Month: March 2023

Our son Jeff and wife Carol, the full-time RV “boondockers”, have been visiting us for a few weeks now, biding their time before they trek up I-15 on their way to Montana.

Normally, by this time of the year, the temperatures here in Mesquite would be something like 75 to 80  degrees high and maybe going down to around 50 degrees by dawn. Instead, we are a week into Spring with highs averaging about 65 and overnight lows still dipping into the upper 30’s. The ten-day projection calls for temps on April 7^th to include a high of 59 and a low of 38.

Last year, on April 7^th, the high temp was between 85 and 90 degrees and the overnight low was around 60 degrees. In fact, April high temps are typically in the 80 to 90 degree range. So, 2023 is a very unusual year, indeed. We’ve also received about 9 inches of rain thus far, which is about three times as much as we got in each of the past three years.

The desert plants are loving the unusual drenching that they’ve received this year. My two buddies Lloyd and Mac and I did a hike on Monday up in the Beaver Dam Mountains (in the southernmost part of Utah). Part of the hike took us through a very lush Joshua Tree forest. Many of the plants had big white blooms that we haven’t seen in four years due to the drought. There were many “free range” cattle out there, shamelessly munching on the Joshua Tree blooms.

Jeff and Carol were hoping to head up to Panguich, Utah next week. However, the ten-day forecast for Panguich calls for a high temp of 35 degrees and a low of 17 degrees on April 7^th. So, I doubt that they’ll be leaving us in the near future.

We don’t mind at all, since we have a guest suite and Jeff and Carol help out by cooking great meals for us. They also play table games with us each day: our favorites are “Farkle” and “Sequence” and the card game known as “Spite and Malice”.

Jeff and Carol’s dog “Chongo” has been enjoying life here in Mesquite. He is an 80-lb Staffordshire Terrier with a very mellow disposition. Chongo is probably about ten years old and moves around quite gingerly, but he seems to enjoy our three Boston Terriers running all around him, playing fetch and tug-of-war, and trying to engage him in dog play. The four of them really get along great and even nap together on our huge sofa. Chongo’s presence relegates Baby to a Number Two status, but she doesn’t seem to mind. Little Vinnie seems challenged by another male in the house, and he and Chongo take turns over-peeing each other’s urine on our bushes and cacti. It is funny to watch them watch each other doing this.

On Sunday, Jeff, my friend Lloyd, and I had a “skins” game on the H.O.A. 18-hole putting course. We played two rounds, with Lloyd edging me out for the win. On one of the holes, there was a Road Runner with a small lizard in his mouth. We watched him entice another Road Runner over to him with that treat, whereupon he climbed about the gal and proceeded to do the nasty. This went on for about five minutes, when he hopped off his girlfriend and didn’t share the lizard with her. What a scuzzbag!

(Yesterday, the three of us had a repeat 36-hole match. Lloyd tanked with 5 skins, Jeff won 10, and I stomped them with 21 skins. HeeHee.)

Jeff, Carol, Baby, and I went for a hike in the local hills the other day. We headed out toward the mesa that borders Mesquite on the west, to a trail that was built by a retired guy named “Bill”. This guy has taken it upon himself to reorganize tons of rocks into trails, artistic creations, and rock  structures out in B.L.M. land. I cannot imagine the effort it took for this 80-year-old guy to do this over a period of a few years: Bill is superhuman!

We also stopped at another 80-year-old guy’s sculpture creation adjacent to a local thoroughfare. It is an uncompleted miniature of the Statue of Liberty, carved into mudstone and sandstone. It’s very cool.

Last week, we all went up to St. George for Charlie’s nail salon visit and some shopping at Costco. I bought a new dog bed for our pups and gave the old one to Chongo, who likes to nap on it.

Today (Friday), our granddaughter Jessica, her boyfriend Abe, his two young kids, and our grandson Craig were supposed to arrive for a mini-reunion with Charlie, Jeff, Carol, and I, followed by grandson Joshua and girlfriend Andie on Saturday.

That didn’t happen.

On Thursday, Jessica, Craig, and Joahua’s mom Shanon developed life-threatening blood clots following a fairly routine orthoscopic debridement of a knee.

Shanon went to a local hospital and was diagnosed. She will require a highly specialized operation to clear her lungs of the clots… which they don’t perform at that hospital. Charlie got on the phone with one of her bookkeeping clients, Dr. Robert Steele, who is Chief of Staff at Temecula Valley Hospital, where they do perform this procedure. Dr. Stelle greased the skids to get Shanon a bed in I.C.U. and arranged for the regional specialist in this surgery to take on Shanon’s case.

Shanon is in the cath lab at Temecula Valley Hospital as I write this blog, getting prepped for her surgery. We are all hoping that the procedure is successful and that Shanon can put this ordeal behind her.

This is just one more example of the amazing reputation of my wife back in the Temecula/Murrieta Valley area where we used to live. Charlie was a mover and shaker in the community, which now contains about 250, 000 people. In addition to her bookkeeping and tax business, she was President of two organizations, the Assistance League of Temecula Valley and the LeTip business networking group. Lots of important people in that Valley know her, including the long-time Mayor of Temecula, who Charlie trained to later become President of the ALTV. One call from Charlie and Dr. Steele, who was vacationing in Mexico, jumped into action and made things happen.

My wonderful wife still has some pull in Southern California, some 400 miles from here!

Carol and Jeff and Chongo left Mesquite today for Cedar Pocket in the Virgin River Gorge area of southern Utah. They are going to camp there for a few days and see if the weather improves enough to justify heading north toward Salt Lake.

It’s hard to believe that, at the very end of March, our normal 80 degree days are still wishful thinking here in southern Nevada.

Who’d have thought?

Today, I saw a photo on an Internet news site which showed former President Donald Trump being taken into custody by a S.W.A.T. team in New York pursuant to charges filed by the local District Attorney.

This was very interesting “breaking news”, particularly since the Manhattan D.A. has yet to file any charges against Trump (regarding hush money payoff to an ex-porn star). The photo is a “deep fake”, i.e. a digitally-altered photo, put out into cyberspace by some goofball or political nutjob.

Or, more likely, Trump himself in an effort to rile up his followers.

The problem is that fake shit like this floods the Internet, influencing the beliefs and behaviors of millions of people who are too dumb or lazy to look a bit deeper into the story. A photo like this is red meat to Trump-cult followers who want to believe that their hero is being mistreated by the criminal justice system… similar to that mob that attacked the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, after being led to believe (by their President) that he’d been robbed of re-election. He hadn’t, but they wanted to believe his version of events.

“Alternative facts” are what former White House spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway called the disinformation (i.e. lies) that President Trump would put out to counteract bad news (i.e. truth). I think it was Adolph Hitler who coined the phrase “The Big Lie”, connoting a colossal falsehood that, when repeated over and over, eventually becomes accepted as truth… by those who really want to believe such crap. Anti-semitism is one good example.

Donald Trump may be the biggest liar that has ever served in the White House, eclipsing even ex-Vice President Dick Cheney, who foisted on America and the world the canard that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction”.

Charlie and I have recently been watching a TV series called “Under the Banner of Heaven”. It is a docudrama about some grisly murders which took place in Utah, perpetrated by some wacko fundamentalist Mormons against fellow Mormons. An interesting component of the story is the history of the Mormon religion and the disparate beliefs of different Mormon factions.

Like all of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Mormonism puts men in an exalted position as the spiritual leader of the family unit. They make all decisions (because they are God’s representative in the household), while the wife and children are expected to toe the line in the home and outside of it. Taking family business and disagreements outside the home is verboten, as is any criticism of the Mormon religion or the head of the household.

There is a hierarchy of religious officials in every community which are tasked with keeping the flock in order, perpetuating the Mormon religion myth, and covering up misdoings by the clergy and the faithful. This is not dissimilar to the organized cover-up by the Catholic Church of rampant child molestation by priests.

In the docudrama that we are watching, a small group of disaffected Mormons, who’ve adopted a “sovereign state” attitude toward local and federal governments, decide that the rest of the Mormon population in Utah is practicing the religion incorrectly and decide to impose a stricter version which… of course, permits polygamy. The latter was publicly and formally disavowed by the Mormon Church long ago as a condition of statehood for Utah.

In the docudrama, the group of fanatics decide that they are going to conduct a scorched earth campaign on behalf of “Heavenly Father” to right the ship… killing those who get in the way… again, on behalf of God. They begin the campaign by killing and mutilating a young Mormon wife and her infant daughter… because the wife questioned their extreme views.

That, of course, begs the question, “Why does God need these men’s help?” Isn’t it God’s duty to judge people?

A divinity that can create our world and everything in it, part the Red Sea, inflict a plague on the Egyptians, turn wine into water, flood the entire planet because he was pissed at mankind’s behavior, and resurrect a dead man… could surely handle His own business without human assistance. If God is annoyed with any human being who fails to respect Him, the Boss doesn’t need a posse of bearded guys with AK-47s to punish sinners.

If God needs the help of humans, he’s probably not a real god, right?

This kind of religious vigilantism has been going on for millenia with no sign of abating. The Crusades, the Holocaust, the 9-11 Twin Towers attack, etc., are but a few examples of true believers doing horrible things “under the banner of Heaven”.

The idea of God, and the many religions purporting to “speak” for the deity, was invented by man. All of the stories in the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon arose from the imagination of men who wanted attention, prestige, and power. Incredible stories and “truths” were supposedly revealed to these special folks by God to be passed along to the unwashed masses.

Well, it doesn’t take much digging to unearth the fable of religion.

Even religious scholars admit that most of the Old Testament is composed of myths and campfire tales, no one knows who wrote the New Testament, and the various heroes of the Bible stories, and their spectacular achievements, were unknown to people who actually lived at that time in that part of the world. There is scholarly debate over the issue of Jesus being an actual person or just a made-up character devised to sell the “Christianity” product. No evidence remains in any form other than the New Testament stories, which are not backed up by historians of that day in age. “Apostle Paul”, the creator of Christianity as we know it, admittedly never met Jesus. As a matter of fact, Paul is totally unknown to history except in the Bible stories that he allegedly wrote.

All of the stuff that we would normally call “evidence” in solving a mystery is conveniently lost. This pattern repeats itself with every religion. Just like the Ark of the Covenant, Jesus’ Last Supper goblet, and the golden tablets given by the angel Moroni to Joseph Smith, the critical physical evidence has mysteriously disappeared. The Shroud of Turin, supposedly the linen used to wrap the body of Jesus after his crucifixion, was identified back in the Middle Ages by a Catholic bishop as a clever fake, a truth that was verified in the 20^th century by carbon dating.

“You have to take our word for it”, say the rabbis, priests, pastors, imams, and televangelists as they tell you that every word in the Holy Scriptures is 100 percent accurate, tell you how to live your lives and tell you how much money God needs you to send them.

Why is it that we human beings set such a low factual bar for religious belief?

Some guy says that he’s spoken to God and we say, “What did He say?” On any other subject, we would want to know the Five W’s (who, what, where, when and why), what are the credentials of the guy making the outrageous claims, and demand to see the physical proof.

If some nutcase says that he talked to aliens, most people call “Bullshit!”. But, when a “man of the cloth” says that God revealed something to him, the faithful lap it up. Why?

The normal standards of proof don’t apply to religion.

As a matter of fact, probing questions about prophets or dogma are discouraged, at the least. “This is the way it is; learn it, practice it, and defend it.” Non-believers are shunned in some circles, tortured and killed in some societies.

I am happy to live in a society where we can question beliefs and preposterous “truths”. Had I grown up in the Dark Ages in Europe, I probably would have been burned at the stake by zealous Catholics for asking embarrassing questions.

No doubt that I would be a bad Mormon, too. The wackadoodle story of the teenager Joseph Smith and his discussions with the Angel Moroni is a bit hard to believe, particularly since the God-given Golden Plates are nowhere to be found. It is inconceivable that such important evidence would have been “lost” or, supposedly, returned to God’s emissary, as the story goes.

Really?

It would seem to me that if God seriously wanted to get human beings to understand and obey Him, He would broadcast His message to everyone, rather than entrust the job to a 17-year-old, pimply-faced kid from upstate New York. Also, one would think that the All-knowing and All-powerful divine being would have kept that Illinois mob from killing His emissary on Earth, the Reverend Smith. I’m thinking that a few-well placed thunderbolts would surely have discouraged the Christian zealots from riddling the Good Reverend with bullets.

But then, who am I to question God’s Plan?

That is typically the end of debate on any theological subject… the invocation of God’s wisdom by some peddler of religious hocus pocus who claims to speak to God on a regular basis.

That is the great thing about religion and politics… facts and truth are not required: you just make up shit to serve your purpose.

“Faith: not wanting to know what is true” (Frederich Nietzsche)

The Winter of 2022-23 has been the coldest and wettest one that we’ve seen in our almost five years here in the Mojave desert.

Typically, December and January are our coldest months, with overnight lows in the high 20’s and daytime highs in the 50’s and 60’s. Normally, these temperatures rise by ten degrees in February and March, and by April we are seeing highs in the 70’s and occasional 80’s.

We are in the third week of March right now (Spring officially starts today), and it is rainy and cold. This has been an above-normal rain year, which is much needed since the Southwest has been in a drought state for the past decade or so. I do a lot of hiking in the desert and mountains around Mesquite, and I’ve seen very little wildlife in the past several years. The vegetation has been parched and struggling to survive, even the Joshua trees. Lizards and horned toads are in hiding.

Not the case this year.

Twelve so-called “atmospheric rivers” coming out of the mid-Pacific Ocean have pounded the West coast since December, soaking the cities, piling up snow in the mountains, and filling up reservoirs. Another one is due this week.

Our little desert town of Mesquite, Nevada is roughly 400 miles northeast of Southern California. We are somewhat in the “rain shadow” of the Sierra Nevada mountains (of California) and, typically, those very high mountains wring most of the moisture out of the storms that come in off of the Pacific so that we only receive a fraction of the rainfall that hits California. However, this year there has been plenty of rain for us and we are eternally grateful.

Southern California is a basin surrounded on the north and east by high mountains (San Gabriel Mtns, San Bernardino Mtn, and the San Jacinto Mtns), all of which have peaks up to 10,000 feet. Normally, snow falls there in the Winter in very modest amounts, allowing for a number of ski resorts to operate with maybe five feet of snow dept in a good year. Southern California rainfall this year has been at least twice that of normal years, resulting in lowland flooding and almost-historic depths of snowfall in the San Bernardino mountain resort community of Big Bear. Roads were impassible, home roofs collapsed, and ski resorts had to close due to excessive snow. What a mess!

I used to ski often at the Mammoth Mountain resort in the central Sierra Nevada mountains. I experienced some pretty heavy snowpack up there (i.e. ten feet of packed powder) in snowy Winters. However, this year has seen the heaviest snowfall on record, with something like 780 inches falling on the resort.

The scenes on the news from Mammoth have been incredible, with chairlifts inoperable due to 20′ to 30′ drifts. I feel bad for the operators of Mammoth, as there is, incredibly, too much snow in the Sierras for skiers to: a) get up I-15/Hwy 395 from Southern California; and, b) to ski once they get there.

On the other hand, that pile of snow will be there all the way through Spring, enabling skiers to enjoy the mountain until July 4^th.

More importantly, all of that Sierra Nevada snow will eventually melt and the runoff will fill up California’s drought-stricken reservoirs and replenish, to some degree, the groundwater aquifers . This is incredibly important, as California is, by far, the Nation’s preeminent agricultural State and needs lots of water to grow all of those crops.

There has actually been so much rain this year that agricultural areas in Monterey and San Joaquin counties have flooded. Ancient Lake Tulare, a dry lake in the southern San Joaquin Valley, is now filling up from floodwaters released from local dams. This should help replenish, to some extent, local groundwater aquifers that have been stressed in recent years.

There has been significant erosive damage/landslides along the California coast, causing homes to slide into the ocean and major highways to be blocked.

At the end of our 2022 RV road trip, we drove by Shasta Lake on the way home from Oregon. It appeared to be about 25 percent full, causing lake recreation and houseboat businesses to essentially shut down. Thankfully, this year’s torrential pounding from those Pacific storms has caused the Shasta Lake level to rise about 100 feet thus far… and the Spring snowmelt has yet to lend a hand.

Just what the doctor ordered!

Closer to home, Lake Mead is rising, as well. It, along with Lake Powell, are the two main reservoirs of Colorado River runoff from the Rocky Mountains. This water is essential for agriculture and the urban areas of the Southwest. Our good friend “Jason”, who lives in Denver, has told us that it’s been a very good snow year in the Rockies, which promises some much-needed Spring runoff that those huge reservoirs are so desperate for.

The mega-drought that has plagued the Southwest isn’t over, but this year’s generous helping of rain should stave off disaster for a few more years.

Hopefully, the land developers and water district officials won’t overreact to one year of plentiful rain to justify more city-building and less water conservation. The groundwater aquifers that have saved our bacon in recent years have been “mined” extensively; one year of plentiful rain doesn’t change the fact that we’re in a long-term drought situation, and conservation measures are still justified if this arid region is to survive.

We can hardly wait for Spring to actually manifest itself: I want to use my patio and barbeque!

C’mon, Mother Nature, you’ve had your fun, now let us be.

My best friend Lloyd’s longtime girlfriend “Juanita” flew back to South Africa this week, as her 6-month visa has expired.

Lloyd and Juanita have been romantically “together” for about a dozen years, although they have been physically separated for most of that time. Juanita lives in Johannesburg, South Africa and travels abroad (on Lloyd’s money) to see him in the U.S. and her daughter and grandbabies in Australia. Last year, Lloyd and Juanita gave living in the Yucatan (Mexico) a go, but the hot and humid climate was unacceptable to Juanita.

So, Lloyd is going to relocate to “Jo-burg” in June, while we are traveling in our motorhome. Supposedly, this is a permanent move, so I will probably not be seeing either Lloyd or Juanita again… unless I fly to Africa. This is a bummer for Charlie and I, because we love Lloyd (and Juanita, too). However, Lloyd is due some happy years with his squeeze, and it is apparent that Juanita loves Lloyd. So, we wish them the best.

Lloyd has been my hiking buddy for the past four-plus years and Juanita has been hiking with us (along with my neighbor Mac) for the past six months. The bunch of us have hiked just about everything there is to hike within a hundred-mile radius. Lloyd has a Toyota 4 Runner 4×4 that gets us into hard-to-reach mountains, canyons and parts of the desert. Juanita is a good hiker and can handle everything that we tackle… primarily because she is fifteen years younger than we are.

When we’re out on a hike, we generally do 5 to 10 miles. As we’re walking along, we talk about everything from soup to nuts. Often, we’re stretched out along the trail in two groups, and I might talk with Mac for a mile or two, then Lloyd for a few miles, and then Juanita for a bit. We all love the outdoors, and the geography and geology of this region of the Southwest is quite interesting. So, we’re constantly checking out rocks, geologic features, desert vegetation, evidence of ancient inhabitants (like the Paiute Indians, who lived in this area), and the pioneers who traveled through this area via the Old Spanish Trail.

We’ve done so much exploring around this area that we take it for granted. However, it is a very unusual region called the “Triple Junction” where three distinct geographic/geologic provinces intersect: the Mohave Desert; the Colorado Plateau; and Basin & Range.

On our weekly hikes, we’ve encountered petrified sand dunes, Native American petroglyphs, Anasazi animal corrals, slot canyons, Bighorn sheep, Joshua Trees, crystalized minerals, a herd of 100 deer, evidence of the pioneers who passed by in wagon trains, native barrel cacti, “free-range” cattle, Desert Tortoises, ankle-deep snow, spectacular vistas, and an occasional snake.

I have yet to stumble onto a Rattlesnake (they’re out here), but we did observe a Grey Wolf on a hike in the Beaver Dam Mountains. One of our favorite lunch locations is a place down near Lake Mead where a natural spring comes out of a rocky cliff, putting out 400 gallons per minute, and is a precious watering resource for wild burros who reside in the desert. On one hike, Lloyd discovered a prehistoric camel footprint (imbedded in a limestone rock), which he later had verified by someone at the University of Nevada.

I’m going to miss my hiking buddies, Juanita and Lloyd. She is a wonderful, classy gal and Lloyd is a character, full of conspiracy theories, America-is-going-to-Hell anecdotes, and hilarious/filthy jokes.

What a pair!

Technology is killing us here in Mesquite.

For the second time in five months, Charlie’s office computer has gone south on us. It is a brand-new laptop (Samsung Galaxy), a very high-tech piece of machinery, and it replaced the Dell desktop computer that fell victim to a power surge. The latest catastrophe was caused by a Windows 11 operating system update (H22).

One would think that, before Microsoft releases an OS system update, it would be vetted by thousands of computer nerds whose job it is to make sure that (a la the Hippocratic Oath) it would “do no harm”. From a business owner’s standpoint (like Charlie, who runs a bookkeeping and tax service from her computer), an “improvement” that has the potential to WIPE OUT HER BUSINESS should be a non-starter.

Getting ahold of Microsoft personnel via phone or chat to rectify a Microsoft-created problem is difficult, to say the least. Hours are involved and, often, the service from the other end of the phone is hit-or-miss. Often, the consumer ends up talking/chatting to a tech who has a very strong accent, so it’s hard to follow him or her, and sometimes the tech doesn’t understand your problem or is incapable of helping you. And, nowadays one never knows if the guy on the other end of the phone is really a Microsoft tech or an Pakistani imposter whose goal is to steal your financial information (which nearly happened to us several months ago).

Thank you, globalization!

In the most recent case, the Microsoft techie’s advice was to re-install Windows, which he attempted to do remotely. It didn’t work, as the re-install froze the computer at a certain point. We were well and truly screwed at that point, so I had to drive up to St. George, Utah and throw myself on the mercy of the Best Buy Geek Squad. Luckily, a tech named “Kobe” was able to get the laptop working. However, he informed me that the OS system wipe/re-install had erased all of Charlie’s business software and device drivers.

Those would have to be replaced by us.

So, Charlie had to spend an afternoon on the phone with Intuit and spend another several hours with our So Cal tech guru, Chris Bradshaw, trying to get the computer back to the condition it was in several days ago. And, then, will have to call our printer guy, Chris Doubleday, to get that device communicating properly with the laptop.

All of this will take time and money.

One would think that Microsoft would be liable for the costs and trouble that it put on Charlie with a defective OS update. However, my Geek Squad tech “Kobe” told me that, no, they are not liable because the consumer essentially waives his rights to redress when he opts to use Windows. Recall all of those “disclaimers” and legalese that one skims though and accepts when using the Windows system?

Typically, the buyer quickly scrolls to the bottom of the legalese and clicks on “Accept”.

“Kobe” told me that he had fixed over 100 computers in the past month that had been laid low by the H22 system upgrade. Those computers included a variety of manufacturers, models, and ages. He explained that, when Microsoft designs an OS update, it tries to put together a patch that will work on computers that vary considerably in sophistication. Charlie’s new computer is more technically advanced that most that are out in the world and in use. Glitches are going to happen, he said, when upgrades have to make sure they can work on the lowest common denominator (maybe a 20-year-old desktop) and the newest tablets right off of the Best Buy shelf. It is a daunting task, for sure.

Luckily for Charlie, her bookkeeping company data and tax files are saved. For the past several decades, she has utilized a triple data file back-up system: an external hard disk; Carbonite online backup; and Microsoft “cloud” storage. In addition, her son Jonathan, who does most of the bookkeeping grunt work, keeps the company files on his computer. So, once Charlie gets her business software re-installed, she should be back in business.

However, the exasperation and stress involved in an OS upgrade fuck-up like this do take a toll on the both of us.

I believe that this is the last year that Charlie is going to do taxes. The proprietary software costs a lot, Charlie’s client list is reduced from former times, and she’s getting older. The extra money that she earns is nice but we don’t need it to survive.

And, it’s not worth the grief dealing with cranky clients and the bozos at Microsoft.

Anyone who says that they can accurately predict where the U.S. economy will be in twelve months is no better a sage than Nostradamus.

Nonetheless, some heavyweight financiers and bankers have lately been throwing out some un-rosy projections that should scare the bejeezus out of all Americans. According to these experts, a housing crash, a stock market meltdown, a banking system failure, and/or a depression are possible or even probable within a year.

I watch YouTube a lot, particularly the pieces about cost of goods, consumer credit, housing starts, foreclosures, bank repos, the Fed’s war on inflation, and investment metrics. I also “read” the news a lot, courtesy of apps like the Associated Press, CNN, Washington Post, along with news aggregators like Yahoo and Google , which present top news stories from dozens of national and international news organizations. There’s a lot of information out there every day to be consumed and analyzed.

At the current time, most of the economic news is bad… except the jobs reports, which are put out by the Federal government, whose goal is to promote optimism about the U.S. economy. So, even though the “official” labor stats indicate that unemployment is low, that may be true or it may not be. There may be plentiful jobs, but they may be low paying ones that workers are having to settle for.

Typically, when an economy is heading toward recession, investors move from stocks into bonds. There is big uncertainty right now about when and how the country will enter a significant recession. The Fed is committed to increasing the Fed funds rate (the percentage rate that banks can borrow money) to drive down inflation (by making it more expensive for consumers to borrow). Investors can see the handwriting on the wall.

There is now an inverted yield curve, where interest rates on long term bonds (10-year)  are higher than short-term (2-year). This dynamic has preceded each of the last eight U.S. recessions.

Other significant indicators:

Delinquent consumer loans have doubled in the past year, the highest amount since the 2008 Great Recession

20.5 million households are behind on their utility bills

Credit card debt is at an all-time high

A record number of people are paying $1,000/month on auto loans, some of which are 10-year loans

The bottom 20 percent of households have exhausted their savings

The S&P 500 index (a bellweather for Americans’ 401K accounts) is projected to decline at least 9 percent in 2023, following a 19 percent drop in 2022

The percentage of company CEO’s readying for America to experience a recession is 93 percent

Wall Street has been fighting the indicators for more than a year now, to no avail. The “free money” stimulus splurge Is over, as is the longest climb in Dow Jones Index history (almost 14 years), which began in the Obama Administration. Typically, the stock market re-adjusts every 8 years, so we were long overdue.

Banks are up to their ears in dicey commercial real estate and auto loans. Some are going to fail.

Housing developers are having trouble selling new homes and the biggest .homebuilders are cutting way back on “starts”

The folks who put a lot of their excess money into cryptocurrency are taking a savage beating.

It looks to me like this particular recession is going to get “real” by the end of 2023, so political candidates in 2024 will have plenty to bitch about. Whether any of them have anything useful and realistic to propose is another matter. Probably just blame-throwing, like always. Sitting Presidents always get blamed for recessions and Wall Street collapses, even though the causes are usually bad decisions in previous administrations.

Economists knew several years ago that those stimulus programs (under Trump and Biden) were necessary to soften the impact of Covid-19 on the economy but would provide jet fuel to inflationary pressures. The pandemic, coupled with the impacts of the Ukraine war, have really thrown all of the world economies for a loop. China’s problems are probably worse than ours.

The vultures have finally come home to roost; it’s time for some serious belt-tightening.

We’re just a few months into calendar year 2023 and, already, the drumbeats are sounding for the upcoming 2024 Presidential election… nineteen months down the road!

I can’t remember when our Nation got to this point, that it’s citizens would be immersed in politics 24/7/365. Already, at least three Republicans have announced their intention to seek the G.O.P. nomination, and there appear to be several others waiting in the wings to toss their hats into the ring. As far as I know, zero Democrats have formally announced, although President Biden seems to be indicating that he’ll run again if Donald Trump is the Republican candidate.

I don’t blame him, as he kicked Trump’s ass in 2020, and that was before the ex-President exhorted his M.A.G.A. cult crazies to assault the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, causing significant damage and the loss of two lives. Trump has now lost two popular votes for President, by three million votes in 2016 and seven million votes in 2020. And, ironically, those were years when Trump’s political stock was high.

The Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) is meeting this week, and it seems as if the leaders are trying to co-opt the 2024 nomination process by ignoring the growing anti-Trump murmuring within the G.O.P. and, instead, giving lots of podium time to crackpots, conspiracy theorists, Q-Anons, whackadoodles, anarchists, racists, and Christian born-again demogogues. This is the same “base” of support within the Republican Party that has embraced election denying, vote suppression schemes against Black Americans, the “woke” outrage, and hate campaigns against Jews, Chinese, Mexicans, Muslims, and anyone else who isn’t White and Christian.

It’s virtually the same formula that handed the Presidential election to Joe Biden in 2020.

There’s a big difference, though, between 2020 and now. A lot of the people who voted Republican in 2020 will not do so in 2024, at least in the Presidential contest. Trump is radioactive right now, thanks to his piss poor record as President, his lack of leadership, the cult of personality that he created, his incessant lying, the multitude of lawsuits that he now faces, and the responsibility that he bears for the Capitol Riot insurrection.

If Trump becomes the G.O.P. nominee for 2024, I predict that millions of long-time Republican voters will sit out the election, and virtually every Democrat and a large portion of Independents will vote for the Democratic nominees, no matter who he or she is.

I would suspect that Trump would lose the 2024 Presidential popular vote by 15 to 20 million votes.

Political realists in the Republican Party know this, but relatively few of them have had the courage to publicly mention it, knowing that there will be backlash from Trump and punishment for their “disloyalty”. If the 2022 midterms are any indication, Trump would finance their opponents in the G.O.P. state primaries… ending their careers. Ex-Senator Liz Cheney of Wyoming is the most obvious example of M.A.G.A. wrath.

There is no way that Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida or ex-Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley will be the Republican nominee for President in 2024 unless Donald Trump drops out of the contest and endorses one of them. That also goes for ex-Secretary of State/windbag Mike Pompeo, who seems to be doing a lot of posturing lately.

The G.O.P., which now controls the House of Representatives, has embarked on a scorched earth campaign to discredit Joe Biden and everything Democratic in our Nation. Lots of hearings, lots of conspiracy theories and rants by wacko politicians, and crazy proposals from Southern/Bible Belt Congressmen. They are doing their part to further identify the Republican Party as a crew of nut jobs who are not in touch with most Americans, opting instead to pander to the Trump cult base.

This political theater is going to cost the G.O.P. votes when all Americans must decide who’s gong to run the show in 2024. Most voters in the United States don’t share the same hard-line Conservative values that many citizens do in the current Red states. They favor fewer guns, access to abortion services, no intrusion into government by religion, reasonable steps to deal with climate change, and unity over anarchy. They also respect Dr. Fauci and don’t give a crap about Joe Biden’s children’s business and financial activities over the past twenty years.

Some Red and Red-leaning states will become Blue in 2024 because of this.

Like I’ve said before, this upcoming Presidential election is ripe for a “third party” candidacy, although the hurdles that such an effort would encounter would be formidable.

Interestingly, Fox News, which is looking very bad because of the Dominion Voting Systems scandal, appears to be in Donald Trump’s doghouse right now. Both he and some of his big-time supporters have begun to bad mouth Fox and it’s owner Rupert Murdoch, as they are now perceived as “disloyal” to Trump’s political base. The network has earned that moniker because they don’t continue to push the bogus “stolen election” fable anymore… because they are being sued.

It is an absolute fact that Donald Trump could not have been elected in 2016 without the support of Fox News (and the Russians, to a lesser extent). And he would not have done as well in the 2020 campaign without the major Fox on-air personalities honking for him every evening on TV. Basically, Fox’s Sean Hannity was Trump’s de facto Chief of Staff in 2020, talking with him daily to develop disinformation campaigns on Covid, BLM protests, the integrity of the electoral system, the “invasion” of America by Latin Americans, and so forth.

Trump now favors (as his partner in crime) Newsmax over Fox because its coverage is more fawning toward him. However, Fox’s viewership ratings are four times that of Newsmax, while the latter is only pulling 316,000 around the clock. It is probably safe to say that those viewers are politically extremely right-wing… and they are going to vote for Trump anyway.

It’s just another sign that the M.A.G.A. world is shrinking.

Someone should tell the CPAC before it totally throws in the towel by supporting Donald Trump and destroying what’s left of the Party of Lincoln.

Las Vegas, our nearest metropolitan area here in Nevada, sure has changed over the years.

I first visited Sin City back in the 1950’s with my parents and brother Terry. We lived in Southern California at the time, so the trip was at least 350 miles long. There was no Interstate 15 at the time. Instead, there was a two-lane highway with minimal amenities, steep grades, and few gas stations. Most passenger cars back then (especially the cheap station wagon that we had!) didn’t have air conditioning and it was common to utilize a burlap-covered water bag hung over the radiator to cool it down somewhat. Engine overheating was a BIG problem and we passed lots of broken down cars along the route, particularly on the long, steep Baker grade out in the middle of the desert.

Back in those days, there was a tiny gas station at Stateline (now called Primm) that I think had one pump and a one-armed-bandit inside, at the site of the current Whiskey Pete’s Casino and Hotel. Between Stateline and Las Vegas was all desert: no town of Jean, no state prison, no Nevada Landing, no Terrible Herbst mega-gas station, no nada. Just a tw0-lane highway to share with 18-wheelers.

That first time, we stayed at an “off Strip” motel in Las Vegas that had a swimming pool, which made Terry and I quite happy. My parents made the trip to do a little gambling and also see a Shecky Greene comedy show at one of the several casino hotels on the Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard). There weren’t that many back then: the Flamingo, the Sands, the Oasis, the Dunes, the Sahara, the Aladdin, and a few others, as I recall.

The downtown gaming area, along Fremont Street, was alive and thriving. My Dad took us to the El Cortez Hotel for dinner one night: they had the famous “50-cent Shrimp Cocktail” appetizer and a Prime Rib dinner that cost less than $7.00. Back then, they practically gave away food at the casino/hotels, trying to entice folks in there so their pockets could be picked by the “one-arm-bandits”. A number of hotels featured the “99-cent Breakfast”, which consisted of steak and eggs, hashbrowns, a small sirloin steak, and toast.

My parents, who were on a strict budget, took advantage of the cheap food.

I think the Mafia was pretty much running things in Vegas back then and making money was serious, adult business. Kids weren’t welcome and the laws/rules that the casinos operated under forbid minors from entering casinos. Eating at the El Cortez, for example, required our party of four to keep on a carpet, bordered by stanchions, from the front door all the way back to the restaurant. Along that gauntlet were lots of slot machines just outside the stanchions, so that restaurant customers could step over and drop a few bucks in the slot machines while they waited. Thus, a $7 Prime Rib dinner often turned into a $10 or $15 meal.

Probably because organized crime secretly controlled things, and they wanted everything to look classy and aboveboard, it was a much more formal town back then. Evening shows back then featured well-known performers like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Dean Martin, and variety acts that folks might see watching the Ed Sullivan Show on TV. Visitors got dressed up to go to the shows and to the casinos. No tank tops, hip hop clothes, sweatpants, jogging outfits, jeans, bathing suits, and bared boobs and butt cracks like we see today on The Strip. Prostitutes were doing a fine business in town, but there were not the proliferation of “out call” services flyers littering the Strip sidewalks like we see today.

The “Outfit” may have been skimming a lot of dough from the casino operations but, aside from that, the hotels and gaming areas had a respectable sheen, unlike today, when you might feel a bit slimy after blowing some of your hard-earned.

I’ve visited Las Vegas dozens of times since the Fifties, and every time I’ve rolled into town… it looks different. They are always tearing down stuff, building more stuff, and enlarging the roadways to make it easier for Southern Californians to bring all that cash into town.

Charlie and I would occasionally drive up to Vegas in the early years of our marriage for a quick getaway. We didn’t have much money, so we always stopped at the “coupon book” joint as we entered town. The coupon book had all manner of discounts on gaming, hotel stays, meals and a few freebies, as well. There were “59-cent Breakfast” offers, “free Shrimp Cocktail” deals, “free Spin” opportunities on slot machines, “free” casino chips (distributed over a 24-hour period, a foot-long hot dog for 50 cents, and the like. Charlie and I would go “couponing”, which meant going to a casino, using a specific coupon for the freebies offered, and then walk out the door and head for the next coupon opportunity.

It was great fun and we felt like we were putting it too the casino owners. HaHa.

Back in the day, the shows in Las Vegas weren’t as expensive as they are today. Many were of the showgirl/variety show genre, like the Lido de Paris, where the customer would be seated in very tight quarters with a bunch of strangers, and the alcoholic drinks served were expensive and watered-down. One could avoid the sardine can situation by bribing the showroom boss as you entered the place. For $5 or $10 bucks, that “gentleman” might miraculously find you a good table or even a booth. (I’m sure those tuxedoed-fellows were Mafia soldiers and I’ll bet that they made hundreds of dollars per night fleecing customers who were desperate to see Elvis or Wayne Newton up-close-and-personal.)

In the late-70’s and early 80’s, Vegas was still a fairly classy place to visit, particularly on the Strip. The downtown hotels/casinos (off of Fremont Street) were pretty run down except, possibly, the Golden Nugget, which had been renovated by Steve Wynn and had TV ads featuring Frank Sinatra requesting extra towels. Fremont Street itself was populated by a lot of bums, winos, pickpockets and prostitutes: it was not a very nice place to take an evening stroll with your wife or girlfriend. Still, if you wanted to do a lot of gambling with limited funds, downtown was the place to go. Binions, the Fremont, the Plaza, and a few small joints had $1 minimum bet Craps, which was music to my ears because I was definitely a “low roller”.

I’m not sure when Las Vegas began its slide into complete tackiness, trying to become an adult Disneyland. Probably when the corporations took over from the Mafia, I suppose.

Caesar’s Palace was, is, and probably always will be the mega hotel/casino/entertainment venue that everyone copies. It was the first themed resort on the Strip, beginning in 1966, and was always a trend-setter in opulence, fine dining, and entertainment. Many tear-downs of old Strip hotels/casinos have occurred over the decades, each one followed by the construction of a outlandishly-themed facility with lots of glitz and glitter. At some point, some genius bean-counters got the idea that Las Vegas could be much more profitable if folks could bring their kids to town. So, a few amusement park/casino/hotels were built… and failed. MGM Grand had one for awhile. Circus Circus still has a kid-friendly theme, but the place is run down, tacky, filthy, and mainly serves low-income types who should not be wasting family resources in Sin City.

Las Vegas used to be relatively inexpensive to visit: rooms were cheap, food was cheap, and the nighttime shows were reasonable. Not so anymore. Hotel rooms can be very pricey, depending on when you go. Food is no longer cheap. Taxis fares are expensive. Back in the day, a couple could enjoy the Elvis Presley dinner show at the International Hotel for $100 or less. Nowadays, just to sit in a hotel showroom and watch a top flight entertainer (with no dinner and no drinks included) can cost a couple a king’s ransom. Charlie and I saw Celine Dion many years ago at Caesar’s for $150 apiece (not worth the money, in my opinion!) and later Elton John’s “Red Piano” show for around $200 apiece (the best concert I’ve ever seen). Craps tables on The Strip routinely have $25 minimum chips… so a gambler needs $250 to $500 in chips just to sidle up to the table and try to avoid losing his bankroll in ten minutes.

It seems that a new themed hotel/casino appears on the Las Vegas skyline about every six to twelve months, each one bigger and more gaudy than the last. Some of the trend-setters from back in the 80’s and 90’s are being bulldozed for more spectacular resort structures. The Mirage, once Steve Wynn’s flagship, is in the process of transfiguring itself into a Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. I believe that the pirate ship attraction in front of Treasure Island is going bye-bye, as well.

The individuals/corporations who owned the derelict joints along Fremont Street decided many years ago to revitalize the downtown gaming area. The Fremont Street owners pooled their resources and created “The Experience”, a vehicle-prohibited mall from Main Street to Las Vegas Avenue, covered with an LED display that puts on a fantastic 5-minute animated show every hour in the evening. This gimmick, along with law enforcement pushing the vagrants off of Fremont Street,  really invigorated tourism in the downtown area. It is now a major attraction of its own, much like New Orleans’ Bourdon Street, with all manner of vendors and street performers active in the mall. It has become pretty tacky in recent years, with lots of panhandlers present in superhero and showgirl costumes (and attention-seekers, like the guy only wearing a thong with a sign hanging from his neck that says, “Kick me in the balls for $5”) and a zip line running the whole length of the mall.

Hey, it’s Las Vegas, where “what happens here stays here”. (Actually, in this day of social media, the asinine things that people do in Vegas can actually come back to bite them in their everyday lives when a video of them goes viral)

For six years, I ran the Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival in Indio. Each year, the international fair industry holds its national convention in Vegas, so Charlie and I were obligated to go. It was a reunion of fair managers, their wives, and fair industry vendors and entertainers, and we always had a great time. Most every entertainer in the U.S. who worked the concert circuit was there during the convention, performing at the various resort hotels or “showcasing” their talents to the 1,000 venue operators (I was one), seeking a contract deal for a limited performance. We booked all of our main stage entertainment there for our Fair’s 10-day run.

Some of our fair industry friends were fun-loving. One night, several couples were looking for something different to do when one of the wives said, “Let’s go to the Palomino Club!” It is a well-known strip joint in North Las Vegas. I think we paid a $16 per person cover charge (drinks not included). The strippers were hardly gorgeous international models; rather, they were haggard druggies and worn-out local hookers who came into the joint from a back alley, did their strip routine, and hoped that the customers would shower them with dollar bills. It was disgusting, and we left after about ten minutes.

Something that wasn’t disgusting was the time that Charlie and I went up to Vegas to see Shania Twain in concert at MGM Grand. We knew the parents of a female instrumentalist who played in Shania’s band. They were able to get the four of us choice seats, right up at the stage, where we got to see Shania Twain do her thing from about 50’ distance. She was absolutely great (and not hard to look at!)

Later in my life, after the Fair business, I got into equestrian stuff (amateur cowboying and rodeoing) and got to see the world famous PRCA Finals at the Thomas and Mack arena. It is the Olympics of rodeoing, and it was a fantastic spectacle in an intimate setting (the spectator sits right above the action). Really cool. The PRCA thing takes place in the Holiday season, and one of the great side benefits is “Cowboy Christmas”, which is a huge showcase of Western wear, furniture, and equestrian gear that it held at two venues, the LV Convention Center and at South Point Hotel and Casino. Charlie and I loved it.

Another change in my life involved taking up bowling when I was about 60. I quickly mastered the game, got into some leagues, bowled four 300 games, and was having a lot of fun. Several of the leagues had season-ending tournament finals in Las Vegas and I attended those from time to time. On one occasion, I was at the Orleans Hotel and Casino with my teammate George Knapp, eating a hamburger at Fuddrucker’s, when I noticed some fantastic tattoo art on our servers’ arm. She told me who the tattooist was, kind of a legendary guy there in Vegas. It was either the week of Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day (I’m not sure), but I decided to give Charlie (who was back home in So Cal) a romantic gift… a heart tattoo. So, I went to the parlor, got the owner himself (the famous tattooist) to do my ink, and it turned out very nice. Charlie was touched when I came home and showed her the gift.

Speaking of tats, I also got inked up on another occasion in Vegas. Charlie wanted a dog paw tattoo for her ankle and hooked up with a nice, young, bald-headed gal (her head was shaved in solidarity with a friend undergoing chemo) who did the job in short order. I asked her if she could do a portrait of Baby, our newest Boston Terrier. No problem, she said. It took about an hour; Charlie watched.

Las Vegas is a city known for low-budget weddings. Charlie’s first wedding was held at the Wee Kirk of the Heather in downtown Las Vegas back in the 1960’s. Many years later, our son Tim and fiancé Shanon were married on the Strip at a chapel in the parking lot of the Hacienda, as I recall. On that same trip to Sin City, our son Jon married his girlfriend Hollie at the County Clerk’s office (talk about an inexpensive ceremony!). That marriage didn’t last, but Tim and Shanon are still together after about 30 years and three children. Many years later, my widowed Mom fell prey to a bullshitter named Ray DuShane, we accompanied them up to Vegas, and they tied the knot in a simple chapel ceremony. That marriage didn’t last; Ray passed away a few years later. Who says God doesn’t answer prayers?

New Year’s is always a special time in Sin City. One year, Charlie’s employer at the time, a Black psychiatrist named Barbara Hundley, and her husband, who was also a doctor, took us up to Vegas for New Year’s at Caesar’s. Dr. Hundley (the psychiatrist) was a full-blown gamble-a-holic, whereas her husband was very conservative and didn’t gamble much, if at all. Dr. Hundley was a slot machine fanatic, and played special machines at Caesar’s that took $5 coins, three at a time. She got racks of these high-roller coins, plopped down in front of one of the machines, and began to play as fast as the machine would allow, at $15 a pop. At the time, I guesstimated that she was gambling at least $1,000 per hour, and she gambled pretty much all day for two days. Her husband looked disgusted, but she was the Boss, evidently. One good thing about the trip was the world light heavyweight fight that we saw, in person, in the Caesar’s arena. Another good thing happened at the airport, when we were getting ready to fly home. Dr. Hundley spent the half-hour waiting for the plane by feeding a slot machine there in the terminal. It was a $1 dollar machine, as I recall, and she pumped a lot of silver dollars into that useless machine. Finally, with the plane about to depart, she gave up in disgust. I had a few silver dollars left, so I put them in the machine and … SONOFABITCH… I hit a jackpot (I think it was $250). Then the plane arrived and we flew out. Dr. Hundley was not pleased that I had won on “her” machine.

Speaking of sick gamblers, one of my fellow workers at the County of Riverside was named Tony Carstens. He was a great guy and was married to a nice gal named Rolene. They were seriously-committed slot-a-holics, did a lot of gambling at So Cal and Las Vegas casinos, and got “perks” for doing so. We once went up to Vegas with them and stayed in a hotel where they had been “comped” with rooms, some meals, and a few free “pulls”. They thought that they were getting over on their casino hosts. However, the two of them hammered those 25-cent video poker slots almost continuously while we were there, only sleeping a few hours each night. They got a few Royal Flushes in the 48-hour marathon, but they put a lot of coins (5 quarters per pull) into those machines. I’ve got to believe that they regularly lose money, otherwise the casinos wouldn’t offer them goodies to return. Tony and Rolene had no hobbies or kids, as I recall, so this lifestyle was “together time” for them and… who’s  to judge?

I used to enjoy playing craps before it got too pricey, and eagerly anticipated our trips to Vegas so I could try my luck. I am a conservative guy with money, and had done enough research on gambling to know that “pass line” gambling “with odds” on the crap table gave the gambler the best odds of winning at a casino. I got pretty good at it. My son Tim wanted to try it out himself, so one time Charlie and I and Tim and his wife Shanon made the six-hour drive up I-15 to give it a try. On the way, I orally taught Tim how to play craps: what to do, what not to do, knowing when to bail, etc. He was an eager student. I think we stayed at the Golden Nugget downtown on that trip, and once we got settled, Tim and I went across the Fremont Street to Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, the home of the World Poker Championship. As we entered the casino, we heard a lot of yelling and cheering at a crap table, so we approached and watched. A lady was rolling the dice and doing quite well. We found a place along the rail and I told Tim, “Do what I do”. And, he did. That lady must have rolled the dice for a half-hour without crapping out, and we made a bunch of dough (I think I made $800 and Tim made a bit less). When the lady crapped out, I said, “Let’s boogie”. And, we did. When we walked over to the Fremont, where the girls were playing “treasure chest” video poker, we found out that they’d also won a bunch of money. Lucky Tim decided to play a few hands of Twenty-One and made another hundred bucks or so. I think it was their first gambling experience in Las Vegas and they got the wrong impression that money was there for the taking… haha.

Some Las Vegas memories:

Going to a cheap Tropicana Hotel “comedy club” one evening where one of the three “undiscovered” entertainers was a young, nobody named Drew Carey, who was hilarious

Every time I’ve spent a day at Caesar’s Sports Book, the greatest such facility in the world, betting on horse races… always fun whether you win or lose

Enjoying the International Buffet at the Rio, the best buffet in Vegas

Pigging out on King Crab at Palace Station… all you could eat for under $20, as I recall

Shopping with Charlie at the Fashion Show Mall on the Strip, maybe the nicest shopping mall in the U.S.

Accompanying Charlie to Serge’s Wig Shop on Sahara Boulevard, the place where all of the showgirls get their hairpieces and where Charlie got several over the years

Going to the Red Rock Cinema, one of the first megaplexes in America, to take a break from gambling and shopping

Taking our puppy BonBon to an emergency surgery (during the Pandemic!) to repair her broken femur

Staying a weekend at the Luxor (the pyramid hotel/casino), the most unusual structure on The Strip

Eating a nice Prime Rib dinner at Siegel’s restaurant in the El Cortez Hotel, one of the original downtown hotel/casinos

Witnessing a fatal truck crash on the way home from Vegas on I-15 at the off-ramp to the since demolished Nevada Landing Hotel and Casino in Jean (now a Terrible Herbst gas station complex)

Witnessing a truck towing a travel trailer blow off the road on the Baker Grade (I-15), crash in the desert, and disintegrate

Watching a friend of ours bungee jump of the top of the Stratosphere Tower, an 800′ plunge

Getting our initial Covid-19 vaccinations at the Martin Luther King community center building in North Las Vegas

Seeing Celine Dion and Elton John concerts at the Caesar’s Palace Amphitheatre and a Lionel Ritchie concert at the Thomas and Mack Auditorium

Stopping whenever possible at Peggy Sue’s Diner in Yermo, on the drive into Las Vegas, to enjoy my favorite menu item: Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs (served 24/7), the best in the world

Charlie and I now live in Mesquite, Nevada, only 70 miles north of Sin City on I-15, and we hardly ever go into Las Vegas.

The town has gotten too big, too fast, and has become yet another urbanized monster with traffic jams, lots of crime, and homeless people. The Strip and the downtown Fremont Street entertainment areas have become overwhelmed with tourists, many of them “low class” folks, in my opinion, trying to impress each other and their friends back home (via selfies) with how outlandish and tacky they can be.

The city seems to be reinventing itself every year or so, with more high-rise structures, more neon, and more attention-grabbing features… which require a lot of electricity and water… while the city can reasonably foresee a future where electricity and water will be in short supply, due to the drought and impact on Lake Mead. And, all of those new, flashy, and gimmicky hotel and casino features cost oodles of money, which is passed along to visitors via room rates, expensive food, and “resort fees” tacked on by the city.

It looks spectacular now, but I’m glad that we were able to enjoy “Lost Wages” in its heyday, when it was a smaller, classier, more affordable and fun place to visit.