And Now in Local News

It's been awhile, but there are local things to discuss.  Our boredom and ennui continue, nay even increase, with the news that Arizona is a hot spot for the virus.  Of all the hot spot states, we have the highest percentage increase.  The cause seems to be all of the yahoos who just could not stay home over Memorial Day and went to Lake Havasu where they congregated in large numbers, drank much alcohol and wore no masks.  Currently eight out of ten hospital beds are occupied; the health officials are concerned at how many people are really sick and are on ventilators.  However, our governor insists all is well and we should go out for a beer and a haircut.  Our mayor has Tucson closed down until June 22.  There has been some hinting that the governor's office is fudging the numbers, they're lower than what the hospitals are reporting.

Previously I have complained about the fact that Tucson built this beauteous bike trail system, completely separated from cars, and then they keep closing large sections of it for one reason or the other.  Jim and I have been working up to riding on the road again, or we were until this.  This is Kinney Road, which is pretty much the only way out of here to get to the trail.  Notice that the right lane is completely gone.  After surviving this two mile stretch (which had a good shoulder) it's not a terrifying ride.  But no.  There is yet another inexplicable road project which will cost $5M and take a year.  So, another winter season will pass with us not having a way to the trail except by driving.

They're rerouting Bopp so that it aligns with Sarasota.  Bopp is a lightly used road, since few people live out there.  Sarasota extends about a mile from Kinney and dead ends at a trail head.  Why is it so important to realign Bopp and put a stop light there?  I read the project description and was thoroughly unenlightened as to why this is more important than fixing the pot holes that plague this entire area.  The dashed line is the new route for Bopp, and then they will terminate old Bopp before it reaches Kinney.  I'm really peeved about the whole thing.

Last Thursday we were bored.  How bored were we?  It was 105 and we decided to drive out east and wander around a nursery.  You have to be pretty bored.  Their plants were not looking as good as they did last spring. Here we have an agave which has produced a flower spike which has impacted the sun screen that keeps the plants from sun burning.  One has to admire its tenacity.

I really like the way this guy sprouts out arms everywhere.

This is a great looking cactus.  The word wooly comes to mind.

In the past I have mentioned that Palo Verde trees make pods.  We have pods everywhere.  Apparently they were a food source for the Tohono O'odham.

There is a good sized fire burning north of Tucson in the Catalinas along Pusch Ridge.  As of this morning it was only 10% contained.  They were slow to get fire retardant down because stupid people had drones flying in the area, which grounds the smoke bombers.  I think there should be significant jail time for being that stupid.

NYT has a new article up about the use of the National Guard last Monday when Barr used troops to clear the street in front of the Episcopal church so the orange man could stage his photo op.  "Some of the Guardsmen were just out of basic training, and others had no experience in controlling disturbances in the streets. Guard troops were allowed to drive heavy vehicles on the streets without the usual licensing."  "Tens of thousands of rifle and pistol rounds were stored in the D.C. Armory and partitioned in pallets, labeled by their state of origin, to be used on American citizens in case of emergency.”   Think about it, there were actually plans in place for the National Guard to fire live rounds at the protestors.  There will quite likely be significant investigations into the decisions that were made.  Currently the Guard has suspended all of its recruiting efforts.

In great news, today Tucker Carlson lost T-Mobile, Papa Johns, SmileDirectClub, and Disney as sponsors.  As you no doubt recall, Fox got rid of O'Reilly after he lost his sponsors.  Maybe Tucker will be next.