Occupation of Independence

There's a first time for everything.  Utah was staying comfortably warm, but that was almost a disappointment to me.  I put a little more effort into letting my camper cool off in the evening, and then went to bed with the usual habits. In the morning it was cooler than expected.  (The outside low temperature was probably 40 F.)  My little dog even crawled up into bed with me to warm up, something she seldom does.  And it was cold getting out of bed, too, and then getting dressed. I couldn't believe it when I saw sunrise happening through an open door.  I had forgotten to close the door before going to bed, the previous evening!  A senior moment, I guess.  In all the years of camping, this is the first time I had ever made that mistake.  Well, at least this didn't happen in grizzly country.      The photos were taken on a short hike with my little dog.  We weren't in a tourist area, and yet I found something surprising an...

 Objectively rain in a western state deserves the highest praise: it's necessary for any kind of Life, and it is so rare.  Subjectively rain puts you in the greatest mood,  When it ends, you walk around in a mild euphoria, relieved that the mud is going to dry up.  The Utah sky looked so clean-scrubbed:   I even enjoyed the warmth of the sun hitting my skin, instead of dreading it as I usually do. Was it the rain?  Or was it bicycling with my little dog?  Or the new camping location?  Something put me in the mood to enjoy the heck out of normally unexciting sights.  What was so interesting about a tepee of fence stakes ?  This was more interesting to me than the iconic Utah postcards I could see from my front door:     The explanation is simple of course.  Generations of postcard manufacturers have made spectacular things expected, and therefore uninteresting, except to newbies.   There were other humble surprises t...

With every passing year, I find it easier to admire people for various activities and skills, while at the same time, feeling no desire to emulate them.  Mountaineering is a good example of that.   One mountaineering writer -- perhaps it was Jon Krakauer -- was asked what he did when bad weather set in, trapping him in a tent for a couple days.  He said he picked a lot of lint out of all the velcro in his equipment and clothing. With that advice in mind, what should a camper do when it rains and he fears muddy roads ?   Step one is to move towards town, pavement, and shopping.  Step two: go to an actual laundromat and stuff your big things into one of their larger machines.  The next step is something I really went crazy with, today. Orderliness with your equipment turns into more and more entropy every day.  It adds up, over time.  What better thing is there to do on a muddy day than to go crazy on an organizational jihad? ...

 Recently I had another look at Barbara Tuchman's "March of Folly."  It was interesting, but the book was written a few decades ago and needs a Rev. 2.0 update.  The update should be called "The March of Suicide." 'Folly' is just too mild a word for what is happening these days.  Never before in my lifetime have I seen several important countries attempting suicide, at the same time.  There have been some remarkable examples of attempted and successful suicide in the past: 1. Jewish stubbornness and provocation of the Roman Empire , ending in the destruction of Jerusalem. 2. The refusal to surrender by some cities in central Asia after getting an ultimatum from Genghis Khan . 3. Napoleon's unnecessary invasion of Russia in 1812 . 4. Britain's unnecessary involvement in World War I . 5. The Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 6. The Ukrainian people allowing "their" (post-elected-term) government to continue a lost war agains...