Red Hat Day, 9 November, 2011
School kids arrived by the busload to harry the hard-hatted Union
Pacific guards as 844 rolled to her Whistle Stop at Deming New Mexico.
"Mañana Land" didn't apply to this venture. The stop was all
business. Excursion passengers debarked for a little walkabout, train
crew greased connecting rods, conductors showed their watches
whilst the Centennial
engine wheezed and snorted on the main line
westbound track.
Two train crew next to the 6' drivers apply grease to connecting rod
bearings. The grease is hard black sticks held in the left hand of the
kneeling man. The other guy operates an air-powered grease gun whilst
the first man stuffs the sticks into the gun as if feeding ammo to a
machine gun.
Conductor says No More Questions, time to go. All Aboard! I never did
get to learn if there is a sleeper car or a dining car. 844 is burning
used motor oil: 12 gallons per mile, to boil 100 gallons of water.
There are two tenders to carry water cos there is little water
available along the way.
Lordsburg, Tucson, and points west. Orange hardhats and orange vests
keep the crowd away from the rails as 844 gets going. My red hat was
only just orange enough to get me close.
http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_trains/steam/locomotives/844.shtml
Heeere Kitty-Kitty-Kitty
Arrived Tonopah tuesday after finding a down and out hitchhiker at Eloy
Flying-J. Gave him a ride to 67th Ave FJ and kept on going, stopping
only to visit Sara(h) La Gata's vet in Buckeye. She got her annual
check up and shot--gets better attention in that regard than I. When I
stopped the bus and opened the door at La Casa Blanca she promptly ran
off with nary an over the shoulder scowl.
The Cat Came Back
 Sara(h) didn't come home that
night. She's never stayed out over night. Wenzday I went to the food
bank to reestablish that routine. Sara(h) was not seen all day. I'm
still holding out hope. Perhaps she is hiding and recovering from her
inoculation. Perhaps she doesn't want to be here any more than me?
Wenzday night no Sara(h).
Then at 03h48 thursday morning something is pulling my hair! Sara(h)!
The prodigal cat returns!
I asked her, Where did you go? She said, Out.
I asked her, What did you do? She said, Nothing.
Countdown: T-4
Today I will go to the Food Bank to fetch a turkey and assorted related
items. No telling as yet what will be the plan for any celebration. The
turkey will be dressed for dinner, that is about all I can say; the
condition of the rest of the participants will depend somewhat on the
weather as we will fest outside.
Countdown: T-1
Food Bank again. This is the usual Wenzday excursion: Red hat and
shopping list. Four hours fixing things for the Thrift Store and I
receive a big box of grub. Falling quickly into the comfortable rut of
familiar surroundings.
T-0: Thanksgiving Day
Mostly clear at dawn. Temperature at The
Cat
Drag'd
Inn was 43. The weather clowns promised a warm enough
day however by mid morning the sky is thickly overcast. Looks as tho
more than the turkey will have to be dressed for dinner. Thanksgiving
Dinner here was Me, Mike, Daniel & three cats at the round table in
the North End with a dinner comprised entirely of food bank offerings.
Bill allowed as how he would have rather been with us but that he felt
it was in his political best interests to be at the RV park. He did
however make a point of asking for a plate of leftovers. The day
started out warm enough that we figured the turkey would be the only
participant dressed for dinner but as time and a half passed the sky
became cloudy and the temperature dropped and preparations dragged
along just enough that the turkey was the only one not dressed.
Cleaning Up After
Life as a paying guest at LCB is little different compared to that as a
work-camper. Except for the cash flow.
Strange goings on in Tonopah. Try as I might to avoid involvement
everything happening around me invites speculation and gossip. In other
news (read, gossip): "The State" closed the bar at Tonopah Joe's.
Pulled their license. Seems the bar was selling liquor they'd purchased
at Wal-Mart. I don't know why that makes any difference. The restaurant
has been leased by the Korean owner to some Greek family. Over the past
few days about the only food available there has been pancakes and
pizza. I'm uninformed about what is going on. Now the entire restaurant
is closed and the power is turned off.
The radiator in my bus developed a slow leak at some point over the
last few days/weeks. Not enough to piss out glycol, just a seep, only
an accidental inspection discovered the wet spot: A crack in the
forward end cap. Removed to repair and found other problems--a serious
case of fin rot will require the core to be replaced. I hope a thousand
dollars will be all I have to spend... One new nineteen inch piece of
hose cost TWO DOLLARS A FOOT!
Thankful? Not sure I can count that high. Tho at the same time there
are more things that I am not thankful for even tho I should be sort of
negatively thankful that those situations are not worse or that I am
grateful to be not any more directly involved or directly responsible
for. Did that make any sense?
I am thankful for your
letters and continued friendship. I am
thankful that my little truck did not cost me any more than it did to
rebuild the motor and that it was indeed rebuildable. I am thankful
that I can still walk circles around some of the younger people I hike
with tho I met my match a little at the Double-Dee Ranch project at
9,000'MSL in WYoming. I suppose I should be thankful that fuel prices
have not yet reached five dollars a gallon but on the other hand I find
it outrageous that a half gallon of OJ has only 59oz now. How long
before we find there are only ten eggs in a dozen?
As far as the radiator is concerned... Desperate times call for
desperate measures and this is certainly an emergency. I'll have to dig
twice as far into my reserve-emergency-reserves for cash to cover that
expense; there is only half as much money in that sack as there was a
year ago and for that fiscal mismanagement on the part of my banker I
am assuredly NOT
thankful. Sitting still at a Wal-Mart for three weeks was another
desperate time this past Summer; I am thankful for the manager who
allowed me to stay that long.
I am also thankful, just in this past day, that I have discovered that
AT&T, in all their complex convolutions of "Plans" has one for
"Seniors". Sort of like the Senior Section of the menu at most sit-down
slow-food restaurants. Smaller portions, fewer choices, less cost. That
last is the best part.
RIFFRAFF & DILLIGAFF
Once upon a long ago I was scenic-riding the mosey-roads of New
Hampster and a BIG dump truck hove into the view of my rear-looking
mirror. Emblazoned across the heavy chrome bumper, about the level of
my saddle bags, in that font usually reserved for ECNALUBMA, I saw in
my mirror a big bold DILLIGAFF. Suddenly SNAFU came to mind so I moved
over to let him pass.
Rabbit-Rabbit
Must be December. Yesterday was another fine day at the food bank. From
among the donated things and stuff I clean and fix up for the
Thrift Store I scored a fairly nice, not too old, functional flat
screen LCD monitor that was not saleable. Plus the usual box of yummy
food stuffs made for a profitable day there.
Five State Lava Flow Endangers
Catographer would have been the headline were soy wax any
hotter. Could this event be a precursor, an early warning of The End
Times? When the hot wax burst forth from Mount Saint Candle and
engulfed Kansas and parts of four other states Sara(h) La Gata was
napping along the Appalachian Trail. Had the
pyrowaxstic flow not run out of heat where it did I suppose we would
have to give her a medal for saving Louisana from yet another flood.
She was reportedly unfazed by her brush with hair loss: What, me worry?
Cellulites & Heavies
I've yet to learn SMS; don't want to be known as a "Texter", besides
which text costs twenty cents a message and little of what can be said
in 160 characters can be worth that much. So as this and that pile on
and times and circumstance change I have been casting about for some
better way to move email. Asking questions mostly leads to stone walls
of ignorance and misinformation. I've been with AT&T from back in
the pulse dial days; when AT&T was the phone company; when service
mattered, as when USPS was the
Post Office and served every community no matter how small.
Now it would seem that all AT&T is interested in is profit and more
profit. But even given that profit motive they could pay more attention
to detail and fairness and service.
Detail: Considering their database and what they can know about me
AT&T should have offered me their Senior Plan at least several
years ago. Instead I had to learn about that option only as an after
thought by a well meaning "cashier" (Stacy at least deserves the title
of Consultant). The Senior Plan is not to be found in their brochure,
nor on their website, and any of several previous cashiers at other
AT&T stores never mentioned the possibility. I suppose there is the
possibility AT&T invented their Senior Plan only the day before I
came in; and the possibility also exists that Stacy mentioned the plan
only when she realised that I might walk to T-Mobile when I wasn't
satisfied with the plans AT&T wants me to have. (In that case
"Cashier" might be too good a title.)
Fairness: Having two different Coverage Maps/Service Areas based upon
their concepts of PrePay or PostPay is patently discriminatory and
penalises those customers who cannot abide the scrutiny of Credit Check
or the commitment of contract. The whole idea of different service
areas seems to me to be just plain stupid and wasteful. AT&T (and
all the other cellular providers as well) could simplify their
offerings, streamline their presentations, by offering one set of
plans, one set of options, and all customers get the same coverage
regardless of pre or post pay.
Service: Service is in two parts. Over the counter and over the air.
I've already mentioned the counter part. But let me add that too many
of the cashiers in all the stores I have visited in my quest for
service seem to be ignorant of the possibilities or perhaps trained to
maximise profit. Are they perhaps paid by commission?
Over the air: As I travel around, state to state, hither and yon, I
experience many holes in AT&T coverage where my phone indicates
that a carrier is out there but which I am not allowed to make use of.
"Emergency Only" means to me there is a carrier out there not yet
partnered with AT&T. What is taking so long? Of the time this year
from April to November, seven months, I was without service for the
better part of four of those months. Most of New Mexico and WYoming in
particular are vast wastelands as far as AT&T is concerned. What
sugars off is that I now have the Senior Plan with Unlimited Data for
the same cost as my previous plan without any data. What's the
difference? The main thing is 200 minutes and no roll-over as opposed
to 400 minutes plus roll-over.
What else is new? My best efforts are spread too thin. Just when I
thought I was going to get away in good time and have a slow drive to
Ajo with stops for hikes along the way...
My plan was to depart here thursday after wenzday at the food bank. And
I might have made it. Except for delaying tactics of the fuel pump in
Tiny Truck. And the nice weather that made staying inside wrapped
around a steaming bowl of chicken soup far more enticing than laying
outside on a soggy cardboard creeper. So thursday passed. At least I
managed to pack truck and stow PVs. But gave up on dump and vacuum and
shower and...
Another thing that happened wenzday was to discover that the Food Bank
has a Christmas-End-of-the-Year Party on Friday. There was a Sign-Up
sheet on the fridge where the volunteers were putting their names and
what-they-would-bring for the s'moresgasboard. I wrote "ajo" and
"friend" and thot I'd make a pickle pie as a surprise.
So now my list for friday has pie at the top of dump and shower and
vacuum and move the spider's web off the steering wheel and leave for
the Food Bank by 11h30. Bill had written a few days ago that my
"staying an extra day or two was all-right with [him], that would give
[me] some extra time to pack." And, it goes without saying, an extra
few days to fix one of his radios rather than taking it along with me
to fix later. I will likely take Bill up on his sort of invitation to
stay yet another extra day and wait until saturday.
Oh yes: Saturday is a roadside cleanup with FoSM.
Now I'm writing all this and the pie is not yet in the oven.
Happy Solstice!
Now camped in Ajo AridZona. Recent Winter rains have engendered a fresh
Spring-like green in the desert; there are a few muddy spots on some of
the roads. The place where The Cat
Drag'd Inn is firm and well drained, surrounded by Opuntia fulgida, Cercidium microphyllum, and a
forest of Carnegiea gigantea.
I decorated the nearest jumping cholla with seasonal accoutrement and
baked a couple of pies for Solstice/Christmas Dinner.
Extraordinary moonrise this morning. At 05h30 out the front window I
observed a grey bulbous protuberance atop the ridge a few miles away. A
couple of retakes later realised this was not the ghost of the Great Pumpkin but the earthshine
almost-new moon rising. Then a bright ear appeared on each side of the
orb as the cusp of the crescent came into view followed gradually over
the next few moments by the grin of the lower limb.
Solstice! The desert is the best place to observe the solar orb come to
a screeching halt on his Way south. For a day he sits there as if
unsure about which way to go next before inexorably turning north. The
days are getting longer now, the time is soon upon us to move along.
But first, some peanut butter moosekies to bake in Betty's solar oven,
replace the fuel pump in TinyTruck, a shower, a walk, pick up some
trash, and of course, packing and cleaning up after.
Next Summer I'd like to do another of this kind of tour; perhaps a
month of easy driving from AridZona to FLorida to MainE and back. If
you are looking for adventure, if you want to mosey along the "blue
highways", write me and we'll see what we can arrange.
Regards, ajo
|
Greetings Virtual
Travellers:
I do not know what I may
appear to the world; but
to
myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and
diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a
prettier
shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all
undiscovered
before me. 