Where's Hazel? Pet Hazel. Hazel has a new friend or
two in this clowder of ominous looking felines.
(The Mob. New Jersey, 1961, Walter Chandoha. Cats.
Photographs 1942–2018 is published by Taschen)
How About An Interdependence Day?
Interdependence is the fact or quality of depending
on each other, or the idea that everything in nature is
connected. We are not independent as much as we might like
to believe.
"We are all here on earth to help others;
What on earth the others are here for I don't know."
—W.H.Auden
"No one in this world is useless who lightens the load of
another."
—Charles Dickens
10th July Food Bank Wenzday
On the road all day with Food Bank and Poll Worker Training
and Geezer Discount Shopping and then driving home with the
traffic into the setting sun. I'll try to not be too
grouchy. Yesterday I decided the a/c in TinyTruck was
not working well. Had Allan put in two cans of R-12 and have
colder air. Now need to find an arm and leg with which to
replace the R-12.
240711 CritterCam Photo of the Week
The new CritterCams are mostly catching canines and felines,
domestic and feral, and avian. This looks to be a Red Tailed
Hawk, rear view. Best I can guesstimate,
from measuring the tree bole and the scraggly bush in front
of the bird, this birds wing tips are 40 inches apart in the
picture, for about a 50 inch wing span.
Ides of Julio
Inflating the budget? First Class Postage increase,
second time this year, from 68 cents to 73 cents.
Shopping this week at Fry's for my fav graham cereal I saw
the package was different to my previous purchase. But
I didn't really notice the impact this would have until back
at The Cat Drag'd Inn when I compared the
ingredients with my previous box. The honey, made by
bees, in "Golden Grahams Retro Recipe Made with Real Honey"
is replaced with "Dextrose",
derived from corn or wheat. I dashed of a note to
General Mills [see infra] asking for an explanation.
Consumer Care wrote back: "...Golden Grahams Retro Recipe
Made with Real Honey is manufactured in the USA while Golden
Graham Cereal [that I found on the shelf at Fry's in Buckeye
AridZona] is manufactured in Canada." What!? I
shopped at WalMart and found the desired ... Retro Recipe...
and so returned the box of Canadian Golden Grahams to Fry's
for a refund. Product not suitable for my taste.
Cool here this morning, 88f headed for 119f again. The
legislature has passed a law making any thermometer resident
in AridZona liable for misdementia fines for displaying any
temperature equal to or greater than 120f. Celsius
thermometers excepted.
I'm cleaning up after a visit from one of my Antarctic
coconspirators. World-travelling friend Jeff: all seven
continents, uncounted countries, more storeys than that;
he's just returned from umpteen years in the foreign service
watching elephants in Africa and Olympics in China.
Angst & August, Travail & Travel 
Do you think august and angst might have the same
root? Sort of like travel and travail. Eric Weiner
wrote in The Geography of Bliss: “The word "travel"
stems from the same root as "travail" does. There's a reason
for this. For centuries, travelling was equated with
suffering. Only pilgrims, nomads, soldiers, and fools
travelled.”
Angst & August both have to do with fear and
loathing. Not to mention suffering.
240719 The Last Ant
Hurricane Hazel-Rah’s kibble dish was moving towards me
across the deck, the orts of yesterday seemed alive.
Suddenly every freckle on my arms has legs, spots in front
of my eyes, seem to be marching two by two, then ten by ten,
and some of them bite! Ants! The rugs are crawling
with ants! The last time there was a plague of ants at
The Cat Drag’d Inn they had gained access via the
shore power cord into the APU bay. Another time the
ants came in on the EtherNet wire. This time their
trail led up the side of the right front wheel cover, in
somehow under the computer desk and across the floor to
Hazel’s brekky bowl. And lots of other places as
well: in the egg skillet, in the trash barrel, in the
microwave! Take a powder ants, a poison powder.
STEM that march and vacuum up the remains. Two hours of
nonstop sorties before I could sit my morning coffee.
The last ant will find their way hive I am sure to bring
another army bent on revenge.
July 22 Psych Exam 
This is a Rorschach Test. What do you see in this
image? An Artifiscal Interrogatator posed a question
concerning the functionality of frequency multiplication to
a pair of microwave
amplifier circuits. They posed for the
answer: Like this?
 In addition to Hurricane Hazel-Rah (and
her friends) there are several spiders in residence here who
augment the two bug zappers in controlling the numbers of
assorted flying insects. There are several
Daddy-Long-Legs a.k.a. Cellar Spiders or House Spiders and
there are two or three Wolf Spiders. Maybe only
one. Hard to tell as I don't know the area of their
territory but I see one in diverse locations from time to
time. The DLLs I feed when I can catch something
without smooshing the meal too much. Spiders prefer
live prey. The MP4 linked to this KitchenSpiderAtWork
is 10MB, sixteen seconds.
25 July 
I didn't actually break the garage door, but I was the one
who pushed the button. On my way out to deliver food and
visit the post office I stopped in front of the garage to
leave off some onions and bananas and two cases of bottled
water. The garage door opened ok and the water went in on
the floor ok. Then I pressed the button to close and drove
away. The autotragic garage door failed to stop and
pulled the panels out of the rails. All bent out of shape
now. At least they didn't fall onto the car below.
Perhaps to give my Self a tiny bit of good press: Fix one
thing break one thing. I'm tired of bemoaning the
vicissitudes of this "modern" trash-centric computer
controlled life. Someone's trash is littering the
street more than usual. To make matters worse the dumpster
that usually sits here has disappeared.
Yesterday--no, the day before the day before--I discovered
the big awning on the side of the bus to be about to fall
off. I think I fixed that OK this morning. And I
picked up the worst of the trash but have nowhere to stow
the bags but in bigger bags. The rest will have to blow
around out there and wait for a cooler morning and the
return of the dumpster.
Alex Trebek Stamp and Postage Increase
In 1950 when I began writing one could send a letter coast
to coast for three-cents; my allowance was a dollar a
week. By the early 1960s when I started driving a
gallon of gasoline was about a quarter, First Class Postage
was a nickle. Today an Alex Trebek Stamp is $0.73 and
a gallon of fuel is around $3.50. The ratio is about the
same 5:1. So what’s the point of Inflation?
Click on the image for more detail. Coining a
word: "Trebekism": "Trebekism"-- A poser the answer to which
is in the form of a question. e.g. "Trebekism":
“One who draws cats.”
Last of July...
I’m in recovery mode after a long day--19 hours flat out--of
poll working and cleaning up after. Off to the food bank now
and a well earned nap. We had slightly over 400 voters
cast ballots according to the vote counter, plus uncounted
others who came to drop off mail-ins.
...And the First of August
Ran out of water last night just as I was brushing my teeth
before bed. Usually that happens, the running out of
water part, as I’m drawing water for morning coffee. I
don’t understand. Why do I never run out of water when
I’m washing dishes? Or watering plants.
Monday-Monday...
Takes longer to type on this white kbd. The keys have to be
pushed harder and more far in. Some of them are not in the
same arrangement as on the black board. Lots of
thunder and lightning last night. 0.05" (inches) rain.
That's the first measurable rain in 34 days. Soaked in right
quick so the ground is still dry this morning. Happy
August! The only month without a Federal Holiday. The
elevator was invented (1st) and the waffle iron was patented
(24th) in August. This morning, after a week and a
half of hanging out on the end of their wires, I reinstalled
the two charge controllers into their boxes and all is well.
Thank you once again Ryan Gurin and others at SUNFORGE for
your patience and support.
Almost Ready
Time to play Mr Guthrie's On The Road Again music.
2024viii11 Sunday
Wedding Shower? Baby Shower? Perseid
Shower! I was up at Oh-Dark-30 and altogether outside
to observe a few shooting stars. Not a shower, maybe a
drizzle, but nice nonetheless.
Best If Used By SEP 09 2021
What is black and sticky and bulged at the ends? Used
to be a tin of Del Monte Yellow Cling Sliced Peaches In
Heavy Syrup. Warning: Little Kid Guidance Suggested
before showing this image to any Groan-Ups. Looks like
a tin of Mandarin oranges might be next. That tin was
dated "DEC ...2022" Cracked the seal and PWOOOSH! all over
the yard. My fruit & condiments drawer is a right
soggy mess; wanna bet, in this heat if I toss in a cup or
two of Bisquick the mess will bake up into a tasty peach
cobbler?
 This Little Clock of Mine...
From at least since 1967 or so this clock has been keeping
time for me. At first in the old School Bus Yellow '67
Chevy G-10 Van and later in The Cat Drag'd Inn.
Somewhen long ago (1973?) this venerable timepiece had her
mainspring replaced at the Portland Maine Aircraft
Instrument Shop. Since then about 2,983 times I have
wound her up as part of my Sunday Morning Chores. This
week she is in recovery from a heart transplant. A
windup clock is important because when the power fails and
the batteries are all dead you can still tell the time to
touchdown.
Sunday, 18 August, Rainy Morning
In case you hadn't noticed: the On The Road Again music
didn't work. 0.12”. That brings my Calendar Year Rain up to
4.96”. There are days when I miss having someone to wait on.
Hurricane Hazel-Rah helps in that regard but when she sits
on the table in the middle of my crossword or her tail
shuffles the cards of my solitaire I have to
reconsider. I spent a lot of time in bed. Must have
slept at least as many hours as Hurricane Hazel-Rah.
Some other hours troubleshooting a sprinkler/irrigation
"smart" controller. After that off to visit TobySue
who live a ways south by the Palo Verde Nuke Plant.
They have a 40,000 gallon above ground pool filled with salt
water. No chlorine necessary. Great soak.
 What's
In A Cat? 
I used to live with this cat Inga and I used to know the
author Ms Turner and I used to have a copy of this book Mascots of
Mt. Washington. Over time all three have
been lost so when I found this book, and in such great
condition, there was no question, a Must Have. Well
packaged, and promptly delivered, thank you very much Mr
Coffey.
August 20 General Mills Responds
A week after my comment supra I wrote a letter to General
Mills: “...Real Honey" has been replaced with
"Dextrose"? Please explain. A few days later
General Mills' Consumer Care responded: “Golden Grahams
Retro Recipe Made with Real Honey is manufactured in the USA
while Golden Graham Cereal is manufactured in Canada.”
So I went asearching and discovered my favourite cereal
"Golden Grahams Retro Recipe Made with Real Honey" was on
the shelf at a different grocer. Indeed! I
returned the box made with Dextrose to Fry’s and said the
product was unacceptable. Still no explanation.
21 August, A Very August Day 
I propose we create a new National Holiday just so August is
not left out of the merrymaking. National Maintenance
Medications Day! The drug companies love that concept. No
cure necessary, none available, just keep'em drugged and
rake in the profits. I'm on my prostate pill. Mike is
on dialysis thrice a week. Paul takes a daily something to
keep his feet on the ground. Even his dog takes three pills
a day for hip displasia. Jim is in radiation
treatments. Oh well...About those who believe: "...the
government is using the vaccine to put a tracking device in
your arm,..." Tell them to take a closer look at their
mobile phone.
23 Skiddoo
Last night I was barely head on pillow when something
tickled me. Swat-scratch-rollover... Finally I turned on the
light. ANTS! Fucking ants, AGAIN! some so small they look as
if dust motes were drifting across the counterpane. On my
pillow! A third invasion of ants; at least this time they
were not biting. Perhaps sated on the kitty kibbles
Hurricane Hazel-Rah has been stashing for her late night
snacks. I managed to STEM the tide enough
to make a clear spot to sleep and this morning I've been
hours looking for how they are getting in. Last invasion I
could clearly see the route of entry but
this time I don't know how they are getting in.
Dump & Fill
Two steps closer to departure. Again.
25 & 50 Years Ago 
Today Dennis M. wrote that 50 years ago he was
hiking/camping on Mount Robson and that set me to
remembering. I recall two monthly periodicals I
subscribed to back then, Scientific American and QST, had
columns titled “25 & 50 Years Ago”. So here we
are, something else to write about. Twenty-five years
ago I was hunting morels and cooking—The Naked Chef—at
Kaniksu Resort and teaching Ian how to drive a stick
shift. Fifty years ago I was living in The Land of The
World’s Worst Weather—my NH Driver License address was 6267
Carriage Road, Sergent's Purchase—and sailing on Booth Bay
“Habah” down Maine. This may be the start of something
new?
Revisiting Compass Points
In my Spring Letter of 2022 I wrote: "The cardinal points:
North, East, South, West, and the ordinal points between
them: NE, NW, SE, SW. [And therein is the first inkling of
my question.] Then there is the circle of half-wind points
between the cardinals and ordinals: NNE, ENE, ESE, SSE, SSW,
WSW, WNW, NNW further increasing my puzzlement. I record the
observed wind on a 16-point compass rose. An hundred years
ago in Scouts one had to memorize and recite in clockwise
order the 16-point compass rose. Who originated that format,
that naming convention? Why do we not say East-North-North
or West-West-South?" The best answer I found then is
in this article Points
of The Compass.
A Labourious Day
Serious Dust Storm for September Day. At worst the
visibility was reduced to 2 miles. Now that the days
are shortening, the Max Temps lowering, the Dew Points
nudging the magical 55f, the time has come to enumerate the
records:
For the Calendar Year 2024 at The Cat Drag'd Inn,
Tonopah AridZona:
| Month |
100f
|
100InARow* |
>110f* |
>120f |
Jan
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Feb
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Mar
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Apr
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
May
|
16
|
6
|
0
|
0
|
Jun
|
30
|
36
|
0
|
0
|
Jul
|
31
|
67
|
50
|
2
|
Aug
|
31
|
89
|
70
|
0
|
Sep
|
25
|
114
|
77
|
0
|
Totals: 135 Days of 100f or
Greater.
114 Days In A Row from May
26th of 100f or Greater.
* Note that these two columns
show cumulative totals.
Total Days >110f =
77; Total Days >120f = 2.
Maximums: May:
109f; June: 118f; July: 121f;
August: 118f
The Ides of September?
(That reminds me of another Trebekism: September is
like a certain baking product.)
Small steps toward playing the On The Road Again music
again. Each time I announce a departure date my start
time is later--tomorrow/next week/whenever--so I'm not going
to announce. One of these days I will write from
elsewhere. This morning I turned on The Cat Drag'd
Inn tracking beacon. Go to the APRS
site to ride along. But first I had to replace
the memory battery in the GPS. All the setup data was lost
so I had to figure out all that info to get the GPS to
interface with the tracker to send the data to the APRS
server. Phew! This time I'm not gonna close up the GPS
box, just hold the parts in with another ziptie. That'll be
ok as long as none of the bytes leak out.
Fetched my clock from the post office this morning and now
just getting to restore my venerable timepiece to her place
of honour on the galley table. I will check the time twice
as much as usual for a while to make up for all the days she
has been recovering in the clockspital. Thank you very much
Millie for your kind effort. I am quite happy with the work
you did in restoring this fine antique. I'm glad you were
there in my time of need and I hope you will still be there
for a lot of years to come.
18 Sept Autumn Is Bursting Out All Over!
Food bank was good, shopping was hectic after Mike called to
beg a ride ASAP to hospital. ASAP but not emergency so
I continued with normal plan up until TinyTruck’s right rear
tyre blew out two miles short of 339th. Traffic was
just too scary for me to attempt tyre change with semis
roaring past a few feet away so I called AAA. They said 90
minutes. Then they called back a few minutes later to
say that they had a truck headed to Q'site that was right
behind me. I looked in the rear-view and there was a
great big wrecker with blinking lights and a floor jack. RR
Tyre blew out in three places about 60 degrees apart, only
the middle one shown in this picture.
Home to unload groceries, Allan's to share with him and pick
up Mike, then Litchfield and McDowel, Mike to hospital,
return here to do the WX and feed and water the
critters. What next? Last text from Mike was he
is in triage and having blood drawn. Tomorrow I have
to get a new spare tyre and get boxes for the Food Pantry on
Saturday. TinyTruck is due for all new tyres anyhow so
we will do that next week.
19Th - 20th Hectic Gets Hectic-er
To Food City with the BigTruck and Trailer to take on 75
empty banana boxes for the Tonopah Food Pantry. Then
Discount Tire for a new spare and make an appointment for
Friday to have four new tyres put on TinyTruck. Part
of Friday was devoted to helping TobySue with an electrical
failure in their RV. I’d already been troubleshooting
that for several hours earlier in the week. Ridiculous
task with no diagrammes for reference and a desire to not
take too much apart. But take apart we did and
eventually found a burned/melted wire that is either fatigue
failure or lightning damage.
21st Food Pantry
221 cars through the line. 221 boxes loaded with yummy
comestibles provided by Saint Mary’s Alliance and
household cleaning & hygiene supplies from Mirna's
Place. Tomorrow—Happy First Day of Autumn—I have
dishes to wash and a laundry and fix at least one irrigation
leak.
22nd Aye Cap'n She's A Leakin... 
If this were a ship on the high seas the engineer might say:
Aye Cap'n, the water's coming in faster'n we can pump it
out! However this is not on the high seas, but in the
back yard and the water is leaking out faster than we can
pump it in. So much for this Sunday Morning Autumnal
Equinox Ready For The Road Laundry. Almost
ready. The Rubber Eating Rats Strike Again!
That’s a “euphuism” I suppose.
27th The Never Ending Storey
In town again to fetch Mike home from hospital. Along
the way discover that the RR, the new RR, is dangerously
soft (again). Stop at the tyre shop and find a 2-1/2
inch nail in the middle of the tread. Got that fixed and now
on Sunday, the 29th the RR is very near flat again.
WTF Over? [Is there an emoji for that?]
Trebekism: “One who draws cats.” And the question
is: What is a Catographer?
Another Trebekism: "September is like a certain baking
product." What is Crisco?
|
2024 Autumnal Equinox —
Greetings Virtual Travellers and Pen Friends: 
Be Well, Do Good,
and Please Write.
