Occupation of Independence

 Cows can act strangely around mountain bikes.  They started running along the dirt road ahead of my bike, instead of running off perpendicularly.  And they kept at it, going uphill for a couple hundred feet!  When were they going to get sensible?  I smiled thinking about the "Rollin', rollin', rollin" theme music of the old TV western, "Rawhide."   I got some better photos of my 'pet' balanced rock: The next morning a bull walked slowly down the road, bellowing loudly and repeatedly.  Then a cattle truck came and gave him an 'uber' ride down the mountain.  At the foot of the mountain, a man was riding a horse.  What a tall and proud beast!  His wife was also on a horse and had a toddler sitting on the saddle, ahead of her.  The little guy managed to drop one of his size 2 cowboy boots on the ground.  I picked it up so that the mother didn't have to dismount. I asked if the ranching business was doing well, now that beef was 6 ...

 Sing the praises of hurricanes coming in from the Pacific Ocean!  That is what it took for a couple days of rain to hit Utah.  Actually it is pretty impressive how far inland the rain can come. After a couple days of bliss, it went back to looking like Utah. People who haven't seen red rock before go absolutely crazy over it.  But that kind of infatuation is not long-lasting.  Personally I move onto shapes of various kinds.  It is strange how a guy can stay interested in shapes forever -- and maybe it is a guy thing. It is easy for a dog-lover to remain permanently in love with dog photos, of course:    How many ' balanced rocks ' are marked on map's in this world?  I shudder to think about asking AI that question.  Regardless of its answer about "America's Top Ten" balanced rocks, and regardless of the tourist industry's effort to make a minor tourist attraction out of them, most of the fun comes from discovering them for yourself su...

 Many bloggers steer clear of political topics because they can become polarizing and full of frustration or even anger.  (And therefore lose readers/viewers, the measure of 'success'.) But what is the result?  The blog becomes innocuous, insipid, and nothing more than escapist entertainment.  Another direction for the blog to go is to the mundane and humdrum: "Another Tuesday", or "I Cooked Elbow Macaroni Today". Every now and then, political developments can be surprising or even inspiring.  Usually this shows up with war outcomes.  Most recently, think of 1) Britain at Dunkirk , early in WW II , 2) Russian perserverance in 1812, after being invaded by Bonaparte , 3) Alfred the Great in his swamp while holding onto the "Last Kingdom," and for all time, 4) ancient Greece repelling the Persians . Could Americans be facing a situation like that in the upcoming election?  Do they realize that their back is against the wall, and that for their econo...

 There are times when rain on the roof of a camper can be unpleasant.  But a light rain is a great thing to wake up to.  My app said this town in central Utah got 0.02", but I think my exact location got twice that much.   The next morning the sky was clean-scrubbed.  The air felt slightly moist to the skin.  People who haven't experienced severe aridity do not understand how nice it is to finally  have double-digit relative humidities .  It is no small thing to have enough moisture to form a cloud, in these gawd-forsaken wasteland states of the West.  At this point I should have been happy to declare victory.  But I stumbled upon something that I should have noticed before in this area:  There were 20 trees in the area...trees with leaves. .. sacred oak trees .  Please don't call them ' scrub oaks .'  Hell, they were 15 feet high and their shade was opaque. It doesn't matter if I am hit by a semi-truck tomorrow....