Peregrinating
2015

May

1 May
Manzano's RV Park
Silver City, NM

After our walk yesterday afternoon I tried WIFI again and it was still not working. I then attempted to connect to the Internet using Verizon and it connected and then promptly died. It did come back within a couple of minutes but I am having Internet connection troubles above and beyond my byte limitation.

I have been reading a few of the blogs from my Monthly list during this past week and finished getting current yesterday. I used Verizon all day yesterday but did not do any map building and found that I had used as many bytes as when I was building maps. There is something not right with Verizon usage. I am now almost at my limit, another day like yesterday and I will be at my limit.

I do not have WIFI again today so I did not read any blogs and scanned only 5-6 News sites. I did check email and sent one to my UPS Store in Sierra Vista about not receiving Package #2 and that I had Faxed them my Credit Card information. I'll use Verizon to post to my web site this afternoon but that will be it for Verizon today. I'll check tomorrow and see what usage number I get for that little usage.

We were off to town again soon after finishing our morning walk. Got all my groceries at Albertsons' and was at La Mexicana just as the doors were being opened. It was a few minutes before 8:00 but they turned on the 'open sign' so I went in and ordered the Breakfast Special. It was a Chipotle Omelet with chipotle and chipotle cheese, spinach and a couple more ingredients. It was good but the home fries were only fair.

Then went to the Post Office where I was able to pick up Package #1 that had my 25 mg prescription, my AZ drivers license and my new Credit Card plus some junk mail and VA co-pay bill.

Went directly from there to Wells Fargo where I got the Credit Card activated and re-activated my on-line access to the account. I can now redeem my Credit Card Bonus Points which I had been putting off until the account was frozen. Then went to the UPS Store here in Silver City and had them copy the front and back of my new Credit Card and faxed that information to my UPS Store in Sierra Vista.

A lot of stops which had Patches upset. She was very glad to get back home where she knows what the routine is. Like crashing on the couch and taking a well deserved nap with me while I read my book.

2 May
Manzano's RV Park
Silver City, NM

The Verizon usage shown for yesterday was much, much less that what I expected. Today I have read all my Daily blogs and will post to my web site using Verizon. Will not read any News until late today after checking usage.

I also uninstalled the AVG AntiVirus that I think chewed up a lot of bytes with their automatic upgrade download this month. That gave me their Secure Search which replaced Firefox when a new tab was opened. I consider this malware so the antivirus software is installing malware - I don't need the aggravation.

I saw the Park owner this morning and asked her about the WIFI. She confirmed that it is now working ONLY at the Park office. She said that they have been trying to get expanded WIFI coverage in place since February and the provider keeps saying that you need to add this then add that. I think this is a very common approach to selling WIFI to businesses. Promise WIFI at a very low ball price knowing that it is not going to provide the customer service that the business needs but then keep adding on later.

I went to the Park office around noon and tried to use WIFI and got the same Limited Connection (that means - does not work) that I get while sitting in Desperado. What the Park owner told me may have been true when she told me that it worked at the office location - but not at noon today.

When I connected to Verizon this afternoon I had an email that I was over my monthly limit. I 'used' over .3Gb this morning reading Daily blogs? Verizon is running a scam and has been doing so for about a year now to increase monthly charges.

I was able do everything I do now with 5Gb/month until I got my new AirCard and a 6Gb/month limit. My usage remained below 5Gb/month until 6 months ago when I was hit with a massive usage that Verizon adjusted but since then I have been at the 6Gb/month maximum every month. Even when I throttle my usage back I continue to get charged with usage. I don't know if there is a solution, the Verizon Forum is chock full of complaints.

I made up some potato/salmon patties that will be my 'linners' for the next 4 days. When I finish these I have ingredients for another 3-4 days which may be made the same depending on how well I like these. Very simple to make using 7.5 oz canned Sockeye Salmon (much more expensive than Pink), 4 small - medium yellow potatoes (boiled and mashed) and dill paste to taste. Mix together, form patties and fry until as brown and you like.

3 May
Manzano's RV Park
Silver City, NM

Since I was going to be charged for an overage I continued to use Verizon yesterday. I even did some file clean up which may not have used any bytes but I found some more AVG files that I deleted. I also found some WildTangentGame files that I thought I had deleted long ago but I got rid of those also. Uploaded a new version of the Junkware Removal Tool. When I ran it there were a few things found that it also deleted. Also ran a Windows Defender scan which found nothing.

I then went hunting for an Internet usage monitor. Downloaded one that I did not like and did not understand how it worked so I uninstalled. Downloaded NetWorx which is fairly simple and I think I understand it. I'll see how what it records compares to Verizon.

NetWorx has already told me something that I did not know. If I have my computer turned on, AirCard plugged in and a connection made with Verizon there is a steady stream on bytes being received and sent. That must stop. The same thing is true when any web page is open - a steady stream of bytes are being sent while Verizon is connected. That I can not stop if I want to read what I have opened. HA

Verizon recorded usage of .029Gb from the time I shut my computer down last night until I was able to open the Verizon web site and check my usage balance this morning. NetWorx is recording .00365Gb of usage soon after I checked Verizon. I have no idea why there is such a big difference nor how to stop it.

NetWorx racked up about .032Gb while I was going through my Daily blogs this morning and then another .020Gb as I checked the News. When I checked Verizon after reading my blogs and News the usage reported had not changed from what it was when I checked first thing this morning. I think Verizon usage reporting may be what ever they want it to be when ever they want it to be.

I built one API map last night that was complicated and I know it used up a lot of bytes. I finally gave up on building a second one when it got past my bed time. I am going to see if I can finish it this morning. It is also very complicated requiring a lot of way points, that can be found only by trial an error, to make the API map draw the route that I drove. It would have been so simple if I had driven the route that Google prefers.

I did finish the map that I started last night. I then continued to build two more easier ones before stopping for a rest. Those maps used .105Gb as measured by NetWorx. When I check Verizon again they had increased my usage by .142Gb for the day whereas NetWorx was reporting .164Gb at about that same time. There is no question that map building eats up the bytes but I can not rely on what Verizon is reporting at any given time to try and control my usage. I think NetWorx will be my best guide.

I was back at map building around noon and have now finished all the route maps for the first 30 days of the 2007 ITG. I also got the map for the Total Trip now showing all the camps for the first 60 days. I'll be building the route maps between those camps during this next month while watching closely the usage on Verizon.

4 May
Manzano's RV Park
Silver City, NM

We did a short potty walk yesterday afternoon. There was no forecast of rain but we got a short shower around 3:00 and it was sprinkling when we went out. Discretion is the better part of valor so we got back to Desperado only minutes before another short shower came upon us. It was not much of a rain but we would have gotten WET if we had been out in it.

I did some route planning, breakfast stop and market stop when we got back. Then built the API map that will be embedded in my posting the day we move to our new camp. It may change but the changes will use up less bytes than building the entire map as I did today. If I'm going to pay for an overage I'm going to get as much done as I can today.

Among the things that was able to do was find a FireFox Add-On, Flashblock, that disables the embedded videos that News sites insist on having on their web pages. Those embedded videos use an unknown amount of bytes but they are so irritating. Flashblock seems to do the trick, at least on Yahoo! Finance where they have one that has been bugging me for years.

This morning after getting breakfast started I set the NetWorx meter to zero and then plugged in my AirCard for Verizon. Promptly went to the Verizon web page and checked my usage which they claim to also be zero with my full monthly limit available. Let the meter competition begin!

There are a lot of differences in what NetWorx and Verizon report. The one that is most obvious to me is that NetWorxs provides an hourly log that uses 'my' local time and when all the hours are added together the total is what is being reported as total usage. Verizon also has a log that shows a time but I don't know if it my local time or theirs. They do not report hourly, they report when they report, and when the usage for each time is added together the total does not equal the total usage that determines an overage.

Adam Smith could have been writing about President Obama's crony capitalism support for 'clean energy' when he penned this in Wealth of Nations.

But though it can very seldom be reasonable to tax the industry of the great body of the people, in order to support that of some particular class of manufacturers; yet, in the wantonness of great prosperity, when the public enjoys a greater revenue than it knows well what to do with, to give such bounties to favourite manufactures, may, perhaps, be as natural as to incur any other idle expense. In public, as well as in private expenses, great wealth, may, perhaps, frequently be admitted as an apology for great folly. But there must surely be something more than ordinary absurdity in continuing such profusion in times of general difficulty and distress.

5 May
Manzano's RV Park
Silver City, NM

Yesterday after reading all my blogs, News sites and some other miscellaneous web searching I took a break. At 11:30 I posted to my web site and then checked the two meters before disconnecting from Verizon. NetWorx was reporting 159MB vs Verision's 94.21MB.

Later in the afternoon I connected to the Internet using Verizon and checked email and a few web sites. I also set a "quota" on NetWorx with a notice to be sent. When I received the notice I shut down Verizon for the day.

At the open today NetWorx shows that I used 194MB and Verizon had 190.46MB but it is the GB number that determines overage and that was at .186GB. The two meters are close at the beginning of the day when Verizon has added all usage for the previous day. But, I can not be use the Verizon numbers during the day to control my usage.

Today I have the NetWorx quota set for 190MB per day with a message to be sent when I reach 50%. I'm going to see how much of my usual daily web access I can do before reaching that level.

I have also made a change in the number of News sites that I'm accessing and how many Daily blogs I'll check each day. Some of the blogs will be checked every day but others only every few days; I'm using up bytes just to find out that a blog, or News site, has not posted anything since I last read it.

We had rain showers throughout the afternoon yesterday but managed to do an afternoon walk without getting wet. The official total was 0.06" so not a lot of rain but a lot of individual showers. The forecast is for it to be slightly cooler today than the 68° of yesterday and "a stray shower or thunderstorm is possible".

Two more quotes from Adam Smith's Wealth Of Nations that has withstood the test of time. It is just as true today as it was in when he wrote it. Note: When he writes "corn" that meant any grain during the time he was living.

The laws concerning corn may everywhere be compared to the laws concerning religion. The people feel themselves so much interested in what relates either to their subsistence in this life, or to their happiness in a life to come, that government must yield to their prejudices, and, in order to preserve the public tranquillity, establish that system which they approve of. It is upon this account, perhaps, that we so seldom find a reasonable system established with regard to either of those two capital objects.

The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security, is so powerful a principle, that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions, with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations: though the effect of those obstructions is always, more or less, either to encroach upon its freedom, or to diminish its security.

6 May
Manzano's RV Park
Silver City, NM

I had used 174MB per NetWorx when we returned from our afternoon walk yesterday. Added my total miles walked for the week to a web blog that shows my grand total walked and compares where I am at with other walkers - all of us trying to Walk Around The World ( 24,903.4 miles).

I then started to build an API route map for the 2007 ITG and had only enough remaining bytes to get set up and begin to enter way points that would make API Maps draw the route where I wanted it rather than where Google thought it should be. Received a notice that I was at 101% of my quota for the day and pulled the plug on Verizon.

This morning NetWorx shows 387MB for the first two days of the plan month and Verizon opened with 371MB. I seem to be holding the usage down at the level that I need to with Verizon, so far, but it is a fight. Even with the Flashblock I think the Yahoo! Finance web site opens using a lot of bytes. I have removed it from those News site that I scan almost every day.

I did not find a review of this book that I thought worthy of quoting. It is historical fiction much like what Jean M. Auel writes in her Earth's Children Series. The author William Sarabande is the pen name of Joan Lesley Hamilton Cline the author of the First Americans Series which is also set in the ice age but describe a reality very different to that described in the books by Jean M. Auel. I did not like this book that much but would like to give his/her Series a chance if I find any of the books from it.

As the Stone Age slowly gives way to the age of Bronze, a proud warrior clan faces the challenge of a new life in an alien land. Led by the great chieftain Fomor, once called the Wolf of the Western Tribes, the clan MacLir knows the limits of stone against the strange new weapons of their sworn enemy, Nemed MacAgnomian. And so the people of the Ax have settles in the fens of Albion, exchanging flint weapons for farm implements, trading the ways of the warrior for the path of peace. But prosperity has not followed on the heels of their decision, and many in the clan urge their lord to become the Wolf once more ... or threaten to rise up against him. It is Fomor's firstborn son, Balor, headstrong, and defiant, who receives the sign of the gods that the time of the Wolf is at hand - as the cruel Nemed and his raiders sail toward Albion's shores to wipe the clan MacLir from the face of the earth. And it is Balor who will take up the forbidden sword Retaliator to avenge the past - Publishers Overview

7 May
Manzano's RV Park
Silver City, NM

When we got back from our afternoon walk I re-started building the API map that I had been working on. I was still not finished and got a quota notice so pulled the plug on Verizon again. I used up about 110MB during this map building session and I will probably have to settle for a map that is an approximation of the route that I drove.

Now that I have NetWorx I can see when I have reached my daily limit. I never could get any numbers from Verizon that would tell me this. It is going to take me a long time to build all the maps but I am going to say within limit - maybe.

Today was my last shopping day is Silver City. Got all of my groceries at Albertsons' very quickly now that I know where everything is located. That had me arrive at La Mexicana just before they opened but I was able to follow them in and place my order. Had their signature breakfast, Huevos a la Mexicana, with some not so good hash browns.

From there I went to the Post Office again and was able to pick up Package #2. This had my Arizona personalized license plates which I can now put on Desperado. She has been wearing a standard Arizona rear plate and a Nevada personalized front one for the past month. I don't know if anyone noticed but no one said anything.

First order of business after getting backed into my space (did it like I knew what I was doing with the owner and a neighbor watching) was to dump holding tanks and add fresh water. I sometimes extend the period between dumps but every second grocery trip is the general rule.

NetWorx was at 576MB for the three days in this billing cycle when I plugged Verizon in this morning. Verizon showed .448GB for the same three days which is much less than I expected.

I read my chosen blogs and News sites this morning and then completed the API map that has used up so many bytes. I had to settle for a best approximation because when Avoid Highways is selected to avoid Interstates Google API maps also avoided US2. It is only when the map is zoomed in that this deviation from the actual route is seen so it is the best that I could do. All of this used 112 MB per NetWorx.

8 May
Manzano's RV Park
Silver City, NM

Started another API map yesterday afternoon. This one is going to be just as difficult as the last one was. I'm in the New England states where I avoided Interstate highways but Google API maps does not draw the route that I drove without a fight. I made some progress but do not think I am close to finishing it. This one may end up an approximation also.

Yesterday I said that Verizon showed .448GB for the first three days of the monthly billing cycle which was much less than I expected. NetWorx showed usage of 191MB yesterday afternoon when I pulled the plug on Verizon.

This morning Verizon was showing .736GB or a usage of 228MB for yesterday. It is this kind of reporting by Verizon that has made it almost impossible for me to control my usage during the past few months while I have been building maps. The 4 day total now shown by Verizon is probably close to what it should be.

The Bureau of Labor released their non-farm job numbers for April today that showed an increase of 223,000 jobs. The Ministry of Propaganda is atwitter (not to be confused with Twitter) about that number but simply beside themselves with joy upon seeing the 5.4% Unemployment Rate.

What is not mentioned, must less explained, is that the CES Birth/Death Model added 213,000, or almost all, to that total for the month. The Bureau is continuing to add jobs as an adjustment although business deaths continue to exceed births and the Ministry of Propaganda ignores the fact.

If you look at the Household Data the number of Employed increased for the eleventh consecutive month with 192,000 being added in April. This is also ignored, the Ministry preferring to focus on the Unemployment Rate.

The Unemployed was down by 26,000 but the Not in the Labor Force increased by 19,000 which means a lot of the unemployed dropped out rather than getting a job. However, this was good enough to drop the Unemployment Rate by 0.1% to 5.4% and will give the Administration bragging rights during this next month.

The Participation Rate ticked up by 0.1% to 62.8% again from it's low. But the increase in Not in the Labor Force to 93,194,000 set another new all time record. The Ministry once again has ignored Not in the Labor Force or the Participation Rate in their spin articles.

The average earnings increased by 1¢ to $24.87 an hour while the average workweek remained at 34.5 hours. I think the Federal Reserve is getting the wage inflation numbers and the 'improving' Unemployment Rate that they need as cover for their rate increase . I expect more monthly earning increases and for the Bureau to keep adding job via the Birth/Death Model - at least until the Fed raises rates.

9 May
Manzano's RV Park
Silver City, NM

Steve left a Shout yesterday about using an Activity Monitor which reminded me of my past efforts. Verizon has what is called VZAccess Manager but when I tried to install it over a year ago I found out that it did not support my AirCard. I had forgotten about that. Maybe there is an upgrade now but I don't care since NetWorx seems to be doing the job.

Yesterday I made some more progress on the API map that I am having difficulty getting to follow the route that I drove. If I had more way points available I know I could force it to follow the route but Google API maps restricts me to only 8.

This morning I finished the map. It is the best approximation that I can do with only the 8 way points available to me. Even when using Google Maps and dragging the route to match what I drove is a difficult process. The API map is "good enough".

The forecast for today is to be Much Cooler than yesterday with an expected high of 62°. The wind picked up after we finished our morning walk, gust to near 30 mph, and the forecast seems to be correct. It was still in the 50s at noon and I fired up the Wave heater for a couple hours during the morning.

10 May
Manzano's RV Park
Silver City, NM

I did not feel like doing a walk yesterday afternoon; mentally tired, and the wind was still blowing hard. So we did a potty walk to the property next door where some people have been removing a double wide trailer that had been placed on a foundation and stuccoed. There is not much salvage value left but they will get some good lumber out of it.

It is being removed as the first step in expanding this RV Park. The owner told me that they are going to be doing it pay-as-you-go, no borrowed money. There may be spaces there next year when I come back but then again there may not.

When we finished that short walk I went to the Park Office to get WIFI access. I wanted to get the book cover image and a review for the book that I just finished yesterday and I had used up my Verizon quota for the day.

While I was there I also built another API map for 2007 ITG. This one was also a mix of Interstate and avoid highways but I was able to get it done with the 8 way point limitation. Not as many different roads taken as were in the prior two maps while in New England states.

NetWorx recorded all this WIFI traffic, 98GB, for the day total of 291GB. When I now compare the month to date numbers at NetWorx with Verizon I need to remember there is WIFI usage included.

I could put it off for another day or maybe two but today seemed like a good day to do my three cups of coffee housecleaning routine. After all it is Mother's Day, what better way to celebrate than to do what mothers do everyday. I even slipped in a trip to the Park Office to trade the book that I finished, I'll leave here with a full library of unread books.

Riddle me this Batman. Due to a sharp retraction in discretionary consumer spending, 47 major retailers have announced they would close 6,000 stores across the country, putting thousands more people out of work. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics claims that in the 223,000 jobs added during April some 12,100 were added in Retail Trade.

11 May
Manzano's RV Park
Silver City, NM

I didn't feel like doing the afternoon walk again yesterday but did what I consider a long potty walk which is half our usual distance. I think Patches is feeling the same way. She has not raised hell like she does when I don't walk her enough.

I had used about half of my daily Verizon quota during the day so when we got back from that abbreviated walk I tried building more API maps. The first two were very easy. Used only one way point for the first one and found where to place it on the first try. The second map was almost as easy, requiring only two way points and those were found with only 3-4 tries.

Then the third one became troublesome. I'm almost there but was getting frustrated and almost at quota so shut it down for the day. This map does not include any Interstate but follows a secondary road. It then goes through a town with a lot of road/street/highway alternatives that Google API Maps insists are the route but I did not drive them.

This was my first O'Brien book that I probably selected for its thickness. That was my first disappointment, although thick it was printed using a larger type so it did not provide the reading time that the thickness promised. The customer review that I have copied expresses my further disappointment. I disagree that the book is a good mystery. A fair thriller or fair suspense novel perhaps. The author attempted to make it a mystery by providing false clues that were transparent and obvious. I may pick up another one of his books but he is not first on my list.

I have read all of O'Brien's books and always found them eerily engaging and at times frightening, but this time I did not find the same suspense I found in Killing Spree and Make Them Cry. While I consider this book a good mystery, it does not measure up to previous thriller novels I know O'Brien is capable of. The beginning of the book is tedious to read and while it doesn't hint at it, the reader knows that there is a mystery murderer among the all so innocent people in Collins life. Knowing that murders that took place 50 yrs earlier tells the reader that whoever was involved had to be an older person. There was one character in the novel that just disappeared and never mentioned again, even though he had taken a mysterious place in Collin's life through several chapters. I found that O'Brien left some incidents dangling and never filled the end result. I really think it is an ok book and worthy of a few nights of reading but not one of those novels you cannot put down and have to read to the early hours of the morning just to find out what happens in the end. This book you can put down and start up again the next day without a nagging need for conclusion. - Amazon Customer Review

President Obama celebrated V-E Day by briefly mentioning it in his weekly radio address, did not attend any of the Washington V-E Day events and hit the campaign trail. He flew to South Dakota where he gave a speech about the Trans Pacific Partnership Treaty, visited a Nike factory, and then gave a commencement speech at a community college where he talked about free college. That was on Friday, on Saturday and Sunday I am guessing he probably golfed.

In contrast, 9 May 2015 was a historical day for Russia and for President Putin. For the first time ever, the West boycotted the Victory Day Parade in Moscow and, also for the first time ever, Chinese forces have marched through Red Square with the Russians. The "reset" that Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama crafted for Russia has now been reset.

12 May
Manzano's RV Park
Silver City, NM

Yesterday, I finally got the API map I had been working on to follow my route. It was much more complicated than it appeared to be. I then started another map that had nothing to do with me or my past trips. It is simply a locations map where a friend will be traveling and I want to follow along. I have the itinerary so I'll place markers and then take the trip in spirit if not in fact.

Patches and I were back on our walking routine again yesterday. Did slightly over 2 miles in the morning (clockwise) and then the same route in reverse in the afternoon. We did the same route this morning as we did yesterday afternoon. So, if I'm in the mood this afternoon we will have to do it clockwise. Say What?

I went to the Park office and used 62MB from the Park WIFI this morning. Wanted to complete the map that I had started yesterday and did not want to use Verizon quota to get it done. The finished map is now linked to The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Australia 2015 in the left column of my Home Page. It will remain there until the Tour is over and I will then probably remove it.

It has been overcast all day with a forecast 20% chance of rain increasing to 40% tonight. I'll be on the road early tomorrow morning so I hope it gets any raining taken care of before then. The forecast for tomorrow is Clear here and Partly Cloudy at my new camp. Maybe the weather guessers will get this one right?

President Obama is consistent you have to give him that. You also have to give him credit for sticking to his principles even if you don't agree with them.

The Obama White House sent three officials to Michael Brown‘s funeral in Ferguson, MO. He has now also sent three officials to Freddie Gray's funeral. In attendance were; Cabinet Secretary Broderick Johnson, chair of the Obama administration’s My Brother’s Keeper Task Force; Heather Foster, an adviser in the White House Office of Public Engagement; and Elias Alcantara from the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

He sent no one to attend the funeral for decorated Officer Brian Moore in New York. I don't expect him to send anyone to the funerals of Officer Liquori Tate and Officer Benjamin Deen in Hattiesburg, MS either.

Is it possible that the President will send someone to Tate's funeral (he was African-American/Black/Negro) and not to Deen's (he was White)? Or, not send anyone because the President thinks the police officers got what they had coming to them?

When is there going to be something done about hammer control. I have brought this to the readers attention before and nothing is being done. Another hammer attack in New York, New York where the mayor is so fixated on gun control that those possessing hammers are being allowed to do so with impunity.

A sketch was released Tuesday of a man suspected of attacking two women with a hammer in Union Square the evening before in separate, vicious assaults.
NYPD said the culprit began his rampage about 7:30 p.m. when he took out a hammer from inside a bag and hit a 28-year-old woman who was sitting a on park bench on the head in Union Square Park.
About 10 minutes later, he slammed a hammer on a 33-year-old woman from behind at 44 West 18th St., leaving her with a scalp wound, police said.

13 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

I built two more maps for 2007 IGT yesterday after getting back from our walk. Both of them were on a lot of secondary roads between nightly camps and Google does not like to use those roads. Google is intent on selecting an Interstate between the two points or if avoid highways is selected then the shortest route possible. That is rarely the way I travel.

It used a lot of bytes to find the way points that would make Google API maps draw the routes that I drove. I "got 'er done" however so that is two more maps done and many more to go.

Today was a day of intentions. We did a long potty walk this morning which gave me time to stop for gas in Silver City on the way through town. Breakfast was a Ella's in Reserve, NM where I met up with Boonie again. We visited for almost two hours while I was there in Reserve and up to that point everything that was intended to happen happened.

It was when I left there that my intentions did not work out so well. I knew that I had passed an intended turn but my 3x5 card did not have it written down. O well, I had never seen the northern part of NM12 before and had only been through Datil, NM one other time and that was some years ago.

It added about 53 miles to my intended drive so I did 301 miles today. The route as written and as driven was: Flury Ln, US180, NM12, US60, NM36, NM117/Santa Fe Av Juniper & Pinon Dr.

I had also intended on stopping at Smith's in Grants, NM but never saw the street that I had written down for my turn. Went to the RV Park and got checked in and inquired about Smith's and was told that there was a good market about a half mile from the Park.

John Brooks Market does not look like much on the outside but it is a very nice store. They have a good produce area where I was able to get everything I wanted except fresh dill. No Greek God yogurt but they did have big containers of Greek yogurt in vanilla. No bars of dark chocolate was the only other thing that they did not have. I won't be going to Smith's unless I find a good restaurant close by or on the way.

14 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

Everything about my usual routine was disrupted yesterday. Even for a moving day it was disrupted. I did get my posting done but it was much later than normal. My 'linner' turned into a dinner and I didn't get Daily blogs or News read until 8:00. I'm usually in bed by then.

We did get out this morning and do our usual 2+ mile walk. It is just a little over a half mile to the Brooks market and there are three restaurants within walking distance from the Park. I have my doubts that I'll be going to Smith's.

Most of the RV community would classify this Park as a place to stop overnight. There are even some in the community that would not recommend it even for that because of the many, many trains that go past 24 hours of the day some 200 yards away. Then there is the Interstate on the other side that is maybe a quarter of a mile away. If you are looking for a quiet Park then this is probably not one to consider. Having said that, being somewhat deaf has advantages and I am not bothered by either trains or trucks.

There are two truck stops just off the Interstate and within a few blocks of the Park. This makes it convenient for a lot of overnighters that can deal with the possible noise. When I got here yesterday the Park was maybe 90% full. A lot of Class 'A's with toads still hooked up and Fifth Wheel or Bumper Pulls still hooked to the tow vehicle. By noon today it was perhaps 70% full.

Very pleasant morning for our walk but it got progressively worse as the day went by. Overcast all day but around 50° and calm to start. By noon it was in the mid 60s with wind gusts over 30 mph. The forecast is for it to be much colder tomorrow and Saturday, highs in the mid-50s with a low of 31° Sunday morning. I have moved back into winter.

15 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

Very overcast this morning but perfect temperature for our walk. The rain prediction for today has been increased from a 20% chance that was forecast yesterday to an 80% chance. The chance for tomorrow being increased also to 40%. I could get wet this afternoon.

I used up a bunch of bytes this morning playing with a API map. Was trying to get a pop up window with a map to pop up when clicked inside the InfoWindow. I had no success. What I have been able to do is link to the map from inside the InfoWindow.

I think Patches and I will be on the couch for much of the day. She will be sleeping while I read my latest novel. I may finish it today if the weather stays bad.

I have asked before "Where does the University of Michigan find these people for their Consumer Sentiment Survey?" The findings that the Survey support seem to be at odds with what is reported by government sources. May the answer to that conundrum be that the government sources are lying?

The percentage of respondents to University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Survey that "think they (or their spouse) will lose their job over the next 5 years" soared to its highest since March 2009.
Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, pushing the average over the past month to the lowest level in 15 years and underscoring labor-market strength.

Obama’s Not-So-Ironclad Guarantee by Jonathan S. Tobin is an article that focuses once again on President Obama's approach to foreign policy. Rewarding enemies and punishing allies. The obverse of his domestic policy which is all about rewarding friends and punishing enemies.

This was supposed to be the week when President Obama put on a show of his desire to reaffirm America’s support for its Arab allies. Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states have spent the last year in the unusual position of agreeing more with Israel than the United States, as Obama’s push for détente with Iran. Like the Israelis, the Arabs are pondering their future in a region dominated by an Iranian nuclear threshold state that appears to be the lynchpin of the president’s foreign policy legacy. So to convince them of his good will, Obama invited these nations to a summit at which he would convince them they had nothing to fear. But with the U.S. putting nothing on the table of substance that would allay those concerns about the weak nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran, the Saudi king and other leaders snubbed the event, turning it into a fiasco even before it began. But it turned out King Salman didn’t miss much. Though Obama offered what he called an “ironclad guarantee’ of America’s support for the Arabs, it was phrased in the kind of ambiguous language that rendered it meaningless. The meeting and especially the statement epitomized an Obama administration foreign policy that puts a premium on appeasing foes and alienating friends.

16 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

It looked like we were going to be able to walk yesterday afternoon. The sun was breaking through the clouds so we started out. There was rain to the southwest that didn't look too threatening. However, we had only gone about a quarter of a mile and the rain was moving towards us - fast. We made it back to Desperado and shelter after getting just a little damp.

It didn't rain much yesterday but is rained often. This morning when we stepped out it was into a very light mist with what looked like heavy rain to the south. The more we walked the heavier the mist became and when Patches started doing her "shaking off the rain dance" we turned tail and headed for home. Got a little damp doing the long potty walk but avoided another shower that came soon after we were under shelter.

It was a good day to do bedding laundry. It was long past it's wash by date and is a separate load that I just never get around to doing when I wash all my clothes.

The washing was the easy part. It is "making the bed" that gives me an upper body workout. I did prevail in my wrestling match with the mattress; not until the third round however. I think the mattress is going to protest the match asserting that I fouled when I used a step stool to climb into the ring (over cab bed). I say: Sore looser!

I reviewed the first Larsson book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on 15 July 2014. This is the second in his "Millennium Trilogy" and I thought it was ever bit as good as his first book in the Series. Lisbeth disappears from the narrative, except being talked about, for some 200 pages which could be off putting. I think the author did that as a devise to build the story. He also seems to get sidetracked and tells stories within the story which could be off putting for some readers.

My biggest disappointment was Lisbeth solved Fermat's Theorem x³ +y³ = z³ but then did not tell us what the solution was. I look forward to finding, and reading, the third/last book in the Trilogy.

Fans of intelligent page-turners will be more than satisfied by Larsson's second thriller, even though it falls short of the high standard set by its predecessor, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which introduced crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist and punk hacker savant Lisbeth Salander. A few weeks before Dag Svensson, a freelance journalist, plans to publish a story that exposes important people involved in Sweden's sex trafficking business based on research conducted by his girlfriend, Mia Johansson, a criminologist and gender studies scholar, the couple are shot to death in their Stockholm apartment. Salander, who has a history of violent tendencies, becomes the prime suspect after the police find her fingerprints on the murder weapon. While Blomkvist strives to clear Salander of the crime, some far-fetched twists help ensure her survival. Powerful prose and intriguing lead characters will carry most readers along. - Publishers Weekly

17 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

Thin wispy clouds this morning that hold no promise for more rain. Cold, and felt colder the longer we were out on our walk. It was not just me. The low temperature this morning was 28° and it was recorded while were doing our walk. The high temperature yesterday was 55° which called for some use of the Wave heater. I have it fired up again this morning; it is expected to be 67° today but it has not warmed up very fast.

I wasted a lot of time and bytes yesterday trying to add a different numbered icon for each Marker location in my 2015 API map. I'll be working on that somemore today and for the days to come until I solve this. It can not be as difficult as what I am making it.

I beat the problem to death using my tried and true method - trial and error. The solution was very simple once I found it. I was able to change the Glenn Miller Map in just a few minutes. I'll want to go back and add this feature to some of my other maps that I have built. First will be the 2014 and 2013 Camp Maps that pop up from the menu in the left column of the Home Page. Then most, if not all, of the bicycling, car and teardop Total Tour and Total Trip maps that I have built.

Adam Smith may have used language that is a bit stilted for these progressive times in which we live but he expresses the principles that I wish our 'sovereign' would abide by. President Obama has worked both sides of the equation. He has put extraordinary restraints on coal and provided extraordinary encouragements to 'sustainable energy' both retarding the progress of our society towards real wealth and greatness. We have not had a 'sovereign' in years that has ONLY attended to the three duties that Smith says he/she needs to attend to.

It is thus that every system which endeavours, either, by extraordinary encouragements to draw towards a particular species of industry a greater share of the capital of the society than what would naturally go to it, or, by extraordinary restraints, to force from a particular species of industry some share of the capital which would otherwise be employed in it, is, in reality, subversive of the great purpose which it means to promote. It retards, instead of accelerating the progress of the society towards real wealth and greatness; and diminishes, instead of increasing, the real value of the annual produce of its land and labour.

All systems, either of preference or of restraint, therefore, being thus completely taken away, the obvious and simple system of natural liberty establishes itself of its own accord. Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man, or order of men. The sovereign is completely discharged from a duty, in the attempting to perform which he must always be exposed to innumerable delusions, and for the proper performance of which, no human wisdom or knowledge could ever be sufficient; the duty of superintending the industry of private people, and of directing it towards the employments most suitable to the interests of the society.

According to the system of natural liberty, the sovereign has only three duties to attend to; three duties of great importance, indeed, but plain and intelligible to common understandings: first, the duty of protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies; secondly, the duty of protecting, as far as possible, every member of the society from the injustice or oppression of every other member of it, or the duty of establishing an exact administration of justice; and, thirdly, the duty of erecting and maintaining certain public works, and certain public institutions, which it can never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals to erect and maintain; because the profit could never repay the expense to any individual, or small number of individuals, though it may frequently do much more than repay it to a great society.

18 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

Not much happening this fine day. We did our morning walk in cool (29°) temperatures and Desperado is warming up without the assistance of my Wave heater. It did not feel that cold this morning. The forecast is for a high of 68 and it had reached that by noon but with some gusty wind again.

I was almost out of Arbuckles' coffee so placed an order on 14 May. Received three email from them the most important one saying that they had shipped on the 15th. I tried to pick it up from the Park office this morning but was told that the package had not arrived. The Tracking information says it was delivered at 9:49am in Grants, NM. Houston, we have a problem!

My attempt to file a Problem report on-line with the USPS was a total bust. Their online system would not accept the report claiming that the address was incorrect. That may be why I did not receive a package?

I have modified the 2013 & 2014 API maps that are linked in the drop down menu. Both of those maps, as well as 2015, now have numbered markers that make it much easier to follow my travel during each year. I made the same changes to the Glenn Miller map.

I'll be changing some of the others that I have built but not today. I'll go back to building individual route maps from stop to stop for the 2007 ITG this afternoon.

I think I have the Verizon usage under control now and when I get a notice that I have reached my Daily Quota of bytes I quit building. It is going to take some time to get this Teardrop Trip finished and the next one is just as long. But, I have the time.

19 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

There was nothing in the forecast yesterday about a chance of rain. What we got may not have been recorded as even a trace but there was some rain falling yesterday afternoon. Not enough to hold down the blowing dust that the strong winds were kicking up but enough that I was not sure I wanted to be out walking and take the chance. We did a short potty walk within the Park that allowed us to dash back to Desperado if we had to.

I woke up around 4:00 am today and it was raining hard. When we got up at 6:00 I think the only thing I was hearing were drips from the trees that are on each side of our space. Went for our usual morning walk and stayed dry.

As soon as we got back to Desperado I unhooked electric and we went to town. Well not exactly town, we went a few blocks to the WOW Diner where I had an order your own omelet for breakfast. It was good and they provided a generous serving of hash browns to go with it. The menu is rather limited and the coffee is poor. I may go back but it will not be next week and I may not go back if I find other restaurants nearby that please me more.

Brooks Market was my next stop. All their fish is frozen but I did get some very expensive salmon for 'linners' this week. No plain yogurt in small containers, neither Greek or your everyday yogurt - no plain, everything was fruit or flavoring added. I'll be trying sour cream with dry dill on the salmon.

When I pulled into my space at the Park it much farther forward than where I want to stay so I could do the holding tank dumps. Got that done and added fresh water and then backed up where I want to be in the space before hooking up electric.

I love to read some of the "10 things" that the various News web pages like to post. Who is it that writes this stuff? This title got my attention 10 things you should never buy again so I had to see what it is that I should never buy again. It is interesting that half of the item listed have to do with TVs and/or computers. Here is the list and my comments.

1) Cable TV - I have never had cable.
2) Name Brand Razor Blades - I have not shaved in over 8 years and when I did it was with cheap disposable razors.
3) Bottled Water - YES, since I have been living full time in my RV I buy gallon bottles of drinking water and will continue to do so.
4) Credit monitoring services and identity theft insurance - Never bought either.
5) DVDs and CDs - Never bought either.
6) Memory sticks and thumb drives - Never bought either.
7) Mini tablets - Never bought one.
8) Paid online dating services - Never used a dating service - paid or free.
9) Boutique moonshine - YES, visited Belmont Farms Distillery in Culpepper, VA and bought a bottle of Virginia Lightning. I don't remember what I paid for it but now on-line it is $24.99 plus shipping. I may do it again.
10) 4K Televisions - Never bought one and have not had any kind of TV since 1991.

20 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

I think the most difficult thing about living a Fulltime RV lifestyle is receiving mail. Setting up someplace for your mail to be delivered, ie a domicile, is the easy part. Having someone at that domicile forward the mail that is delivered can sometimes be a bit dicey. The more troublesome part is receiving it after it has been sent.

I just went through this again at this Park. You would think that a RV Park would have the answer 'down pat' to the question 'Can I receive mail here?'. But I have found that you can not ask that question. You must be very explicit and ask 'Does the U S Post Office deliver mail to this street address? Can I use this street address? How must I show the address?'

The same questions then should be asked by replacing U S Post Office with UPS and FedEx. You should also ask if there is a package size limitation that the U S Post Office will not deliver. You may even be better off using General Delivery if you know for certain that the package will be coming USPS. If it is UPS or FedEx it must be delivered to a street address and usually someone must sign for it. That is something else that you must ask about. Yes, receiving mail is difficult but I got my Arbuckles' yesterday afternoon.

I was also able to build two maps for the 2007 ITG yesterday. I may have been able to squeeze in a third one but wanted a few of my Daily Quota bytes left to make some changes on my Yahoo! account.

I checked all the boxes back in Feb/Mar that said I did not want them to continue hosting my web site. I deleted everything from their host computers and they still sent me an email that said they were going to charge my Credit Card for another year of hosting. I checked all the boxes again and have removed the Credit Card as a method of payment. I think by this time next year Yahoo! and I will have gone our separate ways.

My accomplishment for today was getting my load of clothes washed. The laundry here in the Park includes three washers. I was very lucky to get one of them this morning. Three is not enough for a Park of this size. I will say that their prices are as good or better than most Parks, just not enough equipment.

Adam Smith wrote this about education over 200 years ago, he would be appalled that nothing has changed.

The endowments of schools and colleges have necessarily diminished, more or less, the necessity of application in the teachers. Their subsistence, so far as it arises from their salaries, is evidently derived from a fund, altogether independent of their success and reputation in their particular professions.

If the authority to which he is subject resides in the body corporate, the college, or university, of which he himself is a member, and in which the greater part of the other members are, like himself, persons who either are, or ought to be teachers, they are likely to make a common cause, to be all very indulgent to one another, and every man to consent that his neighbour may neglect his duty, provided he himself is allowed to neglect his own. In the university of Oxford, the greater part of the public professors have, for these many years, given up altogether even the pretence of teaching.

If the authority to which he is subject resides, not so much in the body corporate, of which he is a member, as in some other extraneous persons, in the bishop of the diocese, for example, in the governor of the province, or, perhaps, in some minister of state, it is not, indeed, in this case, very likely that he will be suffered to neglect his duty altogether...The person subject to such jurisdiction is necessarily degraded by it, and, instead of being one of the most respectable, is rendered one of the meanest and most contemptible persons in the society. It is by powerful protection only, that he can effectually guard himself against the bad usage to which he is at all times exposed; and this protection he is most likely to gain, not by ability or diligence in his profession, but by obsequiousness to the will of his superiors, and by being ready, at all times, to sacrifice to that will the rights, the interest, and the honour of the body corporate, of which he is a member.

21 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

Wasted more time and bytes yesterday trying to get my money back from Yahoo. I canceled my Hosting service with them twice and then when I received a notice from them that they were going to charge my account I removed one Credit Card but had to leave one available to pay for Domain registration. They used that to charge me for another year of web Hosting.

I finally found a telephone number to call about the billing and charge and got an Indian, one in India, on the line. I do not do telephones well and I did not do well with her. She told me she would cancel my service, which I had canceled twice, and give me a pro-rata refund. This was what I understood after repeated "What did you say. Would you repeat? I did not understand."

I am soon to be through with Yahoo. I have been using their Classic Mail for over a year because I did not like what they upgraded to. I know that will go away and I would rather be the one to leave first. I thought it was a good idea to leave my Domain Registration with them since they are simply a reseller for a company in Australia. I now realize that was a bad decision so that will be pulled also. We will see what that decision cost me if/when I get a refund.

Yesterday morning I received a 50% Usage Alert from Verizon. This is good, I was in day 17 of my billing cycle. I increased my Daily Quota yesterday by 10MB which I think will bring my usage right up to the limit at month end. We will see. NetWorx has been doing a good job for me so far.

Overcast with a cold wind blowing this morning. The forecast is for a high of 68° but it has been slow getting there. There is also a 60% chance of rain so my afternoon walk could be rained out again. About a 50/50 chance of rain on Sunday and Monday also.

I got a couple of maps built for the 2007 ITG during the past couple of days. I have two more to go and will have finished the second month of that trip. The third month is not a full 30 days and is all west of the Mississippi where building maps is easier. With any luck at all it will go faster.

President Obama read too much Alinsky and not enough Adam Smith. He has managed to effectively use what he learned however so I guess ignoring Adam Smith has not hurt him any.

Fear is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of govermnent, and ought in particular never to be employed against any order of men who have the smallest pretensions to independency. To attempt to terrify them, serves only to irritate their bad humour, and to confirm them in an opposition, which more gentle usage, perhaps, might easily induce them either to soften, or to lay aside altogether... For though management and persuasion are always the easiest and safest instruments of government as force and violence are the worst and the most dangerous; yet such, it seems, is the natural insolence of man, that he almost always disdains to use the good instrument, except when he cannot or dare not use the bad one.

22 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

Boonie stopped by yesterday for a short visit. He had come to town from his boondock camp to reprovision at Smith's and take on water at the Petro Truck Stop near my Park. We talked for a while and Patches got to do her "Welcome, Welcome" act. Among the things talked about is getting together and doing a walk and letting Coffee Girl and Patches run together again.

Just before we were went out for our afternoon walk it showered. It had been doing that for a couple of hours, never much of a rain but enough to get a person and dog WET. We did a short potty walk within the Park, staying close to Desperado if it were to shower again.

There was a lot of standing water on the roads this morning and some in the Park. The official measurement for yesterday and last night was 0.33". It looked like more with the dirt truck parking lots for Love's and Petro a muddy mess. We stayed on the pavement for our walk but had some problems getting around a couple lakes. Patches does not want to walk in the water any more than I do but she does not have the same aversion to mud. Silly dog!

I got two more of the 2007 ITG route maps built this morning which finished up a month. Then did the prep work required to finish the Total Trip map and the edits necessary to place link anchors in the Journal page. The Total Trip map will not take much time to finish and then there will be only 10 more individual route maps to do.

The first book that I read by Wilbur Smith was River God reviewed on 2 December 2014. This one is his fourth book in the Courtney Series but the first in the Series that I have read. I found that this Amazon Customer Review expresses my feelings about the book. As the reviewer says below I did not like Centaine much either. The most likable characters in the book were O'wa and H'ani the two San or Bushmen that saved her life. I don't think character development is Smith's long suit. However, his historical background placement for the story was excellent and I will continue to look for his books for that reason.

I didn't care for this book particularly. The leading lady is not likeable at all. Yes, she has lost a lot of loved ones and been shipwrecked, etc., but she is too hard boiled for my tastes and too determined to get her own way. While she is horrified that Lothar has killed her little friends who saved her from the desert, she has no qualms about destroying their sacred grounds when she is diamond hunting. She can't forgive Lothar for doing something in fear and superstition and tries to kill him even though he has saved her life as well as her baby's life when they were attacked by a lion. She invites him into her bed and gets pregnant, much like she did with Michael Courtney and then totally turns away from him after she has been saved by him and then gives away her baby. I understand the anger but what about all of the horrible things she has done? She killed the old sailor who saved her when they were shipwrecked. She is not a nice person and I suspect that in the sequel, she will not improve. - Amazon Customer Review

23 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

I was not feeling up to doing a two mile walk this morning so decided to do the one mile loop route from the Park. After I finished that loop I didn't feel so bad so did it again. It felt cold during the first lap but the sun popped up over the ridge just as we were stating the second and it was not bad at all.

However, it did not seem to warm up much after that and the wind picked up. Around 9:30 I was getting cold in Desperado and fired up the Wave heater. Patches agreed with me and promptly crowded up as close to it as she could. It was about 53° when I decided that the Wave was needed and I continued to need it off and on with the high reaching only 59 with a 20mph wind. Maybe back into the 70s for the high and 40s for the low starting Tuesday.

I finished getting all the Total Trip markers in place for the 2007 ITG this morning. It took a little longer because I didn't save some of the preliminary work that I did yesterday. Thought I had saved it but had to do it over today. I will go back and replace the markers that are there now with numbered markers - probably tomorrow. Then make sure that all the links are working - that could happen tomorrow or maybe in a couple of days.

I have received NO pro-rata refund from Yahoo. That may take up some more of my time on Monday or Tuesday.

On 29 April I wrote "There is only one thing that can save the country from falling into recession as I see it - change the GDP methodology again!" Guess what this blog posting BEA Works to Mitigate Potential Sources of Residual Seasonality in GDP by The Bureau of Economic Analysis says they are going to do?

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is working on a multi-pronged action plan to improve its estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) by identifying and mitigating potential sources of “residual” seasonality. That’s when seasonal patterns remain in data even after they are adjusted for seasonal variations.
Each spring, BEA conducts an extensive review–receiving updated seasonally adjusted data from the agencies that supply us with data used in our calculation of GDP. Most of the data the feeds into GDP is seasonally adjusted by the source agency, not BEA. At the same time, BEA examines its own seasonal factors for those series that BEA seasonally adjusts itself. All that work takes place in preparation for BEA’s annual revision to GDP and its major components, which will be released on July 30.

24 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

Made progress on the Total Trip map for the 2007 ITG yesterday. It was not as simple as I had hoped it to be. There were 41 markers and if any one of the lines of data for those markers had an error in syntax then the map would not appear. Finding my errors was most time consuming.

Today I was able to verify that all the links in the InfoWindows were working up through the first 31 camps. I'll check the last 10 after I have built their route maps. Will then also check that the links work from the Journal to all the route maps. This verification process eats up a lot of bytes as does the map building. I had a of of errors in my links and anchors in those first 31.HA

Patches and I explored a new route this morning. We first went along Old Highway 66, which we walk a lot, then turned south southwest and crossed the Interstate on a pedestrian bridge. Followed an ATV track to the Petro Truck parking lot then back under the Interstate on a route that we have been walking.

This was about a half mile farther than what we have been doing in the mornings and afternoons - close to 2.75 miles. I don't know how often we will do this route but it was a good break in our routine.

The clouds were building as we walked and it felt colder when we finished than when we started. It was not just me - the low of 34° was set while we were walking. I had the Wave heater off and on again during most of the morning with the temps in the 50s and the high expected to be 58. Rain guesses are at 40% for today and tomorrow with increasing high temperatures after that - maybe into the 80s by the 1st of June.

On 16 March 2015 I listed the 5 Baldacci books that I have read and reviewed. They were a mix from his various Series and stand alone books. This is the first from his John Puller Series that I have read, the second in the Series. Like almost all of his books that I have reviewed previously this one was entertaining but the long review I copied explains the weakness. Do not expect great writing but you will be entertained.

I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads's First Reads program. I've only read one other David Baldacci novel, Absolute Power, and that was over five years ago. I don't remember much about it, but I have a vague memory of enjoying it. If anyone were to ask me about David Baldacci based solely on that book, I probably would have said that, although crime/suspense isn't my usual choice of genre, he's good at what he does and is worth checking out. The Forgotten started off on a strong note, and I thought I'd enjoy it as well...but it was very up and down for me (sadly, mostly down).
The plot was sometimes interesting ... but at other times it was painfully slow. Some scenes were obviously just in there to drop clues. I hate when you can tell that. The character development was basically nonexistent. I like to read books that contain interesting, well-rounded characters, and there were none to be found. The "romance" was laughable...The writing was a little too silly for my taste, too...
I know this is a terribly negative review, and usually I can find more nice things to say than this, but I had a hard time taking this book seriously. Honestly, I'm glad I didn't pay for it. I would have been disappointed. - Goodreads Customer Review

25 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

We were up a few minutes early this morning. I wanted to check for email. Boonie was going to stop by this morning but I did not know what time for sure. No email so we did a long potty walk that had us back at Desperado by 6:30.

Boonie arrived and Patches threw a fit. We got her settled down enough to ride in Boonie's van to a place where we could turn her and Coffee Girl off leash. Patches did her usual intimidation and then all was well for a 3 mile out and back walk while the dogs ran. It is easy to walk the longer distance when you have good conversation, good scenery and a couple of active dogs to accompany you.

We then went to the Kiva Restaurant for breakfast. I had a huge Denver Omelet with a good sized serving of home fries. The coffee was so-so but the server kept the cups full. A better experience than what I remember having last year when I stopped. It was also good to have some company and more good conversation.

We had a very nice morning for our walk but by 11:00 the clouds had rolled in. The expected 40% chance of rain had been increased to 80% and I was getting some by 11:30. Also got a heavy hail storm about an hour later, fortunately the hail was small. The guessers are now carrying their expectations into tomorrow with a 20 % chance. Warmer temperatures after today - maybe.

I devoted more time than I wanted trying to get my Domain Registration transferred from Yahoo! Hosting (a reseller for) Melbourne IT Ltd to Web Hosting Hub.

Received an automated response to my Melbourne IT email that provided a web page form that would send an email to someone that would help me. Received a "Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender" reply when I did that. Sent another email to Melbourne IT Support with copies of my previous efforts and have not received a reply.

Also sent a Secure Message to Ally Bank asking them if they could get my money back from Yahoo!. Explained that Yahoo! have charged me for web hosting that they will not be providing and that they have lied to me about giving me a refund. They acknowledged receipt of the Message.

26 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

A tired dog is a happy dog. Patches was a happy dog yesterday afternoon. We did another long potty walk and that was enough for both of us. She was a little foot sore with a small cut on one foot but no limping this morning.

Had an On-line Chat with Alley Bank this morning. Filed a dispute over the Yahoo Hosting charge that their Customer Service Representative (in India) said would be refunded. It has not and I believe she lied to me per company policy. They expect me to eat the charge and go away because it is so difficult to contact them. Maybe the Bank can get their attention?

The low temperature of 32° this morning matched that posted yesterday. It was at the low both mornings when we did our walk but it seemed colder this morning. The guessers have reduced the chance of rain to 10% today but it has clouded up like it did yesterday. They expect the high for today to reach the 70s. I think when it warms up it is going to go from warm to hot overnight.

I spoke too soon about the route maps west of the Mississippi being easier to build. I said that before trying to build one yesterday that tried to follow the Lewis and Clark Trail where I drove through 3 Indian (American) Reservations. Google API Maps does not consider my route the shortest one so it was a fight to get it to draw the approximate route. I'm hoping for easier builds for the remainder of 2007 ITG.

I did get two more maps built this morning. The first one was a bit complicated but the second one was not too bad. I even have some byte quota remaining for the day so I might get another 1-2 built later today. Making good progress.

Not making much progress with Melbourne IT Ltd. I have not received any help from them that will let Web Hosting Hub transfer my Domain Registration. I have started purging my Yahoo Mail account which is some progress.

Forwarded some of the emails that I have been keeping to my mail account at edlfrey.edwardfrey.com. Soon I will send out a mass email notifying all my saved addresses about my new email address. Any address that are undelivered will get deleted and save me the trouble of entering them in a Contact List at the new address.

27 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

For my 'linners' this week I made up some potato and sardine patties. Boiled the potatoes, rough mashed them and then mixed the potato and sardines together before forming the patties. Every day I will now brown the patties in a skillet and serve with some sour cream and dill on top. I have made other patties like this using red salmon, which is very expensive, and think I like the sardine ones better.

Patches and I walked a 29 mile week that ended yesterday. We haven't done that distance since December. We have been dogging it. HA

Saw a semi- truck trailer pull into Love's Truck Stop as we were finishing our walk this morning. One of the drivers opened side doors on the trailer and went in to check on the horses. I saw a transport similar to this in 2007 while I was staying at Mark Twain State Park with only one Budweiser Clydesdale outside with the groom (although I think there were more in the trailer). This one today had 6 horses inside.

Those I saw today were from Express Clydesdales owned by Bob Funk, CEO and Chairman of Express Employment Professional, and Express Ranches in Yukon, OK. They participate in parades also but are not as famous as the Budweiser Team.

A couple of the differences between the two hitches. Express are black with four white stocking feet, a blaze of white on the face and a black mane and tail. Budweiser have a bay coat, four white legs, a white blaze, and a black mane and tail. Express is a six horse hitch whereas Budweiser is a ten horse.

I didn't do any more map building yesterday afternoon but got two completed this morning. The first one was as simple as simple could be. The second one I knew was going to be a bit of a problem because I crossed on an Interstate bridge and then was driving in a city. I'll have the same problem with the next map but then will have only two remaining that should be easy builds. Maybe finish the 2007 ITG route maps today or tomorrow.

28 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

I got two of the three route maps for 2007 ITG built yesterday after we finished our walk. Got a good start on the last one and ran out of byte quota. Finished it this morning. Now all I need to do is proof and edit the last 10 Infowindows in the Total Trip map and all of the route maps in the Journal. I say all but that is going to take some time. Maybe finish tomorrow.

I received my first two email messages in my Web Hosting Hub email account today. Both of them were Spam. I tried to set up a filter that will reject these two sending addresses but don't know if I have done so or not. I have also enabled the Spam Assassin that Web Hosting Hub makes available. I'll see what/how these step work.

This is the third Steve Berry Book that I have read and they have all been excellent. The first two were The Venetian Betrayal reviewed on 16 February 2015 and The Romanov Prophesy on 28 March 2015. As with his other two books what I enjoyed the most about this one was the background history about Columbus. If you can believe what he says in the Author Notes this is a non-fiction novel with a thin layer of fiction to make for an entertaining story. The paperback that I read included a 50 page short story The Admiral's Mark. If I had known to do so I would have read it first, it would have been a good prologue to the novel. I hope I can find more of Berry's books, they have all been great.

This engrossing stand-alone thriller from bestseller Berry (The Third Secret) assumes the premise that Columbus was a Jew, Christoval Arnoldo de Ysassi, forced to convert to Christianity, and that aboard his ships were sacred artifacts rescued from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, including a golden menorah, which he hid on his last voyage to the New World. On the trail of those artifacts and a rumored gold mine are Béne Rowe, a wealthy and powerful Jamaican Maroon, and Zachariah Simon, a Jew intent on returning the artifacts to Jerusalem. The grave of Abiram Sagan, father of disgraced reporter Tom Sagan, may hold the key to finding the treasures. Simon succeeds in reawakening the reporter’s dormant investigative skills, prompting a quest that wends through Vienna, Prague, and 500 years of history before culminating in the caves of Jamaica. Berry’s imaginative mix of Judaic and Columbus lore as well as Tom’s transformation from suicidal flop to heroic everyman should please his many fans. - Publishers Weekly

There is no art which one government sooner learns of another, than that of draining money from the pockets of the people. - Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations)

How could he have known about the 'bank depositor bail-in' (confiscation of personal bank balances) in Cyprus which it looks like Greece will emulate. Or the confiscation of personal pension accounts by Argentina to pay national debts. Greece has done this also and it is a model that more than one 'expert' in the US of A wants our federal government to do.

29 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

I did proof and edit the last 10 Infowindows in the 2007 ITG Total Trip map yesterday. I think I would have finished proofing all the route maps in the Journal also except for one big serious error. One of the maps that had been difficult for me to build was easier the second time and I did a better job drawing the route. I had to do it over because I made a very stupid error when I saved what I had built the first time.

Finished proofing the rest of the route maps this morning. I have re-done all of the Teardrop Total Trip maps that I built previously by changing the markers to numbered ones. I'll now do that with the Car Trips and the Bicycle Tours also. Those are relatively easy changes to make.

A re-build of the 2012 Camps map in the drop down menu is also on my To Do List which is also not too difficult. All of those should be done within a week. Then the 2008 Quest Teardrop Trip, which will be as difficult as the 2007 ITG, will become the longer term project.

Is it any wonder that I forget to include the Will Rogers weekly article link from time to time. I had to do an Internet Search today to find out what day of the week it was. My watch tells me the date but not the day of the week. Now that I know all I have to do is remember to include the link.

Victor Davis Hanson has written a very good summery of what the next president of the US of A is going to face in world affairs Knocking on war's door. I don't know who that is going to be but would bet that it will be a Republican. We will become embroiled in another global scale war which the Democrats will vote for but then blame the Republicans during the 2020 presidential campaign. I love it when a plan comes together!

Barack Obama, like Carter, came into office promising a sharp break from past U.S foreign policy. The public was receptive after the costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the recent financial meltdown on Wall Street.
Troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan on pre-announced deadlines. The post-surge quiet in Iraq fooled Obama into eagerly yanking out all U.S. peacekeepers.
A new outreach to radical Islam went to ridiculous lengths. The Muslim Brotherhood was invited to Obama’s speech in Cairo that claimed the West owed cultural debts to Islam for everything from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment.
Terms like radical Islam, jihad and Islamic terror were excised from the official American vocabulary and replaced by a host of silly euphemisms.
In symbolic tours, Obama offered apologies for past American behavior in the Middle East and Asia. He bowed to both theocratic sheiks and the Asian monarchs.
The defense budget was cut. Reset with Vladimir Putin’s Russia assumed that the Bush administration, not Putin’s prior aggression in Georgia and threats to the Crimea, had caused the estrangement between Moscow and Washington.
Predictable chaos followed as the U.S. became an observer abroad. The Islamic State appeared to fill the vacuum in Iraq. Syria imploded. So did most of North Africa. Iran sent agents, surrogates and special forces into Iraq, Syria and Yemen, even as it pressed on to get a bomb.
China stepped up its violations of the waters and airspace of America’s traditional Asian allies. Putin did the same in Eastern and Northern Europe.
By 2015, America’s enemies had created chaos and defined it as the new normal.
The next president will face a terrible dilemma. To restore order, he or she will have to convince our allies that we are recommitted to their security. The Obama foreign policy cannot continue much longer without provoking even more chaos or a large war. Yet correcting it will be nearly as dangerous. Jumping off the global tiger is dangerous, but climbing back on will seem riskier.

30 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

I have finished re-building those Total Trip maps that I had finished. There were 4 bicycling tours that I had not built Total Trip maps for so I started on those today. Got one built and was about 3/4 of the way through a second one and lost everything that I had done. I don't know what combination of keys I hit but 'poof' all that work disappeared. I quit. I'll go back to it later today - maybe.

When we went for our morning walk I saw that the Park was almost full, maybe 3-4 spaces open. It was the most rigs I have seen in the Park at any one time since I have been here. Some of them will be gone by the time we do our afternoon walk but there will probably be others come in for an overnight stay during the weekend.

I am very frustrated with the transfer of my Domain. Melbourne IT will not provide me with the Registration Key that Web Hosting Hub has requested. In fact Melbourne IT will not respond to my requests other than send a auto response that they have received the requests.

Ally Bank has come through with a credit to my account for the Yahoo hosting charge that I have disputed. I don't know if Yahoo! is going to fight the charge back or not. This could become a saga that carries on for months or maybe it is all over - at this point I don't know.

The remarkable rise of Marie Harf by by Scott Johnson is a success story that we just don't get to read very often in these troubled times. I'm not up to speed with governmental job titles so I had to use Wikipedia to determine what Strategic Communications was. I think it means the related function within the State Department which handles internal and external communication processes.

This new position is being touted as a promotion but I don't see how Senior Advisor to John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, is a position with more power or more cachet than Acting Spokeswoman for the United States Department of State. In spite of what Mr. Johnson writes I think she is on the fast track within the Democratic Party, she is their kind of leader.

We have followed the performance of Marie Harf as a spokesman for the Obama administration foreign policy at the State Department. Harf gives the catastrophic foreign policy of the Obama administration a lighter than air, Valley Girl kind of feel. She is a walking self-parody. As such, she presents a novel use of expressive form.
Now comes word that Harf is being promoted to Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications to Secretary of State John Kerry. Like a helium filled balloon, Harf ascends. In her new position Harf will focus on negotiations between the U.S. and Iran on nuclear weapons. It sounds like a joke, but FOX News reports it as fact.
Harf has givesn us Obama administration foreign policy doctrine reduced to its talking points. Harf is a dim bulb and the complete authorized version of the doctrine according to Barry shines none too brightly to begin with. Reduced to talking points and subject to questions, the doctrine is quickly reduced to parody. Thus Marie Harf.

31 May
Bar S RV Park
Milan, NM

Boonie and Coffee Girl joined us in the Petro Truck Stop parking lot this morning so we humans could walk and the dogs could run. The dog runs were accomplished at dog fitness stations along our walking route. First was the dog run at Petro where Patches was able to do her patented fighter aircraft routine. Second was a gravel pit with a lot of trees and rabbits, one taking Patches for a good chase. Last was the elementary school playground where another rabbit had both dogs in hot pursuit.

I fed Patches upon our return and then Boonie and I went for ours at the Iron Skillet. I had a good Corned Beef Hash Skillet and decent coffee but at a price higher than I like to pay. I may return but the meal was not that much better than WOW Diner or the Kiva to pay the price.

Another shopping trip to Brooks followed. I was able to get in and out quickly today with few other people shopping this early Sunday morning. I also know where most of everything I buy is located so there is not the hunting and gathering that I do on a first visit.

The idiot lights for both holding tanks were showing full and it had been almost two weeks so I dumped the tanks after pulling into our space. Then backed up to where I want to be parked and plugged into electric. I didn't take on water today, the idiot light claims I have over a 1/2 full tank and the hose is long enough that I can do it later without moving.

Yesterday afternoon and this morning I finished the two remaining Total Tour maps for the Bicycling Tours. That leaves me 'only' the 2008 Quest Teardrop Trip for which I have to build all the route maps as well as the Total Trip map. But first I'll rebuild the 2012 Camp map that is in the drop down menu. Moving right along.