Occupation of Independence

(Twin Falls, ID) A strange little vehicle showed up at sunrise this morning.  It was here yesterday.  It was a funky old side-by-side, made before that category of vehicle became common.  It was Japanese and had the steering wheel on the right. Minutes later, a diesel pickup showed up, pulling a long trailer for hauling cattle in.  Both "cattle-managers" jumped in the diesel/trailer and took off to their morning work, I guess.  But that was only after letting three dogs take care of their morning chores.  It was an unusual trio: a greyhound, a small or old lapdog that needed to be carried, and a classic ranch dawg.  As they drove off, I could see the ranch dawg jumping around in the back of the the "flat bed" pickup truck.  How do they get a grip on diamond-plate steel?   But it was such a classic.   (I had just spent 10 days at a place in Utah that appeals to campers and mountain bikers.  Nobody did anything at sunrise, there.  Nobody's vehicle had dust or rust

When a traveler heads north in the western intermountain states, they say goodbye to Saguaro cactus first -- which is too bad.  But then you leave cholla behind, and hooray for that.  Here in northern Utah I see only an occasional prickly pear cactus.  They are stunted and unhealthy looking.  Maybe it is too cold for them. It is sagebrush country now.  I rather like the odor.  Wikipedia says that pronghorn antelope is the only big hooved critter that eats sagebrush.  That makes you wonder why you don't see more pronghorns!  In fact, why aren't they the most common animal around? A couple years ago, a few miles from here, I stepped out of the van and apparently hooked my foot under a thick, twisted, woody stem of sagebrush.  My face was on the ground before I knew what happened.  Ah well, nothing personal!  I still rather like sagebrush, although I wish there wasn't so much of it. Sagebrush seems to repel tourists and campers.  If so, that is the best thing you can say about

I was a little suspicious of a recent science article on RT.com.  What do you think? Astronomers in the United States revealed on Wednesday that they had witnessed for the first time one of the most destructive forces in the cosmos: a dying star which had expanded massively into a red giant and destroyed a planet which had the misfortune of being nearby. Scientists believe that most planets are eventually destroyed when their host star burns all of its available energy and begins its process of dying by expanding into a red giant. It is the final stage of a star’s stellar evolution – and the star goes down fighting, bringing everything nearby with it into its celestial grave. So, are you ready to 'follow the Science?'  Or is this all a little too metaphorical for you?  For "dying star," substitute dying Empire.  For "planet," substitute Ukraine or NATO vassal states. At any rate, whoever wrote this 'science' piece, must have had a smile on their fac

  Ahh dear.  It was my own fault.  I didn't use the restraining cord, so the Little Cute One's water bottle popped onto the ground somewhere, on a mountain bike ride.  Well, I could replace it with the most common and inexpensive bicycle water bottle.  I dropped into Walmart.  Nope.  I can't believe how often the modern Walmart disappoints me. I tried several other stores.  Nope.  All the water bottles have gotten so fancy.  And they usually have Yeti written on them. Then I panicked and went to food stores and a Dollar Store, and looked for a disposable water bottle, filled with colored sugar water that could be poured on the ground.  None of them had the groove around the equator that helps hold the bottle in place on a bike.  And the screw-on lids will be lost in a week.  (Actually, you'd be surprised how quickly the thin plastic cracks on this type of bottle.) I was desperate by now.  So I waited half the morning until a bicycle shop opened at 10 a.m., according to