Happy Thanksgiving 2016

The lemons are ripening which means it is Thanksgiving again.

We are grateful for all our family and the blessings we have received. Our Moms celebrated in Alpine and San Antonio. Gordon and Alison and Johnny celebrated in Houston with Alison's family. Eric and Krystal celebrated in New Braunfels with Krystal's family. Haley came home to Tucson to be with us.

Haley and Felicia were having so much fun preparing the traditional items that they forgot the vegetables and left the red stuff in the refrigerator.

Anti-Vegetarian Thanksgiving Dinner

While they were cooking I was trimming the oleander.

After dinner we went to see the new Disney movie, Moana. We enjoyed it.

On Friday we all went for a hike to Pima Canyon. It provided nice views of the new temple.

Felicia found some Columbia hiking shoes when she was cleaning out the closet. They were in the back of the closet for several years, unused. She wore them on the hike and they disintegrated during the hike.

Here is a video showing the shoe problem and what we had to do to finish the hike.

Saturday we enjoyed the Tucson Symphony with Home Alone.

Outside the TCC Music Hall

Tucson Symphony

I took a ride to the House of Rock. This is worth watching for the music alone.

While cleaning photos from my phone, I found this memory of Johnny and Emily.

Prince or Pauper Ancestry

Some folks research their ancestry and discover royalty. I probably haven't gone back far enough but so far I've only found paupers. My 3rd Great Grandfather, John Francis, was a tenant farmer under the Earl of Essex and at age 23 was assessed the first income tax of 1799 to help the British Military defeat Napoleon. By 1751, at age 75, he and his wife Sarah were inmates at the Poor Law Union Workhouse in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. He lived there until he died at age 91.

From Wikipedia:

Life in a workhouse was intended to be harsh, to deter the able-bodied poor and to ensure that only the truly destitute would apply. But in areas such as the provision of free medical care and education for children, neither of which was available to the poor in England living outside workhouses until the early 20th century, workhouse inmates were advantaged over the general population, a dilemma that the Poor Law authorities never managed to reconcile.  

Some Poor Law authorities hoped to run workhouses at a profit by utilising the free labour of their inmates, who generally lacked the skills or motivation to compete in the open market. Most were employed on tasks such as breaking stones, crushing bones to produce fertiliser, or picking oakum using a large metal nail known as a spike, perhaps the origin of the workhouse's nickname.

I hope he would be pleased to see how much his descendants have accomplished.

Now What?

Post Election Notes

This was a challenging election because of the many negatives on both sides. I believe things turned out for the best. Here are the positives.

The Good:
Supreme Court: We can expect to have multiple Supreme Court appointments over the next 4 years and, with Trump, those will be constitutionalist judges who seek to interpret using "original intent" instead of viewing it as a "living  and breathing document" that evolves with society. It is judges of the latter type that have created the right to an abortion and have restricted public prayer. Trump's Supreme Court nominees will affect society for decades to come.

Taxes and Regulations: We can expect them to be more favorable to business growth and we will likely see significant growth in economic activity during Trump's term. Nothing would be more effective than repealing Obamacare. Federal minimum wage laws are another example of problematic regulation. Requiring daycare facilities in poor economic areas to pay their employees the same salary as those in affluent areas further restricts economic opportunity in those poor areas. Minimum wage laws take away the strongest leverage inexperienced workers and minorities have to get hired, the willingness to work for less. Rather than closing the gap between rich and poor, minimum wage laws exacerbate it.


Defense: A Trump administration will strengthen the US defense posture which will restrict the activities of bad actors. According to findings published in Arutz Sheva: Israel National News, deaths as a direct result of war, worldwide, are as follows

Bush Presidency 2001 - 2008: 159,121

Obama Presidency 2008 - 2015: 361,201

This does not count those that died from hunger, disease, or accident while fleeing their country. Millions have been displaced under the Obama's 'lead from behind' foreign policy doctrine.

The Bad:
Media Services: Major news services will be relentless in their attacks on the Trump administration.

Example of Personal Behavior: Trump has made mistakes in the past and we will hear about them all. The media is much more forgiving of democrat administrations.

Protests: Left-wing Organizations like MoveOn.org will seek to intimidate society into compliance with their way of thinking by staging protests, business boycotts, and vandalizing property of people that disagree with them. As Saul Alinsky taught in his book, Rules for Radicals, "go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions".

Election Escape:
Felicia and I saw the movie Arrival.

All I can say is, "Huh?"

Flooring and Total Wreck

The big news at our house is that the master bedroom and bathroom have new flooring.

We spent several evenings clearing all the books from the shelving (Home Depot has best box prices), stored items under the bed, and clearing stuff from the closet and bathroom. Felicia picked everything out and I think it turned out well.

I also did a section of the AZBDR with Russ that included the Total Wreck Mine. This trail goes from Hilton Ranch Road up to I10.

Here is the gopro video 

We then continued to Benson and then up the San Pedro River Valley to Mammoth, then home. The church building in Benson includes this monument to the Mormon Battalion.

The Mormon Battalion had the battle of the bulls in the San Pedro Valley and then went on to capture Tucson for the USA.