Peregrinating
2017

November

1 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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Where o where are all the Leftist when we need them. Why no immediate call for a truck ban or even background checks. If Sayfullo Saipov had used a gun to kill those 8 people in NYC that would be THE topic of the day. But using a truck is acceptable, after all there are thousands killed every year by motorized vehicles and it rarely becomes headline News. So just move along, nothing to see here.

A report on the prolonged saga of my psoriatic arthritis. I don't want to put a hex on any improvement but I felt better this morning when I got up. I think it has even been easier to get up from my chair. I still have the swollen 'sausage fingers' on the right hand and both hands are still painful but overall I think I'm better. I'll now go see if I can do the holding tank dumps. Be right back.

Well, I got 'er done. It hurt to do it - not a lot more than the hurting I do getting up out of my chair - but it took about twice as long to do. The Park added some other fittings to the sewer inlet and removed the loaner connection so I was able to use my fitting and sewer wrenches. Without the wrenches I would not have been able to dump. I need to get a channel lock to tighten the water hose connections as well, I can not tighten them enough by hand.

"That the lifting up of the weak, in the long run, is an unprofitable and useless business is evident on very brief reflection. Philanthropy, considered largely, is inevitably a failure. Now and then we may transform an individual pauper or drunkard into a useful, producing citizen, but this happens very seldom. Nothing is more patent, indeed, than the fact that charity merely converts the unfit—who, in the course of nature, would soon die out and so cease to encumber the earth—into parasites—who live on indefinitely, a nuisance and a burden to their betters. The "reformed" drunkard always goes back to his cups: drunkardness, as every physician knows, is as essentially incurable as congenital insanity. And it is the same with poverty. We may help a pauper to survive by giving him food and drink, but we cannot thereby make an efficient man of him—we cannot rid him of the unfitness which made him a pauper." - H. L. Mencken, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

2 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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I think the snowbird migration is beginning to arrive. I now have a neighbor two spaces over on my right side that looks like they are settled in for the winter. It took them a long time to find just that right place for their dual axle 5th wheel but they were prepared with about 30' of sewer hose because the outlet from the trailer is at about the middle. They are all set now with their grill out and set up, partial skirting attached around the front part of the trailer, multiple slide outs are out and awnings are extended. It is going to be interesting to see if the awnings survive the winter winds.

I discovered that my new neighbor also has a floodlight on his mobile castle that lights up the space between he and I better than those used for the Iron Curtain. Maybe he just forgot to turn it off but I doubt that. More than likely I'll live with the light pollution until someone moves into that vacant space to block the light. I feel for whoever does move in there, I could have sat out on my slab and read a book at 4:00 am.

The weather is beginning to be what the snowbirds come here for. The high yesterday was 83° with a low this morning of 67. The next 5 days are forecast to be low 80s for the high and low 60s for the low. I got here a couple weeks early and had some 90s but got here and had my A/C fixed which I could not get done in Pahrump. So the weather is shaping up, now if only my psoriatic arthritis would do the same I would be in tall cotton!

Say this 3 time - real fast. HA
"We think a thing because all other people think so; or because, after all, we do think so; or because we are told so, and think we must think so; or because we once thought so, and think we still think so; or because, having thought so, we think we will think so." - Prof. Henry Sidgwick, quoted in The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, by H. L Mencken.

"It seems plain, in a word, that so soon as any considerable portion of the women of the world become capable of doing men's work and of thus earning a living for themselves and their children without the aid of men, there will be in full progress a dangerous, if unconscious, war upon the institution of marriage." - H. L. Mencken, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

3 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: November 3, 1929

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This pixel art piece did not have a frame around it as shown on the cross stitch web site but since I know how I framed it. It was included in the two color group but as a black and white like the zebra, I wanted a bit more color so it has become a three color piece. There is another one similar to this that I will do but there are others to do first.

When I think I am seeing/feeling some improvement in my psoriatic arthritis it gets worse at some other point in my body. The hip and butt feel like they have improved making it a little easier getting out of a chair. Then this morning my right hand and wrist are swollen along with the the couple of 'sausage fingers'. I'll be back on an ibuprofen cycle starting tomorrow, maybe that will reduce the swelling.

The Lame Stream Media is trumpeting the 4.1% unemployment rate but fail to give the same treatment to the new record number 95,385,000 Not In The Labor Force. If it were not for people leaving the labor force the unemployment rate would have been higher but the Media continues the propaganda that the economy is great. President Trump now owns this lie and will suffer the consequences when the bubble pops. He had an opportunity to fix this early on but wanted the Media to report that he was Making America Great Again - sad.

The Las Vegas Massacre has disappeared from the News except for some of the alternative blog sites. This quote was pulled from one of those but even that posting does not question the fact that of about 150 people that were admitted to various hospitals and as critical not a one of them has been reported as having died. I guess the Lame Stream Media does not count anyone that dies from their wounds as part of the Massacre death toll. However alternative News is reporting that " in just the span of a month, 4 survivors of the Vegas shooting have died."

- Jon Hall, The Las Vegas Massacre, Amid A Revolving News Cycle, Demands More Public Questioning Rather Than Simply Fading Away

"To the average American or Englishman the very name of anarchy causes a shudder, because it invariably conjures up a picture of a land terrorized by low-browed assassins with matted beards, carrying bombs in one hand and mugs of beer in the other. But as a matter of fact, there is no reason whatever to believe that, if all laws were abolished tomorrow, such swine would survive the day. They are incompetents under our present paternalism and they would be incompetents under dionysian anarchy. The only difference between the two states is that the former, by its laws, protects men of this sort, whereas the latter would work their speedy annihilation…
"The masses, in any nation," he [Nietzsche] says, "are ready to sacrifice their lives, their goods and chattels, their consciences and their virtue, to obtain that highest of pleasures: the feeling that they rule, either in reality or in imagination, over others. On these occasions they make virtues of their instinctive yearnings, and so they enable an ambitious or wisely provident prince to rush into a war with the good conscience of his people as his excuse." - H. L. Mencken, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

4 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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I have been posting quotes from this book for the past few days which should have given you a good idea of what it was about and what it was like. The edited customer review simply adds to that.
This book is a satisfactory summary of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche...It is also, I think, a summary of the philosophy of HL Mencken, who is an enthusiastic fan of the man who provides his subject matter. Normally I think I would rather hear an intelligent critic's summary of any given philosophy than a rabid fan's, but in this case Mencken's outlook somewhat adds to the reading experience.
There are probably not a lot of people these days, other than maybe the type of person who listens to death metal, who can subscribe to Nietzsche's philosophy entirely. This is because on the one hand, Nietzsche is a fan of science, societal progress, and rejection of traditional morality, typically associated with the left. But on the other hand, he is an advocate of aristocracy and the subjugation of the weak to the strong, typically associated with the right. However, Mencken's own views combine these two outlooks. In fact, Mencken is known for his mockery of American white rural Christianity from an elitist aristocratic perspective. This is a practice which in our age has been taken up by those who are ostensibly on the left and in opposition to hierarchy, but in Mencken it is associated with an open contempt for democracy… Edited Customer Review at goodreads.com

I got started drawing stained glass panel #49 yesterday and was moving along really well until I got to the center design which requires cubic Bezier curves. I just can not wrap my mind around where I need to put the 'control points' to render the curve shape that I want. I'll get there but it is a very frustrating process.

Working on that drawing and more reading of a new book on my Paperwhite are all I have planned for today. Weather is starting to be what the Chamber of Commerce likes to brag about but haven't seen anymore snowbirds land here, at least not close by.

5 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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I wore my flannel shirt again for this morning's walk and it was the appropriate dress. The low was 60° and that happened about the time we were out there. The high yesterday was 81 with more of the same to come during the next 5 days if the NWS guys have guessed right.

I made some more progress on panel #49 but there is still more difficult curves to be drawn. What I managed to do yesterday was connect 4 cubic Bezier curves to form the shape that I wanted coded in a way that the shape could be color filled. It sounds simple when I write it but no so easily coded.

I am cautiously optimistic that this cycle of ibuprofen will get the psoriatic arthritis under control. Not eliminate the pain completely but enough that I can quit taking any pain meds and see what the GoPo® can do for me. I may be receiving it by the time I finish this cycle on the 13th; Amazon gave a delivery date of 8-27 November. Or maybe not. HA

6 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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Just another shopping day with nothing extra added, back to a usual routine. The restaurant had what I planned on getting, Huevos con Chorizo, on Special. That is two weeks in a row that has happened.

The shopping excursion took a bit longer today with a couple items on the list that I do not buy very often. Then there were some new items that I needed to pick up for an anticipated change in my breakfast fare. I go into that more in a few days when I whip up a batch of the New Breakfast.

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Panel 49

A lot of cubic Bezier curve coding for this Panel #49 combined with circles. This is not drawn quite the same as what is shown on the stained glass web page but it is close or as the Bulgarians were fond of saying "It is good enough". The next panel, #50, is almost identical with onlty a different background of lines. I'm not going to draw it but will move on to #51 which is going to be another difficult one.

7 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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I got started on the pentagonal Type 15 yesterday and it has been coming together far easier than I thought it would. The primitive Unit has 12 tile in the group so any small error along the way in putting it together will make the tiling of the plane impossible. I can only hope that I do not make that small error. I also started another pixel art drawing. Not far enough into that one to see any picture forming.

leftpic This book was not nearly as good as the first one that read by Pio. It is the first of a trilogy but only this one has been translated from its original Spanish. Perhaps it is a better book in Spanish and has lost something in translation but I never quite 'got into it'. His first book was written much like H. L. Mencken writes but there would be no confusion about Mencken having anything to do with this one. I cound not find any customer reviews for it either and suggest that it be read for the same reason that I did - to find out what Pio Baroja wrote.

I had a H. G. Wells downloaded on my Paperwhite that after reading the first paragraph knew that I had read it before. It was a very short book, more a short story, that had been included with other short stories in a book that I had read. I then started reading another book by H. L Mencken which was a book of verse/poetry that he had compiled versus wrote. This too was a very short book, I'm not much of a poetry reader so I skimmed through that rather quickly. No reviews for either of these.

8 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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I love the smell of wet greasewood in the morning. That is what I had this morning while on our walk. The rain started last night about the time I went to bed and with my better ear I could hear the pitter patter on the roof. For me to hear it meant that it was coming down rather hard but the official measurement was 0.07". I think there was more because of the standing water in the Park roads and at the intersection of Ave 3 E & 19th St.

I finished the pentagonal Type 15 primitive unit drawing and started the tiling. It looks like I have drawn it correctly with the tiling coming together. Maybe finish it up today and have something to show tomorrow. I'll also be working on the pixel art piece which I think is the largest one that I have attempted so far which means it will take some time to draw.

Made up some red salmon potato patties this morning. I usually use skinless sardines because canned red salmon is hard to find and when found it is rather expensive. I get some when I can find it and decide to splurge.

This blog posting by Charles Hugh Smith Our Culture of Rape made me want to say, "Why don't you really tell us how you feel Charles?" It is worth reading.

9 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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I have very little to report, if you don't do much then there is not very much to write. I did make up a batch of my new breakfast that I will start eating tomorrow. This concoction still contains barley but it was cooked in apple juice with diced dates, dried apricots and walnut pieces. I intend on reheating a serving every morning in a bit of apple juice with a big dab of butter. When the butter has melted - bon appétit. I'll write about the eating experience tomorrow be it good or just another learning opportunity.

rightpic rightpic rightpic This Type 15 Pentagonal was easier to draw than I thought it was going to be. The primitive unit went together so easy I was sure that I had made a mistake somewhere along the way but they tiled just as easily. Like Type 14 this one has completely determined tiles, with no degrees of freedom other than the side lengths. All of the angles must be as shown in the single tile drawing. There are some nonperiodic monohedral pentagonal tilings and dual k-uniform tilings on the same web page as the pentagonal types that I have been drawing that I am going to try to do also. Soon, maybe.

"It is established policy in the United States that police agencies have no duty to protect citizens, and are not liable for any harm that comes to citizens due to police inaction. In other words, the taxpayers are required to pay for "protection" from police. But the police aren't required to actually provide services." - Ryan McMaken, When Gunmen Strike, You're on Your Own

10 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: November 10, 1929

Those that have not been reading the Will Rogers columns may wish to start with this one today. Will wrote about the Stock Market Crash which most historians mark as the beginning of the Great Depression. I have repeatedly said that I'm expecting a rhyme with that history and there will be a Greater Depression. Reading Will going forward may provide some guidance.

My new breakfast is a keeper. I don't know for how long but I think as long as the last one I put together. I did find that the small amount of apple juice added this morning when I reheated is not necessary. The added butter provides any additional liquid that may be needed. It is good!

leftpic I selected this book to download from the book list for H. G Wells at Gutenberg but he wrote only the introduction. Why he wrote the introduction is somewhat a puzzle for me since it seemed out of character from past introductions and from what he wrote in his own books. The book has no reviews that I could find and I doubt that it is on many 'to be read lists' but it is a good story and has lead me to another author.

The GoPo® that I ordered from Amazon that was to be delivered sometime between 8-27 November did not get here on the 8th or the 9th. Amazon is not the seller and with a bit of digging I find that the seller is a company in England. They do not provide a Tracking # and I did not believe that it was shipped on 26 October as Amazon claimed. So, I have sent an email to the seller asking for more information about the delivery date.

I do not want it today but have a hope that my pains will be reduced enough with this cycle of ibuprofen that I can start taking the GoPo® on the 14th. The acetaminophen that I have been taking between ibuprofen cycles does very little for the inflammation pains. I'm hoping that the GoPo® will be better or at least as effective per their claim that it reduces inflammation.

11 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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Happy Veterans Day!no pic

This is shaping up to be a do nothing kind of day. I did get out there and do our morning walk. I will also cook some cod in the Roaster this morning. I'll get some more of the latest pixel art drawn during the day. That is about all the excitement that I can endure.

I guess I could go out and take advantage of the Free Meals that are being offered to veterans on this Veterans Day. It just does not seem worth the bother when I have to go shopping tomorrow. Or, I could go shopping today - Nah.

12 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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The right side neighbor's floodlight is an on and off irritation (pun intended). He does not have it on every night but having it on at all is enough. Then this morning when I got up for my 4:00 am med dosage the RV castle on my left had theirs on also. My little Class 'C' was lighted up like the yard in a maximum security prison. What is it that prompts people having to have exterior lighting? I don't understand the desire nor the need.

Shopping day for me and a lot of like minded folks at Fry's this morning. I am there at about the same time every time I go and there was a bigger crowd this morning than I remember from my previous trips. I got everything that I wanted or a substitute (wanted Molina brand vanilla).

Breakfast was at the same place, had one of the two same things I have been having. The only difference was the waitress. This one was a little cool toward me as was the other waitress the first visit. I guess it takes repeat visits for them to become more outgoing.

I backed into my space at the Park so that I was in position to dump holding tanks but will put it off until tomorrow. I backed into the space this morning like I knew what I was doing, only slightly crooked. By the time I leave here I should know what I am doing. HA

13 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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The low this morning was 60° which felt cold as the backwash from big trucks swept over me while on our walk. We have a high cloud cover this morning which I am guessing arrived in the early hours. It they had formed last night after sundown they would have retained the heat of yesterday's 86° high. Still only up to 65 at 8:30 but the weather guessers think it will reach 87 for a high today - I don't think so.

Good weather for dumping holding tanks. I got that done in less time than the last dumping and didn't hurt as much. I still could not have done it without the sewer hose wrenches but did add fresh water and got the hose connected without much leaking. I do need to get a channel lock pliers however.

That will be my accomplishment for the day I do believe. More drawing on the big pixel art project which is starting to look good but I have a lot remaining and it is slow going.

"In prosperous times, a population tends not to complain too much about being robbed through taxation. They grumble a bit, but tolerate it. However, in more stringent times, when people are finding it more difficult to make ends meet, they become more resentful of governments that are chronically both overreaching and wasteful." - Jeff Thomas, What Will Push Them Over the Edge?

14 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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The package of GoPo® arrived yesterday which was timely. I finished my latest cycle of ibuprofen this morning at 4:00 am and will take my first dosage of glycoside of mono and diglycerol (the active ingredient) at noon.

"Claims have been made that rosehip extracts relieve pain in osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and there is a reasonable amount of research to support this." I have not found much discussion about how effective it is with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) so this is a bit of a test. There are fewer side effects and interactions listed than with ibuprofen so I don't think I'll be doing any harm and optimistically I'll reduce the inflammation pain just as well.

I got hit with big data usage yesterday per Verizon. Data Saver showed that I used about 90Mb so I was expecting 180 but got 460. I know now that Data Saver never counts the Chrome updates so I checked that first and found that I am now on Chrome 62.0.3202.82. It was less than a month ago that I went to 61 and did not expect this update so soon. I am now over my usage budget but not by much and have a lot of time to adjust.

Yesterday afternoon we walked along the border of the big open field that is west and south of the Park. Very soft sand that is even worse where there has been traffic. Then to top it off there was a tractor with a disk that was working that field in what looks like the beginning of planting alfalfa. This was thought to be a place to walk but I have written that off for now.

The high temperature did reach 87° yesterday which I did not think was going to happen with the cloud cover. Then next 4 days are forecast to be repeats with very few clouds and then cool down to the low 80s and maybe a high 70s on Saturday with lows in the upper 50s. No mass influx of snowbirds at this Park although it is now 'the season'.

15 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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I could not get it out of my mind that the hero of this book was Wells' Superman/New Republican trying to form a One World Government and not being up to the task. It is a good read and not too heavily laced with Wells' socialism. The Customer Review provides a concise plot summary.

Mr. Wells builds novels out of ideas as other men build them of imagery and emotions. William Porphyry Benham sets out to live the noble or aristocratic life, and the book is about what happens to him because of his beautiful obsession. Starting in his boyhood, and throughout his life, it produced profound adventures, yet also made him ridiculous, and even inspiring. It was a passion for courage, for personal nobility, for service to others, for self-sacrificing, all for the social betterment of the whole world. - Amazon Customer Review

It has not been 24 hours since I started the GoPo® regimen but I can provide this assessment. The sausage fingers on my right hand have returned when I stopped the ibuprofen. Will the swelling go down with the new treatment? This morning I hurt more than I did while taking the ibuprofen. But I don't think I hurt any more or less than when I stopped the ibuprofen and started a cycle of acetaminophen. I'll see how I feel during this 10 day cycle being off ibuprofen, so far no worse.

On our walk yesterday afternoon Patches and I were the catalyst for two little ankle biting dogs almost getting killed. We were walking north along Ave 3 E past a house on the east side when these yappers came running across the road and almost got hit. The woman owner came out after them and did not blame Patches or me but if we had not been walking past the dogs would not have been in the road. They would not have been in the road either IF she had kept them inside the house and she knew this. I would have felt very bad it they had been killed however. We will not be walking past there again!

16 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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There are things that I don't like about this RV Park although I can overlook most of them because of the price. The limited walking routes may keep me from coming back. More importantly the lack of communication from the Park office may keep me from coming back. No biggie but they changed the way I now need to get mail and never said anything until I happened to stop at the office and saw the mailbox pigeon holes were gone. What is a biggie is the bathrooms were available 24/7 but this morning I found that they had added a code lock and did not give me the code. That was a problem.

A little shorter walk because of the problem. I was hurting when I got up so it did not take a lot to convince me to do a shorter walk. The hands especially; they feel like they are on fire when I first get up. By the time I go to bed they feel like I'm making some progress but then there is that next morning wake up. New pains in the elbows which had been spared until I felt some soreness last week, that soreness is now approaching the pain level.

Jim Quinn has started writing another series of blog posting with the Fourth Turning as the focus. This is Part I - The Unbearable Slowness Of Fourth Turnings

I think these are his best takeaways in Part 2.
"The most important point to comprehend is the death of the existing social order always occurs during the course of a Fourth Turning." - Jim Quinn
"Don’t think you can escape the Fourth Turning. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

"Why are Democrats turning on the Clintons? Same reason Khrushchev turned on Stalin. They’re purging the Clintons for the same reasons that they defended them. They’re calling out Bill Clinton for his sexual assaults for the same reasons that they covered them up. It’s about power and money. The Democrats smeared Bill Clinton’s accusers then. Now they’ll exploit them to throw the Clintons out." - Daniel Greenfield, Why The Democrats Really Turned On Bill Clinton

17 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: November 17, 1929

The only things that I have to write about are the ongoing pixel art drawing, the weather and my psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

This latest pixel art is 199x199 in size with over half of it covered with colored pixels that for the most part are added one at a time. I have now finished about half of it but it is slow. Probably slower that what most people would do it as a cross stitch.

The weather continues to be what the Chamber of Commerce ordered. There was a Canadian couple that flew in yesterday as part of the snowbird migration. They are a few spaces to the left of me and across the street but I pass by them at least twice a day. The high temperature yesterday was 88° with a low this morning of 63. The weather guessers think that the high today will be 86 but then starting tomorrow there will be 4 days of 79 to 82 and lows in the 53-56 range.

The PsA has made my hands a mass of pain in the early hours. It is hard to get dressed in the morning when any movement of the fingers and/ or wrist hurts. I can not get up out of a chair without a lot of difficulty and pain but once up and after walking a few steps it is not very painful. The knees hurt a lot late at night and early in the morning and the left elbow has now reached their level of 'discomfort'. By late in the day I'm feeling much better but the mornings are rough.

Ordered more Arbuckles coffee yesterday and it is in transit. I'll probably get it delivered tomorrow but might not get it from the Park office until Monday. We will see.

18 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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Yesterday afternoon when my hands have started to feel better did not happen. I sent a Secure Message to my VA care team telling them what was going on, what I was taking as treatment and asked for an opinion. I said I wanted to up the dosage of ibuprofen to 2400mg/day during the next 10 day cycle and they said no problem.

I am now only in day 4 after coming off the ibuprofen and the GoPo® is not helping at this time. I'll continue taking it as the regimen advises but I may be adding a heavy dose of acetaminophen to see if that might help with the pain. It has not done much in the past but I can hope.

This was shopping day again with the breakfast stop before groceries and laundry after. While the washer was doing its thing I fired up my Chromebook with the idea that I would write this posting - multitasking you know. However, the Verizon signal here is very slow, timing out when trying to open some web pages, so I may not get it finished until I am back at the Park.

That cooler weather is being blown in with gusts of 31 mph. More blowing sand all around the Park which makes me so glad that I have that wall of oleanders right behind me. It may not be a good afternoon for a walk, we will have to see if it gets better or worse.

leftpic There were only a couple reviews of this book. This is another author from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that was popular and is no longer read. It is good entertainment and worth reading.

Leonard Merrick was an Anglo-Jewish novelist, short-story writer, and playwright whose works tended to focus on the theatrical and literary world. It seems surprising he isn't more widely known, since his novels are typically short, humorous, and pithy--a whole lot easier to read than those of, for example, his near-contemporary George Gissing, who dealt with similar themes. A constantly recurring theme in his work is the need for enough money to live on, which helps to give his work a contemporary feel while it takes the reader back into a now-vanished-forever late 19-early 20C. milieu. CYNTHIA, the story of a writer and his troubles with his career, his wife, and her family, is one of his finest. - Edited Customer Review at goodreads.com

"There is hope for the man who boasts of what he means to do; there is hope for the boaster who lies about what he is doing; but the man whose weakness is to boast of what he once did is doomed—he is a man who will succeed no more." - Leonard Merrick, Cynthia

This is a 'feel good' article that does exactly that but I have a small quibble with the last sentence starting with 'Perhaps'. There is no perhaps about it in my household, Patches is a family member!

“Dog ownership was especially prominent as a protective factor in persons living alone, which is a group reported previously to be at higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death,” Mubanga said. “Perhaps a dog may stand in as an important family member in the single households.” - Michelle Cortez, Getting a Dog May Save Your Life, Especially If You’re Single

19 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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I was cooking this morning. That does not mean that I was doing well - I was cooking. Made up a batch of breakfast meals using basically the same recipe as last time but used raisins rather than apricot and added some 100% chocolate. After I got that mixture boiling I put it in the Thermal Cooker for the rest of today. Next was to make up some sardine and potato patties and I might even cook some salmon in the Roaster. Or, put that off until tomorrow.

The winds died down yesterday afternoon and it is very calm this morning. I think there was a weather front pass through and we are now sitting right at what is considered normal barometric pressure whereas I think we had been under a high. However, those 4 days of 70s have become only 2 and it could be 90° on Thanksgiving.

When Wells wrote this 'cult' and 'propaganda' did not have the connotations that they do now in our language. He laid out the socialist plan for a World State and there have been members of the cult working diligently for 100 years. You can see the success they are having if you read the USA Today story that I have quoted and linked.

"The world state must begin; it can only begin, as a propagandist cult, or as a group of propagandist cults, to which men and women must give themselves and their energies, regardless of the consequences to themselves…
The activities of a cult which set itself to bring about the world state would at first be propagandist, they would be intellectual and educational, and only as a sufficient mass of opinion and will had accumulated would they become to a predominant extent politically constructive…
It is too often forgotten, in America, perhaps, even more than in Europe, that education exists for the community, and for the individual only so far as it makes him a sufficient member of the community. The chief end of education is to subjugate and sublimate for the collective purposes of our kind the savage egotism we inherit." - H. G. Wells, The Salvaging Of Civilization

"A long-awaited federal study finds that an estimated 32 million adults in the USA — about one in seven — are saddled with such low literacy skills that it would be tough for them to read anything more challenging than a children's picture book or to understand a medication's side effects listed on a pill bottle." - Greg Toppo, Literacy study: 1 in 7 U.S. adults are unable to read this story [1/8/2009]

Two stories about High School students that have volunteered to provide homeless veterans with the burial rights they deserve. If you read these two stories please note the names of the two schools that are involved; Catholic Memorial High School and University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy. No participation by State run schools was noted.
High School Gives Deceased Homeless Veteran a Military-Style Send Off
A final tribute': Teens serve as pallbearers for homeless military veterans

20 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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I want to give GoPo® a good chance to prove that it can do me some good but knew before I started that it would not happen the first day. The regimen is to take 3x2 capsules per day for the first 3 weeks which provides 786mg of the glycoside active ingredient plus 60mg of vitamin C. After that first 3 week period I will take 2x2 capsules per day with the hope that it will keep the inflammation under control as claimed.

The order that I placed with Amazon that took 20 days to reach me from the UK could have taken an additional 14 days and been within their promised delivery time. Because of the way I live there are times that I don't know where to have anything delivered that far out except my Sierra Vista UPS Store and then I would have to pay forwarding fees.

I wanted more but the Amazon delivery issue prompted me to start looking for a different supplier and I found one. Jet is an Amazon knock off so to speak that has been around since 2015 which offers some of the same things, GoPo® among them. They offer a lower price with a promised delivery of 11 day so I have placed an order and will see if they deliver as promised. Unfortunately their web site is a big data hog; know what you want, get in and get out.

There was one other difference in the breakfast recipe that I failed to mention. The barley. In the past I have used pearled barley which is about the only kind that you can find in grocery stores, when you can find any at all. I bought some hull-less a few months back and finally started to use some of it in this latest breakfast batch. Pearled barley has had the hull removed from the grain whereas hull-less is a variety of barley that has no hull - well almost none, I think I detected some this morning when eating some of that batch. I also need to learn how to cook it, it requires a longer cooking time and the Thermal Cooker didn't do it yesterday. What I had this morning was a firm nutty barley, not bad but I need to learn how to cook the hull-less.

The 76° high yesterday was delightful but the 52° low this morning was a lot less than forecast and with vehicle backdrafts it felt downright cold. It is still below 60 at 8:40 am but the weather guessers think that the low tomorrow will be warmer but so will the high. There is just no satisfying me! HA

"Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%. - Thomas Jefferson
And the US has passed that significant tipping point. The majority now depend upon handouts from the government...Historically, once a nation has reached this point, it never goes back. It’s ripe for a collectivist revolution...Essentially, what we’re observing in the US is a standard collectivist revolution, but in slo-mo. - Jeff Thomas, Where Does It End?

21 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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There were only a couple reviews of this book neither of them having much to say. There is nothing in the book that Wells has not said before in other books so I suggest that it could be skipped unless you want to read everything written by Wells.

This book is a compilation of previously published essays and undelivered lectures by Wells which addresses the possibility of a future World State. Wells drew on the experience of the Great War to propose a socialist World State brought about through education and the manipulation of popular opinion. He outlines a new codification of morality and a readjustment of education based on the interests of the state, rather than the individual.- Edited Wikipedia

When I fill my freshwater tank I watch for it to start overflowing to tell me that it is full because the idiot light is not reliable. The last time I filled up I had Desperado's front wheel on the overflow side sitting in a slight hole. This meant that the overflow was lower than than level and I did not have a full tank. That had me filling the tank again this morning and reminded me that I still need to get channel lock pliers.

I think that will be all that I do today although I did get started on my monthly household chores. The same ones that I do just before moving at the end of a one month stay. I'll be doing them during the next 2-3 days with the intent of finishing them before my next shopping day.

22 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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I finished cleaning the bathroom yesterday and then started on the floors. I don't remember my wrists hurting as bad a month ago when I did the floors. What I did remember was that after I get down it is hell to get back up. My efforts would probably make a hilarious video but it is not funny when you have to do it.

I'll be vacuuming the living room and the cab area this morning. Might wipe down the dash this afternoon but the window washing may not happen until tomorrow. The way my hands feel when trying to do anything with them beyond typing keeps me from rushing into housecleaning.

That will be the extent of my activities today other than this morning's walk and the one we will do this afternoon. More pixel art drawing although not very active is on tap as well as more time on the couch with Patches and a Rex Beach book on Paperwhite.

23 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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I don't know if Verizon is overloaded this morning because of Thanksgiving or if they are simply having problems but my connection is slow, slow, slow.

I didn't get Desperado's dash wiped down yesterday but will get it done this morning when I wash the windows. That will almost complet my household chores for this month. I do need to dump holding tanks and would do that today also if I were moving to another camp but will probably put that off for another day or two.

This is the last day of the most recent 10 day acetaminophen cycle. I tried to not take any for the first 3 days but hurt too much. Went with 3000mg/day for the next 4 days and have been taking 2000mg/day for the past 3. I never see any improvement while taking the acetaminophen it is only a pain reliever and gets me off ibuprofen for 10 days.

I'll start another 10 day cycle of the ibuprofen tomorrow and plan on moving up to a high dosage of 2400mg/day. From what I have read I should have been at that level to begin this treatment because ibuprofen does its inflammation work at the higher dosage levels pain relief at lower levels. This is all 'practicing medicine' i.e. trial and error although I have been assured that at these levels for the 10 days will not be an error.

leftpic An Alaska story, what Rex Beach was known for in the early 20th century. The Kindle version that I read did not have a forward that the Amazon Customer review mentions but it reads like it is a fictionalized true story. A quick read that keeps the suspense built up with very little romance that gets in the way. Recommended!

The race to build the first railroad in Alaska at the turn of the twentieth century and reach the vast untapped mineral wealth of the interior was a daring, high risk adventure played out between rugged visionaries and some unscrupulous promoters. The hardships, perseverance and the actual engineering achievement of the people who finally succeeded in building the railroad in this forbidding territory have long been ignored. If you have ever viewed the swift unpredictable rivers, huge mountains and glacier activity along the Southeastern coast of Alaska, or traveled the remaining original railroad bed to McCarthy and Kennicott the very thought of attempting a railroad line extending over 200 miles from the coast to the interior through this terrain is just plain incredible. The "Iron Trail" is written in a turn of the century style which is perhaps a bit flowery but entertaining just the same. Most of real people and places have been renamed for the book but are identified in the forward. Throughout reading this book I couldn't help thinking what a marvelous movie setting and adventure story is behind this truly spectacular engineering achievement.- Amazon Customer Review

24 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: November 24, 1929

Shopping on Black Friday? There were less people in Fry's than usual so it was a good day to go for groceries. All those Black Friday shoppers were fighting it out at the big box stores. I stopped and got Desperado's propane tank filled and that was a no waiting situation as well. I last filled the tank on 9 June 2017 in Silver City so in just short of 6 months I used 11.5 gallons of propane.

Breakfast was at the same place - Pepe's near Fry's. This time I ordered off the menu and got them to give me a tamale and easy over egg with beans and potatoes. It was a bit more expensive than their menus items but I will have it again for sure before I leave here.

I had a lot of trouble yesterday morning getting my posting loaded to the host. Verizon had too many people sucking data off the tower that I use and it took repeated tries and a long time. By late afternoon it seemed to be back to 'normal' but is that way this morning also.

My neighbor on the left side came over yesterday and offered me some grapefruit. I said sorry I can't because of the medicine I'm taking. He left and it registered what I had said - hell, I don't take that med anymore. I went over and explained that I have not eaten a grapefruit in years because of the medicine that HAD been taking - my response was just automatic after saying no for so long. I'm going to have one with my breakfast tomorrow.

I will not finish the pixel art piece today but I do see that I'm getting close to finishing. It is looking good but is a tedious draw that I can do for only so long before I start making mistakes so it is best to quit and come back later.

25 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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This is probably classed as a novella today but was rather standard fare at the turn of the 20th century. No reviews that I could find and probably has not been read by many people in many years. Good light entertaining reading.

It looks like the high point of my day was getting the holding tanks dumped. I did that soon after I finished breakfast which included one half of what I think is a Rio Red grapefruit, the deepest red color that I have ever seen. This is the first grapefruit that I have eaten since sometime in the 1990s - glad to have them back - now I only need to remember that I can eat them.

I have been back on the ibuprofen for only one day, at the high dosage, and my hands felt the best they have in the past couple of months. They still hurt when I was doing the dump and I still used the sewer wrenches but I think I might have been able to do it without them. Not that I want to give that a try because I know it would hurt.

"Democracy is workable enough in something like a cohesive city-state. But absolutely not once voters get involved in economic issues—the poor will always vote themselves a free lunch, and the rich will buy votes to give themselves more. Democracy always devolves into class warfare. In ancient Greece, if you weren’t a landowner you weren’t respected. In the U.S., voting rules were determined by the States, and originally, everywhere, you had to be a landowner. That meant you had something to lose. But that’s not the case anymore... anybody can vote. People who are penniless. Eighteen-year-olds who have no knowledge or experience and are fresh out of the indoctrination of high school. Lots of non-citizens, probably millions, manage to vote. Voting has become, as H.L. Mencken said, just an advance auction on stolen goods." - Doug Casey, Part I

"Economic turmoil causes social turmoil and political turmoil. And one of the things that scares me most is that if things get spooky within the U.S., people in the government will try to find a foreign enemy in order to “unite” the country. Incidentally, I don’t feel that uniting the country is necessarily a good idea. It all depends on which direction they’re united towards, and united against what. And do the people of the United States have enough in common anymore to even be united? I think not, in an age of multiculturalism. Part II

26 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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The most recent heat wave will break after today's forecast of 89° IF the weather guessers get it right. Starting on the 22nd we had a 3 day string of 90° highs with it cooling down to only 88 yesterday. But tomorrow is expected to be 81 and then 70s, with maybe a high 60, for the extended forecast.

My Verizon connection was back to 'normal' all day yesterday and seems to be working fine this morning. I had the same signal strength during those couple of days of slow connections so I'm reasonably sure it was just too many people using the same bandwidth.

Nothing much on the agenda for today. I will probably finish another short H. G. Wells book and maybe the pixel art drawing that I have been working on. If not today then surely both of those by tomorrow.

I am seeing some improvement in my PsA. Nothing to get overly excited about but being able to get up out of my chair without doing the 'ol folks rocking launch is an improvement. The knees are not as painful at night when I'm trying to get to sleep and the shoulders are feeling better. The hands/wrists are better but still far from good; they remain the body parts that hurt the most.

27 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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A lot of cooking this morning. First there was more salmon and potato patties which proved to me that my hands and wrists were still afflicted with PsA. Trying to mash potatoes with very sore hands and wrists is not a good thing.

Then came a batch of breakfast meals. Trying to cook the hull-less barley differently this time. When the barley is done I'll mix in some diced dates, Craisins (dried cranberries) and pecan pieces. Lastly was another three days of Greek Gods Honey yogurt dessert with blueberries, pecans and maple syrup.

leftpic This short book of fantasy was written during the same period that Wells wrote his best known science fiction. There is only a hint of socialism in this story which becomes a primary focus of his writing soon after this was published. If you like his scifi there is a good chance you will like this book.

H.G. Wells wrote this book at the end of the nineteenth century, and wrote it in the style of that time. It's glib and gossipy and, along with the title itself, whimsical. The extended first part of the story, longish and often irrelevant to the story, might have been the author's way to help make the fantasy of a mermaid seem more probable. The first half is reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice, which I thought was tedious and written for a limited local audience who would be delighted by the references to places and behavior. The first half of this book is like that... The second half of the book pulled me in, and during the last quarter of it I couldn't put it down. It finishes beautifully. The writing is superb. Wells's talent is very obvious here, with some of the best writing he ever did, but some readers find the story too inconsequential and tedious. I started with that impression, but it changed after I was into the second part of it. - Edited Customer Review at goodreads.com

This is the closing paragraph of a posting by Kunstler talking about cryptocurrencies. What he refers to as "digital tulip bulbs". A good blog posting that is worth a read.
"My personal take on the phenomenon is that it represents the high point of techno-narcissism — the idea that technology is now so magical that it over-rides the laws of physics. That, for me, would be the loudest “sell” signal. I’d just hate to be in that rush to the exits. And who knows what kind of rush to other exits it could inspire." - James Howard Kunstler, Exit Sign

Ryan Bundy's opening statement to the jury in the Bundy Ranch trials on November 15, 2017 is too long for me to quote but I believe this is a must read. The Lame stream Media will not be providing this statement that is for sure. Ryan Bundy's Opening Statement

28 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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The first Ukrain pattern I did was shown on 8 October 2017 which was a very small piece. This one is 199x199 which is about the same size as 7 Cushion Covers that I will be doing that are in the 2 color group. I like the look of them and there are a lot of them in increasing numbers of colors so I have plenty of material to work with. I will be doing the 2 color ones first but will break them up with some other 2 and 3 color subjects. This is presented in its 199X199 size but it looks very good also if viewed at 200%.

I got started drawing stained glass panel #51 yesterday but did not accomplish a lot. This one will also have a lot of curves that need to enclose areas that will be different colors. Just to draw the lines is complex enough but to get them to enclose a shape that can be filled with color adds to the complexity. It is going to take some time!

I set up another pixel art piece also. I'll switch back and forth between the two drawings as I get stuck on panel #51 or bored with the pixel art.

My GoPo® order was shipped UPS SurePost. It left NJ via UPS and arrived in Yuma this morning. I see UPS trucks making deliveries here in the Park almost every day so I have no idea what the SurePost advantage might be but what UPS has done is delivered the package to USPS. That means I'll probably get it tomorrow as a USPS delivery whereas if it had stayed with UPS I might have received it today. But even with USPS I may get it a day earlier than the original estimated delivery date.

I found some good News. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) is expected to announce this afternoon that he's withdrawing the nominating petitions he just filed yesterday and will not seek reelection. The bad News is he may formally endorse Jesus "Chuy" Garcia who if elected could be even worse than the mad dog Gutiérrez. The speculation is that he will run for Chicago mayor or governor of Puerto Rico; Chicago may deserve him but Puerto Rico has suffered enough.

29 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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This is a compilation of short stories that most likely were previously included in magazines at the turn of the century. The title story was made into a movie in 1918 starring Will Rogers in his film debut (one of 48 silent films) as Bill Hyde. All of the stories are well worth a read although the lack of reviews indicate that few people do so. Recommended!

I did a bit more drawing on panel #51 but not sure that I know enough that I will be able to draw this one. I'll give it a rest today while getting next month's Will Rogers weekly articles copied and formatted.

I was planning on getting Desperado's kitchen faucet replaced while I am here in Yuma. I also have a suspicion that my water pump is going bad so I'll have that checked out as well and expect to replace it. When the tank is full it sounds like it is working well but by the time the tank is half full the pump runs much too long after the water has been shut off and the water pressure is much reduced.

I went out and filled the tank again this morning so I would have better pressure and not have to listen to the pump running. I'll stop at the RV shop tomorrow when out shopping and get an appointment for them to replace the faucet and probably the pump.

Cloudy this morning with the high temperature expected to be the same 74° that it was yesterday and stay about the same for the extended forecast. The morning lows have been in the mid 50s and are expected to remain there for the next 4 days and then drop down into the lower 50s for the rest of the 2 week forecast.

30 November
Southern Mesa RV Park
Yuma, AZ
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I said that I did not understand the advantage of UPS SurePost, there must be one but it is not to my advantage as you can see from this tracking information.
November 29, 2017, 6:32 am
Accepted at USPS Destination Facility
YUMA, AZ 85364
November 28, 2017, 6:51 am
Departed Shipping Partner Facility, USPS Awaiting Item
YUMA, AZ 85365
I did get the package yesterday but without SurePost I think I could have had it on the 28th.

When I say I got the package I got it yesterday only because I was following the USPS tracking and saw that it had been delivered. Went to the Park office to pick it up and the office was closed. I therefore went to the mailbox and found my package was there and took it. I will have no more mail sent to this Park. Stopped at the P.O. today and confirmed that they accept General Delivery. I have just about had enough with using Parks for mail delivery I'll see how well General Delivery works.

Shopping day with breakfast first at the same restaurant. After leaving Fry's (where I got Groove Joint Pliers - like channellock) I stopped at Foothill RV and made an appointment to get the kitchen faucet replaced and probably the water pump. Maybe the exterior vinyl screw covering that is looking poor because of sun discoloration and it never fit well to start, some has come out and more is starting to.

Before going back to the Park I stopped at the Yuma Landing. This is the name of a RV lot in the Yuma Foothills that a couple of friends have bought and are in the process of getting it fixed up. They have their RV bus conversion in place but the lot needs some work. We had a nice face-to-face visit after reading each others blogs for the past couple of years.