Luna del Cabeza

Luna del Cabeza
Originally uploaded by Bisbohemian.

It was a good trip to Silver City, the Gila Wilderness and up to the White Mountains. This was captured on our return drive home - just north of Willcox, AZ on US Highway 191.

I was doing my best Ansel Adams impression.

Holiday Weekend Travel

It is good to be back in Arizona!

After a slow start on Saturday, Diane and I headed to Phoenix and points north... Prescott, Jerome and Sedona... and home via Strawberry, Pine, Payson and Globe.

Just one of my many reasons NOT to go to Phoenix: While sitting in traffic, the Volvo's thermometer read 49 degrees Celsius. Now, I have to admit that neither Diane or I could do the conversion in our heads - its (C*1.8)+32, for those who missed that day in school - although we chalked it up to the heat, not our utter lack of mathematical skills. All we were certain of was that is was HOT. 49 C is 120.2 F. Don't ever let anyone tell you that 120 F in Phoenix is okay due to some inane "dry heat" caveat. I am from Bisbee - deep in the heart of single digit humidity land - and 120 F was scalding to me.

Headed out on I-17 towards Flagstaff, you climb the Mogollon Rim to the Colorado Plateau. This is some of the steepest interstate highway I have ever seen. Stark. Vast. Beautiful. These words immediately come to mind. They don't suffice. Words nor pictures can do this experience justice. This is a place you have to see to believe.

On the way up, we passed a VW Bug slogging its way to the top. Slow and persistent pays here. This is a make or break trip for any vehicle. The relentless heat and the long grade take their toll. Turning off I-17 at AZ 69, we stopped for a (well deserved) milkshake and hot fudge sundae and headed out for Prescott.

One of my favorite things about Arizona travel (and travel in the Southwest in general) is the odd place names. About half way between the interstate and Prescott is Big Bug Creek. Now THAT is Truth in Labeling! Although it seems pretty straight forward, it does make you wonder what the circumstances were surrounding the naming of that creek.

Prescott was deep in the midst of another installment of what is dubbed as the World's Oldest Rodeo. Charming... but... not really what we consider "entertainment". We had miles to go... if... we could only get out of Prescott! Now Bisbee has signs just about everywhere. So many signs that I can see how tourists get confused as to which way they want to head out of the traffic circle. Prescott avoids any of that type of confusion by not placing ANY road signs. Want to get to Jerome from Prescott? Just start driving and you will (hopefully) end up on the road there - or at least a road that intersects the road that goes there.

We drove deep into the Coconino National Forest - up about 2000 feet from Prescott - and found rain. Rain in the desert takes on a different look and feel. Yes it is still the same water falling out of the sky - just like on the East Coast. Yet somehow, in the western mountains, it is just... different. Colder, cleaner and in widely spaced big drops that let you know that you have been rained upon.

We stopped at the top of the pass for a little bio-break in the rain. Two twenty-something guys in a little car had stopped to get their bearings and asked us for directions to some Buddhist retreat. One American and one (probably) Russian, were dressed in what I would call "relaxed club wear". My guess is that they heard that there were hoards of cute and "friendly" Buddhist girls up here in the mountains... somewhere. I noticed that they had something lodged under their car and the American guy gingerly crawled under and produced a ragged canvas first aid kit. They did not seemed surprised. Odd.

Jerome is Bisbee upside down. Where Bisbee is built from the bottom of the hill upwards, Jerome started at the top of the hill and went down. Although we didn't spend too much time in Jerome on this trip - it was pouring by then - we will be back.

The drive to Sedona is quite nice. Almost immediately after passing a sign that says "Welcome to Red Rock County", there is a "Scenic View" stop. Of course, we are always game for a "Scenic View" so we stopped. Normally these stops have a distinct subject such as a mountain, valley or other natural or manmade beauty to gaze upon. I can't really speculate on what the goal of this particular "Scenic View" was... the hill that blocked the view of "Red Rock Country" or the particularly nice angle on the asphalt... who knows. We looked in all directions and found that this spot was a uniquely bland place in the midst of all of this natural beauty. Perhaps this was the ugliest place in this part of Arizona and the highway department wanted to point it out - but they had no "Ugly View" signs. The world will never know.

Sedona is commerce wrapped in a pretty package. Gatlinburg for the yuppie set. If Dolly Parton could figure a way to get BMW drivers to her park, she would have an installation here. Replace NASCAR memorabilia with high end art and you have Sedona. It is a beautiful setting that most visitors will never see. Gee, there is an outlet mall here.

We spent the night at the Inn of Sedona - nice place. I felt sorry for the guy working the front desk. The patrons were... well... one lady demanded a bellhop to take her luggage to her room and another gentleman asked for directions to a wedding reception and then told the guy he was wrong. The poor guy behind the counter just shrugged and repeated his directions to the reception and the naysayer went off in search of the cash bar.

Our room was nice, if a little cramped. It came complete with push button fireplace and a fantastic, million dollar view. Why a million dollar price tag on the view? That was the asking price of a house around the corner that had the same view. Who buys a million dollar second home? Not defense contractors. Well, not folks who work for defense contractors that is.

The drive up AZ 89A to Flagstaff was an eye-opening experience. The recent fires had burned down to the road and the firemen were still canvassing the area to put out hotspots. This is forest fire devastation at its greatest. It was good to see the numerous signs all over town: "Thanks Firemen!", "Firemen Rock!", "Thanks USFS, BLM, State and Local Fire Crews!" and my personal favorite "Lives Lost - 0, Structures Lost - 0, View Preserved - Priceless". A PBY fire tanker flew low overhead - banking toward the fire that is still raging farther up Oak Creek Canyon. This will all return, I know. Until then, this is a testament to what humans can do - both in a positive and a negative way.

I love Arizona for what it is... what it isn't... what it was... and even some of what it will be. It is good to be home.

Hiatus

It is good to be back in Bisbee.

After a month of packing, moving and unpacking... we are finally settled in to our old home on the border. Trials and tribulations surrounded our move, but... all-in-all it was fairly successful. Three flats on the Penske trailer made what should have been a simple matter of hours to cross Louisiana into a two day ordeal.

When we finally arrived back in Bisbee, we were met with the lovely sounds of splashing water. Relaxing on a waterfall, but it causes panic when it comes from under your house. A little leak, turned into a torrent, now patched and waiting for the plumber's permanent repair. Crisis avoided.

Bisbee Is A Mixed Bag

Old friends greeted us with a warm embrace. Some folks we thought were close walked right by without even a passing glance. Growth has come and brought with it a nice new Mexican restaurant (something oddly missing on the border), high housing prices and an upswing in a particularly more violent breed of crime.

Ken has his vintage bike shop running well. Jeff invited us to watch the sunset out at his place - which consists of some chairs, a Martha Stewart bar, umbrellas and a fire pit.... wonderful!!!

Even with the new, bad additions, it is good to be back in Bisbee. The good far, far outweighs any of that.

I did truly miss this old place.

Travel Tips

Recently, a friend of mine sent me this funny little e-mail. I added a few travel tips...

First, the original message:

Open letter to President Bush
Dear President Bush:

I'm about to plan a little trip with my family and extended family, and I would like to ask you to assist me. I'm going to walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico, and I need to make a few arrangements. I know you can help with this.
I plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws. I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do here.
So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Vicente Fox, that I'm on my way? Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:
1. Free medical care for my entire family.
2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not.
3. All government forms need to be printed in English.
4. I want my kids to be taught by English-speaking teachers.
5. Schools need to include classes on American culture and history.
6. I want my kids to see the American flag flying on the top of the flag pole at their school with the Mexican flag flying lower down.
7. Please plan to feed my kids at school for both breakfast and lunch.
8. I will need a local Mexican driver's license so I can get easy access to government services.
9. I do not plan to have any car insurance, and I won't make any effort to learn local traffic laws.
10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from Pres. Fox to leave me alone, please be sure that all police officers speak English.
11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my house top, put flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.
12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, and don't enforce any labor laws or tax laws.
13. Please tell all the people in the country to be extremely nice and never say a critical word about me, or about the strain I might place on the economy.

I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all the people who come to the U.S. from Mexico. I am sure that Pres. Fox won't mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.
However, if he gives you any trouble, just invite him to go quail hunting with your V.P.Thank you so much for your kind help.

Sincerely,
Cookie

Amusing...but I added....

Make sure to pay the coyote...oh, I mean "tour guide"...in advance for the travel arrangements. It will only be 6 months of your income...but don't worry...because that job in the steamy kitchen (oh, I mean "entertainment sector" position) - making less than the other Mexican nationals there - will pay off that debt lickety split. When your tour guide abandons you in the middle of the desert....you have nothing to fear because there are friendly armed vigilantes waiting to shepard you into the waiting arms of the local officials. So, if it takes a few times to make a successful crossing...never fear. Just pay another tour guide another 6 months of pay and you will be on your way.

Make sure to research the tour guides well, and read the fine print, because some of them will keep your children as collateral for the payments you will be required to make to them once you get to that cushy "entertainment sector" job. In fact, it is such a hassle to travel with the family, just leave them at home while you go on your "adventure". Again, make sure that the tour guides don't know where your house is, because sometimes, the more aggressive ones will find your wife and kids back home and just keep an eye on them for collateral. Those tour guides can be so pissy sometimes!

If you don't want to walk all that way through the cold (and alternately hot) desert, you can ride in comfort with 27 of your closest friends in the back of an SUV! That sure beats the heat and the snakes...and the scorpions....and the cactus... You may want to watch out for the driver. Sometimes they make a mistake and the local officials try to stop them to issue a traffic citation. In that case, just hold on tight...it is a ride better than any at Disney World! But even if you make it through the horrific accident, you will be covered with that "free" health care! So, no worries!

After your adventurous journey you can wire home 90% of your income - of course, the fees to wire can get pretty steep if you don't read the agreement well - who can make sense of all that legal mumbo jumbo anyway! Bring cash! Those wiring services don't take checks or credit/debit cards! Ask around because some of them just take the cash and give you a bogus wire slip....you know how those third world scams go! You wouldn't want to work 60 hours a week all for nothing now would you?

Anyway, I could go on with my travel tips...but suffice it to say...have a great time on your trip! Make lots of pictures! Send postcards!

Simcox Suckers

You want to know who the real Minutemen are? Chris Simcox and his merry band of morons give "loyal Americans" a bad name. Simcox and his crew are nothing more than petty thugs and white trash pieces of shit that feel threatened by Mexicans taking the jobs that they themselves wouldn't do.

Simcox, in fact, is one of those lovely pieces of shit that sides with Timothy McVeigh and his ilk. "Libertarians" they call themselves. Personally, as a real libertarian, their type offends me. Don't believe me? Read some of the Tombstone Tumbleweed editorials. Simcox is one of those guys who is a big fish in a small pond. That pond being one of the scummiest -- Tombstone Arizona.

Who are the Minutemen? Who gives a shit? The sooner they are out of my desert, the better.

When folks like the Grondins from South Dakota set up a "Checkpoint Charlie", they feel like they're really doing something. In fact, they are doing something: they're pissing me off.

Paul and Patty Grondin, of Olerichs, S.D., keep watch at Observation Post 8. They got involved with the Minutemen after spending the winter as snowbirds in southern Arizona. "This is beautiful country down here," Paul said. "I'd live here if I didn't have to worry about the illegal immigrant issues, if I didn't have to put bars on my windows, or worry about my wife home alone after dark."

Wow Paul, with an attitude like that, we didn't really want to in the first place. Of course, I'd live in South Dakota, if it wasn't for pieces of shit like you. I would live there, if I thought my vote would count. I'll bet you're afraid that the "darkies" are going to rape your daughter too. (Of course, if they really do, you'll probably want to cart her over to Minnesota.)

Who are the Minutemen? White trash with guns on a power trip -- one of the worst possible combinations.

Get out of my desert.

Too Cute!

Warrenton GA Mini
Originally uploaded by rainvalley.

I love the mini horses... There are some things about Georgia that I will miss - and these horses are one of them!

Missing the point

It seems that the ultra Orthodox, in their quest for purity, are missing the critical point. It isn't the technology that leads to sinful behavior -- something called "personal responsibility" should be the prime consideration.

Computers, televisions, cell phones, and the like are all dumb devices. They only do what you tell them. You want to avoid temptation? Then avoid temptation. If you have to rely on the device stopping you from following down the path of sin, then temptation is not the problem. You might want to reevaluate whether or not the problem lies a little deeper than not text messaging on Shabbat.

However this does prove to be a fantastic opportunity for the rabbis:

More than 10,000 numbers for phone sex, dating services and other offerings are blocked. A team of rabbinical overseers makes sure the list is up to date.

Gotta keep those rabbis dialing to find number 10,001! "No honey. It's to keep the flock in line, strictly G-d's work... I swear!"

Consistency Counts

Diane and I went on one of our many excursions to the icy North Atlantic this weekend (i.e. Beaufort, South Carolina). So, when we got home, I immediately went about the task of downloading the pictures from the digital cameras. I have a habit of naming the folders that store the pictures and based on the date that made the pictures. Today is March 26, 2006, that means the folder is labeled 03062006. I also add some word or words to allow me to remember where we were on that day. In this case, I added Beaufort to the end.

A few minutes later, I went back to the folder where I thought the pictures were stored, and I found similar pictures of Beaufort -- but not the ones I made this weekend. After a few moments of scratching my head and thinking I was losing my mind, it dawned on me that the folder that I was looking at was labeled 03262005Beaufort.

This proves the Diane and I are nothing if not consistent. We like being in Beaufort, South Carolina, on March 26 - that fact cannot be disputed.

March 26, 2007: I can almost guarantee you Diane and I will be at Beaufort, South Carolina on Hunting Island State Park.

Other Venues

Recently, I have been poking around other blog-type outlets.... one of which is MySpace. I even have a space... along with every other 14 year old.... I doubt I will ever use it... but... it is MY Space....

The sad part is when I looked down and saw this:

My Friend Space: You have 0 friends.

Oh man.... this is getting personal....

More Hard News from MSNBC

Okay, a few points I would like to make to both MSNBC - and the rest of the world:

1. "Reality" shows are NOT reality.
2. Paris Hilton is never a cause for front page headlines. (in fact, who the fuck is she... and more importantly, why the hell should I care?)
3. "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" should be more widely read - perhaps during the commercial breaks for "Idol".

Good Lord people... is this what we have come to?

Dragon speaking

Having recently discovered Dragon Naturally Speaking, I'm now using this application to dictate my blog posts.

I'm actually getting pretty good at this with my times going upwards of 80 wpm. I am having trouble with things like convincing it to understand things like "w", "p" and "m". Pollen although it's pretty cool -- except that "pollen although" loosely translates into "all-in-all". Some of the fun is trying to decipher what the application thought this I said, versus what I really said. The problem being that once I'm about three lines past what I said I can't remember what it was that I said.

At least it's fun for a Sunday afternoon to try and dictate some thoughts down and then decipher what some application thinks you thought you said...

I will say that voice-recognition has made tremendous strides over the last time I actually tried voice-recognition software. At that point I was getting 60 to 70% error rate. With this application, I'm getting about 10 to 15% errors -- which is not that bad.

Everything this post, good, bad and ugly, was typed via voice recognition commands only. I may become obsessed with this new toy.

Where do fat kids come from?

This is just one more example of where the modern America is going straight to hell. We have become such avid devotee's of Sam's and Wal-Mart's frozen food sections, that we can't even "simmer" anymore. "Heat 'em up and eat 'em up" is the mantra for cooks these days.

I guess now that we are all computer literate, the old jokes about the CD tray being a drink holder seem quite quaint. Now it is time for us to start making fun of our elders... things that seem rudimentary to them are totally lost on the modern generation:

At a conference last December, Stephen W. Sanger, chairman and chief executive of General Mills Inc., noted the sad state of culinary affairs and described the kind of e-mails and calls the company gets asking for cooking advice: the person who didn't have any eggs for baking and asked if a peach would do instead, for example; and the man who railed about the fire that resulted when he thought he was following instructions to grease the bottom of the pan -- the outside of the pan.

It's really no wonder how the little fat kids show up waddling down the aisles of Wal-Mart, when their parents are this damn dumb.

Go on little Timmy, fire up that Pop Tart...

Strategia Della Tensione

Just something to think about....

Strategy of Tension - a term coined by the Italians....

Could it be... that... naaah... not in America....

The thing that pisses me off the most about the things going on around the world is that if only SOME of them are true, then it prooves the "black helicopter" conspiracy theorists right... and that just sucks....

Inching Ever Closer

I knew it was coming. I just did not know who was going to make it public...

Turns out it was Michael Thomas Bolton. (That is a common mistake on my part... as I don't like the untalented and annoying hack - and I don't like Michael's music either)

Rah, Rah...Siss Boom Bah. Get on the bandwagon.

Bliss

Bliss
Originally uploaded by rainvalley.

I love my wife....