Category Archives: Days in My Life

I don’t just sit around and watch TV.

Labor Day Weekend Greetings from Howard Mesa

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Silence and solitude in the middle of nowhere.

I’m writing this from the picnic table outside our camping shed at Howard Mesa. We’ve got 40 acres on top of a mesa up here, about 35 miles south of the Grand Canyon. It’s pretty much undeveloped land, with five miles of partially maintained dirt road between our slice of Arizona’s high desert and pavement. There’s only one house in sight and, as usual, it’s deserted.

The silence at this time of the morning — 6 AM — is astounding. It’s the kind of silence that makes your ears work overtime trying to hear something. And when there is a sound — like Jack the Dog lapping up his water right now — it’s almost deafening. You can play the radio here with the volume turned down to 1 and still hear it fine.

It’s absolutely beautiful up here. The sun has just risen, casting a golden light over the grassy hills around us. There’s been a lot of rain up here this monsoon season, so the grass is green and lush. Our horses are wandering around, grazing. The whole 40 acres is fenced in, giving them plenty of space, but they like hanging around the shed and are seldom out of view. Later on, we’ll catch them and go for a ride.

It’s also very clear today. Yesterday’s rain must have washed away the dust that sometimes lingers in the air. We can clearly see the mountains out by Seligman to the west and Mount Trumbull on the Arizona Strip nearly 80 miles away.The sun is just to the north of the San Francisco Peaks, leaving them in silhouette. My new windsock, which we put up last time we were here, is hanging limp right now, but I know it’ll be moving later, when the wind picks up.

If you’re reading this, it means that I’ve managed to get my little PowerBook to go online via my Treo’s Internet connection using a Bluetooth connection between the two devices. I always compose blog entries with an offline editor — I prefer ecto — and that’s pretty convenient up here. I finish up the entry, get the Treo online, and then get the PowerBook to use that connection. If you’re reading this, it means I’ve succeeded.

I may not blog much this weekend. It’s my last big break before I need to switch into high gear to finish my Leopard book. After that, Flying M Air’s flying season will be in full swing — I already have much of September and nearly all of October booked. So I plan to enjoy the weekend with a hike, a horseback ride or two, a trip into Flagstaff, and some chores around the shed, preparing it for the winter.

I’ll be sending photos to my TumbleLog throughout the weekend from my Treo. Check it out if you have an interest in seeing what northern Arizona looks like in early September.

And, of course, I’ll be tweeting. You can read yesterday’s tweets here each morning. If you do or don’t like this feature, be sure to track down the poll about it and vote. I’ll be acting on your responses to this poll sometime around the middle of the month, so don’t delay.

[composed on top of a mesa in the middle of nowhere with ecto]

Geomagnetic Survey by Helicopter

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Helicopter with Long LineWeird things flying around Wickenburg.

No, this isn’t me. It’s an A-Star helicopter (I think) belonging to Prism Helicopters. Its pilot and observer are using the device dangling from it to survey the area for minerals.

I believe they said it was geomagnetic, but I could be wrong. I wasn’t listening very hard. I think there will be coverage in the local paper this week.

The device weighs 1,000 pounds and it’s at the end of a standard long line. The pilot cruises at about 50 knots in a standard search pattern over the desert. Although they weren’t specific on what they were looking for, they may be looking for uranium, since that’s the rumor going around the Williams area when the same helicopter was there several months ago.

This photo was shot shortly after takeoff from Wickenburg Airport, where the pilots refuel. The pilot flew straight up until the rope was taut, then slowly gained altitude, lifting it off the ground.

The helicopter was working south of Wickenburg last week and may be working to the west this week.

How to Destroy a Perfectly Good Margarita

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It’s the salt.

Last night, Mike and I went out for dinner in Wickenburg. It’s summer here and our choices are limited. More limited than we thought. We’d been planning to eat at House Berlin, the German restaurant. House Berlin makes an excellent walleye and is the only restaurant in town where you can get veal. But a hand-printed sign on the window said “Closed August for Vacation.”

We left the car parked where it was and walked to my second choice that evening. I won’t say which of Wickenburg’s amazing dining choices it was because I need to be critical (again) and I know how sensitive my fellow Wickenburgers can be.

A Short History of the Best Margarita in Wickenburg

The restaurant we went to used to make the second best margarita in town. The first best was at the Santa Fe Cantina, which was also one of the town’s top five restaurants. Santa Fe made the best ribs, too. And the best artichoke dip, which I was fortunate enough to get the recipe for.

But the Santa Fe sold to new owners — who, to their credit, still made those excellent margaritas.

But then they handed it off to their foster son — or at least that’s what I heard — and he decided to change the menu. (Hey, that’s an idea! Take a formula that works in a restaurant that has great following and change it!) He soon drove the place out of business.

So now we had to settle for second best, which, without a real best, becomes the best.

In My Mind: A Nice Cadillac Margarita

I like Cadillac margaritas. That’s a margarita with a shot of Grand Mariner in it. A good Cadillac margarita is the best margarita. Okay, so that’s my opinion, but next time you’re in a place that makes good margaritas, try one and see for yourself.

So when the waitress came, we ordered two Cadillac margaritas. Then we opened the menu to start browsing selections. That’s when I discovered that we were going to pay $8.25 for each drink.

Now I’m accustomed to spending that kind of money for alcohol at resorts and fancy Scottsdale restaurants. In fact, it’s even common for us to blow $10 to $16 a piece on top shelf martinis. But I’ve never spent that kind of money in Wickenburg for any drink — even at the town’s nicest restaurant at its best guest ranch. And the price didn’t include Wickenburg’s exorbitant sales/BB&B tax, which is somewhere around 14% these days — second highest in the state (and proud of it)! The high tax is why quite a few people in WIckenburg are dining out in town a lot less often these days.

But this was a night out after a long week sitting in front of a computer, working on a book. It would be worth the money for a good margarita, no matter where I bought it. At least that’s what I thought.

Reality Strikes — Again

Margarita GlassThen she brought the margaritas. They were in small cocktail glasses, the kind you’d get a scotch on the rocks in. (Most restaurants in Arizona have special margarita glasses. Some of them even have saguaro-shaped stems.) The color was right for the drink, but not for the salt. It was green.

Let me back up a bit. Margaritas are normally served two ways: frozen (as in blended with ice) and on the rocks. Either way, you can have salt around the rim of the glass. They usually use Kosher salt or something similar to it. You can even buy special salt around here in a glass dipping container (shaped like a sombrero — how cute!) to make it easy to salt the rim of your margarita glasses at home. The point is, it’s salt. Plain salt. It isn’t flavored and it certainly isn’t colored.

The salt on our $8.25 margaritas was green.

It was the kind of green you might use on St. Patrick’s day: a bright Kelly green. Not lime colored like you might think reasonable for a margarita.

But I try to have an open mind. (I swear I do.) So I brought the glass up to my lips and sipped my margarita.

At first the taste of something moldy and salty hit my tongue. Then the taste of cheap margarita mix. The tequila may have been in there somewhere, but it couldn’t overpower the moldy salt. And the Grand Mariner was hiding under the ice cubes or somewhere where my tongue couldn’t get it.

I immediately began wiping the salt off my glass. My napkin and fingertips turned bright green. Some of the salt fell into the glass, leaving green streaks as it sank to the bottom. I stopped wiping.

Later, I tried to use the cocktail straw to sip some margarita that hadn’t been tainted by the salt. All I got was a mouth full of warm margarita mix. I guess the bartender didn’t have a shaker. Or maybe he/she was too busy dying salt to mix the drink properly in the first place.

I think — but I’m not sure — that the salt was leftover from St. Patrick’s Day five months before. I also think that the moisture of five months of dipped wet bar glasses got a little mold growing in the container. (Can mold grow on salt?) And I think this mold — or its essence — has become an integral part of the margarita making process at this particular restaurant.

I have to stop writing about this because I’m grossing myself out.

The Rest of the Meal

Mike’s ceviche was spoiled. We sent that back. It should have tipped us off that it wasn’t a particularly popular item when we saw it spelled “saveche” on the menu.

My mole was good. But then again, it tasted just like the mole I can make with a jar of the concentrate from the supermarket. (Because of our Mexican population, the local supermarkets have an excellent selection of Mexican foods.) That means that either the jarred mole is very much like this restaurant’s recipe or they use the same stuff. It didn’t matter much to me. It tasted good.

Mike’s quesadilla looked okay to me, but disappointed him. I think he was expecting a lot of stuff on top, like one of the other local restaurants — the one he wanted to go to last night, I should mention — makes it.

The chips were good, but Mike said the salsa tasted bad. It tasted okay to me and it was nice and chunky, the way I like it. But he got me worried that I was missing something bad, so I didn’t eat much of it.

The Search for the Best Margarita in Wickenburg Begins Again

Anyway, at this point it’s safe to say that if this is now the best margarita in Wickenburg, we’re in a sad state. It’s time to start looking for a new best. I hope I find it — at any price.

And I think Mike will remind me of this meal the next time I suggest dining in that particular restaurant again.

Maria Speaks Episode 37: KBSZ Interview

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Maria Speaks Episode 37: KBSZ Interview.

I was interviewed yet again by local radio station KBSZ 1250-AM. Pete’s a great interviewer and always makes his guests feel comfortable. We talked for about 40 minutes, mostly about the Internet and flying. You’ll hear my layman’s explanation of my recent experience getting seriously Dugg. Keep in mind that the station’s audience isn’t exactly computer savvy, so I do a lot of explaining and simplifying when discussing some computer topics.

This podcast starts in the middle of a commercial; the interview starts about a minute in.

February 17, 2010 Update: KBSZ went under back in 2009. The Web site was taken down and all podcasts removed. As a result, the podcast of this episode is no longer available. Sorry!

Credit Card Stolen?

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But merchandise is being sent to the cardholder’s address?

Here’s a weird thing I’m hoping a reader can shed some light on.

A friend of mine just called me. He said that he was checking his bank account online today and found about 10 transactions for items he did not buy. All the transactions apparently came through on his Debit card.

So his card number was stolen and the thief was on a shopping spree, right?

Well, not so fast. He tracked down a number of the items ordered and discovered that they were being shipped to his address.

It seems that it’s either a bad joke or the thief plans to steal the delivered stuff off his doorstep when it’s delivered.

Has anyone out there ever heard of anything like this happening? Any advice I can pass on to him?

He’s not worried about the money — the bank has already told him they’ll reverse the charges to his account. I’m just trying to understand the scam. This is a new one to me.