A dear friend of mine on a bike ride Thursday evening found 3 littermates that had been dumped along the Rio Grande, so suddenly her house of 2 adult dogs became a house of 5 doggos. She has a background of previously volunteering for an animal rescue group, so she had these pups checked out at the vet and given their first round of shots by Friday morning. With a clean bill of health, by Friday evening I was meeting them. By Saturday morning one of them followed me home.

Meet Toby. His full name is Toby Twinkle Toes, as Mr. Twinkle Toes is what my his savior called him when the vet's office asked for a name. He was, by far, the calmest of the three. A little shy at first, but mostly content to just watch the world around him. The vet pegs him at about 10 weeks old, and from the spotted sister they look to be cattle dog mixes of some sort. Whatever he is, he's a very good boy!

We were both a little nervous for the ride home in the Ridgeline. I've had a dog/dogs most of my life, but puppies aren't something I have much experience with. There was also the giant question mark of how the head of household security would take to this change she certainly didn't vote for.

Ellie has been amazing with Toby, against all my expectations otherwise. She's taken to mothering him and is certainly assisting me in providing adult supervision. Toby is enamoured with her. I already have a lot of doggies in symmetry going on in the house again.

Toby is such a calm puppy. His primary interests in life seems to be cuddling, sleeping and following me or Ellie around the house. I took the opportunity of him snoozing next to me on the couch to imprint him on some F1 qualifying for his first TV show. Later that night, his first movie was Pulp Fiction.

He spent the first night in a container next to my bed, and Ellie helped wake me up a couple of times that first night when Toby woke up and was ready to go out for doggie business. It was quite remarkable, as she hasn't slept in my room or touched that dog bed in years. She prefers her own bedroom and full-size people bed that used to be the guest bedroom.

This wasn't a planned addition to the family, but he's been pretty amazing so far. After only one accident the first day, he seems to be getting the hang of doing the doggie business in the backyard. We're getting in the habit of going outside every 2-3 hours, and he's seems to be getting the idea down. He's picking up on his name, and Toby is learning the "come" command. A few days in, he is becoming so much more curious about his new world. He also figured out how to get out the crate in the first five minutes in it, so reinforcements in the form of some zip ties were added. Last night he slept in his crate and only needed a 0030 and 0430 backyard visit. Progress!

Both of us have enjoyed learning that wet grass functions as an automatic puppy wash. Toby gets to play, Ellie gets to supervise and I get to drink coffee on the back porch in the morning while he gets a quick Svending. I just dry him off when go back in the house.

Today he came to work with me. Falls asleep on the job, but his people skills are good. The plan right now is for him to be my assistant some days and go explore the Southern NM desert he lives in while I keep the flood warning hardware going. So far at home, he is completely unconcerned about vacuum cleaners, electric string trimmers and lawn mowers.

He's had his first trip to the store, where he got to meet a few people, see all the things and got to watch his name tag being engraved. He's too young to really do or have ground contact with parks/dog parks/places where lots of people bring dogs, but the focus will be on getting him as many places as possible to meet people, see things and controlled interactions with some other doggos that I know are fully vaccinated.

Toby is such a good boy. I guess I know what my project is for the rest of the year...

I'm enjoying getting to know the new daily driver, bike hauler and adventure mobile. It's got a few party tricks that should come in handy.

When you pull the center tailgate handle it drops down exactly as expected.

There's a second handle under the tailgate on the right side that opens the tailgate to the side.

Which reveals the locking, water-tight trunk. There's a drain plug in the bottom for clean up, too.

The trunk is surprisingly large. A person could fit in there (not happily, but still...) Spare tire and tools storage are on the tray under the bed and slide out for access.

There's even an inside trunk release, in case the person in the trunk is supposed to still be breathing.

Inside, the rear seats can be had in normal mode for doing seat things.

Or they can folded up out of the way for room for all sorts of fun in the back. That center, plastic floor rail sure looks like a bike tire would fit in it. With the front wheel removed, I suspect there's enough room back there for locked, interior bike storage for the post-ride, but haven't gone home yet, ride beers at the nearest brewery.

In general, I'm liking this truck and am enjoying getting to know it. The Ridgeline drives very, very nicely.

https://carsandbids.com/auctions/3oYk6Djv/1994-mitsubishi-pajero-2800-td

The Pajero is now live on Cars and Bids. I've committed an act of pure capitalism and sent it in a no reserve auction. I'm hopeful it is a neat enough truck to not regret that decision. I'm slightly encouraged by the fact the two people are bidding on it 20 minutes after it went live.

Out in the rough neighborhood of Spaceport America one finds a couple of things seen less often out in the desert: one of my weather stations for the flood warning system, and a postage stamp parcel of wildlife conservation.

Funded long ago by the state game and fish folks, there's a fenced in area (to keep cattle out) a few hundred yards by a few hundred yards containing a wildlife drinker.

The angled metal structure collects rainfall and condensation, drains it into the gutter and gravity takes over to the large partially buried plastic tank.

It seems to work remarkably well, as I've never seen the tank without water. The local BLM office biologist researches the diversity of wildlife found around it. I've seen elk and or oryx in this immediate area with some regularity, although yesterday's visit just showed signs of a recent badger.

But wait, there's more!

Enhance!

Opening the NEMA box on the weather station revealed at bat hanging out in the hinge part of the box. He was gently encouraged away with a stick, so no rabies shot was needed this afternoon.

This is one of the more remote sites in my system, and one I love going to. I enjoying going to middle of nowhere by myself, and this site actually requires an ATV or SxS to get to. It's actually possible to get a truck within like 500 yards of the site, but the better and quicker course of action is to leave the truck on the BNSF right away about 10 miles south and SxS the rest of the way in. That abandoned section line road in makes for generally single-digit mph travel in a truck and has some clay spots that are a no-go in a truck if it has rained recently. The SxS makes much faster travel in, and is significantly more fun.

I deeply enjoy that my office is basically Southern NM.

Have a minty OBS powerstoke spotted on the puppy walk this evening for your time.

To go with the dirt work I did last week at a couple of flood control ponds and drainage channel, yesterday was the follow up mowing. I've actually liked the basic activity of mowing since I was a little kid, as it probably scratches some hereditary itch from my Midwestern farmer ancestors. To quote a Clarkson, I did a thing.

Put the brushcutter attachment on the machine and it becomes a ~13,000 pound riding lawnmower. With air conditioning. This takes mowing to 11, for the times when you also want to mow small trees and large bushes to go with the grass and weeds. It makes your neighbors riding lawnmower seem quaint.

It is tremendously fun. I can't believe they paid me to operate this thing. There was only one moment where some poo might have come out via an encounter with a well-hidden rock bigger than a person could move No damage was done via an immediate stop and lift of the mower deck, but I wouldn't want to make that a habit. By far, the most fun I've ever had mowing.

As I've written about here, over the last couple of years I've picked up a side gig at work as something of our in-house fleet manager for this small government agency. I oversee that maintenance and upkeep gets done on our fleet of now 7 vehicles, and now purchased two new trucks for us. A new F-150 at the beginning of the year, and on Monday I took delivery of a new Ford Expedition XLT. As is of likely no surprise, once again buying a new work truck is every bit as much fun for an Oppo as buying a personal vehicle.

A government agency buying this particular truck is very much a Covid/supply crunch economy story. I actually placed an order for a less fancy XL STX package Expedition back in February, and about a week later Ford came back and said basically, "yeah, nah where not going to build as many Expeditions as we planned this year, but you're welcome to put in an order for a 2023 when those order books open in the summer." A couple of months ago the large Ford dealer that holds the state purchasing contract gave me a call saying that had someone backed out of a retail order that while a bit fancier, has the mechanical equipment I spec'd. The director and myself couldn't say yes and get a PO issued fast enough to snag it.

This is an XLT package truck with the fake leather, but most of the fancy equipment shy of a sunroof. Heated and cooled seats in government work truck is unusual.

The interior is a nice place to be, and the truck is whisper quiet at 75mph. The 3.5 ecoboost has torque for days.

The reason we jumped on this truck beyond it actually being available to buy is that it was the right mechanical spec of off-road package, heavy duty towing package and fancy electronic rear differential for service with us at the flood commission. The expedition will go places and do things with us, likely to see at least 50% of its miles off-road. It will not lead a normal, suburban mall crawler kind of life.

It has the meats, in the 275/65/18 factory size variety. The upfitting I commissioned for this truck was pretty minimal: a full set of Weathertech mats (to be mailed to us, as the dealer forgot to put them in the truck before the delivery driver took it down to us 250 miles away), tinting the front windows to match the rear and shoeing it with BFG K02 all terrain tires in load range E flavor. With the mostly off-road life our agency trucks lead in a place where the flora and geology can both be aggressively defensive, we equip all of our smaller, 1/2 ton based trucks with load range E tires for the added puncture resistance.

After taking delivery of it in the morning, the afternoon consisted of some validation testing. The boss asked me to scout the route around a massive, very remote watershed that is the subject of a future, multi-agency watershed restoration project between us, a couple of soil and water conservation districts, a couple of federal agencies and a research university. An engineering consulting company is flying out some folks to do soil analysis around the watershed, and given that we got an early start to monsoon season the last couple of weeks is has become imperative to figure out ways around out there those folks have a chance at doing in a rental-spec 4X4 1/2 ton truck they'll be getting at the airport rental counter. This meant I promptly put 150 miles on the new truck, about 100 of them off-road.

There be the results of flash flooding from a recent storm, washing out the BNSF access road, half of their drop structure at this arroyo crossing and starting to undermine the footing for the trestle. The expedition gets two-thumbs up off-road. Like our olde suburban it is replacing, the weight distribution gives it all the traction. The fancy e-diff does the good magic, and the IRS is noticeably smoother riding and better behaving on the rough stuff compared to our new 2022 F-150. This truck is most certainly heavier than the GMT800 suburban it replaces, but it has a lot more tire. The result is considerably better floatation and traction through sand and mud. The boss and engineer supervisor took it today and also performed some validation testing off-road. Everyone so far agrees on the two-thumbs up as playing in the dirt truck. This will be a very good truck for us. It looks like it will do 18-19mpg at 75mph speedlimits, too. It got in the low teens crawling around in dirt.

This truck will replace our ye olde 2006 suburban as the unmarked management vehicle. We'll put a standard government plate on it, but otherwise no logos or text. It'll be reserved for the director and engineer supervisor to use, although I'll also occasionally use it for seeing to upkeep and the occasional incognito inspection of stuff in the field during big events. It'll also be the vehicle used when we give tours of stuff in the field to folks from other agencies or dignitaries.

This acquisition will let us semi-retire our beloved ye old suburban. It has 101k on the odometer (probably 50K of that off-road) and has lived in the high desert sun since 2006. It is time for it to go. It has not led a normal life. The suspension and steering on it are done, and it has become an old, needy GM vehicle over the last couple years. Frequent check engine light issues, questionable electrical system, lots of small repairs, and there's no getting around the disintegrating interior and fading clearcoat that is starting to present a bit less than professional image. We'll actually keep it around as a spare truck until the other new F-150 I have on order comes in later this summer/fall.

If you want another indicator of how bonkers the new car market is, government agencies are basically paying MSRP for new vehicles. The F-150 I took delivery of at the beginning of the year (and purchased under last years state purchasing contract) was for a 20% discount from MSPR. This expedition was a 1% discount from MSRP under the new statewide purchasing contract that basically every state and local government agency in New Mexico uses to purchase vehicles.

We're calling Toby 11 weeks old now! It's been a week since this ball of puppy fluff followed me home, and what a big week it's been. He's noticably grown, and is learning new things every day.

We know our name, come, sit, go pee, let's go to the back, go in, go to bed, breakfast, lunch and dinner. We're learning the word toy, too. He's rocking the house training, and loves sleeping in his crate. He's spent half days at work with me this week. He plays and chews constantly when awake, and then sleeps after puppying hard. It's safe to say he fits in around here.

He has taken to camouflaging on a Ford Expedition floor mat in my office. And I didn't think there would ever be use for the original carpet floor mats from the new Expedition at work.

Saturday evening some friends and I parked near the border in El Paso and rode our bikes over for Critical Mass in Juarez. It had been years since I was last in Mexico despite living just up the road, and the first time in Juarez on a bicycle. I was reminded of just how neat a city Juarez is and learned how much fun riding there is.

I love the Juarez has a proper, almost European feel to the city. No highways through the city, and buildings close together and often more than one story high. None of this American BS of everything having a big yards/ landscaping and parking lots for days. Many businesses have only a handful of parking spots, and lots of neighborhoods looked eminently walkable or rideable with dense building, assortments of neighborhood shops and restaurants and a pedestrians out and about in numbers. Central Juarez reminds me of San Francisco in urban character, sans the hills or ocean.

We even had coloured smoke along the ride, just for fun. Like the Southwestern Borderland in general, even to this wedo folks are so damned friendly and fun.

I loved that Juarez is such a good place to ride. They've started removing traffic lanes and putting physical barriers to form protected bike lines along some of the major roads. Even where there weren't bike lanes or other infrastructure and after we broke off from the group ride, it was still such a good environment to ride in. Despite friends telling me this in advance, I was little skeptical.

For those have driven in Northern Mexico, Americans tend find it a pretty different place to drive. The rules of the road tend to be a bit more flexible and the decision making a lot more creative, and of course Juarez has the traffic expected of an urban city of 1.5 million folks. The reality is that few roads in Juarez have a speed limit over 40 kph, so the speed differential between bikes and cars often isn't all that much through the city. The other thing working in favor is not only are things moving slower on the streets, drivers are SO much less aggressive than Americans behind the wheel. It turns out everyone expects some level of chaos, and its no big deal. Cyclists fit into that nicely, and everyone is friendly about the whole thing. In the end, it felt way safer than anywhere I've ridden in the US.

It turns out the thing Mexicans kept telling us to eat in Juarez was hot dogs, and they're not wrong. There's a particular place that's a local late night legend, and the best hot dog I've ever had. Big, juicy hot dog, wrapped in bacon, smothered in cheese, beans, onions, relish and green chile. Add in nachos and a drink for the best 150 pesos/$7.50 I've spent in a long time.

The historic, genealogical, cultural and economic reality of the borderland is that Ciudad Juarez, El Paso, TX and Las Cruces, NM are really just different neighborhoods of the same big city. As a history major, I'd be remiss to point out this is a place where borders crossed people much more so than people crossed borders. It was great to visit the regional motherland, and I can't wait to ride over again soon. Finally put my passport card to use, too. No reason to carry the whole passport book over there.

Toby discovered he can now get up on couches by himself at will.

One doggo is much happier about this development than the other.

The Monday afternoon shit posting may now resume.

Normally Toby gets interested in the TV when there's animal sounds. Apparently the exhaust note from the Aston Vulcan from season 1 of the Grand Tour also catches his ear. He is enamoured with it.

Toby is now 7 months old and 45lbs of puppy sidekick. He goes all the places and does all the things now. Meeting new people is pretty much his favorite thing in the world, even bikepackers out in the middle of nowhere. Last week he even got invited inside a restaurant for a meal for the first time.

He continues to be about 98 percent good boy. He's in a really fun phase now where we really get to do a lot of stuff.

@Vampire-queen https://library.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dswenttowar/

Giesel was many things long before he became a children's book author, including an advertiser, hard-left propagandist and a brilliant political cartoonist. His political cartoons in the run up to and early part of WWII are where the public really got to know the pseudonym Seuss, and where he developed much of the artistic style of his later children's work.

If you get a chance, Dr. Seuss Goes to War is a fantastic read, even if the portrayal of some ethnic groups is problematic (and is something he Giesel tried to atone for to a degree later in life). As an compilation and examination of his WWII era political cartoons, it reads as something of a graphic novel with a page or two of scholarly notes following each cartoon. It wouldn't be found in a school library, but a larger public library might have it. Any academic library at a university will have it in the stacks.

@ranwhenparked It's worth mentioning that beyond the MOT scheme coming in, the reason many folks scrapped a lot of not particularly old 50's British cars instead of fixing them is a LOT of 50's British cars were straight garbage build quality. The pain of 6V electrics, often marginal design, Italian levels of reliability (or lack of therefore), but with the build quality of something someone not especially talented might've built in a shed. They were disposable cars to begin with, so no reason to invest in the sinking ship impersonation in the driveway.

@Vampire-queen I hope to get my red truck back from the body shop for Christmas.

@farscythe @Taylor-Martin

As a child of the 90's, my mind goes to this when it comes to Meatloaf:

@CB @davesaddiction This should make the next best-of list.

@M-T-Blake While @CB said it about the P71, I think it applies here, too. People who want to be a cop, or can't be a cop, or both.

@Italia That seems neat, but the price made me do a double take to make sure I hadn't moved the decimal place in my head.

@Old-Busted-Hotness She's not particularly tall and leaning over, and that is a truck on 33" off-road tires. Maybe both?

@BJ There's a bed slide in my work truck, too. At first I was a bit ambivalent, but I've come to really like it with time. I only occasionally find them especially helpful for loading/unloading, but they make for an awesome work surface out in the field.

@WhoIsTheLeader said in How to win friends and influence people::

@ITA97 The color matched shell makes a surprisingly huge difference, even in white. The pearl looks great on it.

Indeed. I was surprised this evening how big a difference it is from the generic, white matte paint on my truck. This one is a different mission than my truck, but nonetheless specing it out incorporated a number of lessons learned from using my truck with a similar utility shell for the last three years.