Where's Hazel? Pet Hazel. Hazel needs her dreadlocks
trimmed. 
CritterCam Centerfold
This bird was caught on camera posing for animal crackers
the end of March. Hawkish looking avian, a Republican
perhaps? Click on the image for a larger size.
 Happy Big Wind Day
April
12th was Happy Big Wind Day. Tuckerman
Brewing Company of Conway NH released a craft ale "6288
Stout" in celebration of the World's
Record Wind of 231mph at The Mount Washington Observatory
in 1934.
I filled up eight big orange trash bags with roadside refuse
along a one mile section of secondary road. Others in
the team did likewise in their mile. Along with
several tyres and other big items we filled two 6cuyd
dumpsters for a two-day spree. Amazing and
disheartening how careless and stupid People are. HBWD also
marks the end of my Journal #40. And of course implies
the opening of my Journal #41.
Flakey Friday 
Today I went to DMV to transfer the Title for the Lorn
Ranger from New Mexico to AridZona. That part was even
easier than Capt Hook had described. Then I ran up against
another pothole on the road to decrepitude. Since I had
already invested a half hour working my way up to the head
of the queue I decided to have my Driver License upgraded to
a Travel ID. For the first time in the 65 years I have been
driving my License to Operate a Motor Vehicle now contains a
Restriction: “Corrective Lenses”. You could say I should
have seen that coming.
The Feast Day of Saint George
 Today
is The Feast Day
of Saint George, Patron Saint of England and the Boy
Scouts among other entities and groups. My patron saint also
right after The Turtle, or out here in AridZona, The Desert
Tortoise (If you want to get anywhere around here you have
to stick your neck out.) I have to wonder how many
Boy Scouts know they have an Official Patron Saint. “The
tradition tells that a fierce dragon was causing panic at
the city of Silene, Libya.”
An OAE & OO friend who once upon a long ago wrote: "A
high-carb, low-fat, liquid diet has proven to relieve the
distressing symptoms associated with cold sobriety" now
writes:
> In reality, I take 3 blood pressure meds, one
cholesterol, one ulcer and
> because of all that shit, two anti-depression. I
should go back to
> drinking, then it was only one type of beer and one
type of scotch. Much simpler.
My diet includes only one actual med, for BPH. But my PCP
recently prescribed a vitamin D supplement saying my D
levels were low. That same week my DermaDoc found several
more pre-cancer spots and told me I really should keep my
shirt on. I'm not depressed, I'm impressed. How can I be
getting too
much sun and at the same time be D-deficient?
 Square Root Day of The
Century
May 5th is a Square
Root Day of The Century! The previous one was in
2016 and the next one will be in 2036. Square Root Day
is when both the day of the month and the month are the
square root of the last two digits of the year ergo
May(V) x 5th (V) = 25 (XXV). Diagramme that!
25v4 Tonopah AridZona
Sunday chores in progress.
A
sort of worship perhaps.
Trying to keep the end of my rope
From fraying too much
Too fast.
Computer Crash & Food Pantry
Been a frightful fortnight fraught with onerous
obstacles. Food Pantry distribution Saturday was good.
Among other comestibles were pallets of Half&Half,
cabbage heads, Eggs enough to give each person three dozen.
48cuft of assorted tinned foods—soups, tuna, meats
&c—and weirdest of all was a box of short black aprons
with "Subway" logo. One on my front and one on my rear and
no shorts needed?
Tacoless Tuesdaymess
Computer rebuild proceeding. Cloned the Win7 drive of 262GB
in 59,865 seconds at a rate of 4.4MB/sec. Next I have the
dishes to do, the floor wants vacuuming, and see if the
copied drive will boot.
25/5/25 Almost A Palindate
Made what I hope will be a nice bean soup last night.
My pot ranneth over; the trash can will eat well.
 26 May Fake Memorial Day
“...just hang around, eh...” What?... no parades and
celebrations to remember all the folks who succumbed to the
carnage for why the post office is closed today?
I would rather remember at least a couple of the folks who
worked on the Home Front to make the massacree of World War
Two possible: My father was a welder who spent the war at
the Quincy Navy Yard building the ships the navy used to
move the troops and conduct the war at sea. My mother
was a nurse who spent her time cleaning and patching up
after. We need to have a holiday to remember the
sacrifice of the folks on the home front who all made the
carnage possible.
Memorialize This
Bad to worse here with a few good peaks or perks along the
road. My PCP doctor called to tell me my testicles were OK.
My DermaDoc used up a few tablespoons of liquid nitrogen
spraying suspicious spots. The internet is down again but
this time all my usual fixes are not reviving service. A
dead mouse/packrat thing which Linda, the neighbour's cat,
brought in a few days ago had died and rotted to festering
with maggots and stink under the stove. Another good spot
was my finding a really nice, on the outside at least,
picnic cooler along the road yesterday. But the inside was a
slimy rotting mass of garbage I'm still trying to clean
out. I think I will go back to bed for another
nap.
Monsoon Yet?
Used to be long ago the onset of Monsoon Season [and Monsoon
is a Season NOT a storm] was defined as when the Dew Point
Temperature was observed to be “Greater than 55f Three Days
In A Row” then some Wag in the Weather Service decided
that was too vague and to make life easier for the
prognosticators and public proclaimed that Monsoon Season
would henceforth be a calendar date: “Monsoon begins June 15
and ends Sept 30.” Ready or not. Dew Point be
damned. At The Cat Drag’d Inn Weather Station
observers recorded Dew Points greater than 55f for the first
four days of June. The humidity was oppressive! I can
hardly wait for Official Oppressivnicity.
To Damn or Not To Damn
 My cousin Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote: “It is
not true that life is one damn thing after another — it's
one damn thing over and over.” I have to take issue
with that. I believe life is one damn thing
after another. Last week’s damn thing was the failure
of the Internet Gateway Router which connects the LAN at The...Inn
to the backhaul. The week before that was the lump in
my left testicle. This week the microwave oven
failed—the timer would turn on OK but then not turn
off. Gets rather messy after a while when trying to
soft bake an egg.
As expected once I gave up searching for the spare microwave
timer I knew was here and ordered a new oven (for less cost
than the part I found online in Nova Scotia) the two timers
stashed in a parts box came up for air. Neither are exact
replacements—not even close for that matter—so I will let
the order for the new oven stand. Just as well since this
present oven is 20 years old. Once the new one is functional
I will take the time to retro fit a mis-mated timer to the
old oven and set up a second galley in the garage along with
the overflow fridge and laundry.
7 Come Eleven
Last night HRH HHR and I attended virtual seminar refresher
course for certification as a Volunteer Storm Spotter for
NOAA/NWS: When the PHX NWS office issues a Citizen
Advisory: Pay Attention (not imminent but Get Ready); a
Watch means Conditions Are Favourable (Get Set...); a
Warning = Is Happening (Go); and this Simmer's
Hurricane Season will spawn storms in the
“Gulf of America”.
11 Almost Ides
Beware the package label vs the item within. ( Do not
open shrink-wrap until you have read and agreed to the
conditions contained within.) I purchased two of these
"-30 to 120F" thermometers from
Amazon on May 27, delivered on 31 May, just fine
except that while both packages were labeled "-30 to
120F" one thermometer was in fact "-5 to 50C".
After a run-around with Amazon's Return Or Replace Robot I
finally got to chat with a Human who said “Keep that
unsatisfactory thermometer and we will credit your account”
and you can order another. Well, OK. So on 3 June I
ordered another "-30 to 120F" thermometer and on 10 June I
received another labeled "-30 to 120F" thermometer that was
in fact a "-5 to 50C" thermometer. I'm just getting
started again with the Return Or Replace (Artifarcical
Idiot?) Robot.
Did I tell you my MicroWave Oven Failed?
The new oven didn't work the first time. Must be the
fool moon. Or perhaps the Ides of June. Nicely packed
and well delivered by the United States Postal Service my
new microwave oven was exactly the right size to fit in the
space at The Cat Drag'd Inn vacated by the previous
oven. I half-filled my Pyrex Measuring Cup with tap
water for the test. The oven failed to turn on. What a
downer. Checked the plug and power, wriggled the door.
Worked through the steps in the Troubleshooting section
(Page 15) of the User Manual: Line C, Check
Instructions. Fortunately I have one of those fancy
tools designed to tamper with tamper-proof screws so I was
able to remove the cover—be sure to have a responsible adult
standing by else don't try this at home—and found the wire
with the push-on connector at the thermal overload switch
right on top of the oven was disconnected. That was easy!
All back together and the oven boils water! Yeah!
Moron Oven
After supper I did indeed find an exact replacement timer
for my old microwave on the catalogue page of some obscure
parts house in a dark corner near the End of The Universe.
Ordered, Paid, Acknowledged, and then two days later: “All
or a portion of your order has been cancelled due to the
items being no longer available and a refund has been
issued...” Good thing the temperature hereabouts is
116f in the shade; I can lay my food out on the patio table
and in a few minutes supper will be cooked just as well
without the microwave. Just kidding. The new
oven is doing well. But I’m not giving up on the old
one just yet. My next letter goes to the manufacturer
in Malaysia.
More Detritus From The Ides of June
My legacy is in question. The heat is making me
stupid—stupider than usual. And lethargic as well. I’m up to
three naps a day. And “Rain”? Such as it is, whatever
rain falls from not-a-cloud-in-the-sky evaporates before
reaching the ground. I may have to drive to New
Hampster to see rain at least one more time before climate
change does away with fuel for the bus and all the roads are
flooded and Nashua becomes a port city. Picture Mount
Monadnock an island in the midst of a barrio.
I’m turning into a Cat Lady. Five of them—cats that
is—depend upon me for kibbles; there are not enough mice and
lizards to go around.
If fuel prices keep going up I’ll be trading TinyTruck in
for a shopping cart.
Here We Are At The Simmer Solstice
...and a cooling trend has commenced. That won’t last
long enough to make a difference although the slightly lower
temperatures of 35 to 40 degrees measured by my otherwise
useless Centigrade Thermometers do make the heat a mite more
moderate and tolerable at the outdoor Food Pantry.
Actually, Centigrade temperatures just might be more
pleasant, at least until we get used to them.
24 June Rain In The Forecast...
… for next December. This morning so far, during the
first twenty degrees of temperature rise--from 70f at 0715
to 90f at 0815--Linda (she's Hazel's girlfriend) walked with
me outback to fetch trash and then on my own I cut back the
brush along the driveway. There are new dates on both palm
trees.
You Get What You Pay For
I purchased two of these thermometers on May 27, [I know I
already told you this part but bare with me...] delivered on
31 May, just fine except that while both packages were
labeled "-30 to 120F" one thermometer was in fact "-5 to
50C". On 3 June I ordered another "-30 to 120F" thermometer
and on 10 June I received another labeled "-30 to 120F"
thermometer that was in fact a "-5 to 50C" thermometer. On
June 17 I ordered two more "-30 to 120F" and on June 23
received two "-30 to 120F". Finally! A pair that
matched! Except they didn't match. One read eight
degrees lower than its mate. I found the eight degrees
of the spirit column detached from the primary column and
hidden up under the cap. So much for careful packing
and shipping with due respect for the ARROW THAT POINTS
^UP^! Correcting that is an easy enough tho risky fix
and now the two thermometers read the same temperature
within a half a degree of my station standard. Hardly
what I would call "Laboratory" calibration but good enough
for now.
 Ant War iii
Woke to an ant invasion this morning. STEM to the
rescue! Still a few stragglers staggering around after my
mop up operation. Usually I can see how they are getting in
but this time not. So I have to do more searching.
STEM photo? ajo24cSTEM.jpg
28-29 June ARRL Ham Radio Field Day
For this Field Day NU7DE Operation was only a half-hearted
attempt at participation, more to make sure the equipment
still worked and this obstreperous operator remembered which
buttons to press. Digital Modes Used: RTTY, PSK, MFSK:
33 Stations Heard, 19 Worked for Exchanges, 19 ARRL
Sections, 2 Countries, 3 ARRL Bulletins Copied. Voice
Modes Used: SSB: 1 Station Exchanged. Bands Used: 2:
40 & 20. Points Claimed 678.
ME0W had her Cat’s Whisker Crystal Set on standby
(napping) for this event. Scored 0 points.
|
2025 June Summer Solstice
— Greetings Virtual Travellers and Pen Friends: 
