Life's a Beach, SuziQ's legal, Art Benches, Chiles & Silver

It's a potpourri post this morning.

Stasea sent some photos of a Kona beach called Makalawena. She visited Chandra again on the Big Island over the Holiday. The two happy friends cast a long shadow on their sunrise beach walk this weekend. Thanks, Stasea!

Monday was a pretty laid back day. The highlight was getting the Zuki street legal. Title and registration was only $27.67! Insurance, however, is much higher in cost here than in Idaho--$300 a year for a Zuki vs. $180 up there. The difference is easily explainable--too many people here and too many bad drivers. We all pay a price for bad drivers.

Although Idaho insurance is cheaper, it would have cost $200 to register the Zuki there as opposed to about $28 here. So, it's a wash in overall cost.

Susun drove SuziQ for the first time yesterday and she was delighted. That's a good thing.

We did a few more minor things to the camper but overall, the day was nondescript. Perhaps the real highlight was our second campfire of the new year. It was much warmer last night and we were able to stay out well after total darkness. We love it when the campfire smoke rises straight up into the night sky. Hopefully, it will be even warmer today.

We rec'd a call from Brian R. yesterday. We haven't seen him since forever--can't even remember when--90's maybe? He's going to visit sometime today. That's definitely gonna be interesting. Meanwhile, Chip N. will be here at 1 pm to talk over details of the Verde River guide project. Sue K. is moving forward on the geo-caching project.

Forgot to mention: The Idaho Falls Post-Register featured the Greenbelt Art Bench project as one of the city's top highlights of Year 2010. Carrie sent the article and we talked on the phone about it. She is real jazzed and fully expects the remaining benches to be funded in time for a May installation.

Here is a piece of total trivia: it's all about straight green chiles.  Believe it or not, these are the very first straight chiles we have seen in about a year!  For some odd reason, ALL of the green chiles have been crooked and twisted beyond imagination for almost a year.  Who knows why?  Sunspots?  Such a small thing as STRAIGHT chiles can be a sources of great glee to a guy like Little Yonni.  Why's that?  Well, Class, straight chiles are so much easier to roast on a table top grill.  The only way we can roast the twisted chiles is with the flame thrower weed burner.  That's dangerous, no fun and the chiles don't give off their aromatherapy essence.   So, we are very happy to be able to play with our straight chiles.

OK, and one last item I've been forgetting to mention for maybe two weeks--Susun bought a silver coin.  It's a full one ounce US Silver Eagle Dollar dated year 2000.  She paid $30 and change for it at Coin Heaven in Cottonwood.  Why's that so special?  Well, in case you haven't noticed, the price of silver went up over 70% in Year 2010.  In fact, it had an interim peak yesterday at $31!!!!  Well, the skyrocketing silver price caught Susun's attention and she wanted to go buy a coin herself.  She's really happy with the little one ounce dollar.  There's a lot more to the story about at least I remembered to mention it.  DF & Neighbor Gary W and I think Susun's newfound interest in silver is a sign that people who've never paid any attention to it are beginning to get a whiff of things to come and they're stepping (albeit gingerly) into the market.  If so, that bodes well for this burgeoning bull market.