A Long Rambling Post

Greetings Earthlings.  Not much has been happening in Ye Olde Pueblo.  There have been a couple of pretty good sunsets.

The hop seeds continue their bloom.  I had to cut back some of their branches, they were narrowing the walk way between them and the back of the house.  I hate pruning healthy pieces of plants.  They made the effort to grow with wild abandon, and then here I come with the giant loppers. 

This is growing in our neighbor's side yard.  It's a pretty prickly pear.  Ours has turned an unpleasant purple color and even the new pads look desiccated and dead.  I think we may replace it with an agave.  The issue we have is that when we buy a slow growing plant that's big enough to be more than a speck in the yard, it comes with a giant pot of dirt, which requires digging a giant hole, which we can not do. The guys that used to do a lot of work in the yard are so busy they're booked out until July.  Their last text did not explicitly say they weren't working in this area anymore, but I think they're not.  This is very distressing, I feel some what bereft.

An ocotillo blossom from the desert across the street. 

The time has come for the annual sanding, and re-varnishing of the beam and parts of the viga poles.  That structure faces west and the sun is just brutal.  The gel stain we used on the raw wood under the incorrectly installed gutter is not sticking well.  We've decided just to varnish over it and we won't look there.

This is from 2018, after the new gutters were fabricated and attached to the house where they belonged.  Under the stuccoed surface is the raw wood that we have been caring for.  Jim has completed sanding, next is using a tack cloth to remove the dust.  After that, there will be two or three layers of varnish applied to the areas that need it.

Who remembers the wall that was torn down next to a new house going up in the neighborhood?  If you don't remember you can go here to see the destruction.  It's at the bottom of the post from 2019.  Anyway, since then we have wondered what the heck happened that would cause a builder to knock someone's wall down. There is a really nice woman who is looking for a house to buy in the neighborhood.  She's taking the direct approach with sending out postcards and talking to everyone to see if they know someone who is wanting to sell.  Anyway, she talked to the builder of the new house.  The builder said that the lot he built on used to belong to an older couple who bought it.  The man in the couple was very close friends with the man with the knocked down wall.  Quite a while ago, he told the man to feel free to encroach on to his lot with walls, rusting metal art, and etc.  Then he died.  The widow sold the property, and the new owner wanted the full use of it, because it's a very narrow lot.  Thus, the wall was knocked down.  We went by today, and you can see cinder block has gone up where the destruction occurred (note the arrow).  It appears to be a six foot wall.  It will be stuccoed and painted eventually.  So, that's what happened there.

We stopped at the job site where a new house is going in.  I talked about this a little while back because we were shocked at how much dirt they've removed from the base of the wall, which is now even worse than when I took this picture.  We asked one of the guys on site if the house was for being built on spec or if it had an owner.  It's not spec, it's bought.  Then the guy launched into a torrent of how anything related to Covid was causing increased costs and product shortages.  Apparently oriented strand board is not available, so the vendor shipped plywood, which is more expensive.  The cost of concrete is up, lumber is up, appliances, fixtures, sheet rock, you name it it's either not available or the costs have gone up astronomically.  Ok.....  then he ended by saying "I blame one person for this."  Jim and I are still wondering who that is.  Biden hasn't been in office 100 days, so it's hard to see how it's his fault.  The guy is from Colorado, which is sort of liberal, so maybe he meant the orange ectoplasm.  Anyway, it was so strange how quickly he launched into that rant.  We just nodded and smiled.

The farce of a manual vote count in Maricopa county drags on.  Ms Fann, who is spearheading the effort has been stymied by he lack of anywhere to put the two million ballots while she does a hand recount.  American Oversight, a non-partisan watch dog group, has launched an investigation into what the heck she's doing.  There is a good article here.

The investigation follows Arizona Senate President Karen Fann’s announcement last week that the audit team would be led by Cyber Ninjas, whose founder, Doug Logan, has repeatedly circulated lies that the 2020 election was rigged and vocally supported the “Stop the Steal” movement. Moreover, Fann announced the audit would be conducted with no oversight by members of the Senate, and the statement of work signed by Cyber Ninjas indicates the companies plans to engage in direct contact with Arizona voters, the subject of a legal challenge from the group Protect Democracy. Correspondence between the State Senate and Maricopa County suggest that the firm has little background in Arizona law or Arizona election administration.

Cyber Ninjas is a company owned by a person who fervently believes the election was stolen.  How could he possibly be non-partisan in this effort?  Anyway, lawsuits are coming, and hopefully this will be stopped in its tracks.  It just speaks to how far out the AZ wing-nuts are.

The original USNews report is here.

Who remembers Tammy Faye Bakker (and her makeup) and her criminal husband?  He's back on television selling stuff.  This was on twitter the other day.  I guess this is where failed evangelists go when they're released from jail.  If you want to see something really nuts, go to Steve Quayle's website.

So, that's it, that's all I've got.