Sidetracked Charley

  Yes, it is summer and temperatures are again breaking records. I is going to be cool in Tucson today: only 107 F. But going outside my comfort zone still gives me chills. And when a friend tells me of a trip they are taking my first response is not joy but, please be careful. Or be safe. Or are you sure you want to do that. I plan my essential trips (store, post office, pick up scripts) for the low traffic times. I have studied them for a year. I stay home within my comfort zone during high tourist traffic times. I cruise down the local town main street and take inventory of the cars in the parking lot. Too many white plates and I will reschedule my shopping. Yes, I am the one that spent eight days on a house boat on Lake Powell with my sister. And I am the one who in the middle of the night when the boat started to drift jumped into the black water to grab a mooring line and secure it once again the the shore. I drove my Astro van on a road that was wet Bentonite clay. The surface t

  Not sure about the number. Know it is not the second such event. And have a feeling I have used the title for a blog more than once. And since Covid-19 demanded a lot of that. Now it would seem getting back to normal (lol) seems to require a lot more of that. The conversion of the apartment from long time rental to vacation rental was just one reappraisal. And a good one I do not need to rethink. I have definitely rethought my living space which is now devoted to office and sewing center. Not sure that was so much a thought/decision thing as reappraisal would indicate but a migration based on use. Guests hardly ever see the living room. The deck and the studio is where that happens. And I with the pandemic no guests and now a select few. I see more dogs than people. And the studio reflects that but looming ahead is the return of the Angel Fire Studio Tour. Things have got to change before that on the 25th and 26th of September. But the agonizing re-appraisal of which I am writing tod

  These seem very dark times. Maybe it is because the Capital Insurrection of January 6, 2021 has not been addressed, or that Trump only got a two year suspension for using Facebook as a weapon, or that I just went through my third slap from Facebook for far less than any of Trump's minions did. Or that this morning as I tried to set up a new Facebook identity so my stalker cannot find me and failed. Or that so many of my liberal friends are in the same place. It almost seems that there is a new campaign being hatched on Facebook. All the Trump supporters are reporting liberals for violation of community standards to get them banned forever. And then Facebook will be a total Confederate organization! I think we need a place to escape to now. This instant before Facebook takes over the world. It already has its original platform and Instagram and messenger. The last two is where all us jailed members escape to but Facebook wants to marry them all together so at one stroke, with no e

  Guess I am a repeat offender. This is the third time in Facebook Penalty Box. For those of you who have never been so punished let me say it seems so totally unfair. First time was because whoever reported me did not understand the placement of the apostrophe. I had it right so they should have been in jail because they had it wrong. Second time I pointed out that old white men were the cause of women's problems because they did not understand female anatomy. This time it was defending one neighbor over the abuse of another who has also abused me. I wrote it like a fable with no names, no dates, no specifics. No cuss words. I am pretty sure it was the witch (with a B) who reported me. I have blocked her from my page once before when she wrongly accused me of stealing her dog. I block several other people who she called to her defense on a community page which I left abruptly and will never go back to because of the abuse they rained upon me at her urging. When she discovered her

Black Lake   Once upon a time in the American west all neighbors were good neighbors. You had to be a good neighbor because you never knew when you might need your neighbor's help. Black Lake was at least two hours from the sheriff or the nearest hospital. Mechanics were always rather iffy and if you found a good one you stuck by them. New comers didn't always understand the rules or comply with them. Most of the old timers didn't talk to you until you lived here at least two years. Many didn't last that long. Some thought they could change the rules. That they knew best. That the wide open spaces gives them permission to set their own rules. But it is wise to be aware that just because you can doesn't mean you should. Let's take dogs. New comers believe dogs are free outside the city. But livestock trumps dogs. And chickens are livestock. Guns are tools for protecting livestock. Fences make for good neighbors, whether it is for keeping cattle out or dogs in. It