Occupation of Independence

I was camping and mountain biking recently on some Utah land that seemed slightly upland.  There was nothing spectacular about it, but I was quite fond of it. Why were the rocks so rounded as they typically are near rivers?  (It is not so hard to visualize sand in rivers abrading rocks into a rounded shape.)  But we were 8 miles from the mighty Green River.  Maybe geology just isn't the right study for appreciating what it is all about. Something truly amazing caught me by surprise.  I biked for a hundred feet on one of the trails and didn't bump into one rock.  Not one!  Is there anything sweeter to a mountain biker than a smooth trough of packed dirt? I tell ya, the world ain't fair.  How many times does a tourist gush over smooth ground?  Poets don't praise it, musicians don't rhapsodize over it, and the local chamber of commerce doesn't offer a free brochure extolling it. Maybe I am at the phase in my RV career when I don't need to gawk at mountains anym

If a person is interested in getting a dog for outdoor excursions, should they get a big dog or a small dog?  I admit that the first thing that comes to mind is an image of a Labrador retriever or maybe a herding dog, a classic ranch dawg.  They can run faster and further and are coyote-proof. But what if the big dog has a bad foot or has gotten older?  It is counter-intuitive, but the case can be made that small dogs are handier on outdoor expeditions of various kinds.  Of course this depends on the means of conveyance.   But it is advantageous for the dog to take up less space in a canoe, kayak, or even a side-by-side ATV, let alone a bicycle or backpack.  My current dog, a 20 pound miniature poodle mix, can be stuffed in a milk crate on the rear of a mountain bike if she becomes tired. Of course my thinking about this issue is colored by the ease of traveling in a small RV with the dog.  You might consider the example of the Foresty Forest You Tube channel, with his wonderful little

Near sunset the other night, I was accidentally watching a video by a linguist.  She was explaining how your mouth closes when you pronounce the vowel in 'pie'.  There are two vowel sounds -- they are subtle, but they are there. It is quite something how mechanical and muscular speech is. She went on to discuss sounds that are made at the back of the mouth, closer to the throat, versus sounds made at the front of the mouth, near the teeth and lips.  Or whether you breathe through the sound or not. Outside the screen door of my trailer, sunset was starting to happen.  (At this time of year it is cheerful to point your screen door towards the west so you can lengthen the day a little.) I wasn't looking out the screen, directly at the sunset.  I was in the back of the trailer, so I saw the sunset indirectly as it changed the color of the back wall of the trailer. It was surprising how unusual the color of that back wall was.  The color changed by the second as the sunset deve

Ironically, on the very morning that the Russian bear started using all of its claws, I encountered this product at the entrance to a big-box ranch supply store.  The first items in the store were blue-and-yellow 5 gallon buckets, on sale I guess. Think how much time a person could save themselves by ignoring what is being done to whom by whom.  All you have to do is spot the mainstream media, giant corporations, and social media marching in lockstep on some new crusade, and you know you are being lied to. A couple months ago, I was shocked to be paying for groceries at a Safeway, and the card reader asked me if I wanted to donate money to Ukraine! At any rate, this ranch-store corporation had better drop the price a little more on their blue and yellow buckets.