Arizona

I’m here. Checked into the cool place on the river. Went to the pool, went to the beach, no comprende…

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Mesquite Update

It’s a good morning in the desert. My clock says 0445 but I picked up an hour somehow, so it’s 0345. My new little single cup coffee maker works fantastic, hot tasty and strong, the way I like it. I’m watching Fox News live which is a treat since I’m off the grid at home and only catch recaps. I got my Echo hooked up to the motels internet last night and, hold on, Alexa, what’s the weather? In Driggs, a high of 61 and a low of 33. Ok, Alexa, what’s the weather in (my next Arizona destination today)? In ..., a high of 96 and a low of 64. Hmm, the low is higher than the high. Good!

A side-note: I called All American Tire in Victor from I-15 yesterday and told them I wanted Hal to do an oil change for me. The guy laughed and told me that Hal went down to the Kingman, AZ shop a couple of months ago. I said “I know, what’s the phone number there“? I’m sure they don’t know what to make of me :-)

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Lucky

I got lucky today, but let me start from the beginning. I was rolling down I-15 south of Salt Lake City this morning (btw: SLC is like Spokane WA, it goes on forever and you don’t dare get off the freeway) and I kept seeing these signs for the Virgin River Casino in Mesquite, NV offering $27 rooms, so I called them up and booked a room.

As I approached Mesquite there were two exits and of course the Casino never bothered to mention on their many signs which one they were at so I drove right on by. I turned around at the next exit, way down the road, negotiated a triple roundabout from hell, and made it back to the Casino exit.

Then, thinking I was turning into the hotel parking lot, I turned onto the freeway entrance heading south. Where I had just come back from…

Now I’ve been driving for many hours, and visions of $27 rooms are dancing in my head, so I hung a u-turn on the freeway on-ramp, went back to the entrance and got out of there. Not thirty seconds later a local cop passed me and I know I’d be facing a bad-ass ticket if he’d spotted me. Instead, I’m hunkered down in the best $27 room I’ve ever seen and looking forward to a $6.99 prime rib special.

You got to love Casinos that expect you to gamble, except I don’t…

I was even lucky my beard lube didn’t spill out from melting in the heat! What’s that you ask? Stay tuned… (aka, shelby pimp job)

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Living Things

I was sitting at the back of my truck today, enjoying some little pinecones I had found, when a fly landed on my bare left forearm. I watched him for a while and then my old demons welled up and I swatted him with my right hand.

He fell to the ground in front of me and I immediately felt horrible. I really try not to kill anything anymore. He laid still for a bit and then started moving forward. I urged him to fly but all he could do was hop because I had knocked one of his wings off!

What a buzz kill to an otherwise pleasant afternoon. I believe that every living thing on this earth has as much right to be here as I do. I need to work on my conditioning

I was driving down a Wyoming highway the other day that was littered with fuzzy little roadkill. Every hundred yards or so another rabbit had died under manmade wheels and I swerved my truck to avoid hitting both dead, and alive, rabbits. I was successful.

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Jaw Dropping

When I sleep, my jaw drops open and I look like I’m dead. One time I was hanging out in old Pocatello, parked out in the big parking lot between town and the railroad tracks, taking a power nap upright in my drivers seat. Suddenly I was surrounded by cops convinced that there was a dead guy in the truck. Turns out an engineer in a passing freight train spotted me and called 911.

Yesterday, I was taking a nap in my motel room, sleeping flat on my back. For some reason that accentuates the jaw dropping effect. I was woken from a deep sleep by the room phone ringing. What the hell I thought, nobody knows where I am? It was the front desk asking me if I was alright. I glanced over to the window and saw the curtain slightly open and realized somebody must have looked in, and was concerned enough to alert the motel.

Sometimes it sucks getting old :-)

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Road Again

I started out this morning cruising by our local frozen Palisades Reservoir and after motoring my sweet little travel truck for a while I settled down at a quiet motel in a pretty little town off the interstate. I’m determined to take small jaunts this trip and not over-drive myself or my vehicle.

The biggest takeaway so far is that when motels link their internet into a web based login screen, I can’t hook my Echo up, as it needs a direct connection. Oh well, gives me more time to wander around town…

Click the pic for some more.

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The Weather

Brought to you by my Amazon Echo

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Standoff

Piper doesn’t usually interact with other cats. She’s an only child around here, owns the house, and is spoiled rotten. The neighbors cat (owned by my nephew Brian and Andrea) ventured into the back forty this afternoon and a standoff ensued.

Piper’s on the left and she’s just basically telling the other cat “you come any closer and I’ll kick your ass“! Shortly, the other cat went home…

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Spring Break

As I approach one year and a few months short of seventy, I’ve been thinking about the things I did along the way to save my life. Back in the sixties and seventies one of my bragging points used to be that I’d done every drug ever created. Probably true, and in quality doses unimaginable today. I remember landing in the Haight in it’s prime and taking one hit of pure meth that kept me up for days.

What I learned along the way is that I didn’t like losing time. All of those drug infused party nights that happened as a result of having money to burn from a successful consulting career, cost me time when it took me a day or two to recover. So I quit that shit, many years ago…

As I approached fifty I was still smoking cigarettes. I made a deal with my ten year old son Riley that if I quit, he would never start. We shook hands, deal done.

A couple of years ago, chest pains were haunting my existence. This one I didn’t know what I had to give up to fix it, so I added cayenne pepper and other artery cleaning natural stuff to my diet. I told the last doctor I saw about it, during a DOT physical, and he just rolled his eyes. Screw them, I don’t have a doctor, I take no pharmaceuticals at all, I’ve never felt better, and I’m off to Spring Break, again :-)

btw: my concoction now consists of one small (5.5 fl oz) can of V8 mixed with one teaspoon each of:

  • Cayenne pepper (the hottest I can buy)
  • Turmeric root
  • Organic lecithin (the best)
  • Hawthorn berry (ground up in the coffee grinder)

I shake it all up in a small container and drink it along with my shredded wheat and banana breakfast. There you go, you’re welcome!

Rock on!

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Spring Snow

Here’s a great example of how weather can change in a heartbeat around here, even if we’re operating under the delusion that Spring has actually arrived for good…

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Sun Soak

Steph often says that Piper is my cat. Maybe it’s because she loves to soak up the sun. I do know that she loves to pose when my camera starts clicking :-)

Click the photo below to see more…

btw: This has triggered my yawn reflex more than once now :-)

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Bed Made

Pulling out all the winter crap from the back of my travel truck and making the bed has become a Spring tradition. The setup is now ready to roll with bed, water, tools and emergency bag perfectly placed within the unassuming low profile of my little truck.

Some trips I don’t even use it for sleeping because I enjoy the cheap motel experience, but it’s really nice to have it available. Stay tuned for my upcoming adventure.

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JimsMap

I started working on JimsMap.com a couple of months ago. I was using some alternative mapping services initially, until they changed their structure and burned me bad. I subsequently ported the development over to Google Maps and have been developing the project daily. I just haven’t mentioned it here, until now…

The premise was to create a Google spreadsheet in the cloud and then dynamically create worksheets that contain places which can be plotted on the map. The program would then maintain these worksheets visually by interacting with the map to add new places, edit existing places, or delete a place.

The Google spreadsheet effectively becomes a database to store categories of places. For example, you could create a new worksheet (using the program of course) called ‘Places to eat in Chico, CA’. Then, using the Proximity Tool you could plot each restaurant in Chico on the map, save the link, and send it to a friend who might be visiting there. Each place contains the address, a phone number and a link, if available.

You can also create a worksheet containing places of your choosing just by clicking on the map, describing each place, and adding them.

The application is still under development but I felt it was stable enough to introduce to the world today. There are no login requirements, you can do whatever you want to the data, I trust you to be cool. If you have the savvy to try something new, I invite you to give it a shot. Feedback is certainly welcome :-)

Here you go: jimsmap.com.

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Morning Red

It was a fine sunrise this morning.

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Dispenser

A shipment from Amazon showed up for me today and Steph had no idea one was expected. She asked what was inside and I told her it was an automatic lubricating condom dispenser, a Spring Break special! It’s a much needed accessory to accommodate my lifestyle since I’m heading to Lake Havasu shortly, and it comes with a quick removal device!

Thank god it was just a single cup coffee dispenser with a seatbelt cutter, or I wouldn’t be getting dinner tonight :-)

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