A Little History: From Poaching to Patton Here is a little treat in honor of Veteran’s Day for my fellow history buffs. In 1837 Benjamin Davis Wilson left his home in Tennessee and headed west to try his luck as a fur trapper. He teamed up with the Workman Party and they attended a fur traders rendezvous in New Mexico …

Almuerzo at Amapola Café Keith won an Amapola Café gift certificate for me on a You-Call-It-Friday quiz on KLPZ. I spent the next few weeks drooling in anticipation and looking for an excuse to drive the 35 miles to Parker. I looked online for Amapola’s website hoping to find a menu, but alas! Nada. The last time I went to …

Remembering 9/11 The September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center is the “Kennedy assassination” moment of my generation. Let us take a moment and remember it together. Where were you? What did you do that day? Looking back over the past 10 years, have the events of 9/11 changed your life? Log in and share, or e-mail me …

AM Radio Fun Remember the movie “American Graffiti” about life – and hot rods – in a small California town? I grew up in that one-horse town. We had exactly one local radio station, KFIV “K-5” AM and it formed the soundtrack of our lives. I remember as a teenybopper lugging around a tape recorder and radio and recording songs …

Busted…? A long, long time ago in a yard far, far away… My summer job was watering desert plants and looking after my snowbird neighbors’ homes while they were off enjoying cooler climes. My work vehicle was a bicycle, the basket stuffed with water bottles and house keys. My uniform was portable shade — a wide-brimmed straw hat, long sleeved …

A powerful monsoon storm slammed into my neighborhood three miles northwest of Bouse Sunday evening, July 11th, 2011. Wind toppled tall trees, smashed windows, blew out metal garage doors, plucked coolers from rooftops, ripped awnings from houses and tore off a roof from a stick-built home. “The wind was blowing the rain so hard it hurt,” reported that homeowner. “I …

A Salute to All Who Protect and Serve I listened to Saturday’s Parker tube float play-by-play on the radio — the police scanner radio. I salute all our law enforcement, medical and other officials who work so hard protecting and serving us. Heck, maybe that should be protecting — and saving — us from ourselves. My hat is off to …

Bizarre Bouse! Several months after I moved to Bouse in 2007, strange things began appearing in and around my house. I found a Robert Heinlein novel one morning when I made the bed. I changed those sheets plenty of times without finding any sci-fi. Odd. I don’t read Heinlein. One night I let down the blinds and a tiny sombrero …

I Don’t Understand I assumed by the time I turned 50 I would have life all figured out. Wow, was I wrong! Here are some things I still haven’t sorted out: Why are there so many ways to spell Ketchup — and is it an acceptable source of Vitamin C? “Do my thing.” As in, “I stepped outside to do …

Swansea Scratching I have an idea for a fun, furry fundraiser, providing you gentlemen don’t mind being a little itchy. Autumn 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of the filming of Day of the Wolves, a movie shot in nearby Lake Havasu City and Swansea copper mining ghost town. The plot involves a mysterious and greedy mastermind who recruits distant thieves …