Occupation of Independence

Let's say it is your last day in an area you like. How can you end your stay in a pleasing way? It would be nice to honor it. So I took a walk with Q.t.𝞹 on a small forest road that doesn't get much motor-crazed yahoo traffic. On the drive in, there was a group of horse-people doing a dispersed camp. The road we walked on had an unusually large number of live oak trees.   The leaves are pretty humble compared to an oak leaf in the East but in the Western states, beggars can't be choosers when it comes to leaves or vegetation. On the drive in, we also saw a fine Arizona sycamore. People who haven't experienced the ghastly wasteland of the lower Colorado River just can't understand the relief a person feels when they start seeing a little earth-like normalcy return.  

Lately I have fallen into the habit of watching too many videos. It is good see a variety of world opinions offered on these videos. But sometimes I wonder why the video needs to be a video at all -- there is nothing to look at. It is just a talking head, and it talks with such a thick accent that it is hard work to listen to it. It is getting so that I simply turn off the video after 5 seconds if the accent is too strong. Australian accents barely count as 'English'. They are more than muddled -- they are painful to listen to. Even English accents can get annoying because of their inability to pronounce the letter r. We won't even talk about New Yawk accents. It is funny how some accents seem quaint and fun to listen to. For instance, Irish and Scottish accents work like that. Some southern USA accents are pleasant to listen to. I wonder if many of these terrible speakers can write and read English quite well? If so, then why shouldn't they write blogs instead of maki

As I get ready to leave Patagonia AZ, it is worth talking about the gravel-bicycle craze. This town has become a mecca for gravel bike riding. This is ironic to me because I was bicycling dirt roads in this area 20 years ago -- before it was 'cool'. Are gravel bicycles a passing fad? The case is pretty good that they are. Of course the bicycle industry is always looking for an excuse to trick their customers into buying one more bicycle.  From the looks of gravel cyclists here, they are really "roadies" who are perhaps accepting the grim reality of riding (paved) roads: too many cars, driven by people who are too distracted by electronic gadgets in the cabin of their cars. Drivers think their car is their living room. Do any drivers look out the windshield anymore? Thus they have switched to gravel riding with a bike that is 90% the same as a 'road' bike. But I wonder how many gravel bikers have come from the opposite end of the spectrum, that is, the single-

 first attempt at video