Time to Exit this Alternate Reality

It's all over except for the actual voting, the only really important element of this horrific election cycle we've all collectively lived through.   I don't care if you are voting for Clarabelle the Cow tomorrow, we all have one thing in common:  "Thank God this is election is going to be over!"  I am so damned tired of nasty.  I am so tired of repetitive, manipulative ads.  I want to be finished with this insanity.  I'm sick of polls and last minute revelations.

Collectively we are not a vindictive population.  It's certainly time for all of us to step back from the world is coming to an end if THAT PERSON is elected frenzy the media has been whipping up for months and get back some perspective.  Think of it this way:   When I was sitting dazed and bleeding in the passenger seat of our wrecked car, total strangers ran toward the steaming, still ticking wreck to help me.  No one asked who I was voting for, unfriended me on Facebook, screamed at me, nor turned away disgusted if I wasn't on board with their political views.

We help people.  Today, the day before the election, just look around you.  There will be people doing kind actions everywhere.  In old people land I routinely pick up dropped stuff, and pull down items from the high shelves in the grocery store. Sometimes I just talk to people while doing my errands knowing I might be the only person they actually have a conversation with for the next 24 hours.  It's also imperative in my neck of the desert to admire a person's dog.  We all practice routine courtesies everyday; it's second nature to us and is the grease which makes our multi-cultural society function.  

Manners and being civil are important.  They take the edge off the stress most of us routinely live under.  That's why we are all shell shocked by this vituperative election campaign stacked on top of all the other stuff we all have going on.  In the past 20 years, we are working (on average, of course) about 163 more hours a year - that's an entire extra month of work each year!  Americans are the most productive worker bees on the planet.  In the past 60 years we've also incorporated the second half of our population into the workforce (women), and now almost every worker is juggling the work/family dynamic every single day.  Everybody is always trying to figure out where they stand in relation to the people they work with, the family they care for, and the neighborhood they live in.

Humans love the pecking order.  It's in our nature.  We learned eons ago the odds of our personal survival went up if we worked as part of a group.  We also learned every person has a set value to a group and could be ranked accordingly.  Our overarching 'big group' is our national identity as Americans.  Thus, we have a basic binary ranking:  you either are or aren't in the group.

Well, my point is no matter who you vote for tomorrow, remember:  That person standing next to you is part of your basic group:  An American citizen, and I guarantee you will feel a solidarity with them just because they are standing in line and voting. Give that person next to you a high five tomorrow.  And, for heaven's sake, let's start remembering again who we really are - a kind and compassionate people who help one another get through each and every day.  

The Difference between Watching and Noticing

Guess what?  It's World Series time!  Even if you live under a rock, you must realize how historic this series is:  Cubs, last appearance 1945 (lost) and last win [1907/1908] - back to back - impressive even then, and Cleveland, last win [1948], are playing.  The longtime hopes and dreams of their fans are riding on this series.  There was a pitcher's duel last night 1 - 0 which means not enough action for me especially on TV. The way I've always gotten around the lack of action in low scoring games I've attended is by filling out a box score as the game progresses.  Thinking about this was triggered by a friend sending me an article about score keeping.   

I wish I had a nickel for every time people tell me baseball is boring.  Basically, that translates into they don't know enough about the game to actually watch it except at the most superficial level.  Since baseball takes an extended period of concentration to pick up on and see the real nuances of the game, I learned to keep score.

I've kept a box score since my brother's baseball games when I was a child sitting in a webbed aluminum lawn chair on the sidelines.  It's a wonder I wasn't beaned by a foul ball.  I was so young - still in single digits in age - I don't even remember who actually taught me the score keeping basics.   Eventually, I was named the official scorekeeper for the McArthur Bears.  Of course, I actually wanted to PLAY the game, but there were no baseball teams for girls.  (Another example of just accepting something because 'that's the way it's always been'.) A fond hope is I'll live to see a woman in the Major Leagues.

Then, I married the biggest baseball fanatic I've ever known.  In the 70's when we lived in Houston, I took a pay raise in the form of two season tickets to the Astros, who played at the 8th wonder of the world, the Astrodome, and I have score books which go back to that time.  I never score a TV game, only live ones, which today for me means mainly Spring Training games.  Early games like those are a whole other ball of wax for a scorekeeper with non-team member invited players, unknown players, minor league players with no names on their backs, and a zillion pitching changes.  

My preferred score book is a legal sized spiral Spalding score book with pre-printed pages. I don't draw in my own boxes, nor my own diamond.  There's a tidiness to the pre-printed version. I use a clipboard as a writing surface to hold my score book with a rolled towel under it to tilt the book and make it easier to write on.  I like a thin lead mechanical pencil, the same one for several years now, since the boxes are tiny, and sometimes scoring requires erasure.  My preference is to produce a tidy book without ink-outs at the end of a game.  However, at this point in my score keeping career, if pressed, I'm sure I could keep a game in ink.  To avoid that, I always carry a spare pencil to every game I score.

Every serious scorekeeper's book is unique.  I record every pitch including all the foul balls as well as keep track of how many pitches have been thrown by the starting pitcher inning by inning. I mark all balls and strikes.  I show which players touch the ball in making an out or an error.  I have my own symbols for the trajectory of the ball as it's hit.  "K's' are strikeouts.  The backward K to account for a strikeout when a player just stands there and watches the ball go by without swinging is pretty standard.  I have my own bracket symbol to indicate a double play as well as a symbol to indicate when a new pitcher enters the game.  TMI - LOL - baseball scorers are obsessive.  

I've always wanted to get a gander at Tom Grieve's score book, he's the color announcer for the Rangers,  and in some interviews up in the booth, you can see his book, but not the notations.  I do know some media people actually use different colors of ink pens when scoring to make commentary easier.  When having to pee during a game, I reluctantly hand over my book to my baseball expert for a half inning.  Recently, I've carped until he puts on his reading glasses to make the notations.  His scoring marks even then are must less pristine than mine.     

I sometimes announce to my 'row' and the people in front and behind me I'm this area's official scorekeeper. The real fans take me seriously -  they begin asking me questions as the game progresses along the lines of:  "What'd he do last time?"  "How many pitches now?" "Are you scoring that as a hit or error?"  Oh, and I also keep both sides of the contest - same markings for the other team.  Occasionally, I teach a kid to score and hand over my book.  Fortunately, I sit next to the aforementioned baseball expert, and I do consult every once in awhile when something unusual happens which, surprisingly to me, is almost every game.  

Now, with the World Series winding down, I find I'm eager for the start of the next baseball season which for me will be the end of February!  I once calculated, I notice in excess of 200 ballgames a year, but currently I'm only scoring about twenty.  That's the difference for me:  I NOTICE games which are running on television or the radio, but I WATCH the games I score.          

The Election

It's about two weeks until the election.  The first Presidential election I remember was Kennedy/Nixon - 1960.  I was 10 years old, and even I noticed how 'pretty' Jack and Jackie were.  However, historically, the 1960 election was all about the influence of television on an election just as the 1932 election was all about the influence of radio.

Kennedy campaign managers understood how you LOOKED on TV was going to be more important than what you SAID.  Nixon managers didn't get that.  Nixon, sweating with his five o'clock shadow and no TV make-up didn't look as good as Kennedy with his sunny smile, TV bronzed appearance, and great hair.  Alarm bells did not go off about form over substance.  Today, it's all about how you look.  One candidate has been derided for a bad toupee, and the other for gaining weight and looking dumpy.  It's all about being packaged with hair, make-up, teeth, and symbols as represented by clothing and accessories.  We need to be more sophisticated and stop falling for form over substance at every level of politics.

There have been many disturbing factors about this election.  The most serious is the obvious erosion of trust for the government.  I can cite statistics and facts and trends to prove this, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist or a mathematician to sense this.  We are playing with fire.  The line between government stability and a complete breakdown between citizens and government is very, very thin.  No ordinary person has ever been better off living in a country with an unstable government.

Democracy is not about agreement.  It's about disagreement.  However, disagreement does not mean disrespect.  In the United States there is the loyal opposition.  People who don't agree with your political viewpoint are not enemies of the state nor are they unpatriotic.  If you look back to the very founding of our country, the two houses of Congress are the first of many compromises between the political factions of the now revered Founding Fathers.

Political compromise means government happens.  We need more compromise between the two political factions in our country.  That means in practical terms, a Congressman or Senator who engages in compromise isn't financially targeted to be defeated in the next election by vindictive PACS.   Compromise in government means nobody gets everything they want, but everybody gets something.  The level of frustration with our Congress is so high because our perception is the people we are electing are not seriously working on our problems.

Another growing problem in the electronic age is we, the electorate, have to get much, much, much smarter about where we get our information.  The days of Walter Cronkite are gone.  As media has been economically consolidated, each major news outlet has a slant or bias dictated by ownership.  Some media is blue; some media is red.  Know who you are reading or listening to, and what their bias is.  At least major media (and I include major newspapers across the country as well as the five major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS) still have to meet journalistic intregrity standards.  JoeBlow@blogger.com or PoliticalOpinionRus.org doesn't have to tell you facts.

It's time to recognize you should be selecting your news information not only from people you agree with but also from people you disagree with.  We oldsters remember a time when news wasn't reported if it wasn't a fact. Opinions were clearly labeled opinions. Now, our media, whether 'red' or 'blue' mixes fact and opinion as if they were exactly the same in order to persuade us of their viewpoint.  Facts don't have viewpoints.  Opinions do.

Every four years the hype is all about how are you casting your vote for President.  That portion of your vote is largely a symbolic vote.  The important votes are for County Commission, the School Board, the Water District and those little unpaid public service offices which most voters won't even be bothered with. These 'little people' are the ones who really impact your daily quality of life.

The peoplewho are giving their time and energy to work for all of us in small, usually unpaid jobs are the true heroes of a democracy.  Start at the bottom of your sample ballot and work 'up'.  Figure out who you are voting for.  For example, in Arizona there's a Central Arizona Water District Board elected every six years.  It's a no-brainer that in the desert water is crucial.  It took me a long time to figure out which five water district board members I was going to vote for, but these five votes are much more important than my Presidential vote.  A by-product of trying to decide my votes is I now understand the problems facing Phoenix about water.

Finally, the most imporant thing you can do is VOTE.   Democracies don't work if the citizens don't vote.  Apathy means the most extreme viewpoints are overly represented. Sometimes I want to shake people by the ears when I hear, 'Oh, my vote doesn't really count.'  In some places, those small offices you vote for  in your community are decided by fewer than 100 votes.  Everybody's vote counts.  The only people who don't count are the ones who don't vote.  So, get out and VOTE, AND WHEN THIS ELECTION IS ALL SAID AND DONE IT'S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER:  WE ARE ALL AMERICANS.      

Sharlot Hall

Prescott, Arizona, has been very impressive as a small American town.  This town of 50,000 has the slogan: 'Everybody's Home Town'.  We went to see an amazing museum for a town of this size.  Generally, American western towns have a pretty poor record at preserving their history.  Today, it was refreshing to see a town which actually has a great museum showcasing their history. A woman, Sharlot Hall, who arrived from Kansas to the territory of Arizona as a child in about 1880 was the driving force in that preservation.  She became the first Arizona historian, a paid government position.  She made it her life work to preserve and collect the Arizona history and artififacts not only for the Anglos but also the history and artifacts of the native population, the Yavapi.

Sharlot Hall

One of the first buildings she preserved was the Territorial Governor's Mansion built in 1864. This amazing building was hand built from Ponderosa pine logs and chinked with adobe clay.  The site of current day Prescott was chosen as the capitol city of the Arizona Territory in the midst of the Civil War because the more natural choice, Tucson, an actual town with people, was the center of Confederate sentiments.  Prescott came into existence when the new Territorial Governor declared it to be the capital.

The original floor was dirt, and the Territorial Governor worked on one side of the house, while the Territorial Secretary worked on the other.  This house was the center of the political and social life in the created town of Prescott.  Usually, towns are named for a famous person from the region or a natural landmark.  Ironically, the first serving Governor of Territorial Arizona named the new capitol for a 19th century American historian he admired, William Hickling Prescott.  Prescott wrote about the Aztecs and Incas and was a distinguished historian whose books are totally forgotten today, but whose name lives on.

In addition to the Territorial Governor's Mansion, there are three other collected historical buildings:   There is a 19th century 'one room' log schoolhouse as well as one of the first Anglo settler cabins

This cabin is referred to as 'Fort Misery'

built in Arizona in 1863.  It was built to house the newly appointed Governor, Mr. Goodwin, until his territorial mansion could be built.  As is often the case with tongue in cheek nicknames, the origin of the name 'Fort Misery' is lost.  

The other historical building on the grounds of the museum is the 1878 house John Charles Fremont and his wife Jesse Fremont lived in when HE was a territorial Governor of Arizona.  Man, only Kit Carson got around the 19th century west as much as Fremont did.

Jesse Fremont over the fireplace in the
clapboard Governor's Mansion 

Fremont was Governor of Arizona from 1878 to 1881.  He had already been Governor of California as well as the first Senator from California.  Fremont was only one of a long line of territorial governors.  Post Civil War Arizona stayed in its territorial staus until Valentine's Day, 1912.  It was the last territory in the lower 48 to be admitted as a state.        

There is a building put up in the 1930's to house Ms. Hall's growing collection of historical artifacts.  Today, one of its exhibits is 'the map room'.  We discovered that Phoenix, the capital of the State of Arizona is a big time johnny come lately.  It doesn't appear on any map of the Arizona area until the statehood map of 1912.  And, then, it's spelled 'Phenix'.  

In 1977, the museum with the help of the citizens of Prescott, put up a modern building to showcase prehistoric Arizona and the history of the Yavapi.    I especially loved the mural.  

Finally, the women of Prescott planted and now maintain the Territorial Rose Garden.  It was spectacular even in October.  

As always, if you want to see more pictures, click on the link

https://goo.gl/photos/Arhp1txq77EAyW8B8

   

Goldie's Eulogy

Goldie at the time of acquisition

While Goldie didn't get the funeral nor the resting place she deserved for all her faithful service to our vagabond life, let me at least eulogize her memory and express my heartfelt gratitude for every mountain she climbed while encumbered by that blasted trailer dragging down her V-8 power.  She rather liked the bikes; she thought they made her dashing.  She conquered every mountain summit without a hint of complaint, even the mighty Berthoud Pass which was over 11,000 feet at its saddle.

There were many places in the middle of the proverbial 'nowhere' in which Goldie could have stranded us, but with her innate sense of loyalty and service to the Smith Family Adventure Club, she never did.  Nor did she find the logging road up, up and up, around and around Mount Sauk in Washington State beyond her capabilities even though she asked us to at least turn off the friggin' AC while she was working so hard.

Bombed with snow by a freak October snowstorm in New Hampshire

I know she appreciated being lovingly maintained both inside and out by her Main Operator even when maintenance conditions weren't optimal.  Her exterior was pristine until I managed to back her into tree branches in Berkeley which scratched her side right down to the metal.  She never said a word, nor indicated her pride had suffered; she knew I was doing the best job I could.  She refused to fold up, crumple and leak radiator fluid when that rude little deer jumped on her in French Canada.  She knew I didn't know all those auto words to try and talk to a French auto mechanic.

Finally, I want to publicly thank her for saving my and Main Operator's lives.  She offerred herself up for us.  Airbag deployment wasn't lightly taken on her part since it meant her own demise.  Because of her sacrifice, we suffered aches, pains, bruises and one slight burn to Main Operator's hand instead of broken bones, internal and external bleeding, concussion and coma.  Sadly, sadly, we mourn losing her.

However, life goes on.  We will be resuming the slightly wacky, sometimes entertaining, and always novel peripatetic show of the Smith Traveling Adventure & Vagabond Club with a new partner.  Meet Hi Ho Silver.  It's going to take some adjustment to have a male partner joining the club, but with his sleek silver paint, two toned leather and suede seats, together with his class IV towing package and Hemi 5.71 V-8 engine, this powerful Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited horse of a vehicle is hopefully going to live up to his specifications.  He's got big shoes to fill, but Main Operator thinks he's up to the challenge.

Hi Ho Silver and his Main Operator

Main Operator schooling Hi Ho Silver

   

    

In the Blink of an Eye

Since 2008 I've known one's life can change instantly.  That was the year my mother died, and I realized my father was suffering from pretty advanced dementia.  We had about 18 months of putting our heads down and slogging through a series of problems and heartaches before we could right the ship of our own lives.  Every major event in one's life give new perspective.  In a real way, my mother and brothers' deaths as well as my father's living death has shaped the last eight years of the choices Drake and I have made.

Well.... last Friday we had another one of those life can change in the blink of an eye experiences.  First, it was a fabulous day.  We had just come out of Zion National Park, without a doubt one of the most beautiful parts in America.  As faithful blog readers you will just have to wait for the pictures, and I'll tell you why in a minute.

We got a call from our daughter just after she walked OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE!!!!!!  She was actually invited to the WHITE HOUSE, yes, the real one, for a meeting with 50 other people.  We stopped in Page, Arizona to talk to her, and as we talked we were jumping around on the sidewalk, and saying things like "really" and "did you talk".  I'm sure the citizens of Page thought we were crazy.

Getting back in the car, we were on our way to Flagstaff where we were spending the night. Our destination was the Twin Arrows Casino for a little afternoon gambing action entertainment since we couldn't get our October Prescott house until 3pm the next afternoon.  We'd just spend Friday night in Flagstaff, drive the 100 miles or so to Prescott and get the keys to the rented house in Prescott.

We won $180 in three hours!  Sweet!!!!  Drake so loves to play blackjack, and he's such a terrific player, it's nice seeing him rewarded.  For the record, I did win $80 of that booty, but we've always counted our wins and losses as a net together.  Since we few gambling as entertainment not a money making proposition, keeping track is just score keeping for us.  Then, we decided to have a nice steak dinner, and  head to our hotel for the night.  We were taking possession of our Prescott house for our month's rental on Saturday afternoon.

It was 8 pm when we were closing in on the hotel, and I was looking at my GPS realizing we'd just missed the turn for our hotel.  CRASH, BAM, BANG, SCREECH.  It took me a minute to realize we'd been in an accident, and then I heard running and screaming and someone saying, "Are you hurt?  We need to get you out of this car."  Physically and mentally Drake and I were both in shock.  It took me over an hour to figure out exactly what happened.

A newbie 16 year old girl driver was in the left hand turn lane facing us as we were driving through the intersection.  She decided a blinking yellow caution light meant, 'Hurry up!  My light is going to turn red." instead of yield.  So, she accelerated turning left through the intersection while we were sailing through it at about 35 mph on our green light.  She was too new of a driver to check and see if someone was coming through the intersection before she turned.  The upshot was she wrapped her small coupe around the front of our SUV.  Everybody's airbag deployed, and the bystanders, of which there were quite a few, were shocked by the violence of the collision and couldn't believe no one hurt enough to go immediately to a hospital.

I got the brunt of the collision, but Drake got the airbag injury

In other words, we all walked away from the collision.  It was so very, very fortunate the little girl didn't pick up a buddy for her quick trip to Walmart because that child would have been killed.  The passenger side of her car was completely crushed.  I'm so grateful that 16 year old wasn't really injured and didn't have to live with hurting someone else.  That said...

There's no way an insurance company pays value for a Drake Smith 2003 creampuff car.  He's just had the transmission rebuilt as well as did some other expensive work to keep a 13 year old car running to peak.  We've realized for years we would take a bath if we wrecked the Aviator.  And, yes, the car was totalled, and we will take a bath.

We stood around on the street corner for three hours after the accident while the police gathered info. Four witnesses said not only was the girl at fault, she actually accelerated into us!  It took the tow drivers an hour to figure out how to get the cars apart and clean up the intersection.

Since Friday night, we've realized what pro football players feel like the day after a game.  Basically, I hurt from the bottom of my ears to the top of my tailbone.  My sternum and breasts are bruised from the seat belt, and my nose is sore, but not broken from the airbag.  Drake has a chemical burn that covers the entire back of one hand from the airbag.  Yesterday, seven days after the accident, both of my hands started hurting.

On Saturday, we managed to rent a 15 foot truck to tow our miraculously undamaged cargo trailer.  We then went to the tow yard to clear out the Aviator, and, oh, when I called the agent who rented us the Prescott house and explained what happened, her reaction as, "Does that mean you'll be late to pick up the keys?"  You know, what I really, really didn't need was a house in Prescott right now, but her complete lack of compassion will come back on her.  That kind of person always gets her comeuppance sooner or later.  What goes around comes around.  We then drove to Prescott from Flagstaff and picked up our keys - on time.

Sunday, we sorted out our belongings and realized what we needed to do was use the big truck to tow the trailer back to Sun City, unload it and drop it there. Meanwhile, Jay and Sarah were flying in for the family wedding (which precipitated the Prescott house rental in the first place) on Thurday night in Phoenix.  We left Sunday and drove to Sun City, and unloaded the trailer - boy, that helped those sore muscles.  Yes, that was sarcastic irony.

Monday,  we took the trailer to Drake's sister's house, rented a car, returned the truck, and started shopping for cars.  Tuesday, we spent 5 hours at the Emergency Room - peak day for pain for both of us.  We were x-rayed and cat scanned.  They were particularly afraid my sternum was cracked.  Fortunately, all is pretty well, but I have a follow-up appointment.

On the upside, we managed to get a car bought on Thursday - a 2010 Grand Jeep Cherokee, Limited with a class 4 tow package.  We attended the Prescott wedding which was a real wanted spot of fun, and we managed to get Drake's mother's party in Phoenix at 'the home' pulled together and pulled off to her delight.

Slowly, life is returning to normal since we were unexpectly tossed about like fruit salad.  Surprisingly to me, both Drake and I have been having PTSD like symptoms with disturbed sleep, irritability, driving fears and other indications that this incident has also had a mental toll.  On the physical side,  I now know where all my arthritis is located.  Woo Hoo!  And on a positive note, nine days after the accident, my sleep was uninterrupted last night for the first time since it happened.  This too will pass, and it's great fortune a little girl will not have to live with dire consequences of a foolish driving mistake.        

     

Leaving Colorado...

In the past twelve months, we've spent seven of them in Colorado.  We lived two months last fall on the 'back range' in Fraser, a tiny alpine town of 1168 people. This year we spent five months on the 'front range' in Colorado Springs, a big town of 600,000.  Every state I've been to, and I think it's up to 46 now, has some element of natural beauty.  However, Colorado got more than its share when gorgeous was passed out.

I decided rather than write, write, write about my impressions of living here, I'd let my pictures do the talking.

https://goo.gl/photos/EhfTAxGgQNSYExcFA  

We leave Colorado Springs next week, and we're going on vacation.  (OK, laugh, I know you want to.)  We're visiting the Black Canyon at Gunnison National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, the Grand Staircase Escalante, and Zion National Park.  We've even rented a jeep at the Grand Staircase since the roads are mostly dirt or just 'tracks'.  Then, we will be in Prescott, Arizona for the month of October.

This is one place I'm sad to leave.  I'd like to stay and see the aspens turn yellow and the snow fall.