Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Armed Forces Day 2024

Take a moment today to honor the Men and Women in our Armed Forces. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers since many of them are in dangerous places, doing hazardous jobs and suffering under the DEI and WOKE policies as dictated by the current pro-commie and anti-Christian Administration. Whoever is pulling the strings on the puppet Commander-in-Chief has caused almost irreparable damage among the morale and honor of those serving.

The image above is a throwback to 2006 when we were still in California attending the Torrance Armed Forces Day Parade. I took the photo using an ancient Canon Elph digital camera as we watched the opening of the parade march past City Hall.

Enjoy the day. For this weekend, we’re grilling – today will be BBQ Chicken with Asparagus Gratin and Tomorrow will be Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Mustard Gravy and Veggies.

Keep safe, pray for the military and vets and watch your six. God bless.

18 May 2024 by Military Notions Patriotism

New Windshield for the RV

We encountered a minor glitch during our RV excursion to see the great eclipse in Waco Texas when a passing Big Rig Semi on a two-lane road threw up such a wind gust when passing in the opposite direction, that our windshield cracked from the shock. It did nothing to inhibit our travel plans, but became a greater concern since the crack size progressed as we got closer to home. I called the insurance company and fortunately, we were covered for a cracked/broken windshield.

Windshield Crack Getting Worse

Image: the windshield crack – pardon the reflections – click to enlarge.

After a couple of weeks waiting for the new glass to arrive, the new windshield got installed today and looks great. Due to some curing issues, we won’t be able to drive it home until tomorrow morning, so that will be the major issue for the day – getting the RV home and parking it in it’s usual slot up in the RV drive.

The new windshield

Image: the new windshield – click to enlarge.

Kudos to State Farm, RV Glass Express and Select Glass for a coordinated effort in getting the job done.

08 May 2024 by Notions Retirement Travel Wanderlust

Cinco de Mayo —
  Southwestern Feast Day

Today, Cinco de Mayo, is the second of the two nearly concurrent feast days we tend to celebrate in early May. Like in yesterday’s post, the image above is an AI-generated picture with the suggestion of “Cinco de Mayo Buffet.” Also, as in yesterday’s image. I added the 3D text overlay. You may see the original AI image here.

Today’s feast consisted of a Southwestern New Mexican Pork Stew, which was very good. This is another of Damsel’s recently discovered recipes. At this hour, we’re all content with the feasting weekend now behind us.

As a disclaimer, we’re of Celtic ancestry, but not Latino. We celebrate because of the food and culture for both events. As for us, we are Christian, Patriotic Americans and celebrate the appropriate religious and patriotic events and feasting as they occur.

05 May 2024 by Food & Dining Holidays Notions

Beltane — Celtic Feast Day

This is the weekend in May where we celebrate two nearly concurrent feasts. Today is the first feast in celebration of the Celtic Cross-Quarter day of Beltane, or, the beginning of the summer season. I will post about the other feast we celebrate this weekend tomorrow.

The (clickable) image above is a scene generated by Microsoft’s Copilot AI image creator. I suggested a pastoral Irish Festival scene and this is what it came up with. I overlaid the Beltane text using an old 3D graphics program by Xara. The original AI-generated image without the overly can be seen here.

Our feast today consisted of “Guinness Meat Stew” from a recipe the Damsel found on-line. It was indeed a feast.

04 May 2024 by Ancestors Food & Dining Holidays Notions

April Flowers

Because we were away from home through late March and over half of April, we thought that we might miss some of the spring cactus flowers opening. We already had flower buds on several of our xeriscape cacti when we began our trip to Texas. Fortunately, we didn’t miss too much since a lot of flowers are now open. We got busy with the cameras and have some photos of some of the open flowers here.

This first pair of flowers is on a beavertail cactus (Opuntia basilaris) that is growing on the west side of the property:

Next, we have one of the first flowers to open on one of three Blue Palo Verde (Parkinsonia florida) trees on our property. The Blue Palo Verde trees were planted here since we have been in Arizona, but there are some wild Foothill Palo Verde (Parkinsonia microphylla) trees up in our back lot. Here is the one flower I saw today:

There are several Buckhorn Cholla (Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa) growing on the property. This flower is one of many more to come on the several cacti around here:

Desert Marigold wildflowers (Baileya multiradiata) are growing all around us. This batch is off of the property, just to the west of us in the catch basin:

And finally, The Hedgehog Cacti (Echinocereus Engelmannii) out front, have had most of their flowers open before we got home to see them, but there are a couple of buds still ready to open and this flower was open today:

We hope that you have enjoyed seeing these flowers as much as we have. We also are looking forward to enjoying the May and June flowers that likely will come. Watch for more cacti and other flowers soon.

24 Apr 2024 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Home, Sweet Home

Although we got home early, it is late now, so this will be brief; we had a good trip back home from Gila Bend today along the so-called “Phoenix Bypass” route, and that was the intent of going the way we did, to avoid the !*&%#^? Phoenix construction and traffic. It worked, although there was a lot of traffic for a Sunday. Anyway, we’re home.

We’re about to watch a movie and then climb into our own bed at home. G’nite!

21 Apr 2024 by Arizona Notions Travel Wanderlust

Gila Bend

We are in a really nice RV campground tonight. We have been blessed on this adventure to have stayed in many really nice RV parks. This park, the Sonoran Desert RV Park, is located in Gila Bend, AZ, and has a number of nice amenities. Our camp spot has it’s own fenced-in dog run, a concrete patio with charcoal grill and a propane “fire feature” where you can sit around and enjoy the warmth of a fire.

Tomorrow, we will be headed home. We are less than two hours from Wickenburg and expect to be home in the early afternoon. It has been quite the adventure and even though it has been enjoyable, we are now anxious to be home again.

20 Apr 2024 by Arizona Retirement Travel Wanderlust

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