Typical late summer weather nowadays. Some days in the 80s, some days in the 90s, but the humidity is pretty low, so it's all tolerable.

I don't pay too much attention to the Bat flu anymore, I guess I'm getting used to it. I wear a mask when I go to the store, as does everyone else around here, so it seems like a normal part of life now. I seldom read about what's going on in the Bat flu world nowadays; there's not much I can do about it. Other than self-isolating out in the desert again, I'm doing about all there is I can do.

They say there's gonna be a vaccine developed before the end of the year. Still, I'm not sure it will be offered to the population at large, maybe just to the most vulnerable. But I'm not sure I would take it anyway. I doubt it will be 100% effective, it would surprise me if it's 50% effective, especially since it's being rushed out and can't be long term tested. I can still remember the "Cutter incident" in regards to the Salk polio vaccine, so I think I'll wait and not be a guinea pig on this one.

For a while now, I've been talking about how the second weekend of August is generally when the tourists start pulling out of Colorado and heading back from whence they came. And I've expressed concern that maybe that wasn't going to happen this year because of the Bat flu and many schools not opening up. But I'm happy to report that things are normal, after all.

I got on the Internet and checked two of the Colorado state parks close to me and lo and behold they both had some empty sites available next week, and half the campground is empty the week after that. Because of the Bat flu, Colorado state parks campgrounds have been reservations only all summer, so those availabilities are real.

This is excellent news because it means that now I can go camping in Colorado without concern about finding a place to stay. Happy days are here again.

                             theboondork

The family dog.... Looking as scary as 8 pounds of dog can possibly look.

I wanted to elaborate on a comment that Larry made in my blog yesterday when he sent me a link to a story about Oregon raising camping prices for out-of-state campers. Which, according to Oregon, is designed to discourage campers from visiting Oregon because of the Bat flu. And to raise more money for their financially strapped state parks.

It's pretty easy to see that those two things don't go together and, in fact, are diametrically opposed to one another. Which for the government, seems to be perfectly normal thinking. But for now, I just want to talk about the effectiveness of the Oregon state government raising more money by raising prices.

Businesses are very good at making money, they have to be, or they won't be in business very long. When's the last time you saw a company that wanted to make some more money put up signs in the window saying "TODAY ONLY! WERE RAISING OUR PRICES 10 PERCENT!!!" The correct answer is NEVER. But the government does it all the time.

When a business wants to motivate you to do something, they offer you an incentive to move you in that direction. They put things on sale,  offer you two-for-one, limit the time you have to purchase an item, give you payment options. They do all kinds of things to encourage you to buy something, and they all have one thing in common... They look like a good deal that you should take advantage of. Does it work? You bet it does!

Every year I would buy a New Mexico nonresident state Park pass for $225. That's a lot of money but I felt the benefits it offered outweighed the cost. Most years it did, some years it didn't, but overall I felt it was a good deal, and wished other states offered something similar.

But Oregon is doing what governments usually do. Their raising prices so they can make more money, even though the price increase discourages people from buying what the government is selling, which in this case is campsites.

I feel their price increases will probably work quite well keeping visitors away from Oregon. But, I doubt it will have much effect raising more money for the Oregon state parks.

                      theboondork

Old underground farmhouse that caved in many decades ago.

More rooms at the farmhouse. Building a house underground is cooler in the summer, and warmer in the winter. You just have to get used to sharing your bed with a family of Prairie Dogs.

I'm starting to see more and more yellow leaves around the neighborhood, Fall comes early when you're a mile high. The daytime temperatures are a little bit lower, and night times are almost chilly. I love the Fall, the cool weather makes me want to get outside and do something, or get on the Internet and watch somebody else doing something... Which requires a lot less effort on my part .

There's only a little more than one week left in Colorado's tourist season. It will be interesting to see what's going to happen since many schools aren't opening up. Maybe a lot of tourists won't be going home just yet. I hope that's not the case, but in these strange times, one never knows.

I'm hoping I can take a mini-vacation into the mountains when the leaves are changing. When the leaves change is highly dependent upon the weather and the altitude, So there's a lot of guessing and a certain amount of luck involved.

It also gets rather crowded in the mountains about that time of year. Still, experience has taught me that the leaf peepers are mostly locals. They usually do their peeping on the weekends, so if I  run around during the weekdays and lay low on the weekends, I should be able to avoid the crowds. But there again this isn't an ordinary year so maybe my past experience will be useful, or perhaps not.

                  theboondork

This is either a hairy yellow flower, or a picture taken deep inside my ear.... Okay its not inside my ear. Fact is the hair inside my ear is far longer than that and requires regular combing.