AH, YES, I REMEMBER IT WELL



ADVENTURERS

Last week I told you my nephew, Barry Taylor, and his wife, Amy, had come to Arizona for a five day backpacking trip into the remoter areas of the Grand Canyon.  What they didn't know when they left 80 degree weather in St. Paul, Minnesota, was that Arizona had been hit with a freakish early spring snowstorm.  But armed with reservations at the Canyon and the foolhardiness bravery of youth, they set out.





You will notice there is snow everywhere.  Quite a bit of snow covering a narrow trail leading to the depths.  No room for any false moves.

But as one descends into the Canyon the climate changes, the temperature rises and the snow melts.

I didn't say the footing got any safer or easier.  But these two have hiked in Bolivia.  They have hiked into canyons in Death Valley where there were no trails.  I asked how they didn't get lost.  Barry said "topo maps."  And they didn't get lost this time, in spite of this.

As one goes deeper, the walls open somewhat.

And then they were down at the bottom.

Barry and Amy might say "just another walk in the park."  But I'll bet they slept well in that 4-pound-tent.



Since I moved to Arizona 40 years ago I have thought of hiking the Canyon.  But I put it off too long and now I'll just have to live vicariously through the adventures of my nephew and niece.

CIRCULAR



OVATE



THE BIG CAT IS BACK!

Tiger Woods won his 72nd PGA tournament today . . the Arnold Palmer Invitational.  It's the 7th time he's won this tournament.  Today he battled Graeme McDowell in the final round and ended up at 13 under par with a five-stroke victory.

It's awfully good to have him back in top form once again.

Next stop?  The Masters in Augusta, Georgia, in two weeks.  Guess who the favorite will be.

SURPRISE! DICK CHENEY HAS A HEART!

Yes, I know you're stunned at the news but it's true.  Bush's consigliere has a heart.  Oh, it's not his.  I was sitting here quietly reading when SWMBO came in and said "Did you know Dick Cheney had a heart transplant today?" 

No, I didn't.  Curiously I had just read this morning that the old war criminal had canceled an appearance in Toronto because "Canada is too dangerous!"  Maybe for him, even with a new heart.  Apparently he had to be barricaded behind storm troopers in a hotel in Vancouver awhile back when he went there for a book signing.  It seems people in Canada have a lot less tolerance for Cheney than our leftists in the United States.

So . . I went to the Web and found a brief saying a spokeswoman stated Cheney had been waiting 20 months for a transplant and he did not know the identity of the donor.  He's recovering at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia.  Just in case anyone wants to drive over and demonstrate in the street.

THAT DAMNABLE SPAM CATCHER

I have removed the "spam catcher" from this site.  This time you have my good friends Stafford Ray from Australia and Steve Glossin from Germany to thank.  When the "robot detector" isn't there, I get some guy, or machine, or algorithm, trying to put meaningless comments on my posts.  Since I have my blog set up to send me each comment by email when it comes in to the blog, I get them . . always from "Anonymous".  But it turns out they never make it onto my blog because the all-knowing and all-powerful Google intercepts and quarantines them.  So I guess the small problem I have of deleting the emails is worth a lot less than the grief some, if not all, of you gentle readers go through trying to decipher those mystery words.  So thanks, Ford and Steve, for gigging me to do it.  Come, read and comment, my friends, no more barriers.

Sheesh!  For just a second there I was sounding like John McCain.  That's not a good thing.

As I said recently, I've been slowly reading through a book my wife gave me for Christmas.  It's selected writings done for Rolling Stone magazine by the late Hunter S. Thompson.  This afternoon, while simultaneously watching Tiger Woods take over the lead in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, I was reading the section where the evil Richard Nixon finally gave up the ghost and resigned the presidency.  Thompson reports that a few weeks later he was wakened out of a dead (and no doubt drug and alcohol induced) sleep by a telephone call from Dick Tuck in Washington screaming that Gerald Ford had just pardoned the Trick.  Hunter said he went into panic mode because his story of Nixon's demise was due at the magazine in 24 hours and 15,000 words were already set in type.  The good doctor's version had Nixon sure to serve time in prison for his various crimes as President.  And now that was all excised by Gerry Ford.

Well, it's a good story as only Hunter could weave one.  As a true blue Nixon hater, I know I read it when it came out in the magazine but it did my heart good to peruse the words again.

A true blue Michigan State alumnus and fan who is a friend of mine was in Phoenix last night watching Louisville trash his team in the NCAA tournament, ending their year with only a Big 10 championship.  I was interested that he wrote bitterly on Facebook of Louisville's "aggressive style of smashmouth ball."  I was doubly interested because the New York Times this morning wrote how Louisville "beat the Spartans the way the Spartans beat other teams for years.  It bullied the perennial March bully, staggered the usual tournament tough guy..."  I guess a true fan can only see it one way.

Maybe that's why I prefer the gentler sports.  Golf.  Baseball.  Politics.

And by the way for those of you concerned about our godawful snow storm last weekend - it's all gone.  Actually it was pretty much all gone by Thursday as a high pressure system once again dipped into Arizona and the temperatures rose to the upper 60's.  Spring has returned.