More technology...

I got a little Android mini-tablet a few days ago, and thought I'd try posting a blog entry with it. 

I'll see if I can add a photo as well....

If you are checking back here now and then, you know I haven't been very diligent in posting regularly. For that, I apologize. Perhaps you are aware that I have been drawn into the 'Blog Lite' that facebook can be.

Most of my friends and family are on facebook, so this isn't much of a problem, but there are some folks I would like to stay connected with who are seemingly immune from the facebook affliction, and for this reason it has always been my intention to stay engaged here.

I can also post here more thoughtful (when my brain is functioning adequately) posts with a little more depth than FB allows or encourages.

Now, with a bunch of new format and site changes at facebook, the utility for me has been greatly diminished, so I may try posting here much more often, even with very brief facebook-like items, and just reference posts here in facebook for a while, then just stop posting there for the most part. Hopefully, anyone who cares to check in with me occasionally will continue to visit here.

One of the most annoying new features of the revised FB site is revealing to me EVERYTHING that my contacts are listening to, reading, or viewing. I like to see their occasional specific recommendations for music, books/articles, and film/video, but I have no interest in being informed of everything they view/listen to/read.

I'll see if I can post here regularly for a couple of weeks, then maybe cut back over to REAL blogging again...

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We went up to Wheatland for a visit to the ranch this weekend, to spend a little time with Mona and Clark and enjoy the change of scenery.

Both of us have been getting really tired of sitting around the house in Fort Collins with nothing meaningful to do. There are gardening and housekeeping tasks accumulated needing attention, but I dread spending time outside or inside here, as it just reminds me of how temporary is our stay here (and why). Somehow, doing nothing at the ranch seems blissful, while here it is becoming dreadful.



At times I think about moving up to Wyoming, to be out of Colorado (which fairly or not I have pretty much despised since I first got an idea what it was like here) and to find a simpler and less wound-up pace. Mona thinks I would really miss the glamor and sophistication of Fort Collins, but the truth is I find little satisfaction in the various trivial activities I end up participating in. In fact they grow increasingly tiresome and boorish.

After the overnight stay at the ranch last night, Pat and I went into Wheatland to look at a brick ranch craftsman-style house close to the town center. We wanted to see if we might imagine living there, both the house itself, and the surrounding area.


Wheatland Cinema

The house looked interesting enough, but our walk around the nearby downtown was a little dissappointing. There are few useful businesses there, a lot of vacant storefronts, and some blight. I found it a little discouraging to imagine shopping at the downtown grocery store. With a smallish Safeway on the edge of town, I wonder how long the independent central maket might last. Mona makes a point of buying some of her supplies there. Shopping for food in Wheatland is a far cry from the mercado of a modest Mexican village.



In general, I still entertain the idea of moving up there, but it would probably be a good idea to rent until I had more confidence that I could actually thrive in the environment. If not having any meaningful activity to be engaged in here is an issue, God knows what I would do up there. On the other hand, without all the distractions of life here, perhaps I could actually focus more on painting, and it is a county seat with a hospital, schools, sheriff, courthouse, library, and other infrastructure that might offer employment.

Mona says I might find the experience of living there depressing, and points out the lowbrow character of some local folks and the high suicide rate. I talked to her later about this, and we agree that like people anywhere, they do have mostly good intentions and are likely to be friendly and helpful. There is also the issue of politics - Wyoming gave us Mr. Cheney after all. However, like many hard-core places that hang onto old-west character, it is a place where mostly people respect the rights of people to live as they wish and be left alone to make the most of their situation.


Pocket Park in Wheatland


Wheatland Airport with a single plane on the ramp - a medevac from out of state.

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I went back in the blog this morning to find an entry I posted shortly after I bagan to be truly alarmed about the deterioration of the economy I was starting to be aware of. I found it in early March of 2008, a good six months before the failure of the Lehman Brothers investment bank.

Stock prices had already declined a lot, and have since crashed and recovered to the same level. But the fundamental picture has not improved - in fact I believe it has deteriorated considerably. I've been identifying sources of information and opinion that that are more reliable than those of discredited policymakers and corporate people.

Among these newer sources, I note an increasingly ominous tone, that suggests that powerful forces are in play that have the potential to redefine social and economic behavior for generations to come.

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More than a month has passed since the last entry - you'd think I was really busy. In fact, it does seem like there are never enough hours in the day for all I want to accomplish, but I wouldn't exactly call life 'busy'.

I try to keep up with all the reading I'd like to do in order to make sense of the economy and markets, as this could have an impact on my life without work (if that continues).



It looks like there will be some travel coming up soon. Portland has been of interest for a long time, and we finally decided to go there for a few days in early September to check it out. We'll be carless the entire time, which seems practical there, and I have a fantasy about no longer owning a car at some point in the future. I have heard many times that Portland is too dreary and damp in the winter months - some say that six weeks might go by with no sunshine. If we really like the area otherwise we'll just have to weigh that factor against everything else.

We finished fostering our most recent rescue dog about a week ago, and as usual really miss her. They all seem to be such great dogs and companions, and it only takes about a week for them to feel like family. I would love to have one stay - especially one as wonderful as this recent girl Sasha - but everything seems so uncertain about where we will be living and what we will be doing six months or a year from now, I really can't take on the responsibility lightly. For now, I'm just grateful that they come to visit, and that we seem to find wonderful well-matched homes for them to enjoy.

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If our intention was to expedite our departure from this place (this house, this town, this state, this...country?) we haven't been making much progress recently. One step forward, three back. Among the activities that are creating a diversion/distraction from making any big changes occur are fostering a dog in need from the rescue folks we usually deal with, and embarking on a nasty irrigation and landscape upgrade that has dragged on for weeks past the imagined completion date. That's Minnie the foster gal on the left - a nice girl soon to be spayed while in our care.

The irrigation and landscape ordeal has been the result of what we imagined was a well-thought-out strategic move that would allow us to get out and travel and explore without the burdens of hand-watering this high-maintenance property. In hindsight, we probably should have just bailed on the place and saved the considerable dollars and spared ourselves the horror of witnessing the massive destruction and lingering unfinished work as the weeks passed. I also didn't anticipate the many residual tasks that will rmain for me after the contractor circus leaves our property. I can only hope that the finished project with all the raw unhealed areas will add to rather than detract from any potential sale if we extricate ourselves from this place finally.

Of course, common wisdom would suggest that in order to leave here, we must have a destination where we might arrive. But ah, no, that would be too simple.

It seems our lovely country has a desperate lack of architects and builders capable of producing homes that are not hideous abominations, bedecked by acres of wall-to-wall carpet, shoddy materials, grotesque pseudo-spa bath suites, and vast swaths of water and labor wasting lawns. Adding to the inherent defects are usually years of eccentric occupancy by previous owners during which they may have applied nightmarish wallpaper and paint, embarked on all manner of ill-advised and poorly executed home 'improvements', and nursed the infrastructure into a state of imminent collapse such that the first year(s) of next-ownership is/are likely to involve a fleet of service vehicles lining up around the block as plumbers, roofers, appliance sellers/service, arborists, tile refurbishers, deck/window/door/fence contractors, painters, landscapers, electricians, and assorted handy-persons of varying competency and veracity draw you into expensive and stressful participation in what is known as The Service Economy. Order extra checks. Lower your standards of craftsmanship and reliability. Ponder the fiction that is the Joy of Home Ownership. I guess this is a long way of saying that we haven't identified a destination home to replace this one. Or town. Or state.

Loyal or long time readers here may recall that a shiny new life in Mexico was the inspiration for this blog in the first place. And that may still be the best path forward.

Pues, el diablo está en los detalles...

If we sell this place before we have a replacement, we need to first sell, donate, discard, or store every item we have accumulated over the decades. Or get a housemate/sitter/renter to look after things. Or simply button it up and leave it unoccupied for some period of time, then face the challenges of disposal later. For various reasons, none of these options seem very appealing. Common wisdom is that one should visit and rent for some period of time in Mexico before committing to a purchase. A fine idea for a kid closing out his dorm room following graduation, or a townhouse/apartment dweller on the move.

Not that we can't figure out something. As I opened with, the first order of business is perhaps to discontinue the introduction of distracting and resource-depleting activities. Concentrate on thinning out the posessions and making the house ready for sale.

I have several very low-level conflicts in play here, trying to decide a way forward. Among them, I value a simple, uncomplicated, quiet, peaceful, low stress life in pleasant surroundings. Being uprooted and shoved forward into unknown circumstances is not necessarily simple, uncomplicated, quiet, peaceful, or low stress. The new surroundings may or may not be pleasant. Of course, rumor has it that much of this is largely a matter of perception, and self-discipline.

I also crave something rewarding and meaningful to be engaged with. A renewed associated with aviation? The arts? Probably not information technology, as I am weary of all manner of techno-grandiosity. To continue with work means finding a place in the U.S. (that is not in Colorado) with a tolerable seasonal and social climate, factoring in things like crime, traffic, various other quality-of-life matters and cost of living. Then trying to pry my age-discriminated carcass into a workplace. Or sufficient belt-tightening to accept retirement and probably try to work as an artist with no goal of producing income.

In Mexico, conventional work is not an option. However, there is better/affordable/accessible health care, less hustle, and an abundance of cultural magic. Many regions offer a decent climate yet are afordable. While homes are often humble, they are not disgusting in the manner of much of the U.S. residential stock. I could resume my efforts there with oil painting, and consider it a job I suppose.

I've even imagined what life in an RV full time would be like, out of here, but taking time to see what presents itself, since no one arrangement seems to present a clearly superior or compelling opportunity.

Well, I started out just to post a status update, since it's been several weeks without anything new here, but ended up with an unfocused self-indulgent rant. It's been a frustrating couple of weeks. Stick with me - I'll try to do the same.

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It's been a hard week here - the landscape guy started installing the lines for the sprinkler/irrigation system, and it was a more destructive and brutal process than I had imagined. I found myself feeling really stupid for ever thinking this project would be a good idea. In general, I have a firm belief that there is almost NO project that is a good idea. Projects are an example of my suspicion that 90% of what people find to occupy their time and spend (waste) their money on is of no value at all - the remaining 10% is mostly destructive to themselves and others, with just a tiny fraction proving to be worthy of their efforts.

The work outside was conceived of as a way for us to be freer to travel a little more often and for longer periods of time, without the worry that lawn and landscape would suffer from lack of hand-watering attention during the summer and fall months in this rather arid climate.

I do hope that as this landscape installation proceeds and wraps up that I will feel more optimistic about the outcome. However, in the meantime there are still small signs of beauty and wonder around the house if one looks, and it never hurts to fill the house with the smell of fresh-baked banana bread when the scent of despair is in the air...

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