A Miracle is Occurring

 My laptop has been pretty functional today.  Disk usage is normal, internal memory seems a little high (47%) given that it's not doing much of anything.  Operating temperatures are good, the fan is not running - so hey!  Maybe it straightened itself out.  I did delete a bunch of stuff, ran a defrag and then got all set to do a check disk, but the laptop told me things were fine and I didn't have to do that.  So, we'll see. 

I like the idea of a Mac, and their reliability, and the fact that their user base is small and so they're not attractive to hackers, but I just don't know if I can make the leap.  I've been on Microsoft since 1984.  There is a lot of muscle memory baked in to my hands.  My first calculator was RPN, reverse Polish notation.  Instead of keying in number operator number =, you key in number number operator and that's it.  Long formulas are really easy that way.  Anyway, it rewired my brain and I can't really use a normal calculator anymore. So, there is fear of not making the leap.

But enough of that.  Today we have closed on a house in Spokane, WA.  Today, also, we had the house photographer out in Tucson to document this house, which goes up on MLS tomorrow.  We're the only house in the neighborhood currently for sale, so we're hoping it will go quickly.  We're both having simultaneous cases of  "what have we done?" but it's time.  The heat here has just gotten to be too much.  This winter will be a La Nina winter, so there will be very little rain once again.  Every time WAPO does an article about the drought in the west we flinch a little, but hopefully some people aren't well informed.

This is where we are moving to.  It's in the north west quadrant of Spokane, we are near mountain bike trails.  We'll probably have to drive to them, but it's not insurmountable.  There is also a paved bike trail between Coeur d'Alene and Spokane.  So, there is stuff to do.

We talked to Jim's son the other night, and he did inform us that we will be needing a snow blower unless we want to shovel.  I think we will take the snow blower.  We're going to have to buy shoes.  Everything we own has a mesh top and rain goes right through them.

So, that's what we have been doing with ourselves, buying and (hopefully) selling real estate.

My Laptop is Dying

Things are bad.  I'm doing this on my phone, which is also bad. There may be no posting for awhile.  It is so annoying. 

So - my laptop has come back to life briefly.  The primary theory here is that we're both really down level on Windows software and it's making both laptops behave in bizarre fashions.  Also, the tech guys on the phone think my hard drive is sick due to the fact that it goes to 100% utilization when it's just sitting there.

Anyway, it's always something and it's always bad and expensive.

First World Problems

Well yesterday was the day from the 7th Circle 0f Hell.  Jim's laptop battery had entered the stage of the death spiral wherein it had to be on power all of the time.  It quit charging.  So we took it in to the computer repair place for a remove and replace of the battery.  Between the two of us, we've had a total of 5 battery replacements, yesterday was Jim's third.  Up until now, they've been non-events.  Yesterday, Microsoft decided that it needed to remove all of Jim's files, cookies and cache, and bookmarks.  The documents file was eventually found in a weird place on the hard drive.  Using mozilla help we were able to locate the file that holds the bookmarks, but we're not smart enough to get Firefox to use it.  It was a very aggravating day.  The important thing was the restoration of the giant file with all of our passwords, and the spreadsheets that record every ride since 2008.  So, now we're relogging in to the papers, Youtube, twitter and facebook.  It's just tedious.  Losing the bookmarks is extremely tedious.  So, keep those backups current!

It looks like monsoon is over for awhile.  Now we're in the low hundreds with humidity.  I don't think July is much of an improvement over June thus far.

The two days of rain we did get have convinced the ocotillo to put out leaves.  It's nice to see them green instead of looking dead.

The palo verdes are making seed pods.  The local squirrel is eating them.

We're seeing a lot of this in between the pavers and the flagstones.  It sort of looks like ants, but when you spray nothing comes running out like ants usually do.  It's a mystery.

Behold the beauty of the agave parryi.  I had him up against the wall on the west side of the house, so he was getting sun all day until about 3 pm, as well as reflected light and heat from the wall.  His leaves closed up and he started turning yellow.  Since he's been in the shade of the palm trees he is much happier.

Other than this, my friends, I have zippity doo-dah all to say.

July 5, 1852

This is an excerpt from Frederick Douglass' speech on July 5,1852.  I think this just about says it all about July 4.  The entire text can be found here.  It's long and it's totally worth reading.

“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.”

Things That Are Irritating Me

Oh happy day!  There will be even more discussion over the complete and total wingnuttery that is AZ politics as well as other stuff that is giving me agita.  

From the local news on KOLD, we learn the following.  Governor Ducey has signed a new budget which gives the wealthy Arizonans a big tax cut, and regular people get a tiny tax cut or none at all.  Proposition 208, which levied a small tax on the wealthy for schools last year, was undone by the new budget.  Never mind that the citizens voted for it overwhelmingly, the will of the people means nothing to a republican governor.  The budget also included the following items, which have nothing to do with money.

— Bans any instruction that implies that one race is inherently racist, should be discriminated against, or feel guilty because of their race. It is another in a series of measures targeting or reacting to so-called “critical race theory,” which is not currently being taught in K-12 schools. Teachers could lose their licenses and their schools fined for violations.

— Strips Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs of the power to defend election-related lawsuits against the state, and bars Hobbs from hiring private attorneys. Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich will instead get the power to stake out the state’s position in election matters. The power transfer expires after Hobbs and Brnovich leave office in 2023.

— Gives the state police broad power to keep videos from body-worn cameras and dashboard cameras secret. Such videos are generally considered public records now, but the budget gives the Department of Public Safety the power to decide when it’s in the public’s interest to release them. It also requires people seeking copies of videos to know the time and place it was recorded and the names of people involved.

— Requires that police misconduct be investigated only by certified officers from the same jurisdiction, essentially banning civilian-controlled review boards for police misconduct.

— Blocks public health measures including vaccine or mask mandates meant to control the coronavirus in schools and universities. 

Last week the Supreme Court ruled in favor of  Arizona AG Brnovich in his suit that wanted to do away with "ballot harvesting" and discarding the federal portion of ballots that were cast in the wrong precinct.  As I have said before, on the Navajo nation, it's difficult to get a ballot to a polling place.  It involves driving very long distances on unpaved roads.  Why, you wonder, do they just not mail them in?  That would be because there is no mail service on the reservation.  The residents must go in to town to get mail from a PO box.  SCOTUS decided that since not that many people were impacted, that it would be ok to disenfranchise them.  Their ruling is going to make it more difficult to challenge the boat load of voter suppression laws currently being passed in the red states. WAPO had an excellent op-ed piece about how the court pretty much made up stuff about what Section 2 of the 1982 voting rights bill said.  Voting in the correct precinct in AZ is more difficult than you might think.  I don't know what my precinct is, I don't know how to find out.  It's not on my voter registration card, and I haven't seen a pick on the website.  They change often, so it's not surprising people go to the wrong place. I can understand tossing the local vote, since it is out of precinct, but not the federal section, which is what SCOTUS said they could do.

The Kansas legislature has been busy writing stupid voting laws.  One of their most recent efforts makes it a crime to engage in activity that “gives the appearance of being an election official.”  There are significant financial penalties for this heinous act.  The League of Women Voters has suspended all of their voter registration drives out of fear of prosecution under this new law.  Great, just great.  We won't register people to vote, they might vote for Democrats.  You can read more about this here.

From the annals of "white people suck" we have the latest indignity brought to us by the Olympics.  Swimmers are required to wear a standard tight fitting latex swim cap.  These caps do not work for Black women who have a lot of hair.  They're too tight, they hurt and sometimes come off in the water.  Different companies have developed swim caps that work for Black hair.  One of them submitted a request that they be allowed in competition.  Nope.  "The organization said the design does not fit “the natural form of the head.” To the best of their knowledge, they added, “the athletes competing at the international events never used, neither require … caps of such size and configuration.”"  Did they ask any Black swimmers?  I doubt it.  This just irritates the living snot out of me.  You can be irritated, too, by reading here.  Or you can be irritated by a WAPO op-ed on the same subject.

So, on this dark and gloomy afternoon (which is only producing light sprinkles) I have documented my current list of grievances.  Carry on.

It Rained

Welp, it rained.  It could have rained longer, but it was an active, fast moving storm.  We got wet at Safeway running to the car, and then when we headed for the house, there was lightning and thunder.  Pretty cool.  It did drop the temperature, but it's even more humid.

This was at 7 am yesterday.  There were a lot of clouds, so we did not expect rain.  There needs to be sun heating the dirt to bring up the storms.  We were mistaken!

Later there was this on the cell phones.  Floods and dust storms - it's versatile weather.

This is a good service for the citizens.  When we were in South Carolina, we got alerts for tornadoes.  News you can use.

It's really localized rain.  You can see the edge of the downpour.

So that's it!  That's all I've got. It rained some.

Update to post:  Actually it rained a LOT up north.  KOLD has an article up about what people saw, including land spouts and flying sheds.  It's worth a look (no paywall).