The pictures in today's blog have a theme, see if you can guess what it is.

Well, Christmas is almost over, and I had a very happy one because today was just like every other day for me, and I'm very happy every day.

I do miss my family because Christmas is best spent with friends and family. But in this time of pandemics, I guess we're better off staying separated for the winter.

I feasted on a traditional Christmas dinner today with a freshly cooked rotisserie chicken straight from the grocery store. Some baked beans from a can opened by me just for this special occasion. And to drink, no less than the finest Mexican beer sold in Ajo. It's named "Buena Suerte Gringo," which I was told  means "The Beer of Kings. "

After a repast of that magnitude, it has not only increased my Christmas joy but also my girth, so I will be required to sit in my easy chair and relax for quite some time, possibly till well after New Year's.

                                   theboondork

Santa's reindeer are lined up outside the old train station in the Plaza. Maybe he's arriving by train instead of sleigh.

Someone had enough Christmas spirit to decorate some desert Creosote Bushes.

I thought this was a unique way of decorating your Agave plant for Christmas.  

But I soon figured out everybody in town does it. These folks went the extra mile and put some Santa hats on their little Barrel Cactus.

These folks just scattered some colorful balls around the yard.

If you guessed the theme for the pictures in today's blog was Christmas...... WRONG!

The theme is...  there's no snow on the ground here because it's 70°

The sunrise this morning was nice enough to get me outside, running around the desert in my pajamas and slippers, taking pictures. Cloudy days in the desert don't come around very often, so I have to take advantage of them while they're here.

I drove around town a little bit today looking at the Christmas decorations. There's a Christmas parade tonight, allegedly with Santa Claus in attendance, but he's a busy man this time of year, and I don't know if he will actually show up in the little town of Ajo. But just in case, there were volunteers in the Plaza straightening up and cleaning up, getting it ready for the big parade. I don't think I will go, since I only drive at night if I have to. I would enjoy seeing the parade and the lights, but not enough to deal with the crowds and my Bat flu fears.

                                                theboondork

I think if I were going to do yoga, which has about the same likelihood as me becoming a Navy seal,  I would at least do it in the closet where no one could see me so I didn't subject the rest of the world... To This.

That's Ajo at the base of the mountain. I took this picture from my boondocking spot.

I've been waking up early enough to take pictures of the sunrise without any prodding from an alarm clock. I think it might be because there's been some cloudy weather lately, and more is predicted for the next week, so there's a good chance that it's actually worth getting up that early.

I was looking at my monthly expense sheet today and determined that I haven't spent much money this month. And I think it's because I hardly go to stores anymore, and if I do, it's just to grab whatever I went there for and leave. But I don't know how long I can keep doing that before they catch me.

It's also because I've been boondocking for most of December, I paid for a couple of nights at the RV Park in Dateland, but other than that, I've boondocked for free so far this month.

My grocery bill has been slightly lower than average since I stocked up on food because of the Bat flu, so if I don't feel like going to the grocery store, I don't have to; I can eat from my extra food supply. And even if I run out of food, I think I could live off my body fat at least until spring.

I haven't spent much on diesel fuel because I've only traveled from Quartzsite to Ajo in the entire month, which is only about 170 miles. So I've boondocked in four different towns without a whole lot of driving.

Maybe I will put my expense sheet on the blog at the end of the month. I don't know if it will benefit anyone to know what I've spent because it's kind of unique since it reflects living while semi-isolated. But I think it helps me to understand how little I can live on when I start running out of money.

                                 theboondork

I've always liked old buildings, they've all got a story to tell, but that story is seldom heard. Abandoned businesses like this old Drive–in make me kind of sad.  It reminds me of going to high school in Miami Florida, and brings to mind high school kids sitting in their hot rods, while girls wearing roller-skates brought out hamburgers and fries on large trays, hanging them on the car windows. I was there at that time, when the country was more innocent, and I didn't have a care in the world. Well maybe there was a few teeny tiny concerns.....

Such as..... hoping I was going to graduate with a grade point average so small it took a scanning electron microscope to see it.

Or the fact that Homestead Air Force Base where I was living with my parents,  had Soviet nuclear missiles aimed directly at it during the Cuban missile crisis.

And knowing I didn't have to bother looking for a job when I graduated because I was going to be drafted into the Army and more than likely sent to Vietnam, which in 1965, the year I graduated, was already becoming a meat-grinder.

And if I managed to somehow avoid getting drafted, Cubans refugees fleeing Castro's communist regime, were pouring into Miami by the thousands and taking all of the low-paying jobs that I was barely qualified for.

Yep those were the good old days for me. Meeting Susie Q at the drive-in, dropping a dollar bill on a hamburger meal for two, and hoping I lived long enough to see my 19th birthday.

I don't know what kind of flowers these are but they're pretty spectacular.