Friday, April 9, 2021

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. 


8 comments:

  1. I'm sorry but I just have to laugh or I will completely lose it. The Tammy Faye and Jim show was crazy nuts before it seems to have become so popular. These people have got to be on drugs and not good ones to come up with this stuff. Its scary how we can't get parts to fix anything anymore. And the water shortage is really scary but they just keep building and building and building. People are on edge about everything. And there doesn't seem to be an end to the unrest. We will be heading north about the middle of May. Jim really wants to do the walleye fishing. But I'm really afraid Skitz won't be going to make the trip with us. So we are sad but she gets to eat ice cream whenever she wants it.

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  2. where do they get this crazy assed shit? just read one today some looney says in 2029 an asteroid was going to hit earth spreading an alien virus that was going to bring on the apocalypse.

    as for Cyber Ninjas, no way is that guy going to be impartial and I would expect him/them to come up with the result those fucking republicans want, which is why they awarded it to him. hope the lawsuits stop that nonsense.

    love the ocotilla in bloom.

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  3. It's nice to have a reasonable reason why the old wall came down.

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  4. AZ Wingnuts are certainly quite the Human Sideshow alright! Not that we're alone in enduring Wingnuts, some other States are loaded with them too. Your Prickly Pear may be adapting to Stress of some kind, give it a little time to recover and it will probably be fine, takes a lot to kill one, so they usually bounce right back and turn healthier colors again. The wall encroachment issue solved is probably best for both Neighbors, that would cloud Title if one or the other went to Sell and perhaps become a legal Nightmare in Court. When amicable Neighbors make a verbal Agreement that waives property rights and boundaries it's always a mess in the end, people aren't immortal but their Properties will be around long after they're gone. Corrupt TV Evangelists, they should have been a pre-warning that a Lunatic would one Day become President. As for the complaining Contractor, don't be surprised that he meant Biden, even if he'd only been in Office a single Day, The Cult started blaming him for everything immediately... you were Wise to respond as you did, there is no logic in engaging any of them. I wouldn't want to own that Wall next to where he's working, looks like he's destabilizing the whole thing and it will come down or start having major structural issues now... yikes... don't Inspectors come out and monitor these things to protect property owners?!

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  5. We've become quite adept at "not looking" at things too! It's the best way.

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  6. I'm going to look at Steve Quayle's web site just to amuse (and probably alarm) myself.

    That saga of the neighbor giving the other neighbor unofficial permission to encroach on his land sounds pretty messy. Someone needed to either just buy the land or get a legal easement, you know?

    It sounds like that builder was (rightly) criticizing Trump, but who knows.

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  7. If it makes you feel any better, imagine how it feels to be building our forever home during this crazy escalation in lumber and other building product prices. We would never have undertaken this had we known what was coming right around the corner...and yes, I blame the Turd! I'll just stop right there.

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  8. I didn't think people could get crazier than they already are but turning citizens into zombies takes the prize. Last night I watched a Frontline show about militia groups in America. Now that was really scary. So many of those people don't really have a specific issue they are fighting for. They just want to fight and kill people. Very, very scary.

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