Peregrinating
2014

August

1 August
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

I finished moving all the pictures for Bulgaria and Ecuador yesterday afternoon. Not many for Reno 1999 so I got that done today and started on Japan. I think I might finish Japan tomorrow then Vietnam and Reno/Sparks 2001 will take a couple of days. The Journals on the left side of my Site Map will then be finished with some minor tweaks to Peregrinating. The Trips, the right side of the Site Map, will not be so easy - a lot of pictures over there.

Yesterday our afternoon walk got rained out. Then when it stopped I didn't feel much like walking and Patches was willing to let it slide with the VERY short walk we did before getting rained on and rushing back to Desperado. We didn't get out of the Park which was a good thing or we would have been soaked by the short shower or the heavy rain that followed after just enough of a pause to sucker someone into walking. The official weather guy that does the measuring said that we got 0.50" which I think is about right. The most of any storm so far.

We did a slightly shorter route this morning and saw a lot of standing water. Stayed on pavement or sidewalks because the ground was very soggy. Could see a lot of mud on the road where vehicles had come out of dirt roads onto the pavement.

Left for a breakfast cooked by someone else which I got at Don Fernando Restaurant which is attached to the Hotel of the same name. They provide meals for hotel guests mostly it appears and although they open at 7:00am they do not get much business in the early hours. I had a Denver Omelet that was fair with good hash browns. You do your own toast, white or wheat, and get your own coffee which was drinkable but nothing great (made myself a good cup when I got home).

Moved off to Smith's to pick up groceries once again. They promptly gave me the Dial soap that I payed for last week and did not get it home. We then moved on towards home but stopped again at Gil's Barber Shop where I got my hair cut. The most expensive cut that I have had since Gunnison, CO last year. Hair cuts in tourist towns are not the thing to do.

Nothing special for my 'linners' this week. Picked up some turkey and Swiss cheese at the Deli for sandwiches to go with my salad and yogurt dessert. This week the salad is kale, red onion, gray squash, tomato and a sprinkle of cheese dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Dessert is honey vanilla Greek yogurt, walnuts and blueberries. The choice of affordable nuts was very slim these past two weeks. The store was doing a lot of stocking this morning, I hope I have a selection next week.

Finished reading the latest book which was so much better than the one previously. I know that I'll want to read more by this author. I'll get a review posted sometime during this weekend. Started another book today that I can tell I'm going to like.

I have not copied any quotes from the article but strongly recommend reading The West's Reckless Rush Towards War With Russia by Chris Martenson at Peak Prosperity or Zero Hedge. He and Paul Craig Roberts are of the same belief that the current Administration is trying to start a war with Russia. However, I think President Obama wants Europe to do the heavy lifting while Obama 'holds their coat'.

2 August
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

More rain yesterday in the late afternoon and early evening. It was not a thunderstorm as in the past but a gentle rain that added 0.20" to the total for this monsoon season. The forecast includes a reduced chance of rain during the next week and then clear and hotter just before I leave. The weather guessers at my next camp are also predicting clear and hotter than it has been here this past week.

I finished moving all the pictures to the Japan Journals today and made a start on Vietnam. Probably finish that tomorrow and maybe get started on Reno/Sparks. It is a lot of work but I think I'm making good progress so far.

The Bureau of Labor released their non-farm job numbers for July yesterday that showed an increase of 209,000 jobs. The lame stream media is caught up in the Israel-Gaza and Ukraine-Russia sagas and did not pay much attention. When they did the focus was on the 6 months of over 200,000 jobs added each month which is proof that President Obama's policies are working.

You need to dig deep in obscure articles to find any reporting that the Current Employment Statistics (CES) Net Birth/Death Model adjustment added 80,000 jobs for the month. Without the CES adjustment there was not one month in the past 6 that exceed 200,000 jobs but that is not the spin the media wants to put on the story.

If you look at the Household Data for July the number of Employed increased by 131,000 which is the third consecutive monthly increase, a trend, and good News. The media is much quieter this month in their report on the all important Unemployment Rate because it increased to 6.2%. There was a 197,000 increase in Unemployed and also an increase of 119,000 in the Not in the Labor Force. These two increases are what moved the Unemployment Rate back up slightly which the media would prefer to ignore. They are not saying much about the Participation Rate which moved up to 62.9%, any increase is good News but the media does not understand that very well.

The average earnings remained unchanged at $24.45 an hour, while the average workweek also remained at 34.5 hours. As I said about the prior two months these are not employment numbers that I think point to a strong economy and they did not stop the bleeding in the stock market that occurred this past week.

If Nuclear War Doesn't Exterminate Us Ebola Virus Might by Paul Craig Roberts is more about President Obama's push for war against Russia than Ebola. He clearly point out the dangers of bringing Ebola victims to Atlanta for treatment in the article but it was what he wrote about the President's "diplomacy" that I found most interesting.

What Obama meant in his White House Press Conference today (August 1) when he said that Putin should use diplomacy'which Putin has been using to no effect'is that Putin should hand Crimea, over the objection of Crimeans and the Russian people, to Washington's puppet government in Kiev so that Washington can evict Russia from its warm weather port and access to the Mediterranean Sea, thus making redundant Russia's naval base at Tartus, Syria. Obama also wants Putin to send into the separatist areas of Ukraine, areas that traditionally were part of Russia, Russian military forces to subdue the breakaway territories for Washington's puppet government in Kiev. This is Washington's 'diplomatic' position. Only a totally demented person could regard Obama's position as realistic.

3 August
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

It was a pleasant 48° this morning but there was a breeze blowing (the weather gurus claim it was calm) and the humidity was high. I felt cold with just my wind breaker and a T-shirt. Patches was loving it!

I finished moving the Vietnam and Reno/Sparks pictures. I got started on Peregrinating today but probably not finish. I don't need to move any pictures on those pages but want to change the coding on some of them to match the way I am coding them now.

That is keeping me busy along with my usual blog, News and novel reading. I need to start working on the Will Rogers weekly article links soon also. That may take away some time that I'm going to need to work on moving all the pictures on the Trip side of my Site Map. As I said, this picture moving project will keep me out of trouble. I am glad that I finally got motivated enough to do it.

This is the first book by Lawrence Sanders that I have read and his second in the Delany Series (although the Customer reviewer thought it was the 1st - probably because of the title). The Customer review claims there were 900+ pages but the reprint paperback that I read was 630 pages. Some reviewers complain that is too long but I enjoy long books and seek them out. He died in 1998 but left a large number of novels that I will be looking to trade for.

I must admit that when I found out this book had been originally published in 1973, I was surprised that I would stick with it to the end of its 900+ pages. To me it started a bit slow, with about 100 pages being spent on character development of a person I did not know was the good guy or the bad guy. I almost stopped there but stuck with it until the murders began and the main character, police Captain, Delany was introduced, and thus the story took off. Pretty kinky killer and at times I thought that the Capt was going over to the dark side. All-in-all the story was interesting enough that I will probably read the second book in this series in the near future.- Customer Review at goodreads.com

Paul Craig Roberts has written a number of articles that claim the Administration has lied about Ukraine. He is not alone in making that assertion. Mike Whitney has written a long article, The Unanswered Questions of MH17, that raises many of the same questions and points out the same Administration lies as has Mr. Roberts. He begins the article with a quote 'Mendaci neque quum vera dicit creditor.' Cicero ('A liar is not to be believed even when he speaks the truth.') I have copied his closing paragraphs that tells why they are lying.

To get a handle on what's really going on, we have to understand that Ukraine is not just another bloody afterthought like Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria, none of which would dramatically impact the US's role as the world's only superpower. Ukraine is different. Ukraine is an essential part of Washington's plan to pivot to Asia. If Washington is unable to achieve its objectives in Ukraine ' create a chokepoint for vital resources flowing from Russia to the EU, establish NATO bases in the heart of Eurasia, and drive a wedge between Moscow and Brussels ' then the plan to maintain US global hegemony for the next century will fail. And if the plan fails, then China will gradually become the world's biggest and most powerful economy, economic ties between Moscow and Europe grow stronger, and the US will slide into irreversible decline. Get the picture?
This is the scenario that Washington wants to avoid at all cost. That's why the anti-Russia hysteria in the media has been so ferocious and unrelenting. That's why the State Department assisted in the coup d''tat that toppled the Ukrainian government and triggered the crisis. And that's why ruling elites of all stripes have thrown their support behind a policy that recklessly pits one nuclear-armed adversary against another.

4 August
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

Officially there was no rain in Taos yesterday. However, just about sundown I had a good steady rain fall on Desperado's roof for about 30 minutes. No lightning and thunder just a good steady rain. Lots of standing water and muddy ground again this morning for it to have not rained so I was not dreaming although I admit I was in bed. We the got another good shower just before I posted for today.

I finished changing the coding on some of the pictures in Peregrinating yesterday. It was much easier done than moving pictures from a 'picture' page to a Journal page. I'll start working on Teardrop Road Trips today but that is moving pictures again so I will not get them all done but maybe by tomorrow.

I made a start on the Will Rogers weekly article links for October also today. Maybe I can alternate working on them and moving pictures to keep from becoming fixated on one or the other. Didn't do much of anything else; walks, blog reads, News reads and novel read. Doing a lot of sitting while on the computer and not as much couch time with book and Patches. Not Good!

Do you remember my writing about the change in how GDP was to be computed? Expenditures for research and development (R&D) and for entertainment, literary, and artistic originals providing long-lasting service to the businesses, nonprofit institutions, and government agencies that use them were added to GDP starting in July i.e. 3rd quarter 2013.

It was estimated that this change would add 3% to annual GDP. So, if there is a problem with lagging growth change how you measure it - simple. Well, the Administration is at it again. President Obama promised to increase manufacturing jobs and exports and it has not happened therefore the way they are measured needs to be changed. Paul Craig Roberts describes what is being done in his article Defining Away Economic Failure, a portion of which I have copied.

The American corporate practice of offshoring manufacturing has made it impossible for the Obama regime to keep its promises of creating manufacturing jobs and exports. Unable to create real jobs and real exports, the US government has proposed to create virtual jobs and virtual exports made by 'factoryless goods producers.' In order to keep his promise of doubling the growth of US exports, the Obama regime wants to redefine foreign output as US output.
A 'factoryless goods producer' is a newly invented statistical category. It is a company like Nike or Apple that outsources the production of its products to foreign companies. The Obama regime is proposing to redefine companies such as Apple that own a brand name or a product design as manufacturing companies even though the companies do not manufacture.
In other words, whether or not a US company is a manufacturer does not depend on its activity, but on its ownership of a brand name made for the company by a foreign manufacturer. For example, Apple iPhones made in China and sold in Europe would be reported as US exports of manufactured goods, and iPhones sold in the US would no longer be classified as imports but as US manufacturing output. Apple's non-manufacturing employees would be transformed into manufacturing employment.
Clearly, the purpose of this statistical deception is to inflate the number of US manufacturing jobs, US manufacturing output, and US exports and to convert imports into domestic production. It is a scheme that eliminates the large US trade deficit by redefinition.

5 August
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

The shower that we got as I was posting yesterday was light and short lived. But our afternoon walk got rained out by a harder rain that lasted over an hour. I took Patches for a short potty walk when it finally quit. Officially it did not rain - Huh?

I finished moving pictures for all the Teardrop Road Trips today and have started working on Bicycling Trips. This will take me some time. There are almost as many pictures in Bicycling as there were for all the Journals on the left side of the Site Map. Maybe get them moved by this week end, I have a lot of other things I need to do on Thursday and then get ready to leave on Sunday.

That is about all I have been doing today - moving pictures. I did read my Daily blogs, quickly checked the News and have had a little time on the couch. But, it has mostly been - moving pictures.

I have copied the opening paragraphs of Obama and Kerry behind one of most strategic mistakes in military history by Steven Emerson that was written for FoxNews.com. I disagree with Mr. Emerson that this was a "mistake". I think it is President Obama's policy. He supports Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and is doing what he can to keep Israel from crushing them.

In fairness to Mr. Emerson he does go on to describe how this Administration has embraced the Muslim Brotherhood and rightly describes them as "the godfather of all Sunni terrorist groups". He then goes on to say that the historic mistake the Administration made was in its approach to the Muslim Brotherhood. But, even that was not a "mistake" in my opinion for the reasons that I have written about in the past - President Obama was raised in a Sunni household.

The obsession by the Obama-Kerry administration with imposing a cease-fire on the warring parties in the Hamas-Israel war will go down in history as one of the most strategic mistakes in military history.
Here is a fact the administration deliberately and maliciously ignored: In the history of modern warfare, no terrorist group has ever honored a cease-fire. Hamas has broken every cease-fire it ever said it would honor. Every single one.

6 August
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

Yesterday was the first day in about a week that we did not get some rain here at Desperado. It is forecast to be hotter today, 86°, and then in the mid-80s for the few days that I have remaining in Taos. My next monthly camp to be about 5° hotter but not much chance of rain.

I got the first two Bicycling Trip pictures moved yesterday. The first one was very easy - no pictures. The second one not so easy; I needed to do some re-coding above and beyond just the move coding that all the other moves have required. The third trip is like that also but now that I know what I need to do it should be a little easier.

I also finished the Coonts novel that I have been reading. I'll try and get a review of that posted in a day or two.

I also made up my 3x5 route cards for the two days that it is going to take me to reach my next camp. Selected possible restaurants for breakfast and a possible gas station where I'm going to overnight. I have also talked to the Park office here about my electric charges and arranged to get a credit against my Credit Card that was charged an electric deposit. I'll be leaving early in the morning and do not want to wait for the office to open.

There has been a lot of News coverage about the civilians that have been killed in Gaza. Has anyone, other than myself, noticed the absence of News reports of the number killed by ISIS in Iraq? There have been scattered News stories about executions and Christians being driven from Mosul. But, no daily body count and most certainly no condemnation by President Obama or Secretary of State Kerry, who served in Vietnam. They have both expressed great horror over what Israel is doing in Gaza but have remained relatively silent about the barbarism of the ISIS. Might it be because the ISIS are Sunni and they are killing Shia and Christians?

7 August
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

I have had a Casita on my west side for the past two days. Yesterday afternoon there was another one park on my east side. When this happened before, ie I became a Casita Sandwich, the tow vehicles were both white. This time they are both gray/silver, the New Black in vehicle color. I can tell, just by looking at them, that those Casitas are harder to tow with the gray/silver versus white tow vehicles. But it is strange that the tow vehicles come in matching colors.

A busy day for me and a stressful one for Patches. When I leave her alone in Desperado she always has plenty of water but I don't think she drinks until I return. She had to wait for almost two hours at one time today and the first thing she did after greeting me was go get a drink.

When we finished our morning walk I dumped holding tanks and filled the fresh water one. We then went to Toribios South where I had Huevos a la Mexicana with potatoes and beans plus the best coffee that I have had in Taos. The breakfast menu is rather limited but what I had was very good. I have been disappointed with my breakfast choices here in Taos and regret that I did not go to Toribios first. It is the one that I would like to go back to. Maybe next time?

I then went to my dental appointment at Taos Dental Group where Rachel, the hygienist, did a great job getting rid of the stain that the Chlorhexidine Gluconate Oral Rinse left on my teeth. They looked terrible but she said it was probably the best thing for me after the tooth extraction. I don't know when/if I will get back here for another cleaning but she was the best that I have had since leaving Reno where Shannon did a great job.

I then went to Friends of the Taos Library which was closed for remodeling. This was after I had a hell of I time getting into the Library parking lot and getting parked because of road construction. I am now running short on reading material. I don't have enough un-read books remaining to last me for another month and have little confidence that I will be able to trade at my next camp. I will soon find out.

Final stop was at Smith's for groceries and fill up with gas. As soon as I got backed into my space in the Park I started a pot of Frey's Special Chili. That will be served over a pork tamale for my 'linners' this next week. It was almost 1:00pm before I got it in the Thermal Cooker so I will not have any today but after cooking for 24 hours I'll have some tomorrow.

This was the first novel that Coonts had published and the first in his Jake Grafton Series. I read the 9th in that series America and reviewed it on 8 July 2014. Coonts flew an A-6 Intruder medium attack plane during the Vietnam War, where he served on two combat cruises aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) so much of this first novel is based on his experiences. Air Warriors by Waller that I read in April of this year gave me a leg up on understanding a lot of the carrier launch and landing procedures but Coonts does a good job in describing them without getting bogged down in jargon. I enjoyed the book and the Weekly has provided a good review. I'll look for more in the Gafton Series and other Coonts books.

With this well-crafted first novel, the publishers of The Hunt for Red October again demonstrate a sure eye for picking winners in the thriller genre. Jake Grafton is an A-6 Intruder pilot during the Vietnam War who flies his bomber on sorties past enemy flak and SAM missiles, and then must maneuver his plane, often at night, onto the relatively small deck of an aircraft carrier. Former Navy flyer Coonts gives an excellent sense of the complexities of modern air raids and how nerve-wracking it is, even for the best airmen, to technically solve sudden problems over and over, knowing that even a twist of fate a peasant wildly firing a rifle from a field could wipe out the crew. Grafton alternates between remorse over the fate of his unseen Vietnamese victims on the ground and a gung-ho "let's win this war" sentiment that lashes at both policymakers who select less-than-important targets for the dangerous missions and advocates for peace back in the States. The action, though, is realistically detailed and absorbing.- Publishers Weekly

I'm way behind schedule reading Daily blogs and the News today. I did finish Bicycle trips three and four yesterday but I doubt that I get any pictures moved today. Sort of burnt out on that project, think I'll get some work done on the Will Rogers links to give myself a break.

A bit of trivium for any "trivia buffs" out there: The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has tallied 4,889 federal crimes in the U. S. Code.

8 August
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

We had a very clear, cloud free sky this morning. That has not been true for the past week or so. I expect there to be clouds to build up again this afternoon but it was nice to see no overcast this morning.

Got started doing housework this morning. Eased into it by cleaning the toilet and bath sink after my first cup of coffee. Then had that second cup before vacuuming the bath and kitchen floors and washing them down. I don't usually have a third cup but thought it necessary before vacuuming the living room carpet and washing down the dash. That was enough. Patches's slobber smeared window can wait for her to clean it. HA

I'm almost out of Arbuckles' Ariosa and bought some Folgers Black Silk yesterday that I will have to start using in a couple of days. I'll get an order placed for Arbuckles' as soon as I reach my new camp and find out if I can have it delivered to the Park or need to use Post Office General Delivery.

No picture moving. Have been catching up on the News and my Weekly blogs more than anything else. Did some work on the Will Rogers links today but have a lot left to do. I probably will not get back to the picture moving project until I'm at my new camp. The break from it should help.

I said when I first arrived at this Park and this space that it was worth a picture and I then forgot all about taking any. I was thinking about my leaving and remembered to do so yesterday. Posting them today for your viewing pleasure.
If you open the left picture in a new tab, to make it bigger, and look closely you might see Patches in the Center of Desperado. She is giving me her "What is that fool doing now look".

President Obama picks and chooses the humanitarian crises he wants to get involved in on how well they are going to play out in domestic politics. He is full of compassion for the illegal immigrants that are flooding into the United States but just now discovered that there are 40,000 Christian Yazidi refugees in the Sinjar Mountains. He was willing to let Islam State forces massacre them until they became a cause c'l'bre for a world wide media that included pictures. He was then forced to act because he just couldn't afford to be seen as the guy who shot eighteen holes while genocide was conducted on-camera.

A humanitarian crises has not stopped him from abandoning South Sudan as he abandoned Iraq and Afghanistan when their Presidents/Prime Ministers would not follow United States orders. He has been warned about the impending genocide of the Yazidi for months and did nothing. Why? Because he has made U.S. military help for Iraq's beleaguered government contingent on fundamental changes by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The Prime Minister has refused and President Obama did nothing until the media has made it too hot for him to ignore.

This quote was taken from As a Man-Made Famine Looms, Christmas Comes Early to South Sudan by Nick Turse. In it he also says "From Iraq to Afghanistan, American-style nation building has crumbled, exposing the limits of American power. Before things are over in South Sudan, Washington's great experiment in Africa may prove to be the most disastrous effort of all."

As John Kerry, then-chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, put it in 2012, the United States 'helped midwife the birth' of South Sudan. The choice of words may have been cringe-worthy, but hardly divorced from reality. For more than 20 years, a bipartisan coalition in Washington and beyond championed rebel forces here. As the new nation broke away from Sudan, after decades of bloody civil war, the U.S. poured in billions of dollars in aid, including hundreds of millions of dollars of military and security assistance, and sent military instructors to train the country's armed forces and advisers to mentor government officials.
It would be Washington's major nation-building effort in Africa, a new country destined to join Iraq and Afghanistan as a regional bulwark of democracy and a shining example of American know-how. On South Sudan's independence day, July 9, 2011, President Obama hailed the moment as a 'time of hope' and pledged U.S. partnership to the new land, emphasizing security and development. There's precious little evidence of either of these at the U.N. camps and even less in vast areas of the countryside now teetering on the edge of a catastrophic famine.
Since a civil war broke out in December 2013, at least 10,000 South Sudanese have been killed, untold numbers of women and girls have been victims of sexual violence, and atrocities have been committed by all parties to the conflict. As a result, in the eyes of the United Nations, in a world of roiling strife ' civil wars, mass killings, hunger, and conflicts from Iraq to Gaza, Ukraine to Libya ' South Sudan is, along with the Central African Republic and Syria, one of just three 'L3 emergencies,' the world's most severe, large-scale humanitarian crises. The country has also just displaced Somalia ' for six years running the archetypal failed state ' atop the Fund for Peace's 178-nation list of the world's most fragile nations.

9 August
Taos Valley RV Park
Taos, NM

I got almost all my chores taken care of yesterday. I have to wipe down the stove top and kitchen counter tops after 'linner' and I'm then ready to leave here tomorrow morning.

Got caught up with Weekly blogs. Did some work on the Will Rogers links and will do some more today. I'm trying to do not much more than that today, a do as little as possible kind of day in anticipation of a couple days driving.

In Who Owns the Future? Pat Buchanan cites a portion of the John Adams quote that I have included below. He also says "Is that our future? Is Western democracy approaching the end of its tether, with the seeming success of authoritarian capitalism in China and Russia?"

President Obama seems to think that the United States must be transformed in the European pattern . But Buchanan also says "Eurocrats bewail what is happening, but, inhibited by secularist ideology, fail to understand it. They believe in economism, rule by scholarly global elites, and recoil at the resurgence of nationalism and populism." So while the U. S. is transforming to a European model the model is being transformed so maybe Adams was right - democracy never last long.

I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never. - John Adams, letter to John Taylor (15 April 1814).

10 August
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

We did our usual morning walk and I then unplugged from electric and we were on the road again soon after 6:30. I had picked a restaurant in Abiquiu, NM where I wanted to stop and have breakfast. Never saw it, or any other, as I drove through the "town". There is not much there that I saw other than a few houses scattered through the canyon.

I therefor continued on knowing that there was not much chance of finding a restaurant until Cuba, NM. When I got there I went past one open restaurant on the left side of the street and when I saw another one that was open I pulled in. Went to the front door and found it lock, hours of operation 8:00am seven days of the week, clock on the wall showing a little after 9:00am. As I was walking back to Desperado a young girl came up to me and said that they did not have the key to the door but the owner was on his way. I said "I'm not waiting" and drove back to, Presciliano's Restaurant, the restaurant I had passed.

I was the only customer and received my Huevos con Chorizo with potatoes and a tortilla promptly. Then before I could finish eating it the restaurant almost completely filled up. I had to wait longer to pay my check than to served and when I told the waitress that she needed some help she said that it was on the way but church had finished early today.

Arrived at the Bar S RV Park a few minutes after noon to find that the office was closed until 1:30pm. There was a note on the door to park in Raw 2 and that is what I did. Got hooked up to electric and started preparing my 'linner' salad and dessert. Also got a good Internet/Verizon connection and started writing up my posting for the day.

Total distance today was 234 miles on this route: Estes Es Rd, NM68, NM74, US84, NM96, US550, NM197, Navajo Rd 9, NM509, NM605, Juniper & Pinon Dr.

The most scenic part of the day was while on NM96 but it is twisty with a lot of up and down which requires you to drive it and not do much windshield tourism.

Drove past the Peabody Lee Ranch Coal Mine that is about 35 miles north east of Milan/Grants. The 240 workers at the mine shipped nearly 6 million tons of coal last year, recovering coal from 26 seams that lace a 170-million-ton reserve from the San Juan Basin.

Two postings by John Hayward at Human Events in the past few days that discuss what could well be called Iraq III. I have copied only a portion of each one. The President promptly gave a speech in which he blamed "poor intelligence" for his delay in taking action. If he wants to get "better" intelligence then hanging the intelligence community out to dry is not the way to get it. I would not be surprised when he gets some bogus intel in the future from some of those that he has pissed off.

Plight of the Yazidis
If wishes were horses, the Yazidi people would ride off the mountains they've been forced into by the largest, richest, best-armed terror state in history, which formed on Barack Obama's watch. No wonder the White House has been nervously silent about the horror taking place, until late in the game. This isn't something any Obama supporter wants to talk about. And much as the idiotic Obama State Department loves to prattle on about 'smart power' and throw its weight against Israel, there's nobody at ISIS waiting around to take a phone call from the Administration, or respond to one of its Twitter hashtags.

Back into Iraq
Barack Obama was wrong about everything. He was dead wrong about the condition of the Iraqi military, the threat posed by the ISIS terrorists he once held in contempt, the 'decimation' of al-Qaeda following the death of Osama bin Laden (which only briefly demoralized them), and the possibility of containing the new terror state once Mosul fell to the invaders. He was wrong to say 'no' when the Iraqi government begged him for air support to halt the initial wave of invaders from Syria. He was wrong about how a small group of special-forces troops could be sent in to stabilize the situation' there's nothing about Iraq that Obama got right. And he had to ignore a lot of people who knew what they were talking about to get everything this wrong.

11 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

Yesterday was productive. I drove to Milan, NM, got my daily posting done on my schedule, read Daily blogs and had my 'linner'. Patches and I did our afternoon walk a few minutes later than usual but we did our usual total miles for the day. I also scouted a route that we did this morning. Then the biggie, I finished getting the October Will Rogers links ready. Now it is time to start reading Monthly blogs which will go quicker since I moved some to Weekly.

The Bar S RV Park is nothing to get very excited about. All gravel with only a few trees along the north and south perimeter. The spaces are not very large and closer together than I like them. But, the elevation here would be good for a month stop starting mid-May. It is something I will file away in my possible stay mental file.

We did a loop walk this morning that I had picked out on Google Maps. The unknown about the route was a pedestrian bridge over I-40 that I could not tell if it was open or not. The approaches to the bridge were not complete but I found that it was open. I immediately unhooked from electric when we finished our walk and drove a couple blocks to Kiva Café.

This is across the street from Love's where I planned on filling up with gas after breakfast. I had their Breakfast Burrito with sausage and red but not wrapped. The coffee was good the burrito filling not so good, I think it was the red. They gave me plenty of it and it was not so bad that I didn't eat it all.

Filled up with gas (got just over 10mpg on the last tank - surprised) and was on the road for a relatively short day by 7:30. Total of 176 miles on this route: Pinion, Juniper, Willow Dr, Horizon Blvd, NM122 (Route 66), NM53, AZ61, US191, US180, AZ61, AZ180A, County 5020 & AZ277/Snowflake Blvd.

Because of the shorter distance and AZ being on Arizona Time I arrived a little after 10:00am.

Got backed into a rather tight space that would not have been nearly as bad IF I didn't have the dumpster across the road in front of me. I did 3-4 GOAL tries at it and then when I thought I had it where I wanted it I found that I could not open the bay door. I needed about one more inch so moved Desperado once again. By the time I leave here I'll be able to back into this space easily but today was not the day.

Checked the Park book exchange library and although it is not very large I was able to trade 8 books. I might be able to trade those that I read while I'm here but the choices have been narrowed down a lot. Maybe someone else will trade before my month is over?

Jason Lewis, a talk show host, Goes Galt; quits halfway through his show while on the air. This was his closing monologue.

All over the continent of Europe there are castles. Castles that children are taught to admire. But these monuments are not shrines to liberty but are a stark reminder of an oppressive past that we are quickly forgetting. These elaborate fortresses were built to honor the riches of royalty. Such wealth was not derived from the cooperation of capitalism but from the conquest of collectivism. It was stolen through taxes and fees collected from the serfs. It was not earned.
We have apparently learned little from history for today we have our own royalty dressed up in the robes of compassion. A false altruism that merely enables the mob and crushes the individual. We have erected a shrine called the welfare state and as a result, we now resemble a nation with more takers than makers. Crony capitalists who preach the virtue of community service while acting like economic parasites who live off the system. Indeed the real entrepreneurs are no longer valued. Only the political ones who loathe them. Profit is a dirty word while one's obligation to society regulates the most productive to second class status. We are it seems endlessly told to live for others. Endlessly told. Taxes are patriotic. We are told to apologize for our own existence. The pursuit of happiness has been replaced by the mandate of self sacrifice. This is not freedom, it is tyranny.
And so we, I, you are faced with a choice. The choice that all people in all times must make: to fund the beast or to starve the beast. To host the parasite or walk away. To participate in the system that punishes the value of your own existence or boycott that system.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have now chosen the latter. They can now feed off one another.
I quit.

12 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

A lot of days over 90° here in July and 6 of the first 10 days in August were also over 90. That makes me feel cooler just to look it up. I thought it was hot yesterday but the clouds rolled in and it cooled down to 76° with a slight breeze when we did our afternoon walk. The 10 day forecast has it cooler thru Friday but then back up to near 90 after that.

Our morning walk was a loop to the south then east along the base of "Temple Hill". This is the hill where the Snowflake Arizona (LDS) Temple was built and dedicated in 2002. There are only two Temples in Arizona with the other one in Mesa, AZ which was recently named "The Most Conservative City in America". I did not take any pictures; there are hundreds, if not thousands, available on the web that show it much better than my efforts would have produced.

Finished one of the two Baldacci novels that I picked up in Chama. I will probably start the other one before I leave here but have two other books that I'm going to read first. I'll get a review posted in a day or so and plan on trading this completed one for a Tami Hoag that I saw yesterday but was not sure if I had read it before or not. The memory is not what it once was or perhaps I'm getting too long of a read books list.

A posting at zerohedge.com De-Dollarization Accelerates - China/Russia Complete Currency Swap Agreement reports what the United States lame stream media will not. This acceleration in de-dollarization is a bit of tit-for-tat in answer to President Obama's sanctions.

There must be someone in his Administration that is smart enough to know what the outcome of this is going to be. The thing that I don't know is will Obama listen to them and if so does he care. He will be long gone from office before the effects of the de-dollarization are felt and it may be that this is just another part of his transforming America.

The last 3 months have seen Russia's "de-dollarization" plans accelerate. First Gazprom clients shift to Euros and Renminbi, then the UK signs currency swap agreements with China, then NATO ally Turkey cuts ties and mulls de-dollarization, Switzerland jumps in the currency swap agreements, and BRICS create their own non-US-based funding vehicle, and then finally this week, Russia's oligarchs have shifted cash holdings to Hong Kong. But this week, as RT reports, Russian and Chinese central banks have agreed a draft currency swap agreement, which will allow them to increase trade in domestic currencies and cut the dependence on the US dollar in bilateral payments. '"The agreement will stimulate further development of direct trade in yuan and rubles on the domestic foreign exchange markets of Russia and China," the Russian regulator said.

13 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

We had some light rain showers yesterday starting around noon but it was clearing somewhat when we did our afternoon walk. We lucked out. It was not long after we got back to Desperado that a steady rain began that lasted until early this morning for a total of 0.63".

I made a mistake in selecting a route to walk this morning after all that rain and there were a couple of big muddy puddles that we had to find a way around. Both of us remained relatively unsoiled and it looks like it will dry out in a day or two if there is no more rain. There is a 50% chance today and 60% chance tomorrow then clear and hotter is in the forecast.

This Park has a lot of long term residents, one of them is a Snowflake police officer, with a scattering of park models. There has not been another short stay arrive since I have been here nor has one left - not that I have seen arrive or depart. Have had a few friendly waves and a "welcome to the Park" from one fellow in passing.

It is NOT a tourist Park and that is fine with me, I had plenty of tourist coming and going in Taos. I have a neighbor next door to the south but there is an empty space on my north side. It is very quiet although there is a street directly behind me, the west side, that gets some traffic. My selective hearing tunes most of that traffic noise out.

The Atlantic Axis and the Making of a War in Ukraine by Christof Lehmann for New Eastern Outlook is a very good article, although long, that provides a thought provoking analysis of how the crisis in Syria and Ukraine have come about. Paul Craig Roberts, among others, has written his thoughts along these same lines. This is only a very short quote from the article but is at the heart of the issue.

An additional dimension that was overlooked by many, if not most analysts, was that the US/UK never would allow Russian ' continental European relations to be dominated by an interdependence that had some 50 percent of continental Europe's energy security at its heart. To explain that point, allow me to refer to a conversation the author has had with a top-NATO admiral from a northern European country during a day of sailing on a sailing yacht in the early 1980s. Discussing European security issues, out of the reach of curious ears and microphones he said that (paraphrased):

American colleagues at the Pentagon told me, unequivocally, that the US and UK never would allow European ' Soviet relations to develop to such a degree that they would challenge the US/UK's political, economic or military primacy and hegemony on the European continent. Such a development will be prevented by all necessary means, if necessary by provoking a war in central Europe.

So the Obama administration is going to do whatever it thinks is necessary to stop further EU-Russia economic integration and to preserve the petrodollar system. That system originated in 1974 when President Richard Nixon persuaded OPEC members to denominate their oil exclusively in dollars, and to recycle their surplus oil proceeds into U.S. Treasuries. The arrangement turned out to be a huge windfall for the US, which rakes in more than $1 billion per day via the process. This, in turn, allows the US to over-consume and run hefty deficits. Other nations must stockpile dollars to purchase the energy that runs their machinery, heats their homes and fuels their vehicles. Meanwhile, the US can breezily exchange paper currency, which it can print at no-expense to itself, for valuable imported goods that cost dearly in terms of labor and materials. These dollars then go into purchasing oil or natural gas, the profits of which are then recycled back into USTs [United States Treasuries] or other dollar-denominated assets such as U.S. stocks, bonds, real estate, or ETFs. This is the virtuous circle that keeps the US in the top spot.
As one critic put it: 'World trade is now a game in which the US produces dollars and the rest of the world produces things that dollars can buy.'
Washington thinks 'modern warfare' involves covert support for proxy armies comprised of Neo Nazis and Islamic extremists. Moscow thinks modern warfare means undermining the enemy's ability to wage war through sustained attacks on it's currency, its institutions, its bond market, and its ability to convince its allies that it is a responsible steward of the global economic system.
I'll put my money on Russia.

14 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

I received a Shout from Lana yesterday that corrected my claim that there were only two LDS Temples in Arizona. A third, Gila Valley Arizona Temple, was dedicated 23 May 2010 with the fourth one, Gilbert Arizona Temple, dedicated on 2 March 2014. The Phoenix Arizona Temple is scheduled to be dedicated on 16 November 2014 which will bring the Arizona total to 5 with another in the planning stage for Tucson.

We did a slightly shorter morning walk today, more like an afternoon walk. That had us finished by 6:15 and I couldn't remember if the restaurant I had selected for for breakfast opened at 6:00 or 7:00. Waited until 6:30 before pulling the pug on the electricity and going to town.

My selection, El Cupidos Express, turned out to be a gas station quick stop with a walk up kitchen order counter. I would have turned around and left if it had not been for three of Snowflake's finest sitting and eating their breakfast. Where the police eat is a good place! I had their chorizo omelet with hash browns a tortilla and coffee. It was serve yourself coffee but the best that I have had in a long time. Speaking of coffee, I ordered more Arbuckles' when I arrived here on the 11th and one of the Park staff delivered it to my door around noon today.

Then went to Ed's Market, an IGA market, that had a lot of open space on their shelves. No kale but I talked to the girl that was putting out produce and she said she would have some for me next week. No big containers of Greek yogurt but they did have the small ones in vanilla, no honey vanilla. No dark chocolate bars in 80-90% but that is not uncommon for small markets.

There is a Bashs's only a few miles south of Ed's but I prefer to give the local small markets my patronage if I can make due with what they have. The people in the small stores are friendly and will go out of their way to help whereas the bigger chain stores not so much.

When I finally got backed into my space at at the Park (had some problems again but I'm getting there) I also had some trouble getting electricity through my surge protector. When I did get some electricity flowing I put some Country Style Ribs in the Roaster. I let them cook in there for about 1/2 hour and then brought them to a boil in the pot with chicken broth and some yellow potatoes. It will then be into the Thermal Cooker for 5-6 hours at which time I'll add some cabbage and let it all cook overnight.

I started working on moving pictures again yesterday. I did about 1/2 of the Cross Country Tour and with any luck I'll finish it today. Then have 3-4 days more work to complete the Bicycle Tours and maybe a couple of weeks to get everything done. I hope I'm through by the end of this month.

I reviewed Absolute Power on 18 December 2013 and then the first King & Maxwell Series Split Second on 23 March 2014. Then Deliver Us From Evil one of two in the Shaw Series on 4 June 2014. Now this one which is the latest in the King & Maxwell Series. The TV deal lasted for one season which I did not see, nor knew it existed. However, it seems that Baldacci, like many other successful authors is now writing for a movie or TV deals rather than a reading audience. The Customer review that I found says it better than I.

When the sixth book in an established series is entitled simply by the names of the series characters, you have to say to yourself, there must be a movie deal in here somewhere. Well, you would be wrong, it is a television deal replete with a pitch from the author to watch the show, also titled King and Maxwell.
That's my biggest beef. But there are others.
The book itself attempts to channel the Iran Contra affair in the 1980s. Two former Secret Service agents Sean King and Michelle Maxwell get involved when trying to rescue a visibly upset teenager running in the rainy and dark Washington streets with a German pistol. From there it gets really crazy to the point that the President, who has an entire government at his disposal turns to Sean King and Michelle Maxwell to make the world safe from cyber-terrorists.
Enough said. The problem is that Baldacci is too good a writer for this over the top commercialism. It can be fun, but I would wait for a sequel which isn't designed to jump start the Nielsens. - Customer Review at goodreads.com

15 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

Another thunderstorm hit at just about sundown yesterday. Not that much rain but a lot of lightning and thunder. Patches handles it reasonably well but the thunder had her off the couch and down by my chair when it got a little too close or too loud.

I did finish the Cross Country Tour picture moves yesterday and have started moving those for the Western Tour. I have been seeing this message for some time now at Yahoo! Hosting "Important Announcement: PageBuilder and Yahoo Wizard (Album Wizard, Page Wizard, Site Wizard and Starter Web Page Wizard) Shutting Down on 8/15/2014. If you are not planning on editing your website, there is no action required".

I have taken no action because I do not use PageBuilder or Yahoo Wizard to create new web pages or to edit existing pages. Today was the day that I found out if I could still do so or not. So far it seems like nothing has changed but the day is not over and I may have a problem before it is done.

I devoted most of this morning trying to download a file from the server at Yahoo! Hosting to my computer using FTP. I was finally successful in doing that. I then tried to find a way to edit that file that I had downloaded and after a couple of hours threw up my hands and admitted defeat. I will probably give it another try but I have had enough for today.

Putin, Sisi announce Russian free trade zone, industrial city in Egypt by The Cairo Post will not be a story that the US lame stream media will be reprinting. It is a good story that tells us what President Obama's support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and his Russian sanctions have created.

Anwar Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisers in 1972 and after him Hosni Mubarak continued to support US interests. President Obama has transformed that relationship by supporting Morsi over Mubarak and by not supporting el-Sisi the current elected president. Egypt is moving back to the Russian sphere of influence in the New Cold War.

In his first official visit to Moscow after being inaugurated on June 8, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi reached deals Tuesday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to create a free trade zone with Eurasian countries and a Russian industrial zone in Egypt.
As for trade between both countries, Putin said that Russia, the biggest wheat exporter to Egypt, will increase wheat exports to Egypt by at least 5 million tons.
Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov told reporters in Sochi, according to Reuters, that Egyptian shipments of potatoes, onions, garlic and oranges should increase. He added this could help compensate a potential shortage of these products following an exchange of sanctions between the EU and Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
Putin also said Russia and Egypt would expand military cooperation. Sisi during his two-day visit discussed the purchase of anti-tank missile systems, military transport helicopters and gunships and MiG-29 fighter jets, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. Last February, Sisi visited Russia when he was still defense minister to discuss weapons deals valued at $2 billion.

16 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

After our walk, breakfast, reading Daily blogs and glancing at the News I went to work on moving pictures for the Western Tour. Finished it this morning and will try and get to the Natchez Trace Tour this afternoon or evening. That will complete all the Bicycling Tours and I can begin Car Road Trips; that will not be until tomorrow or the day after. I can only take so much of this picture moving for so long.

I was also successful in my attempt to edit a file that I had downloaded from Yahoo! Hosting. I was then able to upload that edited file back to Yahoo! Hosting. If I can do it with Yahoo! Hosting then I should be able to do it with any other host provider that I change to. Having said that, I don't want to do it that way and have sent an email to the sales rep that I have been in contact with asking how do I edit files that they are hosting.

From what I have been able to read in the Web the File Management software that the potential new host uses is much like what I have been using at Yahoo! Hosting so I should be able to do the transition reasonably easy. What I do not know is there Spellchecker built into the file management. Yahoo! has it in theirs and I must have it. I tried a number of Firefox Spellchecker Add-Ons yesterday afternoon and this morning and none of them worked with WordPad. Today I found a web site where I can cut, paste, correct, cut and paste the correction which works pretty well.

This is how the Sanctions War that President Obama has declared and pressured the European Union into joining works. The US/EU imposes sanctions against Russia. Russia retaliates with sanctions on the US/EU. The EU then turns to the US for relief from the pain that the Russian sanctions are inflicting on their economy. Anyone want to guess how long this Western Sanction Coalition is going to hold together before EU countries begin to smuggle banned items into Russia?

I saw how this worked when the EU banned various food exports from Bulgaria. It didn't work. There were smugglers waiting eagerly for such an opportunity. They smuggled the banned food exports out of Bulgaria and banned, or high duty, items into Bulgaria. Free Trade at its finest!

Poland has asked the US to purchase the country's apples after Moscow banned all food imports from the EU, the US, and other countries who imposed sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
Prior to the full embargo on food exports from the West, Russia's agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor banned the import of practically all fruits and vegetables from Poland, citing a breach of food safety standards.
On Thursday [7 August 2014], the restriction on Polish imports was followed by Moscow's full ban of EU, US, Australian, Canadian, and Norwegian food exports to Russia. The ban was imposed for one year and came in response to Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

17 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

Well, I got 'er done. Finished all the Bicycling Tour picture moves yesterday. I can see an end to this project now, only a couple hundred more pictures to move and it will be behind me. Sort of a bad memory that will fade with time.

I'm doing some experimenting with the 'look' of my Home Page, the one that first opens. I am going to remove all those place name on the left margin that if clicked would take you to the first Journal page for that place. It is redundant, you can do the same thing by going to the Site Map. Speaking of Site Map, I have been cleaning that up some also as I have moved pictures. Yes, I'm on a roll!

I also stayed up just a little past my bed time to finish the Vince Flynn novel that I have been reading. I'll review it in a day or so. Hope I can trade it for something before I leave here although 11 of my 12 book library remain un-read. I'm not nearly as anxious to trade now as I was when I arrived here.

Here is a perfect example of why I need Spell Checker although it would not have caught this kind of mistake. I was not the Commenter but I certainly could have been with my poor spelling. The Reply is LOL funny!
Blog Comment: By the way, raccoons could carry rabbis. Living out there, it might be good to be immunized.
Reply Comment: Orthodox rabbis or reform?

Major General Greene is first general and highest ranking officer killed in the line of duty since the Vietnam War. He became the highest-ranking fatality in the war in Afghanistan after an Afghan military police officer opened fire on Aug. 5th, 2014. He was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery Thursday, 15 August 2014, with full military honors. The one honor that was not paid was the attendance by President Obama, he was golfing at Martha's Vineyard, nor any other White House representative. Most President's would have been in attendance at the funeral but Vice President Biden was not there either. That is one of the Vice President's primary duties - wait for the President to die and attend the funerals of others.

Victim Mentality Afflicts Black Americans by Alan Caruba in his blog Warning Signs speaks to the Fergason Riots. I have nothing to add, I think Brooker T. Washington said it as well as anyone many years ago.

Well, we now have another black riot to put in the books. This one, like the others, involve the death of a black American by a white police officer, but buried in the stories about the Ferguson, Missouri riot is the fact that there was an altercation between Michael Brown and the officer who shot him after having sustained an injury.
The response of some members of the black community in Ferguson was to vandalize and loot stores on Sunday night victimizing the owners of those stores, some of whom avoided it by standing fully armed in front of their place of business. Since then the rioting has continued through Wednesday, inflamed by the predictable presence of Al Sharpton who is famed for getting on the first plane available to get to the scene of riots and similar incidents.

There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs ' partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.? - Booker T. Washington

What actually happened in Ferguson? God only knows. Of course we are hearing from talking heads with bargain-basement IQs that a policeman, from racial motives, shot an unarmed black kid because he refused to stop walking in the street. Did it happen? Possibly. I wasn't there. But the story smells.
Reflect: Every white cop short of the orbit of Neptune knows that if he shoots a black, he faces dismemberment in the media, loss of job and pension, probable criminal charges locally by a publicity-seeking prosecutor, a well-funded civil suit that he can't afford filed by surviving family members, and trumped-up federal civil-rights charges from an attorney general who doesn't like whites.
All this because he wants to shoot a black kid for jaywalking?

18 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

I did only a little work on the picture moving project yesterday. I got involved in converting My Maps at Google Maps from their Classic to the new and improved(?) Google Maps Engine Lite. I do like the way that they appear on the web site but I found one error so far in the marker placement during the conversion, I don't know how many more there might be. There is also going to be a learning curve involved when it comes to adding a new location but that is three weeks away.

I wanted to do some edits of the new Google Maps Engine and found it to be soooo much easier than doing it in Classic Maps. I still do not like how one thing is presented now versus in Classic Maps but I'll forgive Google that for improving the edit function. I think I'm going to like Google Map Engine and will henceforth refer to it only as Google Maps.

I may go live with the new look for my Home Page in a few days. I want to add a Search Box again but so far I have not found anything that I think is going to work. I could go back to the Google Search Box that I had at one time because I have found that it was working as well as going to Google. The reason for that is Google does not send their spider bot to my web site very often so there are months that are not indexed and therefore not searched. It is that big gap that I want to fill.

I had an overnight neighbor that was driving a Tioga Montara that was probably a 2014/2015 23B (overall length 24' 4.5") that looked a lot like Desperado with better paint and graphics. I looked up the floor plan and it has a queen size bed in the right rear corner with a dinette right behind the driver seat but no living room. I would not like that, but to each their own.

Completed all the picture moves for Car Trips today. I now have 136 pictures in Other Trips to move and that will finish up this project. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. May pass through it before the end of this week. I also got current with my Weekly blogs and read a few more from the Monthly list. Not doing much but moving right along in getting it done.

Does anyone remember the temporary personnel that were sent to Vietnam to assist the French? My added emphasis. "To supervise the flow of military assistance, Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall approved the establishment of a small military assistance advisory group. Total authorized strength at the time of its activation was 128 men. The first members of the group arrived in Saigon on 3 August 1950. After the necessary organizational tasks were completed, a provisional detachment Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), Indochina-was organized on 17 September and assembled in the Saigon-Cholon area on 20 November 1950. The original structure, though temporary, provided for service representation by setting up Army, Navy, and Air Force sections within the group." - Vietnam Studies Command and Control 1950-1969 by Major General George S. Eckhardt.

When the Geneva Accords of 20 July 1954 officially ended the fighting in Indochina there were 324 advisers and other military personnel in Vietnam. Past may not be prologue and history may not repeat itself but this all happened some 60 years ago. We now have the smartest guy in the room as our President but I don't think he has read any history or if he did he did not understand what he was reading.

The very first sentence in this article contains the words that should be premonitory, "military advisers...to assess the scope of the humanitarian crisis". You send military advisers to advise how to fight a war not assess a humanitarian crisis. The military kill people and destroy things, they do not assess humanitarian crisis - that is what is so wrong with Hagel and Obama, they do not know the purpose of a military.

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the United States has sent 130 more military advisors to northern Iraq to assess the scope of the humanitarian crisis.
A US defence official said the temporary additional personnel would also develop humanitarian assistance options beyond the current airdrop effort in support of the displaced civilians trapped on Mount Sinjar.

US President Barack Obama said on Thursday [15 August 2014] the Islamist militant siege of Iraq's Mount Sinjar had been broken and most US military personnel sent to assess the situation would be pulled out of Iraq in coming days.
"We broke the ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) siege of Mount Sinjar," Obama said.
"We helped innocent people reach safety and we helped save many innocent lives. Because of these efforts we do not expect there to be an additional operation to evacuate people off the mountain and it's unlikely that we are going to need to continue humanitarian airdrops on the mountain," he said.

19 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

We avoided a thunderstorm that followed us back to Desperado yesterday afternoon when we did our walk. Didn't rain a lot, 0.09" was reported, but it acted like it was going to be a big storm. It has stayed overcast for most of the morning, cooler today with more rain starting at 9:30. The expected highs for the next 4 days are around 80° with some chance of rain then back into the mid-80s, clear and sunny.

I have finished the picture moving project. I was also hoping to resolve the issue of HTML Bookmark Links in Google Maps before changing how my Home Page looks. But after trying a number of things yesterday I asked for help in the Google Maps Help Forum. I did get a Reply, provided more information and have heard nothing more today.

In Classic Maps when a viewer clicked on Journal Page in a Map Marker pop-up, the Journal Page would appear with the bookmarked date at the very top of the page. Now in Google Maps when the pop-up is clicked the Journal Page appears but it is always at day one of that month rather than the bookmarked date. Still good that a viewer can go from the Map to my Journal but not to the date where I want it. I will probably make the change to the Home Page and hope for a fix to the Bookmark Links later.

It appears that President Obama has inserted the Federal government DOJ into what I believe to be city/state jurisdiction. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will travel to Ferguson, MO to oversee the investigation of the shooting death of Michael Brown, an African-American/Black/Negro, by Officer Darren Wilson, a White/Caucasian.

That being the situation if I were the governor of MO I would withdraw the National Guard. If I were the mayor/chief of police of Ferguson I would have the city police stand down. If the Federal government wants to get involved then let the Federal government become responsible for maintaining the peace in Ferguson, MO. President Obama should fly in and give one of his fundraising speeches to the protestors/rioters or maybe read the speech he gave in Egypt that brought peace to the Middle East.

This is the third book by Vince Flynn that I have read an is #13 in the Rapp Series, the most recently released. The first read was Term Limits, his first novel and only one that is not in the Rapp Series, which I reviewed on 5 August 2013. The second was Consent To Kill #8 in the Mitch Rapp Series that I reviewed on 2 July 2014. As I said then I assume that all of the Rapp Series are similar and I have found my assumption to be correct. Not great literature but a good entertaining read. I have copied from two Customer reviews and combined them for they express what I would if I were a gifted review writer.

I read this book with mixed feelings. Vince Flynn has been one of my favorite authors ever since he started the Mitch Rapp series. With his untimely death this past June [2013] from prostate cancer, so begins the death of Mitch Rapp in an unintended way.
I found this book a little disappointing. The plot was ok, but I hate it when a seasoned writer like Flynn makes serious technical errors in his writing.
I would think that a writer would get some authorities to read his manuscript before publishing; after all, this is not Hollywood! I don't mind it with an author creates an object in his/her fiction: however, when they talk about real life entities, they should get it right.
The cast of characters is unusually large, but I guess that's what happens over time with a popular series. Flynn developed characters in previous stories that fit a particular need, and in doing so he created "other" supporting characters for the Rapp series who we all grew to expect to show up again as the series moved along. So it is sort of a tour de force of the best characters Flynn developed over the years, working together to make for an excellent story that is easy to read. - Customer Review at goodreads.com

20 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

My Home Page new look has been up since about 5:30pm local time yesterday. No more Map Archives. Now all my new Google Maps, one for each year that I have been full timing as The Peregrinating Graybeard, appear in the left column. The Shout Box has been made bigger in the right column. Those two columns have been made a little bigger which narrowed the area for text and pictures slightly. New background.

I made a lot of changes to the Journal Pages that preceded Peregrinating. Included all pictures on the Journal Pages. They had previously been on separate picture pages that where linked to the Journal Pages. Cleaned up the appearance of the Site Map and corrected some spelling as I went along - not all errors but some.

The rain that started yesterday morning after we got back from our walk continued off and on until just before we went for our afternoon walk. We got a few drops on us but not enough to say we got wet, the official record was another 0.09".

High overcast again this morning but it broke up as the day went by. The temperature was just under 60° this morning as it has been for the past few days but with all the rain that we have been having the humidity is way up there. It hasn't bothered me much until this morning I felt like I did while east of the Rockies last summer.

We went to town again but my restaurant of choice this morning, El Rancho, did not open until 7:00 so I had a little wait. Then when I found the door open I could not get anyone to come serve me. I could hear voices from the kitchen but had to walk back there before I could get their attention.

The breakfast menu is rather limited and the Huevos con Chorizo plate come with a limited serving accompanied by a similar dab of beans. The coffee was good but I doubt that they are going to see me again.

Stopped at Ed's Market for the weeks groceries. They had kale for me this time but no firm tofu only extra firm which I guess I should be happy to get. The Greek vanilla yogurt was still only offered in the small containers but they had some which I guess I should be happy to get. No dark chocolate bars in 80-90% so I picked up a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips to go in the dessert.

They did have all the fixings for a chicken pozole. I got that started as soon as I got home. It will cook in the Thermal Cooker all night and I'll have some tomorrow. I'll finish up the Country Style Ribs, potatoes and cabbage that I made last week for 'linner' today.

I have discovered how to fix my Google Map hyperlink problem. I need to edit the Bookmarks that I have placed in the Journal Pages to be <name="Date"> versus <name="Date Month"> then in the Google Map Markers I need to edit out anything that appears to the right of #Date. I have got 2014 fixed but it will take me some time to get all the years corrected. It was something that was nagging at my brain so just knowing how to do the fix is a big relief.

21 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

I received an email and a Blue Ribbon from the Google Maps Help Forum. This is where I posted my question about the problem that I had with the hyperlinks that appeared in Google Map Engine Lite (MEL) when I converted from Classic Google Maps. I posted my fix for the problem and got the 'At-a-boy'.

I also did all the edits for the 2013 Map yesterday. I think I can get 2012 and probably 2011 edited today. I will then have only 2009/2010 which has a lot of Markers but I think I'll certainly have it done by this weekend. I will then most likely discard the Classic Maps and MEL will be my map of choice henceforth. I know that Google will drop support of their Classic Maps at some point so I may as well make the leap now. Although MEL has been released for about 1 1/2 years I still find myself on the 'bleeding edge'.

I had a neighbor on my north side for the past couple of days. They left this morning which was a blessing. When they were away for the day it was fine and when they were at home it was fine, it was the coming and going that was a pain. Patches was VERY good, I can not remember her barking at them even once. It was not the comings and goings that was irritating as hell for me, it was the slamming of what seemed like a dozen doors on a 4 door Jeep and a one door Class A motorhome.

A story by Reuters After McD's, businesses wonder who's next target in Russia posted on CNBC.com continues to tell how President Obama's Sanctions War against Russia is being fought. The main stream media has not been providing daily body counts so it is hard to tell who is winning the war. But President Putin appears capable of inflicting some damage; perhaps even more than what President Obama has been able to do.

Russia said on Thursday it was investigating dozens of McDonald's restaurants, in what many businessmen said was retaliation for Western sanctions over Ukraine they fear could spread to other symbols of Western capitalism.
Russia's food safety watchdog said it was looking at possible breaches of sanitary rules at McDonald's, but many in the business community said it was a reflection of the deterioration in relations between Russia and the West over Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country are fighting against government forces.
McDonald's, which opened its first outlet in Russia in the dying days of the Soviet Union in 1990, is a very visible symbol of American capitalism in Russia, where it now has 438 branches.
The food safety watchdog ordered the closure of four of its restaurants in Moscow on Wednesday, including that first Russian branch, which is the busiest in the firm's global network.

The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to protect our people. We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done. And we act against ISIL, standing alongside others.

22 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

Yesterday afternoon Patches and I walked down to see the greenhouses of Eurofresh Farms/NatureSweet. Eurofresh built them but they went bankrupt for the second time in 2013 and NatureSweet bought all of the assets at auction. There are two 'houses' here of about 20 acres each. I was able to look into the one closest to Snowflake Blvd and it is completely empty of any plants but talked to the Park owner(?) this morning and he said they were producing cucumbers.

They also have greenhouses in Wilcox, AZ that cover 248 acres or a little more than 6 times larger than what is here. There they are growing Cherub, SunBurst, Glory and Cherriot brand tomatoes. Their largest holding are almost 1,100 acres of greenhouses in 5 Mexico locations which produce their tomato brands.

Stayed up just a little past my bed time again to finish the novel that I was reading. It was by a new to me author that had written a court room drama that I had to finish before I could sleep. He closed it with a Perry Mason-like finale that was believable but was a stretch after he had eliminated all the most likely suspects. Started on the second Baldacci book that I picked up while in Chama and traded the two that I have completed recently at the Park exchange library.

After I finished breakfast I got started doing household chores. Today it was laundry. It was the Sand Creek RV Park charges for their washer and dryer that had me comment about the high price. Well, it averages out. The price here is among the lowest that I have found in the past couple of years.

Speaking of chores. In the early morning the sun shines directly on the kitchen floor. What do I see but a lot of dog hair. I can wait for the sun to move and then it is not so noticeable but I can't forget that it is there. I'm going to be forced to vacuum and wash to floor just for some peace of mind. Not today however.

We had some scattered clouds for most of the day. One of those come over the top of Desperado at about noon and dumped a couple buckets of water on us in just a few minutes and then moved on. Rained very hard but was over quickly so the official report was 0.04" although I think we may have had more right here.

23 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

I got all the editing completed yesterday for Google Maps Engine Lite (MEL) and the Journal Pages that are linked. With the picture moving project and the MEL project completed I now don't know what to do with all my free time. Finish getting current with my Monthly blog reading is one thing, clean house is another.

I did more household chores early this morning as soon as I finished eating breakfast, even before I had finished my first cup of coffee. No I didn't clean up dog hair, I emptied the holding tanks and took on fresh water. The idiot lights tell me almost nothing about how full or how empty the tanks are. I now go by the number of days since I last did this chore and by how the water pump sounds.

WOW, I'm a Winner! I received an email (Subject - Award Alert) this morning from Mozilla Firefox Grope. The body of the email then goes on to say:

The Mozilla Firefox internet congratulates you on your award winning of the Mozilla E-mail user's award 2014 Credit award.
You have been credited $500,000,00 USD(Five Hundred Thousand dollars only) today the 23rd of August 2014 with the award Credit File Ref: MF/AW/9378000/014, you are to contact our assigned payment department Officer Barrister Mrs.JANETH CECILIA RODRIGUEZ by E-mail on (awardmozilla1@126.com) to make claims on your award immediately.

24 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

I devoted a good part of yesterday afternoon to creating a MEL map of places where another blogger camped in 2011. Like the maps that I did for myself the popup description at each Marker has a link to the blog posting made for the day of arrival at that place. The blogger had expressed a desire to have annual itinerary maps but did not have the time to learn how to build them nor the reliable Internet connections to get them built.

Now that I have completed this first year there needs to be some decisions made. Google considers me to be the Owner since I built the map but I can invite others to collaborate by giving them Edit privileges. Or, there is a way to transfer ownership and I would then become the collaborator. Or, I transfer ownership and that is the end of the project for me. When those decisions have been made I may have some more work to do creating maps for years 2012, 2013 and 2014 or maybe not. I any of the cases I need to get the coding to embed the map sent to the other blogger so they can place it on their blog. A good project to exercise my mind!

The only thing that I have done today is my usual daily reading. Some Internet research and I will probably get current with my Monthly blog reading list before the day is done.

Frontier Parkway is a two lane street with a median that curves its way south from AZ277 along the east side of Temple Hill and is one of the main streets leading to the Snowflake Arizona Temple. It is very nicely landscaped and has one traffic circle where the bronze sculpture shown here rises from the center. I think this sculpture and all the others that I have taken pictures of were purchased from F & R Bronze Company (I found very similar sculptures pictured on their web site).

These children playing on the swing are also in the median. They were the first ones I saw when I walked east on Sand Trap Ln and then turned north on Frontier Parkway. They reminded me of the bronze children sculptures that I saw at various places in Burns, OR during the time I did not own a camera so no pictures of them. There are some more bronzes along Frontier which I have taken picture of. Those will be presented tomorrow or the next day.

President Obama showed his disrespect for the military, for the General, and for the family of Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene by not attending his funeral or sending Vice President Biden. He has now doubled down on the insult by sending three White House officials to the funeral of Michael Brown. The man has nothing but contempt for the US military and once again is providing evidence that he is the racist that his critics claim him to be.

President Barack Obama is sending three White House officials to the funeral service of the Missouri teenager whose death in a police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, has sparked days of racial unrest.
Leading the group for Monday's service will be the chairman of the My Brother's Keeper Task Force, Broderick Johnson. My Brother's Keeper is an Obama initiative that aims to empower young minorities. Johnson is also the secretary for the Cabinet.
Also attending will be the deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Marlon Marshall, and an adviser for the office, Heather Foster.

25 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

We had great weather yesterday and it looks to be perfect again today. But the weather guessers think there is an 80% chance of rain tomorrow morning - when I plan on going shopping. Then the remainder of the 10 day forecast is for Clear and in the mid-80s. What is with this 80% chance of rain tomorrow morning? Are they messing with my mind?

I didn't do much today other than my routine. Went for our morning walk, ate breakfast, read Daily blogs, read the News and spent some time on the couch with my latest book and Patches. Maybe a little more active tomorrow?

I did open a Google Spreadsheet and started entering my gas purchases from 9/29/12. I lost all my prior spreadsheet data when my computer died over a year ago and only have a paper record from that 2012 date. I looked for a free spreadsheet that would run on Windows 8 a few times but did not find one. While working with MEL I saw that I could import data for the map locations using a Google Spreadsheet. The next map that I create I will try using a spreadsheet and see if I can get it to work.

26 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

The day is not over yet but the early cloud cover thinned out by 9:00. We got damp while on our morning walk but I would not count it as rain and doubt that it was measurable. Just before putting the post up live in cyber space we got a light rain with the clouds rather thick again. We could get more as the day progresses.

As soon as we got back to Desperado I unplugged from electric and took off for breakfast. Went to the Skillet Café which is part of the Municipal Golf Club facilities where I had a good omelet and home fries with some good coffee. I'll be going back before I leave here.

Then drove to Ed's Market to pick up groceries again. They had two, and only two, rather sorry looking bunches of kale at a very high price. But what can you do if you want kale? They didn't have much of a choice in frozen fish but did have some cod fillets which was what I wanted so I was in luck.

I'll be using the Roaster for my 'linners' this next week. Plan on having roasted cod with some oyster sauce on it accompanied by roasted cauliflower and broccoli with cream of mushroom sauce on them. The salad of the week will be about the same with kale, red onion, zucchini and portobello mushrooms dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I spent some time yesterday evening experimenting with Google Spreadsheet data imported to Google Map Engine Lite to create Markers. The claim is this will work and there is a place in MEL that you can click to make it happen - however, it doesn't. What you can do is save the Spreadsheet as a CSV File and then import that file into MEL - that works.

I also went through the steps that would be required to change ownership of a MEL map this morning. First, the Builder/Owner saves the map as a KML file. They then email the file, as an Attachment, to the New Owner. Second, the New Owner imports the KML file into a Google Classic Map and then converts it to a MEL map. It seems convoluted to me but MEL can not import a KML file although it can save one. The more I work with MEL the more I think I'm a pioneer - you know, the ones that took all the arrows trying to expand into new frontiers.

27 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

The forecast for rain yesterday did come to pass with most of the 0.2" falling in the afternoon. We managed to avoid almost all of it and only got a little damp during our morning walk.

That changed this morning. It rained hard for about 10 minutes before we got up and looked threatening when we started our walk. We made it through about 3/4ths if it and then it started a very light rain. This is the kind of rain that Patches loves and wants to stay out and walk in all day. Me, not so much. We got a little wet; dog shaking wet for Patches and toweling off wet for me. It started clearing a little after 9:00am and has turned into a pretty nice day after such a wet beginning.

I did more experimenting with the use of Google Spreadsheets/CSV Files to build MEL maps this morning. Once you understand how to use them it is really a great way to build the map. Much quicker which was the intent, I'm sure, it is too bad that Google does not provide instructions on how to go about using the tools that they make available.

I am now re-building the map that I did for the other blogger using a CSV file. I must first prepare the Spreadsheet but once that is done it is really, really simple to make the map. I think it is so simple that if you want to do a lot of edits to the map it is best to do them on the Spreadsheet and then build a whole new map from a new CSV file.

I have heard nothing from the other blogger. Don't know if they have been able to see the first map that I built or not? Maybe still considering it? Maybe it is a problem to embed in their blog? It is hard to tell at this time. I have learned a lot so it has not been a waste of time to build them even if they are never used and I throw them away. I have thrown about a dozen of them away this past week as I experimented so one or two more in the trash is not an issue.

28 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

I received another email and another Blue Ribbon from the Google Maps Help Forum. I had posted a question about the problem that I had when trying to create a map that had a Driving Route with Markers in Google Map Engine Lite (MEL). I answered my own question after experimenting and found a way to do it. For this I received my second 'At-a-boy' award.

I also finished the second Baldacci book that I picked up in Chama. Then got started on another book before going to bed. I'll get a review done in a day or so. I did make a good trade for the Baldacci however, I found a Deaver book in the Park library. I have enjoyed his books in the past so hope he does not disappoint.

The forecast for Clear that was predicted to have started yesterday has arrived, not a cloud in the sky this morning. We were rained out when we tried to do our afternoon walk yesterday. Got rather damp before getting back to the shelter of Desperado. The clouds rolled back in around 3:00pm and started dumping scattered showers. Got a total of 0.28" during the entire day.

I finished inputting all my gas purchase information to date into a Google Spreadsheet that can be found at Google Drive. The tank by tank MPG information is not too useful because I have not marked which purchases were only a partial filling. However, the MPG for all purchases for the miles driven to date is 8.65 mpg which is about what I remember it being in my lost data. Not great for a car/truck but fabulous for a house.

When I was looking for a free spreadsheet I wanted a word processor also and could find none. Google Drive has that available also so I will probably replace the WordPad in Windows 8 that I have been using since getting this new computer. The biggest advantage to me at this time is that it has Spell Check plus other bells and whistles that Word offers but WordPad does not.

29 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

On my last shopping trip to Ed's Market I needed to pick up some corn tortilla's. They had the usual Mission brand which I avoid if there is any other choice and luckily there were two others. One of them was Mama Lola's Enchilada & Table yellow corn in a 3 dozen package. I had never tried this brand before, or even found it before, that I can remember so I picked up a package.

I'm so glad I did, they are some of the best tortillas that I have had. The factory is in Phoenix, AZ but they claim to have products in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Las Vegas, Nevada. I think they are more of a restaurant provider but I have sent them an email asking for other retailers.

I have moved everything from WordPad to Google Docs which is good and bad. The good part is the many tools that are available in Docs that were not available in WordPad. The bad is I have lost the ability to Cut/Copy/Paste using a right click. This has been a long time complaint about Docs and Google is not going to fix it. They do have an Add-on to Chrome that allows it but nothing for other browsers. I am not going to install Chrome so I will just adjust to using Ctrl C/X/V and get on with using the good that is available in Docs.

This is the second book in the Robie Series by Baldacci, the first in the Series that I have read. As I said on 14 August 2014 when reviewing King and Maxwell the author seems to be writing for movie or TV deals. The Robie Series has two different main characters in name but the action does not differ much from what you get from King & Maxwell. In fact this book was the one preceding the publishing of King and Maxwell. The book was entertaining but it is movie fantasy material as the Customer well describes it in their review. Baldacci books may entertain but don't expect too much.

I was amazed when I read "The long distance flight of a 7.62 round built up astonishing kinetic energy. In fact the farther it travelled the more energy it built up." This is not just wrong, but profoundly wrong. It makes me wonder if Baldacci is not only ignorant of how firearms work, but fundamentally ignorant of basic physics. It is also amazing that the publisher did not have someone with knowledge of firearms and/or science read the manuscript before they published the book. Maybe he has bullets confused with simple skyrockets, which can actually build up velocity the longer they fly. He also thinks that the barrel of a sniper rifle will float: "... plugged the barrel of his rifle with the quick-hardening solution and pitched it down one tunnel; a constant flow of water would carry it out to the East River, where it would sink into oblivion." I'll give it 2 stars. It would have been more except for the bizarre "facts" he inserts about how things work. - Customer Review at Amazon

John Hayward's article Obama concedes victory to ISIS in Round One of the new great war posted at Human Events provides a good analysis of President Obama's attempt to kick the ISIS can down the road. I doubt that he can do it for for another two years but maybe he can do it until after the November elections.

It was nothing less than Barack Obama conceding victory to ISIS in Round One of the new great war. Get it through your skulls, kids: the President of the United States just ratified the existence of the Islamic State, admitted they're going to get away with murdering American hostages, and threw in the towel on any hope of reversing their invasion of Iraq. He just told the enemy, which most certainly does have strategies and is not shy about advertising them, that they have the initiative. They're calling the shots. The Golfer-in-Chief is still reacting, spinning, and fidgeting like a little kid stuck in detention, because he really wants to get back to the fun stuff - like handing out amnesty to illegal aliens, maneuvering unconstitutional 'climate change' treaties past Congress, picking fights with his domestic political opponents, raising money for his Party, and hanging out with his fawning admirers in the press corps. He's really bummed out that he has to keep dealing with head-chopping terrorists and Russians who like to go for joyrides in armored fighting vehicles.

Fashion, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes it'll be good. Sometimes it'll be bad. And this week's example is in firmly in the 'bad' category.
The Event: Honoring the 2012 National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) TOP COPS.
The Location: Rose Garden, The White House
The Evidence: According to the pool report, Obama was 'in a light brown suit (almost khaki).' He was also in a white shirt and a yellowish or gold tie.
The Critique: The president is usually clad in more flattering and presidential navy with his tie providing that necessary pop of color. Not on May 12.
Light brown is a no-no for those of us with Obama's skin tone. A full-on khaki suit in what one of the first lady's favorites, J. Crew, calls 'wheat' would have been so much better. But it could have opened him up to being branded a wanna-be hipster.

I'm only bringing it up again because he wore it again.
The Event: The wedding of Laura Jarrett, daughter of senior adviser to the president Valerie Jarrett.
The Location: Walking down the street near their home in Chicago.
The Evidence: That light brown suit, white shirt and a yellowish or gold tie.
The Critique: Folks on Twitter alerted me to the president's repeat offense the moment Politico posted the picture online last weekend. ..Now, I will admit something. That brown suit looked much better in Chicago than it did in the Rose Garden. Perhaps it was the lighting. Perhaps it's the Seurat effect of looking much better from a distance than up close. Or perhaps it was the addition of the white pocket square, which does a great job of giving a visual spark to an otherwise hum-drum outfit. Still, if Cohen were to ask me which suit of the president's I don't like, I wouldn't need to plead the Fifth. Obama ought to retire that suit.

30 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

We did a little longer walks these past two days to make up for the afternoon that we got rained out. We have been averaging 4 miles/day since arriving in Taos back in early July and didn't want to drop below that average for this week. I'm feeling good and Patches is doing well at this daily distance so I'll continue to try and maintain or increase the daily average.

Since my appointment in April at the Pahrump VA Clinic I have been taking my blood pressure daily and submitting the readings weekly to the doctor there. He first cut my dosage from 20 mg to 10 mg and then to 5 mg which I have been taking now for a little over 14 weeks. When I sent him my last readings I said that I was going to quit daily readings and take one every 3-4 days and send them in monthly. I have not received a reply so I'm assuming that he is happy with my BP levels and my monthly plan.

A do nothing kind of day - usual routine.

America's Creeping Into Syria Will Hang Itself in Ukraine for New Eastern Outlook by Tony Cartalucci covers a lot of foreign policy issues. What it also does is it helps explain why the President would give a 'No Strategy' press conference when he certainly has a strategy. He just does not want to tell the American people about it until after the November elections. I don't think people in the rest of the world will wait that long. The Islamic State, Russia, Ukraine Right Sector Neo-Nazis and pro-Russian separatists all have a strategy that does not depend on US elections.

In a discussion about whether the United States military would need Syrian government approval to act against ISIS in Syria, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest referenced the assassination of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011.
'The President has already demonstrated a willingness, where necessary, to protect the American people, has demonstrated a willingness to use military force to protect the American people, regardless of borders,' Earnest said Monday.
By exercising policy 'regardless of borders,' the US has just hung itself politically in its efforts to protect the newly installed regime in Kiev, Ukraine, and prevent Russia from intervening against what are literally battalions of Neo-Nazi militants operating along Russia's border with Ukraine.
If the US can invade Syria thousands of miles from its own shores, surely Russia can intervene in Ukraine. As America refers to 'international norms' determining what is and isn't acceptable, the 'norm' it has established with its creeping intervention in Syria justifies all that it has denounced Russia for allegedly doing in neighboring Ukraine.

31 August
Putter's Paradise RV Park
Snowflake, AZ

Last night I finished the last book that I had picked up in Chama. It was by an unknown to me author and what I would describe as an Airport Book. That is a book that you pick up at an airport gift shop that can usually be read during a long flight. I'll get a review posted within a couple of days but the most memorably part of the book was a story told by one of the characters.

This story has probably been repeated over and over since George and Martha were the First Couple. With Michelle O's ongoing food campaign I think the edits that I have made are appropriate.

There's this banquet at the White House, okay?
And Obama is sitting next to Michelle, and the principal server appears by her side to take her order, explaining that they're serving either roast beef or filet of sole, which would she prefer?
Michelle says, 'I'll have the filet of sole, please.'
'Yes ma'am' the server says. 'And the vegetable?'
'He'll have the same,' Michelle says.