I was surprised by a Road Runner this afternoon when I started my four mile walk. The plucky little bird captured a small lizard and wandered off down the road. It was cool. The Road Runner is an interesting creature. They look like they’re going really fast when they’re standing still. In Tucson, it is not unusual to see one of these from time to time. When I first moved here in January 2000, I saw one of these 
prehistoric looking creatures chasing grasshoppers around in the Raytheon parking lot where I worked. Nancy packed me a great lunch including a fried fish sandwich. To my surprise, the Road Runner wandered over to where I was eating and gladly accepted every piece of fried fish that I threw its way. It was then that I got a good close up look at the Road Runner. It is definitely a bird but I got to see a close look at its eyes. Nothing says living dinosaur more than the eyes of a Road Runner!
Currently, we’re in “Monsoon Season.” I should have had an umbrella with me but I didn’t. I got lucky this time. It was cooler than it had been for the past month but the humidity was a bit high. I’d guess it was up into the 40% area and while I realize that in most locations around the country that wouldn’t be considered “high,” it seemed high to me and I was sweating a bit.
My preferred walking path is part of the bicycle loop around Tucson. I like it because it is paved and marked for bicycles and pedestrians. It doesn’t run next to the roadway but it does employ one of the Tucson created HAWK road crossing lights where it crosses the well-travelled Valencia Road. I can listen to my podcasts on my iPhone in peace and don’t have to worry about loud mufflers and those ridiculous “thumper” automobiles. Also, I like to pick up trash along the way and the bike path doesn’t collect the amount of litter that is normally found along car roadways. With just a little bit of effort from time to time, I get to enjoy a litter free four mile trek.
Today, my walk started off with a Road Runner and ended with a Jack Rabbit. I see a lot of birds and quite a few ground squirrels. From time to time, a family of Quail will cross the path and once a small snake slithered into the scrub. There are many lizards and a few grasshoppers on the trail. When I walk the path at night, I’ll see the occasional Tarantula.
It’s days like this that remind me that I retired in the right place.
to muster the resources for 24 campers to build Beetle Bots.
In 
I’ve had some experience with PVC tubing and fittings and decided to sketch out something that might work. I started by measuring the size of the boxes. 
Then I bought the necessary tubing and fittings.
To make them look a little better, I cleaned the pipes with acetone and started fitting the parts together.
I made the shelf materials out of 
Oh…I don’t know…semi reclined in front of the TV? I cleaned up a few minor “alternate facts” on my FaceBook profile and when I logged in I got the question “What’s your position at Retired?” The last time I answered the question “CEO” and I became the CEO of retired. I must have thought it was funny because it stayed that way for years. It’s not true that I spend my days semi-reclined in front of the TV. I’m busier than I’ve ever been. The biggest difference is that I’m mostly busy doing only the things that I enjoy and I don’t get paid.
eat pizza. Soon I’ll be spending a week on the University of Arizona campus helping the Secular Student Alliance when the travelling evangelist, Brother Jed Smock, comes to visit. March is Nancy’s birthday and another Karaoke party. I won’t tell you which one but she reminds me every year that she’s X years younger than me. Of course I point out that percentage wise we’re getting closer. I’ll celebrate the fact that Arizona doesn’t have daylight savings time by NOT changing any of the 47 clocks that we have around the house. Normally the American Atheist convention is on Easter weekend but not this year. This year the convention will be in North Carolina during the total Solar Eclipse in August. We might travel to the California Bay Area for the annual Maker Faire in May. I’m already excited about attending for my fourth time as a camp counselor for Camp Quest Arizona in June. We’ll be building Beetle Bots. 
Nancy and I plan on participating in the Annual International Aerial Robotics Competition during August in Georgia along with the AA Eclipse Convention. Hopefully, we should no longer be landlords in September when we transfer our last rental property to new owners. Then comes my favorite month—October! I’ll spend the entire month in my workshop preparing for Halloween and the party the night before. Not much happens during November but we always end the year with our Winter Solstice celebration.
“May you live in interesting times.” Apparently we’re living under “the Chinese curse” and will continue to do so for quite a while. It is often difficult to stay apolitical. I usually only allow partisan discussions in my group when politics interfere with the secular character of this country. Now there is little that I can do to prevent political discussions from dominating many of our local activities. Whether or not the Chinese curse story is true, we ARE stuck with a political situation that will dominate our lives, at least for a while.
One very cold day near Christmastime, Christine opened the front door to our house and let in a funny looking black dog. She named it Fred but we mostly called him Freddy. He was incredibly short for his size. He was as long as a typical German Shephard but as tall as a Bassett Hound. His ears were pointed and stood up on his head and you might imagine that he had a bit of Corgi in him. He was skinny back then and amazingly well behaved but he was great at begging for food so he didn’t stay skinny long. Before long the family grew attached to him. However, we were on a remote assignment and this situation was not destined to end well. There would come a time when my dad’s tour was over when we would have to leave Canada and say goodbye to Freddy. In order to stave off the inevitable heart break, my father decided to do the responsible thing and find Freddy a new home. He packed up the toys from the chair that Freddy had adopted and took him to a neighbor not far away. Not far enough anyway, Freddy was back sitting on our snow covered porch waiting to be let in the next day. Once again, Dad packed up Freddy in the ’58 Chevy Station Wagon and delivered him to his new owners. Freddy came back and that was that, we definitely had a dog. Why he chose us to stay with us will always be a mystery but it was clear as to why my dad grew attached.
Tucson Atheists now have a roadside sign. In fact, we have a couple. We earned them from the city of Tucson for cleaning up a couple of miles of roadway in Tucson once a month for over six months. We discovered that the signs were up before we started our 7th cleanup. It’s a point of pride that we had from 12 to twenty volunteers during every cleanup. The road is a mile south of my house and they were scheduled for early Sunday morning. (What else is an Atheist doing on Sunday morning?) We worked for two hours then gathered at my house for sandwiches and cold drinks/ There were no complaints. It’s cooler in the morning and that was very important during a Tucson summer. We’ll continue to do the road cleanup but my guess is that we can start a bit later during the winter months.
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