City council of zombie

Why do I say city council of zombies? Because the city council of Tucson apparently have no brains, I know I don't like politics on this, but whatever it's my blog, I write what I want. So as a knee jerk to the Sandy Hill shooting, one of the council members offered a voluntary gun buy back where people could turn in their gun in exchange for a $50 gift card at the grocery store. Really!?! The sad part, people actually turned in guns! Of course while he is wasting his time on this, all the city roads are in disrepair, they're so bad that dirt roads in the county are nicer. Graffiti is out of control all over the city. The police department is under staffed, so if some bad guy is actually breaking into your house or assaulting you, whatever, good luck for the police to show up before your mortally wonder or dead...if they even show up. Too bad I traded my gun for a $50 gift card and the bad guy didn't. (I didn't actually turn in my gun) Also, the light rail, aka the choo-choo train as I call it. It is a "modern street car" that travels from the university to downtown about a mile away, the choo-choo passes thru the main bar district so I guess good for less drunk driving the mile distance. But inn the mean time they have had to tear up the streets to put in the tracks and infrastructure, and so if you want to go anywhere the choo choo goes, don't try because there is no way to get around down town. Thus killing if not severely injuring businesses in the area, so bad that some actually went broke. Now, the choo-choo is $2 million over budget! I wonder how they will pay for that, maybe the road money since that doesn't get used anyway.


Well that's my rant.

Good gawd, its been almost a year since my last visit here, so maybe an update is in order for this last year's happenings. I think the best way textually would be short bullet points.

• Finished pilot license last december, started working on and almost finished with instrument rating add on.
• Just as busy fire season as summer before.
• Had to do Line of Duty escort in my engine, that sucked.
• Spent 15 days in New Mexico cutting fire burned trees.
• Spent a month in Montana, loved it, would move there if it didn't get as cold as it does during the winter, but then again it is south Canada.
• Started prospecting a little bit, a.k.a. digging for gold.
• Working out 5-6 days a week, and have lost some weight.
• Grape vines got ravaged by caterpillars while I was up north.
• Got a new tattoo.

And new maybe a few pictures

Ah, another travel day, but a short one, only an hour flight from houston to Corpus.

Thought I'd share a bit from my last travel day that I never got around to sharing. First there was a guy at the airport in Tucson that was a champ. It was 9 am and he was already at the bar with a beer and shot of tequila, I almost wanted to join him. Second, there was a kid whining to his mom that he didn't have a kindle, and didn't want to read a regular book. Later said child started crying when his iphone touch wouldn't connect to the wifi in the airport. If that was my child, he would be in a dog carrier going in the cargo hold.period.

So with Houston being a busy airport, we'll see what happens or is whitnessed today.

Garden update

Thanks to the new humming bird feeder, the one hummer that comes to the feeder actually hangs out for a bit, hopefully he'll go and tell his friends about this good nectre. Also spotted a few bees buzzing around as well. Otherwise the onions are starting to pop up, and some wildflowers that I seeded are sprouting too.  Today, I just planted some maroon pansies, another poppy, and a black petunia. The only closest to true black flower. A few shots:

stuff

So its been a few weeks of not working, and its been nice. Getting caught up on housework, spending more time with the dog. Also cooking more and soon going to the gym regularly so I can stay in shape and hopefully trim up/ get buffer.

In the garden I have a hummingbird and bee now, the velvet roses are in full bloom. The grapes are backing off, but I think its the changing of the season, since the vineyard a mile away looks like theyre backing off too, and I think I finally have the catapillar battle won. Next is taking over the weeds near the garden and across the yard, but I think I might hire someone to do it for me, havent decided yet, a friend knows someone that'll do it for $10 an hour, and I'd pay that for them to take care of the cacti that need to come out. Thinking also of putting some succulants on a side garden in the front, my landlord said that there used to be cherry sage there. Along with the side, I'm thinking of maybe a small hydroponic set up for peppers or strawberries or cucumbers.

A closer/ing look at the fountain.

Garden Updates

Summer fire season is over, and so time to redo and improve the garden. The tomatoes are out and bell peppers are out. A new rose, carrots, strawberries, poppys, lavender, and wildflower seeds are in.  I also made a small solar fountain for the garden as well, hopefully this will attract some much welcome bees and other pollinators.  A few shots:

Well reader, guess I'd better fill in on what has been going on. I was pulled from a local fire to go with a group of engines to Montana, no Idaho, no Montana, no Idaho. Currently I'm in Idaho but right on the border with MT. The scenery is awesome. I'm not with my own engine, but its for the better, they're camping out, and the capt accidently grabbed my tent out of the truck thinking it was his, his I guess might be sitting back in AZ. Leaving me...tentless. I'm staying in a cabin, theres no cell signal, but wifi up the street at the lodge/bar/gas station/general store. Obviously that is how I am writing on here. Did I mention the scenery is great? There are a few fires going, but they're getting turned over to a team, and I'm here specifically for new fires so that means, drive around and look at stuff and go fishing.  Unfortunitly, I am missing parts of my travel fishing rod, so no fishing until we go to a real town and I can stop somewhere and get another rod.  Atleast at the bar, the beer is cold, the service sucks tho. 

Thats it for now