It has been a while since I have recovered from a surgery. The tonsil surgery went well yesterday, but naturally there is pain. In adults, recovery apparently takes longer. Even so, I felt so bad for the two babies in recovery who had their tonsils out as well. How horrible not to know what is happening to you. I am not supposed to lift heavy things or drive machinery or eat solids or anything. I am pretty drugged up, so my thoughts are kind of random. I have [...]]]>
Finally had them out today. What a relief. They have been bothering for two years. The doctor said I should feel a whole lot better without them. But oh my, am I thankful for narcotics! Although pain which you know is for your own good is easier to bear, it still is...a bear.
Here is the famous toccata from Vidor's 5th organ symphony played on one of the monstrous organs of Europe, a Cavaille-Coll in St. Ouen, France. Turn up the sound! Experience the bass! Imagine unleashing such violence by simply tapping on a pedal with your foot. The bass is overwhelming in this recording. I wonder what it is like in person. Perhaps it is more balanced. But can you imagine hearing this [...]]]>
The Iranian people elected a moderate president today, one who promises to cooperate with the West to get sanctions removed. Iran just got a lot less dangerous, and on its own. What a disaster it would have been Dick Cheney and the neoconservatives had gotten their wish for a war with Iran. Such a war would have strengthened radical elements. We would likely still be there. And it wouldn't be pretty.
President Obama's decision to [...]]]>
Lance is preparing an exhibit of 30 of his photography pieces which will open next Wednesday, June 19, at the Riverwalk Centre in East Grand Forks. This is the first time Lance has exhibited color photos. Here is a link to a radio interview Lance gave about the exhibit.
Went in to the Hilton yesterday to find Aunt Olla up and walking around her room. The staff is amazed. They didn't expect her to recover so fully. True to form, Aunt Olla has forgotten she was ever bedridden with a bad back and dizzy on pain medication. She is down to two Tylenol per day. In fact, the staff had just finished the paper work to put her in a higher care classification and now they are going to have to have a care conference and lower it back [...]]]>
Of course, the angry people won't let the truth get in the way of their assuming that the Bible supports their views. If you actually read the Bible, it has all kinds of definitions of marriage, most of them out-dated and strange.
Attended the new movie version of "The Great Gatsby" last week.
The movie was visually luscious. Much of it was computer-generated, or at least gave that feel. However, once I gave in to the unreality, which I did about 45 minutes in, the movie was a treat.
Unlike "Hyde Park on the Hudson," and "Lincoln," "Gatsby" made no serious attempt to be an authentic period piece. For instance, the [...]]]>
A beautiful scarlet tanager came to the feeder this morning. Below, try to find the warbler. The autofocus found the wrong yellow thing.
Notice how this wonderful woman deals with the sick grief-mongering reporter in this video which is now making the rounds. "Oh, I know exactly what happened," the woman says as the reporter shamelessly angles for tears, or at least some self-pity.
Then we have a story from Grand Forks where a [...]]]>
The Ohio Secretary of State ordered that any suspicious ballot out of the 5.6 million cast in Ohio be investigated. They found only 135 suspicious ballots, and those votes weren't organized in favor of one party or another. The entire notion that there is massive voter fraud is false. Republicans used the fear of fraud to introduce voter ID [...]]]>
With the nice weather, business has picked up again. What a spring! We have a lot of catching up to do, as do area gardeners.
Phone call of the year:
"Yeah, my husband just picked up some apple trees at Home Depot. When is the best time to plant them, morning or evening?"
I responded that apple trees die if they aren't planted at 3 a.m.
Second question, same caller:
"That plastic [...]]]>
Never thought I would find much encouraging coming out of the Vatican, but here it is: A pope who is making good sense.
Finally, there will be a small increase in nursing home funding in Minnesota. Nursing home workers do some of the most difficult and important work in our towns. They deserve to be paid accordingly. This is only a small step, but it is a step.
Another appalling example of children being exploited for the delight of the masses. This genre is amongst the sickest public spectacles afloat today: In a full stadium, a child is surprised by the appearance of his or her father (haven't seen a mother yet) back from deployment. The video is replayed by millions. The poor kid's [...]]]>
Andrew Sullivan does not identify the readers who write in to his blog, but I will claim the first letter in this post as mine.
This book and the accompanying television program are sure to be controversial. However, the author is spot on in his assertion that the eventual solution to Alzheimer's disease is likely not going to be a pill, but a drastic change in lifestyle and diet. Oh, how we hate to hear that.
As Alzheimer's disease becomes more prevalent, new books about it are [...]]]>
Please read this article about the experience of a woman with dark skin at the White House Press Correspondent's dinner. I hear people so often say there is no bigotry any more, that it is all in people's imagination. The assertion is so insanely false--just ask anybody with brown skin for a story--but people continue to insist that they know better [...]]]>
In apparent response to brother Joe's recent article advocating the decriminalization of marijuana, our fellow greenhouse north of town moved in for the kill!
They do have a nice place, well worth the stop.
Went in to see how Aunt Olive was doing today and she was in fine form. In fact, her pain didn't even come up until I offered to get her heat pack re-heated. After wanting nothing more than to die two days ago, Olive's focus was once again on the future. She wants to go to Detroit Lakes to see one of her [...]]]>
Here is the first song by George Jones that I liked back in high school. Boy, then you had to hide the fact that you liked country music! Now you don't. This is a minor hit, but to me it is George at his best.
And then George's prediction about his demise.
And here is a sample of his excellence with the blues. People don't realize what a great guitar player he is. Here he is, doing another song he wrote (on the same car trip back in the early 1960s) with the equally great BB King.
I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the passing of George Jones, another of my favorites. [...]]]>
Aunt Olive was suffering again today. Mightily. I went in and discovered she was only getting one Tylenol every four hours. Silly. She was in excruciating pain, and she is not a complainer. The staff was doing all they could, but the doctors had not gotten back to them for two and a half days. We plotted with one of Olla's favorite staffers and decided that it was so bad that if the doctors didn't call back, we'd just ship her up in the ambulance and [...]]]>
So much has happened to the climate in the past few days. Yesterday, I went for a run on the railbed. Only last week, it was under drifts. I think it was last Friday that the ditches broke loose. The swamp in front of the house gathered a lot of water, but still is only about 30% full, if that.
The ground is still frozen in many places. However, the weather forecast looks pretty good.
We sit with a huge inventory, hoping to sell everything [...]]]>
Spoke 70 miles south of here at a townhall meeting today. About 80 people were present. I was speaking about peat, a favorite topic, when a woman raised her hand and said, "I did just like you said and put peat on my garden and it didn't grow!"
Wow. I didn't know what to say. She had gotten her peat at Pete's Peat, which I had recommended last year at the same town hall. "We had only pumpkins, every thing else was dead," she [...]]]>
Today, I loaded up about 900 catalogs and drove north to Red Lake Falls and Thief River Falls. Eventually, I stopped at 47 places. In the evening, I traveled to Newfolden to speak to a WELCA (Women of the Evangelical Church of America) Spring Fling.
It was called a "salad luncheon." Oh, I was hungry. I worried that there would be lettuce with croutons. As the devotional finished, however, a grand parade of women bearing dishes emerged [...]]]>
Here is a study which concludes that those who believe in a punative god have more mental health issues. I would think this wouldn't even need study, but if a study is necessary to make the point, so be it. I am especially troubled by the effects of belief in an authoritarian father figure god, a belief which often, it seems, correlates with a [...]]]>
Lake Park's mayor takes a stand that would have been radical only a couple of years ago. Read his story.
It does me good with this late spring to be out distributing catalogs in the hopes that promotion will make up for the lateness of the spring. Today I stopped at 57 places and got rid of 900-some catalogs. I was rebuffed only four times, which is really remarkable considering I am basically a door-to-door solicitor. Even so, I don't take rejection kindly and it was all I could to not to plan the demise of those who said sent me away by saying, no, nobody here [...]]]>
With snow still everywhere, we aren't selling a thing yet at the nursery. However, that allows me the time to promote. We had a lot of extra catalogs printed and I spent the day distributing 1,100 of them to 62 stops. I started in Winger, went to Erskine, McIntosh, Fosston, Bagley, then Bemidji. I stopped at banks, convenience stores, all medical establishments, dentists, and a couple of manufacturing plants. People are very friendly, even if they haven't [...]]]>
Here is what we should do in response to the Boston bombing: Keep calm and carry on. Except for the police work involved with solving the crime, we should move on in a hurry. No flags at half staff. No maudlin displays of injured national pride. No fear. No increased security. Nothing. Move on. Carry on. More people died and were injured [...]]]>
Here you have the right-wing mind in all its ugly glory. Read the article. Contemplate it. You have a professional radio announcer saying that the families of the victims at Newtown can "go to hell."
The right-wing mind celebrates displays of strength against helpless victims whereever it sees it. Most of the time, the [...]]]>
Put that name in the back of your mind. He made his debut tonight with the Twins at age 21. They have been trying to hold him back because he is so young, but he has torn the cover off the ball at every level of minor league play. I don't often make big bets on rookies, but this guy is going to be a star.
The Twins are struggling. Surprise, surprise. At some point, however, they are going to have some good streaks this year, however. It is young [...]]]>
On the trip home from Minneapolis today, the roads were clear and I was able to enjoy an album of the great Sergei Rachmoninoff playing his own music in 1911-1915, when he was at his prime as a great pianist. Here, he plays his most famous Prelude, a piece he grew to hate closer to his death in 1943 because everybody insisted upon hearing him play it as if it was the only piece he wrote. It was [...]]]>
As the Twins lose badly to the New York Mets tonight, I am reminded why baseball is such a great game: We still have the opportunity to see Joe Mauer ply his trade every couple of innings at the bat. What a pleasure. Mauer is one of the great hitters of all time, and watching his every at-bat is a worthwhile endeavor no matter how out of reach the game.
Last night, the Dodgers and the Padres had a brawl. Zach Greinke, the Dodgers' $140 million [...]]]>
After viewing the weather for an hour and finding the conditions on I-94 less than optimal, I decided to get a hotel room. Bonanza! The Hilton had a room for $68. So, I have been toodling around downtown Minneapolis today. I ate at my favorite restaurant downtown, Zelo, and am now enjoying my 15th floor view of the snow removal operations in the city. I do like to be around the activity. Spent the afternoon at Barnes and [...]]]>
After two days in the Twin Cities, I was to drive home this afternoon. However, things look nasty in central Minnesota, and I have no desire to push things. I might just stay over. Like a cat, if I am in, I want out, if I am out, I want in: I thought about staying down here a bit, but now that it is forced upon me, I find I want to forge my way home. Stupid impulses.
This morning was a slush fest as I struggled to a meeting. Got there 1/2 hour [...]]]>
While a cardinal, the new pope co-wrote a book with a rabbi. Here are just a few excerpts. Cardinal Bergoglio's thoughts are refreshing, especially his views on athiesm and fundamentalism. His co-author states what I have always believed: Agnosticism is the only tenable position, even if one tends towards belief or disbelief. People who dogmatically [...]]]>
Sean Hannity defends the ousted Rutgers basketball coach, who hit his players and threw balls at them. I knew it was a matter of time before some right-winger would defend the use of violence by those in authority against those beneath them. It is one of the great right-wing beliefs: The little guy needs beating every now and then just to keep him in line. [...]]]>
Here is confirmation of what should be obvious: Alzhieimer's disease is not only costly, it costs more than heart disease or cancer.
I worry that we'll just look away.
The Democratic-led Minnesota House and Senate are proposing $150 million in cuts to heath and human services. For nursing homes, costs go up but reimbursement goes down. [...]]]>
Thus starts what promises to be a long, excruciating season for Twins fans. Tigers' starting pitcher Justin Verlander was his ornery self. The Twins' attempt to mount a rally against the Tigers' relievers after Verlander was removed was thrwarted when Chris Parmelee swung and missed two fastballs in the dirt. I can understand swinging at curveballs in the dirt, as you might have been led to believe that they were going to stay elevated. But low fastballs? They [...]]]>
Thomas Friedman publishes a great column this morning on what people need to survive in today's economy. There are great opportunities, but they don't lie in getting a job, but in creating your own job. However, the education system is still preparing people to enter a traditional job. Traditional jobs are vanishing. The people who thrive are on their own. The [...]]]>
The weather is warming here in Minnesota, if only slightly. Meanwhile, the usual "welcome home" cold hit me this week. Miserable. I think the weather change causes it. I know very well that if I were in Arizona enjoying the 85 degree weather until mid-April, I would not have such issues as lethargy and coughs.
On the upside, the Twins season starts only four days from now. I do not think the Twins have much chance this season, [...]]]>
I haven't been watching the Twins progress in spring training too closely, as it usually has no bearing on their regular season. However, it is fun to see that Aaron Hicks stepped up to take the center field position. He has more native talent than either Ben Revere or Denard Span, who were traded for pitching last winter. Hicks looks like a winner. He [...]]]>
President Obama had a very successful trip to the Mideast. Is anybody even watching? Or do we have to start a war before anybody feels like we are accomplishing something? And what about the snakes who claimed, without one ounce of evidence, that Obama was "sympathetic" to Islamic extremists--do they find evidence for their fantasies in this trip? Or does it [...]]]>
Wow, the Fargo Forum calls out the North Dakota legislature for its looniness this session. Congratulations to the Gray Lady of the Great Plains for a plain-spoken editorial.
Take a look at this video of the Bakken. Wow.
Here is a video of the place where they load the trains with oil, trains which you can see passing through Fargo and on down Highway 10. I passed through the Bakken on the way home this week. It is something. Dickinson is so lit up. It is like beet harvest times 100. Gas flares and oil rig high voltage [...]]]>
A foggy day at Yosemite produced scenes which were almost Japanese in their elegance, subtlety and simplicity.
Yosemite [...]]]>
I am sitting at the computer this pristine winter morning recovering from two days on the road.
On Thursday, I traveled to central Minnesota to speak to two libraries as a part of their series of "author talks." At the first talk, nobody showed. So I visited with the librarian. Eventually, a woman came with Fertile connections. We shared some Fertile gossip. Then a twelve-year-old who had been too shy to show up on time arrived, chastened, [...]]]>
Just trying out to make sure the picture function is fixed. Looks like it is!
Hard to believe that we were here about a week ago! It seems like [...]]]>
Brother Joe placed a well-written and cogent letter-to-the editor in the Fertile Journal in favor of the legalization of marijuana. It has unleashed a round of "have you seen the Journal yet?" gawking locally, as is to be expected. The knee-jerk shame reaction to having somebody take a stand contrary to prevailing dogma is strong.
We need to examine these questions cooly and logically. All scientific studies have found that marjiuana's [...]]]>
Long drive yesterday. I started in Dillon, MT. Had thoughts of going all the way home, but why push it. Bismarck would be far enough. So I stopped in Billings at my favorite chain restaurant, Famous Dave's, and then stopped at a local coffee shop for a thick, caffiene-heavy latte for the road. While at the coffee shop, I checked emails. One of the emails contained a very interesting proposal, which was whirling in my mind as I left the coffee shop. [...]]]>
This article is spot on. In a religious group that promotes male dominance, there will be sexual abuse, it will be covered up, the perpetrator will be reinstated, and the victim will be blamed. And the members of the group close ranks and deny anything of importance happened. In these male authority [...]]]>
Elizabeth Warren is just what the banking industry needs right now. She is absolutely correct. We need more of her.
Called Aunt Olive two days ago, and I later found out that in response to her rough night of heart problems last week, she has compliled a "death list" of five people she would like to see before she dies. However, she sounds no worse for wear on the phone, so this action might be premature. Or, maybe we should all do it right now.
I am on my way across the country. Last evening in a small freeway town I had the single most bizarre [...]]]>
Pictures of Yosemite, and I have plenty, will have to wait until I get home next week. They are not loading and I lack the technical expertise to solve the problem. My technical expertise consists of waiting to see if the problem goes away on its own.
What a great refuge here at the Yosemite Bug. It is the perfect place to work. Quiet, calm, no hassle.
Digging in for a week at the Yosemite Bug hostel. Don't think I am sleeping in a bunk, we have a nice cabin on stilts on the side of the mountain. We walk on catwalks to get to the door after climbing switchbacks from the main lodge. The main lodge is a completely happy, rustic place where you are free to spend the entire day hanging out, working, whatever. After two days negotiating Los Angeles, I did nothing but sleep [...]]]>
Lance and I left from Phoenix for Los Angeles this morning. It was a six hour drive, and featured LA traffic in spades for the last hour. Wow. This place is something else.
We went to Culver City, which is a suburb, to visit a sister Lance recently discovered named Sarah. I had a picture of us all, but the site is not loading right now.
Sarah lives in an area of town known as Little Ethiopia. There are dozens of Ethiopian [...]]]>
•I am excited that a bi-partisan group of legislators in Minnesota is endorsing a plan to increase nursing home funding by 5%. This after nursing homes have absorbed up to 40% in cuts over the past few years. This is going to keep many nursing homes from closing, if it passes. Call your legislator!
•Meanwhile, the bulk of North Dakota legislators distinguish [...]]]>
Went for a drive yesterday afternoon and found the Ray Copper Mine 11 miles south of Superior, AZ. It had a good observatory. One could watch and hear the machinery grind away in the far distance.
Local boy Kent Erdahl, (Son of Larry (at the bank) and Elaine (Elaine is one of Emil and LaVanche Petersen's girls, from up north of town) Erdahl), now a TV reporter in Indianapolis, files this fun story. Great job, Kent! ![coppermine2. [...]]]></description>
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Here is Vinny. He is a cat. He has been at the nursery for several months. He is very friendly and loving. He was recently taken to the vet to be tutored. I don't know what they taught him, but they say the tutoring will help in many ways. In fact, male cats, once tutored, are the ideal cat. I believe this. [...]]]>
Follow the links in this Herald article to get to a most excellent National Geographic article on the North Dakota oil fields. A few years ago, National Geographic wrote on the emptying of North Dakota's farm country. It was an accurate article, but because it didn't include the Chamber of Commerce booster points, it was greeted with anger by the more defensive North Dakotans. This article [...]]]>
Sen. Hegel would make a good Secretary of Defense for the very reasons his fellow Republican senators are blocking his nomination: He doesn't believe we should take orders from Isreal. He doesn't believe starting the Iraq war was wise. He doesn't believe the so-called "surge" did much. He doesn't believe we need to spend more than then next 45 ranking nations combined in defense.
In other words, Hegel is not a paranoid authoritarian [...]]]>
At about nine this morning, it started to snow in earnest here in Gold Canyon. A while later, the clouds lifted, revealing scenes like this one. Lance and I went out for a drive to take photos, only to find 1) everybody else was out holding their phones up taking the same photos and 2) the best [...]]]>
A founder of the hospice movement in this country is profiled in this article. It is difficult to believe that hospice was once a revolutionary concept. It is also difficult to believe how much resistance there is to the notion yet today in the medical establishment. At some point, death is natural. We should stop poking people with needles and pumping them full of [...]]]>
Aunt Olive, age 101, with a Valentine's Day bouquet from her boyfriend Bunny, age 52.
Yesterday was one of those sterling Arizona days that makes you wonder why a person would spend winter anywhere else. Mid-70s. Slight breeze. Sunny. I sat in the back yard and watched the golfers while editing. Then I went on a slow walk down the wash and listened to all the different birds. Migration must be starting, as there are new songs every day. Somebody set up a bench under a mesquite tree in the wash, so I sat in the shade. Then went for a run. [...]]]>
This is the single most informative article I have read on the Bakken oil boom in the past few months. I am always thankful for the continued excellence of the National Geographic.
I suspect the Herald's Ryan Bakken and Eric Hylden enjoyed reporting this story more than is journalistically proper. Get back to the city hall beat, boys! Look at the picture. My goodness. A pink welding helmet? C'mon.
Van Halen comes to mind.
As I drove towards Fargo last night, the weather worsened. Freezing rain, sleet, whatever you call it. Slick roads. Huge snowbanks. Just the stuff you stay in Arizona to avoid.
However, the people at the airport weren't even worried. With a slight delay for de-icing, the plane took off as planned and within three hours I was back in snow-free country.
This morning dawned clear and beautiful, with birds singing.
The trip home was [...]]]>
I came home Friday night in order to attend a Bush Foundation retreat which is a required part of my Bush Fellowship--only to have the weather intervene and prevent my driving to St. Paul. So, I have been a part of this storm which dumped on us Sunday and early yesterday.
I went in to visit Aunt Olive today. She's doing very well. Looks great. Emil, the Hilton's maintainance director, set Olla up with a big reader so she could read books and the [...]]]>
I have been trying to upload pictures, but without luck.
On Tuesday, neighbor Rob from back home took me on a 4-wheeler trek. Two other parties met us at the staging area south of here near Florence, and we took off through the desert towards the mountains.
First surprise: You have to wear a facemask or a bandana to keep from breathing the dust. Why? In the dust is the fungus which causes Valley Fever, a disease you do not want. [...]]]>
Underneath the flesh of a saguaro is a beautiful, woody skeleton. Notice the green sprouts of grass and other plants. The desert is turning green due to recent rains. I suspect at some time in the next couple of months, the wild flowers will be in full bloom. I would love to be here for the event, but [...]]]>
Yes, they do fish on this lake.
Lance and I visited Frank Lloyd Wright's studio, Taliesin West, in north Scottsdale yesterday. We took the one-and-a-half hour tour, which was led by the woman pictured above.
The tour was very interesting and worthwhile. Frank Lloyd Wright was a [...]]]>
One of the great things about the British Isles is people aren't afraid to sing. The Welsh in particular are avid singers. They take pride in singing their national anthem well, particularly at rugby matches against teams from other nations.
Those are indeed the players on the field singing their hearts out, not some choir. Can you imagine Adrian Peterson singing our national [...]]]>
Earl Weaver finally passed away this weekend after decades of chain smoking. Earl was the manager of the Baltimore Orioles during their glory years. Here is a tribute to Earl. And then, just to make sure you know Earl intimately, here is an adults-only, world famous rendition of Earl in an argument with Bill Haller, one of the best American League [...]]]>
I was reminded this week that former Sen. Barry Goldwater was also a master photographer.
Also, a nice article in the Casper, WY paper about friend Chuck Kimmerle's exhibit. Chuck moved to Wyoming because his partner Brenda got a [...]]]>
Comments on recent news items:
•Internet activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide rather than face possible incarceration. Was the prosecution over-zealous? Probably. Are they to blame for his suicide? No. The only person to blame for a suicide is the person committing it. Yes, we should fight bullying, even by those with the full prosecutorial powers of the federal government. But in the end, we are all responsible for maintaining our existence [...]]]>
The cold snap down here is killing stuff, namely citrus and other plants. The plants around the house here in Gold Canyon are looking awful. The frost doesn't leave the patio, which is on the north side, even in the late afternoon. The crust on the puddles around the golf course doesn't thaw during the day.
It is all relative; Minnesotans would be gleeful at the prospect of hitting 50 degrees during the day back home. When I saw that number on [...]]]>
Went east of Apache Junction about 10 miles tonight to a canyon that I find absolutely beautiful. Lance had a new time-lapse camera to play with as the sun set, while I tried to capture the magma, sage and lichen.
If you can bear this without losing your lunch, you may be ready to endure Les Miserables!
The steroids suspects, namely Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmiero and Roger Clemens, were shut out of the Hall of Fame in voting this week, despite possessing statistics which outpace the usual standards for induction. The reason for the rejection, of course, is that the writers who vote don't think cheaters should be rewarded for cheating, at least beyond the tens of millions they earned after they juiced up.
Trouble is, nobody knows who [...]]]>
Spent the past four days in Austin, TX attending a funeral––four days, including two travel days. Yesterday, I had time to go see the Texas Capitol in downtown Austin. Above is a drum circle, the noise from which resounded through the massive building.
Now we're supposed to congratulated Congress for doing what they should have done long ago. All they did was avert a disaster of their own making.
The tax increases agreed to are so very minor they barely make a difference. Even so, the House Republicans were ready to scotch the deal and let taxes go up on everybody rather than allow tax increases on those who clear over $250,000 per year. In the end, they settled reluctantly at $400,000 per [...]]]>
Today I downloaded my first book onto my new Kindle. It was recommended to me by a stranger I met at a restaurant last week, and it is called The Botany of Desire. The first chapter, which I finished tonight, is on the very eccentric John Chapman, who became known as http://www.devilslakejournal.com/article/20121231/BLOGS/312319974/-1/blogs01
One duffer swinging...and a partridge in a pear tree. 
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On Christmas Day, several new movies hit the big screen. The most notable this year was the latest version of Les Miserables, which opened to critical acclaim.http://www.devilslakejournal.com/article/20121230/BLOGS/312309975/-1/blogs01
Lance arrived safely this morning, in time to find me an illicit internet connection to the Vikings game on my computer. The NFL has things pretty well nailed down, but the tech-savvy can still find an end-around the paywalls and watch the game for free, which is our constitutional entitlement as American citizens. Adrian Peterson has another great game and came within 27 feet of becoming the greatest season of any runningback in NFL history. It was [...]]]>
Yesterday, I moved out of house #1 in Gold Canyon. I had two nights between houses, so I went on Priceline and got a good hotel deal at a resort in north Phoenix, which seemed like something different. It seemed like a historic resort, perched on cliffs. However, it was built only in the 1980s.
The man who built it did it right. One of the restaurants, just down the sidewalk from my room, featured $250, [...]]]>
This picture takes a while to load. It was posted yesterday by NASA. Take a look at western North Dakota. It gives off more light, due to the flaring of unused natural gas from the oil wells, than Phoenix or Minneapolis. What a waste. It could be piped to Fargo and Grand Forks to provide cheap heating for both cities--and much more. [...]]]>
With family back home and Lance visiting his sister in Missouri, on his way to join me here in Gold Canyon, I celebrated Christmas Eve with Cousin Tina. We ate lasagna at her house with a couple of her friends and then went to a Celtic Christmas Eve service at the United Church of Christ (UCC) church in Scottsdale. Celtic traditions were spread throughout the British Isles by the nomadic Celts. The Welsh, in particular, have a great tradition of singing and of [...]]]>
Dad sent on this picture of the Christmas celebration back home. Kae, left, Aunt Olive, center, and Brother Joe are pictured here. I attempted to join the party via Skype, but it was too confusing to Aunt Olla who figured she was on national television and kept saying, "I am really not accustomed to all this publicity." Of course, she [...]]]>
