'll keep you posted.
News Item: Finding Workers vs. Living Wage vs. On The
Dole
Mikey writes in response to a news outlet storey:
“...your sympathy piece about the
bakery closing for lack of workers. At one point the
owner, practically in tears, claimed that she "tried
everything" but "nobody wants to work". Why did you
not ask what pay she was offering and if she tried
increasing the pay rate?
“Employers are constantly complaining about
difficulty finding willing workers and it's always
framed as people "not wanting to work". Whatever
happened to free enterprise? I'll bet most if not
all of the applicants would have happily taken the
job if offered a sufficiently attractive wage. I
find it difficult to muster any sympathy for a
business owner who would rather close up shop than
offer a living wage.
“Perhaps you should do a story focused on the
unwillingness of employers to pay an appropriate
wage. Or at least point out that when an employee or
applicant refuses to work, it isn't because they
don't want to, it's because the compensation being
offered is not in line with cost of living and
appropriate to the job and working conditions.” |
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
My additional comments: The issue is not all about money. I
would add that for me a significant obstacle to working is
in the "working conditions" department, the conditions of
employment. Long hours, short lunches, make-work
assignments, dress code, commutes, just to get started.
Employers should be more amenable to flex-hours, and work
from home for instance. Granted some tasks require a team to
work together and some require safety and sanitation dress
code but putting up appearances is often contrary to getting
the job done. As I comment in one of my taglines: "If voters
are impressed by a poll worker's costume then they are
prob'ly voting for the wrong candidates anyhow." And the
point Ellen Goodman makes: “Normal is getting dressed in
clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in
a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the
job you need to pay for the clothes and the car and the
house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in
it.”
Your "living wage" point is a two-edged sword. A person is
smart. People are dumb. A person wants higher pay which
results in a higher cost of the product which is providing
that pay. People are dumb in that when they have more money
they buy more things, are willing to pay more for them.
Inflation. What this society needs is to get away from the
bigger is better hamster wheel. How can we inculcate some
sort of enough is enough philosophy?
WTF?
Have you noticed that Wenzday Thursday Friday acronyms to What
The Fuck?
It's 12:21 on 12-1-21!
At twenty-one minutes past noon: A palindromic time on a
double palindromic date! 12022021 is also an ambigram as
well as a palindrome.
One Of The Reasons I Won’t Own Land
Latest news here is that the new i11 corridor has been
approved... “...will come up Hwy 85 to I-10 then west to
363rd Ave alignment, North around the east end of Belmont
Mountain, across the Hassayampa plain, west of the Vulture
Mtns to connect with Hwy 93 West of Wickenburg.” See Corridor
Map. That means 4-6 lanes of traffic north-south about
a mile or so west of Paul's oasis. About the only good I can
see is that the new road will at least take the Wal-Mart
semis off the Vulture Mine Road. Best bet is that with the
fuel prices going up as they are (I paid US$3.80 for regular
at Fry's yesterday and Diesel is over four and a quarter
now.) there will be less and less need for another highway.
Perhaps the railroads will make a comeback.
Pearl Harbour Day
I believe I finally have the repaired radiator reinstalled
and plumbed but now there is a serious oil leak from the
motor so I’ll not be going on any road test for a while yet.
The gory details are a bit more than I can write about
without resorting indecent profanity.
Getting Colder...
 Paul made 7-Bean Soup with carrots
and celery for lunch and I had seconds for supper along with
charcoal burnt chicken. Took apart my bed to get through the
back door to the motor and inspect for oil leak. No oil leak
from the upper part but found serious heat damage to the
firewall insulation. Whilst I had the bed apart washed/aired
bedding.
Lined up next two new projects even while there is one on
going and two others incomplete. And now I have most likely
the rear main seal of the big Diesel in need of replacement.
I think I want to go hide in my blanket tent with some Oreos
and a colouring book.
Paul calls his new abode
il capannoné [capa-non'-né] He is sleeping there now
and the galley is mostly functional tho not finished. I've
been doing most of the wiring, between food bank days and
post office days and doctor visit days. In the west wall
above the fire place is my leaded
glass window titled Starry Night. Alignments
being as they are the Winter Solstice Sunset projects
through the coloured glass onto the northeast corner of the
living room. Stay tuned for further developments on Equinox
and Summer Solstice. [sunset windoe and reflection]
...and Darker. 2021xii19
The air has been clear at east and west horizons this past
week. A total of nine green flashes have been observed
during this period. Now the sun is within days of Winter
Solstice and his turn-around to begin the long climb to
Mid-Summer and longer, warmer days.
My 2021 Winter
Solstice Annual Letter is in here someplace in case
you didn’t get a copy by direct mail. The airwaves are
clogged with commercials touting all the things we cannot
live without. Tacky toys that will end up at the Thrift
Store for me to repair or recycle. Most requiring new AA and
AAA batteries to replace corroded ones left installed too
long. Buy stock in Duracell or that pink bunny. One
“interactive” unicorn requires four AA cells in the belly
and two AAA cells in the remote. What ever happened to
imagination?
Tis The Seasoning
Happy Hanukkah... an eight-day Jewish festival...
Salubrious Solstice... favorable to or promoting
health; healthful.
Commercial Xmas... the longest holiday on the
calendar. Durating from All Saints Eve to the day before
Boxing Day (that's when you box up all the wrapping paper,
tinsel, and broken toys and send them to the Thrift Store
and take all the silly sweaters back to Wal-Mart).
Nebulous New Years... hazy, vague, indistinct, or
confused.
Twelfth Night... Epiphany; observed as the last day
of Christmas; when
the Wise men showed up, according to some traditions,
bearing gifts.
“In the old days, it was not called the Holiday
Season; the
Christians called it “Christmas” and went to
church; the Jews called
it “Hanukkah” and went to synagogue; the
atheists went to parties
and drank. People passing each other on the
street would say “Merry
Christmas!” or “Happy Hanukkah!” or (to the
atheists) “Look out for
the wall!”
~Dave Barry
Somewhere buried under all this hype is a tiny branch of my
childhood faith. Yule Branch is all I have room for these
days. At the tree corral I trade one of my hand crafted
Zipper Fobs for a sprig of spruce, something evergreen in
any case, to hang in the corner by the Emergency Exit. The
green lasts well into Summer and the needles stay put as
long as they are not disturbed.
Xmas Eve December Showers Bring April Flowers
The Ajo Lilies are drinking deeply. Since about Oh-Dark-30
until afternoon tea my rain gauge has collected 1.34” of
water and that does not include the drips on my pillow from
a leak in the roof vent. My armpits smell like petrichor*.
Xmas (...in respect of the Commercialists and The Others)
Day
The only good Santa brought was a little over an inch of
rain. That will make the Ajo Lilies and all the other spring
wild flowers very happy but for me I have a new-found leak
in my roof to fix and a lot of mud to sweep away. I must be
on Santa's Naughty List. I hope you did better.
Bounteous Boxing Day!
Mostly OK yesterday here. Packed some yogurt-like gooey
stuff around the roof vent that was leaking in the rain. Now
may have to wait a year for more rain to see if the leak is
fixed.
Had Michael over for a pork loin roast dinner. That was
good. Screwed around with one recalcitrant messaging device
and played BananaGrams whilst the furnace failed again. Same
problem as before. So I replaced the same bad part again.
Runs OK again. Unsafe at any temperature. Cheap useless
spare parts. I'm swearing more but enjoying it less.
The usefulness of these so-called high tech conveniences is
far outweighed by their increasing complexity and fragility
and scarcity of spare parts and almost daily "upgrades". I
know, I know, I know, we are not supposed to fix anything
these days; throw away and buy new; that's the American Way.
Besides the new model is faster, smaller, cheaper, and even
more likely to break down sooner.
Many thanks to my new Spell Checker from Nita for their help
with all this writing and editing.
At the end of that cloudy day I slept well. This morning the
sun is up, the birds are fed, and the dishes await cleaning.
Good morning.
*petrichor
(n) ˈpe-trə-ˌkȯr: a distinctive, earthy, usually pleasant
odor that is associated with rainfall especially when
following a warm, dry period and that arises from a
combination of volatile plant oils and geosmin released from
the soil...
|
2021 Winter Solstice —
Greetings Virtual Travellers and Pen Friends: 
