Occupation of Independence

  Driving to town the other day, a brownish black bear ran across the road, about 50 yards ahead of the van. It was only half-grown. Q.t. π had no reaction to the bear whatsoever, and she must have seen it, because she hangs halfway out the window when we drive at low speeds. Anyway, I was relieved that bears don't fit her 'prey profile.'  It is bad enough that she goes crazy when a chipmunk runs across the road ahead of the bike.  She did that the other day and got her left forepaw under the front wheel.  She screamed, but was not injured.  In fact that might be one of the most beneficial experiences she ever had while biking: hurt -- as in 'ouch' -- but not injured.  The same principle probably applies to us! By the way, it is not necessarily dangerous if you have a dog that chases bears.  My late kelpie, Coffee Girl, once took off after a black bear on the Uncompahgre Plateau in Colorado.  The bear had no cubs, and ran away so fast that Coffee Girl surrendered an

Since I promised to stop apologizing for writing about the sweet pleasures of camping: Maybe a North American boondocker should come up with a blog/vlog aimed at the European audience, since living in a normal house or 'flat' for them is becoming similar to boondocking. The trouble is: how do you monetize it?  Isn't making money off of Europeans a bit like getting blood out of the proverbial turnip? Too bad.  North American boondockers could certainly give them great advice on taking fewer showers and using less water, too.  On the other hand, my navy-style showers are always taken with hot water, which a good European is supposed to abandon. During a recent late-summer heat wave, I warmed the shower water only a little higher than body temperature.  I couldn't believe how pleasurable that was!  It felt like I was honoring the occasion. Was it reminding me of the pleasure a child gets in the summer from a lawn's water sprinklers, a lake, or swimming pool?  That was

A European fellow, I, and a couple other people were hanging around a coffee lounge.  He offered this opinion, "Canada is a more civilized country than the USA."  "Perhaps," I said, "but they are nice people anyway. "  The European fellow thought I was being slightly witty, but actually, I was serious. This memory came to mind while thinking about the needless partial-suicide of Europe.  I have never lived in or even visited Europe, so this is just speculation, of course.  It has always seemed to me that Europeans have too much trust in their bureaucratic elites -- their experts.  Europeans just need to be told that there is some new rule, and they instinctively and reflexively follow it. The bureaucratic elites of the modern age are just the replacements of the Catholic clerisy that kept the peasants under their thumbs for over a millennium. Perhaps they think that the bureaucratic elites are well-educated and smart.  They probably are , in a bookish and

I spoke to an older gentleman in the laundromat the other day and formed an approximate opinion of him.  Later, it surprised me to see him dandling a small puppy in the back seat of his pickup.  Somehow it just didn't fit the image: It was a 3 month old Havanese. Quite the little charmer: It was his third Havanese.  They are probably fairly rare, thereby requiring you to get them from a breeder.  Too bad.  They seem like a small, shedless, and personable dog. Not to be outdone, my Q.t. π went into 'dashboard dog' mode: Ah well, I am in my dotage now, so why shouldn't I dote over small cute dogs?