Occupation of Independence

I had seen that truck pulling the horse trailer, before. It was a flatbed pickup truck with a goose neck style horse trailer attached to it. The rancher would let the horses out onto a green swale, for a tasty snack. In the bed of the truck a large border collie would pop out to the edge. Somehow he found a grip and didn't fall off. What a noble creature! So enthusiastic and full of purpose and meaning. The dog looked around in all directions, so eager to get down to work. He was a Waaaahomn ranch dawg, and prawd of it -- Yippee I Oh, baby! And yet I laughed at myself for being such a simpleton, so easy to please. What sight could be more common in ranch country than a contented dog or two in the bed of a pickup truck? But it was so classic.  I t was impossible to see something like this and not go away with a persistent afterglow: all was right with the world. __________________________________  Most afternoons the ritual of torture plays out. The clouds build up. Rain really lo

  Some mornings I am not in the mood for the mountain bike, and am not sure why. There might be several small reasons but they don't seem to add up to a real excuse to be lazy. So I talk myself down about the difficulty of the ride -- just take it easy, find something a little interesting, and go. There was in fact a two track road at the top of the ridge that seemed worth checking out. I had no great expectations. Perhaps that is why the flowers were enjoyable up there -- and it was 10,000 feet. I guess that was going to be the big excitement of the day. There was only one set of tire tread marks on this dirt two-track. The forest map said no camping on this section -- I wondered why. The top of the ridge was coming up. I knew there was a potentially grand view, but forest fire smoke would probably ruin it. But I was here, and might as well give it a chance. What's this doing here? An old fire watch tower turned into a solar powered weather station? I was surprised it wasn'

I have been amazed at the restraint that Russia has shown towards the reckless provocation from Washington DC, in the Black Sea recently, through its flunkies in NATO. What a relief it is to think that some countries have grown-ups in charge! You could belittle Russia's restraint and say that they are just sensible enough to know that NATO is provoking them deliberately and hopes to gain something from it.  Therefore Russia shouldn't fall for the trap.  Intellectually everybody understands that. But all countries have hotheads who want to respond rather than think. Politicians in any country are going to feel pressure to 'do something' about the 'bad guys.' How far will NATO's provocations go? Can Russia resist responding forever? I hope they respond in a limited way by blocking or damaging NATO ships, rather than sending them to the bottom of the Black Sea. NATO needs Russia to be an enemy of course to justify its budget. I almost wish I didn't avoid wa

The mosquitoes are merciful at my Wyoming camp. Although there are lots of sweat-bees and giant flies in mid-day, they don't bite. So I have no real complaint against the insects, and yet, how nice it is when a breeze blows them away.   Remember that this summer's project is to learn to like summer. So I took an extra moment to appreciate the breeze we had the other day. It is a little bit warm in the afternoon, but the breeze also took care of that. It is true that breezes taper off as summer progresses, but let's hope the breezes survive. What a difference there is between a winter breeze and a summer breeze!  There is hardly anything good to say about wind in winter, but in the summer, a breeze makes it close to the top of the list.