Cute lil prairie dogs

Not knowing where I'll wake up every day can have its nice surprises. Today I slept outside the home of a family of prairie dogs.

They kissed to identify their relatives.

"Hey, can I get some privacy here? I'm kissing my sister."

They tackled each other, jumped in and out of their burrow, and dug up dirt for fun. Every once in a while, one would cross the parking lot to play with its cousin on the other side.

Humans hunt and trap these dogs because they're seen as pests. When a car came by, they'd all stand at attention and signal to the other prairie dogs across the lot.

It's funny to see them always standing on their hind legs, like a pack of Rory Calhouns. Who has the heart to shoot an animal that can do an amusing trick?

What the inside of a phone camera looks like

My phone was taking blurry pictures with black spots. Cleaning the front of the lens didn't help, so I took it apart to see what was messed up inside. Here's the camera on the back of a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone.

camera box (top)
lens (bottom)

Turns out the lens wasn't the problem, but a smudge on a light receptor panel at the back of the camera box. The long smudge appeared as a black spot when the lens focused on an object in front of the camera.

I dabbed at the smudge as best I could with a writing pen wrapped in a cloth, not having any adequate cleaning wipes at the time. The image did not turn out perfect afterwards, but the large black spot went away.

Image before

Image after

Image blurriness was caused by the lens not resting on top of the receptor panel. Inside the camera box there were very small beads that work as ball bearings to keep the lens in position.

My lens was jiggling up and down a bit. I found that if I pushed the lens into the box a little, the image came into focus better.

Loose lens

Snug lens

I used the tip of a pen to push the lens. Look at how the word 'Belkin' comes into focus. Not everything in the image looks better, though. The left side got sharper and the right side more blurry.

I didn't fix my camera much but at least I figured out why it's no good.

Rocky Road

Canyon View Park in Grand Junction, CO

Western Colorado Community College in Grand Junction, CO

Low rider in Grand Junction, CO

Drove through Colorado Rocky Mountains today. Took I-70 East from Grand Junction, CO to Denver, CO.

Lots of pretty views on the way.

Palisade, CO

Palisade, CO

Glenwood Springs, CO

Glenwood Springs, CO

Glenwood Springs, CO

Gypsum, CO

Areas between Vail and Breckenridge are popular ski destinations. I-70 passes through them, then climbs at an incline. The grade does not appear very steep, but it is very difficult to drive up.

I don't know why my engine was going at 5,000 rpm and the car barely pushed 50 mph. Maybe the road surface is rough or maybe it is paved with fly paper.

Want to swim

Henderson, NV

I lived in Henderson, NV outside of Las Vegas from January to June. Eating, working out, and playing on a computer I set up inside my car. Food was good and I had a place to park where I could get electricity and WiFi. I had all the essentials.

Road Trip

Lately the daily temperature range went from about 90 F to 110 F and it became hot at night to function. I started a trip north to Green Bay, Wisconsin where it's cooler in the summer. Why there of all places is because it's right on the shore of Lake Michigan and I want to swim in the lake.

Below is a map of my progress to date. I'm in Grand Junction, Colorado today.

Mesquite, NV

Shortly after crossing into Nevada from the north is a little town in the desert with huge green lawns, clean white sidewalks, bright blue swimming pools. It feels like a slice of Pleasantville, like stumbling upon a mirage oasis. Neat and pristine to the point of unreal.

A preview of Las Vegas, in a way. I mean, how could there be so much water in the desert to support golf courses and high end resort hotels? How would grassy lawns naturally occur in this arid environment? It's artificial. It's inefficient. All these nice things don't belong here. It's purely the product of money.

Utah, land of rocks and Mormons

The locals in a small town of Richfield, Utah looked like they were all related to one another. Dudes working at McDonald's, a guy working at a hospital, random men on the street... their faces looked like brothers. A policeman caught up on conversation with a dental assistant for twenty minutes the way that cousins might.

I saw Mormon pamphlets on the counter of a Mom and Pop operated Pizza Hut. Utah has a large Mormon population and they tend to have large families, so maybe they were related.

Grand Junction, Colorado

The Chinese buffet in town is pretty good. There's a Golden Corral too. And both are conveniently a short walk from a Walmart and a Lowe's. City also offers a college, parks, and nice libraries. Meets all my criteria for a good place to van-dwell.

• Colorado Mesa University.
  
  Unfortunately no public WiFi on campus, and no Ethernet access in the library either. :sadface:

• Mesa County Central Library

Interesting things are in the library.

A teen room (basically just a place for kids to play video games)




A booth where you can answer calls (mobile phone not included)





"Best Advice" board, with user submitted motivational messages

 

Below are some I liked. A lot of the messages are about eating good food or smiling.

'dont stop eating dilishous Food' [sic]
and
'BE NICE TO YOUR MOM'

'I <3'

'SMILE YOUR ON CAMERA : )'

'Smile for yourself'

'if you throw up you can drink more!'

'8 )'