Because We Can

Our first morning in a town with a pet store since Red Rob met his untimely end, and that is where we were headed, to get Red Rob's replacement. I have never figured out what the difference is between a Petsmart and a Petco because they look pretty much the same. I do have to say that in general the fish in Petsmart always appear to be healthier and the live plants are in better condition. Based on that, I guess we are lucky that the pet store in Bullhead City is a Petsmart. Whatever it was, you can see Linda was impatiently waiting for me take the photo so we could go inside and buy a Betta. Look at all those Bettas. If you're looking for the very best one, look no further than Bob's hand. There you will see the yet to be named Blue Max. As for the origin of Blue Max, Max comes from the name of our son's cat who is a real live wire. The blue is more obvious, as it reflects our state of mind after the loss of Red Rob. Not the best photo of our new boy, as h...

Time to say goodbye to Quartzsite for a while, and when we return in late April it is likely to be just a shell of what it is now. And now sure isn't what it was just a couple of weeks ago, either. Before leaving town we fueled with diesel at the Arco at the east end of Main Street, and one thing that always amazes me is how the price of fuel varies. Leaving town we saw it was a few cents cheaper at the Chevron and a whole lot more expensive at the Shell. Fortunately, or unfortunately our route didn't take us past the zoo that is the Love's and Pilot stations on the west end on town, and soon we were heading north on 95 towards Bullhead City where we will be staying for the next couple of days. Looking at this photo I realized that some of the more perceptive readers of these daily musings might see something in that photo that isn't there. Yes, that is a can of Febreze Linda is holding in her hand. And yes, she is spraying the air with it. And I'll concede ...

The first project of the day was to replace the quick connects and install the new air hose. There is a reason why we were doing this here at Quartzsite, namely because it's not very far into town to buy the things we didn't buy that we now needed to buy to make what we originally bought work. For example, the quick connect that came off the compressor had male pipe threads. The replacement I bought had female threads. The solution was a trip to Herb's Hardware for a brass nipple, and soon things were definitely looking up. The moment of truth. Well, not really, but Linda sure did have a big smile on her face when this test showed that there were no leaks and the quick connects did exactly that. It wasn't anything major in the way of fixing something, but the satisfaction of a job well done is not always in the size of the project, sometimes it is in the knowing that you did a good job. The reason for all the Mr. Fixit activity, airing up the tires on the c...

Linda got all excited about the birds gathered around the feeder this morning, especially when she sighted what looked like a redwing blackbird. At least it meant she was feeling much better after her encounter with that late unpleasantness of the past several days. Unfortunately she is still suffering from her knack of taking out of focus bird photos. Something tells me she will gladly put up with the latter if the former continues down the path to a full recovery. Up to now the hummers at the feeder have been Anna's, but this morning a new kid showed up, fighting off the Anna's who normally are at the feeder. Looking at our bird book, it looks like it was a Costa, and it's pretty much the story of our stay here at Imperial Dam. Our last morning and two new birds show up. Maybe next time they won't wait so long to make an appearance. Hard to believe it was only a week ago that we entered this intersection from a different direction to the sound of Linda pr...

When asked what we did today, I could only answer truthfully, "I suffered mightily from the ebb and flow of the grizzly's growls." At least whatever it is that has laid Linda low has not interfered with her ability to cut loose with the occasional megadecible grizzly growl that would not only wake the dead, but that would also wake Linda herself. I almost wore myself out, what with the number of times I rose from my perch in front of the computer to walk over and check on her, which usually coincided with her saying, "That was pretty loud, wasn't it." I would usually only smile, when in reality, loud didn't begin to describe the blast from her that had the windows vibrating and plaster falling from the ceiling. Okay, so the there is no plaster in the ceiling of the coach, it if there was, it would all be on the floor by now, such was the concussions that resonated through our abode during the day. It's no wonder it is taking her so long to reco...

I can't say I never get sick, but I do have pretty much what is known as a cast iron stomach since it was sometime in the late 1970's the last time I was praying to the porcelain god. Linda on the other hand has what is known as a sensitive nature, one that is apparent at both ends of the, um, shall we say spectrum. Sometimes there are things that go splash in the night, and at other times there are things that go boom in the night, which come from various sources that I prefer not to know about when it is happening. Due to the sensitive nature of the material to be presented, or as Linda has threatened, not to be presented, in today's post, lets just say that we didn't do anything today as Linda recovered from a bout of intestinal distress. If I do say so, I make for a very a very good nurse, though my comment about taking care of her now so she could take care of me in another 25 or so years went over like a lead balloon. And here I thought buying a large supply ...

Confession time. Linda is not perfect. I know I make her out to be as close to the second coming as exists on earth, but that's only because she is. However, close is not perfection, it is only purr-fection, as in how close the sonorous snoring of a hibernating grizzly sounds like a sleeping kitten. I know that no one would believe it unless I had documentation, so here it is, straight from her camera. She's as blind as a bat without her glasses, so I guess I could claim she took this photo without them, but alas, such was not the case. I guess no one is perfect, but darn it, now she's got me wondering if maybe it really does stink when she goes to the bathroom. Puzzled Bob. A site you would never see in Quartzsite, yet one that is quite common at Imperial Dam. Quartzsite has dry washes, Imperial Dam has serious arroyos. Quartzsite has thousands of RV's, Imperial Dam has hundreds. Quartzsite has no water, Imperial Dam has a pretty blue lake. Quartzsite has us fo...

The heck with all that one percent garbage, Linda and I are proud that we sit solidly with the 75 percent . As you can see, though you'll have to take my word for for it, there is very solid proof to back up my part of that claim. I took a similar photo of Linda, but unfortunately it has been banned from these pages by her due to the fact I took it with her camera, which has a wide angle lens. I know that some people may think this evidence doesn't pass the smell test, but I'm sure Linda can testify that it certainly did. And you were beginning to think all I ever posted were bird pictures. Shame on you. Poor Linda, she has this thing about not liking to drink water that has a taste or has so many minerals that it oozes rather than flows. That meant a trip down to the Christian Center was in order. I guess you could say that on Sunday they save souls and the rest of the week they save your taste buds. At the standard going rate of 25 cents a gallon, it was a real de...

What can I say, watching the birds is one of the major activities we are engaging in, and that is just the way we want it. The temperatures are much warmer here than they were at Quartzsite, especially the night time lows, and it also seems to warm up much faster during the day. Morning also means breakfast time at the finch feeder, and while we have yet to see every feeding station occupied at the same time, there are still squabbles over who is going to eat where. I know this Life isn't for everyone, but compared to shoveling snow or driving on icy roads, Linda would chose this Life any day. Poor Linda has had to temporarily suspend feeding the hummers from the big feeder. The wind was been blowing so hard during the day, with gusts in the 35 mph range, that the swinging of the feeder was causing the sugar solution to spill out the feeding holes. Fear not that those hummers should go hungry as she makes sure the feeder attached to the coach mirror is well filled. Plus, sh...

We are at Imperial Dam for one thing and one thing only, to just sit back and relax, doing as much of nothing as we possibly can. Which is exactly the reason I am days behind on my writing, and also the reason why these posts are short, sweet and to the point. I fact we sat around and did so much of nothing, other than read and soak up sun, that we didn't even have much to say to each other, except for, "Good morning", "When are you going to fix (fill in with breakfast, lunch or dinner)", and "Good night." The major action, besides the sounds coming from a hibernating grizzly on occasion, was reading and watching the birds. The only problem with that was knowing what the birds were. The hummers and the finches we know, but this one was outside my bird brained size knowledge of birds. This is what being here is all about, no description needed. Proving most definitely that a picture can be worth a thousand words.