Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

A Fallen Agave

Fallen Agave

Do you remember the photo I posted of the agave flower stalk last April? It’s a damn shame, but sometime in the last 24 hours, the top-heavy succulent toppled over and into our neighbor’s cactus garden.

We had been watching the progress of the agave since the flower stalk appeared. We drove down our road today to do some errands and saw that the agave had toppled. So sad – I was looking forward to getting some photos of the flowers that the little hummingbirds just love. I feel sorry for our neighbor who has to get the mess cleaned up and hauled. Fortunately, the fall did not destroy the section of split-rail fencing where it fell.

Click on the image to enlarge.

11 Jun 2014 by Arizona Flowers Photography

Wind, Solar, Fail As Renewable Power

nukewind.jpgIt has long been our opinion (based on facts) that neither wind nor solar power can compete with the efficiency and cost of nuclear power generation. Hyped-up belief and major taxpayer-funded subsidies have taken the wind and solar efforts as far as they have come today. Hyped-up fear and misinformation have been applied to public opinion that nuclear power generation is both dangerous and evil.

Mark Perry, a professor of economics and finance, penned a very interesting piece today that points out that the clean energy movement is missing their best bet for green power.

From Investors Business Daily:

Wind and solar power, once viewed as our best hope for abundant supplies of zero-carbon energy, are distracting us from what might be the real solution: nuclear power.

The time has come for states to reconsider their mandates requiring that a share of electricity come from renewable energy sources, and instead consider a more direct and sensible policy in support of nuclear power.

Currently 30 states have renewable power standards designed to promote the use of wind and solar power, which are carbon-free, non-polluting sources of energy. Among the most ambitious, California’s standard mandates that the state generate one-third of its electricity from renewables by 2020.

But the hype over wind and solar power as clean and renewable is undermined by their fatal flaw — intermittency.

Read the whole thing.

10 Jun 2014 by Beltway Kabuki Money and Business Whacko Politics

“Movie Star” Roses

Movie Star Roses

We had occasion to do some shopping today and while we were in the supermarket, I noticed they had lots of pretty roses including this salmon-colored variety called “Movie Star.” I got a dozen of them and put them in a vase with some baby’s breath on the sofa table. They have a light, rosy fragrance and should last the three days before our regular shopping day on Thursday. Click on the image to enlarge.

09 Jun 2014 by Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Coin Box

Coin Box

I’m not a coin collector per se, but over the years, I have tossed some coins into a box that I keep in the safe. I halfheartedly saved the quarters with the states on them, but only amassed a few of them, many being duplicates. I also saved JFK half-dollars when I found them and put a lot of “Suzi Bucks” (Susan B. Anthony one-dollar coins) in the box, most of which came out of postage stamp vending machines as change.

On the foreign coins side of the box, I have a variety of coinage from places we have visited or have come to possess mysteriously. There is a 500 peso Mexican piece, a bunch of Italian coins brought back from Rome, some interesting French-Polynesian coins from a long-ago visit to Tahiti and a cold-war relic zehn pfennig (ten pennies) coin from the Bundesrepublik of West Germany.

I have no use for them other than as money in the US coins case. For the foreign coins, I may pass them along to the grandchildren for their amusement. Click on the image to enlarge.

07 Jun 2014 by Money and Business Something Shiny

The Tip of the Iceberg

The Tip of the Iceberg

Just wait until Obamacare funding kicks in. Here’s an excerpt from Townhall Article, “The VA Health Scandal Is about Government Incompetence, not Inadequate Funding.”

VA funding has more than kept up with both medical inflation and increased patient loads. An analysis of budget and cost data, as well as data on the total number of VA patients and the number of acute inpatients treated, shows that the VA’s budget has grown much faster than its workload. Even when you take medical inflation into account, the VA budget still grew faster than its patient base since 2000. …The VA has a whole bunch of problems, but a lack of funding ain’t one.

I imagine the Unaffordable Care Act will show up with it’s poor services, death panels and all that about which we were warned. Gird your loins, America.

04 Jun 2014 by Beltway Kabuki Humor Whacko Politics

Snake Season

KingsnakeLast night, one of the dogs discovered a kingsnake under on of my planters outside of the patio. I pulled him away from it and walked elsewhere while he did his business. Tomorrow would be soon enough to check out if it was dead or had slithered away.

When we went out this morning to inspect the snake, it was still there – dead. Bob took a pair of garden tongs I use for handling cacti and tossed the snake up into the west part of the lot. Something will dispose of it, we supposed.

Turkey BuzzardWe supposed correctly. A bit later in the afternoon, a pair of Turkey Buzzards were flying low over the area while another landed over in the area where the snake carcass had been tossed.

We did not actually see the buzzards removing the snake, but an inspection of the area where it got tossed showed no sign of snake remains. Desert nature at work. Click on the images to enlarge.

03 Jun 2014 by Arizona Critters Photography

California Agriculture Checkpoint

California Agriculture Checkpoint

When we crossed over the Colorado River last week, we drove through California’s Agriculture Station, as usual on I-10 going into Blythe. The interesting thing about this encounter is that there were NO checkpoint agents waving us through as is the norm. We crossed through at a little after eleven AM and saw no agents manning any of the open lanes. Nada. On our return trip passing eastbound across from the station we again did not observe any agents – cars were just passing through.

I nosed around on the CDFA website a bit and could not find any reference to budget cuts having to do with lack of personnel. Moreover, these stations have been and continue to be a complete waste of taxpayer money.

Many times we have gone through this checkpoint and the most the agent ever did was ask where we were coming from. How that keeps agricultural pests out of Cali is beyond me. Until this time where no agents were present, we would usually get a wave through with no questions asked. Talk about a useless job and waste of travelers’ time.

What gripes me, is that I still pay property tax on the old house that supports this sort of nonsense. Within a year, I think that we well be out of that property altogether.

Damsel took the photo of the station on Tuesday last. Click on the image to enlarge.

02 Jun 2014 by California Travel Whacko Politics

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