Well, nothing down on the valley floor but light rain, but the mountains had a light dusting on them this morning. Kinda pretty, and I doubt I've seen that before here. Flags have been flying straight out all day, making for very uncomfortable conditions. The wind should let up tonight, then it will just be cold. 24 tonight?
Many expressed surprise that Westboro Baptist Church actually showed up in Pueblo to picket the retail marijuana stores there. Counter protesters greatly outnumbered them, but the cold nasty weather encouraged everyone to make their point and go home where it's warm. WB was trying to make a point about gays and marijuana. I've never understood what those people are talking about, but they don't like homosexuals. I've never heard of an...
The forecast for the next week is about 50 for a high, 25 for a low. Slight chance of snow tomorrow. Add in a pretty good breeze, and I'm at an RV park with electricity. I'll use my electric space heater with the cat heater as a helper if necessary, which is likely. If it doesn't snow it will probably drizzle, which will make Q weather and that of Seattle about the same. The cold is going to damage lemon trees in Yuma, but it also kills the...
The solar panels came on at 0730 this morning, a big improvement over the 0744 just a few days ago. I pretty much mark my year at the winter solstice, the toughest time to manage the batteries. From now on I can relax a bit as each charging cycle gets longer. But this is when the temperatures drop, and my propane consumption goes up dramatically. We're down to 65/40 now, and by next week it will be 55/35. I like to keep the interior at 80, about...
In Colorado, as well as Washington, there are severe limits on the ability for the recreational pot shops to advertise. Signs must be limited, there are controls on print and media advertising. All of this will be eliminated someday as constraint of speech, but for now they're there. Two retail pot shops in West Pueblo might get the best advertising that almost any business could wish for: Westboro Baptist Church has announced they will protest...
The Seattle officials proposed "doing something" about the over 300 completely uncontrolled and untaxed medical marijuana operations in the city. . No doubt their proposal was a gambit to force the state into passing laws to deal with this problem but they ran the risk of actually implementing something if the state didn't cooperate. As is completely normal in Seattle, a group of stakeholders were assembled to represent differing viewpoints...
I schedule this event as a must-do whenever I'm in the area. Somerton, a small town south of Yuma, closes off it's downtown and a bunch (about 50) of tamale makers sell their products for charity. The event gets bigger every year, and the parking hassle does, too. One approach is to sample around, grabbing a different flavor from different vendors (each tamale is $2), including something ridiculously exotic. But tamales are filling so I went...
This is silly. Nebraska and Oklahoma have filed a lawsuit against Colorado for legalizing marijuana and it's sale, and the CO product is coming into their states, where it's illegal. All state vs state cases go to the US Supreme Court. First, I doubt the Court wants to bother with this. There are no constitutional issues: Marijuana is an illegal drug by federal law, and that law applies to the states. Nothing to debate. Second, NE and OK don't...
Within hours of hearing the news about Cuba, the media immediately started talking about selling them cars, pouring tourist dollars in, and selling them thingies. That is precisely the hubris of America that Cuba has been successfully avoiding for 50 years, no doubt to their satisfaction. Why do we think they even want our cars, when if you look at what they have they're better looking. Or why do we think we are even welcome as tourists? The...
I've had a favorite produce stand in Yuma ever since I've been on the road. They get good products, especially local, and have very fair prices. They are near to where I park. And they're the only place with any quality. They've always advertised "Freshly Picked Yuma Corn", which I've ignored because I didn't believe it. And I don't want corn in December, I want citrus. Yesterday I tried their corn. First, my bias. I grew up on Yakima Valley...
The crop duster parked nearby worked all night from 8PM to 5AM. He has an absurdly loud and annoying engine, and needs to re-load about every hour. He's used to flying low, so twice an hour all night long he went over our heads at a stupid elevation. It took me a while after parking here quite a few times to find out it was a crop duster. It never occurred to me that one would do this at night. Now, Yuma isn't a very dark place, with many...
Quartzsite was getting boring and there was a window of good weather so I picked up and went back to Yuma for a bit. I'll have some clouds and maybe a drop or two of rain. The clouds and the long nights cramp my style a bit when it comes to keeping my batteries charged, so I tilted my panels; it makes a big difference when conditions are poor. Except for these few weeks around the winter solstice it's normally not worth the trouble. As usual I'm...