March 28, 2021

Friday was a hike.  Technically, it was a bike day on the schedule, but too cold, and too windy.  It was an ok hike.  Our feet are doing better with it.  My theory, unencumbered by facts and data, is that feet get out of shape just like any other unused body part.  That's Jim, wearing his Tilley hat and holding my poles.

The clouds moderated the x-ray effect of the sun. 

The ocotillos are blooming.  I was too head on to the open blossom to really see it.  I will try again next time.  The other ones have not opened yet.

This is a monster cholla.  It's old and huge.  It's interesting how new branches just sprout willy nilly on old wood.  

Yesterday was warmer with wind.  It seemed that all uphills were in to the wind.  This is the leaning agave.  It's a terrible picture because of where the sun was.  Anyway,  it's still upright.  We can not come to its aid because it's not on our property.  None of the blossoms have opened yet.  

Lemons from the neighbor's tree.  It's just about done with the fruit.  They're stacked in my vintage Corning pie plate.  It's from ebay, one of the many things I collected while living in West Seattle.  Most of it did not make the trip to Arizona.  After moving from Washington state to North Carolina, we did the mother of all down sizings prior to going full time in the RV.  Craig's list was helpful, there were many posts of  "free, come get it, owner will not help you."  Now, it would probably be Nextdoor.

We peeled 24 ounces of pearl onions for freezing.  Cut the root tips off, boil for two minutes, put in ice bath, and then pick up by the pointy end and squirt out the onion.  So much easier and better than trying to peel with a knife.  Peeling used to be Jim's job as sous chef, but no more.  They are noticeably better than buying them commercially frozen in a bag.

The ship in the Suez canal is contributing to the fraying of the global supply chain.  The talking heads are warning us about new shortages of soft drinks (aluminum shortage), furniture (foam shortage), and toilet paper (wood pulp shortage).  Oil prices are expected to surge just because they can. 

So there you go, you've been warned.

In news that is pissing me off; there is the new voter suppression law passed by the old white men in the Georgia legislature. There are the words of the Michigan head of the republican party; "Our job now is to soften up those three witches and make sure that we have good candidates to run against them, that they are ready for the burning at the stake."  Nice!  Really nice.  Those three witches are the governor, the attorney general and the secretary of state.  He says he was joking, but then he went on to talk about assasinating two republican senators who voted to impeach, so maybe not joking.  Also irritating is the Minnesota court which threw out a rape conviction because the woman was intoxicated.  Hello?  Consensual sex anyone?  There is a case in Tennessee in which the judge denied a 13 year old rape victim access to an abortion unless her rapist, her uncle, agreed to it.  I did a google search to find the state (I forgot) and was horrified at how many hits "13 year old rape victim" returns.  This is a sick planet.

We did have a slight sunset the other night.

So that is what I have to say about things.