Down the Rabbit Hole

There are hundreds of abandoned burrows all around our home.  

On a walk one day Beans stopped here to lie in the shade of this bush leaving me to stand in the sun waiting.  After a bit I moved past her and the ground gave way me sinking halfway to my knees.  This scared the feathers out of Beans and she bolted while I tried to regain my footing.

We went back home. I let her inside then went about cleaning my dirty feet from the cave in.

Now clean I went back to investigate the scene.  I broke through some five feet away from the nearest hole.  I thought about getting a shovel and unearthing all the cover just to see how far this underground tunnel went, but that sounded like a bunch of work which I wasn’t really up to.  What really baffles me is considering the amount of material being excavated to create these burrows very little of this dirt is piled up outside the entrances.  Where is all of that dirt?

This is Louie in his home watching me out there trying to figure this all out.

 That evening we were treated to a glorious moon rise.

Do you ever see the rabbit in the moon?

He is much more apparent to me than the man in the moon.

In Lockdown

Hey Dad!  Why isn’t this thing on? 

Well Beans, because it isn’t cold in here.  Just outside it is.

 A few days ago the wind was really whipping.  Although it was sunny the wind was a cold one and we were pretty much confined indoors all day.  Now tomorrow Sunday we are scheduled for another high wind day.  Being stuck inside all day is a real test of my patience.  Now don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining.  Well okay, maybe I am a little bit.  Let’s just say I am whining a lot.  I know many people have it much worse everywhere else right now.

On a somewhat related note, I had an experience much like winning the lottery.  I never have wifi and use my cell phone data for most everything I do online.  All these years I had a plan with AT&T that gave me 20GB of data each month.  Usually that was sufficient.  Being stationary for as long as we are in the winter there is a tendency to go over budget and then things move along at dial-up speed if you remember those days.  Getting an unlimited data plan would be at an astronomical price and so I never did.  The other day I got frustrated for as much as I tried I was still projected to run out a few days early.  I got on the AT&T site and checked the “change plan” option and for the first time ever there stood staring me in the face two unlimited data plan options at HALF the price I was currently paying for 20GB!  Unbelievable!  There must be some mistake.  I’m reading this right?  I got on a chat with an agent and it was as I saw.  I switched over as fast as I could.  So this has been a wonderful new aspect of my nomad life on days like these when I am in a weather induced lockdown. 

Oh happy days, even though I’d much rather be outside right now.

 

The Music Barn

Right near where the chapel sat was a large “barn” where the La Paz locals gathered for social affairs one of which is live country western music.  I’m talking about the good country western music of the 40’s and 50’s, not this young country stuff that you hear on the radio these days.

I didn’t go in since I didn’t have a mask with me and the folks sitting inside enjoying the music were all of the “high risk” category.  Up on stage were three guitar players, a drummer and a lady with a very nice voice all of whom were local talent no doubt. It was quite pleasant sitting outside listening to the music

 

La Paz as I mentioned before is five miles south of where we are camped and is basically two large RV parks and several desert homes.  I looked it up but found only that La Paz is a ghost town near the western border along the Colorado River and the name of this county in Arizona.  Otherwise there is nothing of this little community.  They just tacked the name on it, that’s all.  As I rode around I admired the folks who could live there in an RV park, so close to everyone else and such.  It isn’t something I could do but I envied them for being of that nature.  It is a peaceful and quiet little place, probably everyone knows everybody and I bet living here adds years to your life.

 

La Paz Chapel

Those of you who have been with me for years may recall how Sinbad and I used to travel all over the country seeking out the weird, odd and unusual. 

Among those oddities were a number of “world’s smallest” church or chapels.  Everyone tried to lay claim to this fact it seemed.  Oddly, one I found quite by accident somewhere (I have since forgotten) in the middle of a wheat field in the upper midwest was about the size of a telephone booth and no one had tried to advertise it as the world’s smallest.  At any rate, this chapel isn’t one of those world’s smallest.

I was told that when one of the residents of the small La Paz community lost his daughter to an early death and realizing there was no church nearby built this small chapel in remembrance of his daughter. 

Taken from standing in the doorway.

At each corner were cables securing the entire structure to the ground.

I guess the winds can get pretty fierce at here at times.

And...when we leave Quartzsite, Beans and I plan to travel like Sinbad and I did long ago, seeking out odd things along our travels and hopefully bring the blog back up to the high standards it was once known for.

A Good Morning Kiss

I finally was able to catch that special brief moment.

 And just like that it is over and they wander off away from each other.

Louie

My nomad friend did a pet/house sit out in the country in Texas while the owners were away this last summer.  This scrawny homeless gray tabby kept coming around.  Over time she was able to gain his trust and they became friends.  When the house sit was over she just couldn’t leave him behind so she decided to give him a chance at being a travel cat.  He did very well riding in her van and took to wearing a harness and being on a leash just as well.

I mentioned before that he is afraid of men for some reason only known to him but he is doing better with me around and I was able to finally get these photos of him in a relaxed mode.  I have yet to get a picture of him and Beans greeting each other by rubbing noses.  It doesn’t last long for they both go off to do their own thing after a brief kiss.

He is an adventure cat and takes his mom for very long walks (“Louie, I don’t want to go to California”) much longer than Beans is interested in doing for she’s too busy looking for lizards.  

 Louie now has a home and a new chance at life.  My friend and I both agree that Louie would not have survived this terrible snowy freezing weather that Texas is now going through.

Lucky Louie has found a good mom.

Me and the News Update

 You may recall back when the inauguration was gearing up I became very annoyed with my iPhone and iPad dinging repeatedly with the latest news bulletins of the affair and I finally fully detached myself from all news having discovered I had control over my notifications.

My life has been so much better ever since and continues to be so. 

Thomas Jefferson said the job of journalists was to portray accurately what was happening in society.  The media over time increasingly failed to report positive news.  In the 1990’s while homicide rates in the U.S. dropped by 42 percent, television news coverage of murders surged more than 700 percent according to the Center for Media and Public affairs.

If you are old enough then you will be familiar with The Huntley-Brinkley Report news program on NBC which aired from 1956 through to 1970.  Chet Huntley reported from New York City and David Brinkley from Washington D.C.  Both men had the deepest respect for each other even though one was a firm Democrat and the other a Republican.  Few people ever knew this for their political differences were never apparent in their reporting.  This type of professional journalism is nonexistent today.

La Paz Pet Cemetary

A few miles south of where we are out in the middle of the desert is the little “community” of La Paz which consists of two RV/mobile home parks and a few scattered houses.  

A half a mile away is the resident’s pet cemetery.

 

I hadn’t been out there in a couple of years and I noticed two new markers that stood out from the rest. 

This is a solid block of pink quartz which must be a bit pricey.

This one I thought quite clever and well done.

A Poem from the Cat

 

Beans didn’t deliver that rat to me.  I came across it on a hike.

But the lizards are on the move again in this warm weather

And here is Beans on a stake-out at camp.

The Cat House

My neighbor has an outdoor cat patio for her gray tabby.

Well guess who likes to go inside and sit?

 No Beans, I’m not getting you one.  

You’d use it once or twice then want out to sit on your carpet.

You may be wondering, yes the two cats get along with each other for about a half a minute then lose interest wandering off to do their own thing.

I haven’t been able to get a good photo of her cat.  He’s a big lovable guy but is afraid of men for some unknown reason in his hidden past.  But, being the cat guy that I am he is slowly coming around to me.  When he is in the cat patio he welcomes my sticking my hand inside to pet and scratch behind his ears.

But outside on his leash and harness not so much.

We’re still working on that.

The Pet Carrier

It is just unbelievable to me the things people throw away.

 One day there was this pet carrier setting right there within reach in the huge dumpster.

There is nothing wrong with it and everything is there.  

It didn’t even need cleaning although I did wipe it down throughly with some antiseptic wipes.

I hope I never have to use it but is now stored away under the bed folded flat.

The Camper

You may recall the post about the wind blowing this camper over that was setting on the lot at the big RV show grounds.  The show has moved on, all the big monster coaches have been cleared away and there sets that lonely camper still.  I looked it over and it sustained no damage from the topple over.  They removed the two bent front jacks and the mounts for them are still on the camper and okay.  One could be bent back just a little.  Lance is a quality well made camper.  You can see a solar panel on top.

Anyone with a pickup truck would do well with this camper.

 

The Pandemic Year

 

Our newest eBook is now published.

This issue covers all that we did last year, which in the end wasn’t at all what we had planned but then again it was 2020 and nothing went according to plan for most everyone.  Speaking of the end, that itself most definitely wasn’t in the works.  Yes, I included all of that horrible experience in detail in the book.   

You can download this eBook for free by clicking right here.

I plan to leave this post up for most of the week so that everyone has a chance to see it.  Some followers only check on the blog once a week.  After that I will move the The Pandemic Year over to the right side of the page along with my other Free eBooks.

Signs

 

And finally this one out in the middle of the desert.

I ran out of data early this week so have been operating at dial-up speed or in other words glacial speed.

It took three and a half hours to upload these pictures and set up this post.

Amazing.

New allowance comes in today.  I will be more careful this month.

This is Why We Are Here

The month of February like this anywhere else in the country?

 

Rent Me

 

There a few companies that have camper vans available for rent, companies that paint them all up to attraction attention is all that I can think of. This one here I think went too far.  Would you want to drive around in a van that read “Smelly Hippies” on the side?  On the back it reads “I have puppies instead of children.  I’d rather have my carpet ruined than my life”.  Okay, I thought that one funny.

With these rentals you get some pots and pans, a built in stove, maybe an ice chest I would think and a bed.  I just wonder if you get a choice of the graphics or just have to settle with what is availible.