The Happy
Birthday Rooster was at it early this morning. I heard him singing his song at
about 4:15 a.m., when I got up to check on a different noise that woke me up.
Honestly, it sounded like the toilet paper was being unrolled. …since the
toilet paper holder is on a slight slant there is a muffled rattling noise when
the paper is being unrolled. But the bathroom was empty. Hmmm…
I fell back asleep
listening to Happy Birthday being crowed across the street and it wasn’t until
I got up for good at 6:30 that I realized what the noise was…the bathroom fan
was open and rattled when the wind caught it. Better late than never on
figuring out the source of weird noises.
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Before our bike
ride, I rode over to get a recording of the rooster crowing Happy Birthday. I
don’t know that Mom or Kim hear it that way, but it’s so obvious to me. Anyway,
there was a lot of wind noise on my recording, and I tried to isolate the
rooster using Audacity, an audio program. It wasn’t working and the
instructions weren’t clear to a beginner. It was nothing but frustrating so I
walked away from it. Maybe I’ll have to ask Ezra to help me with it. Or else
get a cleaner recording of the rooster.
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Left about 7:30
on the e-bikes, heading east on the frontage road toward Exit 219. Definitely needed pedal assist on that leg of
the ride and it was still quite a workout. Then we took a break at the gas
station before heading west on the frontage road by the train tracks, heading
to Exit 211. Thankfully, the wind was our friend heading west. We had to ride
another mile or so heading into the wind before arriving back at camp at about
10 o’clock. Kim did some kind of
calculation and determined that the wind was about 15 mph. Rode over twenty
miles today.
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Turned the A/C on when we returned from our
bike ride. At my suggestion, we drove to
the Gu-atchi Trading Post for some nachos. First time this year. Needed to get
out of the camper and do something, see something.
Well, we saw
something at the Trading Post alright. The parking lot was full, there were
tents, and lots of people. Craft show? Memorial celebration? On our past nacho trips, there would usually
be just a handful of customers, including us. Young, old and in-between were in
attendance today, sitting and standing around the side yard.
When we went
inside for nachos, I asked the cashier what was going on be and she said it was
just a community celebration. That community was important to the tribal people
and the trading post was a handy place to gather. There were a couple of food
vendors, music, crafts for sale, games, etc. When I heard food vendors, I asked
if anyone was selling frybread tacos; the answer was “Yes!” Forget the nachos, frybread here I
come!
After we were
done eating, Kim and I wandered back over to buy a ‘trinket’ to take home. Kim
bought some Prickly Pear Lemonade, which he traded for my Gatorade because the
lemonade was too sweet, while I wandered over to a craft vendor. I asked her if
a small metal roadrunner was interchangeable with other items on her windchimes.
She made a sale when she smiled and said, “They sure can be because I have my
drill with me.” 🙂 The chimes have saguaro, prickly pear, quail,
and roadrunner metal cutouts, all things to remind me of Arizona.
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Then we drove
down Hwy 86 to check on one of my first crested saguaros. I like to compare its growth from the first
time I saw it in 2019 to the present. Kim took the opportunity to get the drone out
and fly it around the saguaro.
On our way back
down IR 15 on the reservation, I took a picture of another one of my crested
saguaros. I have a list in my head of all the places I’ve seen them. However,
there’s one over on the Tom Mix Road (Hwy 79) that I got a picture of but
cannot for the life of me find it again. One of these days….
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Saw a crested
Caracara standing watch on top of a saguaro on the drive back to IR 15.
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Wind advisory
was still in effect today until 2 p.m. There was no major wind around the camp,
just the typical morning breeze. While we were riding against the wind on the
first leg of our bike ride, I didn’t think it was any stronger than I’ve
encountered on previous rides down the frontage road. But…even though I
couldn’t feel the forecasted wind, I could see its effect. Visibility was fine in our immediate vicinity,
but a brown haze was hanging in the air out in the distance; and that meant something
had to be stirring up dust. The depth of the mountains on the reservation were
so pronounced in the haze…layers were much more visible than on a clear sunny day.
Very artistic!
Temperature hit
the high 90’s…slightly lower than it has been but still brutal in direct sunlight.
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When we first got out here, the garage area of
the camper became my space because the dinette tale is a bit too cramped when
both Kim and I have our computers out. Kept the garage set up as a second
bedroom while Gabe was here and then again when Adam visited. That meant that
Kim and I had to share the dinette table and that a lawn chair had to be set up
for a third person to sit. Decided that when Mom is here, we’d take the time to
lift the bed every morning to give us the use of the couch and table. It’s less
than a 10-minute process and because it enables us to spread out, taking the
time to do it makes life in a camper seem less crowded.
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I just read
today that Dash Crofts, of Seals and Crofts, died this past Wednesday (March 25th).
Why hadn’t I heard that? What was
even more surprising was to read that he was 87 years old. Never would have
guessed that.
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A headline on my
news feed today claimed that “1972 Career-Defining Classic Was a No. 1 Hit Song
54 Years Ago Today”. The article featured a picture of Donny Osmond so I
figured they must have been referring to “Go Away, Little Girl” or “Puppy Love”.
Nope. The article was about his version of “The Twelfth of Never”, a song I don’t
remember hearing him sing. The video was imbedded in the article, so I watched
it…nope, still didn’t remember it. Calling
it career defining may have been a bit of an overstatement.
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Moon is too
bright for Kim to get more data on the Whirlpool Galaxy. And it was too much of a hassle to change
scopes in the dark to do a nebula. So, he processed the existing data to see
what kind of image it would produce.
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