Bad Weather At The Gypsy Journal Rally

Anyone who knows me is well aware of the fact that I’m a night owl. Unless I’m up against a deadline, I usually don’t start writing until about 9 p.m., and I seldom get to bed before 1:30 or 2 a.m. So all of that early bird gets the worm stuff just doesn’t work for me. I don’t like worms. I like pizza. Pizza is something you eat at night.

I really enjoyed my time in the Army, except for some very rude people with guns and bombs and things that used to shoot at me once in a while. Aside from that, it was a great experience. I even considered making it my career. But every darned morning some idiot played a bugle and woke me up.

What’s with that, anyway? Why does the Army insist that soldiers get up so early in the morning? They’re going to feel really dumb someday when somebody attacks us at night and everybody’s in their bunks. If I was still in uniform, I could have worked the night shift and been on the lookout for those commies or whoever it is we hate these days. 

That being said, I was up and outside of the bus by the crack of dawn yesterday. Trust me, if you haven’t seen it, dawn isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be! There has never been a sunrise yet that will compare to a great Arizona sunset, but just to record the event for posterity, I took a photograph of the sunrise. Now I’m done for the year. No more of this dawn nonsense. 

We only had a little bit of rain yesterday, just a scattered shower or two that lasted no longer than a minute or so. But the wind came up and the temperature dropped, making for an all around miserable day and evening. Our parking crew just kept right on keeping on, and worked all day getting the last of the rally attendees in and parked. I just can’t thank those guys enough.

Our attendance numbers are down quite a bit from last year. Part of that is the economy, to be sure. But we also had several people who cancelled due to the weather. One of our vendors called from Quartzsite to report being stuck in the mud somewhere over in that direction. A couple called from Tucson to say that they left Benson, got that far, and were turning around and going back because the wind was so terrible. Murphy’s Law has really been in effect for this rally so far.

But everybody is parked now, and we’re going to have fun, even if it kills us. We’ve got a great lineup of seminars starting today. The folks who are here are all fine people who came to learn and have a good time, and sooner or later the weatherman has to give us a break. So we’re going to focus on the positive and enjoy our week here in Mud City.

Thought For The Day – Words that soak into your ears are whispered, not yelled.