The Subject is Dogs

This is my new town. It's new to me even though it's officially a hundred and thirty years old. So it's my new town. I shot this picture of it today from way off west in the desert looking east toward the town. That's Picket Post Mountain to your right and Apache Leap way back in the rear and if you squint real hard you can see the white roofs of the town just in front of Apache Leap.



The reason for taking this picture that far away is because tonight I'm going to expose a nasty little secret of this new town of mine. And it's not especially a nice thing to tell folks about so that's why I'm showing the town at a distance, not close up and in love like I have been showing. Our town has an animal control officer. He's hired by the town apparently and doesn't have anything to do with the county. He does things his way. Which is, round up all the loose cats and dogs that bother the town. And it's a fact: this little town has way more barky dogs than it needs. I'm quite sure it has more than its share of cats too. But when this guy 'rounds up' the critters, according to the stories I've heard, he doesn't bother to take them to any shelter to be cared for, he disposes of them promptly. (That's right: you do the math.)

Now I got this information from a group of dedicated, horrified ladies who are working to get a proper animal shelter started here in town. Where dogs and cats can be spayed or neutered and then suitable families can be found for them. A much more humane solution than a quick dispatching of them. They are working their collective buns off to round up as many strays as they can and get them cared for with help from far more humane shelters 'down in the Valley'. They had their hands full last week when it rained hard all day and the animal control officer collected seventeen animals and even he found it too difficult to "off" them all so he called the ladies up and deposited all seventeen with them. (Yes, THOSE were cared for, carted off down to the Valley and hopefully homes can be found for them.)

But I had my own little scare today after we returned home from shooting this picture. Our beloved puppy, Chuy, (I must remember to include his picture on this blog soon, being's he's the Cutest Puppy In The World currently) was put into his outside pen under the deck to get used to being shut up in a pen when Mom and Dad aren't around. We hope to start Harley riding soon and Chuy hasn't learned to ride on the bike yet. So we found a nice shady spot in the dirt and set his pen enclosure up there. Bill was afraid Chuy might dig out from under it but I assured him Chuy would be much happier in the dirt rather than on the cement slab behind the house. Bill went about his chores. I starting cutting out fabric on the sunroom floor. Occasionally, we'd hear Chuy bark. But finally, after about an hour there was silence, so I figured he was sleeping.

Wrong. Chuy dug under his enclosure and came zipping up the back steps. Bill went out the back door and found the eager puppy waiting at the door for us. We let him in, I snatched him up and covered him with kisses. What a good puppy not to have run away! For even with his dog tags and micro-chip, if the Evil Dog Catcher had caught my puppy, would he have been dispatched summarily? Whew!

So we breathed some big sighs of relief and realized it was our Lucky Day after all. And we've moved Chuy's pen out from under the deck and it's now sitting on hard cold cement. But the puppy won't be digging out no more! As far as the Evil Dog Catcher and this town's Sinister Secret, well, I'll keep you posted. I know there'll be more to come!

Valentine Potpourri

We celebrated Valentine's Day a little differently and there were so many parts to it, I want to share. Overall, it was a good day. The weather was a little cooler but felt soft and that's the way Valentine's Day should feel I think. But here's what I learned on my first Valentine's Day in Superior, Arizona:

I had a phone call from a friend who lives 'in the Valley' and he reported a pretty young woman had offered herself to him for 'two fifty'. Would that be two dollars and fifty cents, I inquired. No, it was two hundred and fifty dollars. Hmmmm, I know the price of groceries has gone up but she must have a pretty high opinion of herself.

Bill put the rock and dirt tires back on the Cruiser so this afternoon he and Chuy and I rode out into the desert to try and find Mattie Blaylock's grave once again. We made the trek this time last year on my visit here to try and find the elusive grave that could be on a number of hills overlooking Apache Leap and Picket Post mountain to the west of town. But due to vandals and grave robbers, maybe nobody will ever really know where the poor woman lies. We did find a dandy wash from the winter's rain and I spent half an hour loading up on flat red and pink rocks only, just because it was Valentine's Day. Then we got back in the Cruiser and resumed our search for the grave. I find it odd that we've put this much energy into trying find this woman's grave. She's been gone a hundred and thirty years come this July. I think dead, she's probably vastly more interesting than the poor woman ever was alive. (Ain't that a legacy!!!!) She was Wyatt Earp's second 'wife', commonlaw at least, and lived with him from her early twenties until her mid thirties. When Earp went and married his third wife, Mattie was just devastated and it didn't take too many years of drink and drugs to overdose and die at the age of thirty eight. She died in the defunct town of Pinal City, just a few months before the town itself died and was buried in the old Pinal City Cemetary. Stories say there's a stone there depicting Mattie's grave but that vandals and grave robbers have messed things up pretty badly. Some say she's been 'reburied' on a hill looking back at Apache Leap. That's where we thought we'd found it last year. It sure 'felt' like Mattie was there. But today we were in search of the old cemetary. And except for some rings of stones in one place, we probably didn't find it. It might have some campers fire ring, or it might have been some elaborate ruse somebody set up to make folks think they had found Mattie's old grave. Guess we'll keep looking....

And then, on one of our walks, we glimpsed this young woman who when we offered a cordial "Good afternoon" averted her eyes and kept on walking. What in the world? A neighbor said she's one of the crackheads who inhabit one of the abandoned buildings down the street and that 'he heard' she had a small child living with her and she hustles out in the early morning bumming change from the folks who buy their gas and coffee at the Circle K. Imagine that: a modern day Mattie Blaylock, only one not fortunate enough to have been a lawman's Lady and probably destined for an early demise from overdosing of drugs too. Makes you wonder what might have changed in this corner of the desert in the last hundred and thirty years, huh?

But the topper of this semi-sweet Valentine's Day was a lovely green beaded necklace with a carved bone feather on it from Bill. And we shared a plate of frosted heart shaped cookies I baked (with Chuy, of course!) And then, the best of all: I received via email this Valentine from my sweet grandson. So what couldn't be better? I'll take it all thank you, the good, the sweet and the bittersweet too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Royal Visit

No, no, my grandsons didn't arrive for a visit. But we did have a visit from a Royal Visitor. Prince Andrew flew over the Apache Leap mountain this morning in a heliocopter to get a look at where the proposed land swap for the Resolution Copper Mine is going to be. If you stare real hard right in the center of the picture, right above the mountain, that's him there.

I reckon there must be some pressure being exerted by the Royals of England onto the Ditherers in the Senate over the slowness in approving or vetoing this bill that would make the copper company the biggest in the state of Arizona and possibly one of the biggest in the U.S. I don't know precisely what kind of pressure the senators might be getting but it must be coming from the environmentalists and the Native Americans who are opposed to it. I can't help but think there must be others, maybe some Influential Others who have some reason to prevent Resolution Copper from having their big mine back up there. But when you talk about Influential Others, that's usually another company who would like to have that land for themselves. They're usually the only ones that can exert that kind of pressure on politicians. It's not because the lawmakers are worried about Doing The Right Thing. (Whatever that might be!)

Anyway, I just wanted to share. I thought this was kind of a SCOOP and again, it didn't make the news tonight on tv. All they stated that Prince Andrew spent the day touring area businesses. (Yeah! You betcha he did!) And don't you think there's some Goodies in it for the British government if this Land Swap bill is enacted and the British copper conglomerate moves in to reap its rewards. The prince has to do what he's gotta do too. That's his job.

Oops, sorry, if my tone has slipped tonight. I'll try to keep it lighter next time!

Stirring up a Vortex

Arizona's town of Sedona gets all the credit from the New Age crowd on its power vortexes, claiming four or more of them. A vortex is an opening to the heavens or higher planes and its supposed to make things easier to communicate with the Other Side and make yourself more spiritually open when you're in the presence of one of them. There's lots of nanu-nanu hoodoo associated with vortexes but it doesn't mean in order to feel one you have to be wearing tie dye and dreadlocks.

I sort of think that Apache Leap and the surrounding mountains of the old Silver King Mine and areas of the Magma Mine are mighty rich in the powerful vortexes. You don't have to be specially 'sensitive' psychically to feel the vibrations of this place. We took a walk up Queen Creek today, past the remains of the old Silver Queen mine and the beginnings of the old Magma mine. It's a gorgeous amble past burbling streams and majestic white barked cottonwoods still waiting for the spring greenery to leaf them out. On both sides of the canyon wall you can see scabs of mine tunnels or boring holes and other man-made efforts to dig out the treasure from these mountains. It's enough to get me hot to learn more about the rocks and pebbles strewn underfoot to know what is what and what's valuable or not.

But atop these same mountains, ablaze in the red afternoon sun were these towering peaks of dripping red rocks, looking like dripping candles ablaze on an overloaded birthday cake. And you can't stare at these peaks very long without feeling the power in them. There's a lightness you feel around them, a lessening of your worries and fears, sort of like a big hand said, "Here. Drop your load here and I'll take it up for you." Maybe it's 'cause they are so large, you feel so small below them, but it doesn't make you feel inconsequential. Not at all. If you close your eyes and ponder the feeling these mountains give off while you're standing in their shadows, it's enough to make you feel like you are Superman and you can accomplish whatever you set forth. I guess it's that sort of vortex. Sort of a vitamin-enriched one. It's pretty heady, actually.

I don't know if you can bottle this stuff. Probably not. But if you could feel what I'm feeling, it's pretty impressive. So maybe Sedona won't be the only town in Arizona for making people feel the vibrations. Maybe they'll start making the trek up to Superior to see for themselves what the people who make this town their home have known all along. Maybe I should be the one to keep my Big Mouth shut and not let the secret out. But mainly, I just want to share. This secret's too good to keep to oneself!

STOOPID - SIMPLE

It amazes me how sometimes the most simple, easiest things are those that collect the most raves or mean the most to those you love. Take this recipe, for example:

Last week, we got together with my aunt and uncle from Bullhead City. I hadn't seen Aunt Mary Jane in two years and she's one of my favorite aunts. Vivacious, fun loving and a go-getter, plus one of the best cooks left on the earth. And my Uncle Ralph... well, just say "chocolate" and Uncle Ralph is happy. We met them for a pot luck on Saturday and both my sister, Gloria and I surprised everybody by both baking brownies. And not just any brownies, either. Normally, Glo and I would 'go all out' and prepare brownies-from-scratch, but we'd been busy this week and preparing other pot luck goodies, as well, so we both (unbeknowst to each other) prepared made-from-mixes brownies. We laughed over it when we got together and had to do a Taste-Off to see if Glo's Wal-Mart mix was better than my Betty Crocker mix. (I believe Wal-Mart's was fudgier.)

The next day, being's it was Super Bowl, we decided to get together again and pot luck it once again. Now, Bill and I have an hour's drive either way from Glo's house where all this partying was going on, and since I'd cooked my fool head off the day before, I really didn't feel like baking up a storm once we got home on Saturday night. But.... but there was a pot luck to bring something to the next day and besides Uncle Ralph likes chocolate. So I threw these cookies together. They are sort of Last Minute, Good Ol' Standby, Never-Fail Cookies. But you could call them Stoopid-Simple because they are so darned easy. And.. best of all, everybody loved them! Nobody wanted to stop eating at just one. Aunt Mary Jane asked for the recipe and I saw Uncle Ralph raid that cookie can a time or three! So, I'm sharing this with you. When you need a really good cookie and you don't have a lot of time and you want to shine like a queen when you serve them: Bake This Cookie! (You're welcome!)

Line a greased jelly roll pan (15"x10"x1") with saltine crackers. I use Club brand. It takes about one third of the package. In a medium sized sauce pan, melt 2 cubes of butter (1 cup) and 1 cup of dark brown sugar. Stir it until it melts, then keep stirring it while it boils for five minutes. Remove from the heat and pour over the crackers in the jelly roll pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 6 to 10 minutes, making sure it doesn't burn. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with two cups chocolate chips. (You can use milk chocolate or semi-sweet or white chocolate or even peanut butter chips, whatever you choose.) Wait a moment or two until the chips melt, then spread them with a spatula like icing. At this point, you can either put the pan in the refrigerator to set up or sprinkle with butter brickle chips or chopped nuts, then chill off in the refrigerator. When they are set, break apart and serve. It's that Simple. And I promise, you'll be asked for the recipe more than once!

Good snacking to you!

Trash Town

I cannot comprehend this one. This town that presents itself as being the perfect example of Small Town America.... this town that begs you to love it for its vibrancy and tiny little individual homes... this town that has seen better days but knows there's something better in store for it soon... This Town Has A Problem!

It's trash. It's litter, litter everywhere! It's scads of bottles and cans and garbage strewn around its streets. I don't mean the occasional tossed item. There are streets where it looks like garbage cans were dumped out. There's broken glass from bottles just about everywhere. I'd be afraid to have my grandsons walk alongside the road, there's that much glass around.

Why? How could any community allow this to happen? Do you suppose it's "A Cultural Thing"? That something like this has been going on for so many generations that people just don't bother to notice anymore? That's it's sort of expected to toss your soft drink cup when you come home from a fast food joint? If that's so, the folks that live in this town must have really clean car interiors.

Bill and I have embarked on a mission. We're going to clean up our town. One street at a time. Hey, Superior isn't a very big town. There can't be THAT many streets here with a population hovering around three thousand. We should be able to get it cleaned up in what remains of our lifetimes, don't you think?

It's a simple proposition. Our garbage is picked up twice a week. Rarely, do we have a full trash can. So at least once a week on the night before a pick-up, we each take a really big Hefty garbage bag and head for the street. We pick up until our bags are about two-thirds full, then go home and stuff them in our garbage can. We started on our own street, just that block. Then, on the next week, we turned the corner and did the block on the connecting street. There was one lot that looked like it might have substituted for the town dump and we mostly just picked up our two bags of stuff on that lot alone. Then, this week, we did the next block up, still on our street. It's on a hill and I guess it's a thrill when you charge down the hill to lob your garbage out on the hillside. It had cacti and Salt Cedars festooned with plastic bags and bottles and cans, and glass, of course. The ubitiquitous glass.

The glass, I think, must be leftover from the Heydays of the saloon. This town has been a haven for booze loving men for a hundred and twenty years. I don't know how many saloons there were here in the "old days" but there's still about five or six here now and that's a fair number for three thousand souls, wouldn't you say? And thinking back to the Wild West days, I bet it was sort of a sign of prestige to be able to lob a bottle out a door or window and watch it splinter into the desert sand. Maybe it sounded good. Maybe it felt good too, if you were really wound up and wanted to make your point. Maybe all of that turned into "A Cultural Thing" so that five generations later, people are still lobbing their beer bottles out their truck windows and watching them splinter into the desert sands.

Well, can I suggest something? Let's change this "Cultural Thing" and instead start picking up the crud that's littering our town. Let's enjoy the landscape that the town deserves so we don't have to pick our way amongst litter and broken glass when we walk the streets of Superior. If we started doing this now, maybe I won't still have to be hefting Hefty bags when I'm eighty and still trying to pick up the town. And maybe I won't have to still be blogging about Trash Town thirty years from now.

A Room of Light

Have you had the opportunity to enter a room filled with like-minded individuals as yourself? The feeling is welcoming and warming and you feel as if you belong. When the intention is for the good of all, the feeling can be felt as being surrounded with light, making you feel you are treading the right path.

We had such a thing happen to us this past week. We attended a citizens meeting against crime in our small town. This meeting was a working meeting, unlike the bigger one I reported on last week (see "ODDITIES"). It was a small group. Only fifteen folks. But as each one spoke from the heart, there was nodding and agreement going around the table and we could see that we were all, more or less, on the same page.

There was a guest speaker from the Pinal County Sheriff's Office on crime prevention. He told us that the hardened criminal uses three things to his advantage: Motive, Ability and Opportunity. While Motive and Ability is nothing the Average Joe can do anything about in deterring crime, Opportunity is. So he supplied ways we can take away the opportunity for crime to occur and save ourselves the problem of being a victim. He wasn't trying to make us feel paranoid, just a bit extra vigilant so complacency (or laziness) doesn't result in a criminal getting the upper hand.

Agreement resounded on these points: That we are dedicated to seeing the "Same-Old, Same-Old" system of crime and punishment this town has used in the past go by the way side. That we all feel overwhelmingly that this town is worth saving and we're going to see it get cleaned up. That the days of hiding criminals behind familial ties is over. People are going to step up and do their duty: report crimes and suspicious activities; agree to be witnesses in court cases, if need be; look out for their neighbors and their neighborhoods; and refuse to be victims. The resounding affirmation was that no longer would people be afraid of reprisals by the 'bad guys'.

It's a big job. We have a lot of work to do. But we're going to start with small steps with our dedicated group of fifteen and we hope to recruit more as the tide turns and things change. We have the backing of the mayor and the town council and the chief of police and his staff. We're not some vigilante group charging out on a white horse to save the town. We're going to start turning over the rocks and cleaning up the decades of debris piece by piece. There are lots of things we could be doing if our numbers swell, but some important ones to get started with. Talk is of forming Citizens on Patrol groups that will go through neighborhoods to aid the police during periods of time when crime occurs and the police cannot be everywhere at once. We're going to do some publicity to get the word out to the general populace that our group exists. We plan to start a youth group to get the word out to young people.

Light will shine into the Dark and Light will rule the day. It won't be easy. But those of us in that room this week realized that something special is happening in Superior and things are going to change. I'm very grateful to be a part of this.