AZDOGZ.COM

wow blogging from my phone

2010-01-07T19:04:00Z

This was done from my new little Robot. Pretty cool. Not that I can blog, but that I can blog from a Phone. Someday I will have to finish that Pig vs. Chicken or Pilot vs. ATC post. For now this is good.

If Jamette would ever read these and reply or respond she would learn I did give her the account she asked for.

Dirty Day

2009-10-09T03:27:00Z

Well...
Today was a dirt day. With all the horses that have been visiting us they have left future fertilizer. The best way to get rid of it is to grind it up.

So here are some pictures of Kathy playing on the ATV with the drag. She sure looks like she is having fun doesn't she? I never get tired of looking at that smile.

Kathy Kicking up a little dust. Cough, cough...

You have to admire the concentration.

More fun on an ATV.

Not to be out done. I had to go borrow Buck's tractor as well as his ATV and move something heavy.

The Zoo

2009-10-08T05:18:00Z

Today’s adventure was a trip to the Zoo. Not the greater Phoenix Zoo, but a small private zoo. We saw hundreds of animals.

The oddities in a zoo are many. From the spider that’s 10 inches (NOT Centimeters – but inches) in leg spread, to this cat just a mere two feet above my head.

I don’t know this Lion’s name but it should be Rufus… Rufus the Lion Hearted. Why I don’t know he looks like a Rufus.

This is one of a series of about 20 images shot while these monkey’s chased this bird off their island. Look at the intensity of this chase. It went on a good 5 minutes on this small island until the NON-water bird jumped into the water to swim away. Why it didn’t fly I don’t know.

I like stripped things. While the Porkupine isn't striped, it fits in with the Zebra and Tiger.

Certainly the highlight of the day was the expressive faces of the Giraffes.
We need ideas for captions of these but here is a start.

I think this should have a title something like.
“Beer, it’s not just for breakfast any more.”

This is certainly
“The day the Giraffes went wild and became carnivorous, starting with Scott’s hand.”

I like this one but the title has got to be simply:
“Stoned Again.”

I think this is my favorite, look at the smile on Kathy’s face.

Well. That's all the news that's fit to print. Tonight anyway. It's 10:30 and it's been a long day but....

"Here's looking at you kid!"

Canyon Pictures

2009-10-05T16:58:00Z

It is very hard to take a picture of something as magnificent and large as the Grand Canyon and post it to a BLOG. Technologically it's eazy peazy, but how to convey the view, the awe-inspirering feelings. That's the rub. I am standing in most of these shots just a few feet from the edge. The distance from rim to rim varies quite a bit. In general I think you are looking at about 25 miles from where these images are taken to the other rim.

This was taken from a location called Cape Royal. Probably one of my best shots showing the variations. That small dead tree you see in the bottom of the image is growing on the ledge about 10 feet below me and about the same out. Then it drops for hundreds of feet.

This too was taken from that same point. However it's looking to a formation called "Angel's Window" Yes we went out on that point as well.

This picture is looking between the first and Angels Window. You can still see that little dead tree.

Last one from this point of view.

This was the view from the lodge. It's called the Forever Lodge ( http://foreverlodging.com/lodging.cfm?PropertyKey=181 )

The image you will see in that link is the view in the picture below.

Lees Ferry Bridge

2009-10-05T16:44:00Z

These two images are showing the view from the bridge, but also how wide it is. This bridge was one of only 7 crossings of the colorado River within hundreds of miles. So it was used by truckers and tourasts alike. This is now a foot bridge but you can see how narrow it was.

Also you can see the magnificent view of the beginings of the Canyon. Looking north from the middle of the Lee's Ferry crossing Bridge. ( Just Google Lee's Ferry Crossing or Bridge for more info. )

Yes this was a two lane road for crossing the river.

Kathy and I at the Canyon

2009-10-05T16:20:00Z

This is Kathy and I standing with the canyon as the backdrop to our picture.

We are off

2009-10-02T04:43:00Z

Yes by the time you read this we will be off on our big adventure.

Check the blog twitter connection on the right of the blog for updates.

The up comming Grand Canyon Adventure

2009-09-30T21:54:00Z

Sometimes we don't let our hopes get too high. If an event seems almost too good we are always afraid it will be snatched away.

So goes it with our upcomming vacation. Kathy and I have not been away alone for a long time. No dogs, no heat, just fun. I have never seen the wonders of the Grand Canyon.

But it's almost here. Kathy and I have the reservations.

We have the route.

We have the wheels.

We have the crew (the GoldWing Road Riders Association)

All we need to do is leave.

Pictures to follow

Passwords and Plants

2009-09-23T23:07:00Z

I think the need to memorize passwords is probably what lead to the fall of the Roman empire.

I am certain this is what will lead to the fall of American Civilization as we know it.

We have bank passwords, we have multiple bank accounts and as such need multiple log ins for each of these accounts. yes you have one bank but you have credit cards, and other things that cause the need to have multiple on line accounts for banks and financial institutions.

then you have accounts that are used for paying your other bills, electricity, cable bills, phone bills, Gas bills. (Sorry to be abusing your name Bill) Then you have insurance bill and all these have different accounts and different password requirements.

Then you have Email accounts, and if you even try to NOT live on the bleeding edge of computing like I do you probably have at least 2 maybe 3 or even 4 different email accounts.

Then you have your social networking accounts, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, the well known ones.

Then you have your hobby accounts for things like 'Tractors Weekly' or 'GL1800Riders.com' or the Model Club.

Then you have the silly accounts for all these stupid posts your brother / son / hubby puts up. Who the hell wants to read all this stuff anyway. Let alone know how to post a reply.

Yes passwords have us tongue tied. Lets face it. Gone are the days when the simple name of your family dog was secure. We used to have a cat named 'Tiger' that was a secure password in 1966 maybe. But now there are downloadable tools that can decrypt and decode passwords like, Eye1Sdad0gSb#$1245" yeah that's a password. Go remember 45 or 50 of those!

Or what's worse, we have systems that force you to change your password every so many days, and then they won't even let you freaking use the one you had last.

Next we are going to start using something like a bio-metric device (fingerprint reader) instead of a password. Then when you really need the password you will forget it because you have been entering your fingerprint for so long. OH
Wait!!!!

That was me last week.

Twitter / My Space / Facebook and the decline of Civilization

2009-09-21T17:44:00Z

"Twitter" is a quick social networking solution that is easily accessed from a phone. It is limited to 140 characters because that's the size if an Ethernet packet. A single Ethernet packet is analgous to the largest thing that can be transmitted in one chunk on the internet. Everthing is broken into Ethernet packets, and really big things are just broken into lots of packets. Twitter was created to only handle one packet at any one time.

It is a series of short messages that you post, or you can read those people's posts who you are following.

No technical skill is required beyond the ability to dial a phone and browse to websites.

My Space ~~ Facebook both are more complete social networking sites. These include the ability to post whole pages of your personal thoughts. Link to friends and allow friends to see the things you have written or pictures you have posted. No technical skill is required beyond that of ability to browse to websites. It does however enable you to upload images and display them. There is also the ability to block people from seeing what you post, a little.

This has become my life! The ability of us to inter connect these things.

We have reached a point in technology where people who use it believe they are "Smarter" than those who don't use it. While they (users) have no idea how the technology actually works.

I have spent the better part of the last few days actually reading twitter search results. I have come to some inescapable conclusions.

First ~~ I ain't da only one who can't spell!

Two ~~ There is an entire sub-culture of people who think that it's OK to use entirely contrived verbiage as a way to communicate.

Three ~~ The actual amount of data / information / intelligent communication that is transfered from any one single tweet is as confusing as the actual TCP/IP packet it's self. This is what passes as communication on Twitter..

"Yooo, this dude was clipping fingernails on LIRR a couple months back and the conductor spazzed on him and almost kicked him off "

And my personal favorite: (While I have no clue what this means I am reasonably sure I could decode the binary representation faster than this text / Twitter message
"Dude wtf im in flowershop aka dro shop we roll up stankyyy. And then have a quiz on whats the difference betweeen dubs,8ths,dimes"

I love my wife

2009-09-21T14:30:00Z

I love my wife a great deal. We did a great job of planting, digging holes, protecting trees from the vicious bunnies. We fed horses, even got to pet a baby. Kathy can tell you how old the baby is. I took pictures and will post them tonight.

But gawd we are tired. I think I went to bed sick about 5 or 6 last night. I was puttering in the garage and my body said to me. "Scott" That's what my body calls me, Scott.

It said, "Scott If you do another thing I will fall apart" So I went in and went to bed.

Apparently My body confired with Kathy's body and this morning she has that same. "Unplugged" feeling.

The trees however look great. I even can look out of my office window and see birds sitting in my bush. Well no not My bush there are no birds in there. In the bush Kathy planted outside my office window. I have adopted it. It's my bush.

Ok to work now.

new baby pines

2009-09-21T01:56:00Z

I have 2 words for you: Birds...... Squirrels.

Here on my patio I find baby trees growing in everything that is potted. I left a towel on the shelves and when I picked it up out poured hundreds of seeds. Birds plant them in the pots most of the time and the squirrels hide them anywhere they can find that will be easy access later in the winter.

Supposedly, a lot of the seeds have a waxy coating on them (Ironwood tree seeds are the ones that come immediately to mind) and have to go through the digestive system of a squirrel, rabbit or bird before they can germinate. Not so with the Palo Verde seeds or the Mesquite seeds. Put them in dirt, add water and you get a tree. Perhaps it is the same with the pine nuts.

If you cannot find out what type of tree it is in your front yard I will take a picture the next time I am there and ask the fellow that we get our trees and plants from at Black Mountain Nursery. He is amazing. I am actually thinking of paying for him to come out to the house in December for some advice on what to plant next and where to plant it. He may also be able to give me some advice about the big Palo Verde in our front. It seems to be having some problems. The last person that I asked suggested that I just cut it down and plant new trees.

The baby pine

2009-09-20T12:51:00Z

Your baby pine will live on the patio for a while. He is being moved to a much larger pot for a while and set where he will get lots of sun.

Can you tell me exactly what kind of pine he is? There are lots of pines here in the Phoenix are but if I knew his 'name' it would help me to research exactly what I need to do to help him survive and thrive in the desert.

poor Scott.......He married a 'do-it-yourself' kind of girl

2009-09-18T21:41:00Z

They just delivered our plants.

Most of the big holes are already dug except for the 24 inch boxed yellow mexican bird of paradise. We do have several 1 and 5 gallon plants to dig holes for.......OH, and the fig tree! It will go into the back yard where I can make sure that when it sets fruit I get the bird netting on so that we will get at least one or two off of it.

The trees that they delivered for along the west side of the house and garage are almost as tall as the house already!

Plants are just sitting around in their pots waiting for tomorrow when they will permanently become part of our landscape.

It is so very kool! The house already looks great and they are not even in the ground yet!

Here is what we had delivered:

5 tall acacia trees that resemble eucalyptus trees
4 thornless chilean mesquite
1 HUGE boxed yellow mexican bird of paradise
2 hopseed bushes
2 medium yellow birds
1 fig tree

Here are the other things that will go into the ground this weekend. These have been sitting around in pots for as long as 2 years.

2 red mexican bird of paradise
4 purple sage
several assorted cacti

The 4 bouganvillia that are on the patio will soon adorn the south side of the garage as soon as we build some kind of trellis for them to climb. I won't push for that for a couple of weeks.

Have a great weekend all! I will have Scott post pictures on our website of the new plants and the new dining room set.

Hours and hours of bordom, segmented by moments of real terror.

2009-09-17T16:28:00Z

This is a youtube clip a friend sent me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGAmpysnaxM&fmt=18

Landing

the whole snake story

2009-09-17T02:56:00Z

This morning, after feeding the dogs and doing a few chores, the dogs and I retired to the patio so they could prowl and play and I could have a cup of coffee. After a few minutes they all collapsed for a morning nap…..except for Voo. He stood watch at the entrance to the mouse/ground squirrel hole waiting for anything to appear……..as usual.

After a few minutes I realized that he was watching something intently and slowly and quietly beginning his stalking routine. He continued with eyes riveted to stalk in slow motion running parallel to the patio from the entrance to the dog yard. Then he changed direction and was headed toward the patio. As he reached the patio the other dogs suddenly began to show some interest in whatever he was following.

THEN I HEARD THE RATTLE!!!!!!!!!

For the very first time when I yelled the command ‘HOUSE’ every one of them ran for the door. I ran in behind them, grabbed the .22 that was loaded with snake shot and ran back out.

I slowly approached the flower pots where I had seen a tail disappear earlier and suddenly realized that I was seeing two rattles.

HOLY SHIT!!!!!! THERE WERE TWO OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was no way that I was going to reach down and move any of the 6 or 7 pots surrounding the pillar so I took aim between the pots and fired several shots. I knew that I had not obtained a head shot but knew that I had done enough body damage that they would die.

At this point I ran back into the house and began going over the dogs inch by inch to see if any of them had gotten bitten. I found no bites, swelling or anything else to indicate a snake bite so I called Scott to tell him that we had to figure out a way to close off the entrance to the mouse nest (those tunnels can go on for yards) and to ask if we had any more snake shot. During our discussion I told Scott that I was going to go out and cut off their head with the hula hoes (I really needed to make them suffer for endangering my babies). He suggested that I call our neighbor Buck for back-up. I was sure that I could handle the clean up myself so did not make that call but did go in search of the hula hoes which seemed to have grown legs and left the patio.

As I was looking for the hoes, Buck drove up and got out of his truck with gun in hand. I guess Scott had called him to make sure that if something went wrong I would have back up. I am not quite sure what a 76 year old man with heart trouble and almost blind and deaf was going to do.

I showed him where the snakes were and then, using the hoe drug them into the sun so he could see to shoot them again. He had, after all, brought a gun with the anticipation of getting to shoot something!

Buck went home, I put the snakes in a bucket so that Scott can see them when he gets home, and went back into the house to recheck the dogs………again and again and again and again.

This all transpired between 9:15 and 9:45. I finally quit shaking around noon. Adrenaline, it is amazing stuff.

In retrospect, it is a good thing that there were two of them. They were fighting or mating. They are very territorial and will try to kill any other snake that enters what they perceive as their home. They were so busy with each other that they did not have time to pay any attention to the hairless poodle that had become their shadow or the crazy barefoot lady trying to shoot them.

Snakes on the Patio, NOT the plane

2009-09-16T16:06:00Z

Kathy will give more details.
Later today I will post pictures.
But I got a call from Kathy, she was calm and collected on the phone. But I have a feeling that she was rather stressed once I heard her question.

"Scott do we have any more snake shot, I have emptied the entire gun into them and they are still wiggling. "
(THEY- DID YOU FREAKING CATCH THAT ONE THEY!!!!)

I said (calmly) no but there are bullets just remember when you load them up they will bounce.

Later she reported they were both dead. I'll let her tell the full story as I post the pictures later.

Kathy Safe:
Dogs Safe:
Snakes not safe:

From Mom

2009-08-26T15:00:00Z

Mom Wrote something priceless I needed to share.

Subject: think about this for a second

Some things to ponder OK, I know you'll like these:

Think about this:
1. Cows
2.. The Constitution
3... The Ten Commandments

------------------------------------------------------------------------

COWS

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington. And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow..
------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE CONSTITUTION

They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq .... Why don't we just give them ours? It was
written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS

The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse or Congress is this --
you cannot post 'Thou Shalt Not Steal' 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery' and 'Thou Shall Not Lie' in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians ...... it creates a hostile work environment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Testing One, Two, Three

2009-08-26T00:52:00Z

This is just another test of the stuff to see if Kathy gets it.
We also need to add a picture of Samba for her.

Dam Squirrels

2009-08-26T00:47:00Z

Well at least Scott got rid of one of the little bastards. He even made it suffer. Serves them right for eating all my pretty little trees.