Where's Hazel? Pet Hazel. Hazel needs her dreadlocks
trimmed.
 talis labor non sit cassus.
One of my Cautious Correspondents suggested I should write a
book. Thank you for that applause. Really. Thank you. Most
of the writing is done. Some pages need retyping. Mainly I
need to find a clever compassionate unemployed well-to-do
editor who wants to do humanity a service without getting
rich on the royalties.
2-9-22 Greetings Scout Shop!
I purchased my first Philmont Belt in 1966 during my first
visit to Philmont. Worn almost daily for 47 years I was
obliged to purchase my second Philmont Belt in 2013 when the
first one fell apart. Now today I am obliged to purchase a
third Philmont Belt as the second one has fallen apart after
only 9 years. The leather has become brittle and cracked.
Nothing has changed with regard to my habits of dress other
than an increase in waist size (commensurate with the new
belt’s increase in price?) so I am curious as to the source
of the leather in recent years. If the material even is
leather.
2022ix27 Good Things and Bad Things
On Sunday the Autumnal Equinox was uploaded and printed,
then on Monday twenty-one copies were posted to my
unconnected Captive Audience. Those were Good Things
correct? Today I am once again reminded of Little Jon’s
witticism: “It seems as though the worst things happen to
the very best people. Therefore, in order to have a long and
healthy life, one must strive to do bad each and every day.”
I am beginning to doubt the veracity of Jon’s wit. Every day
I do something bad something worse happens. What am I doing
wrong? Yesterday was Dump and Fill Day and my macerator was
leaking yucky in the yard. I suppose that leaking doesn't
really count as a Bad Thing I did but today I did a
Good Thing by replacing the leaky gasket. Then when ordering
a new set found that the Bad Thing is that the cost has
increased 17% since last time three years ago. This shit is
getting expensive!
For Want of a Puddle...
 Steve sent me a pair of DexShell socks. Wind
goes through but water finds a one-way street. Vapour comes
out; liquid is blocked. I’ve been waiting for a puddle to
test the waterproofnicity but such puddles we had during the
recent rain were not deep enough or full of sand and dog pee
not to mention windy and rainy. So a more controlled
experiment became necessary. As you can see, my foot was
immersed bootless in the basin with water over the instep
for long enough to snap a photo. Foot remained dry and tho
the outer layer of the sock soaked up a quarter cup of water
the foot inside remained dry. I'll give the socks further
walking tests when the days are a bit cooler (102f at this
photo) but full functionality may have to await a journey to
some place where there are surface waters.
 Late Spring Cleaning
With all my rearranging of things and stuff after
Spring/Summer rearranging of the Starboard-Forward BellyBox
I was obliged to find a new place to keep my bearpaws. (I
keep a pair handy just in case I get stuck in Donner Pass.)
Now they hang from the ceiling in the TV-Reading-Sleeping
room. Up there they can do double-duty as a shelf for
bandannas and magazines. The hooks are supposed to hold 40
pounds.
There is no hope for a paper plate in the long run, for
example. It’s designed to enter the waste stream as cheaply
and easily as possible. Conversely, a toaster could last for
decades if maintained properly, assuming the manufacturer
hasn’t built obsolescence into it (as is often the case). My
toaster (works great for cinnamon raisin bread) is a 1930s
Toastess Corp. Toaster Model 202, 115V, 500W, made by the
Toastess Corporation in Montreal, Canada. Human controlled,
not connected to the cloud. No programming necessary, simply
insert plug in socket and pay attention. Thanks Mikey. The
only sop to high-tech is the Smoke Detector on the floor a
few feet away.
October 2
I'm still holding onto a shred of hope to get on the road
for a little drive-about. For now I have been hired to be a
poll worker the first week of November, that should earn me
enough to at least half fill one fuel tank. Then I could
plan to depart here by the second week of November and risk
getting caught in a Pi Town snow job.
October 3
Dust storm snuck in under the cover of late afternoon drowsy
clouds. Wind here gusted to 44mph. Drifting and blowing lawn
furniture. My
little tree was bent over in the breeze.
Beware The Ides of October
 Attack of the Pea Hails! Internet working ok
again. 15-16 BIG storm. Power is on here but Mike, up town a
ways, has been without electric for more than 24 hours now.
Poles down all over town. Wind here up to 68mph. 3.5" rain
in a couple hours. Post & 2x4 shed with a metal roof
totally destroyed. Corrugated sheet iron roof panels all
over the yard. Lots of cleaning up after to do. Over two
inches fell in less than an hour after dark along with
damaging wind--max 68mph--and pea-sized hail. Onset of the
wind was quite sudden. Great thundering roar, awning
flapping about, the bus rocking to and fro broadside to the
southeast wind, Hurricane Hazel-Rah sitting smugly saying:
See what you get for naming me after a rabbit?
 Next
morning one could see the yard was a disaster area. The roof
of the 39-foot shed was laying in the drive, only inches
from the right front headlight of TinyTruck. The pea-sized
hail had chipped away the dirt on the windward side of The
Cat Drag'd Inn leaving an arty cluster of bright blue
freckles.
Tuesday 25th.
Cold Front backed in yesterday. Very much north windy.
Temperature down about 50f degrees from the previous high.
Yesterday was the first day since Spring with no A/C action.
This morning the temperature outside is 48f! Heat is ON in The
Cat Drag’d Inn. Two blankets and a cat on my bed last
night.
 22x22 Dumb, Beautiful, Singular Chaos
Correspondent Steven sent a note pointing at an essay about
Close
Male Friendship. I wonder sometimes how the hikes I
led were perceived by the young men who raced ahead or
followed along. In retrospect I know of only a few of the
Scouts: Ste, Jim C, Jim J, Paul S, and two sister-sons,
who've even survived to this late date. Of that short list
only the first three still hike that I know of. I doubt any
of the few man-friends I had at that time would qualify for
the category of male bonding that essay describes. All of
that peer group are either dead already or invalided. I am
reminded of a line from the song: Where have all the hikers
gone...
Lots of heavy lifting. Pulled a 240v power line up to the
top of the pole. Volts really do weigh a lot more then they
are turned on. Even the AA batteries; you can tell. Drop
a fresh AA, (-) down (+) up, from a few inches onto a
hard table and the cell will sometimes just stand there or
often just fall over. But
a dead AA will bounce. After all that plus a shower
and a glass of Merlot I did indeed have a good sleep.
Uninterrupted until the alarum cat purred me awake at her
usual five minutes past oh-four-hundred.
 All
Saints Eve
Great labour yesterday ripping and tearing at the shed
debris, making piles of roof panels and 2x4s. Today I will
start sorting salvage stuff from trash or I'll take apart
the live wiring to move the distribution boxes off the
remaining wall. Sort of depends upon wind direction. In
other news the critter cam caught a peccary in the dark
ravaging the birdseed so now we have to find a better place
for storage. Or shoot the peccary. But usually if there is
one of them there is a herd close by.
Recently spent an hour and a half in chat with Amazon
Customer "Service" (not unlike the "Postal" Service in too
many respects) trying to learn how to register an old used
Kindle Fire tablet that was gifted me. Following the
published steps would not work. Inane meaningless error
messages over and over. Worked my way through three Customer
Service Agents. The first one at least had the courtesy to
say they were "getting help" however the next two simply
disappeared and the chat was picked up by the next in the
hierarchy. Herewith the last ten minutes of the transcript:
Tasneem | Customer Service
Upon checking this is quite an older generation.
These kindle have outdated
software and cannot be updated. So the devices
don’t register at all.
Let me check for you on this though with my lead
T
12:37 PM
ajo | AH-HA. Finally we are getting somewhere
that at least looks reasonable.
12:37 PM
Tasneem | Customer Service
The agents never advised you on this?
T
12:38 PM
ajo | NO! you are the first to suggest this
part of the problem.
My local guru suggested this might be the
problem but we have been round and round on
the Amazon site looking for a page that
specifies which devices are useful/useless;
must be some sort of secret information.
12:40 PM
Tasneem | Customer Service
I am so sorry about that, let me see if I can
get something for you
Have you tried a factory reset?
T
12:41 PM
ajo | yes. more than once. that is the last
thing your previous agent suggested.
12:42 PM
Tasneem | Customer Service
okay
T
12:42 PM
ajo | we also tried a software upgrade.
didn't help.
If this FIRE had never been deregistered would
it still be functional?
12:44 PM
Tasneem | Customer Service
If it was still registered, it would work, but
certain things may not work
due to software being outdated. I checked and
the device cannot be
registered as its outdated. The best here is you
can trade the device in
and we pay you for the item and offer you 20-25%
discount on a new device.
|
First Winter Cold Front
Last night 4" new Autumn snow in the hills a few miles north
of me. Three blankets and a cat on my bed last night.
41f was the low (outside) this morning. Back in the old days
one salient trick impressed upon me when camping in Winter
came in handy during a search and rescue exercise my first
Winter in McMurdo. Take a one liter water bottle, "X" marked
with black electrical tape, with you into your sleeping bag.
Very handy so you don't have to go outside when the
temperature is plenty-too-cold below zero. I keep that very
water bottle close to hand in TinyTruck for use when there
are no trees handy at stop lights and car parks.
That Was Then, This Is Now 
Reading in my early journals: Book 12, August 1991, Denver,
between deployments to Palmer Station. Purchased a Compaq
LTE386s Notebook computer: 2MB RAM, 60MB fixed disk, 640x480
mono display, weight, a few pounds, five thousand one
hundred dollars, ($5,100.00). This week, here, now,
following the dialogue with Amazon (supra), notwithstanding
the several machines between then and now, purchased a
Kindle Fire HD+ Tablet: 3GB RAM, 64GB Internal Storage,
1280x800 HD colour display, weight, a few ounces, $81.27.
Still cleaning up after The Big Wind. I've disassembled all
the roof panels and I believe I have picked up all the
nails, if not, my tyres will find any strays. There is yet a
month or so of salvage operation to do before snow covers
everything but first Paul wants to build a new smaller shed
so we will have a place to store all the good junque. I
think he is flying in the face of Parkinson's Law.
11.11.11 
 Observed a
Northern Cardinal at my seed feeder this afternoon and the
Critter Cam caught a coyote selfie.
The Ides of November
I am somewhat surprised and not a little annoyed by how
quickly the weather here went from Summer to Winter without
waiting for the leaves to fall.
Thanks Giving – With My Extended Family
 Slightly warmer today. Turkey from
the food bank. I'm building a Mince Pie. Hurricane Hazel-Rah
helped me catch the minces but she was quite put out to
learn I was going to bake them in a pie.
Of all the people for whom I am thankful, Paul, in whose
back yard I am presently camped, is at the top of my list.
He is showing me all he knows about collecting historical
artifacts and other junque and I am showing him everything I
know about rewiring things and stuff and picking up trash
and nails.
Black Saturday – Worshiping at the Altar of Trash
 A mile along Courthouse Road and back with FoSM
semi-annual Roadside Cleanup Project. I didn’t get the
quarter-mile to the first dead cow and my first big orange
MCDOT bag was too full and heavy to carry any further.
Product Placement Pew I named that section. Tonopah’s
Litterbug’s beverage of choice is clearly pictured here tho
this collection of bottles—a few of them full of an amber
fluid—sure made a heavy load. Other pedestrial casualties
included a red fox found squished on the center line; I
dragged that to the verge so the Raven Patrol may have an
uninterrupted dining experience over the next few days.
When we're young, days go by like power poles;
Later, in middle age, days go by like fence posts;
When we're old, days go by like railroad ties.
I have been reading in my journals from when I was deployed
to Antarctica. 1987 to 1997. Thirty years plus or minus.
Many days I wrote about I don't remember at all, other days
stand out as if they were right now.
I've grown old.
Now my own name
Rings a bell.
--Billy
Collins, u.s. Poet Laureate 2001-2003
 What
Is This Wooden Thing?
Found in Nita’s Olde Curiosity Shoppe. The Wooden Thing is
about 17” long. The slot across the arms is about the
thickness of a pencil. In a survey of 81 responsible adults
13 comments were returned [the remaining 68 are
irresponsible?]: Three people wrote that Wooden Thing is a
“No Idea What”; five wrote Nutcracker with one adding
“...combination bottle opener”; one thought Wooden Thing was
a “barbed wire fence stretcher”; another said chopsticks or
compass; one correspondent from California said sheet metal
bender. Most interesting is “a sort of vise, a clamp to hold
a certain small body part steady for circumcision”.
Knit One Purl One
Tired is a result; bored is a choice. I nap usually from
when I want to until when I wake and then go to bed early by
the standards of prime time programming. Then I get up at
0400 to feed the alarum cat and break my own fast and write.
This morning all the chatter on the Old Farts Net is What I
Was Doing on This Day [that Shall] Live In Infamy. Does
anyone not have any infamy in their cupboard? I’m sure we
could all knit together a storey of some day of infamy.
Kennedy was shot. The Twin Towers came down. Covid struck
home.
 221213 Cumulus plumose
I call this scattered Cumulus plumose. 36f here this dawn.
The steam plumes result from the cooling towers of Palo
Verde Generating Station and the three nearby gas turbine
plants all cranking out watts to beat back the cold north
wind. Austin from PHXWX reported the tallest plume could be
seen from north Phoenix (east of I-17) about 50 miles away.
Rushing Headlong To The End of The Year
All the leftovers and loose ends pile up and clamour for
attention. Me! Me! they all cry; I’m next. A watched pot may
be slow or never to boil but my calendar is running out of
days even as I stand here watching. A strange and delightful
thing happened at the end of dinner with friends last night.
The waitress came and left the check and took away our
plates and stuff as we discussed the division of the total
and the percentage of tip. She then returned a few minutes
later to tear the check in half. Your dinner has been paid
for, she said, actually everyone’s dinner has been paid for
by that guy who’s headed out the door.
 Winter Solstice
Season's Greetings: Happy Hanukkah and Bounteous Boxing Day!
And let us not overlook Kwanzaa and Twelfth Night, and most
important: Winter Solstice. By the time we are rested and
sober the days will be getting longer again. I find much to
my chagrin that I am already looking forward to the
oppressive heat of next Summer. And in other news: The
Cat Drag’d Inn has been promoted: Awarded a Fifth
Calendar. At least for the next few days anyhow—we’ll see
how many of 2022 renew for 2023—The Cat Drag’d Inn is
a Five Calendar Diner for Culinary Excellence.
Boxing Day 26th December
Yesterday I baked a Mince Pie for Dinner with my Extended
Family. Most of the noise and chatter was focused on the
Packer’s football game; I had a nap in the hot tub. Mr
Google tells me that this day is really the "Official"
Holiday. The post office is closed for this Official
Holiday. No mention of Boxing Day which is really what today
is. Oh Well. Crass commercialism.
 27th Post Office Is Open
Jack and Nancy visit for tea and crumpets. First time I have
been on the roof of The Cat Drag’d Inn since the
attack of the Pea Hail. The solar panels all look fine but
there are two serious dents in the Copper Lightning Ball and
there is a bite missing from one vane of the anemoscope.
Fifty and One Hundred Years Ago 1993 January
2023
From a letter written then which I am just finding again
now: “… No, I canna grasp the period, really. Do you read Scientific
American, Popular Science, QST, where they have the
columns variously titled “25, 50, 100 Years Ago”? I am
beginning to read in those columns things I remember reading
the first time around, when they were new ideas.” That must
be some sort of coming of age rite, eh?... In reading again
words I wrote 30-some years ago I have been obliged to tear
out many pages and burn them. When I entrusted those
thoughts to the pages of my journal the effort was very
therapeutic, cleansing. But now: Whilst I am not sorry for
nor ashamed of what I said or wrote, in my defense I have to
say that after all these years of practicing, and honing my
skills and bedside manner, I am finally getting to really be
a curmudgeon, geezer class. But some folks don't appreciate
curmudgeons:
“Curmudgeons get credit for wisdom for the
high hit rate that comes with
hostility to easy optimism; and being old, and thus not
really counting,
they, like children, have a privilege to say what would
constitute an
offense if said by a fully responsible adult. And like
children, the
curmudgeon is considered cute for it, but unlike the
child, he is also
considered wise for it. To the extent curmudgeonism
suspends the rules of
mandatory polite comments, and indeed substitutes a rule
of mandatory
harrumphs when these complements are given, the
curmudgeon gets credit for
seeing the truth, or for telling it the way it is, and
that counts as
wisdom, even though this wisdom lies in everyone's
knowledge that the
polite complements or obligatory upbeat statements are
inane.”
—William Ian Miller, Losing It (2011)
...so, now I am cleaning up after; I tear out pages.
|
2022 Winter Solstice — Greetings Virtual
Travellers and Pen Friends: 
