Sunsets, Cold wind and a Sadness On The Desert.

A few days ago I pulled in here to stay for a few days... Snyder Hill BLM... to wait to move over to the Pima Country Fairgrounds for the annual buying trip...

It seemed good until day two when the truck broke... again.

I was waiting on a repair appointment for next Tuesday to drive the truck in. But... the intermittent problem became a full time failure of the APP (accelerator position sensor)... what I've always called the TPS (Throttle position sensor).

Same dang high dollar part I replaced nigh two years ago...

So... I had it towed yesterday morning just to have it in early... just in case. And it worked. They got to it right away. They called last night and told and they'd have it repaired this morning... Four days before the appointment! I thought maybe things were looking up...

Well... this day started out good... Until...

While I was waiting for that call... having my morning coffee... the realities of life struck with a cold and melancholy sadness...

A "neighbor" here on the desert who I didn't know and hadn't even spoken too... passed... just 200' or so from my window. His remains were found laying by the steps of his rig, between the Sheriff vehicle and the motorhome in the photo below.

A Vet himself, here for the VA hospital... Passed alone in a cold and windy desert... Anomalies in the scene raise questions about the way of his passing. The best of sad scenarios is a medical issue. The worst... murder.

Either way... It hangs a great sadness on me. Too many Old Soldiers pass alone and cold... It's a sadness to me.

The last couple nights had gone out with such beauty... this day starts with such melancholy...

 

Keep your eyes on the horizon... and keep moving... follow your heart... it's all there is really.

Brian

The Sun's Coming Up and It's Getting Time to Roll...

Gonna move south today. The book's done and orders seem to maybe even be picking up a bit, so that's sweet!...

... so maybe it's time to move camp and change things up a lil' bit.

Had a bit of a didoe with the scooter last week. Murphy found me again and for some reason nobody knows, one of those seals I put in the forks chose to leak after less than 2000 miles... arrrrrgggghhhh.

So... I found a shop with a good rep down in Mesa... of course, round trip that's 180 miles from here... Loaded her up and hauled her in. Bein' busy as hell it took 'em most of a week to git-er-done... Went down of an afternoon to pick the scooter up... got her loaded and hauled back to camp.

Go out the next morning to unload and that's NOT when you want to find a puddle of oil under the once again repaired forks!!! sooooooo... a quick phone call and baaaaaaack to Mesa.

I don't expect a place to get it right the first time every time. Nobody does that. But my blood pressure backs way off when the first words out of a service managers mouth when he's told there's a problem is; "Get It Back Here So We Can Make It Right."

So... That's squared away now... a few odds and ends to put away and prepare as soon as the coffee's gone and my ambition for the day is sufficiently caffeinated... and then I'll roll for somewhere 'round about Tucson... maybe as far as Sulphur Springs Valley... I've thought of Cochise Stronghold a bit...

...who knows... when it feels right... I'll take my foot off the pedal and stop.

With this most recent book completed... and there bein' a bit of time available... maybe it's time to get back to pursuing my leather shed ambitions... hmmmmm... 

*a Foggy morning on the Tonto*

*Duck couples takin' a Sunday Cruise on Roosevelt in the Tonto*

 Must be comin' on to spring... the ducks are all paired up...

*Four Peaks in the Mazatzaals*

Just a gypsy drifter
Brian

Fifth Novel Completed... and Now A Few Days to Catch My Breath...

Got 'er done and THE HORSEMEN is published. After waffling back and forth for weeks what I was gonna do, I finally chose to set this release up in a Pre-order release. You can order it today. How-some-ever... you won't actually get it 'till the Oh-Fishul release on the 23rd of January 2015. It'll be downloaded to your device on that partic'lar day.

If you hadn't read the preceding volumes I'd suggest ya'll do that first... the first one in this series is FREE so you can't get hurt to awful bad. The whole listing of the two series is right here.

As always with Tech-nah-law-gee... the last few hours are a struggle. This perfected gizmo (laptop/internet)... that ever'body's so proud of is the only tool on earth that a feller can push one button... get a dozen different results... and with regularity... NOT... the expected one.

But, once you've fought with the dang whizbangs long enough you gain enough experience to learn all the many ways of pushin' that rope where you want it to go. So you when it doesn't you got other options to try... I got her there and now I get a couple days "off"... before I get deep into the next project.

Climate change is a bit behind the times in Arizona. At least this part. I've been burning quite a bit more propane here than in past winters... I was a bit lower then too I suppose...

I'd butted into a conversation the other day when I heard a guy telling somebody that the polar bears are threatened because the poles are melting... uh... really? "Then why s polar bear population growing... and why have they published stats that have both poles setting records the past two years for expansion of the ice in area and depth?" I asked him?

He answered me with his eyes rolling in frustration; "You just don't have the education to understand the science. Anyone who does knows that the rising temperatures are going to make it colder in places."

"Uh Huh!" I said... "And that makes the expanding polar ice actually melting?" Poor Ol' guy stomped off with his teeth gritted and his ears a smokin'. :) Not sure what he was grumbling as he thumped away... but I did hear somethin' in there about a long lost relative or two... and something about somebody escaping from a zoo or a circus or some damn thing... not sure what that had to do with me?! :-P

I tried his theory last summer too... I turned the furnace up on high to cool things down. Figuring it was cheaper than air conditioning... didn't work. :(

Only thing I can say is; "Don't pee down my back and tell me it's raining!" I got me 'nuff ed-chew-cay-shun ta know the diffurnce! 

That Ol' Boy has missed his calling. He should be a used car salesman... or a politician...

*Reflections on Roosevelt lake*

 A little bit of hopeful light after the storm...

 Not sure if this guy was singin' 'cause he's happy? or cryin' 'cause his feet hurt standing on a bed of thorns...

Birds of a different sort frequent this valley. It must be a low level flight path for the air force. Big boys like this guy... and the fast movers come thundering through two or three times a week.

 But most of the time it's a quiet place where your soul can breathe...

Taking a few days to chill out and regroup... then it's back to the writing desk to follow what Ben Jensen is doing these days ;)

Brian

A Cowboy's Reflections From the Desert...

The world continues to circle the drain... To my mind, considering the change in population... with a speed that is accelerating far faster and with consequences more dangerous than in 1914... or 1937...

I keep hoping for one of those "New Dawns" and I keep being frustrated in that Hope... I keep thinking; Folks can't be this moronic. They can read... they can see...There's eons of History to teach them. Yet I am repeatedly proven wrong.

The Human Race is contaminated with a mutant gene that renders it unable to learn.

They say a single man can have a great impact... I think that may be true... but mostly only in that very narrow space where he has some small control. Only within a small part of his own life. -If- he can keep clear of the grasping hands of those who "know better".

When the "Pack Mentality" reigns supreme; as it now does within the many factions of this country... and throughout the world - one man raising his voice in question... or even a small few are simply consumed by one of the Packs; Evidenced by the twisted actions of deviate muslims in France.

I'm close to turning my back on religion (Spelled politics not Faith), nationalism... and just about any other "isms"...

I yearn to retreat into that small space within my own life where a cowboy can sit horseback in far country... and somehow find a place where he can live out his days without having some religion, some politician, some bureaucrat, some activist, some slavering pack animal imposing his/her self aggrandized agenda on My Life.

Those places are more rare every day. They largely only remain where people aren't. For People have the idea that they, their "Pack"... Possess superior Rights to every inch of and every soul on this earth.

Anyone who attempts to escape from the control of one or other of the packs is set upon and demonized as some sort of evil... and consumed by the cannibals that now present themselves as a "higher civilization"...

I yearn to return to the simpler and pure and unspoiled world of Gus's; "Just a man, Free on the Earth"

... and so I keep searching... Hoping that place still survives to be found...

Brian

I'm Spreading the Word - THE HORSEMEN - is COMING SOON

I'm in the home stretch now to publish novel #5, and book #3 of the Jeb Taylor Series - THE HORSEMEN.

There's another editing pass to make, front and end matter to write as well as building the Table of Contents... and then there's Nuking it to prep for the final formatting process... buuuut I did get the cover photo bought and the cover built so progress is happening.

I kind of like this cover... how about ya'll?

Let's see if I can get this project buttoned up and out in the world in the next two weeks!

So I can dive into the next book that's pokin' at me ;)

Brian