Riding and Construction

Greetings and Salutations, Earthlings. Finally I have something to post about.  We've been riding some.  Monday was not a good day, we totally misread the weather and set out on the bikes with too little clothing.  Our being cold was further exacerbated by the terrible headwind, so after nine miles up the trail we bailed.  I just do not need to be sick again.  Tomorrow is the end of week three of the crud, and it is still the gift that keeps on giving.
Tuesday was much better.  We left wearing vests and arm warmers and it wasn't so windy.  We saw that ominous batch of smoke early in the ride.  It's actually about 10 miles north of where we were standing.

I have previously mentioned the Sweetwater Wetlands.  They are part of a water reclamation system in Tucson.  Apparently the grasses there became too tall and too dry, so the fire department set them on fire in a controlled burn.  It was also part of a mosquito abatement program.  Anyway, air quality truly suffered from that activity.
In this photo, the guy on the left is throwing a flare into the grass to set it on fire.

We saw this bird on the way back to the RV.  See the red about mid photo?

It's a Vermillion Fly Catcher.  They are just amazingly red.

Yesterday we suffered from ennui.  We have plans for April and the first week of May, but nothing after that.  Do you think we can come up with any sort of a plan for May and June?  No, no we can not.  We think about going east, but it's far, and I read somewhere that mosquito borne diseases (or maybe it was ticks) will be especially bad this summer.  And then there are the trees.   So, we're stymied as to what to do with ourselves.  It wouldn't be so bad if all of the RV parks weren't over run, but they are.  We don't have anything reserved for Memorial Day which is just giving me the willies.

The city of Tucson gave us the Loop extended routes, and then they took one away.  The trail is now closed at Ina, and will be for two years.  We can not discover a safe detour through the construction.  That's Ina on the right.

This is a giant auger.

In the same area is another outflow from the water reclamation plant.  The blobs in the water are ducks.  They were enjoying the current.

The outflow.

 This pot of succulents belongs to our neighbor.  They had to return to Kansas and have left their plants in my care.  We're really hoping they survive.

There is an interesting article on Huffington Post that did not make me want to tear my hair out.  A coalition of farmers, the Humane Society and others were able to defeat a "right to farm" bill that would have exempted big agriculture from requirements not to pollute, torture their animals or their employees.

Right-to-farm measures come with a sympathetic label, but they benefit big agricultural conglomerates, giving them legal protections that help elbow smaller producers out of the market. The Oklahoma initiative would have amended the state constitution to make it all but impossible for the state government to regulate farming technology, either by statute or agency rules. Unless the government could demonstrate “a compelling state interest” — an extremely high standard of legal scrutiny that also applies, for example, to restrictions on voting rights — new farming rules would be forbidden. Even if the state could show a compelling interest, corporate agriculture could have used the right-to-farm law to tie up new standards in court for years.

This was lead by a Democrat in Oklahoma.  I hope the DNC will quit doing what they've always done, and try something new.  Mid-term elections will be here before you know it.  However, they appear to be locked in mortal combat with each other, trying to visualize their path forward.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the Republicans are trying to force their replacement for the ACA through the voting process without the Congressional Budget Office having priced its cost.  These people are just evil on every level.