Occupation of Independence

 The other day I was trying to make a loop out of a ride in a canyon area.   This caused me to return on a paved highway for a bit longer than I usually do, these days.  In fact, I usually avoid paved roads because there are too many cars driving too fast, with drivers who are too distracted. After returning home, I lapsed into the deep, mid-day trance that always happened during my road cycling years.  It had been so long that I had forgotten about it.  There is nothing in this old world of ours that beats a reverie or daydream after exercise, while hearing or imagining a musical score by John Barry , Bernard Herrmann , or Patrick Doyle .  It seems more restful than sleep itself, and better yet, you are conscious of it while it is happening. How common is this trait?  How would you even know?  It isn't exactly what most people would call an athletic talent, but it might be a talent that actually does more good.  Little is said about th...

 Put yourself in the shoes of an Israel-firster.  How would you go about selling war-crimes and slaughter to the world?  It would really need some creativity and persistence from you.  Perhaps, as with many difficult projects, it would be best to proceed indirectly.  For example, an army might choose to avoid a direct frontal attack on a fortified position by going  around the fortified obstacle. That point of view is useful in considering Trump/ Hegseth 's embarrassing and shameful approach to regime change in Venezuela.  Recall Hegseth's despicable speech condemning "stupid rules of engagement."  He actually let the cat out of the bag: oil, leftist government, and narco-terrorism are just noise and obfuscation.  It is a giant deception. What the Israel-first Trump regime really cares about is getting Americans used to the idea of their own military acting criminally and murderously -- that is, like the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces.)  ...

 Northwestern Arizona.  Years ago, I pretty much gave up on trying to talk to "fellow campers."  It didn't seem like we had much in common, my activities are unpopular, and I decided that dogs are better company.  So my dog and I went on a bike ride today and tried to find a connected loop.  The route worked quite well. But something strange and unexpected happened.  I had three high quality conversations on the route.  The other people seemed to enjoy hearing me and vica-versa.  One fellow was from Scotland.  In fact, the Hebrides.  When I started talking about the travel book by Johnson and Boswell to the Hebrides, he really lit up. How nice it would be if this sort of thing happened more often.  But I think it is right to not expect it to happen, and not try to make it happen .  When it wants to happen, it will.  Just accept it as a free gift of the gods. There was some sad news too.  The other day I saw an SUV pu...

 Occasionally I ridicule tourists on this blog.  Once in a great while.  So I felt pretty ashamed to surrender to panhandling burros , yesterday.  It wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been systematically victimized by those 'mother dog asks for help' meme-videos on You Tube.  So when the mother burro approached my camper with two cyootsie-wootsie offspring in tow, I finally succumbed.  Altogether the herd reached five burros. Had I just created a monster?  Would the moochers be back the next day, looking for their next welfare check? In the middle of night their noise woke me up.  It was more than braying and hee-hawing.  Perhaps they were fighting to get to the head of the line.  There were scratching or scuffing sounds.  They had knocked over my laundry bucket to get at the water.  The lid restricted the leakage of water, so the burro was trying to knock the lid loose, I guess.  Finally I got out of bed and shined a f...

 Everybody likes wild burros and so do I.  But they represent something more than cuteness.  Only a tough and admirable creature could make a living in such a gawd-forsaken place.  Maybe it isn't so far down to the Colorado River for water, but what is there to eat around here. Rubble?  Try to imagine their lives.  Every bit of effort you make in that direction pulls you one step above the average tourist. And yet, ironically, these noble creatures work the tourist trade shamelessly.   They virtually block traffic on the highway, and won't let you pass until you have "paid up."  The smartest ones are the mothers who bring their offspring into town and charm the socks off the Japanese tourists.  It's a living. But what is going through the burro's mind?  Are they degraded and humiliated?  Surely they must look off into the distance, and pine for something better, like Ferdinand the Duck in the movie, "Babe:" "...it eats away a...

 What a difference a cold north wind can make to Arizona .  It dissolves the horribleness of the state.  After a summer of only a small bit of walking, this cold wind makes hiking the best thing to do.  Sometimes, the wind even disappears because of the arroyo banks or canyon walls.  But I love the way the wind hits your skin and charges up your soul-battery.  As usual we walked on a loop through arroyos that I wasn't too sure of.   The little dog had an easy time running on the smoothed pebbles in an arroyo. There was a surprisingly large blotch of lichen on a north-facing wall along the little canyon.  Perhaps the strangest example I've ever seen.  There were more barrel cactuses around than I remembered.  What handsome plants they are! Plants can grow in the most unlikely places: This kind of hiking is unpopular.  Most people look up brand-name hikes on the apps, I guess.  They usually go to the top of a mountain --...

 Can you believe how congressional Republicans are just sitting there, doing nothing, while Trump 2.0 pulls the building down on their heads? There are lots of (usually) astute political commentators out there who are being naive about Trump 2.0's saber rattling in the Caribbean.  It is only partly about blocking Leftism , or defending the Monroe Doctrine , or getting the oil of Venezuela . Trump 2.0 is deliberately creating a distraction with Venezuela so that you won't pay attention to: 1.  Trump's war against Russia in the Ukraine is turning into a real defeat.  He will get the blame for this.  He won't be able to play the 'this is Biden's war' card. 2.  Israel is slaughtering people in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria and seizing their land.  On any given day, they can commit another atrocity that gets headline attention. Trump is happy as long as the American public is being fooled.  It doesn't matter what it takes.  Double-taps...

 Normally I don't post sunset photos on my blog.  But I do like to look at mountains that are getting more red sunset-light than usual.  I stepped outside my camper's door to see this: Very pleasing.  Only then did I turn to the west to see this: It was quite a shock, enough to make me break my own rule about not putting sunset photos on this blog.  Let it be known that no AI or even editing software was used.   Since AI can take a pile of dog crap and make it look like a beautiful sunset, will the world simply abandon sunset photos?  It might as well.  So that photo is my last hurrah.  Perhaps photography will begin to die when everything seems fake. Will You Tube find a way to filter out -- or at least label -- AI videos ?  I find myself steering clear of certain types of videos because they are obviously fake.  But it won't be so easy for You Tube to clarify the issue.  When does mere photo editing software become...