Peregrinating
2018

June

1 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: June 1, 1930

Great News again with the announcement of 233,000 new jobs created in the month of May. Even Greater News is the 3.8% Unemployment Rate. Not to disparage all that Great News but it is FAKE.

Of the 233,000 new jobs there were 215,000 added by the Birth/Death Model adjustment. The Unemployment Rate improved because 170,000 more people joined the ranks of "Not In The Labor Force" to set another all time record of 95,915,000.

Everything is Great! Except, nearly 51 million households, 43% of households in the United States, don't earn enough to afford "to survive in the modern economy."

I got all my month end chores and other month end 'things to do' finished yesterday with the completion of the Will Rogers weekly articles for next month. I also started reading the second book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Clash of Kings. I think I read this book while in Reno (1999-2000) when I would go to the "New Books" table and pick up anything that looked interesting.

If you want to review what happened during May 2018 I recommend this blog posting, Traveling Transition Road: 123 Revelations from May, 2018 by Doug “Uncola” Lynn. He provides a summary for each revelation, NEWS story, with a link to his source. There is enough reading material contained in this one blog to keep you busy during the month of June.

Another medical finding: "Walking at an average pace was found to be associated with a 20 percent risk reduction for all-cause mortality compared with walking at a slow pace, while walking at a brisk or fast pace was associated with a risk reduction of 24 percent." I added the bold highlighting to focus attention on the fact that most of the risk reduction is obtained by increasing the walking pace from slow to average. Increasing the pace from average to fast may not be worth the effort; just walking longer at an average pace would probably be more beneficial.

2 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I am very disgusted with Weather Underground. It loads so very slow, IF it loads at all, I have just about given up on it. It is not just me, there are plenty of others that feel the same way. I don't know what happened to the company but their website has gone to hell. I think it may be that they started to focus on phone apps which is now the advertising/marketing Holy Grail.

Another hot day in the forecast for today but much cooler tomorrow. Maybe some thunderstorms and breezy. The breezy part of the forecast is a given but when the forecasters say breezy that means there will be strong winds.

Not much News in the news today. The blogs that read daily were quiet also, I think there were only one or two that had posted anything new. I will post this but it is not anything new either.

I did change the background in the side panels on the Home Page. They are now showing the cushion cover #2 that I showed as finished on 25 January 2018. I think I like this one better than #8 that I had there for this past week. Using cover #1 as background for the text body was not a good idea. I may try some other drawings for that body background but nothing today.

3 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

A couple days ago while on our afternoon walk I saw my east side neighbor sitting on a bench outside the Park office. Patches saw him also and had to go say hello. He had never met Patches during the month that we have lived next door to him and said " I didn't even know you had a dog". Apparently he reported me to the office.

Yesterday when I went to pay my electric bill I handed the fellow my meter reading and said I wanted to pay my bill. He did a bunch of typing on the computer and told me how much I owed. I said "You didn't ask my for my space number, I guess you know where I live". He said "Yes we know but we didn't know you had that well behaved dog". Patches can be such a Good Girl!

The scaled quail that I have been seeing now have a covey of chicks following along behind them. Made me think of a bunch of little Woodstocks marching behind Snoopy.

There was total cloud cover when we went out for our morning walk. As we were almost back to Desperado I felt a few sprinkles but the cloud cover was breaking up. There may be more blow in later today but what there was this morning did not look like the making of a thunderstorm.

Why is this not Main Stream Headline News? The Koch brothers have been excoriated by the Media for supporting President Trump. But now that the Kochs are contributing to Democrat campaigns they have grown silent.

"In their latest effort to pass amnesty for the majority of illegal aliens living in the United States, the pro-mass immigration GOP megadonor billionaire Koch brothers are throwing their support behind Democrats ahead of the 2018 midterm elections." Koch Bros Running Ads for Democrats: ‘Thank You’ for Pushing Open Borders, John Binder

There is also some even worse News. This headline, People are fleeing Silicon Valley for Nevada, Texas and Idaho, report finds is bad enough but in the body of the article Arizona is included with those three states. They have ruined California so now want to bring their enlightened views to neighboring states. Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Idaho - build a wall! 🔗

4 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic
leftpic

Another British football club logo. This one used 6 colors plus a background which I have made transparent. This one has given me some practice using a color palette which will be necessary as I add more colors. I think it is the best looking logo that I have drawn so far, certainly the most detailed. I'll be drawing cushion cover #9 next.

We got that predicted thunderstorm yesterday afternoon starting around 2:30 and it then rained off an on until 4:30 when we went out under a threatening sky. I thought we were going to get to finish the walk dry but got a little damp during the last .2 miles.

The nearby Weather Underground reporting station claims 0.27" of rain but the National Weather Service reports none. I don't know if the Weather Underground measurement is correct but I know the NWS is wrong - we did get rain.

It is going to be a hot one again today with the high expected to be 93° after the 85 and cool rain of yesterday. Then close to 100° on Thursday and in the mid-90s for the 10 Day forecast.

The day began as a usual shopping day with breakfast at Café 66 the groceries at Smith's. The only unusual thing was I received a bottle of Snapple in my bags that belonged to the woman that check out in front of me.

Then the day became more interesting. I have been buying Earthborne Meadow Feast for Patches at Tractor Supply. There are three Tractor Supply stores in the Albuquerque area but all of them are about a 50 mile round trip from the Park.

I found another retailer, Boofy's Best for Pets, that was much closer and went there this morning. To get there I first missed a turn and had to stop and find out where I was and how to get back on track. Then when I found the shopping plaza I turned to enter it from the north side but there was no entry there and I had to drive another mile or so before I could turn around and enter from the east side.

They had the largest supply of Earthborne that I have ever found in a Tractor Supply and I got 3 bags. I had one remaining so I now have enough to last Patches for 4-5 months. If I am ever back in Albuquerque I now know how to get to Boofy's - more importantly I know how NOT to.

"Preindustrial societies mostly exhibit a continuum from childhood to adulthood. There is generally no random cut off age where suddenly teens are given rights and expected to become adults. Children seamlessly and gradually integrate into adulthood, with puberty rites being the only major benchmark…
Children are raised from infancy alongside adults, instead of being segregated into peer groups of the same age. They slowly learn from adults and take on more responsibilities by emulating what they see.
What do kids see in the USA? A bunch of other kids with whom they have been grouped by government and industry working in tandem. Instead of emulating adults, they act like their peers. They want to dress the same, impress others with their technology, and keep up with the same tv shows." - “Teen Culture” is the New Imperialism, and it is Destroying the World, Joe Jarvis

5 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I have started to look at changing my website layout. Why CSS Grid is better than Bootstrap for creating layouts explains the advantages. The most important one for me is "you want to change your layout according to the screen size". I don't have very many readers of my web pages but I have noticed that since I made the last layout change (September 2015) to Bootstrap about half are reading it with a device that has a resolution of 768px or less (iPads, iPhones & other Android Phones). So I have a 'teachable moment' and will try to learn CSS Grid.

That should keep me busy when I am not on the couch reading or on my Toshiba where I have Gimp to do my pixel art drawings. I also need to walk Patches her 4 miles everyday. Bored in retirement? No way!

This is a very good blog posting. I have quoted a teaser.

"But in the real world of today, it is the globalist billionaires who own multiple mansions, fly private jets and ride in eight-cylinder limousines to climate-change conferences where policies are decreed to lower the carbon footprint of the proletariat. It is the wealthy elite of the westernized nations who have sacrificed individual freedom upon the altar of Collectivism as political correctness has stifled free speech and enslaved citizens drown under oceans of debt.
At the same time, megalithic multi-national corporations like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter, have become the eyes and ears of Big Brother; always watching and ever listening." - Ten Ways the Democratic Northern Hemisphere Nations Became the Orwellian West, Doug “Uncola” Lynn

6 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I devoted most of yesterday to getting rows and columns looking like what I want which is what I now have. Two row across the top, one for the navigation bar and the second one for the header. Then under those two rows I want 3 columns, a sidebar on each side of the main context column. Lastly a footer that I currently do not have but I hope to put the ShoutBox down there.

I'll be back at it again today. I started working on the navigation bar and that did not go very well. With any luck I'll solve that mystery today. If not there is always tomorrow.

It has been over 90° for the past few days but today and the next couple of days will approach 100 if the weather guessers get it right. It is well on the way to reach that high - 85° by 9:00. No relief in sight per the 10 Day forecast.

This is a recommended blog posting. I have quoted just a sample.

"Sanctions are an assertion of hegemony of one country over another. They are an assertion that the imposer of sanctions has extra-legal international authority to tell other sovereign states what to do or to suffer consequences if they do not…
Any time a country doesn’t follow Washington’s orders, Washington imposes sanctions. Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela are all bearers of Washington’s sanctions. Moreover, Washington forces other countries, including its European allies, to also impose sanctions or Washington will sanction them as well." - The Absence of Diplomacy Is Isolating Washington, Paul Craig Roberts

7 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I devoted a second day to trying to set up a CSS Grid with a navigation bar at the top. This is not a favored placement based on the examples that I can find. I finally did get it looking like I want it and then started the process of adding the navigation 'buttons' to the bar. The Bootstrap drop down coding would not work and I spent a few hours getting some coding that would.

During that process I screwed up the navigation bar layout and it took me another hour or two to find what I did and correct the screw up. I now will be doing cosmetic changes e.g. backgrounds, colors, fonts. There are a couple more navigation buttons that I want to add but I think I can do them using HTML coding within the text.

I won't be doing much of that today. Need to take a break from it. There are also breakfast and 'linner' meals to get prepared for the next few days. I also need to spend more time on the couch with Patches and my Paperwhite.

That is all that has been going on with me. The News has slowed down a lot also. 'The Resistance' must be taking some summer vacation. The only bit of excitement that they could generate was "Where is FLOTUS?" They no more than got that narrative started and she was back on the scene and in the News.

8 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: June 8, 1930

My host server is not helping with this CSS Grid project. All of the CSS Grid coding is generating warning messages that I am using an "unknown property". It is just a warning and the coding works just fine when and if the server compiles it.

I would also make a change but it does not take effect until minutes or hours later. At first I thought that the changes that I had made had no effect so I would reverse that change and change something else. Then later the first change that I had made would show up but I had reversed it - what a mess! I don't know how I am going to finish this project if the host server continues to compile changes this way.

Then to add insult to injury the power went out in my section of the Park. Maybe the entire Park. When it did come back on my A/C did not seem to be running the same but that might have been due to my having hearing aids out and ear drops with cotton balls in my ears. HA

I'll be working on the CSS Grid project some more today. Will also get a little more of cushion #9 drawn and more of my latest novel on Paperwhite read. It will be another eventful day.

This quote is from a blog posting that could have been written by Fred Reed. It seems that the more and more bloggers are coming around to Fred's way of thinking rather than trying to be Politically Correct.

"The path that war follows is everywhere the same. First, feminists demand that women be admitted to traditionally male career fields – cops, firemen, soldiers, construction, etc.—as equals. When that happens, the women don’t become “one of the boys”. On the contrary, the men are supposed to become eunuchs. Men, including young men, are supposed to work cheek-by-jowl with women without showing the slightest interest in them as the opposite sex. Since most men, especially young men, cannot do that – human nature makes it impossible – the women are empowered over the men because they can accuse any man who notices their femininity as “sexual harassment”. Cultural Marxism denounces this as a sin and a crime, the man is presumed guilty until proven innocent, and men must now live in constant fear of the women with whom they share a workplace. - The War On Men, William S. Lind

9 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I spent most of yesterday trying to set up a navbar that was simply NOT going to work. It was usable on big screen desktop computers but much too complicated to fit on small screens. I finally threw in the towel on that idea and now have grid layouts that look good in all sizes.

I'll be spending time today doing cosmetic work. Selecting colors and getting css coding in place that will make the text look the same as it has been. I think I'm getting close and may have a new look for my site soon.

The National Weather Service has reported the high temperatures to be 94° for each of the past two days. The new Weather Underground station that I am now using, the prior one quit reporting, reported 98.6 for those days.

The next 5 days will be much the same if the forecast is correct. Maybe some thunderstorm activity and cooler days starting a week from now. That will be about the day that the Arizona Monsoon is to begin and my next camp is showing rain for the last 5 days of the 10 Day forecast. High temperatures are also about 10° cooler which will be good.

10 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

Another shopping day with breakfast at Café 66 but no extra running around. I stopped at the dump station on my way out of the Park and got holding tanks dumped. The fresh water tank is almost dry but I think I can put that off until tomorrow or the next day.

I was back in my space at the Park before 9:00. When I have to go to a store after Smith's I am usually waiting for them to open at 9:00.

This will be my last Home page posting using the Bootstrap layout that I coded and started using in September 2015. It will also be the first Home Page posting using CSS Grid. It is going to depend on the time of the day when you open the page. It is going to happen sometime today I just don't know exactly when.

I think it looks good and it should offer a better viewing experience for about half of my viewers that use Tablets or SmartPhones. All the test that I have done show a improvement. Those viewers using desktops will see some differences also. There is a different layout, different colors and slightly different navigation.

America Goes Full Imbecile by M. N. Gordon is a good article that covers the same ground that many others have written about. That does not mean it is not worth reading, I suggest that you do.

"Credit has a wicked way of magnifying a person’s defects. Even the most cautious man, with unlimited credit, can make mistakes that in retrospect seem absurd. But an average man, with unlimited credit, is preeminently disposed to going full imbecile.
Several weeks ago we came across a woeful tale of Mike Meru. Somehow, this special fellow, while of apparent sound mine and worthy intent, racked up over $1 million dollars in student loan debt – all to become an orthodontist."

11 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I got the new Home Page active yesterday. At that same time I coded a new page for archived June postings. Then later in the day I changed the About Me page to a CSS Grid layout which was easily done.

I then started working on the old Site Map page, now to be the Archive page, and spent a few wasted hours. Thought about it a lot last night before going to sleep and then while on our morning walk. I am not quite finished with it this morning but think I will before the end of today. Then the 'only' thing remaining will be to convert every page that is linked to the Archive - a couple hundred.

That has kept me busy. I did find some time to do a little more reading on my latest Paperwhite novel. Also did just a little pixel art drawing on cushion #9. That makes three project that I have going now. Those plus walks with Patches does not leave much time to do chores and shopping.

"Usually, entitlement means, “I feel you should give me something that belongs to you, merely because you have it and I want it.” Normally we view entitlement as material. But in today’s outrage culture, it’s beyond that. “I — the outraged victim — feel entitled to have you BELIEVE what I believe in, and AGREE with what I think to be true. And if you fail to agree with me, you’re somehow violating my rights and my sense of entitlement to have everyone agree with me.”" - How and Why America Became “The Outrage Society”, Michael J. Hurd

12 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I just thought I had found the coding to convert Site Map to Archive. That is what I get for thinking. What I did yesterday morning did not work. I spent much of the rest of the day trying to find something that would work and failed. As a last resort I found a website, 'Guide To Building Grid Layouts With CSS Grid', that I am now trying to follow with the hope that I can solve this puzzle. A case of when all else fails - read the instructions!

This morning as we were about to enter the Park from our walk I saw three bicyclist ride out and head west. Then as we were finishing our walk in the Park I came across a fourth rider.

Stopped and talked with him for a few minutes. He started following Route 66 from Chicago. Has been riding with the other three since joining up with them in Oklahoma. He will continue on Route 66 until he reaches its end at the coast and then will ride along the coast to San Diego. A great trip!

President Trump has been debased since the day he announced he wanted to be president of the United States. Since the day of his inauguration the vitriol has been vicious and nonstop. But he will have a place in history for accomplishing something that 12 president before him could not; a face-to-face meeting with the leader of North Korea.

The Leftist and Never Trumper will disparage the agreement that he a Kim have signed but nevertheless it is an agreement that no other president could reach:

"The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new U.S. – DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the population of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified." - Document Signed by President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un at Singapore Summit

Then there was De Niro's kickoff of president Trump's 2020 reelection campaign:

"De Niro didn’t just drop the F-bomb, he didn’t just show utter disrespect to the President of the United States like a common lout; he flouted standards of decency and simple decorum on national television and flaunted his lack of accountability, while basking in the audience’s collective tongue bathing of his shriveled taint. He turned an event about achievements in theater and music into his own little political rally for no reason other than his own ego – to show how woke he is in his hatred of the President.
You want more Trump? This is how you get more Trump.
This is how you get Trump re-elected for a second term." - De Niro Has Discovered the Secret to Reelecting Trump, by Marta Hernandez

13 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I finally found a way to convert Site Map that was using Bootstrap layout coding to Archive using CSS Grid. I spent all day doing it and was still not quite finished when I went to bed. I'll be finishing the layout sometime today and then will be applying cosmetic changes. Maybe have it finished by the time I go to bed tonight.

When I get this posted for today I'll be going out and hooking up to fill my freshwater tank. I have put that off as long as I can. Nothing else on the agenda for today.

Not much News. What I found is what I expected, disparagement of President Trump's summit meeting, and the agreement, with Kim of North Korea. The Leftist hate it because Trump has once again done something that they said he was not capable of doing because he is too stupid. The Never Trumper, mostly neoconservatives, hate it because they wanted a war, or at least the threat of one, with North Korea.

"A nation that spends more than it takes in from taxes, and consumes more of the world’s goods than it produces itself for export, year in and year out, is a nation on the way down. We are emulating our British cousins of the 19th century." - Behind Trump’s Exasperation by Patrick J. Buchanan

14 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I finished the conversion of Site Map to Archive yesterday and it is now linked to Home in a new CSS Grid layout. I say I finished but there is one more refinement that I want to make. I tried to do it late last night and failed. I'll be trying again today.

I also started to convert the Bike Trip pages and immediately found that I need to learn more about positioning images. All the pictures that I have on those pages are going to appear as a BIG mess. That is now the next step in this CSS Grid Project.

The past three days high temperatures per the National Weather Service have been 94, 98, 96. The nearby Weather Underground station that I am now using claim that those same three days had high temperatures of 98.6, 102.2, 100.4. The temperatures here were probably close to what the Weather Underground station claimed.

We might be cooling down somewhat with the weather guessers forecast for today and tomorrow to be 93° then in the upper 80s for the rest of the 10 Day forecast. My next camp is expecting highs in the lower 80s which will be great is that continues when I get there.

"A state has two ways out of a debt crisis (kings had a third way, repudiating the debt, but republics find that difficult). The first is to cut expenditures until they are below tax revenues and use the surplus to start paying back the debt. If you want to see what that brings, look at Greece. The other way, assuming a state has its own currency (Greece does not; it’s on the Euro), is to inflate that currency and pay the debt back in worthless paper money. Which way is easier in a democracy? Obviously, inflation, so that’s what we will get. Inflation soon becomes hyperinflation and the middle class, or what is left of it, is wiped out." - The Big One by William S. Lind

15 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: June 15, 1930

I failed once again to find a way to make the modification to the Archive page that I want. I can live with what I now have but it is disappointing that I can not get what I want.

I had a number of failures in my attempt to recode the picture layouts that I had when using Bootstrap. What I have finally settled on can be seen in Bike Tours/Baja.

Compare that with Bike Tours/Cross Country Tour on a Big screen and the old layout is probably better. However, it can not be read on a Small screen and the pictures are a mess. So, I have a new picture layout; it is now readable in Big and Small screen devices. The downside of that is the time that it is going to take me to do all the conversions. But what the hell, I have far more time than money!

"I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday." - Abraham Lincoln
Old Abe would be proud of me. To achieve what little success I have had in the past with writing all the coding for my website I have used the copy, paste and modify approach. I didn't know what I was doing but in the trial and error process of making modifications I would stumble upon something that looked 'pretty good' and would keep it.

In this process of converting from Bootstrap to CSS Grid I was confronted with coding that I had used to provide space between pictures has been deprecated. Browsers continue to support them to ensure older sites continued to display correctly but 'developers' were urged to stop using them in favour of more flexible alternatives such as CSS. I guess I fall into the 'developer' class but could not find cut and paste coding that would work.

That was yesterday. I thought about it before going to sleep and then while on our morning walk. What do you know; I have become wiser and solved that problem by writing some CSS coding that added the space. More importantly I understand how and why the coding worked!

I saw no forecast of rain yesterday but we got wet. I called a halt at the Park office where we could take shelter and when it slack off beat a hasty retreat to Desperado. We didn't get much and probably could have continued on rather than retreat. The local Weather Underground reported no rain and a high for the day of 96.8°. National Weather Service claimed it reached only 94 but agreed that it did not rain. Much cooler tomorrow and a 80% chance of rain.

16 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

That Archive Page problem that was irritating me has finally been solved. What was happening was the drop down menu for the Will Rogers boxes at the bottom of the page were dropping down off the screen. I knew that I could fix that by having them drop UP but could not find the coding that would do it. Finally fixed it yesterday - another small victory over those little things that drive me bonkers!

My west side neighbor moved over one space more to the west which gives me a greater view of the wide open northwest range. Not much out there to see but now I can. He had to move because there is a Park water line leak that was almost directly under his entryway.

I woke up around 2:00 am it was raining, woke up at 5:00 am still raining. Waited until about 6:00 am when it seemed to have stopped but when we went out for a potty walk it was sprinkling and then became a light rain. We got a little wet again. I got a little wetter while out in it unhooking from electric.

I little wet again when going in and out of Café 66 for breakfast. Had their Huevos Rancheros with red for a change. Do not like it as well as my two standbys. A little wet going in and out of Smith's to get groceries and while hooking back up to electric. I think it may be raining all day so will have to see if we can sneak in an afternoon walk.

I made some good progress converting archived pages. Finished the first four Bike Trip pages yesterday. The layout conversion is very simple but the coding I have for the placement of the pictures renders a big mess. Cleaning up all that coding is going to take me some time but I'm using a LOT more CSS coding which makes it far easier to make changes in the future.

17 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I'm beginning to feel like Joe Btfsplk. We went out yesterday at 1:30 and got in a 1.5 mile walk. The sky looked like it was clearing so I planned on doing another walk in the early evening. Went out at 5:00 and it was reasonably clear except for one black cloud that was dumping rain about 10 miles to the southwest.

We made it to the .5 mile point when I started to feel some sprinkles. Turned around and headed for Desperado. Got a little wet but avoided getting soaked which is what would have happened if we had stayed out there for another 2-3 minutes. The local Weather Underground does not measure rainfall but the NWS claims we got 0.84" yesterday.

Much better weather this morning with some clouds but do not look like rain, no official forecast of rain either. Expected high to be 83° after the low of 64 this morning and even cooler tomorrow morning although a hotter day. Then back into the 90s for the rest of the 10 Day forecast. What is that, I thought it was to be in the upper 80s?

I have been so involved with the CSS Grid project that my Paperwhite reading and pixel art drawing has suffered. I did more of both yesterday and plan on doing the same today. Cushion #9 is a relatively easy one to draw but is also a bit tedious so it is going to take some time.

"Crucial question: Is there a likelihood that the Poodles will find the virility to go independent of Mother Washington? Historically they have been docile and obedient, good doggy, roll over. Now they yap fiercely, having discovered that America is not their ally but their owner. If by remote chance they decide to act in their own interest, methinks we will have moved into another world.
It is worth keeping in mind that neither America nor Americans have a dog in this fight. Trump, Israel, and the Empire do. No danger to America or Americans will arise if Iran buys airliners, or Europe buys gas, or Afghanistan does anything at all, or Venezuelans have enough to eat. The United States has been hijacked and is now used for the benefit of imperial loons and their allies…
Think of an aging drunk, muttering, “I can whip any man in this bar.” But all at once?" - Trump to Europoodles: “Roll Over. Bark. Beg…Crawl.: With a Korean Preface by Fred Reed.

18 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I have been working on the Bike Trip archive pages for the past few days. Cleaning up the coding that I had in place to position pictures that was a mess when I applied the CSS grid layout.I thought I had found a way to code every page the same but that is not happening.

I think I'll back off doing anything more until I school myself on how to set up a responsive page on the web. What I am doing now is just making another mess that replaces the former one.

I think I have made good progress this morning but it is probably too early to tell. I have changed from having a different layout for the archived pages and will use the same layout as the Home Page.

When a baseball game gets rained out the teams then have a double header scheduled to make up for the missed game. That is what Patches and I did yesterday. We did a double header 1.5 mile walk yesterday at noon and then again at our usual afternoon time. That gave us a total of over 5.5 miles, the first day that we have walked over 5 miles in a long, long time.

We won't be doing much more of that during the next 10 days. It is expected to get HOT!

19 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I have my water shut off while the Park 'works' on fixing the leak in the space next door. I say 'work' because all I can see that they have done so far is turn the water off. Although even that does not seem to have been accomplished. I can still see some water bubbling up at the leak site.

I put in an all day session yesterday working on the Bike Trip pages. A lot of that time was devoted to learning how to position images/photos. I still don't know how to position an image in the center of the page although after thinking about it overnight I do have an idea that I'll try later this morning. It didn't work!

I have made a lot of changes to those pages and probably will make a lot more before I find something I like and understand how to make the changes. I'm spinning my wheels right now but I think I'm getting there.

I was either 87° or 91 yesterday depending on which report you wish to believe. Both of those are less than what was forecast. I hope that proves true for Friday and Saturday which are forecast to be HOT - near 100. I have an extended shopping day on Friday and will be going to the range on Saturday. Patches is not feeling well today so she does not need extra high temperatures while waiting for me.

"All people tell themselves myths about who they are and what their nation-states represent, and Americans are no exception. Many of us still actually believe the U.S. military takes action for humanitarian purposes or to spread democracy despite ample evidence to the contrary. Likewise, many Americans continue to naively assume that three-letter agencies are there to protect them as opposed to protect the status quo despite ample evidence to the contrary." - The Myths We Tell Ourselves, Michael Krieger

20 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I think I finally solved the picture placement problem that I was having. In HTML5 the "align = left|center|right|justify" that I have been using for years has been deprecated and CSS is recommended for developers. I want to clean up my coding and have had a hell of a time finding the CSS coding that takes the place of those simple code commands that I used before.

All of the old coding that I used for each picture required an 'alternate' that would be shown if the picture was not. I ignored this in the past and everything worked but it is still required in HTML5 and I have used that 'alternate' to solve my placement conundrum.

The CSS coding now looks for its directions in the 'alternate'. If it finds 'leftpic' it floats the picture to the left and text will then wrap to the right. If it finds 'rightpic' it floats right and the text is on the left. Most important was the center which it now does when it finds 'middlepic' as the 'alternate'. This may not be how it is done by people that know how to write code correctly but it works!

This formatting can be seen in the Archives - Bike Tours/Trans Texas Tour. I will now be going back and redoing what I have done on some of the other pages that I have converted but was not pleased with how they looked or worked on the various screen sizes. I think I am making some progress. Two step forward and one back but progress nonetheless.

There is some Good News about the activities of David 'Camera' Hogg. He now has a bus tour to promote gun control/confiscation that kicked off in Chicago This is one of the cities with the most stringent gun control laws and the highest gun violence deaths in the nation. Much the same thing that is happening in Mexico with its very severe gun control laws.

But that is not all he is doing. His gun control book will soon be released. He also has time to renew efforts to get advertisers to boycott Fox News’ Laura Ingraham by tweeting a list of advertisers that include Cabela’s and John Deere. His first boycott of Ingraham resulted in a 20 percent jump in viewership for her show, The Ingraham Angle.

I have added the emphisis to the quote shown below. How does the United States pass a law that applies to people of other countries? How long will people of other countries allow it?

"In yet another assertion of the universal applicability of US laws, a collection of congressional nitwits has proposed a law that would punish those who make, distribute or use banned substances at international sports events with a $250,000 fine and 10 years imprisonment. The US law would apply to athletes of other countries at events held in other countries.
Washington in its hubris has long asserted its right to legislate for other countries, and the idiot governments of the world have subjected themselves to Washington’s legal authority. Not long ago a French bank was fined billions of dollars by Washington for financing companies doing business with Iran. A French shipbuilder was forced by Washington to cancel at its expense a contract with Russia, proving that France is not a sovereign country. Washington decrees sanctions on Russia, and any country that does not comply with Washington’s edict is punished. As far as Washington is concerned, Washington rules the world and the sovereignty of other nations does not exist." - I Remember When America Was A Free Country, Paul Craig Roberts

21 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

This is the first day of Summer. The forecast for today by the National Weather Service for here is 97° then 102 tomorrow and 99 on Saturday. HOT!

As I am converting the Archive pages from Bootstrap to CSS Grid I am also cleaning up code that works but HTML editors are reporting errors in the code. How long they would continue to work is a big unknown so I'm writing code that gets a clean report. It does change how the web pages appear/work in some cases but most people will never know.

The water leak fix has not happened until this morning they finally started digging out the water line. They claimed that they would be starting to work this morning at 7:30 and did get started around 8:00. I have very little confidence that it will be fixed this week. Not much confidence that it will be fixed before I leave here.

leftpic A Clash of Kings is the second novel in A Song of Ice and Fire, an epic fantasy series by American author George R. R. Martin expected to consist of seven volumes. It was first published on 16 November 1998 in the United Kingdom, although the first United States edition did not follow until March 1999. - Wikipedia

I think this is the only book of the series that I read before and probably picked it up from the New Book' table at the Reno library. Most of the customer reviews talk more about the HBO series than the book so I have skipped quoting any of them. This second book is simply a continuation of the fantasy story. I have the third book in the series on my Paperwhite and will read it but not now.

I assume that most of my readers have seen the click bait headlines "Google AI can predict when you'll die with 95 percent accuracy". It is only when you get into the story that you find that these predictions are for hospital patients NOT the general population.

It is even later in the story that it is claimed that the Google AI was significantly more accurate than the traditional predictive model, the augmented Early Warning Score, that some hospitals use with accuracy of 83-85%. So what is the hospital going to do differently with a 95% accurate prediction that they don't do now with one that is only 83% accuracy? I don't see a lot of positives arising from the push for an AI culture. We need more real intelligence (RI).

There was no public outcry when George W. or Barack separated illegal children from illegal parents so perhaps President Trump has caused a moral awakening. Nah, more likely just another attempt to discredit President Trump. It is also a great 2018 midterm election issue for the Democrats to use in the campaign. There will be NO solution to this 'problem' until after November.

The separation of children from immigrant/refugee/asylum parents has caused such public outcry that President Trump has backed off his policy and signed an executive order terminating family separation…
The question is: How is it that Americans can see and reject the inhumane border control policy and not see the inhumanity of family destruction that has been the over-riding result of Washington’s destruction in whole or part of seven or eight countries in the 21st century? - The Entire Western World Lives In Cognitive Dissonance, Paul Craig Roberts

22 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: June 22, 1930

A busy day but I got everything done before the temperatures became too hot for man or beast. It was ONLY 86° at 10:00 when I got back into my space at the Park. A little more difficult with a front loader moving dirt to fill up the hole they dug to fix the leak.

I think I now have water at my space and all the destruction/construction will be completed by the end of today. The whole operation looked like a government job was in progress. There would be one person working and 4-5 others sitting in the shade watching.

I dumped holding tanks on the way out this morning and will probably add water on Sunday now that it is available again. Breakfast at Café 66 as usual and then to the laundromat which took about an hour. A quick grocery pick up at Smith's and done for the day.

We may be doing only a short potty walk this afternoon and try to do it in shade within the Park as much we can. The National Weather Service is now expecting it to be 103° today but cool down to only 98 tomorrow. The 10 Day forecast is predicting highs of 95° and above for the rest of the time that I am here. My next camp will be 5-10 degrees cooler and should get some of the monsoon rains although the forecast does not predict any during the next 10 days.

With any luck by the end of today I will be back where I was about 5 days ago on the CSS Grid Archive Page Project. I made the decision to clean up coding which has taken some time; mostly trying to learn how to do it. I also made a few changes to the layout; the biggest decision was that the Archive pages would use the same layout as the Home page. Moving on.

The Roman elite had much the same opinion of the 'deplorables' that wanted to cling to their bible and sword as our modern elites do if Baron Lytton has the dialog correct. The quote about prophesy is the guiding principle of weather forecasters and business analyst.

"'What think you of this new sect, which I am told has even a few proselytes in Pompeii, these followers of the Hebrew God—Christus?' 'Oh, mere speculative visionaries,' said Clodius; 'they have not a single gentleman amongst them; their proselytes are poor, insignificant, ignorant people!'..
"Always prophesy good fortune, unless there is an absolute impossibility of its fulfilment." - The Last Days of Pompeii, Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

23 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

The National Weather Service reported a high temperature of 100° yesterday whereas my nearby Weather Underground station claimed it was 104°. Either one of them is HOT and the forecast for the next five day is that we will get more of the same.

I thought today was the Los Lunas Gun Club IDPA Match day but it is next Saturday. That is good if the forecast is correct and next week will bit a little cooler. Not cool but a little less than 100 for the high.

I have now reached the same point in the CSS Grid Project, and exceeded it by a bit, where I was a few days ago. The Project has been expanded to include code clean up which has led to changing the map popups to be just regular links.

This provides a bigger map plus most people, myself included, maneuver a link easier than a popup. I think most web readers expect a full page to open when a link button is clicked and when they have finished reading it they naturally click on the return arrow in the upper left of the web page. Or, the alt key and the left arrow is my prefered method. Clicking on the popup 'X' is not as natural.

All of these changes are going to take considerable time but I'm now committed to getting them done. There are other things that need to be done as well. One of them was to prepare my 3x5 route card for the move to my next camp including where to have breakfast and fill Desperado's gas tank. I'll get that done today. Also thinking about when I will do my month end chores since I want to go to the range on the 30th.

24 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I finished converting all of the pages for Bicycle Tours yesterday. I'll now work on Car Road Trips just because that is where the map numbers continue. I'll follow those map numbers as my guide for what pages to convert next.

The News today has nothing that interest me. Other than the weather which is HOT and forecast to stay that way for the next 5 days. That is the forecast for my next camp also although 5-10 degrees cooler than here. They are now also forecasting the monsoon rains starting 3 July and continuing thru the end of the 10 Day forecast.

I was going to add water to my tank this morning while it is nice and cool with a gentle breeze but don't need to do that yet. I'll wait another day or two. Then when I do fill the tank I'll be traveling with it almost full. Plan on dumping holding tanks on the way out of the Park on my travel day.

Back to the web page conversions!

25 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

The News. It is HOT and going to stay that way until Saturday - maybe. The forecast is for the Saturday high to be 90° which if it happens will be the coolest day we have had in a couple of weeks.

It is also great News if it happens because that is the day Patches has to wait for me at the range without any A/C. Although I will fire up the generator and the A/C is it does get too hot.

I finished converting all the Car Road Trip Archived pages yesterday. Not as many of them as there were for Bicycling, not as many pictures and I think I may now know what I am doing or at least what needs to be done. Starting on Teardrop Road Trips today which will take more time. There are more of them. HA

"If a 'Blue Wave' appeared in November, and Democrats won the U.S. House and impeached the president, “I think it would be a dangerous situation for Trump supporters, wouldn’t you? And I’m feeling like the best reason for Republicans to vote is they’re coming for you next. And they’re not hiding it. They’re coming for Trump right now, but they’re making it pretty clear they’re coming for Trump supporters next.” - Scott Adams aka "Dilbert".

They are not waiting for November. Maxine Waters is rallying the troops and calling for the harassment of all members of President Trump's administration. Is it only 'reasonable' that all Trump supporters should be next. Harassment, pfft! If there are Leftist that want to kill Climate Deniers it is only a very small step to killing supporters of President Trump.

Maxine's call for harassment is rather tame by Leftist standards. The Lefrist have been calling for President Trump's assassination since the day he was inaugurated. The only thing 'new' is the extension to anyone supporting him including his family members.

"It is time to sound the alarm, for if we begin to accept the idea that our neighbor (at least the ones who disagree with us) can be “done away with” and we’d be “better off” if we did we are a nation that will have already lost every societal challenge we have to face, and in very short order will no longer be a nation at all." - Nope… The LEFT really DOES want us dead!, Kevin McCullough

26 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

I put in about an hour working on the first Teardrop/Road Trip page yesterday and then either I did something or my server did something but all the work I had done was lost. I got lucky however; just stupid luck! I had copied all of the coding for the page and posted it in a HTML Checker. It was still there and I was able to copy that and post it back to my page at the server.

What I found out by using this HTML Checker that I did not find before using a different one was that not having an 'alt' with 'img' is an ERROR. The coding will still work and will show the image/picture but there will probably come the day when it will not. I need to go back and add an 'alt' to all my coding that has an 'img' tag.

I also found out that using 'clear all' with the 'br' tag is also now an ERROR. I found a fix for that which eliminates the error but I see no advantage to using it versus the old way to clear. Nonetheless I'll use the new coding that does not generate the error. Need to go back and fix that in the pages that I have converted previously.

Last but not least I got a WARNING about using 'name' as an anchor. When viewing a map of my Total Trips you can click on a link and it will take you to the anchor location on the Archive page. Again everything was working but the HTML Checker did not like my use of 'name' because it has also been deprecated and an 'id' needs to be used. Changed 'name' to 'id' and no more warning. I got a CLEAN page now; no ERRORS no WARNINGS. However I have a lot more work to do to make them all pass the test.

Did a bunch of cleaning up on the Home page also. Still have some errors and warnings there but they are all because of the coding in the ShoutBox widget. I'll not mess with those. All of my code on that page is now clean.

I also got a clean bill of health for my CSS coding. My host server has WARNINGS for all the CSS that involves 'grid' but I think that is their problem rather than mine. I don't think they have anything in place to check the coding for CSS Grid.

It is that two steps forward and one step back that I talked about a few days ago. I need to step back and fix those coding problems that still exist in Bicycle and Car Trips. I got two of the Car Trips fixed yesterday and the third one this morning, maybe finish all of that 'step back work' on the Bicycling Trips today.

It was 88 years ago on 17 June 1930 that the Tariff Act of 1930 commonly known as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff was passed. It was an act implementing protectionist trade policies; the same as President Trump's Make America Great Again "Trade War" with China. Although economists disagree by how much, the consensus view among economists and economic historians is that "The passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff exacerbated the Great Depression." But it will be different this time- right?

There is one big difference between 1930 and today. That difference is that a huge part of the trade deficit with China is the result of U. S. companies moving their production to China so there is not much remaining in the U. S. to 'protect'. Be that as it may, Winter Is Coming is a warning that hard times are approaching.

27 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

When I made changes to the Home Page a couple days ago I changed the Search Box. Did not like the way the 'new' Google Search showed the results and found a different Search Widget that will search using Google, Yahoo or MSN. I did limited testing but found very little difference in the results whichever search engine was selected. All three of them seem to find more current postings that the old Google Search Box that I had for some years did.

I also took a break from doing "one step back" work and made a change to the Home Page Header. If you are seeing it on the big screen (HA) then the change is very subtle. But on tablets and small screen devices the Header was wrapping; now it responds to the screen size and remains a one line header. I could not get CSS to do this for me but using inline style works like a charm.

I started highlighting the first letter in each of my posts some months back. At that time I wanted to have a Drop Cap lead the day's posting but never could find how to do it. I got to thinking about that again and today will be the first to be graced with a Header colored Drop Cap.

I think I'm on a roll; I'll have this Home Page looking like I know what I'm doing. Or, as Freed Reed says in Holmes, Uncle Clunk, and and Epic Con Job "A (very) bright kid can learn Python or C-pus-ñlus in a couple of months in mommy’s basement and actually be a programmer." His blog posting is a review of Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou.

The "one step back' was completed late yesterday. Past my usual time for bed. But I have a clean HTML coding report for all the Bicycling Trips, Car Trips and the first Teardrop/Road Trip. I'll be working on the rest of the Road Trips for the next few days since I have other 'stuff' that also needs to get done.

"In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government, but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and believe further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other. – Benjamin Franklin, His final speech at the Constitutional Convention.

The blog posting When Running From the Devil You Better Be Faster than Hell by Doug “Uncola” Lynn opens with that quote, I recommend it be read.

28 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

We did our usual morning walk and as soon as we got back to Desperado I added water to my tank. Unhooked from electric and got to Café 66 a couple minutes before they opened at 7:00.

This was my last breakfast there this time in Albuquerque. To celebrate the event I ordered off menu. Got a tamale (with red), egg over easy, hash browns, rice, tortilla and coffee. Then it was on to Smith's, also for the last time. Back into my space at the Park at about 8:30.

I wanted to get back where there was electricity for my A/C. It stayed hot last night with it still over 80° at midnight and back over that temperature by 9:00 am today. The National Weather Service is forecasting 104° high today and for it to stay near 100 through the weekend. I'll be gone on Sunday and hope to arrive at my new camp with the high temperature in the mid-80s.

I finished Road Trip number two yesterday and made a start on the third one. That one and the fourth are very long and are going to take some time to get done. Especially when I consider all the other stuff that I need to do. But, I'll get 'er done.

29 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic
Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: June 29, 1930

I have turned household chores into a routine. I get them done the last few days of the month and do them in the morning with coffee breaks in between the various individual chores. Yesterday I upset the routine by getting most of them done in the afternoon.

I still need to clean Desperado's cab and wash Patches slobber off the windows. By the end of today I should have everything except the kitchen counters and stove top taken care of. I'll do those Saturday after 'linner'.

I ordered some more GoPo® from Amazon, Jet.com did not have any available, and provided my next camp's Post Office General Delivery as a shipping address. I have forwarded mail from my UPS Store waiting for me there now so I know the address is good. Received an email notice from Amazon that UPS could not deliver. This is part of our Chat conversation.

Me:Initial Question: UPS failed to deliver ORDER # 112-1862868-2030640. There is nothing wrong with the address it is a problem with Amazon, UPS and USPS. What do I now need to do to get my Order delivered?
Rahul(Amazon): Hi Edward , I'm sorry to learn about this. Let me check this out for you. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, you've experienced. As I have checked with the carrier details , it seems like there is some issue from the carrier's end. So I'm contacting the carrier regarding this and to arrange a redelivery for this order. May I place you on hold for 2 minutes while I look in to this?
Me:Yes
Rahul: Thank you for your time and patience. As I have contacted the carrier regarding and discussed the issue with them that there is no issue with the shipping address and requested them to arrange a redelivery for this order on prior basis. So a redelivery has been arranged for the order and will be attempted within next 24 hours. We’ll try to do whatever possible to make sure this is taken care of.
Me: This is a United States Post Office which is a problem for Amazon, UPS and USPS; there is no consistent policy at any of those three organizations.
Rahul: Edward , There is no need to worry. We will try our best to make sure that it will get delivered to you as soon as possible as I have updated the carrier regarding the same. The carrier team have escalated the case and will work on it.

What do you think my chances are to receive the package today? Rahul, is a popular male name in India that has a variety of meanings. The earliest meaning found is "conqueror of all miseries". Do you think I have that working on my behalf?

30 June
Enchanted Trails RV Park
Albuquerque, NM
no pic

Finished Road Trip number three yesterday. I needed to get next month's Will Rogers weekly articles prepared which took precedence over other stuff. Just made a tenative start on number four which is also very long and will require a few days to complete.

A good part of today was spent at the range with the Los Lunas Gun Club. Got in some range time, certainly not competitive, shooting in their monthly Match. I'll have results by tomorrow - maybe. It is not going to surprise me, or disappoint me, to see that I am dead last but I would like to see some improvement in my accuracy.

I think I did shoot better but for what improvement I had in accuracy I lost points because of "procedural violations". Doing stuff that violates procedures that I didn't know existed much less know that what I was doing was wrong.

I am also wore out from all the standing and the heat. I know Patches will want to go walk in a hour or two but I'm not ready for it now. I do need to walk up to the Park office and pay for my electric usage. If I make it that far maybe we can do our usual 1.5 miles for the afternoon.

On the road tomorrow so my posting will be later in the day. Maybe I'll have something to say.