Walks in the Desert and More Stupid

It's been since the 12th that I've posted.  I feel like my life force is being drained, as well as my intellect, by the stupid that currently inhabits our government.  Just like the first time he was president, every day I think it can't get any worse, and every day it does.

There has been riding, there have been restorative hikes in the desert.  What there has not been is much mingling with our fellow citizens.  Have you been keeping track of this year's flu?  Apparently it's horrible, people in the hospital are being proned, or put on vents, or in a couple of cases on ECMO.  This is not your father's flu.

Today we hiked, it was eerily warm.  Up until today, the sun would be out, but the air would still be cold.  Today the air was warm, it's only February.  We walked up to the saddle between Golden Gate and Bren.  It's a stair master hike, goes straight up, and then back down.  This is a pile of rocks on a big rock we saw as we started up the climb.  It's a nice job of balancing rocks.

Here is a large rock formation.  It looks like it flowed here.  Tucson is in a caldera, so it's possible.  In the Tucson Mountain Park there are many different types of rock.

Look mid-photo.  Those are cholla, backlit by the sun, glowing.  They're really pretty when they do that.  Still deadly, but pretty.

View from the top.

This hillside is a Saguaro rich environment.

So, while we were on the way up, we saw a couple of young men going the opposite direction.  We both acknowledged what a beautiful day it was.  One of them said, Jesus gave me another day, so I'm going to enjoy it.  Ok.  They were the only people we saw on the trail.  When we got back down, the nicely balanced pile of rocks had been knocked over.  I wonder if they did it, and if so, why.  Jim rebuilt it a little. 

It's not nice to knock over other people's efforts, no matter how inconsequential you think it is.

I can't make rice.  We don't have a rice cooker here, won't fit in the car.  My rice is a complete and total failure, I am a rice fail.  However, you can buy this at Costco.  Twelve packages for about $10.  Nuke for 90 seconds, and there is rice.

President Musk continues with the purge.  The investigative staff at CDC, gone. A large part of the Despartment of Education, gone.  His minions are now into the IRS files, doing who knows what.

From an Associated Press article we learn, "The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Probationary workers were targeted in late night emails Friday notifying them they had been fired, David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, said in a statement."

Note the use of the word "probationary" in the second sentence.  Musk and his people think that word means they are new employees, who can be let go easily.  That's one meaning.  It also refers to people who were recently promoted, they go into probationary status so that in the event the promotion doesn't work out, they go back to their old position.  Due to this lack of understanding, many senior people, with decades of experience, have been let go.  This has happened a lot in the NIH.  

Secretary of Transportation Duffy is very concerned about our current Air Traffic control system.  That would be the one that just lost radar techs, controllers and other people due to Musk.  So, today he said this on twitter.

America deserves safe, state-of-the-art air travel, and President Trump has ordered that I deliver a new, world-class air traffic control system that will be the envy of the world.  To do that, I need advice from the brightest minds in America. I’m asking for help from any high-tech American developer or company that is willing to give back to our country.
Tomorrow, members of the

SpaceX team will be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in VA to get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system.

He's asking for volunteers!  Hey, come on down, write some code.  Air Traffic Control is one of the most complicated systems there is, and he thinks he'll just get some guys in, drink a little Mountain Dew, and make a new one.  I can't stand the stupidity.

Today a Delta flight from Minnesota crashed on landing in Toronto.  Notice the wings are off that plane.  Anyway, no one died, there are injuries.  If you google "cabin attendants walking on the ceiling of the delta airplane" you can see footage of cabin crew herding people towards the door on Instagram. Or you can go here, footage starts at about one minute.

So, that's it for me, for now.