Small talk and pictures

Summer has finally hit. We went from cool temperatures to 99°F (or just over 37°for you of the metric persuasion) in a matter of days. Some of the flora is confused however; the yucca plants in the neighborhood are just barely opening their flowers, which is something they usually do in early June.

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Remember the photo of the dove I had at last post? They have a new member of the family now. I caught this picture while mom was away from the nest.

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We went for a drive in the mountains Saturday; American Fork Canyon and over to Provo Canyon. We wanted to go there on Memorial Day, but the road was still closed due to snow and washed out roads. What we noticed was that all the streams were roaring white water, and many were trying to overflow the banks.

Picture 1: this is normally a tiny seep next to the road.  It had washed out a section of road and had to be diverted into a culvert under the road.  Instead of a few inches across, it is now about four foot across, and flowing fast.

Picture 2: a lake up at Granite Flats; the people were having good luck pulling out some fair-sized rainbow trout.

Picture 3: typical looking area; there are humongous boulders scattered about in some of the forest areas left over from the Ice Age. 

Picture 4: patch of wild columbine

Picture 5: closeup of columbine

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For those who liked the Moab photos, here are a few more.   .

Picture 1: a lone butte from Island in the Sky
Picture 2: a jeep road, looking down from the Sixshooter Viewpoint
Picture 3: looking down from Island in the Sky; if you look close you can see roads all around down there

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Still listening to the oldies.

"Dead Man's Curve" by Jan and Dean
"Your Cheatin' Heart" by Hank Williams
"Light My Fire" (long version) by The Doors
"Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream
"Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys
"The House of the Rising Son" by Eric Burdon and the Animals
"Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones
"Summer Nights" by The Marianne Faithful
"She's Not There" by The Zombies
"Beg, Borrow and Steal" by The Ohio Express

Falling down on the job again

I was hoping to get back here earlier, but I've been busy. Between putting in a vegetable garden, fighting weeds, and cutting down a small tree, I haven't had a chance to put together something really coherent.

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It's been rainy and chilly the past couple of weeks, then starting yesterday we have gone straight into summer weather.

Picture 1: one of my miniature roses; the flowers are only an inch across
Picture 2: robin's nest
Picture 3: mourning dove nest

Click to enlarge

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Congress is debating a balanced budget amendment; I'll believe it when I see it.

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress."
 - Mark Twain

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
 - P. J. O'Rourke


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 Thought you might like to see some of the photos that my wife took down in southern Utah.

Picture 1: a good reason not to stray far off the roads
Picture 2: view of potash ponds; they are used to extract chemicals from the desert
Picture 3: one of the local inhabitants
Picture 4: sunflower with a small visitor

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For those who have heard of the Gunwalker hearings (the media hasn't given them near as much air time as it should), this is probably one of the best summaries out there.

Deliberately selling guns to known smugglers and cartels in a foreign country is not police work, it is criminal behavior, and the people running it should be prosecuted as such.


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I've been in the mood for almost all oldies, I don't know how many of these anyone will remember.

"I Saw Her Again" by The Mamas and the Papas
"Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash
"Coming Into Los Angeles" by Arlo Guthrie
"Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers
"One" by Three Dog Night
"As Time Goes By" by Rosemary Clooney
"Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix
"How Can I Be Sure" by The Young Rascals
"98.6" by Keith
"Hang On Sloopy" by The McCoys

"Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And the hunter home from the hill." - Robert Louis Stevenson

Well, actually I wasn't sailing or hunting, but I did get home.

We came home Monday afternoon, but I've been so busy catching up on stuff around the yard I haven't had much of a chance to post until now. It was cool and raining here in Salt Lake, so the grass and weeds grew into a jungle. I've also been tilling and planting a vegetable garden, so I've been fairly busy.

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We took our time going to Moab; it is only about a four hour drive, so we did some stops on the way.
One of stops we made was the Natural History Museum in Price, Utah.

As usual, click on the pictures if you want to see the full-size version.  These are only a small portion of the pictures, I may post some more later.

Not far from the town they have been pulling out some mammoth skeletons, such as this guy.

They also had a few dinosaur skeletons, allosaurus, stegasaurus, triceratops, and a few others.

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Coming into Moab, it is necessary to cross the Colorado River.

The first picture shows the highway crossing the river.
The second picture is taken from the bridge for foot and bicycle traffic.

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We spent quite a bit of time south of Moab; our first stop was a small museum in Blanding that was built next to a small Anasazi village. The Anasazi were the ancestors of the modern Pueblo people; their culture collapsed during the time of the 13th and 14th centuries BC. The name Anasazi means "the ancient enemy" in the Navajo language. The ancestors of the Navajo and Apache peoples raided the Anasazi, hence the name.

Some ruins.

Some of the pottery recovered from the ruins.

We next went on to Hovenweep, another Anasazi settlement.

Hovenweep is in a small valley, and has towers along the edge.  I took pictures of some of the towers.

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Some time was spent around the Canyonlands area. There was some wind that day, so the air was a little hazy in some areas due to dust.
The first two are from Sixshooter Viewpoint.
The other two are from on top of Island in the Sky area.

We also saw various wildlife, such as raptors, elk, and pronghorns.

I couldn't pass up some of the flowers blooming at this time.
The first two are cactus.
The third is wild hollyhocks, a type of mallow.
Wild irises.

 












When coming home on Monday, it was fair weather until we reached Soldier Summit.
My wife was driving at the time, and I took this picture(through the windshield while we were moving) of a blizzard we had to pass through. It was actually worse than it looks.

We also stopped by the Sundance Institute to check out the mountain roads in the Wasatch area. The road going over to American Fork was still closed, and snow was still present at Sundance in many of the shaded areas. I got a picture of the sculpture there when the sun was out.

All in all, we had a good time.

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A lot of oldies in this bunch.

"It's My Life" by Bon Jovi
"Lightnin' Strikes" by Lou Christie
"Season of the Witch" by Donovan
"Shape of Things to Come" by Max Frost and the Troopers
"American Pie" by Don McLean
"She's My Girl" by The Turtles
"Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones
"Burnin' For You" by Blue Öyster Cult
"Rock Me" by Steppenwolf
"I Drink Alone" by George Thorogood

Letters from the road

Just dropped in to say hi; I'm on my wife's laptop here in Moab, Utah. We've done a lot of goofing off, seen some interesting rock formations, some Anasazi ruins, a few critters. Having a good time just relaxing and seeing the sights, also went to the art festival happening this weekend. Should have a few interesting photos when we get back in a few days.
Hope you're all having a good weekend.
W00t!

And now for a drive-by post

Finally got some sunlight; the past few days have been almost constant rain, until we are having some flooding in some areas of Utah. When the ground dries a bit over the next few days, I hope to get the garden ready. There are lots of perennial herbs that I have been able to use, and some of the greens, but it has been a bit chilly for stuff like tomatoes, peppers, and squash.

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Some areas of the country are getting hit pretty hard; my best wishes go out to the flood victims of Mississippi, and for the people in Missouri who are fighting with tornadoes.

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I've been getting stuff ready for a vacation; my wife and I are leaving for southern Utah tomorrow morning, and will get back sometime Monday. Hope to have a good time and bring back a few interesting photos.

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A mix, with mostly oldies. Any favorites in this list?

"Gimme All Your Lovin'" by ZZ Top
"Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin
"Sometimes I's A Bitch" by Stevie Nicks
"You're No Good" by Linda Ronstadt
"My Way" by Frank Sinatra
"White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane
"Termination" by Iron Butterfly
"Thinking Of You" by Christian Kane
"Conquer Me" by Blues Traveler
"Summertime" by Janis Joplin


A CW song by actor Christian Kane; he may be familiar to you from the series Angel, and is currently one of the main characters in the series Leverage.



One of my favorites from a blues group that has been around for a while.



An old blues song from one of the greatest of the blues ladies. Janis looked like ten miles of bad road, and had a voice like the day after too much booze and cigarettes, but she sang with a passion and feeling that gave her music a depth of soul that most singers only can aspire to.




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Yep, I'm still here

Been having joint problems; until a few days ago the air pressure was on a roller coaster and we were alternating with snow, rain, and sunny weather. It seems to have leveled out a bit for now, so we are getting some sun.
Friday night my wife and I had to go out of town for a bit when she got out off work. She had some accounting to do over in Ft. Duchesne, so we drover over to there. Ran into some snow on the way there, but it wasn't too bad, just a mild blizzard.

On the way back however, it was a different story. We were coming down Daniels Canyon at about midnight and ran into a whiteout. The snow was coming down hard, and had enough wind to blow it horizontally, and directly at us. It was impossible to see past the hood of my vehicle. The road was covered with a thin layer of ice and snow, and the paint on the road was invisible, and we couldn't see far enough to see where the road ended and the dropoff began. The only thing I could make out, with my window rolled down, was the faint texture differnce on the road where the rumble strips were, and some times when the snow drifted higher, they were invisible. We crept along like that down the canyon, rarely going over 5 mph until we got into Heber, where it was snowing a little lighter, and we could see the road. From there we were able to drive over the Wasatch Mountains and down into Salt Lake, but we didn't get home until after 1:30 AM. A long stressful night. I've been in whiteouts before, and they are nasty.

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The military got Osama finally. I'm not going to shoot off a rocket, or celebrate, any more than I would celebrate after shooting a rabid skunk. The garbage has been taken out, so let's move on.
And quit giving the guy in the White House credit for it; it was done by our people in uniform, not that wishy-washy character who would have probably apologized if 9-11 had happened under his watch, and then gone on another golf vacation.

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I notice most of the media is still ignoring the investigation of Project Gunwalker; if you're unfamiliar with it, it was a project where the ATF ordered a number of gun sellers to sell firearms to people they knew were smuggling guns to the Mexican drug cartels, and then lost track of them. The guns numbered in the thousands, and one of them was used in the murder of a border patrol officer. The ATF denied it for some time, until some ATF whistle blowers agreed to testify. When the ATF when called on it, they refused to cooperate. It has also been shown that it was run by the Department of Justice, who is also refusing to cooperate with Congress, even after an order from a judge. The Obama administration has been doing its best to block all investigation, but luckily some of the representatives have been pursuing it. Holder testified yesterday, under order of Congress. He claims to know nothing about it, and never heard of it, though it has been running since 2009. He is either incompetent, or a liar. My personal opinion is that it could go either way, but I tend to lean toward the later. This administration and the ATF are both very much against firearms and the Second Amendment, and have been trying to blame the American guns in Mexico on American gun sellers, in order to chip away at the Second Amendment in the same way they have been doing to the rest of the Bill of Rights.

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My brother had to have some "minor" surgery (minor to anyone but the patient, anyway), so I've been trying to be available in case he needs anything. His birthday is in a few days, so this is sort of a bummer for him.

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Sort of a mixed bag in this playlist.

"Guantanamera" by Trini Lopez
"Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake
"Magical Mystery Tour" by The Beatles
"Nothing Is Easy" by Jethro Tull
"This Ain't the Summer of Love" by Blue Öyster Cult
"I'll See You In Hell" by Lewis Ray Cammarata
"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" by Gene Pitney
"Night Moves" by Bob Seger
"Never Comes the Day" by The Moody Blues
"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" by Hank Williams


One of my favorites of his.



One of my favorite groups of all time.



If you can't identify with this one, you must not have been around much.

A peek of spring

Decided I wasn't in the mood to comment on all the gloomy bullshit happening in the world today, and we have warm weather and sunshine, so I figured I'd post more of my sappy spring photos that I took today.
As usual, click on them to humongify (yeah, I know that isn't a word, but WTF)

Picture 1: Blood Plum blossoms
Picture 2: Daffodils next to my front porch
Picture 3: Bi-colored daffodil
Picture 4: Miniature daffodils (the flowers are only an inch across)
Pictures 5 and 6:  the first tulips opening in my yard; the rest are getting ready to bloom

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The stuff up above I typed in Saturday.  Just after I had saved it, I heard a whining form my computer, and my hard drive expired.  Put a new one in, and decided to upgrade my operating system from XP to Win 7.  Just getting things set up from backups.

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Lately I've been in the mood for a lot of old stuff; I don't know how much anyone will recognize.


         "To Cry You A Song" by Jethro Tull
 "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison
        "King of the Road" by Roger Miller
         "Substitute" by The Who
         "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters
         "Yesterday's Gone" by Chad and Jeremy
         "Homeward Bound" by Simon and Garfunkel
         "Runaway" by Del Shannon
         "All Your Love" by John Mayall, Eric Clapton, and the Bluesbreakers
        "Sunday Morning Coming Down" by Johnny Cash


Who could forget this tune?

An oldie from some of the best of the blues players.




I think a lot of us can empathize with this song; written by Kris Kristofferson and done by the Man in Black.

Hi again

Anyone else getting tired of winter? Around here it has been a roller coaster the past few days; we get a half foot of snow, then it turns sunny for a day, then it snows again, then it is sunny, until you don't know what the weather is like until you look outside, and if you wait a couple of hours, you better look again, because it may have changed. (Damn, that was an awfully long sentence, with too many commas.)
I was finally able to hobble to the gym today and do some work on the machines; I still can't use a treadmill because of the pain in my left leg, and I don't dare use the free weights. Still trying to get the strength up in my bad shoulder so it will be ready when spring finally comes.

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Saw this little item the other day; if the reviews on it turn out well, I may have to look into one, especially for that price. Check out some of the stuff you can do with infra-red.

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Have you seen the people that the Stupid Party (Republicans) have been coming up with? I think Tamara pretty much sums it up better than I could express it.

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I see the feds are still battling about the national debt. There is no way they are going to come up with a good solution; you cannot pay off something when the money out is more than the money coming in, and anyone who thinks just raising taxes will solve it is an idiot. The government has raised taxes in the past, and it never works, because they do the same thing that some families do; when they start making more money, they just start spending more, so it doesn't help them relieve the debts at all. Both parties will do their song-and-dance, make a lot of noise, and not solve a damn thing. I have a bad feeling that the charade will go on until the camel's back breaks, and then we will have an economic crash that will make the Great Depression look like a party. I hope I'm wrong.

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A bunch of oldies in this batch.

"Waltzing Matilda" by Slim Dusty
"Society's Child" by Janis Ian
"Lovely to See You" by The Moody Blues
"Maggie May" by Rod Stewart
"Lazy Bones" by Leon Redbone
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye
"Can't Find My Way Home" by Blind Faith
"Lady Willpower" by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
"California Nights" by Lesley Gore
"All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix

Anyone around in the sixties should remember this group.




A lot of her songs were "bubble-gum"; this was one of her best.




What can you say about this version? It speaks for itself.

And Mother Nature plays her game...

Yesterday it was 70ºF, during the night a storm moved in; I woke up to the yard covered with snow. Around the neighborhood quite a few branches got broken off; some of mine are bent to the ground.

#1: you can see from my birdbath that there is about 6-8" in my back yard.
#2. some trees in my front yard.  The snow isn't as deep because it is all on the trees, bending them to the ground
#3: looking into my driveway from the street.  I had to knock snow loose to drive out.
#4: looking out into the street from my driveway.

The sun came out a couple of hours ago, so hopefully some of this will melt away.

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It appears someone burned a Qu'ran; so now people are rioting over in the middle east, and killing people who have no relation whatsoever to the person who burnt it. Bunch of savages still stuck in the dark ages.

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Will try to post more often; sometimes I have the focus and energy, sometimes not. If my health gets better that will probably help.

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Any familiar ones in this bunch?

"Knockin' On Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan
"Fire and Ice" by Pat Benatar
"I'm Eighteen" by Alice Cooper
"Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" by Crystal Gayle
"Dark Night" by The Blasters
"Once Bitten, Twice Shy" by Great White
"Morgana" by John Renbourn
"Black Unicorn" Heather Alexander
"Take Me to Heart" by Quarterflash
"Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." - Robert Frost

Was hoping to get here sooner; I've been laid up with sciatica for the past couple of weeks. Feels like my left kidney, hip, and leg are being beaten with baseball bats, and that's on a good day. When it gets acting up badly, it feels even worse, and throbs continually. I'm feeling a bit better today, so I'm able to focus a little better.  My wife is visiting her brother for the weekend (I'll be taking her to the airport in just a few minutes), so I'm going to be a bachelor for a couple of days.

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I don't know what is going to happen in the Middle East, everything seems in an uproar over there. It will probably turn out the way it usually does; whoever has the most soldiers and the best weapons will bully and beat everyone else into submission, and run things like usual. Nothing really changes over there, a bunch of neo-barbarian tribes fighting it out, only they can afford better guns these days.
I just hope the idiots in DC keep us out of it; nothing good ever comes of messing around in other people's civil wars.

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We're getting a taste of spring, but it could still rain and snow this weekend; around here the weather is sort of odd.  The daffodils, hyacinths, and crocuses are blooming well; the tulips should be opening up soon.

At least the flowers are brightening up things a bit.
Picture 1: a miniature daffodil; it is only one inch across.
Picture 2: full size daffodils
Picture 3: periwinkle
Picture 4: violets
Picture 5: catkins on a quaking aspen

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Any favorites in this bunch?

"As Time Goes By" by Rosemary Clooney
"One" by Three Dog Night
"Saginaw Michigan" by Lefty Frizzell
"Squeeze Box" by The Who
"Those Were the Days" by Cream
"Cats in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin
"Jump" by Van Halen
"Waiting for the Sun" The Doors
"Dark Eyed Woman" by Spirit
"Sometimes in Winter" by Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Hello again.

It's been way too long since I've been here. I've been concentrating on getting my arm better, and have been sleeping poorly, which leaves a person sort of apathetic and unfocused. I finally finished up my physical therapy; now the rest is up to me. I can say with confidence that I feel able to arm wrestle a ten-year old girl and could probably win! The extent of my injury is such that the doctors said it could take twelve to eighteen months to get near my original strength back, so I have a lot of work ahead over the next few months. At least I have full mobility with some strength at this point.

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Spring is peeking around the corner. Around here we get teased by spring a lot, but end up getting snow clear into early May sometimes. Just a few days ago we got several inches of snow, now we have flowers blooming.
Picture 1 and 2: crocuses
Picture 3: catkins on a quaking aspen.

I'm getting cabin fever really bad.

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The videos and photos coming out of Japan are horrendous; I can only hope they don't get bad aftershocks; I don't know how much that little country can take of being pounded on by Mother Nature.

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I was reading over the president's speech on gun control the other day; that was a waste of a good teleprompter. That guy has a definite talent for weaving a skein of drivel a mile long without really saying anything of substance. If he was half as smart as he and his followers think he is, he would fire 99% of the people advising him and hire some people with a bit of experience and something to their credit besides being able to kiss his ass.

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Looking at my calendar, I just noticed that my blog will be five years old on Friday. W00t!

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Anyone out there having problems with Firefox crashing? It just started doing it the other day. I uninstalled and then reinstalled it, but it still crashes, even without adding any extensions. The only time it doesn't crash is running it in safe mode. I have a suspicion some sort of glitch in the latest flash software is doing it, but I'm not certain. Right now I'm using Chrome (I HATE Internet Explorer), but I wish it was more customizable.

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Any favorites in this bunch?

"I'll Pay You Back With Interest" by The Hollies
"Jupiter's Child" by Steppenwolf
"Someone to Watch over Me" by Reneé Olstead
"Eight Miles High" by Leo Kottke
"Summertime Blues" by Blue Cheer
"Wichita Lineman" by Glen Campbell
"Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin
"I Never Cry" Alice Cooper
"There Ain't No Good Chain Gang" by Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings
"Don't Come Around Here No More" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers


One of my favorites of Alice Cooper



A classic by two of the best country singers; I miss these guys



One of my favorite groups and one of the best videos from the eighties.