The week before Bob Goodwin (in the middle) up and died he had the forethought (well it wasn’t planned I’m sure) to invite us over to play with some of his toys. That WW1 vintage heavy machinegun was quite a collectors piece.
Bob was one of those guys that loved the finer things in life … guns, motorcycles, and his family. Every time I saw him it was like going on a vacation.
It doesn’t really jump but all one has to do is to barely touch it and it digs in. The barbs at the tip are such that they will work in more deeply with a little movement. I just touched one of the pieces on the ground and it attached to the tip of my boot. It is the method of this plant to reproduce, animals and wind carry away parts of the plant and they root where they stop. One of my dogs got into one of these and it took pliers to get the barbs out. Not a pretty experience.
Plant Ocotillos around your property and it’s like putting up concertina wire. Remember those scenes from Disney’s Snow White with the thistles, this must be the stuff!
We also have our full-grown phallic symbols and our little insipient ones.
Then there was that treacherous mix of trucks towing boats and bicyclists on narrowing roads with blind corners and hills. But wow what a beautiful morning!
Well it hasn’t even been the first 100 days and we’ve heard Bama trash the job of generations of American presidents, seen the trampling of property rights, heard plans for the huge expansion of government financed in large part by the demonization (and taxation) of a harmless gas, seen just how much help the Europeans (NATO) will be in Afghanistan (the only just front against terror), watched the UN in action (in all its usefulness), seen the North Koreans threaten our allies in Asia, watched Iran prepare to go nuclear (after the plea for help to our peaceful friends the Rooskies and the “world community”), and looked on helplessly as an American crew was taken hostage by pirates. I sure hope the smartest people in the world can do better than that dull tool, Bush. There isn’t much time for an extended learning curve in the big leagues but it looks like we may be reliving Jimmy Carter and the 70’s.
President Obama should not be listened to, he should be watched. His words support free enterprise and self-reliance but his actions are socialist to the core. It can’t be viewed in any other way. He has consistently grabbed more government control in every business he has lain his eyes on. In every area, education, energy, finance, health and even automobiles, his words suggest just a little tinkering to “help” but his actions mean government control. Not just temporarily but permanently. No other president has had the “audacity” to fire and hire (as well as threaten) CEOs and board members of companies that took the “help” of the government. And he wants to “help” all of us.
