Occupation of Independence

 For once I put my money where my mouth is, and migrated toward winter camping without going through the new Phoenix, aka, St. George UT.  This spared me a lot of white knuckle driving.  I went over 9000 feet in altitude just to escape St. George.  Next year I will look for a more efficient route. That put me into a new state, one that I haven't spent much time in.  But I will, in the future.  It is not worth putting up with the population explosion in southwestern Utah just to gawk at some red rocks.  I've seen red rocks before. Ah yes, up to my old tricks, rhapsodizing about the  'dream-kraft ' of a vast landscape of receding ridgelines, made into chiaroscuros by puffie clouds in a wide open sky.   The scenery is more moderate in this state, but that is OK.  More moderate scenery translates into more enjoyable bicycling for me and my little cutie pie.  We got a chance to look down onto an interesting arroyo and into...

 What a strange bicycle ride! Normally there is time pressure in the morning.  It is important to get started the first hour after sunrise, or the hot sun becomes oppressive.  But not this time. I actually sat in the trailer and thought, "Maybe I should wait another hour."   It was hard to believe -- imagine walking around in mid-morning, feeling the sun hit your back with a little heat, and thinking how nice that is.   It was so refreshing! A person just has to   soak up moments like this.  How do you describe perfect moments?  Would William James describe it as a 'religious experience?" Lately You Tube's algorithm has been offering me tricks of the trade for sleeping in the cold when camping in a tent or van.  I decided to take their advice of paying more attention to what I am sleeping on top of, by putting a closed cell foam pad inside the summer sleeping bag that I normally sleep on top of.  It made a noticeable improvemen...

 Note to readers: I don't like the way Blogger makes blue highlights out of search terms if I give it permission.  So I will not give it permission in the future. For every Epstein, Netanyahu, Trump, and Lindsay Graham there are many millions of decent human beings on planet Earth.  And they should take a bow.  They should feel good about something encouraging finally happening in the world. But the drama isn't over.  The Republican Party needs to have a post-mortem with some serious soul-searching .  They could see this as a fortunate wake-up call that gives them time to prevent an even bigger disaster in 2028 .  Wouldn't that be ironic? The GOP needs to ask themselves what they will offer the American people other than: 1.  War, war, and more war. 2.  An Israel-first foreign policy. 3.  Wasteful, ineffective, and unnecessary military spending . 4.  Years of higher inflation . 5.  Seeing the stock market as the measure of...

 There will be plenty of political news tonight.  Much of it will be numerical.  Political issues will be discussed.   That is as it should be.  But there is another issue that is hard to discuss numerically.  How much of Trump's debacle won't be based on specific political policies so much as voters' dislike of his personality and character?  And they are sick of him, personally. Maybe there is professional polling that tries to get to qualitative issues like that, and get beyond mere counting. Well, speaking of flawed personalities, I will show mine by deliberately watching Fox News tonight.  I want to see the look on their faces.  Schadenfreude is not something to be proud of, but I will feel it tonight.