Neko

Introducing Ostensible Orca PussyFoot Cat Letters CDI Font

Travels With Oso con Migo

Odyssey In America

OAE Off and On and Off The Road Again — Introducing Ostensible Orca

2025, Autumnal Equinox — Greetings Virtual Travellers and Pen Friends:

Where's Hazel? Hazel is gone. Pet Orca. Orca is missing her girlie parts.

Happy Big Rain Day 2nd July

Big storm wenzday night. Monsoon Grand Entrance. 1.25" rain in the course of two hours amounts to one third of the total precip year-to-date. Wind guts to 53mph. Water damage to keyboard and monitor as rain driven in through the weather head drips onto computer desk.

The Flood Recedes

Still cleaning up from the deluge. Found the leak that trashed my monitor. The wind from southeast, funneled between the roof a/c and the solar array, blew the cap off the weather head. Maybe I have fixed that problem. The keyboard recovered ok after drying but the monitor is trashed, that will have to be replaced. Walked around the fence line this morning and relieved a number of buckets and trash barrels of their mosquito breeding nurseries.

A Fifth of July

Quiet night here; not much of the usual fireworks and none of the firearms that usually split the darkness. Early night here and early morning too. But for one get-up to untangle Hurricane Hazel-Rah, when she got her index claw caught in a wall carpet, I slept through. Yesterday I moved a new/old clothes washer into the al fresco laundry and then moved four defunct appliances to the bone yard. Good project that was.

The Farce of July

My tale of woe is long and sad. I was at several points really foaming at the mouth, quite literally screaming at the Asinine Insouciance, Addleheaded Idiocy, Abominable Inquisitors which have replaced Humans at Help Desks. AI: Do you need help with this, that, or the other thing? Me: I want to buy one. AI: I'm sorry I didn't understand your response; please rephrase your answer. Me: I want to purchase one SKU 2NYP15L. AI: I'm sorry but SKUs are out of stock; is there anything else I can help you with? Me: Your website says you have two 24" monitors in stock. AI: I'm sorry but you are in the computer department, for monitors you need to call 1-800-LIZ-ARDS. And when I finally did get through to a Human I'm told that the particular OpenBox monitor I want "is only in our Reno store and overnight shipping—as advertised on the web page—is not available..."

44 Minutes On The Phone So Far

So much for the convenience of Time-Saving Online Shopping, eh? Try another store, a different brand... This time Mikey—much more savvy than me—is on the phone coaching and playing along whilst I muddle through the arcanum of the ordering process. Several times I have to start over because the internet goes down, I make a wrong click and backing up is not possible; you have to start over. Finally we get to last few lines of the order form and I type in my shipping address and the stupid form will not let me enter Tonopah. It offers me a pulldown of towns and zipcodes that do not contain my city and zip. Round and round, start over start over. Eventually I see that I am at an East Valley branch rather than a West Valley branch and so outside of their shipping range. So much for AI.

Start over again... This time the process bogs down at the shipping address v.s billing address. And keep in mind that every fucking time one has to start over you have to log in and log in now is no longer a simple username and password. Now there is two factor login. So you enter name and pwd and they send a six digit confirmation code to your email or phone. Swopping pages risks loosing your place on the one whilst you look at the other, find the confirmation message, find the six digits, write them out, switch back to the first page and either that page has timed out or the code by the time you get it entered is expired.

Start over... ...

Finally, eventually, another hour later, I receive email confirming the order. Phew. Thanking Mikey...

Then a minute later another email arrives indicating that the confirmed order has been cancelled by my credit card company. No explanation. So I call AMEX and ask WFT over! AMEX says they did not cancel the order, the vendor cancelled the order because they could not resolve issues between billing-shipping-and address of record.
SpaceX Launch Photo by CJ & Roger

You might ask: Why not just drive to the store and buy the monitor over the counter? There's this insidious ploy of Free Delivery and On Line Pricing. If you get the order in before [deadline] they will free deliver tomorrow morning. And not only that but the online price is on the order of ten percent less than the over the counter price. So why should I drive when they will deliver? All too often the item is not in the store to begin with but their "AI" is either too stupid or not smart enough to query the inventory—you have to drive in to find out that the last one was sold just a few minutes ago.

I am beginning to believe the Cosmic Muffin is trying to tell me something. Perhaps I don't really want this monitor? Perhaps there is a spare one under the bed that I have long since forgotten? Perhaps Hurricane Hazel-Rah is behind all this because she wants a lizard for a pet?

In the end I waited another week and asked Mike to order me a Dell monitor. Arrived. Installed Works great! Now I have to implement water management measures—flood control—to assure this sort of failure does not recur.

The Oosik Reprise

Was Ode To An Oosik really written by Robert Service?

The Rain In Tonopah Is Mainly In... SpaceX Launch Photo by CJ & Roger

Nevada? Tucson? Flagstaff? Everywhere but here.

18th July Seek The Peak

This weekend is Mount Washington Observatory’s Seek The Peak Fund Raiser and the kickoff party is this evening where participants will get into the spirit of the event with that 6288 Stout mentioned in my previous letter. To get into the spirit here I had some vodka with my orange juice and went for a walk with Linda along the South Fence-Line. There, between The Tree and The Labyrinth. I found a community of at least ten bushy green plants with yellow flowers. Probocidea alteaefolia according to my AridZona Flower Guide. That inch of rain a few days ago must have got the plants all excited. Remind me to go out there later and see if the Devil’s Claws are to be found.

July 14-20 ISS SSTV Event

Marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Soyuz linkup mission and the 40th anniversary of STS-51F, Ham Radio Astronauts will transmit SSTV images featuring various people and scenes the two missions. SSTV reception from the ISS was not as good as the previous events this year, the NU7DE/K1OIQ station collected eleven of the twelve pictures.

Another Anniversary

Fifty-five years ago Troop 55 had a 55 mile Fifty-Miler adventure along the White Mountain section of the Appalachian Trail. Fifteen souls on board then—details elsewhere—not all have survived for this occasion. We are still looking for the others.

25/7/25

We missed Pi approximation day: 22/7. That explains why so much has been irrational for the past few days; my embarrassment, irrational I know, is, oddly, boundless. On this morning's walk Linda found one party balloon and I found a few old Devil's Seed pods.

Monday, July 28, 2025

By the Old Rule: Dew Point below 55f for the past week indicates the Monsoon is over tho Mr NOAA's new rule indicates we have a month yet to go. Interesting that today’s news-feed has no items for Mount Washington.

Al Fresco Laundry-Mat

Yesterday I went for a little get acquainted drive in my new old Lorn Ranger (Thank you very much Capt Hook!) and fetched back another new old washing machine to add to the laundry-(in-the-yard)-mat here. BURT is a very fine front-loader and may even be a working model.

A Penny Saved?

I'll sit back and continue to lurk and listen and save my pennies. oops... no more pennies. We'll have to change that aphorism to "save my nickles".

Hmmm... A nickle for your thought?

Off to a Fine Tuesday here. Testing for propane leaks. Installing new old washer without a user manual. Maybe no need for one. Put in dirty clothes press START and the Asian Interrogator computes washes rinses spins and hangs the clean clothes out to dry.

But on the downside the 50 gallon propane tank which has been in service in the back yard for some 20-30 years was this week found to be porous, leaking propane. Worse is that the gas company will not replace the tank with a new installation. Even tho they have been from time to time refilling the tank the rules have changed and a new tank would not be grandfathered into the old installation. So I am back to using propane RV bottles and obliged to haul them to and from the propane store. Stupid rules.

August Tooth

113f and 114f. With the breeze the wind-scorch is about 123f. So hot today that my laundry came out of the washer already dry!

A Fifth of August

And then, in the way-back back yard I found a new species. A Diamond Black Gutter Snake. Some people have been known to use the hide to make sandals. Whilst we're on the subject, did I ever mention the Crotalus aluminea v. Radiatorum?

Weakly August

Probocidea alteaefolia is going to seed. Several plants of Devil’s Claw have seed pods now in these first weeks of August, one pod has turned brown but not yet split. Some papers describe the plant as hallucinogenic.

Her Royal Highness Hurricane Hazel-Rah 28 January 2013 - 16 August 2025.

Hurricane Hazel-Rah's most important lesson for me was "It doesn't really matter; take a nap then we'll start fresh." HHR went downhill rather rapidly over the past week. Not eating, hobbling around, then staggering, finally falling from places she used to jump. She'd been spending a lot of time outside this past week, all night sometimes but always came in for breakfast. On the 15th she was gone all day. Expecting the worst I searched under and behind everywhere to no avail. I thought she was a gonner but then this Saturday morning "The Cat Came Back!" In worse shape than before.

I helped her onto the couch and up to her favourite perch and then left for my Box Wrangler duties at the Food Pantry. Upon return I found her in her litterbox; responsive to my petting however she passed away a few minutes later. Going out in her litterbox was very considerate of her.

"Indeed," said the teacher. "What you say is true. We are all God. Knowing this, and being so well attuned to the Absolute Mind, I was able to perceive immediately that God would much prefer to be struck with a stick than to be bitten on his leg." —A Galaxy of No-Stars (Jay Edson)

What Next?

"How 'bout we open up a big bottle of red wine and have at it until our standards are reduced to a reasonable level of expectation."
—PHC, The Last Show.

Home is not where you came from but where you want to be. —Red, in West With Giraffes: A Novel

Ringo Starr exudes a timeless cool. You really can’t tell that the ex-Beatle is 84 years old. “It’s all in the broccoli. I eat broccoli almost every meal,”

Grieving Hazel-Rah

Hazel was 12 by the Human Calendar. A teen-angler in cat-years when we met at the Show Low Animal Shelter. Little Jon prepended the "Hurricane" after that hurricane of 1954; I appended the "-Rah" after Hazel of Watership Down. She purrfurs music of the early days of wireless broadcasting as well as Cat Stevens, The Alley Cats Doo-Wop, Aristocats, Duetto buffo di due gatti (Humorous Duet for Two Cats {especially the version by the Boys Choir, and of course the musical "Cats". Her hero is Busterfur Jones In White Spats, who is of course the father of Puss in Boots. But she is the only one with a Ham Radio call, me0w.
Hurricane Hazel-Rah calling CQ on 40 meters

Hurricane Hazel-Rah calling CQ on 40 meters

Her Royal Highness Hurricane Hazel-Rah was most at home on 40 meters where her favourite mode of operation is CW (Cat-Whisker sending & receiving), this XYK, now SK, has worked all the lower 48 states during her 12 years of hamming it up on the road in The Cat Drag'd Inn. For portable operation her tail doubles as a quarter-wave vertical antenna for the 440mHz UHF band.

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), "cats reach the equivalent of 15 human years in their first year of life and 24 human years by their second. After their second birthday, our fur babies start to age about four human years for every cat year". So 15+9+(4x10) adds up to about 64?

I've been cat shopping.

There are too many choices of needy cats and the cost of adoption is unbelievable despite comparing to the cost of fuel. But I have always lived with a cat and so I must have a cat now. Getting a female kitten spayed can cost anywhere from "free" (in return for four pages of personal history, financial status, ethnic and gender claims...) to 400$ all inclusive no questions asked. Surgery appointments for the lower cost end of the scale are several weeks out. I need a Go-Fund-Her project...
Orca Planning our next road trip

Most likely choice is Orca, from the clouder of Shanna, one of my co-workers at the Food Bank, asleep on the galley table at the moment. When not napping Orca likes to watch other cats. The other day on PBS the Big Cats programme attracted her to observe stalking lessons of cats in the wild.

Fighting With The Medical Folks

… nonsense about how their website works and doesn't work. How these so-called Patient Portals are supposed to "Save You Time" and all they really do is save them hiring a Human to answer the phone. And how sometimes the portals can link and most often they cannot and all this bullshit about two factor login and the constant checking and rechecking your D.O.B. and then to top all that if you don't login to your portal often enough they turn you off with the usual inane useless stupid error messages when your login doesn't work. Did you forget your password? No! After I finally gave up trying to have my password reset I called the helpline and started all over. You have to create a new account. But it wouldn't let me use my previous username: "That UserName is in use, please choose a new UserName". Well if my username is in use by not me because I have been cancelled why can you not simply reinstate me. "Doesn't work that way". You have to create a new account. So I have to answer all the fields over again and instantly the machine knows all my data. I was yelling at the help(less) help deskie, foaming at my oblong, spittle pooling on the screen.

25iix24 A Whale Of A Cat

Yester was another busy fun day. Started in on a project to troubleshoot and repair a fairly new electric clothes dryer—laundry-mate to BURT. Then off to another clouder in quest of a cat. Orca is about five months female meower.

Expiation is good for the soul...

This morning I found my dish soap jug near empty so I went to the secondary stash—in the trailer with the TP & PT cache—and brought in the reserve jug of Dawn Blue Ultra "Refill Size" to decant sufficient for another fortnight. When the dishes were drying I took the "Refill Size" in one hand and the Slops Bucket in the other, making sure Orca was at the ready to leap out the door, went out to dump the slops and return the Dawn to storage. Then I drove off to Tyre Shop (food delivery), Post Office (mail sending), Watson Road (shopping that I didn't do yesterday), and returned to put away the dishes and stow the groceries. Whilst putting away the sack of bird seed I didn't need (was not on my list but purchased on impulse...or speculation: next week there mightn't be any) I sort of tripped over the fact that the "Refill Size" jug of Dawn was not where it should have been in the lineup of Windex, Simple Green, Holy Cow, Seventh Generation, and the sack of Meow Mix. WTF Over? I very distinctly recalled that jug being in my right hand as I fumbled to open the door with the bucket of slops in my left. Stepping outside I must have walked towards the slops hole beyond the trailer but what did I do with the Dawn? Well that riddle bothered my nap to the point that I finally got up and went searching. Not where it should have been, not where it might have been, not anywhere in between. Only one place remained. I proceeded to drive the route I'd taken earlier to the Tyre Shop via Indian School west. Got as far as the school. No sign of a jug of Dawn. Gave up. Turned around. Headed back. Maybe I didn't leave it on TinyTruck's bumper after all. Then just short of the Wickenburg intersection, on the south side, in the gravel by the mailboxes, my jug of Dawn, victim of a hit and run. Amazing that the jug stayed on the bumper that far.

How is the new cat?

The new cat, Orca (because she looks like one), is running the show. "Meow?" Yes my dear what can I get you? "MEOW!" Ok OK! I'll get it right away! "Purrrr..." Phew that was close.

An Aside...

I am ever so slowly dragging my Self kicking and screaming into the age of OnLine Banking along with all the attendant time-saving frustrations and sterile sit-on-my-arse convenience. But I am not in the least averse to back-sliding for the opportunity to exchange germs and pleasantries with another Human.

Saturday The 13th

Today I carpooled with some folks who drive a lot faster than me—most of two hours each way what would have taken me four—to get from Tonopah to Flagstaff and thence up a lane and a half gravel road—being shared with a 10K run—to the 9,000' summit of Mount Elden to do some grounds maintenance around an ARA & MARCA radio shack and several towers. With all my experience on the Fryeburg Fair Maintenance Crew I drove a rake. After all that yard work we went to lunch; I had Pasta Scampi at a fancy Italian Restaurant and they picked up the tab.

Thanks to Robin in Vermont for this special day: 9/16/25 is a rare Pythagorean day event.

The Time Has Come The Walrus Said...

Time to get this letter posted. The Autumnal Equinox is Monday. Next up is a Mohs treatment and following that, cataract surgery.

Be Well, Do Good, and Please Write.

Love, ajo

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. —Sir Isaac Newton

Back to Oso
Back to ajo
Copyright © 2025, A.J.Oxton, The Cat Drag'd Inn , Tonopah AridZona 85354-0313.