Travel Gods Still Pissed Off

When we left out of Bozeman headed for Atlanta the weather report was moderate winds and party cloudy skies in ATL. Those turned into gale force winds, and huge-ass thunderheads. I think one of them actually looked like my third grade teacher....

Anyway, I was thinking "so much for partly cloudy" as I was cinching my seat belt tighter when the captain came on the p.a., said it was going to be rough and for the flight attends to sit the fuck down!

We flew through a thunder cell. This was not fun. It wasn't as bad as the Ireland fiasco, but it wasn't far from it. People were white-knuckling whatever they could get their hands on and literally screaming in terror as the plane would drop or be violently thrown side to side. I guess some people pay for this type of thing at amusement parks, but I'm not particularly sadistic in this regard and didn't enjoy it much. At least nobody was puking.

This was on a 757 and so I'm thinking the whole time - now what did Mrs. Bling! and Bling! me about tolerances? What about those rivets and stress fractures, etc. etc. as the wing is "cycling." That's a nice way of saying that it reminded me of a diving board after a fat bastard just went off into the deep end. And nobody says much when your iPod is floating off your lap.

But, yes....we made it....to another airport. Mainly because after flying through the cell it was decided that it was too dangerous to land. We made it to a regional airport and waited to get re-fueled (Bling! does this sound familiar?). They wouldn't let us off the plane so I was walking around and started talking to the captain. He was pulling up the weather radar on his do-hickey and was showing me the huge-ass red cell that we just flew through. I couldn't tell, but I think he was actually bragging a little bit. I wanted to wring his neck.

Anyway, I just wanted to say a quick thank you to Bling! and Mrs. Bling! for all the tin files and things they have told me over the years. I put it to good use up there.

But it wasn’t over, yet….because we flew back to ATL and of course all the connecting flights were either gone or cancelled. So there was about…oh…the entire population of Georgia at the airport trying to get their bags, a hotel, a car, something to eat, you name it.

Delta already had me re-booked on the first flight out and a voucher for a discount at a hotel. So I called the hotel and they wouldn’t answer the phone….at all…..ever… so I gave up and scrambled for the “courtesy” phone wall and began calling all the hotels in the area. I lucked out (?) and got a roach-infested flea-bag hotel for $100.00. Now all I had to do was grab a shuttle.

Let me tell you that ATL has got the most fucked up, ass-backwards, inefficient shuttle and bus system I have ever seen at an airport. It was a disaster. It was crowded to the point of not being able to move, everybody was pissed off, and nobody could get to their shuttles because nobody knew where they would park, there were no lines, it was complete chaos, and it was hot. Isn’t that a great combo??

After being pissed off for another hour or so I finally gave up and grabbed a taxi. I got to the roach motel about 1:00am and then was able to get a pizza delivered (I hadn’t eaten in about 12 hours at this point) and crashed about 2:00am. BTW, did I mention that the floor at the hotel was slimy? It was rather disgusting and of course my luggage was “in transit” and I had no fresh clothes after sweating my balls off at the shuttle service.

You might recall I said I had the first flight out and I finally got crashed about 2:00am. So after four hours of broken sleep I made it to the airport to grab the flight. I obviously still haven’t appeased the travel gods.

The Scream!

Remember my Costa Rica trip? Do you recall when I mentioned that one of the girls was terrified on the Zip Line tour, but did it anyway? Well, finally I have aquired the photo of her doing the Tarzan swing. I know, I am truly a bastard for posting this….but I just had to.

Is this a look of sheer terror or what?

Fat Bastards Are About to be Outlawed!

It’s ironic, but all the time I try to tell people that if you let the government do it they will take away your rights. Surprisingly enough, most people either don’t believe it or choose to not do anything about it. Some of them even go so far as to encourage it provided that it supports their agenda.

Recently there has been a moratorium by the LA City Council in which they are banning any new fast food restaurants. Their reasoning? Poor people eat like shit and that they must save them from themselves by restricting their choices of food. Today they can’t go so far as to tell them they can’t eat that food. They just might have to go out of the city to find it.

The fast food restaurants countered by indicating that they have some healthy stuff on their menu and that it’s not where you eat, but what you eat. I agree.

Now, I completely agree it costs less money to eat like crap than to eat healthy. I have this problem all the time – especially being on the road. But the article also failed to mention that the majority of people in the LA area are either Hispanic or black and that both of these minorities have a cultural diet laden with fatty foods.

So let’s say you ban fast food from the area. Do you think a Whole Foods Market is going to go an area that is poor and can’t afford their products? Do you see a Del Friscos moving into a crime ridden and poor community? I don’t fucking think so, Tim.

Besides, as far as I am concerned if you want to be a Hamdog eating machine, sucking down cream soda while laying waste to an entire truck full of Oreos you should be able to do that.

But think about this….if “they” can make it illegal for fast food restaurants to do business we aren’t too far off from making it illegal, or fining / taxing you, for being a fat bastard.

Here is an article from The Consumerist. It's a classic example of how we have screwed ourselves into the credit crisis.

The New York Times has an article that tells the unfortunate tale of Diane McLeod and her love affair with debt. She started out "debt free" when she got married, but after a divorce she'd managed to accrue $25,000 in credit card debt. Despite not having a down payment or any assets, Diane was given a $135,000 mortgage. Over the next few years, illness, underemployment, and shockingly irresponsible spending combined disastrously with the bank's willingness to refinance her loan as her home appreciated (for a fee, of course). 5 years later, Diane owes $237,000 on her mortgage. She's in foreclosure now, and a recent sheriff's auction of the home did not draw a single bidder. A similar house down the street recently sold for $84,000 less than she owes on her home.
The NYT says there is a bright spot at the end of the tunnel for Diane. She's still getting credit card offers from "Urban Bank."

I blame the banks and executives for being greedy. But! I also blame people like Diane for being morons. This complete lack of responsibility is her own fault.

Gas at the Pump

It’s sad. I went to the pump a few days ago and put $85.00 worth into my truck. The pump cut me off at that point and I still wasn’t full. I’m glad I have a motorcycle, but I wish I had more room to carry stuff on it.

Jack Daniels at the Bank!

I took my “penny jar” with me into the bank last week. I always put all the change from my pockets into the jar at the end of the day. I am the kind of person that will pick up pennies and other coins when I find them on the ground. I also get a lot of silver in there. I don’t understand why people don’t keep their coins? It’s still money and it still spends. I typically average between $175 ~ $225 when the jar is filled, which takes about 2 years.

Everyone at the bank got a kick out of my jar. It’s a ½-gallon of Jack Daniels. You can probably imagine the usual comments such as “did you have fun drinking that?” or “I sure wish I had some.” Etc. I guess people don’t do that every day.

The bank charges about $3.50 to count your coins for you. It’s not worth my time to count it all up so I dumped it in one of their bags and they send it off to the vault for counting. I’ll find out how much it was in a week or so.

Obama or McCain?

To quote a friend of mine....

"I'm truly concerned that if Obama gets elected we are all fucked. At least if McCain gets elected he'll use lube."

Wasted Time

I added it up and between June 30th and July 12th I have an accumulative total of about 62 hours of travel time. Somehow I still managed to squeeze in a full work-week, too. It didn’t help that I was supposed to get from DFW to SJC and had a layover flight. It was delayed, and that caused me to miss the last flight out of San Diego (the connecting airport) to SJC. I had to get a hotel for the night. And yes, this is not even the same trip as the DIA fiasco I just mentioned.

Rude People

People are just rude. When I was on this last trip there was this lesbian / dyke chick and her son / daughter. I’m not sure if it was a boy or a girl for sure one way or the other. It looked like a boy, but she / he had fingernail polish on so I wasn’t sure.

We were all on the flight together and not-so-oddly enough ended up at the same car rental agency once we landed in San Jose. I was in a pretty foul mood at this point because although I had spent about 20 hours traveling my client had left me VM while I was in the air that the project was postponed. I figured I would go ahead and get the car and get something done while in CA. I needed a morale booster so I got a convertible. They had a red Mitsubishi for rent so that’s what I got.

Right before I signed the paperwork the agent next to me said “where did the red car go?” I looked up and it was the lesbian and her son / daughter standing there. We figured out that I had just swiped the red car. They had two others so I asked the lady if she really wanted the red one. She said yes. I didn’t care either way so I told the agents to give her the car and I’d take another color. The agents were a little put off by this but re-did the paperwork. I took a burnt-orange one (cooler color anyway). Through all of this the dyke-chick didn’t say one word to either myself or the agents. Not a quick thank you, not anything.

I was half tempted to tell the agent “fuck her rude ass, give me back the red one.”

Pissing Off The Travel Gods

I must have really rubbed someone the wrong way. All of my last few trips have been nightmares in some way, shape, form or fashion lately.

it doesn't help that the airlines are totally jacked up right now. They are overcharging, over selling flights, and implementing policies that make it more difficult to get on and off the airplane. I've heard figures that up to 90% of all flights are delayed, and I'd say based on my experiences this is true.

I was in Montana for the 4th of July weekend. I had a great time and flew home on Monday. I took a morning flight because it was the only thing I could get at a reasonable price. I hate morning flights. I hate getting up at the crack of dawn to catch a plane. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Some of my colleagues love it because the first flight of the day is already at the gate and ready to go.

But not mine. Nope! I get up at 5:00am and make my way to the airport to find out my flight is going to be delayed. To make it better, my connecting flight is also delayed out of DIA. I've said it a thousand times. DIA sucks. I get fucked every time I go through there, but at least I'll make my connecting flight.

And I did....mainly because it was delayed by 5.5 hours! By the time I got back into TX I had been traveling for over 12 hours. That's ridiculous when you really think about it.

And then the fun starts. I am supposed to work on some gear at my house and ship it off to China prior to catching a flight out Tuesday afternoon. You are following this right? Get home late Monday night, fly out Tuesday afternoon.

Monday morning I get up early and the gear has been ordered wrong so I need new parts. I ship it to CA where I am about to fly to so I can work on it there. I get my laundry done and my friend comes to pick me up. Before I even leave the house the flight is delayed. Give me a fucking break. And it really chaps my ass that you still have to check in "on time" or they will fuck you at the ticket counter.

Fine. Get to the airport. The flight is 1.5 hours delayed by the time they board the plane. We get on the plane, they pull out from the gate and park it while a storm comes in. WTF? WHY do they make us get on the plane and back off the gate if we have already blown the on-time-departure metric by 1.5hrs and then park us in a tin-can if they know we aren't getting off the ground?

I sit on the plane for about 45 mins. There are 40 planes stacked up in front of us but we finally get off the ground and are gone. There is no way I am making my connection in San Diego unless it was heinously late, too. And of course, it wasn't. So I missed it. Sorry, last flight out. You're fucked!

I spend the night in San Diego and go back to the airport this morning. I get on a flight that almost made it out on time. I fly to San Jose and I get off the plane and listen to my VM. My client has postponed the job I was supposed to do. 22 hours of traveling at this point, car is paid for, hotel is paid for and now I am in San Jose with a billion other things I could have been working on and they postpone while I am in the air.

What the hell did I do to piss the travel gods off so much? I have no idea, but I am going to KFC tonight and sacrificing a bucket of chicken in my hotel room with some candles. I may even smear peanut butter on myself.

Consumer Confidence Sucks

One of the sights I like to read frequently is The Consumerist. It’s a great website with all kinds of useful information pertaining to consumers. These folks have even been able to help some people out by showing them how to properly write a complaint letter, tell them who to send it to, and have even put pressure on the entity in question to get answers.

But one thing I have also noticed is that if you read the site long enough you’ll find that consumers are fed up with Wall-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, and all the other big chains. They are also fed up with American Airlines, United, Delta, etc. Keep reading the site long enough and you’ll start to wonder where can you go to buy that big-screen TV, blender or your next plane ticket.

We may not technically be in a recession, but I think if you ask the average person they’ll tell you that things are bad right now. Gasoline is up and the trickle down effect is horrible. Add that to the shrinking value of the dollar and we are setting ourselves up for even more problems. And sure, that is part of it. But here is the catch:

Americans are still buying as much oil as they were before it skyrocketed. They are still buying as much food, clothing, electronics, etc. People are still spending money, which is why we aren’t in a recession.

But what I think is happening is that consumers have no confidence in retailers and are fed up with what they are getting for their money. Pretty much everyone has a horror story about getting screwed by some commercial entity. But now, it’s almost as if it’s the norm. Promises that are broken, abysmal customer service, horrible business practices, etc. That’s why people are fed up. Not only are we paying more, we are getting less product, a less than favorable experience and the market is basically telling us “tough shit.”

I am a Fashion Victim!

I was told this once by a girl I was dating. It drove her nuts that I wasn’t into the latest fashion trends and tended to dress comfortable and inexpensively (i.e. slob). I remember on one specific occasion we were about to go off to a very casual party at some friends (mostly hers) house. I can’t remember if I had on jeans and a t-shirt or shorts and a t-shirt but that was it. She asked if I was really going “like that” and I explained that I was. She obviously didn’t like it and so I told her in no uncertain terms that if she didn’t like the way I was dressed then I’d be staying home. She went on to tell me how it was embarrassing because it looked like I couldn’t afford clothes. I explained to her that I already made more money than just about everyone there and I didn’t give a fuck what they thought about me.

I went to the party, and nobody seemed to care how I was dressed. Maybe they did care and were talking behind my back. I didn’t care. I had a good time and I was comfortable.

So maybe I am a fashion victim, but then again maybe I’m not. Maybe you are the fashion victim! I certainly have no desire to keep up with the Jones’s. I don’t care about designer clothes and trying to fit in with the trendy crowd. My wallet doesn’t shrink just because some movie star started wearing the same style of sunglasses Elton John wore back the 60’s.

But I do have to buy clothes from time to time. Oh sure, I pretty much wear what I have until they have holes in them and are falling apart, but eventually I have to have new stuff. I can’t stand shopping. I hate department stores. I hate all the Yentas with their kids in strollers. I hate the prices and I hate the lines. If I could do drive-through shopping or call my order in ahead of time I just might do that. That would work for most of my stuff, but sure enough I do have to actually look at some things and try them on before I will know if I like them.

So here are some of my major pet peeves with fashion at the moment:

Elton John sunglasses that make you look like an ET.
These are just hideous, OK? They went out in the 60’s for a reason. And not only are people buying them, they are buying them in droves. The designers got in on it and are stamping them with their logos and charging a butload of money for about $3.00 worth of plastic and manufacturing. Slave to fashion.

Sagging
A black guy once told me that this arose from prison wear. Prisoners would be issued pants and would not be allowed to have a belt while on suicide watch (standard for new prisoners) so their pants would sag. I don’t know if this is true or not, but it’s plausible. In any case, I am all about functional clothing. If you can’t walk right, can’t run, and can’t use one hand because your pants are falling off then you are a slave to fashion because you are well beyond the limit of functionality. To me, you look like a tard that doesn’t know how to buy the right sized clothes.

Shorts
I love shorts. I’m a very warm natured person and I get hot really quick so shorts are vital part of my wardrobe. But I do not understand why shorts have gotten so long that you might as well be wearing pants. With the exception of a specialized short (i.e. running shorts or climbing shorts) shorts should be roughly knee length give or take an inch or so. But now days the trend is for shorts to be half-way (or more) down you shin. When I was growing up these were called highwaters and you would get made fun of for wearing them. WTF is the point in this trend? It’s not much cooler than a pair of pants. Combine it with sagging and you get a bunch of guys that look like they are wearing skirts! Tards…

Sandals
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I cannot stand flip-flops on men. It looks and sounds totally retarded. It also perpetuates the entire slacker shuffle-your-feet-and-make-noise attitude that I can’t stand. Be a real man and put some fucking shoes on your feet. Ever see a guy get into a fight with flip flops on? It’s hard to be macho and intimidating to another guy when you get ready to throw down and your shoes are flip-flopping all over the place and as soon as you start to scrap those things are off your feet and you have no traction.

But that’s the fashion trend. It’s almost all flip flops out there. There aren’t many sandals left. And don’t give me a shoe that is mostly nagahyde, leather, vinyl, or human-skin that has vent-holes either. I want an open-toed sandal that has a strap on the front, one across the top part of your ankle, and one on the back to hold the sucker in place. Think of a sports-sandal. Those are great, but it would be nice to have one that is made in a material that looks good in a restaurant, too. I’ve been searching for weeks and I’ve found TWO that look like this. One wasn’t my size and one was $125 – are you fucking high?

Designer Crap, Logos, and Price
First off, I’m an admitted cheap bastard. As an example, I’m not spending $125 on a pair of sandals. Give me a good, quality pair of Italian leather shoes and I might spend even more on them. But not on a sandal.

People have gotten out of control with the whole designer thing. I don’t care if it says Mossimo on it. It doesn’t mean that it is any better than something else. In fact, most of the big designers are employing the use of sweat shops in other countries so that they can crank out their product faster putting more of it on the racks so that your hard earned dollars fly out of your wallet even faster.

And what do you do? You pay more for it. You pay more for it to say Mossimo, or Abercrombie and Fitch. $60 for a plain cotton t-shirt with a logo on it? Really?

And just what are you paying for? For the privilege of advertising for these people!!! I don’t mind if a shirt has a logo on it, but don’t splash it across the whole shirt and expect me to pay even more money to advertise for you. I have several Nike t-shirts that have mostly been given to me as gifts. Every single one of them has faded inside of a few weeks and most of them fell apart not long after. My cheap-ass, freebie, Mars t-shirt that was given to me at a promo deal years ago? Still as black as the day I got it and still holding up.

The last round of shirts I bought cost me $15.00 at target, don’t have fancy logos on them, and keep me cool and comfortable. If I want a $60.00 shirt it’s going to be a lot nicer than the crap people are putting on their bodies to hang out in.



And what about good merchandise? I have no problem paying good money for good merchandise as is evidenced by my sunglasses, suits, dress shirts, etc.

So you can probably see why I hate shopping for clothes. The current fashion trends drive me up the wall and they aren’t cheap. It’s getting harder to find good, quality clothes at a reasonable price that don’t make you look like a slave to the fashion mill.

The Seven Words You Can’t Say

George Carlin died yesterday. I loved George Carlin. His crass and cynical New York sense of humor really appealed to me for some reason. Maybe it’s because I am such a smart-ass myself.

He had a different way of looking at things and sometimes that perspective was very refreshing. He was one of the comedians that was relentless with profanity and how ridiculous our society is about its use or restriction of it. I won’t write his biography here, you can read that somewhere else. He died of heart failure at 71. I think he impacted a lot of lives, whether it was to make someone laugh or to piss them off.

Ironically, I found humor in the CNN marquee scrolling by on the TV during lunch. It read “George Carlin Dies” and I could just hear Carlin saying “BULLSHIT! He’s already dead! He’s not dying, he’s not in the process of dying, it’s over….it’s done with….so stop prolonging it.”

Carlin didn’t believe in God and religion but I can’t help but to say Godspeed Carlin.

Here is a quick tribute:

The Seven Words:



Religion is Bullshit:

Young Blood has 9 Lives…

Well maybe it’s only 8 lives, now. Last night I was out with Hopper and YB to get a bite to eat and have a few beers. I took my truck because I won’t drink and ride. Hopper and YB both will drink and ride which I think is a bad combination.

I’ve never been a very spiritual person. I’ve never felt like I’ve been touched by God or had some epiphany which I attributed to divine intervention of any faith. However, last night I think YB certainly felt that something or someone was watching out for him.

It all started innocently enough. We had dinner and some brews and then went into downtown FTW. We all had another drink and then I decided to split so I could get up early to catch a flight to Chicago.

I get home and I can’t sleep. I’ve had two horrible nights of insomnia. But as I am finally getting ready to crash YB calls me and tells me that he’s been in an accident. Of course, the first thing I ask is whether or not he’s OK. He is. How is the bike? As he put it, mostly OK but there are chunks missing out of his wheels. WTF? I get his location and tell him I’ll be there in a bit.


According to YB he was moving at a pretty good clip somewhere around 80 or 90mph down I-30. I’m not quite clear on exactly what happened next but he must have been maneuvering to overtake someone when he hit a curb, or a curb-like structure. He said he remembered the bike going airborne, and he going airborne off the bike. He held on to the handlebars and came back down. When he landed he said he could tell something was really wrong as he had no real control of the bike so he pulled in the clutch and eased it into the ditch.


Sure enough, as you can see by the pictures the front wheel is bent up pretty good but there is a huge chunk missing out of his rear rim. I have never seen a set of rims that was messed up so bad that the bike wasn’t completely wadded up. Usually the bike is wadded up causing the rims to get trashed, but it can happen either way.

Front Tire -

Rear Tire -
Fortunately, he had some other guys stop on the side of the road with him. We were able to load his bike into the back of my truck and get it to the shop where he works. He took a work truck home.

YB is real lucky. He not only walked away from this, he has walked away without a single scratch and no other damage other than to his pride. I hope he thinks about that next time a beer is set before him while he has his bike out.

I Didn’t Wear any Underwear for a Week!

That sounds pretty disgusting, eh? Actually I was wearing swim trunks or quick-drying hiking shorts with built-in mesh undies the entire week. Now? I am wearing underwear. In fact, that’s all I am wearing. I just got done mowing the jungle that is considered my yard. Why was it a jungle? Because I wasn’t wearing any underwear in Costa Rica for a week.

BTW - I was trying to wait until I got the rest of the photos back from the trip, but that hasn't happened yet so I'm posting what I have!

We took off for Costa Rica on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008. Our flight was late getting into Costa Rica but getting through customs and immigration there was a breeze. We flew into San Jose, but then had to take a van ride to Manuel Antonio. This is across the country and took about 3 hours, in the rain, dark and fog. The ride wasn’t too bad but they drive differently down there. Our driver drives the route all the time and so he was hauling ass, even when it got real foggy up in the mountains and visibility was down to a few feet. I don’t know how he saw the hairpin curves, but he did and was able to make it even if the rest of the group was white-knuckling the armrests and chuckling nervously.

We made it to our rental house at about 3:00am. Fortunately, we had pre-ordered some groceries and liquor so we were able to make beverages and have a snack. We stayed up until about 4:30am and then decided to crash out. Unbeknown to us at that point, the sun comes up about that time and by 5:00am you can’t sleep anymore because it’s bright and sunny….along with monkeys, crickets, frogs, and birds all yammering at each other.

The house itself was beautiful. It clearly was designed to be a rental property with lots of room, every room facing the ocean, full sized bathrooms for every room, a third floor balcony, a swim up bar in the pool, and a small guest house. I am still not 100% clear how we came by this place but one of the guy’s family owns a rental house in Costa Rica. I believe they swapped a week of rent at their house for this one, plus the difference in price which meant that we got away with this dirt-cheap.

Surprisingly, it was significantly cooler there than it was here. The sun would fry you quick as we were only 9 degrees off the equator, but it rained every day and with us being about 300 feet off the ocean we had a cool breeze most of the time. We rarely ran the AC and generally kept the place opened up to let the breeze through. However, we had to keep the screen doors closed because the monkeys would get in and steal stuff. Yes, you read that right – keep the screen doors closed because the monkeys would get in.

They would hang out in the trees right off the balcony’s and while I never saw it, it supposedly was not unusual for them to be hanging out on the balconies and porches. There were several species of monkeys there. The howlers were the noiseiest and while we never saw them we heard them on most mornings as they would migrate through their territory.

In front of the deck was a fairly tall tree that was dead as a doornail. It was referred to as the “Tree of Life.” I know that sounds odd, but growing in the tree was an orchid vine that was beautiful and the birds that would hand out in the tree all day were incredible. There were toucans, at least two varieties of redheaded woodpeckers as well as several other species of very colorful birds. They would hang out all day, fuss, and catch insects.

We also had a sloth hanging out in the tree by the driveway. Yes, we were truly in the jungle even though we had a pretty kick ass place to stay for the week. We didn’t venture to the beach much because the deck and pool of the house was such an awesome place to hang out, and of course we had our beverages handy.
But venture forth we did. All of the tour companies were really cool. They would pick us up at the house and take us back. Most of them provided breakfast and lunch in the tour and this pretty much meant that all we had to do was get up and be ready. This wasn’t real hard when the sun came up and the jungle erupted in a chorus of cacophony.

White Water Rafting
One of the tours that we went on was a white water rafting tour. Now, I have friends that kayak and lived with a guy that did this professionally. I’m not exactly ignorant of the sport, but have always been a bit afraid of it. I’m not a real strong swimmer and I know you can get sucked into a hole and not be able to get out – lifejacket and boat or not. So I had a bit of nervousness going on this particular tour but I wasn’t going to let it ruin it for me.

On the way to the put-in point we stopped several times so the guides could point out the trees, vegetation, birds, etc. Some of the cool stuff was the teakwood trees and the leaves that could produce a henna-like die if you rubbed the leaf on your fingers. Costa Rica has several types of plantations including teak wood, rosewood, African palms, coffee, etc.

After we got to the put in point it was raining a little bit and they gave us a great safety briefing. We put on all our gear and then divided up into two groups for the two boats that they had. One of the other guys, Steven, and I got stuck up at the front (bow) of the boat as the “strong rowers.”

The rafts are large inflatable rafts divided into small rows. There are NO seats and nothing to strap you in (you really don’t want to be strapped to a boat that is flipped over anyway). You basically wedge your feet into the seams of the raft and sit on the outside of the boat so that you can row more efficiently. I know what you are thinking….sounds sketchy, right?

We were told that the rivers would be running upwards of class IV rapids. Rapids are classified by how difficult and dangerous they are. A class I rapid is smooth, calm water without ripples or obstacles. A class VI rapid is imminent death and should only be attempted by someone that is both a professional and completely crazy. To me class IV rapids just meant a lot of fun, but fairly scary, too as they are definitely dangerous.

We had a great time going through our first few sets of rapids and made our way to a giant waterfall that we all hung out in before setting back down the river. That’s when the trouble started.

We entered into a class III / IV series of rapids. We got through this just fine and since we were having a good time our guide decided to take us back up the seam and into the rapids again. When the rivers are running good and making these rapids they often create “holes” which is where the water drops sharply over something and goes below the average waterline. This is typically followed by a wave. He guided our raft into what looked like a pretty serious hole and I don’t exactly remember what happened but what I was told is that Steven got pitched out of the boat. I am also told that I was in the air going over Steven, also being pitched out of the boat into these rapids.

Now I had a lifejacket and helmet on, but it still took me a good three or four strokes to reach the topside of the water. Once I got top side I oriented myself appropriately for being carried down the river. Worst case? When I hit the pacific hang a left….

But seriously, the boats were WAY back there and there was another set of rapids approaching. Even with my lifejacket on it was difficult to keep my head completely above water when it started rippling. I was not looking forward to going into the next set of rapids without being on a boat.

Fortunately for me, the guides were trained in rescue techniques and got me into a boat prior to hitting the next series of rapids. After our guide realized that Steven and I were OK and that we weren’t upset or mad it was “game on.” While the other boat would hit the rapids and side-skirt the holes and waves our guide would take us directly into them. You might approach a hole that had a 2 foot drop before hitting a wave that was already 3 feet above us. Hitting that kind of hole felt like the boat was going vertical. The guide is yelling at us to row and I can’t find anything but air with my paddle. I heard later that the guy was evening leaning back off the boat and all kinds of stuff to make sure we got the “good experience.”

But it was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Just before we stopped for lunch we hit the last set of rapids and there was a small hole that we went through. All of the safety kayakers that had been traveling with us were waiting there. Our guide whistles at them and says something in Spanish. They all vacate the area as we turn the boat back around. This is looking bad all of a sudden. Sure enough he takes us up the seam and then intentionally turns the boat sideways into the hole pitching everyone out of the boat. My friends tell me that he was already jumping out before flipping the boat. He wanted to make sure we had a good experience. But the kayakers were right there and we all managed to get the boat flipped back over and recovered everyone.

After lunch the safety kayakers took off because there were no more rapids and it was simply a calm float down the river. Calm until we saw the crocodile that is. It was sunning itself on the rocks and when we came by it slid into the water and disappeared. The croc was maybe four or five feet long, but if you heard our friend Cassandra tell the story it was about 20 feet long and breathing fire as it came after our raft and we had to beat it off with our oars.

But it truly was a fun and awesome time on the river. The guides were all very good and everyone in the outfit was paying attention to us and our safety. Will I do it again? Sure. But I’m hoping I don’t get pitched out next time…..

Zip Line Canopy Tour
Another tour that we did was zip-lining in the canopy of the rain forest. A zip-line is a steel cable that is suspended between two platforms. You are in a small climbing harness of sorts and you secure yourself to the cable with a very small pulley and let it carry you between the two platforms.

This was a really fun tour because you are about 90 feet up and really in the treetops at any given time. We had one girl with us that was absolutely terrified and wore a strange mask of fear mixed with a smile. Admittedly, the first time you zip-line it’s kind of sketchy because you are stepping out over a ledge above a tree, river, etc. and the only thing holding you up there is a little tiny steel cable, a carabiner and your harness.

Once you get over the initial fear and learn to trust your gear and the guides it gets fun really fast. You have to climb and hike a bit to get up in the canopy, but once you are there it’s a lot of zip-lines to get around. The guides were very strict about safety and you were not allowed to touch your own gear (least you unhook something and fall). Even the guides were very serious about staying fastened to something at all times. Out on the zip-line you could get moving fairly quickly and a quick glance around made it seem as if you were just “in the middle” of this beautiful forest.

During the tour we also got a chance to do a couple of free rappels from tree platforms down to other platforms. This scared some of us more than others, but the big terrifying event was a Tarzan-like swing between two platforms. Figure that you are between 80 and 90 feet up. You are standing on a platform in one tree, and you are going to grab a rope and swing Tarzan-style to another platform in another tree. Of course, you are hooked on to the rope so you can’t really fall but for some reason this terrified people far more than anything else we did that day. I was OK with it as I used to do stuff like this all the time as a kid but for some of our group it was the thought of it being a rope and not a steel cable that scared them. The girl that was terrified of everything else literally screamed out in fear as she swung from one platform to the other. I was in tears I was laughing so hard at that that point. Yes, I am a bastard as I found it highly entertaining. But I have to admit, this girl was pretty much terrified the whole time but she did it. That takes cajones!

The only thing I was even remotely disappointed in with the tour was that it was all about the zip-lines and having fun. There wasn’t much in the way of pointing out the flora and fauna of the forest, and I can’t recall seeing any animals of significance during the tour.

We all agreed that the photographers drove us batty. They managed to get some good pictures and that was a good thing, but they really could have toned it down some and allowed us to experience things without feeling like we had to “smile” and “look at me” the whole time.



Horse Back Riding

The last tour we did the day before we left. This was a very gentle horseback ride up a pretty sketchy road through the rainforest. The horses were family owned and we heard that they were all treated very well and only had to do one tour every three days. The family was nice and began our tour with the traditional rice and beans with eggs and a tortilla for breakfast.

After that we met our mounts and took off up the road. When I say took off, it was a nice and slow relaxing pace. Finally we had a chance to look around and take our time checking things out without someone driving past as we looked out the window. Our guide seemed to understand this and we had some good conversations about how this was what made the tour very enjoyable.

After a while we came upon a cut-out in the forest and our guide led us up a trail. This trail was barely wide enough for one horse and it seemed like you could get hurt pretty bad if your horse decided to take a wrong-step. I was thinking that this must be similar to what it’s like taking a mule into the Grand Canyon.

At the end of the trail was a beautiful waterfall. We all went for a swim and the guide took plenty of pics for us. At this particular river the water was mostly fed from a natural spring but during the rainy season it would be fed by runoff of the higher mountains. The whole area that we were swimming in would be under water and the waterfall itself would engulf the surrounding walls and vegetation.


The ride back was non eventful, but again that is exactly what we all wanted. Simple and relaxing. It started raining while we were at the falls so we just let it rain on us. We were already wet, why not? We did find it amusing that while on the way back we passed another tour that was on ATV four-tracks and they had their ponchos on and were trying to stay dry. Why you would want to take a four-wheeler up in there is beyond me. Our guide offered us the ponchos that were tied on our saddles several times and we all refused. We enjoyed having it rain on us. We were in the rain forest after all. There was a certain peace and symmetry with this. I think our guide appreciated this as this was his home and his way of life.

Just Chilling

Otherwise, the rest of our time was pretty much spent relaxing at the house with an occasional walk to a restaurant or the beach. I ended up cooking most nights, but that was fine by me as I usually had someone making me a beverage and I didn’t have to help clean up. Dinners were usually had outside and we all enjoyed each others company. We did walk down to the national park of Manuel Antonio one afternoon and hiked up The Cathedral, which is a natural peninsula. It had a pretty good elevation difference with the beach and you could get some really good views from the top. We also saw a number of types of vegetation and critters that we hadn’t seen yet. Some of these included lizards, geckos, crabs, mushrooms, flowers, and of course up-close-and-personal monkeys.

After the hike we ended up on a very calm beach and all took turns taking a swim in the cool waters. There wasn’t much in the way of waves as the beach was fairly well protected by the rocks and other land masses. This helped cool us all off before we took off and hiked back to the house. It was downhill getting to the park, but it was all uphill going back. At least we were getting our exercise in.

The day we left it was raining and had been all night. It was supposed to rain for another three or four days. Our driver picked us up early so because there were already reports of felled trees and accidents on the main road back to San Jose. Still, I don’t think our driver drove any less slow or any safer than he did at any other time. At least this time we got to see what we missed on the way in since there was some daylight out.

Costa Rica is a beautiful country with a very diverse panorama. You just have to take your time and stop to smell the flowers.

Gummy Lighthouses?

WTF? Is it just me or is this a really bad idea?

Ferrets Anyone?

Democrats and Oil

Not too long ago I made the mistake of telling one of my friends that Democrats want to raise the price of oil. My friend is involved in the Democratic party to some extent and told me that they didn’t think it was part of the platform campaign. After they looked into it, it turns out that it is indeed not an official stance of the Democratic party. Ok, I stand corrected.

But, it’s often been said that actions speak louder than words. The actions of congress are pretty indicative that the Democrats (currently controlling congress) either want the price of gas to go up or that they simply do not understand basic economic models.

It is believed that there is enough oil in America and in American shorelines to give us independence from other countries for our national oil supply.

But,

· Democrats have blocked the development of new sources of petroleum.
· Democrats have blocked drilling in ANWR.
· Democrats have blocked drilling off the coast of Florida.
· Democrats have blocked drilling off of the east coast.
· Democrats have blocked drilling off of the west coast.
· Democrats have blocked drilling off the Alaskan coast.
· Democrats have blocked building oil refineries.
· Democrats have blocked clean nuclear energy production.
· Democrats have blocked clean coal production.

Keep in mind that the red part of the graph is over an eight-year time span. The blue part of the graph has occured in less than one year.

My impression is that Democrats, through environmentalists, want to source and utilize alternative forms of energy. I’m OK with this and think it’s a good idea, but I’ll also point out that it’s unrealistic to believe that any new energy source is going to be plentiful and economically viable in the next three to five years. That means that we should have two goals. The first being to seek out and develop an economically viable energy source that we can integrate into our society. The second being to alleviate the economic stranglehold that other countries have on us due to our dependence on their oil.

I don’t see why they have to be mutually exclusive and I certainly don’t understand why we have to impact the economy so severely in the interim. One person I spoke with said that if we don’t do this then there isn’t any incentive to develop new technologies. I suppose that is entirely possible but I’d also speculate that we are well beyond that as many companies have too substantial of an investment in alternative energy sources as to forget about them. Furthermore, that mentality is an “ends justify the means” mentality which I’ve never been very fond of.

What I really find astounding are the people that vote in the existing congress, and then get mad at what’s happening to the economy due to the soaring price of gasoline. Yet, they still don’t want to allow drilling on our land and off shore. Obama says that he is not upset at the price of gasoline, but that it rose so quickly. Not upset? It was almost $5.00 / gallon when I was just in CA. The trickle down effect is amazing and yet the nominee for President says everything is chill.

And if the environmentalists are so concerned then why do we allow foreign countries like China to drill off of our own shores and capitalize on our resources while we stranglehold our own companies? China has got one of the absolute worst track records of environmentalism of any country.

Hertz Uses Lube

Ok, I really don’t know what I did to piss off the car rental gods in some life, but I must have done something really terrible. I think when you break it down to an ass-reaming, the car rental companies are far worse than the airlines. If you want a good ass-reaming just go rent some cars.

My trip has been a little rough mostly because of dealing with Hertz. I flew into San Jose on Tuesday. Now, I know better than to fly into San Jose without a car rental reservation. If you don’t have one, you may or may not be able to get a car. If there is one available, be prepared for that ass-reaming I was talking about. Lube is optional, but certainly not provided by the car rental companies.

The flight was OK, but when I get to the car rental company there are about 25 or 30 people in line, and only TWO agents working the counter. To make matters worse, there are another handful of people standing and sitting around. After waiting my turn to get to the counter I get to find out why. Despite the fact that all of us had confirmed reservations, there are no cars available. Not that the car you wanted wasn’t available, there weren’t any cars available.
So after dicking around with them for about 2+ hours I finally get a car and am on my way. I drive down to Salinas (CA) and make my first day of class. Let me tell you, there is freaking nothing in Salinas, CA. It’s the lettuce capitol of the world. All the lettuce and cabbage comes from Salinas. You can drive for five miles and see nothing but lettuce and cabbage. And the town? Think of Trader’s Village that just goes on for miles and miles. Really, there just isn’t much here.

But that evening I hit a Japanese place that the students / clients had suggested. It was surprisingly tasty and they had some of the best sushi I had eaten in a while. I go out to the car and it won’t start. Nothing. The engine won’t turn over. I dick around with the gear shift lever and a few other things that could cause this type of behavior, but it won’t turn over. I’m thinking electrical / dead battery. It’s about 7:00ish so I call Hertz and they send out someone to jump start the car.
This guy shows up in his power diesel and hooks up some cables. No luck. It still won’t turn over. It won’t even try to turn over. But this guy was only called to jump the car so he takes off. I have to call Hertz again. Hertz says they want to tow the car to San Jose and that I can get a new car there. San Jose is at least 1.5 hours away. I tell them I’ve already had to dick around with waiting for the car, now I’ve been stranded an hour, and that I am not going to spend the next three to four hours dicking around and that they need to bring me a car. They inform me that there isn’t any place open at this hour and I’ll have to wait until morning. Fine, tell the tow truck drive to give me a ride to the hotel (which he did) and get me a car in the morning.

The next day, starting at 6:00am, wasn’t much better as the first agent I talked to said I would have to go pick the car up. I told her in no uncertain terms that was not the agreement that we had and that it would be in Hertz best interest to proverbially kiss my ass and make things right or I’d never rent from them again.

I end up getting a cab to my client’s site because they can’t get me a car in time. Later they give me a ring and tell me I can come pick up the car. Again, I have to explain that they are supposed to bring me the car. They explain that it will be “a little longer” because they are busy. I call them again at 5:30 and ask where my car is. It’s on it’s way.

The guy shows up in the car and asks “where is the other car.” I told him that Hertz had it towed and I hope he isn’t expecting me to take him back to wherever he came from. I think he took that well. Finally, 22 hours later, I had another rental car.

I haven’t written Hertz, yet, but you can bet that I will. I want an apology, and I don’t want to have to pay for an entire day of car rental that I didn’t get to have. Somehow, I am still not as mad at them as I am at Budget. Maybe it’s because Hertz used lube….

Recent Things That I Wish I Didn’t Know About

Preparation H and dance clubs
Apparently, the club-goers out on the east coast are slathering their bodies up in preparation H prior to going in the club. Apparently the cream causes your skin to tighten over your muscles giving you a more “ripped” look. But that’s all it is, the look. And what do they do to combat the smell? Dump a bottle of cologne over their heads.

But it must be working, this is the trend and those guys are getting the chicks. Go figure.

The Poo Button
http://www.poobutton.com

Back from the Jungle!

Well I am back from Costa Rica. It's hotter here than it was there. I am trying to write up my thoughts and notes on the trip, but am only able to write a little bit each day. I'm also waiting for all the pictures to get compiled from all the cameras.

Be patient, it's coming.....

I'm Outta Here!

Hey everyone -

Sorry I haven't written much lately. I've been on the computer so much with various projects that I really have been trying to take a break from it in the evenings and afternoons.

In any case, I'm going on vacation to Costa Rica. See everyone in a week!

I Escaped the Housing Bubble

For years I heard it from almost every side: You can’t lose! Real estate is continuing to escalate. You buy a house for an investment! Look at the money you can make. And on and on and on.

Part of this was me being in Montana and seeing the unbelievable price of homes there. I also spend a bunch of time in CA and see the unbelievable price of homes there, too. I was pretty torn about possibly moving to MT but the housing market is primary what kept me away. Everyone in my company kept telling me to buy, buy, buy. They are all from CA and see the value of homes on the rise. The same was true of MT. But it was not to last and I saw this a long time before it happened.

But these people didn’t live in TX. I did. I saw that TX stayed undervalued by approximately 10% compared to the national average. I saw that my home value only increased by very small percentage over a ten-year period – roughly the rate of inflation. This was not new to me.

Well, here we are now with the bubble still collapsing. Foreclosures are at an all-time high. Housing prices have plummeted. And it’s not over, yet. Here is an interesting article about one little house in CA that had a 68% drop in value within one year. Click on the house for the link.

Sometimes I really want to go back to all these people out in CA that kept telling me to buy and ask them how they feel about it now.

Arbitration Clauses

It seems that more and more corporations and businesses are trying to force consumers into binding arbitration. This is a very serious practice and should not be taken lightly.

In short, arbitration is not bound by the rules of the courts with regards to the discovery process, the ruling process, or any other process. It also forces you to give up your rights as a consumer.

Arbitrators rule against consumers 98% of the time. Think about it. That’s a huge number. I wouldn’t think much of it if it was closer to 60% of the time or even 70% of the time as I believe most people do not have a legitimate grievance most of the time. But 98%??

The National Arbitration Forum has come under scrutiny and lawsuits over the whole process. Yet, businesses still put the clauses in their contracts and consumers continue to sign away their rights.

And, I’m not completely against arbitration. Arbitration can expedite what could otherwise be a lengthy and costly dispute for both the corporation and the consumer. But the arbitrators cannot be hand selected by the companies or their affiliates and associates and this is exactly what is happening.

The only way we are going to get this practice to stop is to stand up for our rights as consumers and tell companies that we will not agree to binding arbitration. One in a thousand won’t cut it. A company will simply say that is too bad and move on down the road. But what if they lost even 30% of their business because consumers stated that they had enough? Then you would see change.

I Slabbed It….and Saved!

This past week I had to make an appointment in Killeen, TX which is home to Fort Hood. I figured I’d get down there quick, and play a little bit more on the way home. On the way down I took I-35. I got caught in a little traffic trying to get out of FTW due to road construction but after that it was smooth sailing.

Basically, I slabbed it down there. If you recall reading a previous post (http://invioletlight.blogspot.com/2008/04/its-all-about-ride.html)
about how we ride or why we ride I mentioned that I just don’t understand the mentality of this.

Well, I still don’t. It wasn’t outright miserable, but it didn’t do much for me either. I certainly didn’t find my zen place as slabbing it just didn’t require much mental focus and attention. I didn’t find it much more taxing than driving my truck.

On the way down, it was just a tick under 150 miles and it took me two hours. I filled up my tank and that netted me right at about 40 miles to the gallon on the nose (ok not quite on the nose, but pretty darned close). Conversely my truck gets about 13mpg and that’s downhill with the wind behind me. It’s definitely a money saver to take the bike.

After the meeting I decided to have some fun coming back and play a little bit. I didn’t have all day to waste so I figured I’d hit a key road or two and then just enjoy the scenery of Texas the rest of the way back.

Well, going back took me a little over 200 miles and 2.5 hours. Needless to say I didn’t get nearly as good of gas mileage on the way back even though the winds were with me. I never touched I-35 or any other interstate for that matter. It was all country roads. Some of them were more twisty than others, but since I didn’t have time to dawdle I did try to take some of the more popular country roads back in.

It was on these roads I found my inner peace. My Zen. The reason I ride motorcycles in the first place. Forget the interstate, this is where it’s at. Rolling tarmac, rivers, greenery, smells, temperature differences and feeling like I am part of the environment rather than part of the rat-race.

I have to admit, though, I was laid into a twisty at about 90 mph. The warning on the curve governed the speed at 40mph so I was into it pretty good. Suddenly, my bike stepped out on me and I started to wallow towards the outside of the curve. Thankfully I didn’t panic and my tires hooked back up. I laid it in harder, gassed it, and here I am to talk about it. Talk about pucker factor!! Sometimes it amazes me how exhilarating that is. What is it about skating the edge that does it for me? I have no idea.

In any case, I had a good ride and I got to write it off for business. For all of you that slab it, keep slabbing it. Stay off my roads and out of my way. For those of you that ride the twisties, I hope to see you on the road and flash you a peace sign.

At The Speed Of Junk Mail

Last week, I filled articles of incorporation for a new company I am trying to get off the ground. I got all the paperwork processed, stuck it in an envelope, and mailed it off to the Secretary of State for the state of Texas.

This Wed., I received my copy of the filings with the acknowledgement that the company is now official and exists. This is a good thing.

Today (Friday) I received my first official piece of junk mail for the company. As much as I knew I’d start getting unsolicited junk mail I didn’t expect it to happen quite so fast. Who says companies aren’t efficient?

Fencing Project

So my dumb-ass friend, Bling! decided to replace his fence this weekend. (Sorry Bling!, you knew I had to open like that)

For those of you who don’t know Bling! he just can’t do anything ½-ass or even close to normal. He has to go above and beyond on the projects that he works on. Now, I can’t fault him for this because I am not a whole lot better myself.

But he decided to replace his fence and do it himself. He’s got a decent sized backyard and the cost to replace the fence was going to be several thousand dollars. He calls me up and asks if I can come by on Sat. to help out. No problem.
Saturday I get there and no Bling! He’s gone to the hardware store to get some chain and a “come a long.” Why? Well, in order to remove the old posts and put the new ones in Bling! rented a bobcat with a hydraulic lift and auger on it. But remember all those storms and rains we had gotten? The ground was super soft and the bobcat was stuck down about a foot or in the mud….in what is now nice trenches in his backyard.

The first thing we did was spend about an hour getting the bobcat unstuck and back on the trailer so now it was out of commission which put us back to manually digging out all the old posts and what-not. The mud was still making it ultra-difficult to get the posts out and after a while we decided to cut them off below the ground-line rather than spend all day long digging posts out.

Next came putting in the new ones. I didn’t have much more time to spare on Saturday as I had other things to attend to but I suggested he go rent a two-man auger so while he did that I help move materials around. Bling! bought everything as raw material (slats and supports). They said that the difference in price to purchase pre-built 8-foot sections of fence was fairly substantial. So I started carrying slats and what-not back into the backyard.

Bling! got back with the auger and was not in a very good mood and I was about to jet, but it looked like this was going to do the trick. I called him later and he said that they still had to hand-dig a couple of holes but that they got all the posts set and the concrete was drying.

It was just one of those projects that kept having things go wrong. I hope they started going right after I left….maybe it was me?

I never heard from him on Sunday (it rained again), but he said he got his fence finished and that it looked good. Maybe he’ll post up a pic.

Between his fence and my lighting project and I am tied and done with projects for a while.

Lighting Project

If you’ve followed the blog for a while you might remember my posting about getting the photo of Lone Peak.

http://invioletlight.blogspot.com/2008/02/year-in-making.html

After getting the photo mounted it needed lighting which kicked off a new project. The first thing to do was find some lights that I liked. The problem there is that I found a few that I thought would work but didn’t after I tried them out.

I ended up going with some Tech Lighting products called Freejack with the Swivel head.

Yesterday I finally got them installed. It took longer than I thought because I had to make all the measurements without a good frame of reference. But then I got the holes cut and the cables ran and wired it all up.

Hit the switch and…..nothing. But that was easily fixed after finding that one of my wires came lose while I was stuffing them up in the junction box.

I am pretty happy with the lights. I have some slight aesthetic work to do on them, but it’s pretty minor. I used a 34-degree beam bulb with a frosted anti-uv lens on it. Here is the finished product.

Ireland Gripped by Panic as Flooding Continues

Thunderstorm In Texas

I always find it amusing how Texans are afraid to go to California due to earthquakes, but Californians are afraid to come here due to thunderstorms. Some of my co-workers are happy to say “give me an earthquake any day.” I truly don’t understand this because you can seek shelter from a thunderstorm, but your ass is toast in an earthquake if it’s severe enough. Where are you going to go? If it’s a bad storm or a tornado you can avoid the path. Try to avoid an earthquake.

I once had a co-worker of mine tell me a story about coming to Texas. They were staying at a hotel in the DFW area. A storm rolled in and they went out on the balcony of the hotel to watch it. He said after a few minutes a bolt of lightning came down and split a tree in half about 50 yards away with enough thunder to rattle the windows and stand the hair up on his arms. As he put it, he said “fuck this” and went back inside.

Well, last night we had a good one. It was not only big in terms of physical size, but it was also big in severity. If you’ve ever seen Doppler radar displays of storms you have probably observed that they start off with a light friendly color and then go to yellow and then red if it’s severe enough. Well, last night the swath of yellow and red extended for about 100 miles north to south, and probably 15 miles east to west. On the front of it were numerous rotations and several tornadoes were spawned as a result.

But here is where it gets fun. On the occasional rare occasion you might have seen the radar turn blue or purple. This was the case last night, but it went further than that. It was black. I’m not kidding. The Doppler radar had huge black cells in them where the hail coming down was softball size and straight-line sheer winds were in excess of 100mph with rain coming down at 3+ inches / hr. I figured that they made them black to indicate you were doomed if you were caught in that shit. They might as well have put up little skulls and crossbones in the black part. I’ve never seen black cells before.

I guess I was lucky. I was just south of one of the black cells by a few miles, but got nailed pretty good by the red, yellow, and purple. The rain came down so severely that I couldn’t see across the street, and then it started hailing. Fortunately nothing big, but fairly intense.

From this pic you can get an idea of what I was looking at out of my front door. You can see the hail starting and it raining pretty good. Just to let you know, the reason the sky is blue is not because it was twilight and the sun was going down. This was taken at 9:30pm at night. It was pitch-black with the storm, but I happened to snap this one off right as some lightning lit up the sky.

The next picture is a picture of my back porch (please excuse the mess). It’s kind of hard to tell, but the rain was sheeting over my gutters it was coming down so hard and my yard as well as the porch were flooding. The really sad part? I live on a hill. That’s how hard it was raining.

But hey! I survived and as far as I can tell the only real damage I sustained was that one of my struts on my rooftop antenna came loose. I’ll have to jump up there and fix it. At least my house wasn’t shaken apart and the earth didn’t open up to swallow me whole. I’ll take the thunderstorm.

It’s All About the Ride….

We had a pretty good ride this weekend. We took off on a south-easterly route as opposed to a south-westerly route like we normally do. I had ridden part of this before and knew the road would be good with lots of beautiful scenery.

It was cool on the ride, but not cold. Just about right as long as you had some gear on which is to say that you would have been cold without it and you weren’t hot with it on. I always ride with gear on, but my friends often do not so it was good to see them sporting jackets, chaps, etc.

It’s springtime here in Texas and though it’s significantly cooler than normal the flowers are out in bloom and just about everything has greened up nicely. The bluebonnets are out, but not in mass numbers like they usually are. Sometimes, it’s a sea of bluebonnets as far as the eye can see. I think the cold has kept them at bay, though.

There are all kinds of reasons why we ride and I’ve read some very good summaries of why people ride. I am not sure that I care to list all the reasons I ride as there are many. Sometimes that reason is very simple – I am one of the small percentages that can actually ride a motorcycle whether that is because of the ability to actually ride, or because I am not afraid to ride. Not many people ride bikes and that makes us (riders) a small close-knit community.

Other times, it’s the little kid in the car next to me waving at me as he eyes my bike. They are already realizing there is a something different about riding a bike that goes beyond being stuck in a cage just as I knew there was a kid. I wave back and their face lights up even if the mom is cursing me in the front seat.

Then there are all the people that I meet when I ride. People just seem to be friendlier. “Hey that’s a cool bike, what kind is it?” at the gas pump. Stopping for lunch might yield a “What a gorgeous day to be out and about. I wish I was out there.” I am not sure if riding bikes turns you into more of a social being, or if we ride bikes because we are social beings. I think it’s the latter.

And when you are riding you get to experience the world. You are in the world and a part of it. Not stuck in a cage where you are isolated from sound, the smells, the sight and the feeling that the world has to offer. You might argue that you can get that in a convertible and I’d argue that there is still a big difference between having 2 tons of metal wrapped around you with a windshield and riding upon a machine that exposes you to the elements.

And yes, I can twist up the throttle and run through the curves harder and faster than most people ever would in a car. As I lean the bike in I am aware that my contact patch with the road is a mere ½-inch per tire and I get to physically work my motorcycle through the corner as I feel the g-forces push on my body and my bike. Knowing that at any moment an error in judgment or traction could wind me up in the ditch, or worse. Enter the corner too hot or simply realize that there is something in the road and you will find the pucker-factor quickly kicking in. For some reason I find all of this simultaneously exhilarating and oddly fascinating at the same time.

And through it all, it’s my peace….my zen….my chi. It is not only unwise, but very difficult to think about anything else but the sheer effort of riding in this manner. I often find that I am very relaxed during the ride as well as at the end of it. One of my friends told me that while on the back of my bike they zoned out to the extent that they couldn’t remember sections of the ride. How often do you get that relaxed without falling asleep?

But I also am mystified by some people and their preference of riding just as they must be by mine. In the motorcycle world you have a few basic categories of riding: Street, Off-road, and Stunting. If you ignore the fact that stunting and off-road is illegal on the street that means most people ride to commute, or ride for pleasure, or both. In any case that gets us down to two basic categories – cruisers and sport-bike riders. And though there may be a whole plethora of sub categories those are the two main ones.

And somehow, those are two worlds apart in the motorcycle community. If I put aside all of the animosity between the two camps I still don’t quite understand cruiser riders vs. sport riders. I’ve done both. I had a cruiser. I always wanted one and I finally got one. And then I realized that it was not conducive to my riding style. After a ride in New Mexico and grinding my pegs down (by leaning into corners) I realized that my style was more aggressive and I gave it up for a sport bike.

And what I’ve found since riding a sport bike is that the entire reason we ride is different. You can analyze why that reason exists but it’s there. Sport bike riders apparently live for the twisty road. The one that curves endlessly and offers the sights, smells, sounds and feeling that one cannot get from a highway.

Cruiser riders live for the interstate and the long slab down a well traveled highway. Put your feet up on the highway pegs and drone endlessly down the highway as mile after mile unfolds.

One might say that I am generalizing, and I am. But let me put it to you like this – when I get out and ride the roads I like to ride I rarely see cruisers. I see other sport bikes from time to time, but not many cruisers….until I get on a major highway and then they are all over the place. I could probably note every bike and factually cite that cruiser riders are on the major highways 80 or 90% more than on the back roads. Seriously, on one ride I counted about five motorcycles for nearly 100 miles. Then I got on a major highway and quickly racked up over 100 motorcycles (almost all cruisers) in only 20 miles.

And that’s what I don’t understand. Why is there such a huge disparity between where sport bike riders like to ride and where cruiser riders like to ride? Granted, the bikes themselves are made for different purposes, but it’s clearly not the machine that forces you to do one or the other as both machines are capable of either one. If you want to ride the back roads, you buy a sport bike. If you want to ride the highways you buy the cruiser.

But I take almost no pleasure at all from putting my bike on an interstate and slabbing it down the highway. I’d rather not ride the bike than be forced to endure this for hours on end. Turn the tables, though, and some of my cruiser rider friends would say the exact same thing about the roads that I like. It’s that different.

So while I don’t get understand the difference it’s why I ride that counts. It’s not about the destination. It’s the journey that lies beneath my tires and for me that is not found on the interstate.

I'm Addicted

So easy, so simple, yet.....

Police Tasers

I read an article about a man that was tasered so severely that he had a massive coronary and lost all but a fraction of his heart muscle. Doctors cited his ejection fraction at 10% or less and couldn’t estimate how long he might live.

Prior to being tasered for over 65 seconds straight, as well as receiving 10 taser shocks in under 2 minutes the guy was a healthy working-class adult.

Now, before I go any further let me assure you that I am not someone crying over a person getting hit with a taser. The police have a very dangerous job, and we empower them to use force I order to constrain criminals and protect themselves. And let’s face it, most criminals won’t simply stop and cease whatever it is they are doing because you ask them nicely.

This guy had a drug problem and had just made a drug purchase when he got nailed by the police for a traffic violation. In the ensuing stop he resisted arrest and got tasered.

I’ve not yet read any incident where the “victim” complied completely and still got tasered or beat. It’s probably happened, but most of the articles I’ve read are simply this:

Failure to comply with the officers
*And*
An excessive use of force (i.e. the taser).

Aside from ignoring the matter the police only have a few options when enforcing the law and / or detaining potential criminals:

Asking them to comply (i.e. stop!)
Physical confrontation and contact without weapons
Physical confrontation and contact with a club
Confrontation with pepper spray
Confrontation with a taser
Confrontation with a gun

A gun is clearly and definitively a deadly weapon. Pepper spray has been shown not to even affect some people at all, or at the very least not provide enough stopping force to ensure the safety of the officers.

Tasers, somehow, seem to be the best choice. They provide stopping power and limit the distance the office must be from the suspect. But somehow, we’ve gone wrong. I think part of the problem is that the potential long-term effects of tasers are just being realized. It was assumed that tasering someone didn’t really do any irreparable harm, but apparently there are plenty of medical cases citing otherwise.

Due to this assumption the officers have apparently taken this to mean it’s OK to just taser someone whenever they don’t immediately comply with the officers request. Clearly we have a lot of cases where the immediate repercussions of one’s actions is far more severe than the infraction.

Last year, the Fort Worth police department reported five deaths from tasers. That’s reported and proven and doesn’t account for any unreported deaths or other injuries that may have been linked to tasers but wasn’t proven.

While I don’t believe we should take tasers away from police officers I do think there should be a general policy review of how and when to use a taser. Maybe it would help improve public relations and prevent some unnecessary harm to citizens.

And let me flip that coin over for a moment – when a cop asks you to stop, or get on the ground, or sit still just do it. And then there won’t be a reason to use ANY force on you.

More Thought On Climate Change

I had a hard time eating my lunch today. It was a tasty dish of linguine and clams, but it was what I was reading that was making me sick. In the observer there is what could have been a very interesting article had it not been so slanted and full of errors and inconsistencies that it made me not want to eat.

The subject of the article was about our national parks and how park officials are dealing with….well, I’m not quite sure. In one paragraph it was global warming. In the next it was climate change (the buzzword since apparently global warming isn’t happening). Which is it? Global warming or climate change? They couldn’t seem to decide and flip-flopped back and forth between the two.

Sigh…. So I struggled to get through the article, but then they started citing warmest temperatures on record (factually incorrect) for several parks, rising sea levels eating away the costal terrain (factually incorrect), etc.

But…I kept trying. I was able to get as far as mentioning that park officials aren’t quite sure what to do. The general operating procedure for environmental sanctuaries has typically been to let nature take it’s course and not interfere.

But suddenly, this isn’t good enough. The landscape is changing. Species are dying off, or moving out. And of course, it’s all due to climate change or global warming. I’m not sure which, if you go by the article.

So now, if you are a greenie you may not like what I have to say (not that the first part of this hasn’t already got your hackles up).

Climate change has been happening for billions of years. Guess what? It will continue to happen for billions of years. Many of us like to think of California as a beautiful paradise with oceans, giant redwoods, and luscious green fields…..but it wasn’t always this way. Over the span of a few million years, a significant portion of CA was transformed from desert to the forests that inhabits it today. Some of CA is still desert. And do you think that the species of animals that inhabited some of those original deserts and swamps are still there now that the redwoods are growing? Of course not. They moved on. They adapted, or they died off. This was not man’s doing, but nature’s doing. The natural evolution of life on our planet.

Look people, this is a natural occurrence of our planet. I’m not trying to convince you that people can’t or don’t have an impact. They certainly can. And ultimately we are also part of this natural system.

But part of the problem is that now people are not only trying to stop or significantly reduce man’s impact (not a bad thing) to the environment but those same people are now impacting the environment just by trying to “save” it from itself, or what might otherwise be a perfectly normal step in climate change and evolution.

The environment was not meant to be static. Stop thinking of it in such a limited capacity as the scope of recent history and the near future.

And do you really want to make a difference? Then stop breeding. That’s right, you heard me. Stop breeding. Stop having so many freaking kids. Stop letting illegals pour into the country by the millions. Stop trying to save every single person on this planet that probably shouldn’t be here due to evolution.

OMG! What am I saying? How can I be so cruel?

It’s simple…. For every human being in our country, or on the planet for that matter, we feel that we must provide the basic necessities of life. That pretty much comes down to a handful of things:
Food
Water
Shelter
Medical treatment

In order to provide food we must transform the landscape to provide the food in the form of crops or farms (animals, fish, etc.).

In order to provide water we must damn the rivers, change their flow, and drain them. This also plays a role in providing food.

In order to provide shelter we must cut trees, mine for gravel and other minerals (bricks, concrete, steel).

In order to provide medical treatment we must again harvest certain chemicals, we must manufacture chemicals, and we must also test those chemicals.

And somehow we have to have education in order to teach people how to farm, irrigate, build and treat people.

And once all that is done, there must be a system in place to transport all of these goods and people from one area to another (our infrastructure)....

Why? Because there are too many freaking people.

I know, I know. I’m a bastard. But it’s quite simple.

Forget renewable energy, forget hydrocarbons for a moment and think about the very basic principles of why we have to have that stuff in the first place. It’s because we have to alter our planet to accommodate the people.

So if you really want to do something to “save the planet” then stop breeding, stop trying to save everyone, and stop participating in a world that requires being altered to support everyone. Can you do it?

Emergency Exit From a Tent!

A few weekends ago I was down at Fossil Rim with a pretty lady and we stayed in one of the “permanent tents” that they have down there. These are pretty cool structures that are a hybrid between a tent and a permanent structure. The walls have studs in them, but the actual walls are made of canvas. They are tiny. Maybe 12 long x 10 feet across in the main room and then the bathroom is just large enough to stand at the sink / toilet. Don’t get me wrong, these are very cool just not very big. So you can imagine that I cracked up when I saw the emergency evacuation procedures posted above the toilet.

My thought is that if you can’t find your way out of this then you really are a ‘Tard.

Jake Walks Among Us – Pt. 1

Bling! and his wife went out of town to attend a wedding this weekend. Since I didn’t have much going on, I agreed to puppy sit for them. Their puppy is Jake. Jake is a bloodhound and German Shepard mix. He mostly looks like a bloodhound with some darker markings of a Shepard…..that is until Mrs. Bling! sticks his ears up and then he looks a lot like a Shepard.

Jake is still a puppy, but he’s a large puppy. At just over three months old he already weighs just over 30lbs. He’s pretty smart and fairly well disciplined, but I can tell he’s testing me a bit to see what his boundaries are.

I wasn’t paying real close attention and he grabbed the cord that lets my Venetian style blinds up and down. Naturally he tugged on it and the blinds came down and then pulled the cord back. He thought this was a game and wanted to keep playing.

He also managed to pee on one spot of the carpet….in fact, while I was typing this he peed on a spot on the carpet, and I had just taken him out. But it’s not all his fault. He’s in a new environment, and although I’ve been around Jake before it’s not the same thing as having his true masters there.

I also later realized that I can take Jake out four times in an hour, and he’ll use the bathroom every single time. That dog can go!!!

Jake Walks Among Us – Pt. 2

I’m into my second day with Jake. Last night was off to a rough start as Jake wanted to play while I was trying to cook dinner. So I gave him his dinner first, and then worked on mine. That seemed to work out a bit better.

Of course, I had to take him out a few times, too. Then I tried to kick back and watch a DVD but Jake would have none of that….at least not at first. It took me a while to get him settled down and then he wouldn’t leave my side while he slept. I even took a nice hot soak in the tub and he came in to lay next to the tub….then next to the bed.

And then I was woken up in typical dog-style-fashion with him being bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:00am. He came in and barked once at me and then put his big paws up on the bed. He didn’t try to get in bed, just wanted to make sure I knew he was awake….which meant taking him immediately outside to pee and poo. Then it was breakfast time.

I took him for a jog to get me some breakfast. Jake is testing me, I can tell. I’ve had him on three walks now and every time he doesn’t mind me nearly as well as Bling! and Mrs. Bling! He’s still good, but not as good. He has a much harder time “heeling” with me than with them.

So I kept him outside and played with him a bit before doing some yard work. Jake does not like new things and new noises. The lawnmower terrified him and I hadn’t even started it, yet. I tied him up with a long piece of rope so he could sit outside in the grass or under the truck. When I was mowing or weed eating, it was under the truck. Take a break and he’d chill on the grass.

We’re still feeling each other out a bit, but I’m onto his game. Wear his ass out and then he sleeps for a while….

Jake Walks Among Us – Pt 3

I must have worn Jake out pretty good yesterday as he crashed pretty hard about 9:00 and slept ALL night long. He woke up once in the morning to be let out and then promptly crashed back out.

Naturally, he woke up at an “inopportune time” and I had to feed him and then play with him a bit to calm him down. After that it was off to the park. I walked him, ran him, and let him chill in the shade. We had other dogs and kites so he got to play with the dogs and chase the kites. Other kids played with him and all in all I’d say Jake had a great time.

As soon as we got back to the house he sacked out. Bling! came by to pick him up and take him back home. He was so tired he didn’t want to get up and go home. But alas, away he went.

It was a lot of fun and responsibility having him around for the weekend. I really enjoyed his company even if we had to test each other every now and then. But I think it would be a lot easier with two people instead of just me. I also have to re-think whether I should get a puppy or not. I am not traveling nearly as much but I still think that’s a lot of work and effort to keep a watchful eye on the puppy and it would be hard for me to ask anyone to do that.

As much as I miss him, it’s also nice to have a break. Now I know how parents feel with kids….. And at least I can go over to Bling!’s (how is that for grammar?) and still play with him.

Moving to Montana Now – Pt 2

Some of you may know that I’ve been up in Montana a bit here and there for vacations and work. Over a year ago, I had an opportunity to live in MT but ultimately turned it down for several different reasons with one of the biggest ones being the sheer expense of moving up there due to the housing costs.

I’ve had one of my friends who is into real estate keeping an eye on things for me and I’ve also had a chance to check out some properties while I was hanging out up there. The recent collapse of the housing market and tightening of the economy has really brought the cost of homes and land down by a significant margin.

That being said, I finally made the plunge and invested in some land up there. It’s a pretty sweet spot up in the foothills of the Bear Canyon area. It’s got a little creek running through the property of 10 acres and is totally surrounded by trees and open fields.

But there is one catch, I can’t afford it without selling my house so I’ve also made the decision to sell my house and move up to MT. I know I can’t get as much as I’d like for my house here, but I have quite a bit of equity and that will help pay for a new house to be built up there.

I’ll be in the mountains, with the animals, and have skiing, hiking, biking, fishing, etc. all nearby and no more blistering summers and 2 weeks between seasons.

It’s going to be difficult announcing this to my friends and family, but I guess I’ll have to start making the phone calls. Wish me luck…..

This Kind of thing Pisses me Off

Why is this allowed to happen? Simple – American has no federal law that defines the national language of the United States. I’ve already pointed out that state and local governments can pretty much pick any language that they like.




If you think this is about what language that we speak, you may be missing the point. The real point is that we are allowing multiculturalism to tear apart the United States one little bit at a time. We are losing our unity. That is the point.

Think your Mac is Safe?

On March 27th at a hacking contest a hacker compromised a Macbook Air in two minutes. Comparatively, the Vista box was not compromised until two days later. And the last update I read indicated that the Ubuntu box was still standing.

Here is the original article.