Longform
- It already feels like we’ve been here a lot longer.
- The combination of cool air temperatures and direct sunlight from cloud-free skies is unique. Mornings have been cold (around 30°) and afternoons have reached into the 60 degree range. You have to dress in layers so that as it gets warmer you can peel off a layer, and as it gets colder put a layer back on.
Capt. America and Aging Out
In which the author notes the changes in movie going, and other matters
Eddie Schneller's Wind Phone
This audio post concerns a mysterious wind phone dedicated to Eddie Schneller.
Out Where I Didn't Belong
On Snowbirding Part 2
On Snowbirding Part 1
Friday Feb. 7, 2025
Today’s walk: 1.6 mi., weather 75°, sunny. My ankle seems to have come around after a few days' rest. I decided to take the long grade uphill route just to get a little extra something into the walk. Don’t be too impressed though because the elevation gain is only 60'.
I’ve kept busy these past few days doing busywork. I think the worst habit I have is dawdling away the morning. Sometimes I’m not ready to get anything done until about 11AM or so, and then I wonder why the day is so short. Yesterday I slept in until 9 AM - a little unusual, but it’s not like I get up at 7 AM or so on a regular basis. Coffee, a walk, skimming the news/email, shower and breakfast seem to take up a good chunk of the morning.
Catching up
Let’s do a little catch-up here now that the redesign is complete. I did go for a walk on Monday of only 1.2 miles, but late yesterday and today something in my left ankle did not feel right, and putting weight and pressure on it causes some pain and limping. So I took today off to give it some rest. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow and if it’s in shape for a stroll.
The weather here has turned gorgeous - Yesterday and today it hit 82° for a high. Blue skies, no clouds. One thing I find I have to adapt myself to is how fast things can cool down. With no clouds there is nothing to retain the heat of the day and it can cool down pretty quickly. Back home it’s - well, I don’t want to talk about it. Cold. Snow. Gray.
Jan. 27th, 2025
Morning Walk Sat. Jan. 25, 2025
Thursday Jan. 23, 2025
Hall of Famers
Gotta say the Hall of Fame inductees this year is a solid group. Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy “The Kid” Wagner all worthy candidates. CC represents, though, a change in how pitching will be looked at in the future. 250 wins is probably the bar now (CC with 251), while his lifetime ERA is high at 3.74 (highest of any LHP). Still, over 3,000K and 3,577.1 IP ain’t shabby. Ichiro - well, we all know his story. Let me highlight just his 10 consecutive seasons with 200 hits, 3,089 hits, and .311 BA - in MLB alone, not counting his NPBL stats. Billy Wagner makes it in his last year of eligibility for many reasons, but 422 saves over only 903 IP with a career WHIP under 1.00 demonstrates his talent. He was a prototype of the modern closer. Dave Parker and Dick Allen arrive from the Classic Era Baseball Committee (I liked Veterans Committee better), while Tom Hamilton, the marvelous play-by-play announcer of the Cleveland Guardians, earns the Ford Frick Award, and Tom Boswell of the Washington Post received the BBWAA Career Excellence Award.
Best news of all? A-Roid was listed on only 37.1% of ballots and has only 6 more years left.
Morning Walk Mon. January 20, 2025: Martin Luther King Day
Neighborhood walk 9:15AM MST. Weather: 42°, abundant sunshine. Decided to do my walk downhill. I have a choice with the route I’ve mapped out of either going uphill or downhill, so I think if I continue to use this path I will alternate. Less dogs today, and the barks I got seemed half-hearted. Pass two couples across the boulevard. One street I walk on has a sidewalk on one side but not the other. One observation I made today is that the roofs on houses all have peaks. For some reason I thought they’d be flat. Don’t know why that came to mind today. Nice win by the Buffalo Bills yesterday. I was nervous going into the game, as the Ravens have looked very good near the end of the season. Buffalo caught a few breaks, and it’s about time some of the breaks went their way.
Morning Walk Sunday January 19, 2025
Neighborhood walk, 1.6 miles. Weather: 45°, sunny, cloudless blue sky. I realized two things while walking this morning. The first is that I feel like I’m living in a Wes Anderson movie set. The lack of human activity is decidedly eerie. The second is that what adds to this eerieness is the fact that people do not use fences to enclose their back yards; they use walls. There is this strange juxtaposition of enclosed spaces set amidst open land and sky that feels alien. Individual houses have a fortress vibe to them.
I passed a woman this morning who was out picking up garbage along the curb of the main boulevard. She seemed to be doing this of her own accord, as there was nothing about her equipment (a kitchen garbage bag and a picking stick) or her attire (sweats) that indicated any official or volunteer position. She was the only person I passed.
The route I took showed me a different way to arrive home rather than the way I was taking. I believe it’s a bit shorter and more direct. There are a number of dead ends and streets that don’t connect to other streets, so finding a direct path is not simple. But I am getting better driving around this week and getting my bearings. Now that we’re mostly settled in we have to start planning trips. Saguaro National Park and the Tombstone/Bisbee/Douglas route are the two easiest. We didn’t come here to sit around the house. We will, though, be watching the Bills/Ravens game. That’s going to be a challenging game for Buffalo.
Morning Walk: January 18, 2025
I took my first morning walk since arriving in Sierra Vista this past Monday. Weather: 40°, sunny. I walked 1.3 miles just around the neighborhood. I didn’t want to overdo it on the first day. I had been using the treadmill at home due to weather conditions there before we left. I don’t like the feeling of having gone too far and then your muscles ache all day.
Walking the neighborhood produced some interesting sensations. It is an odd feeling to have the sun shining down on you, seeing desert topography all around you, and yet your hands are cold because the actual air temperature is 40°. This neighborhood we are in feels brand spanking new compared to back home. Every house is in great condition. There seems to be a lot of roofs being repaired. All the houses, as noted earlier, are one-story ranches, all with that southwestern stucco look. Every dog in the neighborhood seems to be a barking dog. With all the sculptured landscaping (tall thin trees of some sort) and the rock-filled front lawns, the place looks like something that was just dropped onto an empty parcel of land, ready-made. I am so used to wood-framed houses that this all feels artificial to me.
The Evil that is Facebook
As soon as I retired, I canceled any and every social media app I had. Facebook is - and always has been - an evil corporation run by a hollow, soulless human being. This article goes into great detail as to why Facebook is and always has been evil. Yes it’s long; a 23 minute read. But if you really want to know the unvarnished truth about Facebook, you should read it.
And if you still have a Facebook account, you should delete it. Full stop. No excuses. There are alternatives. Micro.blog is the best one. Email people. Create an email list of all your “friends” and email them from time to time. Call them up and talk to them. Text them (use Signal). Any paltry excuse you offer for remaining on Facebook just gives Suckerberg more power over you and your friends, and supports his MAGA agenda. Own your own digital life!
The Slop Society wheresyoured.at
First Impressions - Journey West
So we have now been in Sierra Vista for three+ days, and here are some initial impressions:
Worlds Apart
This is a photo from the security camera of my driveway at home today:
And this is where I am now:
I honestly haven’t absorbed it all yet. It’s worlds apart.
Day Six - Journey West
A very short driving day. Only 4 hours on the road, all non-interstate. I thought we would be able to make it from our last stop to our destination, but AML wasn’t so sure and made me put in this short stop along the way. It was an interesting drive, in the sense that US 54 goes through some rather barren landscape, as well as a few run-down towns. Most of the towns we drove through felt semi-abandoned, relics of the 1960s. I don’t find the geography desolate, but once you get a look at the run-down nature of the region’s towns, “desolate” does spring to mind as an apt description. Our route took us past White Sands National Park, but we did not stop to see the Visitor’s Center, as we were listening to the Bills-Broncos game on XM Radio and didn’t want to stop listening.
The weather also added a certain mystique to the drive, as we drove through a few snow showers. Many of the mountain peaks we passed were capped in clouds, and the snow showers were thin enough that you could see through them as if they were light fog.
Tomorrow brings us to the end of our travels, and none too soon. At our age traveling has more of an effect on us physically that we were aware, and it might take two or three days until we are settled in and more relaxed. I did attempt one photo while driving through the White Sands area, but I’m sure it’s none too good.
Day Five - Journey West
A quick run from OKC across the Texas panhandle to Santa Rosa NM. The sky was deep blue, the roads pretty clear, and crusing at 78MPH was no problem. The view goes on for miles. No trees to be seen anywhere. The panhandle is peppered with windmills.
We had our first Buc-ee’s experience in Amarillo. A little much, I think, but I did have one of their brisket sandwiches, which was tasty enough. The Wal-Mart of convenience stores is how I would describe it. I don’t think we’ll be running into any more, but one was enough to scratch the itch.
As we drive alongside the old Rt. 66, I can’t help but imagine taking a trip on the CT 125 along the two-lane. I don’t think you can ride the entire Rt. 66 anymore without using some interstate (I-40 or 44), but it’s fun to imagine it. I’ve been this way a few times, the first with my family as we road-tripped across the USA in 1969. Many of the bypasses hadn’t been completed at that time, and the interstate technically went right through Tucumcari, Amarillo, and other cities along the way. Lots of changes since then, notably the condition of the roads. Amarillo, however, remains a city where I-40 cuts right through the town, and it’s still one of the ugliest cities I know of.
Santa Rosa is a small town of about 2800 people, maybe 5 Mexican restaurants, and travel centers like Pilot and Love’s. We ate at Chico’s, an underwhelming experience. Watched the two NFL wild card games, and hope to get to the next destination before the Bills game tomorrow.
Day Four - Journey West
Today was an off day - no driving. OKC was not as shut down as we expected, but AML and I spent the entire day languishing around the motel room. She actually slept quite a bit, taking a nap right after breakfast. We grabbed some extra food for a snack in the early evening, as we had planned to have our large meal at 3:30. We ate at a regional chain called Charleston’s, and it was very good - best meal we’ve had since being on the road. AML got a walnut chicken salad (she kept remarking about the high quality of the chicken), and I got a chicken-fried chicken cutlet - two, actually. Portions were very good, and I don’t mind paying the price for good quality - $39 for the two entrees. We looked for a grocery store or pharmacy to restock on distilled water, but we’re apparently in a pharmacy and grocery store desert. The rest and the meal will do us good for the next three days of driving.
It’s not a very good picture, I know, since it was taken out the hotel window. But it was a small reminder of how expansive sunsets can be out west. With the storm behind us we are looking forward to more sunshine and fall-like temperatures for the remainder of the trip.
