There's always something special about the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving. It means some time off from work for most of us, reflection for others, and anticipation of the meal that we're going to have the next day. Tomorrow I will be up in Gilbert, that's in Phoenix metro, to spend the day with my cousin Todd. His wife Annette, who happens to be a damn good cook has graciously decided to provide the meal for us. Todd and I kicked around the idea of preparing the main dish on the barbecue grill, but Annette wouldn't hear of it.
Yes, I know, turkey is traditional. And I'm a fan of tradition as much as the next guy. Yep, gimme some turkey, some stuffing, a load of those mashed potatoes and slather on that gravy. Baked beans? Sure. Pumpkin pie? You betcha. (I didn't mention cranberry; I've never been a real fan of that). Then off to the back patio for a long conversation ranging from next year's deer hunting trip and where to go, or maybe getting the clan together in Palm Springs or something. I figure it will be one of those days that will again be filed away under the Memories section of that organic computer that God gave me that I call my brain.
As I think about tomorrow and the drive up to Phoenix, I can't help but think about previous Thanksgiving Eves and the memories that they have provided me over the years. There are a few of them that stand out, a few that I come back to whenever another one of those Eves arrive.
The first one I think about is the one in 1975. That was Wednesday the 26th of November. I was not yet 17 years old, and we were living in Virginia at the time. We knew next month that we were moving to California. That evening my dad took us all up to Hatboro, Pennsylvania, so that we could have one last turkey meal with my Uncle Buss, Aunt Anne, and cousins Gary and Margie. Buss is one of my dad's older brothers, and while we were living on the east coast we would try to see them from time to time.
That particular day my mind was more on the purchase of the first album recorded by Bachman-Turner Overdrive. I had been a huge fan of them for over a year at that time, and I was looking to complete my musical library with every last song that they had ever done. I've always been partial to that album. It had a lot of great songs on it: "Gimme Your Money Please", "Hold Back the Water", "Blue Collar", "Down and Out Man" and "Don't Get Yourself in Trouble" were my favorites. Not only did it have some cool songs on it, the design and artwork of that album was the best that I had ever seen, and I think it's the best that I'll ever see.
Another day that comes to mind was one here in Arizona, in 2003. I drove up to Chandler (also in Phoenix metro) with Peggy. Peggy was a former girlfriend of mine back in 2002. We had really had quite the passionate romance but I wasn't able to jump in feet first on that one. It was the first serious romance since my divorce in 1999, and my mindset of the time was that I wasn't ready for a serious relationship. Somehow though we have managed to remain good friends over the years. I'm still in touch with her. She's living full time in Palo Alto, California these days. Eventually she'll return to Tucson but her job is very demanding and I suspect she'll be up there for the next several months.
Anyway, on that day of 2003, I left work early to pick her up. We drove up to her sister's, and after a run to Sam's Club and Fry's Electronics I was relaxing in the hot tub with her and her sister. Her sister had this Siberian husky named Bo, and ole Bo was really quite the character. He'd place his head in my lap knowing that I would instinctively scratch it. If I stopped scratching, he would growl at me. If I still didn't resume scratching, he'd start barking. Dang, he was as assertive as a cat when it came to wanting attention!
I don't think though that this evening is going to rank up with the two aforementioned evenings, aside from the fact that this year I have a blog whereas I didn't the years before. I can't remember what I was doing last year on Thanksgiving Eve. I do know that in years past I took the whole week off from work. I wanted to do that this year but I'm saving what little vacation time I have left for the year for next month's road trip to San Jose.
On another note, I am mindful that a lot of people this year don't have as much to be thankful for as I do this year. I don't know why, but that bothers me. I can in one way identify with them, having been there once. That was in 1998, when some severe adverse circumstances were going on for me.
I hope that those others can find their way out like I did.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The Half Dollar
One of the more unknown coins in U.S. coinage is the half dollar. This is a coin that a half century or so ago saw regular circulation alongside of dimes and quarters. In those days they were made out of silver, a 90% silver alloy to be exact. They had various designs, with the most beautiful of all time being that of the Walking Liberty, which was minted from 1916 thru 1947.
In 1948, completing the move towards placing historical figures on our coins, Benjamin Franklin's portrait started appearing on the front with the Liberty Bell appearing on back. These continued to circulate for several years, until coming to an abrupt end in the 1963-64 timeframe.
A confluence of events led to the demise of the half dollar as a circulating coin. One, the assassination of President Kennedy took place, and a decision was made to have his portrait appear on this coin beginning with the 1964 design.
Two, there were rumors that coins would no longer be made out of silver. At that time the price of silver had this semi-official fix of $1.29 per troy ounce. Some say that the silver supply started shrinking, thus placing an upward pressure on the price of silver. With escalation of military activity in southeast Asia and a social policy to win the war on poverty, more dollars needed to be printed/issued. The inflation that is guaranteed to follow with these kinds of policies would bring about a situation where the metal in the coin would be worth more than the face value of the coin itself.
Three, the Kennedy half dollars were much sought after by the public. Everyone it seemed, wanted a keepsake of the late President. From my reading, it seems as if people were lining up at the banks to buy these things and to start hoarding them.
From my conversations with a co-worker who worked as a cashier in that time frame, he told me that the half dollars disappeared overnight. You couldn't get the Franklin halves either, and coin shortages for dimes and quarters were being reported. Mintage figures for dimes and quarters show a significant ramping up in 1963, and when 1965 started the date was frozen and coins dated 1964 continued to be struck.
Congress then passed a Coinage Act removing silver from the dimes and quarters beginning with the 1965 date. "Clad" coinage then began, but silver coins were struck alongside the clad coins. I've read where 1964 dimes were minted until early 1966, which explains the high mintage figures for 1964. With the passage of this coinage act, the half dollars were minted with a "silver clad" alloy, their silver content being reduced to 40%. In 1970 Congress passed another act which removed silver from half dollars completely, and authorized the minting of the Eisenhower Dollar. At that time I was in the seventh grade, and on those occasions where I got a half dollar in my change I kept it. I was then aware that clad halves were coming out, so I didn't bother saving any of those.
Here we are a few decades later. The half dollar is still a circulating coin, in the sense that the Federal Reserve will order some for their inventories to meet the demand for them. The thing of it is, is that the last year the half was struck for circulation was 2001. I have read where the Fed believes that they won't need to order any more half dollars for use until 2050, as that existing inventories are sufficient to meet what little demand that there is for this coin.
So why am I writing about half dollars this evening?
Well, I've been a coin collector since I was a kid. I occasionally will ask for rolls of half dollars at the bank, in the hopes that I will score some silver halves or some silver clad halves. I have gotten some silver clads before but I can't remember how long it has been since I came across a 1964 half in a roll. Probably never; I did get a few when I was a paperboy, but never have I gotten a 1964 half in my change.
As for the last time I got a half dollar in my change, I'm going to say it was in 2002 and it was from the coin shop on Speedway in midtown Tucson. Coin shops will hand out half dollars in change in an effort to spur further interest in coin collecting. Aside from the coin shop, the time before that was at a movie theater in 1993. My then wife and I had gone out to see a movie at a theater in Capitola and the fifty cents change that came my way was in the form of a half dollar.
These days if you want to get some half dollars, you have to ask for them at the bank. As I've stated, I do this occasionally, and this morning there was one of these occasions. I bought two rolls of halves, face value $20 for the two rolls. In addition, I picked up another $11 worth that were loose from another teller.
I didn't score any silver this time, or any silver clads. But I did score some keepers. There were six of them: a 2002P, two 2002D, two 2007P and one 2007D. There have been half dollars minted every year since 2001, but they haven't been minted for circulation. What the Mint does with these is that they include them in mint sets, and they also sell these in bags and rolls to collectors who are willing to pay the premium to get them. Mintage of the 2007 halves were 2.4 million for both Philadelphia and Denver; thus I scored some low mintage halves that are worth more than face to a collector such as myself.
I will be keeping one each of the 2002P/D and 2007P/D halves. This leaves me with a surplus of two halves. I haven't done the eBay thing in a long time, but I do participate in a forum for coin collectors, and I plan on putting these up for auction.
As for the remaining halves that aren't keepers, well I've got a bunch of them. Some $28 worth.
I plan on ditching these at convenience stores and in the company cafeteria. The cashier working the express lane at Safeway is also going to see some of these. My own efforts won't lead to an island of circulation of half dollars on the east side of Tucson, but I'm sure that some of the cashiers will get a kick out of some coins that they can buy out of the till to give to their kids.........or to keep for themselves.
In 1948, completing the move towards placing historical figures on our coins, Benjamin Franklin's portrait started appearing on the front with the Liberty Bell appearing on back. These continued to circulate for several years, until coming to an abrupt end in the 1963-64 timeframe.
A confluence of events led to the demise of the half dollar as a circulating coin. One, the assassination of President Kennedy took place, and a decision was made to have his portrait appear on this coin beginning with the 1964 design.
Two, there were rumors that coins would no longer be made out of silver. At that time the price of silver had this semi-official fix of $1.29 per troy ounce. Some say that the silver supply started shrinking, thus placing an upward pressure on the price of silver. With escalation of military activity in southeast Asia and a social policy to win the war on poverty, more dollars needed to be printed/issued. The inflation that is guaranteed to follow with these kinds of policies would bring about a situation where the metal in the coin would be worth more than the face value of the coin itself.
Three, the Kennedy half dollars were much sought after by the public. Everyone it seemed, wanted a keepsake of the late President. From my reading, it seems as if people were lining up at the banks to buy these things and to start hoarding them.
From my conversations with a co-worker who worked as a cashier in that time frame, he told me that the half dollars disappeared overnight. You couldn't get the Franklin halves either, and coin shortages for dimes and quarters were being reported. Mintage figures for dimes and quarters show a significant ramping up in 1963, and when 1965 started the date was frozen and coins dated 1964 continued to be struck.
Congress then passed a Coinage Act removing silver from the dimes and quarters beginning with the 1965 date. "Clad" coinage then began, but silver coins were struck alongside the clad coins. I've read where 1964 dimes were minted until early 1966, which explains the high mintage figures for 1964. With the passage of this coinage act, the half dollars were minted with a "silver clad" alloy, their silver content being reduced to 40%. In 1970 Congress passed another act which removed silver from half dollars completely, and authorized the minting of the Eisenhower Dollar. At that time I was in the seventh grade, and on those occasions where I got a half dollar in my change I kept it. I was then aware that clad halves were coming out, so I didn't bother saving any of those.
Here we are a few decades later. The half dollar is still a circulating coin, in the sense that the Federal Reserve will order some for their inventories to meet the demand for them. The thing of it is, is that the last year the half was struck for circulation was 2001. I have read where the Fed believes that they won't need to order any more half dollars for use until 2050, as that existing inventories are sufficient to meet what little demand that there is for this coin.
So why am I writing about half dollars this evening?
Well, I've been a coin collector since I was a kid. I occasionally will ask for rolls of half dollars at the bank, in the hopes that I will score some silver halves or some silver clad halves. I have gotten some silver clads before but I can't remember how long it has been since I came across a 1964 half in a roll. Probably never; I did get a few when I was a paperboy, but never have I gotten a 1964 half in my change.
As for the last time I got a half dollar in my change, I'm going to say it was in 2002 and it was from the coin shop on Speedway in midtown Tucson. Coin shops will hand out half dollars in change in an effort to spur further interest in coin collecting. Aside from the coin shop, the time before that was at a movie theater in 1993. My then wife and I had gone out to see a movie at a theater in Capitola and the fifty cents change that came my way was in the form of a half dollar.
These days if you want to get some half dollars, you have to ask for them at the bank. As I've stated, I do this occasionally, and this morning there was one of these occasions. I bought two rolls of halves, face value $20 for the two rolls. In addition, I picked up another $11 worth that were loose from another teller.
I didn't score any silver this time, or any silver clads. But I did score some keepers. There were six of them: a 2002P, two 2002D, two 2007P and one 2007D. There have been half dollars minted every year since 2001, but they haven't been minted for circulation. What the Mint does with these is that they include them in mint sets, and they also sell these in bags and rolls to collectors who are willing to pay the premium to get them. Mintage of the 2007 halves were 2.4 million for both Philadelphia and Denver; thus I scored some low mintage halves that are worth more than face to a collector such as myself.
I will be keeping one each of the 2002P/D and 2007P/D halves. This leaves me with a surplus of two halves. I haven't done the eBay thing in a long time, but I do participate in a forum for coin collectors, and I plan on putting these up for auction.
As for the remaining halves that aren't keepers, well I've got a bunch of them. Some $28 worth.
I plan on ditching these at convenience stores and in the company cafeteria. The cashier working the express lane at Safeway is also going to see some of these. My own efforts won't lead to an island of circulation of half dollars on the east side of Tucson, but I'm sure that some of the cashiers will get a kick out of some coins that they can buy out of the till to give to their kids.........or to keep for themselves.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Some more reading
OK, so I lied last night when I said I wouldn't be posting for the next few days.
What happened was that I forgot to pass along a link that I found interesting. It's the latest column by Dr. Thomas Sowell.
It really isn't my intention for this blog to be a an ongoing political commentary, but sometimes I will come across something that I want to share. I have been a regular reader of Dr. Sowell's column for several years, and there are just some columns that I feel the need to tell you about.
Click here, where it says "here".
Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.
It will make you a better person if you take the time to do that.
What happened was that I forgot to pass along a link that I found interesting. It's the latest column by Dr. Thomas Sowell.
It really isn't my intention for this blog to be a an ongoing political commentary, but sometimes I will come across something that I want to share. I have been a regular reader of Dr. Sowell's column for several years, and there are just some columns that I feel the need to tell you about.
Click here, where it says "here".
* * * * * * *
Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.
It will make you a better person if you take the time to do that.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Tuesday, 11/17/09
Tony's surgery is being put off until the 30th. My cousin Kirk (Tony's middle son) was able to locate a surgeon who has more experience with this type of surgery. Kirk obviously is well-connected with the medical community; he once studied under one of the nation's top dental surgeons and I'm sure he knows who the top dogs are in several specialties. If he doesn't know, he will know who knows and he will make use of their advice.
It is with some sadness that I report the passing of noted shortwave/ham radio author Harry Helms, who lost his battle with cancer two days ago at the age of 57. I first read one of his articles in the November 1977 Popular Electronics magazine, where he wrote a fascinating piece about pirate radio. A few months later another of his articles dealt with "mystery" signals and clandestine stations on shortwave, including that one numbers station out of Cuba that I've briefly touched on.
Mr. Helms was quite knowledgable about the oddities in radio that were out there, but he knew a lot about some other things. He authored a book called "Top Secret Tourism" which I've been meaning to get a copy of. This book is about places that are not generally known to the public, such as Area 51. He was careful to caution his readers about respecting the signs that restricted access and trespassing.
I stumbled across his blog some six months ago, and he didn't know this but he was inspiring me to create this blog. I never contacted him via his email; he had enough on his hands as that he had been a terminal cancer patient for nearly three years. He was open about what was happening with him, and he faced that battle with dignity.
He will definitely be missed.
As of late I've been reading The Templars by Piers Paul Read. It's a fascinating history that goes into great detail about the rise of both Christianity and Islam, and the Crusades. The role of the Templars in this period is also examined in great detail.
Up until a year or so ago, this was one of the several areas of the world's history that I've been largely ignorant of. It isn't taught in public schools and if you learn it at a university you're either a history major or you took the class as an elective.
I will grant that a better understanding of the American nation can be gained by studying our nation's history, which typically begins with the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Yes, anyone graduating from high school in this country needs to know American history.
However, I'm wondering if maybe we should go back even further and make our children learn about medieval Europe, and the development of the legal system in England. It wasn't until I read a Supreme Court decision regarding the Second Amendment that I became aware that a lot of our "law doctrine" or concept of rights, if you will, emerged out of England. That in turn goes back to the Magna Carta, which most folks have heard about, but almost no one can explain how that came into being and why, or even what it said in the first place.
Getting back to the Crusades, I think it would do us all well to be knowledgable about them and what was left in their wake. I think the influence of the Crusades is still with us, even though many of us are largely ignorant about it.
That's it for this evening. I don't think I'll be posting for the next few days.
* * * * * * *
It is with some sadness that I report the passing of noted shortwave/ham radio author Harry Helms, who lost his battle with cancer two days ago at the age of 57. I first read one of his articles in the November 1977 Popular Electronics magazine, where he wrote a fascinating piece about pirate radio. A few months later another of his articles dealt with "mystery" signals and clandestine stations on shortwave, including that one numbers station out of Cuba that I've briefly touched on.
Mr. Helms was quite knowledgable about the oddities in radio that were out there, but he knew a lot about some other things. He authored a book called "Top Secret Tourism" which I've been meaning to get a copy of. This book is about places that are not generally known to the public, such as Area 51. He was careful to caution his readers about respecting the signs that restricted access and trespassing.
I stumbled across his blog some six months ago, and he didn't know this but he was inspiring me to create this blog. I never contacted him via his email; he had enough on his hands as that he had been a terminal cancer patient for nearly three years. He was open about what was happening with him, and he faced that battle with dignity.
He will definitely be missed.
* * * * * * *
As of late I've been reading The Templars by Piers Paul Read. It's a fascinating history that goes into great detail about the rise of both Christianity and Islam, and the Crusades. The role of the Templars in this period is also examined in great detail.
Up until a year or so ago, this was one of the several areas of the world's history that I've been largely ignorant of. It isn't taught in public schools and if you learn it at a university you're either a history major or you took the class as an elective.
I will grant that a better understanding of the American nation can be gained by studying our nation's history, which typically begins with the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Yes, anyone graduating from high school in this country needs to know American history.
However, I'm wondering if maybe we should go back even further and make our children learn about medieval Europe, and the development of the legal system in England. It wasn't until I read a Supreme Court decision regarding the Second Amendment that I became aware that a lot of our "law doctrine" or concept of rights, if you will, emerged out of England. That in turn goes back to the Magna Carta, which most folks have heard about, but almost no one can explain how that came into being and why, or even what it said in the first place.
Getting back to the Crusades, I think it would do us all well to be knowledgable about them and what was left in their wake. I think the influence of the Crusades is still with us, even though many of us are largely ignorant about it.
* * * * * * *
That's it for this evening. I don't think I'll be posting for the next few days.
Monday, November 16, 2009
The State of the World as it is on Monday, 11/16/09
News from Iowa is that Uncle Tony will be undergoing open-heart surgery tomorrow. He will have a new valve put in and if necessary, a bypass will also be performed. He is 87 years old and it must be scary for him and for his family to be undergoing this.
I can't help but wonder what would have been happening to Tony if Obamacare were under effect right now. I think some bureaucrat would have concluded that Tony is too old for this surgery, so why waste a surgeon's skill on him? Never mind that Tony was off fighting the Nazis in his younger years. Never mind him raising three talented children, who all are working in various areas of the dental field. Never mind that he was a good husband to my aunt Marge and helped my dad out on something more than half a century ago (I don't know the details of that; very likely a private matter).
Enough about politics.
I had my first post-Kathleen date over the weekend. This chain of events was set in motion about three, maybe four weeks ago when I "unhid" my profile on Match and snuck in a clue about how I could be reached by email. Within a day or two of doing that, I was contacted by a lady that I will only identify as Debbie (I don't disclose last names here except on very rare occasions or if the person is famous.) There was an email exchange of about three weeks or so. We spoke on the phone Friday. We met at an Italian restaurant on Saturday.
I really liked her. I found her to be very attractive and she was very good company. Thing of it is, is that it was really hard to tell if the chemistry was really there. I was really hoping that she would have wanted to adjourn to a dance floor that was up the road by a few miles, but I didn't think that I would get away with that suggestion, so we said goodbye in the parking lot.
I haven't heard from her since then. I'm not sure that I should write or call. My own thinking is that more time would have been needed to really know, but experience tells me she would have been another Dyanna.......great company, attractive, and fun.........but no special magic.
Since unhiding my profile on Match, I have gotten lots of email from them encouraging me to become a paid member. I get told about how someone looked at my profile and was checking me out. Well, just because someone was looking at your profile doesn't mean that they're really interested. I've checked out plenty of profiles myself. Some of them just flat out remind me of an April Wine song......"looks good from far.....but it's far from good".
Anyway, with Debbie, I'm taking no further action. Now that this is a closed chapter, I'm making it public here.
Maybe it's time to see if this one chick up in Phoenix who's on eHarmony is interested.
I am really wishing that I had bought more gold when it was $300 an ounce. As the present administration is continuing the work of the previous administration in destroying the dollar, gold is reaching for record highs these days. It's in the mid 1100s right now.
Is it really going to reach $2000 an ounce?
I'm thinking of buying two ounces, and selling one of those ounces in case it does reach $2K.
Then again, it might be wiser to hold on to it. In trying to determine what the money supply is by reading the Fed's website, they have three different definitions.....as if they really don't want you to know how much money is out there.
But no matter which set of numbers you look at, with the multitrillion dollar debt and deficits in front of us, they'll just print more even if the dollar goes the way of the Italian lira.
I'll never forget handing over 4000 lira to buy a soda when I was in Rome in 1995. I'll have to check, but I think a century ago there was a 20 lira coin that contained 0.1867 ounces of gold.
Last night I checked out the remake of "The Prisoner" on the AMC channel. I've long been a fan of the original series that Patrick McGoohan starred in. This remake? Well, I was only able to last twenty minutes.
The original series is just fine. It shouldn't be messed with.
Time now for some supper.
I can't help but wonder what would have been happening to Tony if Obamacare were under effect right now. I think some bureaucrat would have concluded that Tony is too old for this surgery, so why waste a surgeon's skill on him? Never mind that Tony was off fighting the Nazis in his younger years. Never mind him raising three talented children, who all are working in various areas of the dental field. Never mind that he was a good husband to my aunt Marge and helped my dad out on something more than half a century ago (I don't know the details of that; very likely a private matter).
Enough about politics.
* * * * * * *
I had my first post-Kathleen date over the weekend. This chain of events was set in motion about three, maybe four weeks ago when I "unhid" my profile on Match and snuck in a clue about how I could be reached by email. Within a day or two of doing that, I was contacted by a lady that I will only identify as Debbie (I don't disclose last names here except on very rare occasions or if the person is famous.) There was an email exchange of about three weeks or so. We spoke on the phone Friday. We met at an Italian restaurant on Saturday.
I really liked her. I found her to be very attractive and she was very good company. Thing of it is, is that it was really hard to tell if the chemistry was really there. I was really hoping that she would have wanted to adjourn to a dance floor that was up the road by a few miles, but I didn't think that I would get away with that suggestion, so we said goodbye in the parking lot.
I haven't heard from her since then. I'm not sure that I should write or call. My own thinking is that more time would have been needed to really know, but experience tells me she would have been another Dyanna.......great company, attractive, and fun.........but no special magic.
Since unhiding my profile on Match, I have gotten lots of email from them encouraging me to become a paid member. I get told about how someone looked at my profile and was checking me out. Well, just because someone was looking at your profile doesn't mean that they're really interested. I've checked out plenty of profiles myself. Some of them just flat out remind me of an April Wine song......"looks good from far.....but it's far from good".
Anyway, with Debbie, I'm taking no further action. Now that this is a closed chapter, I'm making it public here.
Maybe it's time to see if this one chick up in Phoenix who's on eHarmony is interested.
* * * * * * *
I am really wishing that I had bought more gold when it was $300 an ounce. As the present administration is continuing the work of the previous administration in destroying the dollar, gold is reaching for record highs these days. It's in the mid 1100s right now.
Is it really going to reach $2000 an ounce?
I'm thinking of buying two ounces, and selling one of those ounces in case it does reach $2K.
Then again, it might be wiser to hold on to it. In trying to determine what the money supply is by reading the Fed's website, they have three different definitions.....as if they really don't want you to know how much money is out there.
But no matter which set of numbers you look at, with the multitrillion dollar debt and deficits in front of us, they'll just print more even if the dollar goes the way of the Italian lira.
I'll never forget handing over 4000 lira to buy a soda when I was in Rome in 1995. I'll have to check, but I think a century ago there was a 20 lira coin that contained 0.1867 ounces of gold.
* * * * * * *
Last night I checked out the remake of "The Prisoner" on the AMC channel. I've long been a fan of the original series that Patrick McGoohan starred in. This remake? Well, I was only able to last twenty minutes.
The original series is just fine. It shouldn't be messed with.
* * * * * * *
Time now for some supper.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The 2009 Deer Season Report
The middle rifle season for Arizona opened on Friday of last week. Todd and I went out over the weekend in unit 34A, Whetstone Mountains, where we were drawn for antlered whitetail. Whitetail or Coues Deer are found at elevations exceeding 5000 feet, and our whitetails are not as large as their midwestern cousins. Plenty of permits are issued for whitetails, but hunter success is at best 23% and that figure was for unit 34B, which we hunted two years ago.
We did all of our hunting in French Joe Canyon, which is off Arizona state highway number 90, about ten miles south of I-10. That was not the canyon that I scoped out earlier this year but I do know that whitetails like canyons as that I've seen plenty of them in Ramsey Canyon which is near Sierra Vista.
On this hunt, we didn't see any deer at all. No other wildlife save for some hawks and crows. We found areas where it was obvious that the deer had bedded down recently. We found some of their scat, and we noted that some mesquite trees had some of their lower branches stripped of leaves, which told us that deer had been feeding there. But as I said, we didn't see any deer on this trip.
We called it quits Sunday at sundown. The season doesn't close until sundown on Thursday, but Todd was not available this week, and as circumstances would have it, the clutch in my truck went out this morning and it's in the shop right now as I type this.
Good luck? I'm going to say that it was.....it would not have done us any good had I lost the clutch some thirty miles from civilization, where the roads are primitive and four wheel drive is a necessity.
I think though that next year we'll apply for mule deer tags, and return to 34B. I've been told by a co-worker that the muleys are plentiful down Green Valley way.
Word from Iowa is that my uncle Tony is not doing very well as of late, and is a candidate for some open heart surgery. He's 87 years old and as such the decision will not be made until this coming Friday. My aunt Marge is understandably very concerned about this. I've been out to Iowa before to see them. They lived most of their lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, and moved out near Iowa City some five years ago to be near where two of their sons (cousins Kirk and Todd......this is a different cousin Todd than the one I go hunting with and who lives near Phoenix).
Tony served our nation during the Second World War, and the B26 he was on was shot down over Yugoslavia behind enemy lines during the war. Those who survived the crash were aided by the resistance and they were in hiding for about six weeks. Some years after the war, he met and married my aunt Marge, and they lived in Lincoln where he had a job with the Nebraska Highway Department.
Marge and Tony have been damn good Americans all of their lives, and their children have gone on to become exemplary citizens as well.
I'll be keeping them in my thoughts and prayers.
With my truck in the shop, I took today off from work and I'll be taking tomorrow off as well. This gives me a chance to catch up on some miscellaneous projects around the house, including this evening's blog entry. I'm somewhat torqued over this clutch job. I seem to be going thru clutches a little bit more often than I should.
However, the truck has over 315,000 miles on it. I haven't had to make a vehicle payment in over nine years. But one question that will come up is, should I think about getting a new truck?
I'll make that decision sometime in the middle of next year. I used to think that my "day of reckoning" on it would come at 160K miles........then I pushed it off to 200K......then 250K. I decided to go for 300K miles, and I'm past that now.
I may have my day of reckoning at 350K. It's been an extremely reliable truck since I bought it in November of 1995. It's a 1995 Toyota Tacoma in four wheel drive.
Now you know one reason why General Motors has lost market share.
We did all of our hunting in French Joe Canyon, which is off Arizona state highway number 90, about ten miles south of I-10. That was not the canyon that I scoped out earlier this year but I do know that whitetails like canyons as that I've seen plenty of them in Ramsey Canyon which is near Sierra Vista.
On this hunt, we didn't see any deer at all. No other wildlife save for some hawks and crows. We found areas where it was obvious that the deer had bedded down recently. We found some of their scat, and we noted that some mesquite trees had some of their lower branches stripped of leaves, which told us that deer had been feeding there. But as I said, we didn't see any deer on this trip.
We called it quits Sunday at sundown. The season doesn't close until sundown on Thursday, but Todd was not available this week, and as circumstances would have it, the clutch in my truck went out this morning and it's in the shop right now as I type this.
Good luck? I'm going to say that it was.....it would not have done us any good had I lost the clutch some thirty miles from civilization, where the roads are primitive and four wheel drive is a necessity.
I think though that next year we'll apply for mule deer tags, and return to 34B. I've been told by a co-worker that the muleys are plentiful down Green Valley way.
* * * * * * *
Word from Iowa is that my uncle Tony is not doing very well as of late, and is a candidate for some open heart surgery. He's 87 years old and as such the decision will not be made until this coming Friday. My aunt Marge is understandably very concerned about this. I've been out to Iowa before to see them. They lived most of their lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, and moved out near Iowa City some five years ago to be near where two of their sons (cousins Kirk and Todd......this is a different cousin Todd than the one I go hunting with and who lives near Phoenix).
Tony served our nation during the Second World War, and the B26 he was on was shot down over Yugoslavia behind enemy lines during the war. Those who survived the crash were aided by the resistance and they were in hiding for about six weeks. Some years after the war, he met and married my aunt Marge, and they lived in Lincoln where he had a job with the Nebraska Highway Department.
Marge and Tony have been damn good Americans all of their lives, and their children have gone on to become exemplary citizens as well.
I'll be keeping them in my thoughts and prayers.
* * * * * * *
With my truck in the shop, I took today off from work and I'll be taking tomorrow off as well. This gives me a chance to catch up on some miscellaneous projects around the house, including this evening's blog entry. I'm somewhat torqued over this clutch job. I seem to be going thru clutches a little bit more often than I should.
However, the truck has over 315,000 miles on it. I haven't had to make a vehicle payment in over nine years. But one question that will come up is, should I think about getting a new truck?
I'll make that decision sometime in the middle of next year. I used to think that my "day of reckoning" on it would come at 160K miles........then I pushed it off to 200K......then 250K. I decided to go for 300K miles, and I'm past that now.
I may have my day of reckoning at 350K. It's been an extremely reliable truck since I bought it in November of 1995. It's a 1995 Toyota Tacoma in four wheel drive.
Now you know one reason why General Motors has lost market share.
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