Just a few pictures from my test flights with the drone.

So, the reply I submitted to the New Mexican came out in today’s paper. I expected it to be published, but I was surprised at how fast it was printed. Usually, they hold it for a week to 10 days before it appears, this one was just a matter of days.

It’s the fourth one down. Enjoy.

• Was at HD today for my 15,000 mile service. Front tire was a bit thin, so I had them replace it. Cost was nothing since I had gift cards from delivering bikes last year and I still have $100 worth of cards left.
• Several new employees at the store today. I confuse new employees. They know I don’t work there, but I go wherever I wish and no one stops me. I have all the codes to the locked doors, I get change I need from the registers, and other employees treat me with deference. That confuses the new people and the long term employees never clue them in.  Eventually they figure it out and some are never clear on the total concept.
• Cold ride out this morning. Nice ride home this afternoon. Big police crackdown on speeders going on, so I have to ride close to the speed limit lately. Andy is not so lucky, he got nailed. Oops!
• I’m going to Willard on Friday with Rick Montoya for lunch. Should be warmer down that way. We’re meeting here for the ride down and since Rick likes his food, I’m betting this place is good.
• Saturday, we have a ride to the Santuario de Chimayo for some reason. They have sacred mud there. I hope they don’t expect me to smear mud on my bike, it’s clean right now. They wash bikes at SFHD after service and it looks GREAT.
• They predict snow on Sunday again. This winter sucks.
• Peace.

. . . and we’re to stupid to stop it. Or should I say the left is too stupid to stop it from happening. Trump is trying, but the left is fighting it. Sad that such stupidity continues with thousands of examples like the one below.

https://youtu.be/AJ1_6s5OFmM

I read the following this morning and I had to reply;

Donald Trump, who has wormed his way into our presidency, never should have gotten there. He is categorically unfit by his habits of bullying, braggadocio and false bombast, not to say all normal considerations of character, background and suitability. His followers are still hoping, in vain, that he will turn Washington, D.C., on its ear; if you still believe that stuff, please take a look at the Cabinet he has nominated and the presidential commands he has issued.

I have served this country well during my years in the U.S. Foreign Service, in posts that included the U.N., Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Haiti (counternarcotics chief), various posts in West Africa and two tours in Iraq at ages well past normal retirement. I have personally never seen such an assault on American values and norms. I gather that around the time of my birth (1943), there were many who saw such a wall as necessary against imagined foreign invasion; one result is the shameful legacy of Japanese-American internment camps. I have read of the sufferings of Irish and German immigrants impressed into the U.S. Army about the time of the war against Mexico in the mid-1800s. It seems we go through one of these America-first episodes every 80 to 100 years.

 Trump has no right to lead the politics and command the armed forces of the United States. He may have been elected by outmoded methods of calculation, but I speak for nearly 3 million Americans when I say that this man is not my president. Republican voters and representatives, be ashamed, not least for what is to come.

Richard S.D. Hawkins

And our pumps were down. No clue why, but no gas sales were happening. I spent an hour on the phone with tech support and they’re up and running now. If it happens again, I should be able to fix them myself, providing it’s the same issue.

I hate snow.

Peace.