March 26, 2022

Something to Think About
Green Valley, Arizona
2022

This is the last remaining Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile silo in the U.S. that hasn’t been filled in. It is complete with it’s rocket, but sans the nuclear warhead that it used to hold. (The silo door has been immobilized half-open so that it cannot be launched and so that the Russians can see it’s warhead is missing, as evidenced by the open hatch in the nosecone. At the time we viewed it, it seemed to be an oddly quaint remnant of a not-so-pleasant past. Now, with the war in the Ukraine and Putin’s wild threats, that past seems not so much in the past after all. While the Titan II missiles with their nuclear warheads are no longer a part of the U.S. military arsenal, there are plenty of other nuclear options available on both sides of the current conflict. The bad old days seem to be back again.

Going Nowhere to Get Everywhere
Patagonia, Arizona
2022

It’s hard to tell from this photograph, but the top of that ladder is maybe 20-30 feet from the nearest branch on that tree, or anything else for that matter. So climbing it would get you nowhere except, of course, to the top of the ladder. But on top of the ladder is a small platform with a satellite or similar type of internet receiver, from which you can get pretty much anywhere you’d like to be, in a virtual sense anyway.