Peregrinating
2018

February

1 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

I had a very poor Verizon connection when I first arrived yesterday. It took me repeated tries before I got my posting uploaded to the website. Then I saw I had typo errors and had to do it again. Later in the day I could not open ANY web page but it became a lot better in the late afternoon. Today is much better!

I noticed the Campground had out their No Vacancy sign when we went for our walk this morning. I guess I was lucky to get the narrow space that I did. I was in section "C" which appeared to be smaller RV and tent campers. All of the spaces were not a small as mine however. My neighbor had room for this Tab with a tent extension as well as a place to park his tow vehicle. Envy - Yes!

It was great walking with all that bright moonlight this morning. I had a fair view of the Blood Moon yesterday morning before leaving Yuma but there were some clouds near the horizon that cut the viewing time a little short.

We were out of the space with just one backup and on the road by 7:00. I stopped for breakfast at the Ryan Field restaurant that was Todd's the last time I was there. It became Richie's about a year ago and does not seem to be as popular. The prices are slightly cheaper but everything except the coffee is the same. Todd's served Arbuckles whereas Richie's has your usual restaurant blend from Farmers.

It was a short drive today that had me arrive at 10:00 with the check-in/check-out time of 11:00 finding someone still in my space. I pulled in behind them and got my 'linner' prepared and most of this posting typed before they left. Only 92 miles on this route: W McCain Loop, N. Kinney Rd, W Mile Wide Rd, Sandano Rd, AZ86/Ajo Way, I-19/I-10 (43 miles), AZ90, AZ82 & Yucca Ln.

I have read other blogs that had nothing good to say about I-10 through Tucson. I avoid Interstates but decided that this time from Yuma to Whetstone, AZ I would use them. There are sections of I-8 and I-10 that are in worse condition that the secondary roads with traffic on I-10 being about 5x what was on I-8. Lots of truck traffic that reminded me why I do not like Interstates, the 'backwash' is as bad as winds if not worse.

It is good to be 'home' again. When I checked in I said that I wanted to reserve a space a year from now for another 3 months and noticed they had raised the price by $100. I was told that my old price would be what I would be charged - ALRIGHT.

2 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

I met my east side neighbor yesterday afternoon. He came into the Park last September and plans to stay until next September. Working part time at Home Depot so he will be away with his dog left alone. So far not a bark one, which is good.

I put a big salmon fillet in the Roaster yesterday. Today I'll make up a Thermal Cooker pot of chicken pozole. Those two and a couple sardine potato patties should provide me with 'linners' for the next week.

I had a notice on my old computer that is running Linux that there were updates. I certainly did not want them to download through Verizon so tried to connect to the Park WIFI. I could see 4 addresses for the Park from my space but could not connect to any of them so went to the Club House. Even there I had a problem connecting but finally was able to and got all the updates installed.

I don't plan on shooting with the Cochise Gun Club tomorrow but want to go out to the range and talk to the fellow that runs the Pistol Workshop. It is held later this month where I do plan on shooting but want some help prior to that time. I want to continue dry fire practice but don't want to be practicing bad habits.

“If you’re not catching flak, you’re not over the target.” – Anonymous

President Trump should have this as a Desk Sign like former President Truman's "The Buck Stops Here".

3 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

I didn't go to the range today. The fellow that runs the matches and the pistol workshop would probably have been too busy to answer my questions. He would probably not been able to in any event. I stopped at the gun shop here in Whetstone yesterday that is on one of my walking routes and talked to the knowledgeable shop owner. He was not aware of 'power factor' for ammunition so the Range Master would not know much either.

I did get a shop recommended in Sierra Vista that might have carried a Winchester round that has a 97 power factor. I stopped there today and they did not have any in the shop but will order some that I will have in time to shoot at the pistol workshop late this month.

Sue was trying to give my a hard time about my breakfast stops in her Shout but Café O lé is where I went for breakfast this morning. I got their Santa Fe Rise and Shine which is Beef Enchiladas with eggs on top and beans. It was not as good as I remember it being, perhaps I have not had any beef for so long I have lost a taste for it.

Groceries at Fry's and Earthborn Meadow Feast for Patches at Tractor Supply. I looked for some cargo pants at TS while I was there but could not find any. Stopped at Wal*Mart and checked their ammo offerings and looked for cargo pants - found neither that I wanted.

Last two stops were in the same parking lot. First I went and got a hair cut which was at least a month past due. Then I picked up mail at my UPS Store and talked with the assistant manager about my problems getting packages while on the road.

I'll probably be back in Sierra Vista again sometime next mid-week to see if I can get a dental appointment at a clinic. I also need to check in with the VA and see about an appointment for the one they have canceled on 5 April 2018. That was to be with my doctor for the annual visit. I am guessing that she has left, I'll find out next week.

4 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

This is the third of 7 two color cushion covers that I will draw. I was able to use the yarn colors that were specified in the cross stitch pattern because they were very dark colors which seems to be what I need to show well on the Web as pixel art. It is drawn as 205x205 pixels and that is what you see here but again it looks very good at 200%. I think I'll do a different subject for the next pixel piece to give me some variety. It will also use three colors plus the background color which will give me more experience using multiple colors.

After the past couple of travel days and then my busy day yesterday I'm ready to do nothing. I might be forced to add fresh water and if that happens I'll do the holding tank dumps also. I want to put it off until tomorrow or Tuesday but may not get that choice.

I am slowly making progress in reading Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time. This is history from about 1880 to 1963 as seen by Carroll Quigley. I went to the Cochise County Library online and checked out the first book in Harry Turtledove's The Great War Series which I had been meaning to do some time ago because I had read the third book in the Series. He writes an alternative history which will be a good contrast to what I have read by Quigley.

5 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

I managed to do what I planned yesterday - nothing. There is a good chance that today will be a repeat.

It was slightly warmer this morning than yesterday with the low at 44°. It doesn't warm up very fast, still in the 50s at 9:00 - 10:00. The afternoon high temperatures, when we go for our walk, have been in the lower to mid 70s - perfect.

I sent a couple repeat emails to RV Parks that have not responded. Picked another one and sent them a first email. The way the others have not replied I am not very optimistic that they will respond to the first one.

6 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

I put off the dumping and adding fresh water as long as I could. I'll be out there when it warms up a little and get that done. I put off copying and formatting the Will Rogers weekly articles for another month because of my Verizon data limitation last billing cycle. That will be corrected today.

There is also the next batch of experimental breakfasts cooking on the stove as I write this. The last of the 4# of hulless barley that I bought online at Amazon. I placed another order yesterday but got hulled barley this time. "Hulless" barley should be properly named "Less Hulls". I will not do that again, I'll see if the hulled really gets rid of all the hulls.

My next door neighbor on the west side pulled out this morning just before 8:00. I now have a great view of the Whetstone Mountains. Not all of them and not the highest peak but much better than while he was there.

"And, of course, lastly and most perplexingly there is the unappetizing figure at the center of this circus, President Trump himself, the avatar of wished-for return to American greatness, who is looking more and more like Melville’s awful and enigmatic White Whale pursued by single-minded mad men — and, remember, despite all the bloody ire, abuse, and harrassment heaped upon him by the vengeful Ahab, Moby Dick ended up smashing the whaling ship Pequod, and swimming away to legend." - A Quandary, James Howard Kunstler

7 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

Into Sierra Vista this morning with a breakfast stop at Sunny Ds in Huachuca City. There I had their Chorizo Omelet with a big serving of good hash browns. This has been and will continue to be a regular stop when I am skirting around the north side of Sierra Vista.

At the VA I got an appointment with a new doctor as I suspected. In and out very quickly considering how the VA functions administratively. The second stop was at the dental clinic where I was told that they could put me on a waiting list that they have for new patients. So, I am on their list and may get a cleaning there and then again I may not.

Next was to get an appointment for Patches at a new vet that is next door to my Executor's office. That worked out well. I was also able to sit down with my Executor for a few minutes and assure him that he need not go to work - YET.

The last stop was at a jewelry store that sells Bulova watches. The one that I bought about 3 years ago began to stop at random times within 6 months from the time I bought it. It has now been doing it with much more frequency and needs to be fixed or junked. I suspect that it will cost more to fix it than it is worth. There was a time when watches lasted a lifetime and became part of the estate now they are a throw away item or status jewelry.

"The nineteenth century had been so successful in organizing techniques that it had almost completely lost any vision of goals. Control of nature by the advance of science, increases in production by the growth of industry, the spread of literacy through universal education, the constant speedup of movement and communications, the extraordinary rise in standards of living—all these had extended man's ability to do things without in any way clarifying his ideas as to what was worth doing. Goals were lost completely or were reduced to the most primitive level of obtaining more power and more wealth." - Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, Carroll Quigley

"Americans are the greatest people in the world to blow and want to talk and go to big things. They will go to the biggest Hotel, regardless of service, the biggest Theater, regardless of performance, the biggest funeral, regardless of whether they knew the corpse, and the biggest store to get anything, whether it’s the best or not, and naturally, as the Chain Stores are bigger than most of the others, there is where they hike to. They want to be seen where there is the most people." - Will Rogers

8 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

It was colder this morning, low of 39°. The National Weather Service is predicting the next 5 day lows to be about the same but The Weather Channel is sticking to their Chamber of Commerce guesses in the mid to lower 40s.

I think I will dress in anticipation that the NWS is right. This morning my flannel shirt plus wool shirt/jacket was marginal. Tomorrow I'll be wearing my wool capote over the flannel. I have been wearing gloves almost every morning since we have been here and they were certainly needed this morning.

After my busy day yesterday I will be back to doing very little again today. I did nothing more on the pixel art drawing yesterday so that will be on the agenda for today. I may even finish the Rex Beach book that I have been reading as I alternated between it and Tragedy and Hope.

Quigley did not see the development of Artificial Intelligence that was to replace the 'group process'. What would he say today?
"This renunciation of the basic feature of being human—judgment and decision-making—is very dangerous and is a renunciation of the very faculty which gave man his success in the evolutionary struggle with other living creatures. If this whole process ... is now to be abandoned in favor of some other, unconscious and mechanical, method of decision-making, in which the individual's flexibility and awareness are to be subordinated to a rigid group process, then man must yield to those forms of life, such as the social insects, which have already carried this method to a high degree of perfection." - Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, Carroll Quigley

9 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

I decided that the wool capote was more than I needed this morning when I opened the closet door to get it. What I saw was a 'sports jacket' that I have not worn since sometime before 2005 when I quit working in a society that required such garments in a 'business setting'. With that over my flannel shirt and wool shirt jacket I was very comfortable this morning. But it was also a little warmer at 43°.

After trying repeatedly to get RV Parks in the Farmington/Bloomfield NM area to confirm a reservation, or simply respond to my emails, I gave up.

I then contacted a Park in Ely, NV that did reply but are RV year snooty and dog discriminatory plus have a severe cancellation policy - no thank you. Two emails to a Park in St. Johns, AZ have been ignored as well as two others to a Park in Springerville, AZ.

But, a second Park in Springerville did respond to my second email to them and provided answers to all my questions plus they offer a very good price - made the reservation for two months. I then sent an email to a dentist there and received a PROMPT reply giving me an appointment - no run around, done! I think I may like it there.

I have added the bold type to what Quigley had to say in 1966.
"It was the emphasis upon means rather than goals, and the compromises between conflicting means, which led to the National Security Act of 1947. This sought to evade the need for clear hard thinking about goals and the subordination of means to goals by reorganization of the top levels of governmental operation concerned with security. It set up a system based on secrecy and anonymity which may, in time, revolutionize the whole American system of government. In this reorganization there were at least three major parts: (1) unification of the armed services; (2) creation of the National Security Council as an advisory board to the President; and (3) reorganization of the whole system of intelligence and spying, through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the code-breaking National Security Agency (NSA)...
The whole purpose of secrecy in government should not be to keep information from other states (this is almost impossible) but to make it as difficult as possible for other states to get certain information, so that, when they do get such restricted information, it will be so intermingled with other information and misinformation that it cannot be evaluated promptly enough to do them much good. Any espionage system gets more information than it can handle rapidly." - Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time Carroll Quigley

10 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

A collection of short stories that most likely were first published in magazines in the late 19th century or early 20th. Some of them are placed in Alaska with others using the Western United States as the story location. I could not find any customer reviews so it is not a well read book today but may have been when published in 1905. It is a short book with only 128 pages in print, good light reading, good stories.

A shopping day and some running around. But first there was breakfast at The Landmark one of my three regular breakfast stops. It seems that every time I do they have some kind of group there and service is slow. This morning it was some organization holding a pancake breakfast which I refused - don't like pancakes. I got their Spinich Omelet with homefries and some good coffee.

From there I got groceries at Fry's before going Wal*Mart shopping. picked up a couple kitchen towels and some ammunition. Not that anyone reading this could care but this is for my purposes: Remington UMC 130gr 800 fps (104 power factor).

Went to Big O Tire to see if they carried the tires that I want in stock ALL the time and they claim that they did. I'll be getting Desperado new shoes later this month. Picked up two packages at my UPS Store: Carhartt Cargo pants and 5# of Hulled Barley.

Last stop before heading back to the Park was at Apocalypse Arms. This was the store that ordered some Winchester WC381 125 gr 775 fps (96.875 power factor) for me last week. This is the lowest recoil ammo that I can find that is at or just above the 95 power factor required by IDPA for matches. I will not be shooting in match competition but want to abide by the rules when shooting with IDPA clubs.

The Winchester is much more expensive than the Remington with the Remington and Federal that I bought in Yuma about the same price and almost the same power factor. The Winchester is going to have to prove that it has enough reduced recoil for me to be paying the increased price.

I had some gusting winds on the way back to the Park. The NWS has issued a Red Flag Fire Warning with expected winds in the 20-25 mph range and gusts to 35 mph. The day time high to remain in the low to mid 70s which is great, the wind does not bother me as much walking as when driving.

11 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

The wind yesterday blew in some clouds and lower temperatures which means it takes longer to warm up. Still cold this morning in Desperado at 8:00.

There is some disagreement about how low it will go with The Weather Channel holding on to the 70s with a 71° guess for today. The National Weather Service has the next 5 days down into the 60s with The Weather Channel agreeing; they both think there is a chance of rain on Wednesday and Thursday.

The cooling trend will not keep us from doing our walks but the rain might. I won't be doing much between now and Thursday when I have VA appointments. Didn't get any pixel art drawing done yesterday but will be back at that today. I did make a good start on the Harry Turtledove alternate history book that is a different view of World War I.

I got a new neighbor on my west side that will not be here for very long. They have an Aliner that was set up here for the second time since they left Minnesota - a lot of stops at friends homes along the way. HA

The quote shown below was taken from an article Joe Concha: Media’s Trump Anger Mostly ‘Performance Art at This Point’ by Nicholas Fondacaro. It points out that the Lame Stream Media is not only selling Fake News but they are doing it with fake emotions as well.

“I know you are not a physician and I'm not either. But, do you think it's healthy to be as angry as a lot of these cable figures seem to be all the time every day,” Carlson quipped to Concha’s apparent amusement.
“Oh, I think we’re seeing a lot more performance art at this point, Tucker. I think we have talked about this,” Concha explained. “They are playing to a crowd. They know that their audience primarily is anti-Trump on some other networks. And they are just playing into their emotions. I don't even think they are angry about half this stuff. They say, “Okay, what can we do to rile up our audience today?”

12 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

The only thing I have going on today that is of any importance is some more sardine and potato patties. I have the potatoes boiling as I type this and should be done by the time I finish. Done by the time I finish typing and finish reading my daily blogs.

The National Weather Service is expecting more winds this afternoon, it has been very calm this morning. Maybe 15-25 mph with gusts up to 40. We could have some dust blowing on our walk today. It was a little colder this morning at 41° but did not feel that cold. Probably will be the next few days with a storm blowing in.

"'Cant' was one of Dr. Samuel Johnson’s favorite words and least favorite things. In his usage, “cant” meant the third definition offered by my American Heritage dictionary: “hypocritically pious language”. Thanks to the cultural Marxists, America is now immersed in a political culture of cant…
The Left has been in love with cant for a long time. To pretend races and ethnic groups within races are all the same is cant. To assert that men and women are interchangeable and that women make fine firemen and soldiers is cant. To say all cultures are of equal value is cant." - A Culture of Cant, William S. Lind

13 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

What in the Hell is President Trump thinking? He got his tax cut which has been touted to be a stimulant for the economy. He got his budget which with the tax cut will probably result in close to a Trillion $ deficit. Then on top of that he want to spend 1.5 Trillion $ on 'infrastructure' to stimulate the economy. At the same time he claims the economy is doing Great. If that is true why is there a need to add 2.5 Trillion $ to the debt to stimulate the economy?

I have left "Tragedy & Hope" for now and have devoted all my Paperwhite reading time to the Harry Turtledove book. The way he puts his books together almost demands that you continue reading to keep track of who all the characters are and what each one of them is doing.

I do take short breaks and read some of the Selected Essays on Political Economy including The Law by Frédéric Bastiat in PDF format on my Acer. I'll get back to, and finish, "Tragedy" when I return the Turtledove e-book to the Cochise County Library.

My west side neighbor left yesterday morning but I have a new neighbor in that same space. They pulled in a little before noon and showed that this was not the first time they set up their big bumper pull trailer. Husband and wife worked as a 'team' and were done in only a few minutes. It is not as entertaining as watching nubies but is a joy to watch someone do anything with competency.

14 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

There were some clouds late yesterday but a lot more moved in overnight. That provided cover and kept the low temperature (50°) a lot higher than it has been. The National Weather Service claim that showers are Likely with a 60% chance. I don't think we will get any rain here with it likely to rain in scattered spots if it does at all.

The Weather Channel has forecast an 80% chance. That low temperature continues with it up to only 52° at 8:00 with an expected high to be only 58°. Winter has returned to Cochise County! HA

I'll try and stay warm. If it does rain this afternoon walk will get canceled. I remember that last year Patches and I got caught in an afternoon rain and were soaked. No need to go out there in it today. Tomorrow the forecast is more of the same and I do have to be out and about. Do not look forward to driving in the rain.

Wells Fargo has had their problems this past year but they have been good to me. They have what they call "Go Far Rewards" which gives you one point for every $ that you spend using their Credit Card. Those points can then be redeemed for various products or for cash. I have always let the points build up and then redeemed for cash which they paid by check that took weeks. This morning I did an online cash redemption, deposited to my checking account, that took less than 5 minutes which included answering a Survey about how well I liked the online service. Slick!

15 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

We got a nice female rain yesterday from about 11:00 until 2:00. Then it came back again from around 3:00 until a little after 5:00. Patches and I did our afternoon walk as soon as it seemed to have quit. Stayed in the Park where we could scamper to some shelter quickly if there was need. That happened when we had finished a long potty walk or about ½ our usual distance; we were getting wet.

This morning the same thing - we got wet. I heard it raining when I got up during the night but could not hear it before we stepped outside. Went back in and got my oilskin coat and did the extended potty walk. Then drove in the rain to Sunny D's for breakfast, Corned Beef Hash with poached eggs and hash browns, all done very well.

Drove in the rain to the vet office Sierra Vista where I changed Patches appointment. It conflicted with the dentist appointment that I wanted to cancel but not knowing if the Clinic is going to take me as a new patient I did not want to do that. Then to the VA to get the wax in my ears cleaned out and see the audiologist.

About a month from now I'll have hearing aids but the audiologist was not very encouraging. She said that my hearing volume was about 60% and the clarity was even worse. The hearing aids will help the volume but may do nothing for the clarity. She thinks that I may have auditory deprivation, which can permanently affect the brains ability to discern similar words in speech. The aids may help correct that over time but will make very little difference in the short term.

Made a grocery stop at Fry's and then drove back to the Park in the rain. Got plugged into electric while out in the rain. Now trying to stay dry and hoping that it will quit raining by this afternoon. The National Weather Service think we got .40" in the past 24 hours. That will be enough to make the Sonoran Desert green this April and May!

16 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

Still a heavy cloud cover this morning but it was not raining - not until 8:00. We were able to do our walk yesterday afternoon in some rather muddy conditions and this morning within the Park there were a lot of puddles to dodge.

The National Weather Service claims that the two day storm dropped 1.13" but Weather Underground think it was 1.31". Either of those measurements is very good and as I said yesterday that will really green up the desert this Spring.

My neighbor to the west was out there in the rain unhooking from utilities and hooking up to their trailer. I mentioned that the husband and wife worked as a team to get set up and they did the same getting ready to leave. I see so many wives standing around watching their husband do all the outside set up that it was great to see this wife in action.

Another school shooting and another cry to ban guns. When will the Gun Control proponents come clean and say what the mean - Gun Confistication. They know full well that another law is not going to stop school shootings but also know that proposing confistication will hurt their cause more than help.
"Perhaps the most compelling question of all: Once we further regulate or ban guns altogether, and the shootings continue to happen … What then?" - Why Are Shootings Only at Government-Run Schools? by Michael J. Hurd

"Our intelligentsia have gone bonkers...Their madness is for America like the death of a canary in a coal mine. The most delicate are affected first, giving a warning to the others... For a daily dose of madness by intellectuals, see Alternet, Slate, Salon, and any of the host of Libertarian websites." - Madness of our elites is like dead canaries in a coal mine by Larry Kumme

17 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

This was the first book in the Great War trilogy. I read the second and the third in May and June 2016 and since I had read them out of sequence never went back and read the first book. Corrected that oversight but it takes away from the trilogy if you do it that way. I recommend reading them in the order published. Note: I found that I had read this book before in a Dead Tree format on 28 September 2013 but had forgot and did not remember when I read it for the second time.

After it started raining yesterday it never stopped until 5:00. It did not rain hard but was steady and added another .43" to the total rain from this storm. Heavy fog this morning with visibility down to maybe 100 yards or less.

We didn't try to walk any of our usual afternoon routes yesterday because I knew they would be much too muddy. Stayed in the Park and did only a long potty walk because it was still sprinkling and we did get damp. They might not be dry enough this afternoon either but we will go and see.

I have finally received reservation confirmations from RV Parks for stays during May thru August. I have also received an appointment from a dentist office for my August cleaning. It has become really difficult to get RV Parks to respond to emails in our telephone centric culture. Dentist offices are somewhat better but not a lot.

The Motives Behind the Massacre by Patrick J. Buchanan is a good article about the most recent school shooting. A take away quote: "Another factor helps to explain what happened Wednesday: We are a formerly Christian society in an advanced state of decomposition."

18 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

The Park made it through a couple of days of rain without losing power and then lost it sometime in the early hours of this morning (restored by 8:00). I could hear a few generators running as we did our walk this morning. Probably pushed the button on their electric coffee brewing machine and nothing happened. There are some of the new BIG RVs that have the usual sticks-n-bricks refrigerators also that do not run on gas so that may have also prompted the generator usage.

There are still some scattered clouds but the route that we walked yesterday afternoon had dried enough that we stayed out of most of the mud. Winter is blowing in tomorrow with the forecast high on Tuesday to be only 57° and a low of 31°. Then the rest of the 10 Day forecast has the highs in the 50s and lows in the 30s. Not good.

I'm ready. I have downloaded a big supply of books for my Paperwhite if I ever finish reading "Tragedy and Hope". It is moving along again now that I finished the Turtledove book. I also have all the cross stitch patterns that I would ever want that I can draw as pixel art. So a little winter weather and staying snug in Desperado will not be a problem.

19 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

More rain during the early hours but we stayed dry during our morning walk. Well almost dry, I did step into a couple of puddles but they were not deep enough to come over the top of my shoes. The NWS has issued a Wind Advisory starting around noon today with winds in the 25-30 mph range and gusts of 40-45 mph. The chance of more rain is 50% after the .26" we got so far.

I cooked some of the hulled barley this morning. It will be combined with some dried cranberries and chopped dates then when reheated I'll add some almond milk. Another experiment.

Not much News. The Lame Stream Media is beating the gun confiscation drum for all it is worth and doing their best to make President Trump responsible. Former president Obama was never responsible but Trump is for some reason. They have become rather tongue tied about RussiaGate so need another approach to get rid of him.

20 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

More rain in the early hours and we walked in a light mist. I say light but it was heavy enough to get my gloves, wool cap and wool blanket coat very wet. Heavy enough to have Patches doing her 'shake it off' moves.

It did not rain at the Weather Underground station that is about ½ mile from me but the NWS claims they recorded a trace. A cold day is predicted with the high to be only 52° and the low for the next couple of mornings to be in the 20s.

The new breakfast experiment is going to be a keeper. I heated a serving this morning with a little butter and some almond milk and it was GOOD. By adding the almond milk while heating I avoid the caramelization that happened before when I was eating a similar concoction. The hulled barley is MUCH better than the hulless. The hulless had far too many hulls for me although it certainly would be higher in fiber.

Today was a good time to have the Roaster adding some heat inside Desperado. With that in mind I fired it up and put a big salmon fillet in it to cook. That will give me six or more 'linners' when a big serving of stir fried vegetables are added and accompanied by a big salad.

"As in a game of Wéiqí [Go], China is not attacking the dollar directly. They are surrounding it, by creating relationships first with their own close allies, then with the US allies. If they continue in this tactic, it is likely that they will complete their ability to trade with all or most of the world in the renminbi, then announce to the US that, in order to continue to buy Chinese sneakers to sell in Walmart, the renminbi must be used.
At that point, should the US refuse, China would be in a position to say, “You’re an important customer, but if we lose you as a customer, we will still be able to maintain our present relationship with the rest of the world without you.” - The US and China: A Difference in Approaches by Jeff Thomas

21 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

I was introduced to a new word (petrichor) this morning by Gaelyn, The Geogypsy. She knows more about geology and the weather than I will ever hope to know. She takes good pictures also but they do not interest me as much as what she has to say. A good blogger!

Speaking of weather. It was cold this morning.
"How cold was it?" - Ed McMahon
"Well, on my way in this afternoon, I couldn't help but notice an exhibitionist on the corner, and it's so cold, he was flashing a drawing of himself." - Johnny Carson
It was 30° here while we were doing our walk but I was nice and warm with my 'winter gear'. Some scattered clouds but the most blue sky that we have had in the past 4 days. That means it is warming up faster than it has been although the forecast is for only 57° which is better than the 52 with winds yesterday.

I got to the laundry room just in time this morning. There are only 4 washers and 8 dryers and I was lucky to get one of the dryers after taking out clothes that had been left. With the Park being full I might be better off to find a laundromat in Sierra Vista when I need to do laundry the next time.

I had a new big 5th wheel neighbor set up in the space on my west side a few days ago. Thought he was going to be there for an extended stay but he is pulling out as I type up this posting. That is a good thing because that rig was blocking a lot of my Whetstone Mountains view.

22 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

This was the last book by Merrick that was available at Gutenberg. A couple of web sites claim that it is generally considered Merrick's best work. I did not think so and it certainly has not proved to be so over the years. I found only one review for it and that one had little to say. I recommended some of his books but can not do so with this one unless like me you simply want to read all that are available.

My day has been disrupted by a trip into town for new tires for Desperado. My bank account has also been disrupted by the 6 new tires and an oil change. I had planned for the expense but that does not make it any easier. It took them 3 hours which I thought was excessive but what can you do other than not go back to them again. Then on top of that they had one wheel cover improperly installed and I would have lost it had I not had valve stem extensions attached. That required a trip back to them when I found that at the UPS Store.

Wanted to mail an oil sample from the UPS Store which I am sure I have done in the past but today they said they could not mail it that I had to go to the Post Office. More time out of my day.

The grocery shopping at Fry's went well. It is a clear sky sunny day although a little cool. Disrupted day but not all that bad.

23 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

Cold this morning (28°) which felt a lot colder than the 32° that we had yesterday. The high temperature is forecast to be cooler than the 57° of yesterday. I'll be inside with the Wave heater for most of the morning so that will be fine. However, tomorrow is forecast to be about the same or cooler yet and I'll be outside at the range with the Cochise Club's Workshop. Maybe a little warmer a week from tomorrow when they have their Match.

I do have to get outside today when it warms up as much as it will. There are holding tanks that need dumping and my fresh water tank is almost dry.

Doing that and making some more sardine and potato patties for future 'linners' are all the homemaker chores that I have on the agenda. There will be time to do some pixel drawing that I did not get to do yesterday. There is still more of the book "Tragedy and Hope" to be read although I do see my finishing it before too much longer.

I have not quoted from Weaponized Consensus by the Collective Establishes Counterfeit Premises to Control Contrived Contingencies by Doug “Uncola” Lynn just recommending it as a blog posting to be read.

24 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

All of this morning was spent at the Cochise Gun Club's Pistol Workshop. I tried all three of the different power factor ammunition that I had and did not notice any significant difference in the recoil.

The power factor is an indication of 'perceived recoil' so my perception is bad or the difference in power factors was not great enough that I would have perceived a difference in the recoil.

Even with all the dry firing that I have done I think I still do not have a smooth continuous pull on the trigger. I locked it up again today and I'm reasonably sure that the lack of a continuous pull was the culprit.

That is all I will do today. The standing all morning takes its toll on me, I am wore out. I'll go the the Club Match next week which will be easier because I get an opportunity to sit down. I hope I learned something today. A few of the drills I shot well and others I shot very poor.

I do need to get 'linner' prepared but the rest of the afternoon will be reading not even any pixel drawing. Well there is the afternoon walk with Patches but that is a given!

25 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

The low this morning was 26° while we doing our walk. It did not feel that cold and it has started to warm up, already at 32° by 7:30. It feels that cold inside Desperado and the Wave heater has not made much difference yet. That has not stopped Patches from stretching out in front of it as close as she can get and is now snoring. The 10 Day forecast is expecting more days and mornings like this before we get back to the 70s and 40s.

I thought my hands were going to be sore this morning from all the time at the range yesterday. Good news - they are not! The Match next Saturday will require less rounds than we shot at the Workshop so should be able to go. I was concerned that my hands would be too sore.

I'm slowly reaching the conclusion of "Tragedy and Hope". It is the last chapters that I find to be the most interesting. I'll be postings some quote from the book during the next few days.

"It is important to remember that the Cold War was in reality a myth. The Soviet Union had no intention of attacking the West and the West had no intention of attacking the East. In the interim period billions and billions were spent on armaments and the armament industries around the world grew richer and richer through a contrived conflict that was not real, at least at the top level of the power structures. The conflict between the East and West was designed to scare the people of the world into accepting a convergence of these two monopoly systems of authoritarian power. The end result was to be a new Imperial Order and a New World Empire run by an elite self-perpetuating oligarchies from the leading nations of the earth." - Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, Carroll Quigley

26 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

This is the first of 3 three color British football club logos that I will draw. The Liverpool dragon was drawn before as a single item and a single color. I was unsure about the light yellow color for the flame in this drawing but it turned out looking good. I will just use the RGB codes for the yarn colors and see how they look. If they do not show well on the Internet I'll then go back and change the colors. The next piece will be another two color cushion cover.

After I get this posted to my website it will be domestic duty time. I need to get started on house cleaning today and tomorrow. This morning during breakfast I had some more barley cooking.

I'll be making up another batch of my breakfast concoction. This time I will be adding chopped dates and chopped dry apricots. Each time I make a batch I plan on changing the dry fruit mix around for some variety. The past couple of days I have also been using a bit of Half-n-Half with the Almond Milk rather than butter. It is really good.

"This biological and patriarchal character of all significant social relationships in Arab life is reflected in the familiar feature of male dominance. Only the male is important…
Such sons are brought up in an atmosphere of whimsical, arbitrary, personal rules where they are regarded as superior beings by their mother and sisters and, inevitably, by their father and themselves, simply on the basis of their maleness. Usually they are spoiled, undisciplined, self-indulgent, and unprincipled. Their whims are commands, their urges are laws. They are exposed to a dual standard of sexual morality in which any female is a legitimate target of their sexual desires, but the girl they marry is expected to be a paragon of chaste virginity. The original basis for this emphasis on a bride's virginity rested on the emphasis on blood descent and was intended to be a guarantee of the paternity of children. The wife, as a child-producing mechanism, had to produce the children of one known genetic line and no other." - Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, Carroll Quigley

27 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

It was a lot warmer this morning than it has been but that will change. Cloudy and windy today with a chance of rain again tonight and tomorrow. Then maybe a freezing low Thursday morning but still the possibility of 70s for the high temperature in the 10 Day forecast.

I'll finish doing my housecleaning today. That will be just about all that I'll do other than my usual daily reading and pixel art drawing.

"But by 1900 or so, these dislikes and likes became ends in themselves. The liberal was prepared to force people to associate with those they could not bear, in the name of freedom of assembly, or he was, in the name of freedom of speech, prepared to force people to listen. His anti-clericalism became an effort to prevent people from getting religion, and his anti-militarism took the form of opposing funds for legitimate defense. Most amazing, his earlier opposition to the use of private economic power to restrict individual freedoms took the form of an effort to increase the authority of the state against private economic power and wealth in themselves. Thus the liberal of 1880 and the liberal of 1940 had reversed themselves on the role and power of the state, the earlier seeking to curtail it, the latter seeking to increase it. In the process, the upholder of the former liberal idea that the power of the state should be curtailed came to be called a conservative. This simply added to the intellectual confusion of the mid-twentieth century, which arose from the Irrational Activist reluctance to define any terms, a disinclination that has now penetrated deeply into all intellectual and academic life." - Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, Carroll Quigley

The reporting on the Parkland shooting is just like what we got with the Las Vegas shooting. There is evidence that completely contradicts the official stories and the more the Lame Stream Media reports the more contradictions appear.

"There is no doubt that the video interviews with school teacher and students who say they had been told there would be a code red drill are real. What I find disturbing is that there does not seem to be mention of the drill in the official story. Remember the Boston Marathon Bombing. That day the Boston newspaper had announced that there would be a bombing drill at the end of the race, and in videos of the event an announcement of a drill is made at the scene just prior to the explosion, which the announcement says will not be a real bomb.
Other puzzling features of the Parkland FL shooting are (1) one student says she was walking out of the building with the suspect while shooting was going on elsewhere in the building, which leads her to the conclusion that there were two shooters. Another student says there were three shooters. (2) Students report that police were in the building while shooting was underway. (3) Apparently there is no news interview with the Uber driver who delivered the shooter to the school. (4) The timeline which allows only a few minutes for the shooting is not sufficient time for the suspect to have put on his bulletproof vest, helmet, gasmask, go up a stairwell and shoot up 3 different floors." - The Shooting At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School In Parkland Florida, Paul Craig Roberts

28 February
Quail Ridge RV Resort
Huachuca City, AZ

The expected rain came in the early morning hours, I woke up and heard it but went back to sleep. When we went out for our walk there was a slight mist that became a sprinkle and then at about the ½ mile mark it became a light rain. But when I looked down at my arm I saw that it was not rain but was snow. We cut the walk short at a long potty walk distance.

Went to town with a stop at the Landmark Restaurant which had only two waitresses working so service was slow. Their California Omelet was good as was the coffee so I will be back just not any day that I am in a hurry. While at breakfast it snowed heavy for about 15 minutes which left the Huachuca Mountains with a dusting. The Chiricahua Mountains that are much higher got a good covering.

Filled Desperado's tank with gas at Fry's and then inside for groceries. The storm kept a lot a people at home which made for unimpeded shopping. I had to stop at the VA audiologist and clear up a letter that I received about an appointment that I knew nothing about. Then back to the Park where there were still a few snow flakes and only 40° at 10:30.

I have provided some quotes from this tome that gives an idea of what Quigley has to say. The Customer review that I have quoted does a good job also. If you want to read what I considered to be the best part skip to Part 20 and read Chapters 74 -77. It is 1,348 pages in hardback and almost 29,000 locations on Kindle Paperwhite therefore not light reading.

This is an exhaustive and at times exhausting overview of 19th and 20th century world history up to the time the book was published around 1966. Thorough, clearly organized, lots of names, dates and data to substantiate assertions and conclusions. Mr Quigley even rolls the dice, as a historian, and extrapolates the main themes of the book to what the next 20 to 50 years would bring socially, politically, economically and militarily. Looking back on those 50 years (I'm 57), it seems to me he got a lot of it right. If you are in grad school and looking for thesis topics, you'll find hundreds of meaty ones here. His conclusion: "the tragedy of the period covered by this book is obvious,"...in misunderstanding, missed opportunities, misguided nationalism and irrationalism. As for hope, it may seem quaint and old-fashioned, but there seems to be no effective substitute for "generosity, compassion, cooperation, rationality, and foresight, and finding an increased role in human life for love, spirituality, charity and self-discipline." Reminds me of what a man from Galilee once said... - Customer Review at Amazon

"Twenty years later, in 1952, the country looked solidly middle class, but, in fact, by that date middle-class morale was almost totally destroyed, the middle classes themselves were in disintegration, and the majority of Americans were becoming less middle class in outlook. This change is one of the most significant transformations of the twentieth century. The future of the United States, of Western Civilization, and of the world depends on what kind of outlook replaces the dissolving middle-class ideology in the next generation." - Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, Carroll Quigley