Cloudless sunrise at the old rodeo arena,  Ajo Arizona

I got up this morning pretty early, got dressed and drove the three or four miles into town and made it to the downtown Plaza just about 8 o'clock. But even that early I still didn't beat some of the folks to the old Catholic Church that's right across the street from the Plaza, there was already half a dozen cars parked around the church. I was hoping for a car free picture of the church, but it was not to be.

I didn't take as many pictures as I'd hoped because the sun was just rising above the mountains outside of Ajo and it was absolutely blinding while facing in the general direction of east. So I couldn't take any pictures in that direction, and I couldn't drive around as much as I wanted to because the sun was blinding me. And I guess it's been a while since I cleaned my windshield as I could barely see out of it while driving east.

I did manage to get my propane tank refilled at $3.20 a gallon which is pretty high but everything in Ajo is a bit more expensive than most other places. I reckon that's the price you pay to be able to enjoy the Ajo ambience.

Due to the peace, quiet, and laid-back attitude of Ajo, which is all part of the aforementioned Ajo ambience, I have to report that in an effort to fit in to this environment I have become even more lazy, lethargic, and sedentary, than I normally am, and I didn't think that was even possible. I've put on a couple pounds, so now I'm at 207 and I'm spending more time in my easy chair than normal. And spending even more time in my easy chair wasn't easy to accomplish, I had to wake up earlier, and go to bed later just to have enough waking hours available to achieve that.

So due to my upsurge in weight, and my increased ability to relax for long periods of time without tiring out, I'm thinking something needs to be done and it needs to be done now.

Something this serious can't be taken lightly, and is too important to jump around willy-nilly grasping at just any quick fix. This is the kind of problem that must be given a lot of thought, solutions need to be sought, and remedies must be found, and this can only happen after serious reflection, a complete understanding of the problem, and weighing competing theories of various physical and mental therapies.

Since there's no time like the present and not wanting to put this off, I opened up a beer, and retired to my easy chair to give this issue my full consideration.... Relaxing in my easy chair doesn't bother me now that I'm doing it for a good reason.

                                        theboondork

            don't forget to click the pic


Since it was such a beautiful day I got out this morning and finished polishing the trucks headlights and they look great. They don't look new, but they look almost new and most importantly their completely clear again so they will light my way at night just as if they were.

My headlights had gotten pretty bad over the years but it happened so slowly I didn't really notice because I don't drive that much at night and I had forgotten how clear they were supposed to be. Fixing them would've been a lot easier if the factory didn't put clearcoat on them. Yes the clearcoat keeps them from fading a little longer than without it but the lenses still fade and all the while the clearcoat is turning yellow and since it's paint it's difficult to get off which is why I had to use the sandpaper.

Now what will happen is the headlight lenses will fade again in two or three years but can quickly and easily be buffed back to clear again in a few minutes without the use of sandpaper since there's no clearcoat on them anymore.

Since tomorrow's Sunday I think I will get up a little early, go downtown and take a few pictures since it will be mostly deserted. There's a couple big churches downtown so I don't know if I'll get to town before those folks do but I'll try. I will probably take that opportunity to refill my empty propane tank since there's a gas station in that area that does propane refills.

It looks like tomorrow is the last day of the "Big Show" in Quartzsite so that opens up some opportunities for me to think about what to do in the future. Just a quick glance at the situation tells me that I could... Stay here. Go someplace else in the general vicinity of Quartzsite like Ben Avery's gun range, Wickenburg, or Yuma. Or I could go straight to Quartzsite. My biggest problem is all three of those options sound great to me, and I would be perfectly happy doing any one of them.

This is why I have problems making decisions, if everything makes me happy It's difficult to determine what makes me the happiest.

                           theboondork

Don't forget to click the pic

Gorgeous day today, low 70s blue skies and I could tell the humidity was low because this morning when it was 63° I was outside  in a T-shirt.

I spent some time this morning re-polishing the headlight lenses on the truck. I spent some time polishing them when I was in Texas a while back but I didn't do a very good job. I polished them just enough so I could see at night and not enough to make them like new again. But this time I wanted to take off all of the yellowed factory clear-coat on the lenses that protect them from sun damage, and get down to the plastic itself so I could polish out the scratches.

It's not difficult to do its just time-consuming starting with 600 grit wet or dry sandpaper, keeping the lens sprayed with a mixture of dish-washing soap and water, going to 1,000, 1,500, and then 2,000 grit. You should go to 3,000 grit after that but I didn't have any with me and I knew if I went to town to get some, just like a squirrel, I would become distracted, lose all interest in the headlight polishing job and more than likely it would never get done. So I stopped sanding at 2,000 grit, put a polishing disc on my cordless drill, and using a very fine polishing compound buffed the lens out till it was clear. Despite rumors to the contrary I'm actually smart enough not to clean my camera lens that way.

One lens took me about a 1/2 hour to complete which I managed to do with only one coffee break, I wanted to start on the second lens but union rules limit me to one lens per day, so I had to put off doing the remaining lens until tomorrow.

I have a poor history of putting off projects till tomorrow, it almost never works well for me because by the next day I either don't remember it, don't want to remember it, or have something better to do like sit in my easy chair and watch YouTube videos all day. And it's pretty hard for any of my DIY projects to compete with me relaxing holding a cup of coffee while watching 40-year-old reruns of "Paladin" or old British shows like, "Are You Being Served" or "Fawlty Towers". All of which may explain the cobwebs on my toolbox and my easy chair wearing out and having to be replaced every three years.

                          theboondork

barrel racing arena.

Weaving through the pole's.