Bloggerfest 2016!

Saturday was the day for Bloggerfest 2016 out in the desert near Quartzsite, Arizona. It is about 150 miles away from our digs here in Mesa so first we tried to find a hotel for the night with no luck because of the huge RV and rock show in Quartzsite. Next I tried AirBnB with no luck there either. Last chance was an appeal for a room for one night on the Quartzsite Rentals Facebook Page. Nothing.

I was not looking forward to a four or five hours drive but then our friend and neighbor Shadowmoss said she was driving over in her brand new Mazda to give it a run and we were more than welcome to join her.

Norma decided to stay home to watch curling and figure skating so Shadowmoss and I set off a little after 7:30 AM. We stopped at one of the big RV sales places to look at Class B's and small C's for Shadowmoss and then walked through The Big Tent in Quartzsite. It would be easy to spend a whole day here but after an hour or so it was time to find the site for Bloggerfest.

We had the GPS coordinates and drove right there where we were among the first to arrive. The organizers had done a great job and there were signs, a signup table with name tags and a long table ready for the snacks everyone brought. George and Suzi made the final tally and counted 54 people, a great turnout. After a round of standing up and introducing ourselves, everyone mingled and tried to meet as many of each other as we could. I knew so many of them by reading their Blogs but had never met in person so it was really a fun time in perfect weather!

Soon it was around 4:30 and people started to pack up their chairs so we headed out as well. We gassed up the car on the way back and Shadowmoss was delighted that she had got 40.02 MPG! She has a long commute to work every day so the gas savings will help pay for the car!

A few photos:

Red Sky

Vegetating (Again)

Or maybe "still" (vegetating). We have been doing very little. It has rained a lot here, sometimes in torrential quantities, one night so hard it knocked the satellite dish out of line!

My niece Robin and George stopped by on their way to Mazatlan last week. It is always fun to get together with these guys although it usually leads to more imbibing than I am used to and this visit was no exception. Thankfully we did all the imbibing in one evening instead of stretching it into two. They stayed in a "Route 66" style hotel just around the corner. George helped us out a lot by showing us that two of our outside chairs had suffered sun damage and were ready to collapse which they did as soon as he sat in them! LOL.

The Honda developed a problem when the flip-up headlights started continuously flipping up and down! George and I looked at it and could not see anything wrong so we just pulled the fuses controlling the servo motors that flip the lights so now they are open all the time while the lights are controlled as usual by the switch on the steering column. The '89 Honda is starting to show it's age. The air conditioning no longer works and it will cost quite a bit to investigate the problem let alone repair it. There is a water leak somewhere and the carpet is wet after every rainstorm. The power door locks quit working and the power window winder in the drivers door requires a lot of assistance with my elbow when trying to lower the window. Lets face it. It is a $1,000 car and there is little point in putting a lot of cash into it. It runs perfectly, gets close to 30 mpg, starts every time I turn the key and is fun to drive. I keep thinking how my dad would be disappointed in how I treat his pride and joy but then again he never kept a car for more than three years in his life so he would have been getting ready to trade the Honda in when he died in '91. I guess I should be proud of extending it's life as far as I have.

We did a big shopping day yesterday because like I said, we have been doing very little and that includes not leaving the shack. We were getting very low on provisions and also wanted to check out the sale at Harbour Freight where they had replacement outside chairs on sale. It is a good thing we don't do this too often as I spent the equivalent of one of my three pension cheques!

We will be out again this week, meeting Tobey and Sue, a couple we met in Mexico, for lunch. They are in town visiting family. It will be fun to see them again.

Oh yes, THE SEAHAWKS! What a game! On to the Superbowl! Yeah Seattle!

Granddaughters!

Sierrah and Jayde on Christmas Eve! Wherever did they get their looks? Not from me obviously!

Open Carry. What is Your Response?

Picture this: You are sitting in a restaurant having lunch and these two idiots walk in the door. What do you do? Why are they there? To me there are only two reasons. 1) they are crazy and are there to rob the place or commit some sort of mayhem! 2) they are crazy and are there to show off their guns and their 'Right' to carry them. I have no way of knowing if they are drunk, drugged, untrained or insane and I will not take the time to find out. The only safe assumption is that they are nuts and looking for someone to shoot.

Whether they are there to kill, rob or to compensate for their tiny penises, I don't care. My first responsibility is to reduce the danger to myself and my family. I stand up and walk out the nearest door immediately. I do not hang around to see what happens, to talk to the staff or to put myself between them and the cash register by paying my bill. I leave! The business, which has the right to ban guns, has obviously made the business decision that they want the gun business before mine. Fine, the restaurant can either absorb the cost of my partly eaten meal or they can ask the crazy guys with the guns to pick up the tab, I don't care.

Same thing with grocery or department stores. As soon as I see these guys I abandon my cart and walk out the nearest door. Someone else can put everything back on the shelves and deal with the thawed shrimp and melted ice cream. The policy of the store has exposed me to unacceptable danger and I am gone.

In either case I will get in my car, get out of range, call 911 and report a man with a gun. That is my responsibility. What the police do with that report is up to them and the people they answer to.

Texas has just become an "Open Carry" State. These idiots will be seen more and more swaggering around scaring the Hell out of normal citizens. We all have to decide what to do when confronted by them. I have made my decision.

Unforgettable!

Natalie Cole, 1950 - 2015

A very talented family. We got to know Nat's brother Ike who sang in the piano lounge of a Phoenix resort back in the late 90's. We returned a few years in a row just to hear Ike sing and to chat with him during breaks.