Now I Have to Scratch the Tonto off the Camp List...

Tonto National Forest has gone the way of greed and arrogance. It not only raised its fees, which I admit were low, but they compounded that by terminating acceptance of the National Forests own senior/golden access cards! Combined it's an increase over last year of nearly 270% for the folks like me. For a month it is a jump from $90 a camp site last year to $240!!!... A little steep from where I come from.

Really it's the continuation of the attempt a few years ago by the vendors operating the majority of Forest service campgrounds (because the forest service is too busy NOT logging or mining) to eliminate the cards. I warned then when everyone celebrated the defeat of that attempt that they'd do this... Nobody listened then, I expect few are now...

The consequence of the ruckus raised over that fight a few years ago is that rather than eliminating the passes and their 50% discount... the vendors have all pretty much just doubled the fees.

Of course as a consequence of that, usage falls off steeply, so the vendors also open late in the spring and lock up, public land, early in the fall when there's not enough "traffic" to pay the profit they demand...

Everyone is all riled about the Bundy's fighting the BLM and Forest Service and their abusive management actions... and calling them and all the other ranchers greedy... while the BLM and the Forest Service continue to take actions which push the common man off the land... raising fees. Reducing services. Closing roads.

... Giving the land to private campground management companies at a fraction of proper and market "rental" rates: the campground management companies pay an avg. "rent" of around 4-5% of revenue... the store we had/have in Colorado the "Rent" is around 15-18% of revenue. But the ranchers, who are the ones who did ALL the water development which allows the deer and other critters to even exist there as well, are the bad guys...

and nobody says a damn thing.

Just one demonstration of the callous disregard of a government and it's bureaucrats gone deaf.

Between that and the people I blundered into here I'm pulling out a day early...

Two fellas, that I suppose could be classically labeled "liberals" regaled me with all that's wrong with Corporations and "Rich" people... Now, this is all done standing in front of the $500,000+ motorhome one of them was "camping" in...

"The corporations and those "Rich" people need to pay their proper share of taxes that they've been avoiding..." says one...

"Corporations Never pay tax" I observed. "The people who buy their products Pay The Taxes." they looked at me like this old cowboy was speaking greek...

Then I had an epiphany of sorts.

"uhhhhhhh... Wait! ... What???"  says I. His Motorhome (like I said, a rig easily north of $500,000) was standing there with Montana plates on it, as was his Toad...

"Didn't you just tell me when I asked what part of Montana you're from, that you aren't from Montana? That you registered your outfit up there..." wait for it... "TO AVOID THE TAXES???"

The fool just stared at me... buuuuut he did get kinda testy when I asked if he could spell Hypocrite... Yeah... I admit it... My diplomacy, more and more__SUCKS.

Behave and think in ways that I don't approve of. I cannot defend my own Freedom unless I defend yours, and that means defending Your Right to hold attitudes and values I personally find offensive. That includes Racism, Sexism, political beliefs... whatever...

... But... I draw the line when your arrogance, stupidity and bald faced hypocrisy attempts to physically impose your nonsense on me and mine. Keep it just words and your "hands" to yourself and we'll have no issues.

I vow... I feel just like that gopher at chucky cheese must. What do they call it? Whack-a-mole? Every time I stick my head up to look around__WHAP! WHAP! WHAP!

I have come to see that the gnawing of loneliness is superior to__far too many People... or at least it's less nauseating.   

I think more and more of the Values held by Crazy Horse...

Sooooo... I'm taking my grumpy, broken, intolerant butt down the road a day early to search out some "healing" somewhere's else!

-Brian

Funny How Those Circles Continue to Link...

I've been "associating" with some people from a "Circle" taken many many years ago... 

I started a "Thing" a couple weeks back... A VA thing... I'm torn and I'm ambivalent about it... I know I risked for and earned what I get there... it's not a charity... but just the same... I have a difficulty with it.

On top of that... going in there to get anything, I'm taking dollars out of a cruelly underfunded system. Dollars desperately needed by these young guys, and gals who've been coming home the past ten years... many of whom are in far worse shape than my wore out old kiester... I feel a sense of guilt... almost like I'm taking treatment away from them... so it's not easy.

But... the VA is my only Protection against the fines and punishments of not obeying king obama and his socialism... so I go... ambivalent and torn or not.

...and they treat me very well. Hell, they always have. I've said it before... the issues there are not found in the professional medical people at the VA who take care of us... sure there are the rare fools you find in any large institution or organization, that's just human reality... but the problem there is and always has been, the deceitful sob's the American people keep putting over us in D.C.

You want to "fix" the VA... you are first going to have to "Fix" yourselves and your own perceptions... so you can clean up that sewer you call government... don't do that... and the VA will never be repaired.

So anyway... I went in... with ONLY the idea in mind of getting my "Name" back on the active list so I'm protected from the friggin' IRS...

...and the people in this Institution, that has been getting ripped and torn and accused of all sorts of Malfeasance... have insisted (contrary to how they are portrayed)... almost demanded that I get certain checks and things looked at... Like I said... The Medico's at the VA are the best. The assault against them is a game of misdirection and lies... told to protect the lying sob's that keep lying their way into congress and the white house... enough said...

~~~~

It looks like our return to the Beet Harvest in North Dakota is a solid go... a lot of work has to happen to get there though... I discovered a lack of brakes on the Fiver on the run up to Red Feather, as in NONE... so New brakes all around on the trailer... and I'm thinking the bearings have got to be worn... so IDK... maybe have to knock over a liquor store ;)

The "wasp tent" is still active on the roof... I decided to just leave it up until I have to move the rig... or darn near. I've been checking things daily and not seeing any activity at all... but I'm playing it safe.

I did manage to get up on the roof and apply some seam/joint sealant in some spots that needed it. That had to be done before I can re-coat ... so it has time to cure first... Hoping to do a recoat in another week or two...

Still waiting on another shipment of a small tool so I can get my scooter reassembled... Hoping hard for that to arrive late in the week...

While I'm doing that waiting... I decided to try to fabricate a carrier for my phone...

More time on the new stitching horse... So far that has been pretty much a total success. Thing works better than any other I've built.

Took me two tries to get it sized right.

The first time I was off just enough I couldn't even stretch it to fit... yup... leather craft is a perishable skill... leave it lay too long and it takes a bit to get it warmed up again.

This time, with a slightly enlarged pattern... I juuuuust squeezed by.

Not sure I'm gonna be happy or "comfortable" with it though... with this humongous new phone I blundered into... It's kinda like having a small laptop strapped to my belly!

I was given the comment that I look like an "Insurance salesman or a Realtor ready to draw my phone and pull the Trigger! Bang! Bang!"

... um.... that stung!... and, No... So... we'll see how it goes. It is better than carrying the thing in my hand or having to take it out of my pocket every time I sit down so I don't crack it like the last one... but...

... it's like Facebook... I think it may be time to back away a good long distance from quite so much gadgetry... and just go back to Motorcycles, Horses and Far Country... Far More...

Off now to another VA visit... :-?

Brian

The Veterans Administration... is NOT... the Source of the Problem

 (this is a post I wrote on my FB... I decided to reprint it here)

Ok... the VA... big stink lately right? Well guess what people... it's not one damn bit of difference than it has EVER been.

I speak from thirty plus years of personally dealing with it. U.S Army Disabled.

The VA don't get it done. It NEVER has.

Is that the fault of the VA system? No... it is NOT.

If you must place fault, go into the smallest room in your house, lean over the sink and stare into the mirror... and look your ass in the face. Cuz Darlin's... YOU is the culprit.

America has long talked her best into "writing a blank Check" payable for any amount up to and including their lives... to the nation... to go on foreign adventures, largely for the purpose of enriching already obscenely wealthy owners of various military/industrial complex corporations.

They were promised health care if they got torn apart and Survived the ordeal...

America has largely reneged on that promise. Always has. Look back at the army attacking the Vets on the Washington mall after world War one... when they went to protest the broken promises...

So now... the VA is "playing games" with appointments and treatment? I call Bull Shit!

The Congress and bureaucrats are scapegoating... and it's obscene.

They failed to fund the VA for the task they were given. The AMERICAN PEOPLE have not demanded that they do... and Vets endure, with dignity, once again, the broken promises.

The VA is staffed, doctors, nurses, technicians and orderlies, with the best people there are... but they can only do what they can do with available resources... their "delaying" of appointments/treatment is NOT malfeasance ... it is a form of triage. They deal with and treat who they can with available resources.

Firing Gen. Shinseki is not justice for a poor job. It is Scapegoating for failure to work a god damned miracle.

If you want to point the finger of blame... point it at the Congress and Whitehouse for failing to properly fund a grossly over burdened system... and yourselves... for failing to demand that they do!

Leave the good people of the VA alone.

They are doing the best they can with the meager tools you gave them. If you don't like the treatment your warriors are receiving, write your congressmen and demand that your soldiers be treated before the disrespectful illegals flooding our borders!!!

Signed...
A Vet in defense of the VA