December 2011

Desert Delight

The Wickenberg Sportsmen’s Club, where we went to practice shooting today, is less than a fifteen minute commute from our little house. It’s a short distance but the route takes us out to the east side of town where there are wide-open desert spaces.

This scene is the view across Constellation Road just outside of the entrance to the club’s shooting facilities. Note the very happy saguaro cactus on the right and the hills and mountains in the desert beyond. It’s just beautiful!

Click on the image to enlarge.

Late Fall Roses

These nice orange-colored roses are in the office this week. Click on the image to enlarge.

08 Dec 2011 by Damsel Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Pearl Harbor Day

Today we honor the men and women who died in the attacks on Hawaii late in 1941. In the photograph below, the Officers and Crew line the flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan, CVN-76, as they salute the war memorial at the resting place of the USS Arizona.

USS Ronald Reagan at the Arizona war memorial

07 Dec 2011 by CapnBob Military

Gorgeous Autumn Days

We had some rainfall over the weekend (and some hail too). After the weather passed, we have been having beautiful weather. The temperatures during the daytime have been around the low to mid 50’s and the night temperatures are just a hair below freezing.

I took this photo from the ridge just about a quarter mile north of our house. The Bradshaw mountains are in the background with the northeast part of our little town visible below the rim of mountains. We think that there may be a little snow on the north side of the mountains after the weekend precipitation. One of these days, we will take a drive up that way after the next snowfall for some photo ops. Click on the image to enlarge.

06 Dec 2011 by Damsel Arizona Environment Photography Retirement

Christmas Colors

There are natural desert shrubs along the road in front of our house. One of those is a small palo verde tree. I took advantage of its green color by hanging red Christmas ornaments on it. I think it looks festive and cute. Click on the image to enlarge.

05 Dec 2011 by Damsel Arizona Culture Environment Photography

Welcome to Obamanomics

Today’s unemployment decrease is explained over at The Patriot Post (emphasis added):

November employment numbers are out today and they bring mixed news. Bloomberg reports, “The jobless rate declined to 8.6 percent, the lowest since March 2009, from 9 percent, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Payrolls climbed 120,000, with more than half the hiring coming from retailers and temporary help agencies, after a revised 100,000 rise in October.” Seems like good news. Unfortunately, part of the reason is that 315,000 Americans left the workforce altogether. Another part is that retailers have hired seasonal help.

Bloomberg also notes, “The so-called underemployment rate — which includes part- time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking — decreased to 15.6 percent from 16.2 percent.” Furthermore, “The jobless rate has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, the longest stretch of such levels of unemployment since monthly records began in 1948.” This long after the recession supposedly ended, things should be looking much brighter than this. Welcome to Obamanomics.