AddingUnderstanding

Each day folks stop by looking for information on Cowboy Christmas so I guess it's never to early to post information about the 2008 show.

• The Las Vegas Convention Center hosts the Cowboy Christmas Gift Show which is open 10AM - 5PM daily from Thursday, December 4 through Saturday, December 13 at the Las Vegas Convention Center this show bills itself as "longest running and only “Original” gift show of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo"
• My personal favorite the Ariat Country Christmas Western Gift Expo returns for the 15th year at the Sands Convention Center and runs from Friday, December 4 - Sunday, December 14. Their site doesn't give hours but it's safe to assume they will be similar daytime hours.
• The Mandalay Bay Convention Center will again play host to the Cowboy Marketplace Western Lifestyle Expo December 5 - 13

So whether you're headed to Las Vegas for the NFR or just for some holiday shopping it should be a great time in Vegas again this year.

Continuing on yesterday's video binge here is a great video about plans of the Southern Nevada Water Authority to suck up water from fragile parts of Nevada and pipe it to Las Vegas. The video looks at some of the impacts on areas of rural Nevada. It doesn't get very far into how risky this plan is for Las Vegas. Although SNWA would like to spend billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars to put in the pipeline the risks involved with having a whole city depend upon a facility that is impossible to secure flies in the face of the concerns of homeland security.

On May 23 Southern Nevada Water Authority asked to have hearings on their applications to import more than 16 billion gallons of water annually from the Snake Valley in North Eastern Nevada. At SNWA's request the hearings were scheduled in record time. The gavel goes down on July 15. The quick start date for the hearings makes it challenging for those with an interest in the applications to make sure they are heard.

Snake Valley

Nevada's Snake Valley stretches into Utah, making the applications of interest to those in the water challenged areas of both states. The basin also is home to Great Basin National Park, Nevada's only National Park.

"We know there are a lot of very vocal people who live in Snake Valley. We've seen that in the other hearings," Kay Brothers, deputy general manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority told the Las Vegas Review Journal. The article in the Review Journal lays out a schedule where the hearings will be started in July and then continued to next year.

One is certainly left to wonder if this quick hearing call isn't designed to stack the deck in favor of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. The tight timeline makes it difficult for many public bodies to even meet and decide to take action before paperwork must be filed with the state engineer.

If you're coming to Las Vegas this December for the National Finals Rodeo or just to check out Cowboy Christmas there are several other things that might be fun to do while you're in town. None of the suggestions I'll post in the following weeks should keep anyone from making donations to the Nevadans Don't Like To Pay Taxes fund at your local casino.

However, if you'd like to find some off-the-beaten-path things to do while you're in Sin City then consider taking at trip to the Ethyls Chocolate Factory and cactus garden. Although the company has a new name their facility has been a Las Vegas favorite for more than 25 years -- longer than some casinos last in this town. The trip will leave you with plenty of time to get back for the nightly performance at the Thomas & Mack and will provide a glimpse of 300+ desert species in a four-acre sanctuary. Oh and you can sample chocolates at the factory while you're there.

It is that time of year again. The leaves are turning and the pumpkins are dotting the streets. With the World Series underway folks are starting to look towards Cowboy Christmas along with the 2007 National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. Here's a roundup of the gift shows going on around Rodeo Time.

• The Las Vegas Convention Center hosts the Cowboy Christmas Gift Show which is open 10AM - 5PMdaily from December 6 through December 15 at the Las Vegas Convention Center this show bills itself as "longest running and ONLY “Original” gift show of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo"
• My personal favorite the Ariat Country Christmas Western Gift Expo returns for the 14th year at the Sands Convention Center and runs from December 6 - December 16. Their site doesn't give hours but it's safe to assume they will be similar daytime hours.
• The Mandalay Bay Convention Center will again play host to the Cowboy Marketplace Western Lifestyle Expo December 7 - 15

So whether you're coming to town for the NFR or just for some holiday shopping it should be a great time in Vegas again this year.

A couple of odd things happened this weekend. First I was traveling from Tampa to Las Vegas on Friday and checked a bag. I'd taken a larger bag than necessary because my suit didn't fit well in the smaller bag. When I stuck my things in the bag on the way home I did not put the shoe trees back in my shoes. Upon opening the bag there was the little paper saying TSA had opened the bag and then I noticed the shoe trees were indeed in the shoes.

Did I almost run you over?

Saturday I was at the office for most of the day. I decided to go across the street for a sandwich at lunch. To get across the street I used the frequently fatal crosswalk to traverse Maryland Parkway. The southbound lanes were wide open and as crossed the median there was one car off in the distance coming a little too fast. As I reached the middle lane the driver didn't stop and swerved around me with his window down. He was apologizing as I was making some comments about his ability to read the signs, comments which aren't fit for reprinting here.

There is little secret that the Southern Nevada Water Authority(SNWA) is out to suck Nevada dry. One of the real problems for Las Vegans is to figure out when SNWA is dealing with reality or when it is a SNWA magic looking glass version. For example SNWA wants us to believe it would be a good idea to spend billions of dollars (like at least tens of billions) to build a pipeline to get all that unused water.

However, other experts don't agree with SNWA's calculations of how much water is or isn't in areas like Dry Lake Valley (heh, it just sounds like a place for a pipeline to get water). See for example: "Tom Myers, a consulting hydrologist for the Great Basin Water Network, said the water authority is asking for several times the amount of water that's available, according to data compiled previously by the state engineer's office."

That's right. SNWA wants to spend billions and billions of dollars to build a pipeline. Not only will it vastly increase the security risks to Las Vegas and send Sin City deeper into its tailspin of unsupportable growth, but now they're proposing straws to places without the water they claim is there.