Those of you that are frequent crisis visitors will probably have noted my penchant for bad alliteration.In today's post I am ripping off Strawberry Alarm clocks incense and peppermints. Thought this video here was cool and I spent a big chunk of the day in political junkie mode hence the politics. The ignorance I will explain later but first a little bike related news. My workouts are going well did 140 miles this week and hit a milestone, 1000 miles on the odometer. Considering it is only a few months old I was impressed. I am planning to ride north again first part of next week. I had wanted to get out sooner but I have a doctor visit Monday and was supposed to be attending camp Obama this weekend but it was canceled. This time I am going all the way to the Oregon border if it takes a week each way. Today was the Rules and Bylaws committee meeting for the democratic party. Generally a snore but because of the cluster frack of Florida and Michigan there was some actual drama promised and sort of delivered. As usual the Clinton camp acted like asses and Obama showed an...
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I am not sure why history in America seems to be the story of war. Possibly it is just so simple since we seem to have so many of them. Could be that men that never fight them find them romantic. I do not share that opinion even though I was a peacetime soldier, airman actually. I suspect that is because I was a medic just post the Vietnam war and took care of a lot of guys with some pretty nasty problems from that conflict. Could just be I may have studied more of them than other people and I just have a perception problem. Whatever the case we have a great number of battle fields preserved in one form or another around this nation and I have visited many of them.
Visiting these places always stirs me but the reactions are never quite the same. The history of the war ,why it was fought has some impact combined with my sense of right and wrong. Walking in the fields and thinking about what happened there, the death and destruction as well as the desperation and bravery coat the pallet of my emotions. The day that I visited...
The Kinetic sculptures are on their way to Ferndale and I am wimping out and heading for the couch., the recliner actually. Chasing the race kicked my butt and It shouldn’t have. The problem was all the walking on the sand. I have gotten to the point that I can peddle for 5 or 6 hours in a day with only mild swelling in the knees but walking even a mile or two kills my joints.
Yesterday was land today was water. I first rode to Arcata and watched the start of the race. The prerace takes a couple of hours when they safety test the sculptures making sure they can steer and stop. Then after clearing the wandering stoners from the street the noon whistle blows and they are off. Twice around and then out Samoa boulevard to the school at manila. Then things get tough as the contestants ride for a few miles in the sand before they head down dead mans drop. The folks from “glory hogs” even set up a BBQ at the bottom of the hill and passed out hot dogs to the spectators.
It is a great community event and almost everyone is in...
The photo is of the Ingomar club. It was built by one of the timber barons in the late 1800’s and is the most distinctive building in my little corner of the universe. It always reminds me of the Winchester Mystery House, the gun makers widow haunted by the spirits of dead Indians thought she would live as long as they never stopped building on the home. What does this have to do with elitists you might ask? Well the difference between being elite and elitist is in the details and a story I am working on for you guys from a trip to South Dakota put me in mind of dead natives.
I am not of the elite, it took me 18 years to finish a BA for Christ sake not exactly Rhodes Scholar material. That being said I am a liberal latte sipping pinko bleeding heart elitist and proud of it. Well I really don’t like lattes that much but the phrase is so evocative I couldn’t resist. Allow me to elaborate.
I live in America. I was born here and it is a pretty nice place to live. I have had the chance to visit a few...
A trip that began with watching Roy Neary play with his mashed potatoes and ending on a wind blown plain in Wyoming was 25 years in the making and with the help of three little birds it is one I will spend a lifetime remembering.I am by no means ancient but today’s Sci-Fi fans have no Idea how lucky they are that they live in the age of computer-generated effects. Lets face facts the original Star Trek was pretty lame but it was all that we had. That was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The space ship on the Devils Tower scenes were cool enough to make up for the corn, in addition I did develop a crush on Teri Garr As with everything Spielbergian it is too schmaltzy for me, he ruined Jurassic Park by not getting the book but that is a separate matter.
The lingering image of the Devils Tower stayed with me as it stayed with Roy and when the chance came I took a day and watched the clouds race across the face of one very unique landmark.
The geologists call this type of formation an igneous intrusion. Magma crystallizes underground forming a...
The world is a very weird place and I am so far outside the mainstream I don’t think I can even see the lunatic fringe from my vantage point. As an example I am an anti theist, I actively campaign against religion and spirituality in all forms. The magical thinking is horrible for society and prevents almost all forms of progress. To me the moron chanting with crystals and the preacher condemning gay marriage are equal in their damage. They both promote a belief for which there is no evidence and this is dangerous to all of us. It perpetuates the concept that there are two sides to every story , that all points of view are deserving of equal respect and that is simply a fantasy. These fantasies lead to a world in which all the candidates for the highest office in my government feel that being bigots is perfectly acceptable because of their religion. This is particularly disturbing in the case of Barack Obama, the man certain to be the democratic parties nominee, as his only qualification it seems is his claim to be a constitutional scholar. How does one become a constitutional scholar without reading one...
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Rode the 100k of the Tour of the Unknown Coast and I am worn down a bit. Left here noon on Friday and went first to Fortuna for some carbo loading and then to Ferndale. Fortuna is an odd place, seems that I see something strange every time I am there and this trip was no exception. As I headed down main street to find someplace to eat I happened upon a knife fight in a gas station. Two morons going at it with the typical white trash woman yells and sirens wail in the background. When I moved to this area we checked out Friendly Fortuna and picked up on a very odd vibe so we went further north even though the rents were major cheap down there. Guess that’s the reason why, rednecks abound. After the freak show I ended up at a KFC buffet to pack on some starch. It was the first place I came to that wasn’t filthy and as the wind was rising I did the “devil chicken.” I try to avoid fast food but I am not into dirty restaurants and I was starving. Full I rode back to the...
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Picked up a helmet today for the Tour of the Unknown Coast this weekend. I am going to do the 100k as the 100 miler I think will be a bit long. I am getting in a lot of miles but I am not up for exhaustion and the hills are a bit intimidating on much of that route. I plan to head south about noon on Friday so I have a good shot at beating some of the wind. Wind has been vicious this week 20 plus and cold so not a lot of fun training this week. Also on the not fun front had some dog problems. Leash laws are not enforced much and had a German Sheppard attack at of all places the hippie stoner coffee shop. Those people have become useless since they changed owners anyway, never have any coffee. When you are in the coffee selling racket how do you constantly run out of beans. Anyway didn’t get hurt that bad but wrecked some jeans and ate up a bunch of time filing a complaint and I still had to find another source for my dark roast.
Got in a good ride today for the first time in a while. No rain, no cars running me off the road and the pain in my knees was tolerable. This week has been a bummer with tech and turf problems so I have not gotten much done on the creative front. I doubt that I would have gotten much done this week anyway simply because of the time of year. I have trouble getting into the frame of mind that leads to good stories under the best of circumstances but anniversary week is never the best of times.
I am going out to the beach to camp this weekend and hope to get back into story mode. We have a first Saturday downtown art show each month and I will see if anything interesting is doing there. I have finished shooting the pictures for The Black Mina project but the storey is stalled. I have an idea were to take it just having trouble getting there in a decent manner. Same problem with the Devils Tower storey
The ride south left a lingering problem but I learned an important lesson. If you are going to have to ride hours into a tough wind break it up as 5 or 6 hours of overuse wipes out the muscles for several days. I should have eaten in Fortuna and gone ahead and camped and gone on the next day. for the moment my recovery time is too long to get exhausted.
To add to my misery I had a meltdown of the computer. Still have not figured it out completely but the keyboard wouldn't load nor would many of my system programs so I am screwing with that. Had to invest in some new equipment and that was a drag as well.
Planning another trip before the Unknown Coast tour on the tenth. May try for the Oregon border again or might just hit the beach. The price of gas hit 405 and nine tenths today but I did not have the cam for a pic but since Evil appears to be winning I thought Monty fit my mood.
The photo is of the Ingomar club. It was built by one of the timber barons in the late 1800’s and is the most distinctive building in my little corner of the universe. It always reminds me of the Winchester Mystery House, the gun makers widow haunted by the spirits of dead Indians thought she would live as long as they never stopped building on the home. What does this have to do with elitists you might ask? Well the difference between being elite and elitist is in the details and a story I am working on for you guys from a trip to South Dakota put me in mind of dead natives.
Picked up a helmet today for the Tour of the Unknown Coast this weekend. I am going to do the 100k as the 100 miler I think will be a bit long. I am getting in a lot of miles but I am not up for exhaustion and the hills are a bit intimidating on much of that route. I plan to head south about noon on Friday so I have a good shot at beating some of the wind. Wind has been vicious this week 20 plus and cold so not a lot of fun training this week. Also on the not fun front had some dog problems. Leash laws are not enforced much and had a German Sheppard attack at of all places the hippie stoner coffee shop. Those people have become useless since they changed owners anyway, never have any coffee. When you are in the coffee selling racket how do you constantly run out of beans. Anyway didn’t get hurt that bad but wrecked some jeans and ate up a bunch of time filing a complaint and I still had to find another source for my dark roast.
Got in a good ride today for the first time in a while. No rain, no cars running me off the road and the pain in my knees was tolerable. This week has been a bummer with tech and turf problems so I have not gotten much done on the creative front. I doubt that I would have gotten much done this week anyway simply because of the time of year. I have trouble getting into the frame of mind that leads to good stories under the best of circumstances but anniversary week is never the best of times.