Once again on the road
Vision Quest or a trip to Mesa Verde?
September 26, 2017
My notices from the calendar just alerted me tomorrow Nancy will be in Seattle at baggage claim 1 behind door number two. I wonder if she is the good deal or is it behind door number 3? I am sitting at a picnic table; I just finished a peanut butter sandwich and some grapes. I opened my small thermos of coffee made at home. It is so good now lukewarm, but still good. I wonder who Luke was, and did Luke always think liquids were too hot? I also brought a real coffee mug, makes life all the better. I am all squared away just one real disaster (destroyed eyeglasses) and several scurried searches. I have learned once again if you take your jeans off in the tent with change in the pocket there will be coins all over the floor of the tent. I did have the moment of my billfold is not in my jeans or in the tent? This could be bad, but I thought it is probably in the car. It was. I did crush my new glasses I have liked so well. The tent even has little pockets in it for glasses, change, and wallets.
glasses destroyed during hot night in tent (I
was alone, not that type of night)
When I get tired, really tired, my brain function diminishes. Many other functions may diminish as well, but I will not own up to those. I force through out of will, not full awareness. If we are in the rut of the normal routine we function, ah routinely. We have the same habits, and those habits have kept us away from death or electroshock. Our everyday goes, well routinely. I haven’t been in my tent in two years. Therefore, I am prone to do the stupid like leave my glasses on top of computer case, as if I was on the couch at home. The air mattress is a great benefit. It is slick and so is the bag. I am sliding all over the tent and found my glasses with frames separated from lenses at the foot of the tent this morning. My redeeming random act was to grab my old glasses not worn in almost a year as I walked out the door. I do have prescription sunglasses, but I feel odd wearing them indoors. Coffee could be a little warmer, but I learned to drink cold coffee writing that farm program back in Macomb. I would get a cup set it down. By the time I had fixed the syntax or completed the logic of a loop; I would reach for it and it would be stone cold. I am now like Luke I will drink it at any temperature. Also I have the right answer on peanut butter it is Jif; any other answer would be I do not have peanut butter. I do not tolerate offers of organically grown by indigenous peoples crap, either you have Jif peanut butter tightly sealed or you do not have peanut butter.
9/26/17 7:13 PM
Light rain is passing around and nearby. I prepared and moved into tent. I brought in the bag chair. My cell phone signal is weak I only check radar after an hour. I think weather will clear up; I may be watching the stars outside soon. Green blobs on map seem to be moving in more from the south, not west. Arkansas only has two directions, up the ridge or down the holler. I went to the Pea Ridge Battlefield preservation run by the National Park Service. Park Service does a great job we ought to invest more in parks, public lands, putting people in CCC internships in exchange for student loan credit, and other solution minded stuff. We need policies to create solution to disparate problems by doing needed things and stimulating economic growth. We have policy makers who acknowledge their proposals might make things worse, but they have made campaign promises. The unspoken part is to big money campaign donors who now want the government they bought to stay bought. It has begun to lightly rain, but as one farm neighbor used to say it might just be a clearing up shower. I suppose it will wash off the yellow smear a pretty blackish butterfly left on the car. I was watching as it sat there, then I watched it fly away leaving a yellow streak. Maybe it was eggs, a poor choice butterfly. I love nature as long as it doesn’t affect me. Do not spray and kill butterflies, but I don’t want mosquitos. People view nature as idyllic, but it is a real pain in the butt. The best chance of morning rain is when I am leaving. I may be packing a wet tent; the high desert mesas will dry it out. Tree frogs are even happier tonight. I always watch the visitor’s center video of the battle preserved. I thought the Pea Ridge video, not well done. They must have allowed the re-enactors to write it. A good deal of the Southern POV of civil war history is embedded in the narrative. Always each event viewed from the – if only this or that. The Lost Causers are as sorry a lot of Monday morning quarterbacks as I have ever had to endure. Time and time again in any battle if someone with are advantage of hindsight could have given a command it would have turned the tide of battle. Pea Ridge Battlefield movie really jabbed the commanding Confederate general, but his tactics were more like Stonewall Jackson’s than many generals. He ran into a Union general willing to mount a great defense, even after being out maneuvered. The best thing that ever happened in this country is the Union vanquished the South. It would have been so much better if Lincoln had finished his second term. U.S. Grant should have overseen a military occupation for ten or fifteen years. Humanity would not have been better served by more Southern victories.
Elk Horn Tavern at Pea Ridge Battlefield
Click to continue