A little trip to the high country

I must first say, I am deeply sorry for the lives lost in Afghanistan. 13 of our brave soldiers and so many Afghan citizens. being a veteran myself, this hits close to home and breaks my heart. My thought go out to all of the families and friends.

Now to our trip. Last Sunday, Nancy and I loaded up our brand new camper (unused to this point) and headed North to a fairly secluded National Forest campground called 'Rock Crossings'. It was cool and heavily treed, with all the enjoyment of the outdoors ... including mosquitoes. I hate mosquitoes and they know it. They are constantly buzzing around my head and attacking me every chance they get. I spray repellant all over me, but they always seem to find one little spot I missed, and that is where they stab me. 

Very dear, veteran former full-time RV travelers met us there. Nancy and the wife of the couple wanted to do part of the Arizona trail, while her husband and I went for a LONG 4 wheeling ride. Like the Army anthem song, "Over hills, over dells, we hit the dusty trails (and muddy)." in his 1984 Suzuki Samurai.

The next day, we drove to Forest road 300 and drove along Rim road. Which for the people not in Arizona, is the road along the edge of the Mogollon Rim. It is a scenic gravel road that go for miles with hundreds of "Kodak moment" stops for viewing the 1000 foot drop to the valley below. It never gets old.

We looked for an old hand-dug train tunnel I found online, but we would have needed a repel team to get to it.

Back at our campground, evenings were spent cooking on the grill and sitting around the traditional (and required) campfire. 

The days flew by and our short trip came to an end way too quick. Being with dear friends, the great outdoors, exploring nature and finding unique sites and places is what empties your mind and body of day to day stress and worries. We all need to get away and just enjoy things we normally don't see or do often enough. We plan to do this more. Except the mosquitoes. Nature can keep them. 

 

Do you TRULY communicate?

Communication between individuals is one of the first things, we as humans, learn to do after we are born, and maybe after conception. Communication is done through SO many avenues. Speaking, emailing, text, writing, quacking, barking, tweeting, buzzing, hissing, and any other form of feelings expressed, as long as you get your message across to whom either your directing it to. Yes, every creature does communicate to us or other creatures. But, it is how you communicate that matters.

When you speak, your facial features say so much more to that person (or animal) than the words you speak. Your tone of voice and emphasis on certain words gives your words a whole different meaning and context. Even dogs know the meaning as your facial features change. They recognize your feeling pretty quick and respond to that. Like humans, dogs and cats recognize when you are sad, angry, happy etc.

Some people have a hard time TRULY communicating to friends and loved ones for fear of opening up too much to their inner self, or maybe offending someone, so they either don't speak or smooth it over in the conversation. Eyes tell a lot.

When dealing with a spouse, friend, relative, co-worker, employee, boss, or just an acquaintance, the way we get our point over to them is crucial to remember to choose your words carefully, be aware of your facial movements, and also the emphasis on certain words. This is extremely important interviews for jobs, relationships, friendships, and so many other scenarios. Much like everyday life.

As we've traveled to different countries in the world, I found that different languages have different emphasises on words we don't have. On the other side, we may have and they don't. So if I say something in English, it may not mean the same thing in their language and could offend them, or make you look foolish. Also our words in English may have many different meanings in their language. Just an up swing, or down swing in the tone or word can mean something totally different. It is kinda like talking to "Yoda" from Star Wars. "He walked on the road, he did." As Yoda would say.

Deaf people have their own way of communicating with 'signing'. They too can put emphasis on certain words and with facial features.

Since English is commonly known as the Universal Language, I believe that eventually that will change to Spanish because the Spanish population is increasing fast and the English speaking population is decreasing.

Communication is an essential and important part of our everyday lives. We have to be aware of what and how we communicate to others, no matter who or what they are. Speaking with truth and honesty is good, but speaking so that no one gets hurt and still be honest is even better. 

With all that, I hope you will communicate with me by commenting and please follow all of (or some of my out-there thoughts) our travels and experiences.

Next Sunday's edition may be delayed during us going camping and communicating with friends and nature. Take care and stay safe.

Our Disposable Culture

We are human, and most of us grew up in the USA, better off than other countries. So things came easier, and we have more possessions and spendable funds. Most of us do better than our parents did at our age. Ok, so that's not a bad thing, but we also dispose of things faster than our parents and grandparents did. I remember my mother saving aluminum foil so she could use it again. My father would never just throw a fan away when it broke, he'd repair it, or at least try to. My grandparents would never throw food away, they fed it to their pigs, or they compost it for the garden. When I work on a car or truck, before I throw away a bolt or nut, I check it to see if it is reusable. That is recycling.

I am going to repeat what you may hear on the news, we are killing our world with pollution. Whether it be chemicals, plastics, carbon monoxide, construction trash or space junk. Yes, space junk.

In 1956 when the first satellite, 'Sputnik' was launched, it had the whole sky all to itself. Today there millions of pieces of debris and satellites zooming around coming close to other orbiting objects. Do you remember the short lived 1979 (if you are older like me) TV series "Savage 1" starring the late Andy Griffith? He and his team went into space and captured space junk to sell it for scrape. Well, they are trying to do that again. Go figure. I wonder where they got that idea.

One thing that burns my backside is someone tossing a cigarette butt out the car window, or gum, or take-out food and drink containers. I have even seen people empty their ashtray at a stop light.  Can they not do that at home? Billions of dollars are spent annually collecting and disposing of trash and garbage.

To make things worse, if your TV, camera, radio, refrigerator breaks, it may be more expensive to get it repaired than to buy a new one.When our daughter was buying appliances to replace the old ones, she ask the salesperson, "I want one that will last for 20 years like my Mom's did." Car manufacturers rate their cars to last for 7 years before owners trade or sell them. Why? Because the one you bought 7 years ago is broken and it may cost more the repair than to buy a newer one, which gives you piece of mind. And at a shop rate of $175 an hour, that does not take long.

We ALL love our conveniences and working possessions, but we hate trash and garbage, so just toss out with the garbage truck, right? Yes it is more work to recycle, and compost, and walk instead of drive, and keep a litter bag in your cars etc. But it helps.

Nancy and I resolute in conserving our part of the earth. We recycle almost everything we would trash, we collect rain water for plant instead of using groundwater, we are looking at electric vehicles in the near future (I am planning to build one), Nancy composts yard trash and food scraps for her garden, and I even recycle fluids from cars I work on. Our entire garbage consist of one 30 gallon garbage bag a month. Everything else is recycled. Our home is 60-70% solar powered. We have no grass to mow and all of our home lighting is LED. Not bragging, just doing our part.

Next time you think about not conserving, look around at all the trash laying on the streets and highways and reconsider. Do you part for the earth. Take care and stay safe with a vaccination.

Are we getting lazy? Or dumber?

 OK, I may be in that category too ...lazy that is. According to recent research, Americans and many other countries are overweight and less active. I blame much of that on modern day technology and convenience. Of course in the most recent times, we were told to stay home because of Covid. Which was good advice, but bad for our bellies. 

Today you really don't have to go out at all. You can order meals and have them delivered. Someone will shop for your groceries and deliver them. We have a mobile mechanics that will come and fix your car, even tho it is just sitting in our driveway. We can work from home on our computers, and kids can go to school classes from home. All of this is because of a small thing called a 'transistor'. 

Today we have smartphones, smart TVs, smart cars, smart speakers, smart switches in smart houses, and even smart sunglasses. OMG! They ALL have one or many transistors in them along with other electronic components. All most everything you touch has some technology in it, except maybe a book, but that too can be read electronically. I hope we never have a major solar flare because everything will come to a stop. No more binging on reruns and confronted advertisement overload, or how do I get my McDonalds for lunch, because not even your car will run.

I know, I know, "Harrold, it's the year 2021 we are an advanced culture, and all this things make our lives easier and simpler."  Do they really? Yeah, I love having a remote controlled TV so I don't have to get up to change channels and a smartphone so I can talk to anyone as I am channel surfing and skipping commercials. Honestly, I don't know where to channel buttons are on my smart TV ... Oh yeah, right above the 8 HDMI slots.

My point is, technology is everywhere, and we depend on it daily, and we take it for grant. BUT, some of us (and I mean some of the USA population) have not noticed is we are still in a epidemic, and MANY people are dying because the information they have heard from the highest office in government (LAST YEAR) that we don't need to be vaccinated. It is FREE and it will not kill you like the Delta Variant will. Some employers are finally saying to their employees, you have to be vaccinated or don't come to work.  Masking in public is coming back. We are going backwards. Listen to the science, and listen to what a dying Las Vegas father of 5 texted just before he died. "I should have gotten the damn vaccine." I believe his kids will always remember what he said, via technology.

Technology is great, I agree, but don't be dumb, get vaccinated if you have not already. And stay active, even if it's walking a mile or two. Get out and enjoy the outdoors.

Take care and stay safe. And follow me with comments too.