Another Year Gone ..... almost .....

I decided to just check my blog to be sure it was still there and to my my surprise it was and it had been almost a year to the day that anything had been entered. Still taking those rides out to Bartlett to clear my head, one week on the KLR the other on the Nomad. Wow! How little has changed.

Today is our Aunt Betty's funeral. Four weeks ago she was told that she had 6 months to live. Guess she figured, why wait.

I'm homeschooling my granddaughter, Alana, and really enjoying it. She is also a karate student and working on her purple belt. Life is good.

Morning Ride

I took the KLR out today to get in a little saddle time. Bartlett is one of those rides that is brainless and mostly trafficless, perfect for just thinking. All went well until leaving the rest stop at the lake. I had just walked in to the restroom when a small striped motor home roared into the parking lot and pulled up next to my bike. The muffler was loud and the woman driving was shouting over the roar of the engine at the kids in the back.

The lime green vehicle was annoying enough but as the woman rushed for the restroom a tan Chihuahua and 4 boys about 11-13 years old piled out of every door, yelling obscenities at each other, pushing and tripping. “Mom” from inside the restroom tried to control the f____ing vocabulary but to little effect. My first reaction, though possibly unfairly stereotyping, was “trailer trash”.

Just at that second a fleeting sickness hit me in the gut. That feeling I used to get on Sunday night knowing that in the morning I would be returning to warfare, in the classroom. I momentarily remembered the phone calls concerning Johnny’s “inappropriate behavior” to mothers just like this one who would say to me, “Yeh, they’re out of control at home too.” But the butterflies dissipated when it all came back, I’m not the babysitter anymore!

While I was putting on my helmet and gloves she said to me, “I’ll bet you’re glad you’re alone.” I knew she didn’t mean that I had no friends riding with me.

Bitter Clingers

“So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” Barack Obama

At first I was a little insulted by our Professor in Chief referring to some of us in fly-over country as bitter clingers, but on further consideration came to the conclusion that he was just illustrating what makes him so insufferable.

First of all guns are just symbolic of personal safety in the same way that having locks on your door, a dog, nearby neighbors, or the phone next to your bed so that if help is needed, it’s close. Who doesn’t want a sense of personal security?

Second, religion is just a web of beliefs that ties one to the universe. It is important to feel a part of nature and not an orphan. People believe many things but everybody believes something.

Third, an ethnocentric perspective labeled as “antipathy to people who aren’t like them”: a fancy way of saying that people prefer what is familiar. Again, is that some sort of sin and not just descriptive of human nature?

So what our Professor impugned is exactly what he displayed in his animosity for those not like himself.

For if a person just listens and doesn’t obey , he is like a man looking at his face in a mirror; as soon as he walks away, he can’t see himself any more or remember what he looks like. James 1: 23

Gunmen Kill 17, Wound 18 in Mexico Party Massacre

Gunmen stormed a party in northern Mexico on Sunday and massacred 17 people, authorities said.The assailants arrived at the gathering in the city of Torreon in several cars and opened fire without saying a word, the Coahuila state Attorney General's Office said in statement. At least 18 people were wounded.

In the worst such massacre this year, gunmen raided a drug-rehab center in the northern city of Chihuahua and killed 19 people last month.

In January, gunmen barged into a private party in the border city of Ciudad Juarez and killed 15, many of them high school or university students. Relatives say the January attack was a case of mistaken identity, while state officials claim someone at the party was targeted, although they have not said who it was.

The killings in Torreon came three days after the first successful car bombing by drug cartels, an attack that introduced a new threat to Mexico's raging drug war.

In May, gunmen killed eight people at a bar in Torreon. Later that month, a television station and the offices of a local newspaper came under fire. A pregnant woman was wounded in the attack on the offices of Noticias de El Sol de la Laguna.

If we don’t stop this invasion now, by next year the headlines will read “Gunmen Kill 17, Wound 18 in Tucson Party Massacre” or “Gunmen Kill 17, Wound 18 in Phoenix Party Massacre”. People worry about possible profiling because of 1070, wait till the shooting starts. Then it won’t be profiling, it will be war, and innocent people will be dead, not inconvenienced, because the feds didn’t do their job.

NAACP Resolution Calls on Tea Party to Repudiate 'Racist Elements' in Movement

Same ol same ol. If you can’t win an argument on its merits call names. The NAACP has been using the same line for anyone who disagrees with its politics “racists” for so long that I can’t imagine why anyone would even listen. If the person is white he is a “racist” if black he is an “Uncle Tom”. Can’t we all just agree to disagree?

Thoughts on “The Trip”

It lasted 23 days and covered over 6,000 miles in 9 states. The Nomad ran flawlessly and stayed at about 40 mpg (but much better if I kept the speeds down …. not often). The bike is comfortable but even at a 60 mph average that is still 100 hours of saddle time in those 3 weeks. Several of those days were 600 – 700 mile days that required 12 hours of seat time. Vicki wouldn’t use the word “comfortable”.

The weather was phenomenal. Last time we did an extensive road trip we were rained on in 15 states, every one we touched. This time it was windy but very little rain. Only in Glacier Park, Montana and the Omaha Zoo did it amount to anything more than a few drops. Everywhere we went people said that we had just missed horrible weather. We counted it up and found that our sweat glands were only used on 3 days of the trip, a stretch in New Mexico, cutting across Nevada/California, and entering Arizona (not leaving) at Needles (Hell), and the drop off before and after Sunset Point, 50 miles from Phoenix, at 6 – 7 pm.

Seeing the beautiful states we passed through was great. Visiting those who let us stay with them and show off their states was fun and awesome. The history and feel of Santa Fe was exceptional. I spoke with a construction superintendant working on the restoration of the oldest structure in North America, a Catholic Church. He explained that the reconstructed stucco bricks were being made from the ground around the church because that is where the remains of the originals lay. And there were way more missions and churches than we could even drive by just in the Santa Fe area.

In Denver we stayed with Troy, Megan and Reese. The most memorable outing there was a trip to a little town in the Rockies where there were maybe 50 – 100 groups competing in a barbeque cook-off. OMG, a person would have had to stay a week just to sample it all!

At Omaha we stayed with Dick and Jan (not Jane). The visit included a lot of time with Josh, Lacy, Ewan, and Liam. The trip to the Omaha Zoo was amazing. It ranks up there with the one at San Diego, it may even be better. Lacy, Ewan and I got a really good view of the rhinos on the lift that spanned the park. Lacy and Josh took us to where she works, Boy’s Town, a very impressive place.

In Montana we stayed with Jeff, a teaching and riding buddy, and his parents, John and Patsy. Jeff’s work as our tour guide through a large part of the state “forced” him to rent a top-of-the-line Harley (he left his regular bike in Glendale). We went through Glacier Park and a huge number of valleys, towns, and huge open spaces. In fact, so many that Vicki took 2 full days off of riding and missed all the scenery to supervise a construction crew. Surprisingly she didn’t complain at all.

The final few days we spent with Mel and Jerri in a beach town, Cambria, Ca. It was like being in another world. At least half the day the sun was obscured by low clouds or fog and the area was populated with deer, turkey, and other game animal that had never been hunted. It was quiet and totally restful, unless you wanted to venture out to wine tasting rooms on the sunny side of the hill (Paso Robles) that are as numerous as Baptist churches in Alabama. We drove to the town to eat, watch huge seals (5000 lbs), and even get a glimpse of the Hearst Castle. We’d go back!

Thank all of you who made it possible. What an absolutely great trip!

Jail time for reckless endangerment and incompetence

I’m not talking about BP, although there may be some, I’m talking about our President. He and the liberals in Congress have done more damage since the 2006 elections than I have seen since Vietnam.  We need some knowledgeable adults in there not, supposedly well-spoken, pretenders. You know, people who have run something besides campaigns.