24/7 Chat About Anything

[maki2]

No sunny Arizona weather this weekend. Going to be in the lower 60s for a high but sunny after that. I hear Yuma calling but I am not going further South from Quartzsite just yet as I have some packages on their way to pick up next week.

I am thinking of camping on BLM land near Ajo AZ for Christmas and New Years. It is a much prettier town to walk around in with Terriotorial (Spanish) style buildings around a town square and large mural art walk areas as well. They have a Christmas Day in the Plaza event.

I did go to Jem World in Quartzsite the other day and found some pretty real stone, stretch cord, bracelets for my young niece’s Christmas gift. Plus a large, lovely, very colorful, petrified wood, heart shaped stone for my brother and his wife. A very good and affordable place to do some Christmas shopping and of course every stone such as that fossilized wood heart is unique. I bought some very pretty and inexpensive, cloth gift bags for the gifts at that store. They have a nice selection of polished ammonite fossils there as well, very tempting, but I can’t fit any other items into the shipping box.

 

[Morgana]

Sounds like you meet people more than halfway but aren't afraid to speak up for yourself .
I'm glad it was "only" (big air quotes) idiocy and not ill will that time.

 

[Morgana]

So today's volunteer agency (the last on my schedule, but my first choice back when I planned this trip) stood me up, too. I called just before the meet and said "I'm having trouble finding your building" and they said "[mumble mumble] but we're not there anyway" and I said "but we had an appointment and I drove all the way here from (South) Texas" (900 miles, actually) and they basically said too bad we're not coming in and didn't apologize or offer to reschedule. They had picked the time for the meet. ... So that's two trips, average 150 miles round trip, for nothing, in three days.
The nonchalance with which both of these people broke their appointments -- the slackerdom and the sheer waste I have been running into everywhere since I started on this volunteering kick 15 months ago -- just blows my mind. I have never said the word "egregious" to myself so many times in one week.
Well, I'll get over it, and there's still the one gig (which is actually pretty decent, just not where I wanted to live, and who gets everything they want in this world? it's not a bad town). I can do something with this. Better actually, knowing what you have to deal with. Now if I can just stop eating everything in sight ...

 

[maki2]

It is not at all surprising that an organization run by volunteers runs on “mañana time”. Which means things are going to happen at an unspecified time rather than at a firmly fixed time. You can not impose corporate efficiency as an expectation of behavior when interacting with such groups and individuals.

Try a different approach, arrange to meet for a drink or lunch at their favorite, casual cafe or cantina location instead of at an office. Friendship, face to face, hand to hand, acquaintance bonding come first in that world. This is not the job hunting interview stuff you are used to. You will have to learn to adapt to their ways.

 

[Morgana]

Maki, with all due respect, those comments bear no relation to what I have seen, read, done, and experienced in the last week, the last 15 months -- or, more broadly, the last 20 years. You're making a number of assumptions, judgments, and advices that are just not accurate or realistic.

OTOH, if what you say comes from your own extensive personal experience volunteering successfully with a variety of nonprofits, feel free to share your concrete and specific success stories of how you have made this type of advice work for you.

I seem to recall, though, that you were pretty pissed off recently about some relatively minor scheduling mishaps during a volunteer attempt of your own. So I'm not sure you'd be the first person I'd go to for advice on this.

The organizations I referred to, by the way, are not "run by volunteers"; they are nonprofits run by professionals. And nonprofits are expected to hold themselves to certain standards just like for-profits. Some get huge amounts of government and foundation funding as well as quite a haul of widows' and orphans' mites. It is not -- or is not supposed to be -- just an anything-goes schmooze-fest out there.

A little less of the ass-u-me next time maybe? You know nothing about what I am used to or what I have adapted to.

 

[Morgana]

So I have a lease, on a cute and only slightly too expensive apartment (in this crazy housing market, I'd be nuts to turn it down). It is actually owned by my current Airbnb host, who is about 2,000x nicer than the last one, in a funky historic district. I'm always eating my heart out wanting to live in some funky historic district and now I get to! I signed up for a bunch more shifts at the one decent volunteer place and am about to set off for a celebratory, er, road trip. Might make it to Elephant Butte.

So I guess the pigeon has landed. Overall the +'s and -'s of this trip averaged out much better than they often do, so I'm feeling grateful -- including for all your kind listening. Once I get unpacked I can start working on the car camping again ... thanks y'all.

 

[user 423]

Nice to hear it's working out a little better. Good luck!

 

[INTJohn]

Talk about stealth livin…….

Now this dude knows how to live the good life.

 

[bullfrog]

Wonder if they make a climate controlled, self contained bear suit? A few years ago they finally arrested a guy that lived a long period of time out of very wealthy peoples mountain vacation cabins and properties without their permission. There was one property manager/grounds keeper /security person in a Colorado mountain vacation community that AirBnbed their homes without their knowledge for a few years before neighbors finally asked other neighbors about how their AirBnb was doing. Lol!!! I would probably end up having my bear suit become someone’s living room carpet!

 

[user 423]

(Oops.Forum lag) @bullfrog:

The property manager's scam is similar to a guy who collected a USFS stipend as a camp host but worked a full-time job in a nearby town. He lived in a Class A at the CG and drove his toad to the job.

He was never there during the day and gave a free campsite to a camper in exchange for servicing the toilets.

 

[INTJohn]

Wonder if they make a climate controlled, self contained bear suit? A few years ago they finally arrested a guy that lived a long period of time out of very wealthy peoples mountain vacation cabins and properties without their permission. There was one property manager/grounds keeper /security person in a Colorado mountain vacation community that AirBnbed their homes without their knowledge for a few years before neighbors finally asked other neighbors about how their AirBnb was doing. Lol!!! I would probably end up having my bear suit become someone’s living room carpet!

Sayin………

 

[maki2]

Hope everyone is enjoying this month of December holiday season activities. I am staying very busy but taking time to enjoy music and audio books while I am busy with creative tasks. The sun is shining and I am healthy and happy!

 

[maki2]

Last night was the full moon. Tonight it is quickly rising as a lovely deep golden colored orb into a reddish purple evening glow sky. Of course the evening star is its pretty companion.

Savor the beauty, stay in the moment with beauty surrounding you. It cost nothing, it demands nothing from you and takes no effort other than just looking.

Years ago I had lasik eye surgery which created starburst effects surrounding bright lights. So my full moon views are always surrounded by a lovely 360 degree starburst of light.

 

[maki2]

Going to be getting chilly in Quartzsite now. I have to stick around for an essential item I can’t pick up until
Monday morning. But once I have it I will come back to camp and hitch up and run my wheels towards the border and camp on BLM land near Yuma. The long range forecast says it is supposed to be about 10 degrees warmer at night there than It will be in Quartzsite. Hopefully that proves to be true.

This is supposed to be a La Niña winter with warmer and drier weather. It has been pretty dry but so far it has been colder temperatures than I experienced in the 2020 and 2021 months of November and December in Quartzsite.

Winter Solstice is less than 2 weeks away! Hooray for more daylight.

 

[Seajatt]

Managed to burn myself pretty good with some hot slag today. It went down my shirt and cooked my shoulder pretty good. Weirdly, I feel pain when I roll my shoulder, so wondering how deep the burn is. Nothing too serious, all in all.

 

[Morgana]

Managed to burn myself pretty good

Yikes, take care!
Here is some advice from well-known clinics, including how to tell when you should see a doctor.
It looks like with a burn it might be more worrisome if you didn't feel pain.
Mayo Clinic here
Cleveland Clinic here

 

[maki2]

Seajatt sorry to hear about the accident and hope it heals quickly. We’re you doing some overhead welding?

 

[vanbrat]

Going to be getting chilly in Quartzsite now. I have to stick around for an essential item I can’t pick up until
Monday morning. But once I have it I will come back to camp and hitch up and run my wheels towards the border and camp on BLM land near Yuma. The long range forecast says it is supposed to be about 10 degrees warmer at night there than It will be in Quartzsite. Hopefully that proves to be true.

This is supposed to be a La Niña winter with warmer and drier weather. It has been pretty dry but so far it has been colder temperatures than I experienced in the 2020 and 2021 months of November and December in Quartzsite.

Winter Solstice is less than 2 weeks away! Hooray for more daylight.

I always love winter solstice. As soon as the light starts coming back so does my mood.

 

[StarryNights]

Fast Trip to Quartzsite!

Left from NH about noon Tues 12/6. Intended to stop for 2 nites with daughter in Ft. Wayne, but she said to stay away as she suddenly caught really bad cold. So, it became a straight through trip and I arrived in Q at 10PM last night. Really lucky in that weather was good with no snow or high winds, and temps stayed above freezing.

My wonderful old 2003 Sprinter did the 2730-mile trip without a hitch, often running over 500 miles on a tank. Best economy was a 525 mile tank at exactly 24MPG. Trip average was 22.53 MPG. Found great toll-free routes on Google that used a lot of fast 2-lane roads that were much more interesting than the Interstates but were near identical distance and time. A lot of US 60 in KS, NM and AZ. Prices paid for Diesel varied wildly, from $3.99 to $5.85/gal.

So nice to be in Quartzsite again; feels like I am home!

 

[spoulson]

Managed to burn myself pretty good with some hot slag today. It went down my shirt and cooked my shoulder pretty good. Weirdly, I feel pain when I roll my shoulder, so wondering how deep the burn is. Nothing too serious, all in all.

If you use a paste of baking soda and water and slap it on the burns it will still help a lot. It can get messy cuz as it dries it flakes off. You can wrap it into a paper towel and then wet the paper towel it will do the same thing so that it's not all over the place. As it dries continue to wet the paper towel and reapply it until you feel the burn going away. It's best if it's applied immediately after the burn and you can literally stop it in it's tracks.