Despite having a mild stroke, Charlie Daniels can still play his guitar and fiddle.

“I can still play my fiddle. I can play my guitar. One of the first things I did when I came home from the hospital in Denver was to pick up my guitar and make sure my fingers still worked on it.”

Daniels, 73, suffered the stroke Friday just outside Durango, about 230 miles southwest of Denver. He was treated at a local hospital then airlifted to a Denver hospital, where he was released on Sunday. Daniels has returned to his Durango home, where he goes in the winter to enjoy snowmobiling and winter sports.

Damsel and I are big fans and we wish Charlie all the best for a quick and complete recovery.

That describes our trip across the Golden State today. We entered California in Blythe along Interstate 10 in cool, but bright sunshine weather, and arrived in our home town, Torrance, where a full-on winter rainstorm was in progress. You might say it was raining torrents in Torrance.

Click on the image to enlarge. Photos courtesy of Damsel and her perpetually clicking camera.

Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin’s impeccable logic reveals the mindset of the Congress and Administration in Washington. One of the comments under this comic strip notes “the elves take kickbacks and give them to the big guy.” Another says “Is he talkin’ about Santa or Obama?”

Calvin’s right. Where does that leave our kids and grandkids?

Note that Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist, created this strip twelve years ago during the Clinton Administration.

Last week, we contacted the proprietor of Ballseye’s Boomers, Glenn B. to see if we could arrange a get together, since we were going to be in the same area. We threw a couple of ideas back and forth, and settled on a pizza place near the RV park where we’re camping.

I found the pizza place on Google and assumed it would have an informal eating area, where we could sit to enjoy the pizza and conversation. When we got there, it turned out to be a take-out only place. Luckily, there was a little Mexican food place just across The Apache Trail. We went on over and ordered food and sat down to eat and talk.

We chatted about our Arizona adventures and various other topics. Firearms got into the discussion, but didn’t dominate. We had a nice visit. Like most of our like-minded bloggers, it was a pleasure meeting Glenn B. and we look forward to possibly meeting again.

My Canon A710IS took this image of the three of us just after coming out of the café. Click on the image for the big picture.

Leave it to Federal Agencies, like the Transportation Security Administration, to embody the epitome of political correctness gone wrong . . .

From the NRA-ILA:

Sleep Easy, America — Feds’ Terrorist Watchlist Nabs Cub Scout

As we’ve reported before, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), encouraged by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, wants to prohibit anyone on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist from possessing a firearm. Yet, the list and its criteria are secret, and Lautenberg’s bill would criminalize the exercise of a constitutionally protected right while denying a person the opportunity to clear himself of accusations in a fair and open hearing before a court of law. Even today, thousands of people who aren’t terrorists cannot prevent the list from misidentifying them, causing them delays and embarrassment when trying to board commercial aircraft.

It’s one thing when an adult gets the run-around at an airport, because he or she has a name identical or similar to someone the FBI is watching. As the American Civil Liberties Union has pointed out, the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) “automatic selectee” list — its list of people who are not permitted to board an aircraft without being given the once-over by the agency’s machines and uniformed, latex-gloved personnel — is based on people’s names, not on physical factors like age.

But when the system is so unorganized that it cannot distinguish a kid from a terrorist, what’s going on here? Yesterday, the New York Times reported that for the last six or seven years, one of Lautenberg’s constituents — eight-year-old New Jersey Cub Scout Michael “Mikey” Hicks — hasn’t been able to get on a plane without being patted down like your average neighborhood hubcap thief with his palms on the hood of a police cruiser and a nightstick between his legs. Repeatedly mistaken for someone on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist since he was two years old, Mikey’s encounters with the federal government have consisted of, as his mother puts it, “Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch, someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal.” [more]

Now, don’t you feel safer?

When we stepped out to walk the dog, this was what we saw looking toward the last sun rays falling on the Catalina Mountains near Tucson, AZ. All those big, beautiful motor homes and fifth wheelers, a palm-lined road, and our little rented 24 foot trailer, one corner barely visible at the extreme right (not to be confused with the imaginary extreme right that the Democrats hallucinate about). The trailer may be small, but it’s quite comfy.

Click image to enlarge - not the trailer, the photo.

East of Phoenix, AZ, the Superstition Mountains dominate the skyline. The legendary Lost Dutchman Mine just may be somewhere up in them thar hills. We woke up this morning and saw these scenic mountains. Click image to enlarge.

We’re back in the land of the Saguaro Cactii. Tonight, we’re near Phoenix, AZ. After we set up camp, I walked around the RV Park taking pictures of some of the plants and birds. I liked this one that I snapped just as the sun was directly behind. Click to enlarge.

Just across the border in Arizona, you can save 17 percent - or more on gasoline. I bet the folks living in Blythe, CA, drive to Ehrenberg, AZ, to top off the old tank.

Via The Corner:

In Monday night’s senatorial debate in Massachusetts, David Gergen, the moderator, looked straight at Scott Brown, the Republican nominee, and asked him this question:

GERGEN: You said you’re for health-care reform, just not this bill. We know from the Clinton experience that if this bill fails, it could well be another 15 years before we see health-care reform efforts in Washington. Are you willing under those circumstances to say, I’m going to be the person, I’m going to sit in Teddy Kennedy’s seat and I’m going to be the person who’s going to block it for another 15 years?

Brown, in what I call his ‘Nashua moment,’ responded with what’s become the remark that’s defining this race:

BROWN: Well, with all due respect, it’s not the Kennedy’s seat, and it’s not the Democrats’ seat, it’s the people’s seat. And they have the chance to send somebody down there who is an independent voter, and an independent thinker, and going to look out for the best interests of the people of Massachusetts. And the way that this bill is configured, I’d like to send it back to the drawing board because I believe people should have insurance — [just not] this particular bill because it’s not good for the entire country.

I heard Brown in an interview last week with Sean Hannity. I am impressed with this guy. He seems to be self confident and is clearly his own man, refusing to be stereotyped as having this or that kind of political leanings. California could use a couple folks like this to run against the two batty democrats currently occupying the California people’s Senate seats.