Alamo Lake

 We first visited Alamo Lake 13 years ago.  I was there again about 6 years back, hanging out with old college friends.  It's off the communication grid: no cell phone signal and no WIFI.

The earthen dam that forms the lake on the Bill Williams River.  Having visited Grand Coulee Dam, Hoover Dam, and several others, this one isn't a bit impressive. 

This overlook is near the dam.  Trish is reading the sign, part of which is shown below.  The name Bill Williams intrigues me: why his parents gave him the same first and last name is beyond me.  I have to wonder: was his middle name Bill also?

We returned from Alamo Lake yesterday.  As noted in my prior post, it was our last RV trip.

We're Done RVing

 We just returned from our last RV outing.  The RV and the truck that towed it will soon be on the auction block.

We loved every bit of our 15 years of RVing.  But: the short trips around AZ and northern Mexico aren't much fun without friends.  There were 5 RV couples at first.  In the last few years that dwindled down to 2: Terry and Lisa., and us.  T & L joined us on our recent trip to Alamo Lake State Park, and told us it was their last.  We quickly decided it was our last, also.

The loss of RV friends isn't the only reason, of course.  Trish and I are getting up there in age, becoming more forgetful (forgot to pack the ketchup), and towing a big rig has become more tiring and stressful.

What's next?  A smaller, more economical pickup.  And, a place for guests to stay; a much larger challenge.

Baa!

 My latest addition to the menagerie

We had a herd of about 200 sheep on the MN farm where I grew up.

Lambing season was in the spring, and there would always be 2-3 lambs that their mother couldn't nurse.  So we took them to the house and bottle fed them until they were big enough to wean.  I remember one in particular, we called Cuddles.

Shearing was also in the spring, when a couple of professionals would come and shear for a couple days.  My brothers and I wrestled the sheep to the shearer, then gathered up the wool and tied it into bales.  At the end of the day, we'd be awash in lanolin - and a few sheep ticks to boot.

Poodle

 I didn't really plan to paint a bunch of critters.  That said, I just painted the fourth one, a poodle.

So, what the hell, seems I'm on a roll: gonna do a few more critters, at least the rest of those we had on the MN farm where I grew up.  They won't be realistic.  If you prefer reality, you could take a photo of the real thing.

Borrego Springs, CA

It's been on Trish's bucket list for several years because it's said to have a fantastic dessert bloom about this time of year.  Key word: about.  We missed it.  You need to reserve an RV space months in advance and there's no way to tell exactly when the bloom will occur.  We reserved the only space available.

The other big attraction is metal sculptures, which are spread out around town.  We saw most of them.  

This sandworm is about 300' long and goes under the road.

The young one seems large to be hitchhiking on mom's back.

Farmworkers.

Our rv park was old and was designed for smaller rigs than our 32' 5W.  I spent 40 minutes trying to back into our space, finally gave up.  Spent another 30 minutes getting into the only other available space.  Finally gave up trying to back it in straight, left it at angle, said the hell with it.

It's a spendy place.  My sons' hotel room was $475 a night.  Restaurants were expensive, too, - grossly overpriced for marginal food and lousy service.

The frosting on the cake: rv park wifi was so f-ing weak, I couldn't do diddly squat.

Definitely not a happy camper!

Cowboys vs Aliens

Movie review.  It may be the stupidest, most ridiculous, most camp flick we've ever seen.  But - we loved it!  Laughed our asses off.  

Star power: Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Keith Carradine, Olivia Wilde, several others you may recognize.  How they ever got this much talent for such a lousy movie is beyond me.  I'll bet the actors laughed a lot when they were making it.

A combination of Alien, Star Trek, James Bond, and cowboys and Indians movies.

It streams on Netflix.

 https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tLP1TdITjbNTc4yYPQSSszJTM0rVkjMS1FIzi9Pyq8sBgCk3QrH&q=cowboys+vs+aliens+cast&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS867US867&oq=aliens+%26+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgBEC4YChiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAuGAoYgAQyCQgCEAAYChiABDIJCAMQABgKGIAEMgkIBBAuGAoYgAQyCQgFEAAYChiABDIJCAYQABgKGIAEMgkIBxAAGAoYgAQyCQgIEC4YChiABNIBCTE0NDg0ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&si=AKbGX_pdKZ2aImOX4iClatj4MUUcJH3UAn06I4n4vwyWsCLA5i5gUDavrK5TCIr_BZ6aOS3_zOg3pUKnZeX1Ag0NCPlqXSdswq4HoHo_s6j6J-u3epB8UYqp1PMpcGR40m0nlRfVBgRLDxjPOnBFOd_pTicu3QskOw%3D%3D&ictx=1&ved=2ahUKEwjtlLy05amEAxUqEkQIHfljBcUQ9JYCKAd6BAgwEBE&clie=1

If you watch it, please let me know if you enjoyed as much as we did.

Cheapskate

Lots of folks my age were children of parents who suffered through The Great Depression.  We grew up on the cheap.  I grew up on a farm.  The Depression didn't impact farmers as much as city dwellers.  We grew or raised most of our own food, preserved it by canning and freezing.  We never went hungry.

Farm kids worked hard and darned few were compensated for it, other than food, shelter and clothing.  Allowance?  Uh, uh.  I doubt my Dad even knew the word.  My Mom and us 8 siblings had to beg a few bucks from Dad for Christmas shopping, personal items, anything and everything.  I suspect other farm families were the same, but I never asked my school friends if they got an allowance.   

Now, we are senior adults, and most of us don't need to live on the cheap.  But - no matter how successful we are, how much our net worth, how much we don't have to be frugal - we still are.  Case in point: me.  Although comfortable financially, I'm still a cheapskate.  Yes, I could afford to buy top-of-the-line groceries (I even use coupons), clothing, furnishings, do high-end travel, you name it, mostly I don't.  

Funny thing is, I've donated hundreds of thousands of $ to a favorite cause.  But that doesn't change my day-to-day behavior, my spending habits.  Kinda weird.

Big Blue Phrog

Folks of my vintage may remember the Peter, Paul and Mary song, 'I'm in Love With a Big Blue Phrog'.  

Trish's brother, Doug, loves frogs.  I did a mixed media frog for him, presented it after watching PP&M do the song via Youtube.  He liked it.

Grant, a friend of mine, recently replied to  my 'how ya doin' with "I'm finer than frog hair."  It's an old saying I hadn't heard in some time.  Given that refresher, I added hair to the frog.

A Horse Of a Different Color

 Trish wanted me to paint a horse.  I tried to paint a realistic one but failed, can't draw or sketch worth a damn.  So.....paint an unrealistic horse.  More fun to do, more fun to view.

Some of the mixed media items have meaning.  The RV near LHC on the map.  The dark chocolate (Trish loves the stuff) label.  The old station wagon driving down to Phoenix to hang with college fraternity brothers twice a year.

As for the rest - pure whimsey.  The mane is fake doll hair from Hobby Lobby

Losing It

It's temper I'm talking about, recalling times I've lost it.  

Lost it a lot when I was a kid, had a short fuse.  My closest sibling, Gerry, 3 years older and much larger, knew that well.  He'd either hold me in a bear hug until I cooled off or run like hell to get out of range of whatever I'd throw at him.  He didn't run fast enough to avoid the barbecue fork, though; nailed him in the arm at 12'.  He'd pissed me off by snapping me with the wet dish towel when we were doing the dishes.

My most recent blow up was at a pickleball player.  He called me 'flak jacket' after seeing me wear a tan vest.  I told him what the term meant to me, that a flak jacket had saved my life twice in Vietnam.  It didn't sink in; he called me that every time he saw me.  

I finally lost it, reamed him out, reminded him that a real flak jacket saved my life, and that he should show some respect for combat veterans who'd laid their lives on the line.  Later, I apologised, told him Nam vets were treated harshly when they returned to the US, were sensitive about it, had a short fuse when disrespected.  He's a good guy, had no idea he'd pissed me off repeatedly.

Then, there was the time I lost it in Egypt in '83.  Once a month I had to sit down with the client (City of Alexandria) to review the US dollar invoice.  The invoice was huge, over a million $, and usually about 150 pages.  It had to be approved by the client before being paid by USAID, which funded the project.  The Egyptian guy who reviewed the invoice would go through the invoice page by page, asking me what each item was, took 2-3 hours.  

The approval procedure was well established, since the project had been in progress 4 years.  Omar, the Egyptian guy, ignored the procedure once, disapproved a few items, prior to the sit-down review.  When the invoice was returned to me, I wrote VOID on the front page in big black letters.  He didn't know what void meant, looked it up in some Egyptian/English dictionary, which said it meant 'silly'.  

He was quite unhappy about the void/'silly' thing.  I explained that void meant invalid.  He didn't accept that.  I told him again, using different terms - which didn't work either.  I tried one last time.  And failed. That did it!  I grabbed my briefcase, stormed out of the office, slammed the door as hard as I could.

Next day, my boss told me that Omar wanted me replaced - immediately.  Didn't happen.  I don't recall how the matter was resolved, but the invoice was finally approved and paid.  I never needed to write void again.