Blog de Dave

Mutterings, ramblings, and other assorted babblings (Best viewed @ 1680 x 1050 resolution, or somewhere thereabouts)

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I'm still alive...

...if it matters...

Sorry I've been so remiss...

...in keeping up with this thing. A heart attack & double bypass kinda took the wind outta my sails, but I'm just about back to some semblance of normalcy. I shall...endeavor to persevere.

And with the Spring...

The dead of winter...

...isn't really supposed to look like this. Unless you're in Texas. I don't mind,though. I hate cold weather. But not as much as I hate snow. It was like 60 and sunny that morning...almost broke a sweat out on the Greenbelt, doing about 6 miles round trip. Barton Creek is still full of water, since mid-September or so. We needed it after two years of drought.

Well, it's xmas eve. Just another day. But, I get time and a half tomorrow. Not like I had anywhere to go, really. The nurse wants me to come over tonight after work, and stay for xmas dinner. It'd be a free feed, and I rarely turn that down. Better than a bowl of Ramen noodles, I reckon.

My, how time flies...

...when you're getting old...

December already...last month of the year...hard to believe it's gone by so fast.

Getting Baby all dolled up. Dropped her tail with a pair of 11.75" shocks last week, and got my Le Pera saddle this morning. Already making plans for next year's trip.

The ride to Sedona wasn't quite what I expected. Well, the destination, anyway. The ride was great; however, it did lead me to change seats. Haven't had a chance to try the Le Pera yet, though...cold an raining today, but I digress. Saw nothing but desert between Ozona and the other side of Safford, AZ. That's quite a ways. Sedona is your typical tourist town; I knew that before I left. 89A between Sedona and Flagstaff is some ride, though. Not what I had in mind when thinking of Arizona. Didn't like the idea of having to have a pass just to pull off the side of the road to look at Oak Creek (for more than the alloted 15 minutes before risking a ticket). Rain was scheduled for that Thursday, so I figured on getting a head start back home. It was 32 degrees and overcast when I left Flagstaff around 7:15 that morning. I didn't see the sun until I got to Phoenix. I did 2379.8 miles total, on $123.56 in fuel, about a nickel a mile.

Next year, I'm taking two weeks, and heading...thataway. No destination this time. Just hitting the road. I'll find out where when I get there.

Three and a half months later...

...and I finally get around to updating this thing.

New computer...well, second-hand new (I don't buy new desktops). Installed the newest version of Opera,and patiently waiting for all the bugs to get fixed in Unite.

The nurse got her house all fixed up the way she wants. Lucky she had me to hang all the curtain rods.

The Sedona expedition is still on. Been getting all the goodies I need together,like cotton thermal long johns and a balaclava, sheepskin gloves, insulated boots (hey, it's getting cooler...and when I get up about a mile in elevation, I'll need this stuff), a couple of pairs of heavy socks, and all that good stuff. Only 22 days 'til I hit the road.

Rain. We've been getting real rain lately...

Not nearly enough to bring the lake levels up, but certainly enough to do some good. We're going to run out to Boerne tomorrow to see how Cibolo Creek looks. Barton Creek had some water in it when I passed over going to work yesterday, but it get soaked up pretty quick. I had one more double mat to make this morning, so I didn't have time to run out there. That, and it was laundry day.

Fall weather is officially here...it's like mid-60s, a bit breezy, and the sun's trying to break through the clouds. The weekend is supposed to be fabulous. Should be a good day for a road trip.

No, I haven't forgotten about this thing...

...I've just been busy. Lots o' stuff happened since I last posted.

Well, no, not really. I've just been sluffing it off. Met a nurse a while back, and have been helping her get furniture and stuff for her new house (what a deal she got on that). Boy, what a chore that is, too...helping a woman pick out furniture. Wrong color. Wrong fabric. Too poofy. Not the right style. Doesn't do this or that. Took two weeks just to find a sofa...and she's got an entire house to furnish.

Me, otoh, it doesn't take me long to decide on something. Which is why I got this the same day I went shopping...

It's been ten years since my last bike. Ten years too long. It's been longer than that since my last really good ride...which is why I'm off to Sedona come November. It's only 1120+ miles one way. I've done twice that before, but was a helluva lot younger. Rode down to see my grandsons last Sunday, 260 miles round trip, and realized (in 102 degree heat) that those ten years made a lot of difference. Well...I'm old. I'll be dead soon (or the world will end, one). This may be my last ride. Gotta make it count.

Governor Rick Perry gives Washington Middle Finger



God bless Texas!

Remember last November...

...and the ordeal I had with the postal service? I'd shipped my studio lighting to California (2-3 day Priority Mail), and I went round and round with "Customer Support" for a week, and come to find out it had gone to the post office in the guy's town, and stayed there for two weeks, and they never even sent a notice to the guy, and they didn't find it until I filed an insurance claim? Well, guess what?

I hope the USPS really does go broke and they all fucking starve in the streets like rats.

I found an 18-70mm 3.5-4.5G lens on Ebay last week. Picked it up for a good price. Priority Mail. Should have gotten it Wednesday. Come to find out, it went back to the post office in the sender's town. And they can't find it. Imbeciles. Idiots. Morons. I mean, how hard is it to give someone a box, and tell them to take it to someone else? 2-3 day delivery. Paid 11 bucks for that. It left Euless, went to Ft Worth, then back to Euless. What...the...fuck? I called Euless this morning (after playing email tag with "Customer Support) for three days), hung around the house most of the day, and the second I leave to go pick up some printer cartridges, they call back. Leaving a garbled message that God couldn't understand. Evidently, they...can't...find it. Asshats. It must take a certain level of dumbassity to wotk at the post office. "Here's my box, dude...and here's $11 to lose it." THAT, they can do.

I'm glad I pay my bills online. 'cuz I will never, ever use the postal service for anything ever again.

Obamulus plan explained

"Geithner says new ‘rules of the game’ required"

"Ya see," Say Timmy Geithner, Lord Emperor Obama's Holder of the Purse-strings, "ya hafta know just how hard you can squeeze the taxpayers' cojones. Not enough, and ya can't get that new beach house you been eyeballin'. Too much, and they'll be stringin' ya up, guttin' ya like a hog, and burnin' yer house down around yer mother-in-law. Which ain't necessarily a bad thing, but, you know, appearences."