2nd flock, 3rd cat, pretty much a bust,designated driver, sudoku, and it’s just starting

At times, I’ll be sitting outside the Nash watching M&M moving about. This video clips slows the feline gait down so one can see why they look so cool when one is cruisin’ about. The gait changes when they pick up speed.
I’ve read other web pages on this pacing and some don’t jive with what’s written on this link’s page, but be that as it may, that’s one smooth kickass stride.

cat pacing video clip

Last month, while still at at Oliver Lee, the day the Dog Canyon trail was closed, I hiked down the Dog Canyon arroyo, circled out and over to the Oliver Lee House and back to the Nash. A nice two hour hike, but I’m not a fan of flat hikes. Anyway, I came across these two javelinas.

For the spring equinox I purchased another flock of ducks. My Heifer International total is now seven goats, two flocks of chicks, one flock of geese, two flock of ducks, and a ‘Gift of a Healthy Home.’ Next donation will be on the summer solstice.

My social-fix season was pretty much a bust this winter—a first, and not a good thing. I only had two good neighbors who I enjoyed taking with, both at Bottomless, and a couple of hikers in Dog Canyon. I’ll have to make a change or two while out off-the-grid so I don’t turn into one of those reclusive loonies I come across from time to time. I came across three more wingnuts this past winter in the state parks. Maybe the low cost has them gravitating to the parks.

I acquired a third cat. At least this one won’t be consuming as much food as Mesa. He seems to be always eating but isn’t getting fat. I wonder if he could teach me how to do that.

A winter acquaintance told me about a national forest up in Wyoming that he thought I might enjoy. It sounded good and town runs would not take as long as some locations I’ve stayed at. After a couple weeks, I noticed that I was not looking forward to the coming summer season. Then I realized I did not want to drive all that distance to get up there. What a surprise. So I bagged the idea of Wyoming and felt much better. As you know, I really don’t like driving. Maybe one of these summers I’ll be able to hire a driver. She would probably have to invest in a stun gun, however, to zap me whenever I start grousing about all the hours I have to just sit there, looking out the window. I mean, good grief, many do the butt-voyeur thing and enjoy it!

As I’ve said, I only like one trailer floorplan. I spent some time last month looking for trailers other than the Nash, that have it. I found only three 20-22 footers that have a center galley and bathroom and three windows in the back. I forgot to check if they had a window at the head of the bed. But, the settee table was attached to a sidewall, rather that the back wall. This configuration nixes my favorite sitting spot. Please email me if you know of a trailer with the exact floorplan of the Northwood Nash 17K. I’d really like an aluminum framed and sided (so I can paint it) trailer with foam panel insulation.

I know how important it is to keep using one’s mind in order to slow down its rate of deterioration, but I don’t really exercise mine all that much—until recently. If I had daily web access, I’d probably be using Lumosity. For some reason I was thinking about this while standing in a checkout line (better than focusing on a Snickers bar). I picked up a Dell magazine of sudoku puzzles (logic, no math, even though it’s all numbers). I then went online and read about sudoku strategies and watched some videos on youtube, and they certainly varied in their helpfulness. I planned to complete a puzzle a day. I was not aware, however, of how addictive sudoku can be, but I try to limit myself to three or four puzzles per day. I hope I don’t hit a wall when I progress to hard puzzles. If I stick with sudoku, I’ll treat myself to either a Nikoli sudoku puzzle book or one of Frank Longo’s Martial Arts sudoku books. It’s way past time I started taking responsibility for the health of my mind. Part of it was probably finding a way to do it that I enjoy.

One morning I was hiking near some wetlands and this pelican was standing there. I used a zoom for this shot but I was still surprised at how close the bird allowed me to approach as I was working my way past it.

These two turkey vultures were taking a break near where I hiked up onto a bluff.

I’ll be making a point here. Back in December, in the warm waters of the equatorial Pacific, west of Central America, a vast expanse of 85 degree water was evaporating into the atmosphere. The moisture was picked up by the circulating atmospheric winds and began to flow northeast. Can you see an uh-oh coming here? Meteorologists are starting to recognize these ‘atmospheric rivers.’ This huge storm traveled across the country dumping tremendous amounts of moisture causing flooding, tornadoes, road closure, and killing livestock and people. It continued across the Atlantic carrying flooding rains to northern England and Scotland, along with gale force winds. The mega storm kept on going north. It blasted right through the circumpolar vortex of winds and set up right over the North Pole. This hurricane type storm had so much moisture and heat energy in it that it thawed the North Pole to a measured 33 degrees on Dec. 30. And there are people who think global warming is not an issue.

Earlier, a major storm was produced from the equatorial waters of the Atlantic and the Caribbean. The moisture flowed up out of the record warm waters, formed an atmospheric river and flowed north and east up the Atlantic to Great Britain. There is hit a cold air mass, and began to unload the moisture. Northern England and Ireland got hit really hard with winds up to 100 mph. Rain was pouring day after day. Rivers overflowed the banks. Cities and farms flooded. Cars were washed down the streets.
People here in the states have experienced similar disasters. And there are those who think we are not screwing with the Earth. “It’s a planet! How can mankind screw up a planet?” Idiots. If it was ‘humankind,’ we probably couldn’t. If women had as much pull as men, right from the get-go, I cannot see how women would have let things get this far out-of-hand.

The Indian Ocean is at record high temperatures, leading to heavier monsoon rains. Thousands died with major loses washed away. One night it rained 11 inches!

These storms and the resultant lose of life, jobs, homes, farms, businesses, and property, is what happens when the oceans warm up. Simple, cause and affect. Most of the heat from anthropogenic (human-made environmental pollution and pollutants) global warming goes into the oceans. Water has the ability to soak up heat energy, lots of it. But, when water gets heat energy in it, some of the water molecules can change from liquid to gas. As they evaporate, they carry the heat energy with them as water vapor. This all comin’ back from high school science? The thing is, this is what powers up hurricanes. This is why we are getting these mega storms.

The thing is—it’s just warming up. I’m sure glad I’m not going to be around in a hundred or two hundred years from now. I do my part, but there are not enough of us to make a difference. And major corporations and governments, with all their power, don’t seem to be doing all that much to straighten things out (in my most humble opinion).

Some of you probably remember my writing about Mother Earth back on the April of 2013 page. Not gettin’ any better.

It feels SO good to be back in the woods. I stopped for awhile in the Mimbres Mtns. as I was heading west to Arizona. Good hiking trails, with quite a few stream crossings. Nice. The Nash was at 7180’ with comfortable temps for this time of year.

I don’t think I’ve had a room-with-a-view photo that had a stream in it.

March sixty minutes sixty years—2180 minutes
March Triple 18—pecs/delts: 1800; core: 1920; legs: 7520

It is always good
When one has two irons in the fire.

RVwest article ‘Following a Free Spirit’

RVwest article ‘The Spaces Between the Places’