Burning Gas-A GPS Gift

Posted on 18/05/2013 by Grumpa Joe
English: Another Shot of Kayenta, AZ.

English: Another Shot of Kayenta, AZ. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Finally, at the end of April, I built up enough courage to drive from the Valley of the Sun northward toward  snow and cold. Only I made damned sure there would be no snow and that it would be cool, not cold. The plan took us through the north-east corner of Arizona. There are not many roads in this sector. If you don’t believe me search Google maps for Tuba City, Arizona. Our goal was to visit Arches National Park in Utah. Going home by way of Arches has been on my bucket list since 2004 when I first ventured to Arizona for a long respite in the desert. My reasoning was simple, visiting Arches adds only a few miles more than going directly home. The venture adds another day. In years past, the weather forecast always showed rain and forty degrees. Forty degrees and rain don’t agree with me, so I opted for the fast way home. This time, however, the forecast was seventy degrees and sunny, I went for it.

The atlas is correct, there are very few roads in that sector of Arizona. There are miles and miles of Navaho Indian reservations with some very good two lane highways crossing them. The scenery is very like the Painted Desert, flat open vistas streaked with orange,  rusty red, pink, soft pale green, brown, and all shades between. Although the views could be considered boring, I drove slow ( 65 mph) because I enjoyed soaking up those color striations.

Toward mid-afternoon we stopped in the small town of Kayenta, Arizona. The atlas shows Kayenta in bold black letters indicating that it is a large town, but believe me it is a small place, blink as you pass through and you miss it. We gassed up and enjoyed a pit stop at the Golden Arches. The GPS led us out-of-town and onto U.S. Highway 163. All along, I thought we would take a faster route and turn northward on 191. It didn’t matter, highway 163 was a sound road.

A few miles north we began to see huge monoliths protruding from Mother Earth. I’ve seen these views before, but where? The stately rock formations increased in number as we continued. “Oh my God, we are in Monument Valley,” I said to Peg. I’ve seen pictures of this place many times. I took photos from the car window and stopped at several places to get better views.

Monument Valley Near Kayenta, Arizona

Monument Valley Near Kayenta, Arizona

Further along the road we came upon a Navaho strip mall. In years past, the Indians sold jewelry and pottery along the roadsides at crudely made wooden stands, but these were all vacant. It seems that too many tourists had car crashes pulling on the highway from these primitive sales areas. To eliminate fatalities, the tribal council built a modern strip mall with a very safe entrance to a large parking area to replace the ancient stalls. I bought a dozen souvenir necklaces from Monica and a decorator pot for the house from Charlene. Both of the women were Navaho, and both had hard to pronounce indian names, so they went by their American names.

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View from an old Navaho Road Side Stand

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Navaho Necklaces, Hand Made By Monica

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Monica the jewelry craftsman with Peggy

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Dream Catchers

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Bracelets

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Charlene wraps our pottery buy in bubble wrap.

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Charlene swipes my credit card on a hand-held wireless device thus integrating the ancient art symbology of the pot with modern technology. Her two kids watch TV as she sells her native wares.

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The views of Monument Valley were breathtaking for the rest of the day. Notice the bug splat on the upper right side monument.

Monument Valley was the highlight of this day. The scenery is breathtaking and got me to pondering about how many years it takes to erode a mountain into these rock formations. I learned the answer to that question later at Arches National Park. Had it not been for the GPS, I would have missed seeing this fantastic area of our country.

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She Makes Several Excellent Points

Posted on 17/05/2013 by Grumpa Joe

A very articulate young Conservative woman, Kira Davis,  makes a passionate argument in favor of  the Second Amendment.

Kudos to Kira. Not only does she make good sense about preserving our Second Amendment rights, she also has an excellent website which I highly recommend.

 

Filed under: Conservative, family, Government | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Flying Bullets and Home Invasion

Posted on 16/05/2013 by Grumpa Joe

The gun control argument prevails. The video below is an excellent argument for having high-capacity magazines in your weapons. I’m sure liberals will cry and scream about the need for any weapons at all. My argument is that a bullet gets results faster than a 911 call.

This morning I read a stupid article about suicide. The author stated that 18,000 some suicides will happen this year because there is a gun in the house. Folks, if you are contemplating suicide and you don’t have a gun in the house, I am certain you will find another way to kill yourself.

We need guns and ammo to protect ourselves from criminals, and a run away government desiring to transform America into a communist state.

How many bullets should you have in your gun?

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Opening Day At the 2013 Monet Vision

Posted on 15/05/2013 by Grumpa Joe

Ugh! Opening day in the garden is always a drag, and procrastination delayed my arrival. I love blogging and sat down this morning and even early this afternoon to write, but it didn’t happen. The temperature settled at 85 degrees and the little man inside my head kept urging me to go outside to enjoy the day. “Okay,” I told him, “quit nagging me.” I decided to take a baby step and to spend one hour outside. I even had a plan, i.e. start cleaning the bed behind the kitchen window. That will only take an hour. Three and a half hours later, I dragged my weary body in and collapsed, but at least I took a step.

2013-Monet Vision, Main Bed

2013-Monet Vision, Main Bed

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Cirsium Arvense, Thistle

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Grape Hyacinth

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Dandelion Puff Balls

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White Iris

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Lilly of the Valley beginning to bloom

My mind reeled with visions of work. Move the mums, split the wild geraniums, move the native hibiscus, trim the shrubs, dig out the five foot tall volunteer bush at the bird tower, move the day lilies into the sun, trim the shag bark birch, spray the dandelions, clean the leaves from the east side of the house, trim the Fallopia Japonica, cut back the shrubs along the east border, pull the weeds from the vegetable bed, and I haven’t even thought about buying any flowers yet. Oh my, what am I going to do? Take it one baby step at a time, that is what!

The first priority is to clean all maximum impact areas. What is a maximum impact area? Any flower bed that I can see from my chair at the kitchen table is a maximum impact area. There is an order of priority commencing from the chair, and progressing to the view standing at the kitchen window, to looking out the sunroom windows, to the bedroom windows, and finally, my neighbor’s view from his patio to the the far reaches of the yard.

Garden waste is always a problem for me. The village provides a pickup service, but I have to place the waste curbside in officially approved and tagged brown paper bags. That does not appeal to me at all. I prefer dumping garden waste into a pile beyond the lot line in the swamp. The EPA designation for swamp these days is “wetland.” Last year, the Wetlands Officer gave me a ticket for dumping evil grass clippings and dead dandelions on officially designated wetland property. The list of damage I subjected upon to the environment seemed endless. Further infractions of tossing horticultural matter into the swamp is punishable, and objectionable to the natural critters who consider the swamp their home.

When I finally came in, I went to my computer and googled NuWay Waste Disposal. That is the company that trucks our garbage and recyclables away. Eureka, they offer a yard waste disposal bin for a seasonal fee. The choice is to pay for the official brown bags, or for a handy waste container that gets picked up weekly. The Monet Vision produces a few square yards of horticultural matter every year, and the bin is a much more practical way to dispose of the waste. At least it is for me.

When the Frankfort Environmental Officer arrives to inspect my piece of the swamp, I will proudly point at my new garden waste bin and thumb my nose at him. Then, I will politely ask him what he will do to eradicate all the non-native thistle and doc migrating from his swamp into my horticultural masterpiece.

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Photo ID’s

Posted on 14/05/2013 by Grumpa Joe

This week, between Peg and myself we’ve been in doctor offices four times. Each different doctor required a check-in which consisted of:

1. a photo of the patient

2. insurance cards copied

3. signatures on statements that we agree to pay in blood if Medicare does not cover our visit. Apparently, the doctors do not yet know if Medicare covers what they prescribe. I wonder if Dr. Death knows?

The photo really caught my attention. For what possible reason could a doctor need your photo? The doctor sees what you look like each time you visit. In my case he even knows my name and calls me Joe. My mind worked overtime and finally the little light-bulb came on, you know the old-fashioned kind of Edison bulb with tungsten filaments in them, not the curly fluorescent kind loaded with deadly mercury. Answer this question: who in the health care system does not know what you look like? As of January 1, 2013, parts of the PPACA became effective. So the answer is, Obama does not know what you look like. I shuddered each time the shutter clicked, because now my ugly likeness is going into a national database. Most likely this is one database that Homeland Security will share with the DOJ, FBI, CIA, ICE, IRS, SSA, Secret Service, the Frankfort Police, the Will County Sheriff, the Illinois State Police  and every other big brother organization wanting to look into your life without you knowing it.

A second light bulb went off a few seconds later with a new question. Why is it that my picture is in my health file, on my driver’s license, my firearm owners ID, and the pass I use to travel on Metra at a discount without discrimination, and not on my voter registration card?

photo

The DOJ defends their argument not to use picture ID’s for voter registration because somehow it discriminates against certain people, and as such keeps them from the voter rolls. Yet, many government agencies require these same people to have photo id’s to drive, to see a doctor, to own a gun, and to use public transportation. In Illinois the libs have passed the motor-voter law so you can register to vote when you apply for a driver’s license which requires a photo. Illinois recently, passed a new law allowing illegal aliens to get a driver’s license. Guess what? Each illegal will be asked if he wants to register to vote at the same time. The same photo taken for the driver’s license can easily be duplicated for a minimal cost for use on the voter registration id. Taking two pictures at one time is a technology problem beyond the comprehension of Congressional leaders. (Remember we voted them in.)

There hasn’t been a new light going on above my head with an answer to that one.

I think this question warrants a letter to my Senators and Congressman, don’t you?

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Filed under: Election, family, Government, health care, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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