Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

Unqualified.

There is a certain amount of danger with having unqualified people in high positions of power, for example, a federal judiciary position. Trump placed a lot of unqualified people in these positions and they make uninformed, reckless decisions that affect the entire country.

Enter the ending of mask mandates today per one unqualified judge in Florida.

This is just another round of bringing the country to the absolutely lowest common denominator and catering to the folks that don’t like to feel as stupid as they are. They’re offended by common sense, more fragile than the common snowflake, and a plague on our society. For years we’ve heard, “it gets better”. The country as a whole will not get better.

I don’t care if you wear a mask or not. I’m doing everything scientifically sound to keep me and my family safe from the lingering pandemic. If folks want to be reckless and want to risk permanent health concerns or even death, that’s fine. Thin the herd.

I just wish someone else in power would be reckless and negate any insurance coverage when someone chooses to go unvaccinated and then wants to be cured of their foolishness.

18 April 2022 by J.P. This Ain't No CNN. 1

Easter 2022.

Prior to moving to the desert, my husband and I would go for a picnic on Easter to mark the start of nicer weather. This is when we lived up north and the weather could vary wildly on Easter Sunday. Sometimes it would cold and rainy, sometimes it’d be pleasantly warm, and one year it was almost 90 degrees.

This year the five of us are having Easter dinner in our dining room, complete with the new dining room chairs that arrived this week. I’d say that’s worth celebrating.

Since Easter is a Christian religious holiday, I can’t help but think about my religion in my upbringing. I’d best describe the experience as casual Methodist. Aside from the prayer before supper every night, we didn’t really talk about it that much. There was a time period where my sister’s kindergarten teacher, who was married to the minister of a church down the road that was decidedly not Methodist, convinced my mother that the family should go to their church. That went well for a little bit. It was my only experience with “Vacation Bible School” that seemed a lot like school during summer break. The minister and wife took four elementary aged boys to Marineland in Niagara Falls for a day trip. That was fun. We had a prayer circle in the parking lot. But then my sister and I were told we couldn’t go to heaven because we were “sprinkled” and not “dunked” when we were baptized and Mom promptly pulled the plug on that. We resumed going to the Methodist church in the village on holidays and special occasions. Some in the congregation were judgey because we lived out in the farmland but we made due. My grandmother always had a problem with the fact the church paid the organist; before the closer Methodist church shut down she had volunteered to play the organ for many years.

Easter wrapped up what I thought of as the “Holiday Trifecta” when we’d going from eating at the dinner table inside and start having family picnics as the state park once in a while. As a kid that was more fun for me.

But I always enjoy spending time with family on occasions like this.

The table is set for Easter 2022. Puppies in the background.

17 April 2022 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

Ride.

I had never been much further west along Ajo Way much beyond Ryan Airfield. I told my husband I wanted to go on a road trip and so off I went with his blessing.

Beyond Ryan Airfield is 120 miles of open desert with a brief stop here and there for small hamlets that have very little in the way of population. I did pass through a couple of Border Patrol Checkpoints, as my ride did take me fairly close to the border.

I did stop so a dust devil could cross the road.

16 April 2022 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

Caturday.

Chris took this photo during lunch this past week. While Truman may strike a cute pose from time to time, there can be an occasionally menacing look in his eyes.

He’s so cute.

16 April 2022 by J.P. He's A Feline. 0

Random Fact.

Random fact of the day: Alice and Tommy are driving from the east to west coast when they break down in the opening credits to “Alice”. However, lookup up at the sign that says “Phoenix”, the other sign says “El Paso”, which means they’re in Tucson, and coming up from Nogales.

Here’s a link to my favorite version of Linda Lavin singing “There’s A New Girl In Town”.

15 April 2022 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

Cincinnati Chili.

Tonight was the first night I’ve made supper for the family since we’ve moved to Tucson. Everyone survived the experience and agreed on the enjoyment factor of my effort.

I made Cincinnati Chili. This is a rough representation of the deliciousness I’ve experienced at Skyline Chili in Cincinnati. Granted I didn’t go crazy with the cheese and I didn’t use yellow cheddar cheese, but I had to put my own spin on it. After all, we’re a long way from Cincinnati.

14 April 2022 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

Epic?

2012, when I still was more cinnamon than sugar

When I talk to my mom we use FaceTime. On a recent call she noticed I had grown a mustache. The current mustache has actually been around for six weeks, but I’ve been letting it get a little longer than I’ve kept it for the past decade or so.

It’s been 10 years since I had what some called the “Epic ‘Stache”, which was that big thing I had on my face for a number of years. The mustache was inspired by a similar style on two different men I had crossed paths with. The first was the daily delivery guy who would drop off Airborne Express packages at the radio station and I’d spy his smile under his big mustache. His name was Chris. The last time I saw him was probably in the year 2000; we were at one of the buffet places and he was with his family. He came over to hug me and he was very nice. I wonder if he’s still alive and kicking and if so, I also wonder if he still has the big mustache.

The second man was Dan, who was new to the gay campground we used to go to back in the day. We had met shortly after he’d come out of the closet, was still processing the subsequent divorce, and we had a nice chat amongst all the rowdiness around the campfire. I know he eventually worked at the campground but we didn’t go down there as much so I haven’t seen in him about 12 years. I hope he’s still alive and kicking and doing well.

Anyways, I’ve felt the need to grow the bigger mustache again and it’s coming along much more grey than I remember it being the last time I had a mustache. I’m OK with. I’ll officially be in my mid-50s this year so the grey is not unexpected. I’ve earned it, and since I can’t show it off on top, the least I can do is show it on my face.

13 April 2022 by J.P. Gayish. 0

Biographical?

Promotional photo for “Julia” on HBOMax, pulled from eonline.com

We’ve been watching the series “Julia” on HBOMax. As a solid member of Gen-X, I’m well aware of who Julia Child is and her inspiring culinary ways. We are enjoying the experience.

I’m always curious as to whether what we’re seeing in a biographical TV outing such as this is actually biographical. Taking a look at this article in The Washington Post, it turns out the show runners tried to keep the series somewhat biographical. There are invented characters and situations made for television, but as they said, they’re trying to stick to what’s written about Julia’s life in Wikipedia. (The fact they’re sourcing Wikipedia for this is a completely different topic). The thing is, they’re “filling in between the lines” to account for some of the circumstances that drives what we see on-screen Julia do with her career.

Apparently, Julia Child was a reasonably private person, separating her public persona from her home life. Admirable. There’s a wide swatch of certain celebrities that I wish would do the same thing (though, what would I gripe about once in a while on this blog?). I don’t know if it’s due to my wiring or an inability to separate fact from fiction or what, but I find it a bit confusing when a known person in being portrayed on television differently, or even with a bigger dose of embellishment than expected, than what actually happened.

Perhaps my expectations are just different or I need to be reminded that series such as “Julia” are for entertainment purposes only.

Well, in that regard, I am certainly being entertained and I look forward to finishing out the series.

12 April 2022 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 0

Same Old.

So many parts of this clip are still true in today’s world.

11 April 2022 by J.P. Political BS. 0

Nature.

Matt and I went hiking up on Mount Lemmon yesterday. It was our third hike together and I’m happy to have a hiking buddy here in the desert. It’s getting to the time of year where the desert is getting a little too warm for hiking, so we trekked up to Summerhaven near the top of Mount Lemmon and went on a seven mile hike on the Mint Springs Trail.

The fire on Mount Lemmon a few years has left many trees blackened, and there’s been some rearranging of trail markers and such, so we got off the trail for a few moments but found our way back to where we were suppose to be. Other than that it was a beautiful day for a hike and we had a great time. When all was said and done we hiked 7 1/2 miles and climbed about 2000′ across the entire hike.

My legs are holding up well this evening. I’m starting to get used to this. We’re going to give it another whirl in a couple of weeks.