Month: January 2019

We spent most of the day on Monday without electricity. Somehow, a large power pole 35 miles from us caught on fire and brought down the entire power grid in this portion of Nevada. It took the utility about eight hours to repair the line. Had it happened in New York City, there would have been riots, the National Guard would have been called out, and conspiracy theorists would have blamed Hillary Clinton. Or, Obama.

Life without electricity really sucks. No computers, no refrigeration, no microwave, no TV, no recharging cell phones, no lighting…no friggin’ bidet. (It felt like the Stone Age, having to wipe my own butt.) Luckily, we had a couple of decks of cards, and the three of us (including my son Jonathan) made do.

I read an article once saying that increased birth rate spikes have been attributed to power outages. I get it: “Well, I’m bored, Honey. What can we do that’s fun?”

Electricity has got to be among man’s greatest inventions: certainly a first-ballot Hall of Famer, right up there with the wheel and Twinkies.

Speaking of that, the latest major league baseball Hall of Fame class was announced this week. Who cares! I for one don’t pay much attention to this stuff anymore, because any baseball Hall of Fame that doesn’t include Pete Rose is a fraud. It would be like a shrine for sandwiches that doesn’t include Peanut Butter and Jelly, or recognizing comedian legends without mentioning Laurel and Hardy.

Fame isn’t what it used to be. For example, in the old days, one had to be an otherworldly talent to be considered a “star”. Michael Jackson, Wilt Chamberlain, Albert Einstein…now, those were stars. Nowadays, every TV actor and member of a professional sports team is considered a “star”… including the non-starting, backup long-snapper on a losing professional football team. I saw a guy with those very credentials last night on America’s Got Talent, and he was announced as a football “star’. I almost vomited. Under those criteria, I would have been a “star” athlete in high school, where I “rode the pine” while on the varsity basketball team. If I had really been a “star”, I would have gotten laid.

Yours truly has an ongoing beef with Pulte Group (the builders of Sun City Mesquite) regarding an ugly, unmaintained common area lot in our neighborhood. Corporate responded to a petition signed by 25 property owners that I sent the Pulte Group by advising us that it would be “unfair” to others if Pulte and the Homeowners’ Association rectified the problem that they created and are perpetuating. Say what? Go to your room, you stupid Bean Counters and Bureaucrats!

Speaking of employees, the Federal government shutdown is now in its second month. It is basically a terrorist situation, where the culprit (our President) has taken 800,000 workers hostage (without pay) in order to force the now Democratic Party-controlled Congress to fund something (additional miles of border wall) that the Republican Party-controlled Congress failed to do last year, when it was busy enacting a debt-financed tax cut. (Rewarding the richest one percent of Americans was apparently more urgent than building a border wall to stop crime.) Go figure.

I’m thinking that President Trump doesn’t understand America’s longstanding policy of not negotiating with terrorists. (Of course, the Imbecile-in-Chief doesn’t understand a lot of things about America and our democracy: he must have been shooting spit wads in high school Civics class.)

I feel sorry for the employees, who have done nothing to deserve this. Many have been ordered back to work, without pay, with the promise that they will get paid when the shutdown is ended by President Trump. Meanwhile, mortgage payments get missed, marriages suffer, and employees on the edge have mental breakdowns; some might go “postal”. Hopefully, karma will even things out when the “Leader of the Free World” tires of this childish and hurtful stunt aimed at bullying Congress into paying for more steel fencing.

The nominations for Oscars were announced this past week. Once again, the motion picture industry will the motion picture industry will get all lathered up, furiously congratulating itself on the wonderful product it is producing: basically, Marvel Comics’ superhero action flicks, feature-length Disney cartoons, and action movies starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

My wife and I have attended a total of two motion pictures in the past three years: “LaLa Land” and “A Star Is Born”. They were entertaining, but lame in comparison to “The Godfather”, “Citizen Kane” or just about any classic John Wayne western. Or, for that matter, made-for-TV stuff like “The Sopranos”, “Dexter” and “Breaking Bad”. None of them got Oscars; what’s wrong with this picture?

My $99 drone arrived this week from China, via a slow boat. I plan to use it to surveil possible hiking paths when my friends and I are totally lost up in the local Virgin Mountains. (And, probably, Chinese state security will use it’s embedded spyware to surveil me!) A problem I have with the drone is that it came with limited instructions, written in English by Chinese guys who don’t understand English very well. One would have to be a Chinese aircraft engineer/linguist to interpret the one-page manual. Hopefully, I can find a “YouTube” video…in proper English. And, then, get in a few flights before the cheap gyrocopter crashes and burns.

Speaking of the Virgin Mountains, they are so named because they lie adjacent to the Virgin River, which comes out of Utah and Arizona via the Virgin River Gorge. The City of Mesquite, lying in the Virgin River Valley, boasts the Virgin River High School, whose football team, the “Abstainers”, was unbesmirched this year, as it should be every year. The team mascot is Chastity Belt.

Actually, that’s fake news. But, in the real world…

Despite all of Congress’ and the NRA’s thoughts and prayers, another mass shooting occurred yesterday, this time at a bank in Florida. There has been very little hoopla about this tragic event on Fox News, because the perpetrator was, once again, a Caucasian fellow. About a week ago, the network got all worked up when a Latino immigrant murderously assaulted a police officer, thereby confirming the continuing Donald Trump campaign scare tactic (will the Campaign ever end?) that Latino immigrants, as a group, are an urgent crime threat.

What has become intentionally lost in this alarmist political narrative (to justify The Wall) are the very real facts that: (1) the incarceration rate for immigrants is one-half that of native-born residents; and, (2) that Caucasians are responsible for six times as many mass shootings as Latinos. Maybe we need to build walls around White communities to protect people…on the outside?

Just kidding, of course. The Caucasian perps would simply go over or under the wall in order to accomplish their dastardly deeds, just like coyotes will find a way through a fenced yard to abscond with your pet Poodle. The Great Wall didn’t stop the Japanese from conquering China (they flew over it), and the Maginot Line proved useless against the Nazis, who simply drove around it. Walls are generally overrated, unless defenders are pouring boiling oil down on attackers. Moats are pretty effective, though, particularly if populated by alligators. Maybe someone should run that idea past the Prez?

Speaking of him, it looks like The Boss might be seriously considering using a Concocted State Emergency (i.e. threat from a banana republic) to divert attention from his political troubles in this country. The menacing Third World culprit: Big Bad Venezuela. This week, the U.S. formally backed an insurrectionist/populist effort against the Venezuelan dictator, whereupon that elected leader ordered American diplomats out of his country, whereupon our President ordered our embassy folk to stay put and, then, threatened the Venezuelan leader with consequences. “All options are on the table!”, according to Trump, itchy to push the nuclear hot button.

Perfect! The Venezuelan big shot is backed by China (who we’ve engaged in a tariff war), Mexico (ditto, plus an immigration war), and President Trump’s buddy, Vladimir Putin of Russia, who loves to torment America. Hopefully, we won’t do anything stupid…although that’s asking a lot of the current leadership. Has anyone in the White House ever heard of the “Bay of Pigs’? How about “Vietnam”? Or, “Afghanistan/Iraq/Syria/Yemen/et al”? Is there anyone left in the White House besides the President’s family, clueless attorney Rudy Giuliani, and the hapless spokesperson, Sarah Huckabee Sanders? The Keystone Cops were brighter.

Moving on from politics (Please!), my wife Charlie had a half dozen lipomas removed from her arm yesterday by a local dermatologist. Lipomas are fatty cysts that are generated spontaneously by the body in people who are genetically predisposed to the affliction. Charlie produces the things faster than dermatologists can excise them. If science and industry could find a use for the things, my wife could make a million dollars. As it is, the local dermatologist will probably be able to put braces on all his kids and afford to send them to private colleges, thanks to Charlie’s permanent affliction and her medical insurance. Asked how much he would have charged my wife with no insurance, he answered, “$400”. Of course, with insurance, he probably billed $2,000. And, he’ll be seeing her every two weeks for another batch. Cha-Ching!

As for me, I’m on the lookout for a medical practitioner, witch doctor, or exorcist who can help with my painful arthritic hands. It’s gotten to the point that I don’t have any grip strength whatsoever, and I’ve had to give up bowling, golf, and masturbation. Shuffling playing cards is torture, so I’m now using a Chinese gizmo. Narcotic pills are helping a bit, but my hands ache like Hell pretty much 24 hours a day, even when I’m sleeping. (And, I feel guilty not being able to “Say No To Drugs”.) I suppose I could consider amputation, but, then, how would I type my blog? Maybe Alexa could do it for me? Please send your thoughts and prayers…

I mentioned earlier the Virgin River Gorge. In order to access civilized amenities, we need to drive to St. George, Utah, the nearest big town. Luckily, that chore is made more pleasant by the wonderful scenery along the 15-mile drive through the Gorge. I never get tired of it. All manner of geologic goings-on are on display there, including some very weird, twisted and tilted rock formations. According to scientists, the striking landscape was created over millions of years. Of course, some folks believe that God created all of it, at once, about six thousand years ago. If so, he was a pretty busy guy. And, why all of the weird rock formations?

The construction of I-15 through the Gorge was a complex engineering feat and one of the costliest portions of the Interstate highway system. I’m glad they built it, so I can get to Costco a lot quicker and pick up my prescription narcotic drugs.

Here are some photos from my most recent drive through the Gorge:

Probably the weirdest thing that happened during the past week was the incredible muffed call by the entire NFL refereeing team during the big game which decided whether the New Orleans Saints or the Los Angeles Rams would go to the Super Bowl. With less than 2 minutes remaining in the game, New Orleans leading by 3 points, a Saints receiver was manhandled by a Rams defender. It was an obvious infraction, or actually three of them: face-guarding a receiver, with the defender’s back to the ball; running into a receiver; and, a helmet-to-helmet hit. (After the game, the Rams defender admitted as much.) The backfield judge, who’s only responsibility is to follow the flight of the ball and make sure that the receiver and defender play by the rules, missed the call.

Apparently, the referee was either texting his girlfriend or playing pocket pool (or both, simultaneously) instead of actually watching the friggin’ football game. As a result, the Saints lost a choice opportunity to run out the clock or, perhaps, to make a touchdown and put the game away right then. The Rams were resurrected from the dead by Referee Magoo, later won the game, and are now going to the Super Bowl.

“What a Super F-up!”, I can imagine Vince Lombardi saying…from his crypt.

It is desperation time in the Oval Office.

The bogus Mexican migrant/terrorist caravan scare, including deploying the Army at the border, didn’t turn the tide on the Mid-Term elections.

The Chief Executive’s urgent Address to the Nation, aired on TV, making a case for his beloved border wall, landed with a thud, not impressing anyone of it’s urgency or sincerity. Even the President admitted, later, that his heart wasn’t in it.

The President’s threat to use Emergency Powers to authorize the Corps of Engineers to construct a border wall using Defense Department funds didn’t pass muster…in either political party or with constitutional legal experts.

The Federal government shutdown, which Mr. Trump proudly claimed as his own, but later tried to pawn off as a Democratic Party debacle, has turned out to be as popular as a fart in church.

Hundreds of thousands of Federal employees (most of them “Democrats”, as the President gleefully commented) are going without paychecks. Most of them will, assuredly, vote in 2020, as will their relatives, neighbors, and friends. Not very astute politics, Sir.

Now, the President of the United States has resorted to a public mud-throwing contest with the Speaker of the House…

…to try and convince the Democrats to support funding the construction of a border wall…something that the Republican Party didn’t think was a priority when they controlled Congress in 2017 and 2018.

What gives? Why doesn’t the guy simply have the Mexican government pay for the wall…which Trump, the candidate, repeatedly promised would happen back in 2016? He’s the “Art of the Deal” master negotiator; make it happen!

Methinks that The Wall kerfluffle has very little to do with illegals and terrorists streaming across our southern border, but, more likely, it is a typical Trumpian diversionary tactic...to keep the public’s eyes focused in one direction while other unsavory news is cropping up.

For example, the stock market didn’t do so well in 2018. It was the barometer of Trump’s supposed economic brilliance when things were going well. Now, however, the economic news is less cheerful, as the tax cut sugar high has worn off.

The advertised “big changes” in trade that the Administration championed, by tearing up trade agreements and imposing tariffs, have seemingly accomplished nothing, except pissing off important trade partners, allies, American companies and consumers. Trade deficits have not diminished.

Day by day, more information surfaces about the involvement of foreign actors (mostly Russian) in the 2016 Presidential election. Even the President’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has stopped exclaiming “No collusion!”; he now says that there may have been collusion by the Trump campaign, but that Mr. Trump had no knowledge of it.

Sure.

(Of course, the President continues to refuse to be questioned in person by the Special Prosecutor on this subject. Why would that be? Probably for the same reason that Donald Trump doesn’t want anyone seeing his tax returns…because there’s some stinky mess in there.)

Somehow, in some way, our President, who considers himself a “winner”, and who prizes “winning” above all other things in life (except money, perhaps), has got to come up with a win of some kind in the next few weeks.

It’s time for yet another Donald J. Trump Hail Mary Pass.

The schlemiel can’t use the “bringing the troops home from Syria” gambit again. That recent surprise announcement tanked when his own generals, our allies, and many hawkish Republican Party supporters had a fit…and Mr. Trump backed off.

Remember the North Korea-U. S. summit on nuclear weapons awhile back? That’s the one where our giddy President announced, after the meeting, that North Korea was “de-nuclearizing”, and his North Korean counterpart said, “Say WHAT?!” Well, this week, the Administration announced a second summit meeting, presumably so that the Master Dealmaker can get it right…and, again, claim “Mission Accomplished”.

The tariff war with China has failed to result in that country kowtowing to the U.S. What has actually happened over the past year is that China has expanded its trading partnerships throughout the world as America has torn up trade agreements and pissed off former trade partners with tariffs and bellicose language. So, the White House this week announced another round of talks with the Chinese, hoping for some positive movement, but “hat in hand” this time. China plays the long game; any perceived “win” by Trump will likely be a short-term gimme, with long-term negative consequences.

So, where does Trump turn for the “win” that he needs so desperately?

He could hold another pro-Trump rally, where he could again bad-mouth Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, dark-skinned immigrants, the Fake Media, and come up with yet another outrageous claim to keep reporters busy for another week or so. The problem is that he has lied so often that no one pays attention to him anymore, except Fox News and its viewers.

He could invade a Banana republic and overthrow a dictator. Yes, I know, that gambit has been used before, but there are plenty of dictators to go around. The problem is that our current President admires dictators. Which one of his friends does he stab in the back?

He could pick a fight with North Korea or Iran, egging them into some kind of armed conflict, which would drown out all other news. This one has potential. I’m sure Mr. Trump has the Pentagon working on a range of plausible scenarios.

Or, our President could simply claim victory in the Wall dispute, explaining that a physical wall was never his objective, but, rather, just a thorough examination of the topic…which is now addressed in the bill he will sign, backed by both Democrats and Republicans.

(Of course, it will be the same bi-partisan bill that he rejected in December, prior to the government shutdown.)

He might add that God counseled him on his decision, further enhancing his bonafides with the Born Again Christian faction of his political base.

After all, who can argue with God.

Leave it to my sister Claudia to come up with the most unusual housewarming gift: a bidet!

And…I’m not shittin’ you…it has changed our lives forever.

Charlie and I are literally fighting each other for bidet time at all hours of the day. It’s warm, does an immaculate job, and is easy to use: you just sit down.

I think Charlie uses it even when she doesn’t need to…you know, just to pleasure herself.

Who knew?!

This new experience has me second-guessing myself about many other things that I haven’t tried in my 71 years on earth. Surely, I’ve been missing out on some life-changing experiences…

For example, I’ve never made love to a guy or killed anyone. I have yet to play ice hockey or sky dive. No jail time for me, nor have I availed myself of a hooker or shot up heroin. Asparagus, puffer fish, and cooked snake (of any type) have never passed my lips. I have yet to set foot in the Orient, on one of the Poles, or in any part of Arkansas. And, God has never spoken to me (although I have talked to myself a few times).

And I thought that I was quite worldly!

Maybe I’ve got everything wrong: maybe water isn’t wet, bears don’t crap in the woods, and those Nigerian guys ACTUALLY have a steamer chest down at the airport with a million dollars in it that belongs to me. (Maybe I should send them that $1,000 in earnest money?)

Thank you, Claudia, for opening my eyes to the many possibilities out there that I’ve been missing.

Don’t be surprised if you hear that ol’ Craig has tried out smokeless tobacco, got himself some butt cheek implants, hooked up with a Russian mail order bride, or robbed a liquor store.

Life is short, and there’s not much time left to complete that Bucket List.

At least, the bidet is bi-done.

We sold our friggin’ house!

Yes, they said it couldn’t be done (in fact, WE said that!), but the deal was sealed on January 10th. Good riddance to our $650 per month H.O.A. fees…and that lousy snake in the grass neighbor that tormented us for years. A pox on the lot of them!

Actually, we had a lot of wonderful memories during out thirty years in Bear Creek, and we’ll miss our friends, our nearby children and relatives, and our nice home. But, we won’t miss the three flights of stairs in that home! And, we’ll enjoy paying less taxes in Nevada…that’s for sure.

I had to make a quick turnaround trip to So Cal on the 8th/9th to retrieve some potted plants, a couple of large concrete urns, a 10′ Manzanita tree, and such. My sister Claudia and her boy-toy, Ted, put me up for the evening of the 8th, and I got to enjoy a nice dinner with Ted’s family in honor of his Mom’s 87th birthday. What a nice evening that was!

Since I was pulling a 12′ U-haul trailer behind the Jeep on my way back to Mesquite, and had a bit of spare room in it, I decided to take advantage of President Trump’s government shutdown and illegally relocate a couple of Joshua trees from B.L.M. land in the eastern Mojave Desert. I figured that enforcement might be a bit lax with no paychecks on the horizon…

When I got to the scene of my proposed heist, I realized that the Joshua tree forest was on private property, long-since abandoned and now derelict. So, I guess I was actually pilfering the greenery from a New York bank or something. In that case, I don’t feel too guilty.

Anyway, I paused there just long enough to harvest a couple of juvenile trees, which now flank my driveway in another part of the great American southwest. As long as the little buggers don’t croak (and I intend to treat them royally), they should should outlive me on this property.

I named them Joshua…

…and Joshua Jr….

The little guys have spiked hair.

I’ve been seeing a lot of Joshua trees in my new locale, because of my frequent hiking. I joined the Desert Fossils Hiking Club on my arrival here, and I’ve done several hikes with them; a very nice crowd. However, I stumbled into a smaller, more aggressive group that likes to do more adventurous and strenuous hikes in the local area. My three compadres are Mac, Lloyd and John, and we’ve done several ten-plus mile hikes over the past couple of weeks.

Yesterday, Mac, Lloyd and I did a big hike up in the Virgin Mountains. It was a ball buster, but that’s the way we like it. We don’t typically hike on trails; instead, we spot something in the distance that looks interesting, and explore ways to get there. We hike through brush, scramble down rock gorges, climb steep hills, etc. If we’re lucky, there might be some animal trails (free range cattle, mountain goats, deer, and such) which give us some idea of a sensible way to get from hither to yon.

We do pretty good out there in the wilderness for a bunch of old fogies. I’m the oldest, at 71, Lloyd will turn 70 soon, Mac is 66, and John is the youngster at 63. All of us are veterans, and have led very different lives, so we have plenty to talk about as we trudge through God’s Country. I love it.

With the burden of two mortgages per month now removed from us, Charlie and I are beginning to decompress and enjoy life here in Mesquite. We will now have a few extra dollars to fine tune our property here, starting with the backyard landscaping. That should be generally accomplished by mid-February, although we may supplement the landscaper’s design with a pergola and some other doodads. We also need to replace the front door with a fancy one, and finish up the interior with a couple of ceiling fans.

Other than that, the homestead is pretty presentable.

C’mon by and spend the night!

As a lifetime Southern Californian, I am pretty familiar with the “wall” at the Mexican border. It’s been there since I was a kid and my parents used to take us to our vacation house in Ensenada. It looks pretty intimidating to me; not something that one could jump or climb over without a 20′ ladder. It has definitely deterred me from illegally entering Mexico.

And, yet, to hear tell, that border leaks like a sieve.

There are holes in it, there are tunnels under it, and in some places there is no wall at all…where evil Latinos can casually stroll across the invisible border. Cesar Millan, the “Dog Whisperer” illegally immigrated to the U.S. many years ago by crawling underneath Interstate 5 through a flood control culvert.

“We need a Wall!”, insists our President.

According to what I’ve read (from security folks), most illegal immigration passes right through the existing guarded border checkpoints. That makes sense to me, because 99 percent of the automobiles crossing the border in Tijuana are uninspected. The Border Patrol officers politely ask questions about your nationality, the purpose of your visit, and if you’re bringing any fruit and vegetables with you. If you’re puffing on a joint when the officer approaches your window, you might be shuttled off to an inspection lane.

However, I’ve made many trips to/from Mexico over the generations, through the Tijuana border crossing, and a Border Patrol officer has yet to ask me the obvious question, “Are there any Mexican nationals or Al Queda terrorists in the trunk of your car?”

Fox News has plenty of stock footage of migrants walking or wading (at the Rio Grande) across the un-walled border, demonstrating conclusively to their audience the obvious problem. However, most real experts say that the vast majority of Mexican tresspassers traverse the existing border crossing concealed in cars and trucks. So, the border wall could be solid concrete, 100′ high, and topped with machine gun-wielding SWAT troopers…and still not resolve that particular illegal immigration problem.

A bigger problem regarding undocumented Americans would be the folks who are in America legally courtesy of a visa and then simply over stay their visa when it expires. A “big, beautiful wall”, to use the President’s descriptor, would not deter this illegal behavior.

Many people, including the President’s wife, obtained residency status in America by fraudulently obtaining their visa in the first place. Melania Trump didn’t have to scale a wall; she flew over the border in a jet airplane. But, that’s OK with Donald Trump, because she’s of Nordic ancestry. Same applies to her parents, who later “chain-migrated” to the U.S., something that the President publicly rails about.

(I suppose that it’s OK because (a) they’re not Mexicans, and (b) Donald Trump sponsored them. But, it’s is confusing to those of us who don’t understand the issue like the President does.)

So, anyway, why spend untold billions of dollars building more border walls?

Maybe it would just make some people feel better? Yeah… the hardcore racists who are the core of President Trump’s political base.

I’ve recently relocated from Southern California to Mesquite, Nevada. I live in a rapidly-growing community, where thousands of homes are being built every year. In fact, there are four homes being built in our neighborhood, surrounding our house.

Not that it is unusual in the Western states, but every guy teaming up to construct these homes is Hispanic, from the framers to the roofers to the electricians to the plumbers to the painters to the landscapers, etc. Most of them speak broken English and entertain themselves while working listening to Spanish-language music stations on their boomboxes.

Occasionally, a project manager will show up to check the plans or inspect the work. These guys are invariably Caucasian specimens; i.e. lily White guys who, likely, look alot like the fellows at “corporate”. The developer of our community is Pulte Homes, formerly Del Webb, one of the nation’s largest builders of leisure communities, home-based in Atlanta, Georgia.

The building activity here in Mesquite is much like that in Southern California, with the workforce predominantly made up of Spanish-speaking laborers…all of them legal, I’m sure.

There have been a few news articles lately exposing the fact that many low-level employees at Mar-A-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida resort headquarters, are illegals whose paperwork was fudged by the Trump Organization. Nothing surprising there; the Trump family will do anything to make a buck.

But, they are not unusual, in the least. In the California agricultural economy, almost 100 percent of the laborers are recent Hispanic arrivals with various degrees of documentation. Their employers are almost 100 percent Caucasian owners of agribusinesses, very conservative in nature, and big contributors to the Republican Party. They’re MAGA people.

So, what are we, the American public, supposed to make of all this trumped-up fuss about building impenetrable walls at our border? Do we really need them?

Well, Mick Mulvaney, who was recently promoted by President Trump to be White House Chief of Staff, said this in 2015 about Trump’s wall-as-immigration-policy: it’s “absurd and almost childish”.

Isn’t it funny how things change: this week, Mr. Mulvaney can’t say enough nice things about Trump’s Wall!

The obvious answer is No, we don’t need no F’ing walls, because most people who are in this country illegally didn’t scale a wall or simply walk across the unwalled border. And, besides, American businesses and commerce, in general, needs low paid, hard workers to thrive. President Trump, the hotel entrepreneur, understands this. Our Mexican amigos do the blue collar work our patriotic citizens used to do, they do it cheap, and they’re happy to be working. (That’s why they come North, folks.)

Maybe our red-blooded ‘Merican boys got soft?

The reality about President’s “Wall” preoccupation is that, because most Americans understand that it is not necessary, there is simply not political support for using tax dollars to fund it. Trump knows that, and so did the Republican majority House of Representatives and the Senate, which did not make wall construction a priority in the 2017 and 2018 Federal Budgets.

Candidate Trump knew this back in 2016, when he insisted that Mexico would pay for his wall. That didn’t happen, of course, so now the President is blaming Democrats for torpedoing his grand idea. Actually, Democratic opposition is remarkably similar to that of the Republicans, who wouldn’t make it a priority, either.

The frustrated President, who hasn’t had many successes over the past few years, seems to have decided that he’s either going to bully American into The Wall That Isn’t Needed or he’s going to die trying. In an infantile gesture that has infuriated both political parties, Trump has now shut down portions of the government and rescinded pay raises for Federal workers.

Yesterday, he raised the possibility that he will invoke a National State of Emergency declaration to justify having the Army build his precious border Wall.

The guy has no shame…and no understanding of our country.

How times have changed. We are a country of immigrants, a country that welcomed the Trump family as they immigrated from Germany to America, probably sailing past the Statue of Liberty into New York, to later find fame and fortune. We’re the country whose President (Reagan) implored the Soviet Union to “Tear down those walls!”, and they did, uniting the two Germanys.

Now we got a President who wants to keep people out of our country, who wants his legacy to be a monstrous Wall that is offensive to the very idea of the American “melting pot”, a forward-looking humanitarian concept which, truly, made America great and noble in the eyes of the world.

Now, we’re a laughingstock, with a idiot running the asylum.

God help us.

Finally, the Happy Holidays are over.

It was our first season away from our ex-home in Southern California. (Actually, our house is still there, awaiting escrow to close on January 10th. Fingers are crossed that the deal will actually go through!) We both missed the traditional get-together that we would have with the kids and grandkids who still live in the Inland Empire. But, life moves on…

Son Jeff and wife Carol made the trip out here just before Christmas, so we got a chance to visit and show them the new digs. I also took the kids up to St. George, Utah to show them the area beauty. They were dazzled by the Virgin River Gorge and the red rock amphitheatre at Tuacahn.

Charlie didn’t make the trip up to St. George that day. She had acquired some kind of virus (which lasted for a couple of weeks, unfortunately), and had to slog her way through the holidays…the poor gal. If it not one thing, it’s another, with her.

One of our neighbors, Sandy Gordon, had a Holiday open house, which Charlie missed. Lots of good food and drink. Plus, dogs were invited, so I took Booger as my “date”. She immediately glommed onto a tennis ball, and then spent her time at the party pestering all of the guests to play with her. The other dogs, mostly small ones and “toy” breeds, stood around like idiots, watching a real dog hog the spotlight. Booger made a couple of dozen new human friends at that party, but probably alienated the other dogs, whose only talent was to look cute.

Then, I attended another neighborhood party at the McPhersons on Christmas Eve (again, Charlie was ill!), and enjoyed Italian Wedding Soup, baked Ziti, and specialty cookies…with Wine! Good times and nice folks!

Later, Charlie and I were Christmas caroled by some local folks, and one of our new neighbor friends brought us a gift of home-made Lemon cake.

The next day, Christmas, featured a neighborhood brunch at the Howa’s home at the end of the cul-de-sac that we live on. They have a beautiful home with a spectacular view of the Virgin Mountains. Charlie attended this party and had a nice visit with some of her new Mesquite girlfriends.

A few days later, some old friends from Temecula, Denise and Randy Wood, came by for the afternoon. They were visiting Las Vegas for a couple of days and made the 70-mile drive north to spread some Christmas cheer. I think that they were amazed that there was so much happening at this oasis out in the middle of the desert. Randy drooled at the numerous golf courses in town and the fact (that I mentioned) that there are a dozen more in St. George, just up the Interstate. I think he’d love to live in a place like this, but Denise, who he admits is “high maintenance”, would rather die first. Her idea of “roughing it” is camping out at the Wynn Hotel on the Vegas Strip.

Speaking of dying, I did a So Cal “turnaround” on December 28th, putting in about 14 hours behind the wheel. I left Mesquite at 2 a.m., got to Murrieta at 8 a.m., and dropped off some office equipment (for daughter-in-law Shanon),furniture (for granddaughter Jessica), and a piece of art for a friend. Then, I picked up the RV, which had been in the shop for 7 weeks, and drove it over to our home in Bear Creek. Whereupon, I loaded a bunch of potted plants into the RV and my Jeep, hopped into the RV, and headed back to Mesquite, with the Jeep in tow, leaving town at 11:40 a.m.

Sunofabitch…I hit the “Las Vegas New Year’s Eve crowd” on I-15 before I even got out of the L.A. basin! What a mess that was, bumper-to-bumper 100 miles out to Barstow. Exhausted and frustrated, I stopped off at Peggy Sue’s for a well-deserved Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs meal (the World’s Best, in my opinion), and then slogged another six hours north, getting home at 8 p.m. What a crummy ride!

I was dogged tired, having driven about 800 miles in one day, and went to bed immediately, hardly giving Charlie a kiss. And, slept like a log.

Remind me not to do that again.

However, Charlie is happy that I brought her beloved succulents from So Cal to Mesquite. We will probably use them to populate our entryway garden once it warms up a bit.

I say that because a very cold snap hit our community around December 31st, and has now lasted several days. We’ve had overnight lows of 24 for a couple of days, and daytime highs of the low-40’s. That’s pretty cold for this area, easily the lowest since we’ve been here. The succulents have been moved into our insulated storage room, which is an enclosed portion of our garage. I’m hoping that the frigid temperatures will abate within the week.

Speaking of the cold, I was supposed to go on a trek to the local mountains with the hiking club on New Year’s Day, but I begged off…the morning temp up there at Gunlock (the hike site) was 18 degrees and windy. No thanks; if I wanted to be that cold, I’d just cuddle up in my freezer in the garage!

On that very day, January 1st, I saw some Senior Citizen golfing at our local course, Connestoga, just down the street. The mid-day temperature was 43 degrees supplemented with a 20- to 25-mph breeze. How those morons (who are probably transplants from Minnesota) can even hold golf clubs in their frozen fingers is a mystery to me. Golf is supposed to be a game, not an endurance sport. If you’ve got to wear a parka, ear muffs, and down-filled gloves to golf…well, that’s not golf, it’s hockey!

Remind me never to golf when there’s ice on the course.

Our son Jonathan, who is coming to visit us tomorrow, is a big golfer. He just recently relocated from Whitefish, Montana (now THAT’S COLD!) to Lexington, Kentucky. He kept himself in shape while in Montana, during the winter, shoveling snow off of his driveway so that his wife to get to work. Not so cool. But, at least he had the smarts to take a rest from golf when the snow started to fall (in October!) and to, eventually, get his ass out of that Montana icebox after a dozen years. He’s now sipping Mint Juleps in Kentucky while it’s 20- or 30- below zero in Whitefish. Good for him.

I think my friends, the Quinns, can relate to this, as they winter in Yuma, Arizona. I’m sure they miss ice fishing, but…

Warm is a good thing.