Dave's Personal Page

I have a nuber of websites that are being discontinued for various reasons. I will archive them here in the next little while.

First up is CherokeeRedFire.com this one was intended as a news site to keep interested people updated on our activities. Since our red priest has died it seems unlikely that the website will be needed. However the content is available here for historical purposes.

Dave At The Movies - I have been going to the movies on a regular basis and thought to offer a review of some. It is worth noting that attending a movie at a theater since the advent of covid has been sharply constrained (not been to one).

Dave Reading List - I have started a page with a list of books in my library and reviews / comments about same.  I suggest this as a good source of recommended reading, especially for younger folks who did not grow up during, or shortly after, the golden era of science fiction.

A photomontage of a recent fieldtrip Fieldtrip

Directions to the Ceremonial site

Replacing the VSS on a 1996 Taurus GL 

Replacing a Ford Taurus Mass Air Flow sensor

For sale: Our mother collected toy dish sets for many years.  We have taken photos and posted them on these pages.  If you collect and care to make an offer, please feel free to call or write.

December 1st - Wow, I just noticed I have not posted a personal update other than movie or book reviews since August 2010.  So what's new... My time has been split roughly three ways; auctions (go figure), TTEV and Cherokee family.  Naturally I dedicate some time to the hosting clients with updates and so forth and life makes demands for food and shelter, but those are the big three activities.  If you want to know more, see the personal update page.

August 13th - Perside meteor shower.  Something I never did to any extent was to watch the yearly meteor shower.  In Rochester there was a ready made excuse - cloudy skies.  In truth, it isn't that cloudy every time, just lazy :-) We (me & my sisters family) did go out at Barb's one year, but I did not see much.  I went out on the 11th and stood by the car for 30 minutes or so and did not see much.  So the 12th I went out on top of the RV between 2 and 4:30AM and counted 70+.  Then on the 13th I was out from 4:30 to 5AM and counted 20.  Some were quite impressive and I can add this experience to life in Arizona.

July 24th - I saw some ants doing an "impossible" job this morning.  About 8 of them had cut a Mesquite seed pod (think string been) in half (about 2" long) and had dragged it 15' across the road.  They were still dragging it, trying to get it up an 18" embankment, when I watched them.  Now these 8 ants were surrounding the pod and pulling in every direction, but out of pure persistence they had managed to progress in the desired direction.  Imagine if we had to work that hard against those odds to bring a meal back to our nest.  Perhaps some do...

July 23rd - I saw the owl again this morning.  It was perched on a cactus where I did not notice him until I walked by and he hooted.  I said my hello and he flew to a power pole on the next lot.

July 4th 2010 - A new page with some images of this years fireworks show

May 28th This morning on Mary Lynne Lane I observed a rare event.  The full moon setting touched the tip of the western mountains at the same time as the sun rose in the east between the Tortalita mountains and the owl heads.

May 26th This morning I saw an owl perched on a cactus at 5:10AM

February 27th nighttime cloud images - Clouds at night

December 9th 2009 - Friends and family: As the holidays approach I tend to think of old times with friends and warm thoughts of family gatherings.   Thanksgiving was blessed by one of the neighbors inviting me to dinner at a family home.  It was very kind of them and their family gathering felt as warm as ours in Rochester.   This will be the second Christmas I will celebrate here in the high desert.  I do love it out here, but keep a special place in my heart for you all.  I think of you often and wish you happy holidays where ever you travel.

July 20, 2009  As previously mentioned, this area seems to be in between the most common storm paths.  Often they are several miles away in any direction.  This offers a good chance to try to shoot lightning strikes.  I had not been very successful until this evening..  A powerful storm was moving slowly northward west of I10 about 4 - 11 miles away.  From 7:50 to 8:25 the lightning was so frequent, I managed to get several good images. Chain Lightning

July 17, 2009  One of the features of life in southern Arizona is the monsoon.   After the first week of July, powerful storms form near the mountains almost daily in the high desert.  My property is located roughly 10 miles away from the eastern and western mountain ranges, so it is often in between the storms.  However, on Friday the 17th I returned home to find the area engulfed in a serious sand storm.  Very little rain fell, just a lot of strong wind.  Fortunately no straight line wind was included and no serious damages were suffered here.  There were other areas not so lucky.  A nearby town was hit and some 40 telephone poles downed.

July 6, 2009:  Sitting on the back porch with the camera Life is wild in the Marana Desert

June 2009:  The major news this month is the completion of a fence mending project.  The fence surrounding the property was in pretty rough shape.  Did you know horses like to rest on top of a fence, if there is no barbed wire?  Obviously the previous owner of the house didn't.

February 1st 2009: Spent some time exploring the nearby desert.  Some of the pictures I took with captions  Desert Explorations

December 21st 2008:  Since selling the house in Rochester on October 22nd, traveling to Flagstaff & then Tucson, I did purchase a home on the desert in north east Marana on November, 17th.  The house is located on a 2 acre corner lot with a great sunrise view of mountains to the east. As I mention in the travel adventures, it needed a lot of TLC.  For the past month I have worked hard and steadily to fix it up, improve the landscaping and the exterior appearance.

October 23rd 2008: The story of my journey to Flagstaff Arizona  Arizona Travel Adventures

The phone and email is the same