Seasons

LHC seasons aren't your traditional 4.  There are 3 main seasons and one sub season.  Here 's a description of each one.

Snowbird
November through March.  It's a massive infestation of migratory Wobblies and Q-tips* from northern states and provinces.  Most of them come via highway and it takes them a very long time to get here because their top speed is 15 MPH.  Upon arrival they immediately clog up streets and supermarket aisles, much like hairballs clog up the drain in your bathroom sink. 

Shoulder
This is a two part season: April/May and September/October. It's a quiet time, a breather between the Snowbird and Heat! crowds.  You can drive the streets at normal speeds. You can do the grocery shopping without encountering roadblocks of shopping carts parked sideways in the aisles by Mr Oblivious and his cronies, while they conduct their monthly cost comparison of Depends vs Brand X. You can take pleasant walks along the London Bridge channel without having your eardrums blown by roaring boats and blaring music.

Heat!
June through August.  It's party hearty on the water time: sunburn and boats, silicon and steroids, ink and bling.  And beer.  Lots of beer.  Most partiers are vacationers from southern Cal and I guarantee you their en route speed exceeds 15 MPH.  Trish and I, like most of the retired folks who live here, leave town during Heat!  It's the beat feet and cheat the heat retreat, heading north a thousand miles or so to hang out where it's much cooler.

Spawning
This is the sub season; it occurs in March.  Spring breakers from all over the country flock into town to strut their stuff, tout their wares and drink.  And spawn.  Throbbing boat motors, throbbing rap music, throbbing glands.  The pollen count along the channel is horrendous.  Lots of young local folk polish up their boats, don their best water rags and join the melee, hoping to get lucky, maybe add some diversification to the gene pool.  It's entertaining to watch.  Some retired people like myself go down to the channel occasionally, taking folding chairs, snacks and a couple of cold ones to observe the mating rituals for awhile.

*Q-tips are seniors with both white hair and white tennis shoes.  Being a senior myself, it's okay to poke fun at them/us and ignore the political incorrectness of doing so.  Besides, as you've probably guessed, I'm not a fan of PC.  To me the PC movement is a group of twits desperately seeking new and creative ways to be offended so they can point accusing fingers at the alleged offenders and holler, 'Gotcha!'

Don't get me wrong: I detest bigotry in general and I try to be unbiased.  But, lets face it: humans are tribal by nature and it's not limited to ethnicity.  What are gangs, religions and political parties and on and on - if not manifestations of our tribal tendencies?  It's part of our programming and it's not going away anytime soon.  The best we can do is understand that we're bent that way, try to rise above it and avoid pointing fingers.

Geese

We first saw this rig at Patagonia Lake SP 5 days ago.  When we pulled into our campsite at Tucson Mountain Park, there it was again, right beside us.  Yesterday, we chatted with the rig's owner, a German fellow.  He and his wife are spending a year touring the US.

They ordered the RV from the factory here in the States and specified that it be plain white with no decals or graphics whatsoever.  With computer software, they sketched the geese and used a picture of a Salton Sea sunset for the color.  Then they sized and placed the graphics on an image of the RV, and when they had them just right, ordered industrial quality decals of the geese.  The geese decals are on all four sides of the RV and they also put a set of miniature geese on the tailgate of the pickup that tows the rig.

RV decals are problematic, especially if the RV is exposed to the elements year round - like ours is.  The decals start to crack and fade after 2-3 years.  If replacement decals are available, and often they are not, you can go that route but they, too, will be toast in 2-3 years.  How about just removing all the decals and leaving the rig plain white?  Nope.  That doesn't work cuz there's no clear coat protective finish under the decals.  Strip off the decals and you're gonna have a bunch of ugly yellow streaks where they once lived.  If and when we get a new RV we may just follow the example of the German Goose Gaggle Guys and go with plain white.

Gilbert Ray

We met old friends Al & Gin for dinner last night at the Thunder Canyon Brewpub in Tucson.  They winter in Oro Valley, a bit north of Tucson, spend summers in their lovely home on Island Lake, near Duluth.

We're in the Gilbert Ray campground, which is part of Tucson Mountain Park, west of Tucson.  TMP once included what is now the western portion of Saguaro Nat'l Park.  In the mid-60s, a portion of TMP was spun off and declared a national monument (later upgraded to NP status) to protect it from proposed mining operations.  Would have been a darn shame to ruin this beautiful area by mining. 

The pix of TMP speak for themselves, and elegant prose it is.  There are thousands of towering saguaros plus ocotillo, barrel cactus, mesquite, cholla, prickly pear and many more.  It's the Sonoran Desert at its finest.  We stayed here 4 years ago and are delighted to be back - and to share it with Doug & Jan, who are in the campsite adjacent to ours.  We head back to LHC tomorrow AM.

This interesting specimen is just a few steps away from our campsite.

Cholla, prickly pear and EDGE.

The sticks, both on the ground and upright, are saguaro bones.  That's what's left when they die and dry up.

Fish hook barrel cactus.  They get about 5' tall and often grow in a swirl pattern.

Here's a huge saguaro that died more recently than did the one two frames back.  Much of the flesh is still there.  You can see the 'bones' near the base. 

The best of friends, saguaro and palo verde are often seen together, sometimes totally wrapped up in each other.

Sundown at the park.  Say goodnight, Dick.

Boot Hill & Bisbee

Nasty weather for our tour of Boot hill and Bisbee yesterday: rain, chilly, very windy.

Not sure what relation Bill was to me, don't recall him ever being mentioned in the family history.  Anyway his misdeeds caught up with him - and his buddies also.  If you want the story behind the hangings, check this link: http://www.wyomerc.com/essays/TombstoneHangings.html

Now, that's downright sad.  Appeals and retrials are of no benefit whatsoever post-stretch, no way to un-hang the poor bugger.

We drove down to Bisbee, had lunch, did a narrated trolley tour of the town and browsed the shops and museums a bit.  It snowed there off and on, and again this AM en route to Tucson from Tombstone; both Bisbee and Tombstone are in high county, altitude around 5200'. 

Bisbee was a copper mining boom town starting in the early 1900s and continuing until the mid 70s.  Nowadays the main industry is tourism and it's well worth a visit.  Very interesting history and topography, several good dining spots and numerous artsy craftsy shops.

Tombstone

We watched a reenactment of the OK Corral gunfight yesterday, followed by a historama of the town's history narrated by Vincent Price.  Both were well done.  Also peeked into a few of the famous saloons and visited the Tombstone Epitaph museum.  This was quite the colorful place in its heyday, similar to many other mining boom towns of the period.

Doc Holiday talking to Billy Clanton before the gunfight.

The Earps arrive.

The confrontation just prior to the action.

Surveying the damage, 3 dead, 3 wounded, 2 unscathed.

The gunfight lasted only a few seconds, result: 3 Clanton/McClaury's killed, 2 Earps wounded, Doc Holiday also slightly injured.  Ike Clanton, the nastiest of the bunch, got away unharmed.  The reenactment had Doc Holiday starting the action by discharging a shotgun into the air; Doc's motives and loyalties were unclear. 

The jury's still out - and always will be - as to whether the killings were justified.  Two of the so-called bad guys were unarmed.  Said bad guys were likely involved in cattle rustling and an attempted stage coach robbery but I don't think it was ever proven.

Above and below are 2 of the 3 horse drawn rigs that cruised Tombstone's main drag, giving rides to a few of the tourists.

Tubac, AZ

Never heard of Tubac before Trish said that she wanted to visit the Tubac Presidio Historical Park - which is what we did yesterday.  It was a Spanish fort dating back to 1752; nearby are 4 missions with the same vintage.  The Spanish always gave people a choice: convert or die.  The carrot and stick approach, using the ultimate stick.  Who can forget the good old days of The Spanish Inquisition?

The town of Tubac, again a place I didn't know existed, boasts dozens of studios, galleries and artsy-craftsy shops with lots of very attractive paintings, sculptures and such.  Quite a delightful find.  Pix below are of just a couple of shops that had lots of stuff displayed outside.

After returning from Tubac, Trish, Doug and Jan drove to the town of Patagonia; I opted out.  They returned much sooner than expected, reporting that Patagonia was a big disappointment.  We'd heard that it was a really neat place with lots of artists in residence but the reality was much different - shabby, hippyesque, blah.  Opting out was a lucky choice.

Today, we head out for our 2nd stop, Tombstone.  We'll be there 2 nights, will see the Tombstone sights this afternoon and do a daytrip to Bisbee tomorrow.  Bisbee's rep is similar to Patagonia's, hope it's not another bust.

Pyrrhuloxia

Anybody know what that word means?  Let’s see: the first 3 letters have me thinking it has something to do with fire, as in pyromaniac.  Then there’s ‘ox’ which smacks of oxygen, and ‘ia’ a suffix often used in naming an illness (pneumonia) or phobia (claustrophobia).  So, my guess would be ‘a person with a deep fear of suffocating in a fire’.  Second guess: a person who actually died from suffocation in a fire.  What’s your guess?
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My guesses are way off.  It’s a bird.  A very attractive bird and a member of the cardinal family, it is light gray with rosy-red chest, wings and crest (male).  Females are, of course, duller, as females tend to be.  Please don’t be offended, readers of the female persuasion; the female=dull thing only applies to critters.  Everyone knows homo-sapiens are an anomaly when it comes to coloration: females are into gaudy, men aren’t.  Sure, there are notable exceptions, Elton John being the poster child.  I’ve crossed paths with the occasional dull female, also, and suspect they’re more numerous than their male counterparts.
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I saw my first pyr-whatever yesterday in Patagonia Lake State Park, where we’re spending the first 2 nights of 6-nighter RV trip.  Doug & Jan, Trish’s brother and sister in law, are traveling with us; they have a 5^th wheel RV.  Also saw a northern cardinal, which, if the name is meaningful, is hopelessly lost.  We’re only a few miles from the Mexican border, can’t get more southern than this.  In truth, said cardinal’s habitat includes most of the eastern US, extending into Canada - plus a small area in the southwestern US.
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Getting back to the pyr-bird and its cousins, I must protest the naming thereof.  First, the pyrrhuloxia: it’s downright cruel to hang a handle like that on a poor innocent bird.  Then there’s the northern cardinal.  One assumes it’s called northern to distinguish it from its relative, the southern cardinal.  But no, there is no such bird; no western or eastern cardinals either.  Another family member is the American goldfinch.  But - is there an un-American goldfinch?  No.  Who named these birds?  Did the naming expedition have marching orders to ignore all logic and common sense?  What say we start the Occupy Audubon movement and get this naming mess cleaned up?

The Road to Hell

The Road to Hell

Combining my love of words and word play with my artistic efforts was inevitable, I reckon.  Converting the written or spoken word to an image is hardly new.  Lots of famous artists and cartoonists have done it, often with a humorous twist.  Cartoonist Gary Larson and The Far Side come to mind, gotta love 'Boneless Chicken Ranch'. 

Primitive

Trish says I'm primitive.  Not me actually - my paintings.  When I hear the word primitive, I envision cave dwellers, knuckle draggers and the local boys in the movie, Deliverance.  I had only a vague idea of what the term meant in reference to art, wasn't sure I liked being classified as such.

So I googled it.  The first website I checked was Yahoo Answers.  The favorite answer was 'paintings by people who aren't white.'  Huh!  I'm not as white as I was before moving to AZ, but ethnicity-wise I still qualify.  No doubt the black brothers would include me in the 'whitey' group. 

One wonders about the average intellect of folks who contribute to Yahoo Answers.  The answer itself is asinine.  Those who made it the favorite answer - thousands of people, I suppose - raise the asininity bar (see below) to a previously unimagined level.  Talk about primitive.  And here's some more primitive, Wikipedia's definition of yahoo: a noun, meaning a brute, a crude person, often lacking in intelligence, and uninterested in culture, a yokel, hillbilly.  That caps it.  Asinine yokels.  Yahoo, go suck an egg. 

The Wikipedia definition for primitive art is that 'created by untrained artists.'  That's me alright, no training whatsoever.  Further research revealed two alternative words for describing primitive art - folk and naive (as in childlike).  Folk I can handle but naive falls short of floating my boat.  Ah, what the hell - a rose by any other name.  Grandma Moses was a primitive, and was wildly popular.  I could certainly be in worse company.

PS: The Asininity Bar - great name for a saloon, one that attracts gangbangers and militant Muslims.

Sonoran Sunset

The Sonoran Desert is mostly in Mexico but includes a piece of southern AZ and the southeast corner of CA.  Tucson is in the Sonoran and averages about 12" of rain per year - roughly twice what we get here in LHC, which is on the border of the Sonoran and Mohave deserts; the Mohave abuts the northern edge of the Sonoran.  Much of the Sonoran resembles a carefully laid out park with an amazing variety of drought tolerant plants attractively spaced and arranged by that professional landscaper Mother Nature.

My most recent painting is a Sonoran desert landscape.  I didn't plan it that way, was thinking a quite different, albeit related, scene.  Sometimes a partially painted canvas develops a mind of its own and the artist just goes with the flow.  It's either that or bag it, slap on a mess of white paint and start over.  Being lazy, I go with the flow.  Mostly.

Sonoran Desert