The Big Boy is Coming Your Way

 

 

Union Pacific “Big Boy” 4014

Two tours this year. The West tour starts Sunday.

MORE

The Eastern schedule is, at this point, tentative but will include Pennsylvania.

MORE

The UP and the Norfolk Southern are holding merger talks which would form the first and only coast to coast railroad.

As is my habit (some call it an obsession) I will be somewhere along the tracks to watch it.

Rare Earths

A start to ending China’s near monopoly.

MORE

Got Nothing

So many things are going on in the state and the world that my umbrage locker is overfull. Nothing I can write anything coherent about. You get another car story.

Car Story

Stuck, in a 4x4 1990’s Nissan Pickup way off the main highway while being my usual fool self.

The pickup came from our Grand Junction store inventory I decided to use after dropping off some vehicle I drove over from our Longmont store. My destination was Craig via Highway 13 when I decided to detour to a county road and take another route into Meeker. Boredom overrode judgment.

There was still snow on the ground and a few miles into the detour the county road was blocked. Rather than a sensible three point U turn on gravel I chose making a left into sagebrush covered with about a foot of snow. Mud underneath. No problem, 4x4, right? Turned out the 4x4 indicator on the dash showed 4x4 but the truck was in 2 wd. I was both stuck and fucked.

Did I mention I was in a cell phone dead area?

The next hour was spent crawling under the truck trying to get it into 4 wd. Finally, looked at the owners manual and  got smart enough to start checking fuses. Suddenly heard a welcome "clunk". From that point easily drove out. After changing clothes, the rest of the trip was uneventful.

Did I learn anything from the experience? Hell no, on to the next bad decision.

As always, YMMV

Didn't Pay Climate Tax

 Spring Equinox

81° on my balcony.  I turned on the apartment A/C this morning. This is the strangest winter I can remember. We need a minimum of precipitation to keep the soil microbes alive and I fear we haven’t had enough. Bad summer coming?

 Sick Propaganda

A high school classmate posted this on Facebook. I called him out.

This man is well educated, a world traveler from a Little Snake River ranching family. I am baffled by smart people getting sucked into lies. Of course, that would never happen to any of us, right?

David StLouis

pdrensotSo53t1c5u5354562a9mff65i2m1cuufc9uhti4gtm1hu3106l7i1 ·

I'm angry! Copied from a blog:

The United States, once the repository of truth and freedom preserving institutions, can betray all morality, all law, by intentionally attacking a girl’s school in Iran for children of Iranian Guards in order to demoralize the Iranian military force in hopes of reducing its ability to resist Israeli-American unprovoked aggression against the Iranian nation. Trump and Netanyahu opened their war by murdering 185 little girls.

Do governments so totally evil, so overflowing with self-righteousness and self-justification for their crimes against humanity as Washington and Israel have a right to exist? This is the question that is before us. Yet the entire world, including Putin and Xi, refuse to confront the question, preferring to defer to evil.

Comment

Frank White

Nice propaganda hit. Any creditable third party verification? Any likelihood that school was intended as a human shield ala Hamas in Gaza? Seems Irianian military forces are targeted directly

.Let us remember Iranians during the Iran/Iraq war (1980-1988) used their own children to clear mine fields. Yes, those children became martyrs, so that was a noble thing. (sarcasm intended)

Fence Me In

My late mother liked to joke, “Glamorous cowboy occupation. Stacking hay and fixing fences”. In my teens I stacked many tons of hay and fixed fences, made fences, and cursed fences. This technology changes the fixing fence part.

MORE

The downside might be the satellites going dark.

 Nothing new to those who read this blog, joining the Army filled me with anticipation. Drive a tank. Shoot Artillery.  Infantry; mortars and such. Nope, MOS 122 (later 12B) Combat Engineers. Stack sandbags and string nasty barb wire. If you have never worked with concertina wire, count yourself lucky.

Lithium

In previous posts, I reported a huge lithium brine deposit on University of Wyoming trust land. Could this process work?

MORE

 What we are talking about. 

MORE

The evaluation made after the find was the amount of lithium in the brine wasn’t high enough for economical viable extraction. Maybe a new evaluation is in order?

Dream on, Jon Caldera

He presents a case for independent audits of elections and the Secretary of State operations.

MORE

 IMO, the (P)regressives are only interested in winning and to hell with what the voters want.

 Are they going to be deterred from their higher calling, their God complex, by any laws?

 Way Back Story

Not a car story; a trip down memory lane and why some customers are best lost to your competition.

Larry Lambert  (Virtual Mirage) recently posted about exploring places in Utah. During the 1970’s that was part of  my sales/installation territory for a modular and pre-fab operation out of Ogden, Utah.

Long ago and far away long distance phone calls were expensive. Companies could enroll in a WATS line (Wide Area Telephone Service) with unlimited one line long distance phone calls, in or out, but not both. Patience, this has a point.

The sales rep for our competitor in the area was Max Phelps. We were friends. Max started his sales career hauling around coffins in a pickup to isolated Utah and Arizona towns and ranches selling direct to consumers. This was a common practice at the time, especially among Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints families. I remember him telling a story of being up in an oxygen tent beside a hospital bed showing his prospect a catalog while the grieving family filled the room. Motivated customer!

 Mr. Blivet, with access to a WATS line, was the purchasing agent for a coal mine in Utah, who wanted to buy a modular house for himself. Among other demands, he insisted no dimension could exceed 1/8” out of spec. I politely told him we couldn’t meet his requirement and suggested he contact Max’s company. With unlimited WATS access, he was able to torture others. I didn’t want the hassle.

Fast forward a few months when Max and I were having lunch in a Kanab restaurant. I waited until he took a bite then asked, “How are you getting along with Mr. Blivet?”.

After choking, and taking a gulp of water, Max freely expressed himself on the subject of Mr. Blivet, with a sidebar directed at me.

Blivet: Two pounds of horseshit in a one pound bag.

As always, YMMV

 

Speeding Along

 

Speed Trap

Town of Kersey got me for $40. Seems in just weeks the town has generated around 1/3 $Million in revenue. Most certainly, other towns around the area are taking note.

MORE

 In the small city where I live, there is now a dedicated radar van that moves around. A Facebook page has been created to track the locations.

 I’m not against enforcing speed limits, within reason. Drivers going 15-20 mph in built up areas endanger all of us.

 The section of road Kersey monitors has no side streets and one farm driveway. I don’t buy “safety” for the way speed limits are set on that section of WCR 49. Perhaps those speed limits were set back when it was two lanes and should be reviewed.

Weed Business

Competing with the “black market” is tough. I’m not a customer. That said, my understanding the street price is lower, the potency adequate, and the sellers aren’t required to fund Emperor Polis’ and associates blue dreams.  Mexican cartels may be another story.

Grand Western Tradition

Wyoming, Colorado, and other western states have a history of schemes involving mining to fleece investors. They also share a history of fabulous wealth generated by mining. Which is happening now with rare earths?

MORE

Me, just a bemused sideline viewer.

Consequents

The DOT, Federal and some States, crackdown on unlicensed and unqualified truck drivers, I applaud. There are repercussions. My local grocery store has a lot of empty shelves. Upon my inquiry, I was told they are having trouble getting their deliveries.

 Safer roads vs being inconvenienced? I’ll take option one, thank you.

 As always, YMMV

Wreck Recoveries (other than politics and wolves)

Something that interests me

Wrecker operations, and especially off road recoveries, interest me. There are several YouTube channels I watch. This recovery is impressive.

MORE

The (P)regressive Way

Denver International Airport (DIA) is a Denver Democrat operative’s  cash cow. Everyone forced to use it pays the price. A question. Is this common around other major hubs?

MORE

De-instituion

Seattle area, circa 1970’s had two women who fundamentally changed the way handicapped children and the mentally ill were treated.

 One, Katie Dolan founded and ran what became the Northwest Center in Seattle, a place for handicapped to receive services. Her obituary is here.

MORE

The other, Francis Hadden Morgan, focused on the mentally ill and the way the state dealt with them. Her obituary is here.

MORE

Some personal background to explain my interest.

 My first born, Sean, is autistic. We were living in the Salt Lake City area and there was nothing available for him. My wife was put into contact with Katie Dolan and soon we moved to Seattle. There were programs for Sean and he thrived, as much as was possible given his limitations.

 My wife, under Katie Dolan’s wing, became deeply involved with the needs of the handicapped. The initial draft of what became the Education for All Act was written on our dining room table.

 Along the way my wife, with my involvement, founded the Seattle Chapter of the National Autistic Society. This lead to many years of involvement in local politics including me being a Precinct Committeeman.

 Enough background.

 The ladies mentioned wanted, and fought hard for, a better life for the handicapped and mentally ill. Their vision was for community based housing and services instead of large impersonal state institutions. Worthy, even noble, with one fatal flaw; money. The institutions started closing before the community base was established. The community model never grew large enough to meet the need. Allocations resulted in bloated bureaucracies that used most of the funds for their operations with only a trickle going to the community model.

 This was Washington, but you can find the same pattern all across the country. That resulted in our current ‘unhoused’ situation.

 I recognize the above is simplistic. That is by design. You need a starting point when dealing with a huge and complicated problem.

My suggestion? Bring back the institutions and focus on making them work.

 For Colorado Readers

 Colorado accountability project is a daily read for me. Cory Gaines gets down in the weeds and shows how the state and NGOs spend taxpayers money in dribs and drabs that add up. The money is often siphoned from places like school and road allocations.

MORE

 In other news, the (P)regressives have found ways to circumvent PDJT’s administration policies.

MORE

I see busy work for lawyers.

But wait, there is more.

 Geothermal

Another green scheme for politicians to fund activities that can’t stand on their own financial merits.

MORE

Wyoming Innovation – Mineral Separation

A near shelf ready process to separate minerals, including rare earths, and recover low grade uranium from contaminated sites.

MORE

Buying vs Leasing

People ask me about this. The pro vs con, the pitfalls, etc. In general, don’t lease a vehicle for fewer miles than you anticipate driving. There are other factors to consider. The one thing people seldom overlook, and pointing this out to customers put many dollars in my pocket, is liability.

With any vehicle you purchase, cash or finance, you have full liability. You are an accident, your insurance company is obligated to ‘defend’ you and pay to the policy limits. They are not obligated to defend you they way you want to be defended. (Read the second paragraph of your Allstate policy). You have $100,000 coverage and your insurance company settles for $150,000. Guess who is on the hook for the $50,000?

 When you lease a vehicle, the lease company owns the vehicle and the liability. Your insurance company deals with them and any third parties.

 Yeah, WSF, okay, so what. If you are well off, you will get sued, because you have assets. Outside of dread diseases, a vehicle accident is possibly the greatest threat to your financial life. A whole section of the legal profession focuses on personal injury lawsuits.

 As an attorney working on a contingency, who would you prefer to go after; Mr and Mrs Comfortable Citizen, or Ford Motor Credit Corp, GMAC, Capitol One, etc., who own the vehicle and liability?

 Should you prefer to purchase, spend a few dollars with a competent attorney exploring LLCs, trusts, etc. Some may provide you with a legal shield.

MAGA breaking environazi rice bowls?

The Trump’s administration effort to rescind a 2009 EPA declaration on green house gases, etc., leading to ‘climate change’ threatens the whole climate change grievance industry. How dare they?

MORE

 As always, YMMV

Your Next President (In Four Years)

 

2028 Presidential Candidate – Emperor Polis

He will save the Democrat Party – just ask him.

Neighbor. “Can’t you say something good about Jared?”

Me: “He is term limited”.

He was quick to jump the shark on SloJo’s pardon of Hunter.

"While as a father I certainly understand President @JoeBiden’s natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country," Gov. Jared Polis tweeted Sunday night.

"This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation. When you become President, your role is Pater familias of the nation."

Added Polis: "Hunter brought the legal trouble he faced on himself, and one can sympathize with his struggles while also acknowledging that no one is above the law, not a President and not a President’s son”.

 You think selling cars is fun?

MORE

Circa 1992 I worked in Puyallup, WA for a Mitsubishi dealership when an arrogant red dot Boeing engineer came in. He had a station wagon trade. At the time Mitsubishi offered a van that was virtually sales proof. They were so hard to sell Mitsubishi gave the dealers $4,000 trunk money. Trunk money is a given to the dealer, not the customer. After a prolong negotiation, we sold the van at dealer invoice and gave Mr. Red Dot what he wanted for his trade. He wrote a check for the van. I immediately drove to his credit union, about 40 miles, and turned his check into a cashiers check.

About two hours later, Red Dot called. Somehow he learned about the trunk money. Wanted the $4,000. Told him, “NO”. About 20 minutes later he called back totally pissed off. Seems he called his credit union to stop payment on his check.

We had a two day rodeo. We had his trade locked up in the bull pen and we had the signed off title to the trade. He returned the van, parked it in front of the dealership, and we had it towed away. Damned if that wasn’t a satisfactory sale. (Yes, I know. Evil car salesman. Guilty, and proud of it) This was in the early days of CSI (customer  satisfaction index). My general manager was so happy to see one of those vans gone he didn’t care about an angry customer.

As an aside, trunk money isn’t a rare thing. Toyota screwed the pooch on their T-100 pickups and had big trunk money to get them sold. I never worked at a Toyota dealership but had friends that made some big bucks on those pickups.

 We can only speculate what the manufacturers will be putting up to move the unsold 2023 inventory.

I have no opinion on why the T-100 wasn’t the usual Toyota success.

Trade Wars Winners and Losers

My hope is that President Trump can remove many of the government obstacles impeding mining. One start might be sending most of the EPA’s 1,000 lawyers into the field as investigators. Let them spend time writing reports no one will read.

MORE

As Always, YMMV

Humane, or Proudly Ignorant?

 

Ain’t None of them Cowboys

Feral horses are often a problem on open ranges. They are prolific breeders with few predators. They overgraze the range. During droughts and harsh winters they die slow deaths from starvation.

Controlling their population gets people stirred up. People love horses. Love, without understanding, or even caring to understand facts, is animal cruelty. Cue Emperor Polis.

MORE

Shooting Update

Victor Anthony De Santiago, the man who tried to kill a Colorado State Trooper, was born in California. He was a long time Colorado resident with a criminal record. To date, there is no indication he had any affiliation with Venezuela gangs.

They Raise Them Early in Wyoming 

MORE

Please understand I don’t applaud this hunter; just understand the culture. I was raised with subsistence (poacher) hunters. The ethos was a quick kill. Don’t make an animal suffer. I’m opposed to archery hunting because a quick kill is unlikely.

Rare Earths

This is, hopefully, good news.

MORE

Wolves

Yes, I know, not everyone is interested. 

MORE

Daily Life

From the local rag’s Cop Log. It isn’t all shoot ups and high speed chases. We sometimes forget what law enforcement handles day to day.

MORE

 As always, YMMV

So You Want to be a Cowboy?

 Cowboy Up!

This weekend is the Sombrero Horse Drive. 2-500 horses moved from Browns Park to west of Craig, CO. Too late this year but if you have $5,000 or so to spare you can do it next year.

Ride'em

On Sunday the drive goes past Maybell, CO. Our paternal family has a multi-generation history in that corner of Colorado and adjacent parts of Wyoming and Utah. We have a family gathering around that date each year. On Saturday we visit the private family cemetery on land homesteaded around 1913 that is still in the hands of family members, approximately 20 miles west of Maybell.

Side note: Maybell has the distinction as the coldest recorded temperature in the state, -61°F.

(Browns Park          40° 48’ 25.01” N  108° 54’ 27024” W

  Sombrero Ranch  40° 32’ 25.50” W  107° 46’ 13.74” W)

Want a 2^nd Home in Wyoming?

Wretched excess

Wyoming has many isolated, out of the way, places. Bedford may be as isolated as any. Lying in the Star Valley between two mountain ranges and served by one highway, the few Star Valley residents are mainly LDS (Mormon) followers. The Jackson Hole pustule is a hard 69 mile drive away along the Snake River.

Given the financial means, would I buy the place? Hell no! I would rather live in a sheep wagon.

No S**t, Sherlock

Soros Legacy

Colorado 8^th Congressional District

Created after the last census, the Republicans nasty primary fight resulted in an establishment wingnut candidate that independent voters found distasteful. The Democrat winner is a decent person that votes party line and tends “woke”. Polling suggests she might have trouble getting re-elected.

CO 8th

This is the district I live in. The probable Republican candidate is a solid conservative.

MORE

Of interest, but not important, both the current office holder and her presumed opponent are Latino.

Bad Drivers – We are third in the nation, Colorado!

#1 is within reach with just a few more transplants moving here.

Watch out!

The infrastructure isn’t adequate for the amount of traffic.

US 50 Blue Mesa Reservoir Bridge

Closed due to structural cracks. The detour is over 300 miles. My first thought was a temporary float bridge. Seems CDOT has approached the Army for help. No answer yet.

Something for the local residents.

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nCZXZbVWTUwPl7jMSSOio-q9xo_D2liEw

Wolves doing what wolves do, duh!

Emperor Polis to ranchers? “Tough shit”. 

Middle finger

What warms my evil heart is wolves expanding their range and are now appearing along the Front Range. What will happen when a golden doddle gets eaten in Boulder County?

Another sign Biden isn’t running the Executive Branch

The new harebrained scheme is to move the Air National Guard into the Space Force. Biden, with decades of swimming in the swamp, would know this is a sure way to piss of all the Governors. Further, do this in an election year?

I’ve never understood the need for a Space Force in the first place.

Plain Talk

A car selling memory. My sales manager was doing a thirty day alcohol rehab and the corporate trainer ran the store for a month. Honest Art Kinsman (The Working Man’s Friend). A decorated Korean War Marine, he played two seasons as an offensive guard for the Green Bay Packers. He was a foul mouthed hard ass’s hard ass.

 One night I was working a deal with a man with bad credit. After the third pencil (offer), he roared out, “You go up there and tell that banko fag we are the only place that can get him financed and that is the payment!”

Going behind my desk I started, “Jeff, we…” when he cut me off. “I heard”, he said. “Where do I sign”.

Australian Invasion

Many blog posts have to do with Wyoming rare earth deposits. Most are being developed by Australian companies. The latest news involves one of Australia’s wealthiest person. For those interested.

Rare Earth

 There are other players and wannabe players. China is lurking in the background with some of the players. Surprise?

TABOR – The (P)regressive’s never quit

The biggest impediment to the leftist effort to make Colorado California lite is the Taxpayers Bill of rights, a state Constitutional amendment. Their latest effort is to spend more while promising lower taxes. 

Taxes

The Democrats are determined to move Colorado from #13 among state debt at $67 billion toward #1 California $520 billion.

Pesky thing, Constitutions. Lawsuits to follow.

Soylent Green news

Gushing article on advances in better synthetic food,  if you have an interest.

Plant Based "Meat"

Look forward to changes in labeling rules so that the consumer won’t know what they are eating.

Banner’s new tack

What he was using was over four years old and starting to fray. He doesn’t care but the ladies in the building are making a fuss over the new gear and he does enjoy the attention. For me, I went with a new 6’ leash instead of the old 4’.  

 Out of battery 5/4 to 5/7. Will have a laptop but the motel connection is poor. Unless things have changed from last year, little to no cell phone service in Maybell with my carrier.

 As always, YMMV