Definition of Opinion:  A belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof.

Please be respectful to others with differing opinions. 

David Rainwater

Greg W. thanks for the suggestion of the Western museum in Cody.  We're actually going to be on the western edge of Wyoming (near Thayne) this summer to meet up with our kids and my sister, but probably won't have a chance this time to make it all the way to Cody (six or seven hours away) this time.

Michael Kelly

Coats  Re your 12523  I recommend always carrying a Smoke Tinted Raincoat. Right now Walmart is out of Stock on this, which always happens in an Election Year. I always try to lay in an extra supply so that when I visit the clients I can always give them one in case they ran out  If the Relatives Post the Bail, Ill give the raincoat to them because it creates an Aura of Goodwill between the relatives and my representation of the offender.LOL

I Dont know if any of you saw the Ceremony at Davos, Switzerland, where the Global Climate Summit is being held. A Woman from some place in the Amazon River Area dressed in Native Garb, did a kind of I guess Religion or Cult Ceremony and then went around to people seated in chairs on the Stage and coughted and spat on their Foreheads and mumbled some gibberish as a kind of spell or blessing or whatever. I believe that i would have been tempted to jump up and run to my Private Villa and WASH MY FACE AND FOREHEAD. But that's just me, I might have even been tempted to actually receive my first ever COVID 19 VACCINATION.

My take on this Davos thing, after seeing this, is that I believe I remember being at a Dice Rolling Table in a Casino somewhere this same Woman was going around from table to table and soliciting for payments of up to 3000 dollars a Blow for giving dice throwers (Gamblers) a Special Dispensation on their Dice for a better Role. Who knows, but my impression was that this was yet another Hustle and that the Brain Busters in Davos got seen Coming !!!

Michael Kelly

Well I feel better now. It is now news that a Communist Chinese Biologist, who crossed our open Northern Border, set up a Deadly Biological Weapons Lab in Reedley, California. Inside were thousands of genetically altered Rats that were being experimented upon by injecting their little bodies with Tuberculosis, Ebola Virus, the horrid list goes on. Mr. Whatever the Name Jiu, was engaged in his Lab work as an Enemy of the United States of America. Right Here In Californi, Can you Imagine Makes you want to write a John Lennnon Song. It took a local woman with sharp eyes to notice the water hose that was seen to run back into the building and furhishing an Underground Lab with water. 

Jim Coats

We just received a notice from APS that we used 62% LESS electricity than similar homes last month.  I'm looking for affirmation and adulation....particularly from our democrat friends.  Let's hear it.......

OH!!  Maybe I can sell some of that electricity to a Tesla owner.  There it is.  He's back!  I'll be here all week!

It's over 70 degrees here today and I'm still cold!

Mike Lorts

Based on the responses so far it looks like next week creates scheduling problems for a number of you. If it is acceptable to Earl and Katie I would be willing to move the date to the following week. We have an appointment Tuesday but the rest of the week is open. Considering how polite and respectful we have shown each other I would love to have a face to face meeting.
katie and Earl if a change of dates still won't work, we will meet on the 24th.

Mike Lorts

Jim,

You say your electric bill is abnormally low and your cold. Are you sure you paid the bill?

Jim Coats

Dammit, Mike.  I'm a Retiree....not an accountant!  (This is the best Star Trek reference I could come up with - to paraphrase Bones in literally every episode and movie).

Yes, smart aleck....I paid the electric bill.  Wait a minute....checking.....YES!  I did!!  I knew I did, but you made me look!

P.S.  We normally run 60% of comparable homes in the area.  Good equipment & insulation, I guess.

Earl Harris III

Mike,

Cindy and I would prefer the 23rd or 24th, only because she flies back to Eugene on Thursday the 25th. Both she and I were interested in meeting with classmates and their spouses. However, if you want to move it to next week or some other date down the line, that's okay, too. I'll do my best to accommodate others. I do need to head back to Eugene after February 3, however.

Mike Lorts

Earl,

The date remains to be the 24th unless I hear that a few could make it the following week. Either way we look forward to meeting with Katie and yourself.

Mike Lorts

Katie,

We'll consider the wine summit will take place on the 24th. I never heard from Richard but look forward to meeting him.

Frank Wiley

Sunday Funnies--1. Ruger is producing a new pistol to honor the politicians in Washington.  It doesn't work and you can't fire it!  2. You're not losing your memory.  You're just really good at letting go of the past?  3. It's better to grow old with a sense of humor, than no sense at all!  4. Sign in a Coffee Shop.  "We don't have Wi-Fi.  We drink Black Coffee and talk to each other.  You know, like the old days.  5. I saw an old guy wearing a black tee shirt that had a skeleton riding a motorcycle on it.  Above the image in big letters it read, "Sons of Arthritis"  and below the image it read, "Ibuprofen Chapter".  6. The Fitness Trainer asked me, "What kind of squats are you accustomed to doing?"  I replied, "Diddly!"

Jim Coats

Frank. Good Funnies! I particularly liked #'s 4 & 5.

How about this?

A man goes to see his Rabbi.  

"Rabbi, something terrible is happening and I have to talk to you about it."

The Rabbi asked, "What's wrong?"

The man replied, "My wife is going to poison me."

The Rabbi, very surprised by this asks, "How can that be?"

The man then pleads, "I'm telling you, I'm certain she is going to poison me.  What should I do?"

The Rabbi then offers, "Tell you what.  Let me talk to her, I'll see what I can find out and I'll let you know."

A week later, the Rabbi calls the man and says, "I spoke with your wife on the phone for three hours.  You want my advice?"

The man said yes, and the Rabbi replied,  "Take the Poison!"

OK....it's an oldie, but a goodie, no?  I'm a little verklempt.  Talk amongst yourselves.  (Nod to Mike Myers)

Frank Wiley

Maybe the guy shouldn't have married a Muslim?

Earl Harris III

 Jim and Frank: Thanks for the "funnies" and the old "oldie". I hadn't heard them before. They lightened my day!

I am disappointed that so many people can't make It to Mike Lorts' Wednesday get together. Maybe another time in the near future? I'll be here for a few more weeks and I'll be happy to meet with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Please feel free to send me a note if you'd like to meet up.

I just finished up camping at Cave Creek Regional Park. I must say that I've been quite impressed with Maricopa County's Regional Parks! While Oregon has some great state and county parks, the Regional Parks here in the Valley are hard to beat. The sites are spacious, beautiful and well-managed. The park staff, both rangers and volunteers, have been super helpful! Citizens who support the parks should be very proud of what you have here.

I have also been absolutely bowled over by the dozens (if not hundreds) of miles of Greenway multi-use recreational trails in the area. Yesterday, I had a chance to ride 25 miles round-trip on my trike from Scottsdale to Tempe Towne Lake. What Maricopa County has done with its many former irrigation canals to create this web of wide and mostly hard-surface trails, many interconnecting, is amazing! The many parks  along the way provide recreational opportunities all kinds! Again, I am hoping that people view the developments with the sense of pride. To an outsider, who hasn't lived here in decades, it's quite impressive.

DeWitt Bacon

Earl, your post got me thinking back to the old days in the valley when you spoke of the canals. I remember when the entire valley around Phoenix was devoted to agriculture. The site where Monte Vista Elementary School sits was a dairy farm. Irrigation ditches ran along the north side of 36th St. Where I lived. That area had been a citrus farm. Mostly grapefruit. Perhaps many of you who lived in that area remember having one or two of those trees in your yard. When I was a kid, we would drive to Glendale to visit my grandmother. Along Grand Ave., we would pass miles of cotton fields. There are many more memories like this, but I will save them for another time. This could be a new topic to consider to take us away from politics for a while. Share your memories of the old days.

Mike Lorts

I grew up around 36st and Campbell. My friends and I would take off on our bikes to spend the day exploring all of the orchards and canal banks. Our lunch usually consisted of citrus. We would return home late afternoon. Our parents never worried. If it was summer we'd swim in the canal and watch the dead animals float by. The was a rope hanging from a tree that was so much fun to swing on and drop into the canal. No video games.

Side note: We would put playing cards in the spokes of our bikes. That made a sound we thought was similar to a Harley Davidson.

Jim Coats

Once again someone/something has attempted to open a VISA CC in my name at BofA.  I have slapped them down in the past and have safeguards at all Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies (CCRA) to throw a flag on the play, but this is the 3rd attempt.  BEWARE!

IF you get a notice of a CC app. being processed and it ain't yours (my notice came in at 3 a.m. today via email), contact the Fraud Department of the card issuer (bank) and get it stopped.  BofA was helpful, but I'm wondering why it's always them????  Next step might be to contact the CCRA's to tell them NYET!!

Frank Wiley

Hollywood makes a bunch of crummy movies so I'm hesitant to go sometimes.  I just finished watching one of the best movies I've ever seen.  "The Boys in the Boat" is very good and well worth your time!!  Enjoy!!

David Rainwater

Grapefruit trees along 36th avenue: I remember rolling big fat grapefruits across 36th with my brothers aiming to have a car roll over and smash them (until a car stopped dead on the road and we ran like hell).  

Greg Watkins

Mary Powers (Evans)

Mike Lorts

Greg,

Some of the Pink Sidewalk still exists. I currently drink water from that reservoir and I hope there aren't a bunch of delinquents swimming in my ice tea. When a bunch of us would swim in the reservoir I don't recall any of us getting out to pee.

Mike Lorts

I remember my family picking and squeezing the citrus. We would cut the tops off 1/2 gallon milk cartons and fill them with juice to freeze.

I also remember that my mom had these metal frames that she would put in the pant legs and hang them on the clothesline to dry. 

Bill RIHS

Yep! Biltmore reservoir, been there done it. My wife laughed at my metal pants/levis stretchers after we were married. I used them when mom was not around(at UofA) to iron, worked great and wish I still had them. Most of my time as a kid was playing in the canals and laterals (they are all underground now). I remember the huge cottonwood tree with a tire swing over the canal about 40th st. Climbing Camelback was great back in the day, no homes. Cub Scouts camping our in echo canyon, north side of Camelback. I have said it before and I'll say it again; We grew up in the best of times.

Bill Kaehler

Some fond memories that have stuck with me for many years now . . .

• Snacking on and absconding with pecans from the orchard across the street ( near 28^th St and Osborn Rd).. Last I looked, there were still two or three old trees left from that orchard, lining a short section of 28^th.  The rest of the orchards were replaced with apartments and homes.
• Riding bikes with friends up as high as we could go on Camelback Mtn., then gliding down the road at speeds no bicycle should have gone.  I think there was a curve on the way down, that we nicknamed “dead man’s curve”.
• Picking pomegranates from wild bushes on the side of the road, somewhere around 36^th and Camelback (I think), and eating as much as we could from the fruits.
• Believe it or not, I really enjoyed getting up at 5:30 am to throw an Arizona Republic newspaper route.