Tour de France Stage 16 - 17

I don't have much to say about yesterday's bicycle race. However what happened after the race is big news. Yesterday after winning his second stage in this year's tour Danish Rabobank rider Michael Rasmussen who was leading the Tour by just over 3 minutes was pulled from the race by his team.

At this time it is hard to know what Michael Rasmussen's status really is. Is he still a member of the Rabobank team? The media keeps using words like "sacked" and "kicked out." But it is not clear whether he has been fired from the team, or just pulled from the race. But the important thing is that the race started today without a yellow jersey holder.

So why did Rabobank take this drastic step? Rabobank claims that Rasmussen told them he was with his wife in Mexico in June while he has been reported as being seen in Italy.

"Rabobank is shocked and enormously disappointed that Rasmussen has lied about his whereabouts,"

the team said.

Rasmussen denied being in Italy.

"I am shattered," Rasmussen told Danish tabloid BT. "I am on the verge of tears. I was not in Italy. Not at all. That's the story of one man who believes he recognized me. There is no hint of evidence."

I really have to respect the Rabobank team for taking this step. But what I really don't understand is the reactions of the race commentators. Al Trautwig, Paul Sherwin and Phil Ligget when this mornings broadcast started were crucifying Rasmussen for being caught up in the doping scandals. All they talked about for several minutes was Rasmussen and doping. Yet, no one has officially accused Rasmussen of doping. He has not failed any of the 17 drug tests that he was subjected to so far in this year's race. Rabobank claims that Rasmussen was removed from the Tour for violating internal team policies.

Each cyclist is required to report where they are training before the tour and Rasmussen apparently didn't do this. But to automatically assume that he was doping is ridiculous, at least this early in the whole situation.

So I am pleased to see Rabobank take this drastic step to send a message to all their riders that they must follow all the rules. But I am very disappointed in the four race commentators that they were so quick to jump on the doping bandwagon and start convicting Rasmussen of doing something that so far, no one has accused him of doing. I am also disappointed in the race officials. The race continues today without a yellow jersey on the road. The did not make Alberto Contador put on the jersey when the race started. Contador, to his credit has been reported as saying that he didn't want to wear yellow today. Most cyclists will not want to inherit the leaders jersey because of a rider crashing, abandoning, or being pulled from the race. But several years ago, when David Zabriski crashed while wearing the yellow jersey he was left laying beside the road by his team and as a result lost his yellow jersey to Lance Armstrong. The next day Armstrong reported for the race without the yellow jersey claiming that he didn't win it the day before, but had inherited it when Zabriski crashed. At this point the race officials told Armstrong that if he didn't wear the yellow that day he would be disqualified from the tour. Funny how things change if you aren't an American rider. Armstrong tries to be a good sport and he is threatened with disqualification. But when a Spanish rider does the same thing, he is allowed to be a good sport.

Home from Vacation

We have arrived safely home from our vacation. It is about 3:30 in the morning and I am heavily caffeinated from the drive home. So it will be a couple hours before I will be able to go to sleep. Fortunately the new Harry Potter book is waiting for us here. Since my dear wife and oldest daughter and I all want to read it first I guess I get first dibs since the rest of them are all going to bed.

I'll write a bit about our vacation that did not go without incident when I get this book done. I'm afraid that if my dear wife and daughter catch me doing anything but finishing this book so they can have their turn they will string me up. At least that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

Vacation

There will not be any blogging going on here for about 12 days.

I am driving five high school girls down to a volleyball camp in Lancaster. This is the fourth day of this camp. Other parents drove the first three days.

I don't expect to get home until around 9 PM this evening.

Tomorrow morning the family is heading for Wyoming. My dear wife and the twins will be going with my Dad to our cabin in the Black Hills of South Dakota. My oldest daughter and I will be headed for Laramie where she will be working in a volleyball camp for 6 days.

I'm not taking my laptop with me this year. I decided to have a computer free vacation.

I'll get back to you when we get home again.

2007 Tour de France Stage 1 and 2

The 2007 Tour de France started on Saturday with a short time trial prologue. The prologue usually is just an introduction to the tour and a chance to start the Tour with a rider in the yellow jersey.

Day one was a day for the sprinters, a 125 mile run from London to Canterbury. Oh, did I forget to mention that this year's Tour de France started in England?

The first stage was won by Australian Robbie McEwen. I have never been a fan of sprinter Robbie McEwen. No particular reason why, I just find myself rooting for whoever he is racing against. However my dislike for him has not stopped him from becoming one of the top sprinters in professional cycling.

But Sunday's performance had me sitting in my chair cheering for Robbie McEwen. About 5 miles from the end of the race Robbie was in a crash in the peloton. He suffered a minor injury to his wrist, which can be critical to a sprinter. Power sprints at the end of a race require a lot of pulling on the handlebars. Robbie's team dropped three other riders back to help him catch up with the peloton. Since the peloton was running fast with all the other sprinter's teams positioning their guys for a win Robbies "mini-train" had their hands full trying to get back into the pack.

With 2 miles to the finish Robbie and his escorts finally caught up with the rear end of the peloton. Now all Robbie had to do was work his way through 180 other riders to get near the front and position himself for a sprint to the finish. With the peloton traveling at about 30 mph McEwen had about 4 minutes to accomplish this almost impossible feat.

With about 200 yards to the finish the lead-out men started peeling off and the race was turned over to the sprinters. Suddenly out of the pack came Robbie McEwen. Robbie shot past the leaders and cruised to an almost easy looking victory. Not even Lance Armstrong ever crashed in the last five miles of a race then blew past the entire peloton to blow his competition away for a stage win. Robbie Mcewen's final 5 miles of this race was truly one for the record books.

Today, day 2. The Tour rode from Dunkerque to Gand Belgium. This was another day for the sprinters. Belgium rider Tom Boonen had his eye on this stage as a chance to win a stage in his home country. Unfortunately for Boonen, Australian native Robbie McEwen lives in the part of Belgium also.

The day played out like most standard sprint stages. A long breakaway of three riders that is caught by the peloton with less than 10 KM to ride. As the pack was readying for the final sprint there was a pile up in the front of the peloton that blocked the road and separated the front 20 riders from the rest of the peloton.

This situation played right into Tom Boonen's hands. Suddenly he found himself with 4 of his Quickstep riders as leadout men and most of his major competition piled up or trapped on the road behind him.

So the Quickstep boys accelerated to the finish line each man peeled off as he ran out of steam until there was just Tom Boonen being led by his number one leadout man - fellow Belgium Gert Steegmans. Steegmans main job is to accelerate the pace of the race right up to the end and then let Tom Boonen shoot around him to win the race. Today it worked like clock work, except for one thing. Gert Steegmans didn't run out of steam, Tom Boonen didn't shoot around him to win the stage. Instead, Steegmans then Boonen shot across the finish line for a 1-2 Belgium/Quickstep finish in their home country.

Boonen didn't seem too bothered by this turn of events as he celebrated with his fellow countryman.

Tomorrow is day three, I can hardly wait.

R.I.P. Fred Saberhagen

I'm still trying to catch up with what has gone on in the world this last week. I just saw that Fred Saberhagen passed away last week.

Mr. Saberhagen was one of my favorite Sci-fi authors. His Beserker Series was some of the earliest hard Sci-Fi that I read. In later years I discovered his Dracula Series. I first noticed The Dracula Tape in the college book store when during a period where I couldn't buy new books. I could not afford them. If it didn't come from a used book store or the library I couldn't afford it. Then my Godmother, bless her soul, sent me a birthday card with three dollars in it. I spent that three dollars on that brand new paperback book. The story was a retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula but told from the point of view of Count Dracula. I was immediately hooked on the series.

In 1998 Fred started publishing his Books of the Gods. I truly regret that I will never know how Fred intended to end the story he started in his last book in this series, Gods of Fire and Thunder.

I never met Fred Saberhagen, but I have spent hundreds of hours with his books. He was a favorite part of my life that I will truly miss. I guess I will have to start re-reading all his books now.

Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July

The flags are up outside, the pork roast is in the smoker and I got smoked sausages, hotdogs and hamburgers ready to grill. The potato salad and fruit salad are in the frig.

We usually spend our 4th of July hanging out with family and friends. We visit, watch movies, eat and generally enjoy ourselves. Once it gets dark we slice up the watermelon and move out to the driveway to set off all our wimpy California legal fireworks in the cul-de-sac.

This year the attendance was down a bit. We just had a few friends over. In past years we have had as many as 25 folks over. This year we had to settle for only 7.

My oldest daughter had a friend over. It was kind of nice. I remember hanging out with my friends during all the holidays when I was her age. We always had fun together, so I like seeing her get the chance to share her holiday traditions with her friends.

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Update we just finished our fireworks and had a pretty good turnout. The first few years we would have 5 to 7 families out sitting in their driveways shooting off fireworks in the cul-de-sac. But that only lasted a couple years. Slowly the other families all moved, stopped doing fireworks or just didn't bother. For the last five years it has been just us out there. This year we had three families out there. Hopefully we can get this neighborhood tradition started back up again.

Off To State Bowling

I haven't had much time to do any writing this week. I have been putting in a lot of overtime at work. I've been leaving the house just before seven each morning. Then getting home again around 7PM Often with just enough time for my oldest daughter to hop into the truck so I could take her to her evening volleyball camp.

The volleyball camp ran from 7:15 to 9:45 each night this week. I probably could have just dropped her off, but the coach of the camp had 21 girls spread across two courts and he was using me and another parent to toss balls, keep score and shag balls during the drills. Yesterday I didn't get a chance to eat dinner until almost 11 PM.

Besides I needed to be at this camp to finish my duties as a middle school volleyball coach. The high school assistant varsity and JV coach and the new freshman coach were hanging out watching the players at the camp. Both of them were just getting a look at many of the girls that are going to be trying out for their teams in the next two months. So I had a golden opportunity to chat up my eighth grade players to them. In the end, one of my eighth grade players got invited to start showing up to the summer weight training sessions next week because the coach thinks she might have some potential to make the junior varsity team as a freshman.

I would love to take some credit for this but in reality, she had become a great player on her own, she had a great camp and really didn't need me there talking her up to the coaches at all.

Now I'm leaving for Yuba City in about half an hour for the California State Bowling Tournament. This will be my eighth or ninth year of bowling state. Or as my doubles partner calls it - a chance to go golfing out of town.

So have a great weekend. I'll be spraying balls around a couple out of town golf courses and cursing the lane conditions in a couple out of town bowling alleys until sometime late sunday night. Then it's back to work again on monday morning.

NSTIW Story No. 1

NSTIW = "No Shit, there I was" stories. Everyone who has ever left thier home for more than a few hours probably has several that they enjoy telling to their friends. You know, the kind of story that starts up when a bunch a friends are sitting around sharing a beer and one of them says "No Shit, there I was, in south Peoria IL armed with nothing more than a hula hoop and a bubble machine when without warning I was attacked by a pack of rabid hamsters."

We all like to tell NSTIW stories. At least all of my friends do. Your mileage may vary. But the other day I was relating one of my NSTIW stories to some folks while my oldest daughter was listening. After I finished and everyone had laughed, cursed, or thrown their food at me my daughter who had heard this particular story several times asked "Do you tell that story to everyone?"

That is when it hit me. I have a blog. I CAN tell that story to everyone. Or at least to everyone who is bored or insane enough to be reading what I write here. Kind of like you are right now.

So I decided that when I get into a writing mood, but the day has been rather boring like most of mine are, so I have nothing current to write about I may occasionally throw in a NSTIW story. This will have the added benefit that as I get older I will have an archived copy of all my NSTIW stories so I won't forget to tell all of them to all my grandchildren - over and over again.

I promise that none of my NSTIW stories take place in South Peoria IL and none of them involve rabid hamsters. Yet!

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In 1982 I was driving from South Dakota to my home in Cheyenne, WY. As today, back then I enjoyed driving at night. So I enjoyed my day in Rapid City and then headed for Cheyenne later in the evening. I was driving south on Wyoming State Hwy 85 about 12 miles south of Torrington. It was sometime around 1:30 in the morning. I was only about 60 miles from Cheyenne and figured I would be getting home by 2:30. Suddenly I heard a loud crack sound come from right front of the 63 Pontiac Tempest I was driving. Simultaneously the car lurched slightly to the right. As my foot was shifting from the gas to the brake I suddenly heard a series of impacts move along the underside of the car from the right front corner diagonally across the car. It sounded like a machine gun going off under the car. (I later learned it was probably the bearings bouncing off the pavement that were hitting the underside of the car.)

I slammed on the brakes as hard as I could and still maintain control of the car and swerved quickly onto the right shoulder of the road. As my car careened onto the shoulder of the road I managed to get slowed down to around 10 mph when the entire right front wheel and hub fell off the car. As the car thudded to a stop on the shoulder of the road I sat behind the steering wheel and stared as my right front wheel rolled about 30 feet down into the ditch where it slowed to a stop then toppled over onto it's side.

I did a quick survey and determined that I was undamaged and that I hadn't metaphorically or in reality soiled my underwear. Then I got out of the car, wandered down into the ditch and retrieved my wayward wheel. I rolled the wheel back up to the car and leaned it against the what was left of the axle and hub. Then I stood there and stared at the whole mess waiting for the car to say "April Fools" and put itself back together. Then I remembered that it wasn't April and I probably wasn't going to be able to fix this with my pocket knife.

So I did what any red blooded American boy would do. I stomped around for a few minutes using a lot of words that my parents and grandparents would not have approved of. After I settled down I started investigating my options. Cheyenne was 60 miles away and I didn't feel like walking that far. Torrington was 12 miles back behind me which was easily walkable, but not my idea of the best way to spend the rest of the evening. So I hopped up on top of the car and looked around. Off to the north west I could see some lights that looked to be a couple miles away. That is when I remembered seeing an intersection about a mile back and a sign that said "Yoder, 2 miles."

I had never been to Yoder Wyoming. In fact I had never even heard of Yoder Wyoming before. But right then and there I decided to take a short vacation in Yoder. So I hopped down off the car and turned off the engine and the headlights. Then walked around the car to make sure that it was far enough off the road so as not to get smacked by the next car to come along.

I was thinking about walking the mile or so back down the road to the intersection then the two miles to Yoder when I realized that the moon was about three quarters full and the cloudless night made for a sky full of stars and a pretty bright moon. Bright enough that I could see fairly well without a flashlight, which was good since I didn't have on with me anyway.

The bright starry night made my cross country trek pretty easy. I even managed to avoid running into three other barbed wire fences that were between me and town. Once I successfully navigated the fences and avoided the two small ponds I discovered I eventually managed to reach Yoder without incident.

Yoder is a small town. At 2:30 in the morning it looks even smaller than it probably really is. The main street of Yoder looked to be only about 2 blocks long. Everything was definitely closed up tight. I had walked past a couple dozen houses, all of them dark when I spotted a light at the end of the street. Right there under the neon sign that said "Bar" was the answer to my problems - a phone booth.

As I walked down the middle of the road, (why not? It's not like anyone was driving on it) I heard a sound behind me. Turning around I discovered that I had picked up a couple of shadows. There were three or four dogs following me down the street. They didn't look aggressive, and they weren't making any noise, so I ignored them and headed for the phone booth.

When I stepped into the phone booth and closed the door the lights turned on. Which was a pretty harsh thing to do to my night adjusted eyes. So waiting a moment for my eyes to adjust I dug the change I had taken from the ashtray of the car and called my Dad.

Dad wasn't too please to be getting a call this early in the morning. But once I explained what had happened he understood. Dad asked if I had a problem walking back to the car, and waiting there until morning. When I told him I was fine with that he told me that he would wait until the shops opened around 8 AM, then get what parts he thought he would need and then come get me and the car. Then he told me to get some sleep and that he would see me in the morning. He also recommended that it might be smarter for my to go back to the car via the road instead of cross country. I agreed and told him good night.

When I opened up the door to the phone booth it seemed very dark outside because my eyes had adjusted to the bright light inside the booth. When I stepped outside I felt as though I had stepped into a Steven King novel. Waiting for me there in the middle of the street were about 20 local dogs. They were spread out over about 50 feet of roadway. The really scary part is that the were all just sitting there watching me. Not one of the barked or raised any kind of a ruckus at all.

I stepped back into the phone booth. But I didn't close the door, I didn't want the light to come back on again. So I stood there watching the dogs while my eyes adjusted again. The dogs all just sat there watching me. No shit there I was having a staring contest with 20 strange dogs at 2:30 in the morning.

(bet you thought I was never going to get to that part didn't you?)

After several seconds I decided that none of the dogs looked particular threatening. Most of them were wearing collars and they all looked pretty well cared for. So I took a few cautious steps out of my 3 x 3 haven.

The dogs didn't bother me but as I moved towards the edge of town most of them did follow me for a while. As I left Yoder and headed towards the highway I lost most of my entourage. Eventually I was about a half mile out of town and my following had been reduced to just one determined pooch - a small brown spaniel mix of some sort, that just would not be shooed away or sent home. So I turned my back on him, picked up my pace and decided to get in a bit of a run. I jogged for a short distance to get warmed up and then picked up the pace to my normal running pace and in no time at all I had gotten back to the Hwy 85. I stopped there and looked around for that last mutt that had been following me. But apparently he hadn't liked running and had given up. So I turned south and headed back to my car at a brisk walk.

As I approached the car, unbeknowst to me, that last stubborn pooch hadn't really given up. He had just fallen behind a bit. But since I was walking now he closed the gap. And because I was absorbed in thought, mostly trying to figure out why none of those dogs had barked at me the whole time I was in their town, that I didn't hear him come up behind me.

When I got to the car I fished my keys out of pocket. I put the key in the door and as I turned it to unlock the car that last dog, that I didn't even know was behind me let out one, loud, sharp

BARK!

I don't know who was the most scared - me or the dog. I jumped all the way up onto the roof of the car. There with my heart beating about 300 beats per minute and being completely incapable of breathing I looked for the instigator of my terror. But all could see was this shadow, with it's tail between its legs scurrying away back up the highway.

Apparently he wasn't expecting that kind of reaction out of me.

Eventually I calmed down enough to get down off the car. I moved some stuff out of the back seat, drank some of the melted ice out of my cooler and finally drifted off to sleep until my Dad showed up around 9:15.

I never saw the dog again. I've never been back to Yoder again either.

Weblog of the Week

Cap'n Bob and the Damsel have selected RidgecrestBlog as their weblog of the week.

My reward for this distinct honor is

"No huge prizes, no discount coupons and no elaborate resort accommodations.- only that your blog link will ride along with the Never Forget" tribute this week."

I really like the Never Forget tribute that they offer. I have had it up and running near the top of the right column of my blog for quite some time now. So having a link to my blog connected with the tribute for a week is pretty cool.

Sure I would rather have resort accomodations, huge prizes and international fame and fortune. Then again, after the resort vacation is over you have nothing left but the sunburn. You need space to store the huge prizes and our house is pretty full already. What would a simple South Dakota boy like me do with international fame and fortune except make a fool of myself. So I think I'll just settle for a blog link for a week.

Since I am the weblog of the week I figure its time to exercise my newfound fictious authority a little bit. So I order you all the add the Never Forget Tribute to your own blog. If you don't have a blog, then start one and then add the Never Forget Tribute to your new blog. Then write something funny for the rest of us to read.

Secession

On Wednesday June 6, Vice Mayor Tom Wiknich suggested at a City Council Meeting that The City of Ridgecrest should investigate the possibility of seceding from Kern County and joining Inyo County.

Boy Howdy, you should hear the fur flying around town these days. Based on letters to the editor of the Daily Independent you would think that Vice Mayor Wiknich suggested that we all give up eating beef and start eating babies. Anyone who can get their name in the paper is letting us all know what a dumb idea this is.

"The Ridgecrest Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors believes that the concept of realigning Kern County boundaries has no serious support or interest in our community. We further believe that the City's pursuit of the subject is a waste of resources and that the idea is ill conceived."

Janis Bottorff, President, Ridgecrest Chamber of Commerce

"I see no sense in Ridgecrest leaving Kern County. Secession didn't work in the 1860's. It is unlikely that it will now."

Name omitted by me to protect the ignorant.

“The gut feeling on my part is the move to Inyo County, which for many reasons has been misstated, is not practical in any way, shape or form, for this debate to be relevant and get some of the attention we want it to get, we got to get that off the table...we make a statement that we're not looking to secede.”

Mayor Chip Holloway

Honorary Mayor Howard Auld said secession was “ridiculous” and “makes no sense.”

“I don't think it's a good business decision and I don't think it's a good political decision either,” said First District Supervisor Jon McQuiston

Secession talk must end now - Daily Independent editorial headline

From all these comments and many more it would seem that the secession idea will be shot down before it is even launched. So why was it even suggested? The one thing that all these folks seem to have missed is that Vice mayor Wiknich didn't propose that Ridgecrest secede from Kern County. What he proposed was that city council do some fact finding about how much tax money Ridgecrest sends to Bakersfield and what do we get back in return. Then weigh the services we get from Kern County and what we might expect to get from Inyo County. Vice Mayor Wiknich is looking for information. Unfortunately he asked for that information in such a manner that most folks just started jumping to conclusions and spewing opinions.

The only person posting a comment in the paper that seems to get what is going on was Nathan Ahle the Managing Editor:

To me, the most important part of the issue isn’t whether or not Ridgecrest should leave Kern County or become part of Inyo County. The primary issue is how much Ridgecrest receives in county services in relation to what it pays in property taxes.

It concerns me that we don’t seem to know what we receive, or even what we pay. It’s hard to consider voting for another tax increase, no matter how needed it is, when we don’t even know what happens to the tax money we’re already paying. The most important thing that comes out of this has to be the information we’ll receive by examining secession.

I don't know for sure but I suspect that Vice Mayor Wiknich will agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Ahle. This started out as a request to get information and is turning into a crucification.

I applaud Vice Mayor Wiknich for asking the questions he is asking and Mr Ahle for paying attention and not jumping to conclusions.

For me, I'm not going to worry about it. Most of the folks that I have talked to feel the same way. Its a non-issue. It is going to take some time to get all the information that the Vice Mayor wants to collect. I think that once he does he will see that secession is probably not a good idea and the whole issue will just pass quietly away. But in the unlikely case that we find out that Ridgecrest is not getting a fair shake from Kern County I suspect that things will get pretty lively around here, right quick.

Out of Gas

I have been driving since I was a junior in high school. Until I graduated from college I never owned a new car. Most of my vehicles were old and tended to break down a lot. In addition of less than reliable vehicles I never had a lot of disposable income so I seldom filled up my gas tank. This combination meant that several times I was left with a car that wasn't doing a very good job of getting me where I wanted to go.

To the best of my memory I have run out of gas while driving four times in my life. None of them in the last 25 years. The furthest from home that I ever ran out of gas was about 2 miles. Three of those times I ran out of gas on my way to the gas station.

The last few days I have needed to put gas in my truck. But I just hadn't gotten around to stopping by the gas station. Unknown to me, my dear wife was driving around with her van in the same condition.

Last night my wife topped all my experiences with running out of gas. She ran out of gas in our garage.

She came home last night and just knew she was low on gas. But she got home and parked in the garage without incident. This morning she and my son were leaving to take Destruction to Cub Scout camp. The van would not start. After a couple tries my dear wife gave up and took my truck. That is when she discovered that my truck was running on fumes. Fortunately it had enough gas in it to get her to the fairgrounds and then the gas station.

Later in the morning when I finally dragged my lazy butt out of bed she told me that the van was not working. It was morning and I was tired but I none the less resisted the urge to shoot the van to take it out of its misery. So after sitting around for a little while hoping the problem would go away on its own I finally went out and took a look at the van.

I assumed that the problem was probably a bad battery. Here in the desert, if your car won't start, a heat damaged battery is the most common culprit. But the van turned over easily and quickly. My second fear was that the timing belt was broken. So I did what any guy would do. I opened the hood and stood there looking at the engine waiting for it to tell me what was wrong. After several minutes of poking around and pretending that I knew what I was doing no neon signs appeared to tell me what was wrong I gave up and shut the hood.

At this point my dear wife mentioned that she had been low on gas for a couple days. I figured that it probably wasn't a lack of gas since the van had worked just fine getting into the garage. But since I was out of ideas I decided it wouldn't hurt to try adding gasoline. Since I needed a new gas can and gas for the lawn mower I took my newly fueled truck to the store and picked up a new gas can and a funnel. Then I put three gallons of gas in my new can and headed home.

My dear wife operated the brakes in the car so I could push it farther into the garage so I could get to the gas cap. Then I poured about two thirds of my gas into the car.

Then I had my dear wife give it a try. After two pumps on the accelerator to prime the fuel pump and a couple tries the old van started up.

Amazing. I have never known anyone before who ran out of gas with the car sitting in the garage.

My dear wife is a little embarrassed, mostly because I keep teasing her about it. But I pointed out that this was a cheap problem to fix. Any of my other fears would have been much more expensive.

So until my children start driving I have to award my dear wife the championship running out of gas situation in our family.

LALOLKFATYK

LALOLKFATYK = (Learn A Lot Of Little Known Facts About Those You Know)

I sat down this evening determined to write a blog entry. I spent the day working at the antenna range with no air conditioner and is trying to get by with a portable swamp cooler which is barely cutting it. It was about 107 outside and around 90 inside. I'm hot, tired and my brain is not in a long writing mode. So I decided to try this meme that has been floating around for a while. I think I can handle short answers this evening.

WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Maybe, the lady my Mom shared a room with at the hospital and my Mom both named their sons the same first and middle names. One of us is named after the other one. Neither woman would fess up to who came first.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
Sunday evening. Watching my oldest daughter sit with some of her classmates while trying to deal with the sudden death of her friend and knowing that there was little I could do to help her understand why this happened or to reduce the pain she was feeling.

DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
Sometimes, if I take my time I do OK. If I don't its like a secret code that sometimes I can't even read. Which is embarrassing because I paid for two years of college working as a draftsman. There was a time when I could print so well that I could freehand corrections to notes that were made with a Leroy mechanical lettering template.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Braunschweiger - the best I ever had was from The Sausage Shop in New Ulm, MN.

DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
Three

IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
That would depend on whether or not I would laugh at my dumb jokes.

DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?
Too much, too often and sometimes at totally inappropriate times and circumstances.

DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Not since I was 3.

WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
The problem with bungee jumping is the splat at the bottom.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Cap't Crunch. But I try not to eat much of it these days.

DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Golf, Bowling, Running and Court Shoes - yes, all others are tied loose enough to slip off.

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
Smelling? I'm getting to that age where the older I get the stronger I used to be.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Baskin Robbins Winter White Chocolate

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Do they smile?

RED OR PINK?
My dear wife won't let me wear pink so red I guess.

WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
My worn out knees.

WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
My Dad's Dad. My Grandfather died when I was still to young and stupid to really appreciate the things he did for me.

WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Gray Shorts and bare feet.

WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
Sausage and Chicken Jambalya

WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
The US Open.

IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
The one that breaks off in the sharpener and ruins the day for everyone else.

FAVORITE SMELLS?
Fresh sawn walnut. sauteing onions and peppers. Unlit pipe tobacco. But not at the same time.

WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
My dear wife.

FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
NFL Football, The tour de france, women's court volleyball, PGA majors golf.

HAIR COLOR?
Transparent

EYE COLOR?
Blue

DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
Yes.

FAVORITE FOOD?
Cheeseburgers. Specifically In-n-out Double Double with grilled onions.

SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
I like them both, but not in the same movie.

LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
In the theater - Spiderman 3, At home - Die Hard with my oldest daughter last night.

WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
An old faded white In-n-out tee shirt complete with holes.

SUMMER OR WINTER?
Winter, it's too damned hot here in the summer.

HUGS OR KISSES?
From my dear wifeand kids? Both! From anyone else I'll settle for hugs.

FAVORITE DESSERT?
My dear wife's homemade carrot cake.

MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Since I didn't send this to anyone and readership of my blog is very low - probably no one.

LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Nancy Pelosi

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
The Phoenix Guards by Steven Brust

WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
My mouse pad is the padded arm rest of my rocker recliner so my arm is on my mouse pad.

WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT?
Die Hard with my daughter.

FAVORITE SOUND?
Coyotes yelping at night. The creek behind the cabin, my kids laughing.

ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
As I get older I have started appreciating both a lot more than I used to but I was always a Motown guy. I'll take the Supremes, Temptations, Four Tops, Vandellas or the Miracles over any group from England.

WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
In raw miles it would be Hawaii. I have always felt at home almost anywhere I have ever been, except for my last job. There, I could sit in the crowded meeting room, just 7 miles from my house and feel like I was on another planet. The group there was a very tight knit family type group and I never really felt like they accepted me as part of their family. Groups like that are great to work with if you are one of the family but if you are an outsider trying to become part of that family they are very hard to break into.

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
Procrastination? Is being a smart aleck a talent? I can spend hours with a gym full of giggling silly middle school age girls and not feel the urge to strangle any of them.

WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Madison, South Dakota

WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
Since I didn't send this to anyone I look forward to anyone who answers at all.

Paris Acting?

"I'm not the same person I was," she said. "I used to act dumb. It was an act. I am 26 years old, and that act is no longer cute."

Paris Hilton

She was acting?

Wow that girl was good. They should give her an Oscar, after all if Al Gore and Michael Moore can get one why can't Paris Hilton? I can see it now, Nicole Richie announces

"The Oscar for best excuse for getting a bathroom pass from jail goes to:"

Then she tears open the envelope, cuts her finger on the paper, turns sideways to the camera and disappears.

New Flag

The other day my dear wife noticed that the American Flag that we have for the front of the house was getting a little ragged. So when she was out shopping she picked up a new flag. She picked out the one she wanted because it was the same size and had a picture on the front of the package that looked like it would mount onto the pole we already have.

My dear wife was careful to get a flag that was manufactured in the United States. As the front label on the package shows, the Annin Company is very proud of their history of making flags here in the United States. The mentioned it twice on the front label alone.



Once she got home she was going to put the new flag on our existing pole. But when she couldn't figure out how the get the old flag off the pole she asked for help. I mentioned that she should look on the back of the package to see if there were any instructions there. This is what she found:



I don't speak or read spanish, but I think that the writing here is essentially a repeat of the words on the front of the package.

But I have to ask, does the Annin Co. really sell so many flags to Latin Americans who cannot read English in this country that they need to label their flags in both languages?

Star Trek Character Quiz

OK, these types of quizes are silly and meaningless, but they are still fun.

Your results:
You are Geordi LaForge

Geordi LaForge 75% Jean-Luc Picard 60% Mr. Scott 60% Will Riker 60% Chekov 55% James T. Kirk (Captain) 55% Worf 50% Spock 47% Data 42% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 40% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 40% Deanna Troi 35% Beverly Crusher 35% Uhura 25% Mr. Sulu 20%

You work well with others and often fix problems quickly. Your romantic relationships are often bungled.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Quiz

Still Smoking

The wind shifted and now all the smoke is blowing north. Which is good for us but bad for Olancha and Lone Pine. Of course any wind at all is bad for the fire fighters.

An anonymous commenter to my last posting has a picture online of the Goldledge Fire shortly after it broke out. The commenter evacuated themselves out of the area when they saw the fire. Obviously some smart folks seeing as how the fire is now over 3000 acres and only 10% contained.

Smoke Update

The wind has subsided and there is not as much smoke blowing into the valley this morning. However all the high level smoke that blew into the area is settling lower into the valley now so the entire valley smells like wood smoke. It is going to be a bad couple days for people with sensitive sinuses. My nose can't decide if it is going to itch and hurt or just run - a lot. My eyes are burning and irritated and I'm seriously thinking about not putting my contact lenses in this morning.

I still haven't found out which fire is causing the smoke but at least I know both their names. The most likely culprit is the Goldledge Fire which is burning about 10 miles north of Lake Isabella. The other fire in the mountains west of us is the Shannon Fire which is burning about 10 miles southeast of Porterville.

Smoke!!!!

The wind has picked up quite a bit this afternoon. Then suddenly about 30 minutes ago we started smelling smoke. When I walked outside the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the west of our little valley are out of sight. The entire mountain range is obscured by smoke.

According to the MODIS Active Fire Mapping Program there are currently two fires burning in the area. One of them is just north of Lake Isabella and the other is across the mountains from us, just south of Porterville. With the way the wind is blowing out there this smoke could be from either of them, or even both. But my money is on the fire north of Isabella.

The cloud layer in this picture is not clouds it is smoke and it spreading out over the entire valley.



Between the trees and the red sun, which is not normal for this area, there is supposed to be a mountain range.



A couple minutes later our new red sun had started dropping below the mountains and we were able to see a little bit of the mountain's profile through the smoke.

A Fun Day

This week has been busy. I took the week off work and have been working around the house. I have taken three heaping truck loads of branches, leaves, and junk to the dump that I cleaned out of the back yard. There were oleander bushes in my back yard that I haven't trimmed in five years and they really needed it.

I have shampooed the carpet in the living room and helped my dear wife rearrange things in the living room in preparation for some new furniture that is arriving tomorrow. I have spent my evenings helping out at the high school varsity volleyball tryouts by keeping score during their workouts. All in all it has been a busy and tiring week. But all that changed this afternoon.

I was over at Saint Ann School where I coach the girls volleyball team. I noticed a few weeks ago that I will be a couple players short of three full teams next year. So I have been bugging the Principal to allow me to invite a couple of next years fifth grade girls to play on my sixth grade team. Today she finally gave me permission to do so.

I already knew which two girls I wanted so I hung around until class got out and asked to speak to the two of them when they came out of class. I told them that I was going to need some help with the volleyball teams next year and wanted the two of them to play with my sixth grade team.

Both their eyes got really big, saucer big, bigger than beach balls big. Suddenly I was bombarded with a rapid fire series of repeat questions. The first girl asked "Really?" The second one asked "Are you kidding?" back and forth several times. When I confirmed that I was not kidding I started to explain that they would need to talk to their parents and get their permission to do this. As I said that these two little girls suddenly sprouted smiles that made their eyes look small.

Seeing the pure joy and excitement on their faces was the funnest thing I have done in weeks. Now I almost feel like I cheated my assistant coaches out of the joy of being there when I asked. But since they both work at the school they get a lot more opportunities to see these kids than I do so I'm not too concerned.

I know that the one little girl already has permission since her mother walked up during our talk and gave her the okay right then and there. I just hope the other little girl's parents don't tell her no. She was so excited it would be a shame to ruin that. Plus, I really do need two more players, and these two are easily the best two volleyball players in this year's fourth grade.

So if you find yourself having a kind of slow dreary day I have a way to spice things up a bit. Find yourself a couple of ten year old fourth grade girls and surprise them by asking them to do you the favor of doing something they love doing, that they didn't think they were going to be able to do until over a year from now.

It will make your day. It certainly made mine.

Except, now I have to be the one to tell my own daughter that two of the girls in her class get to play volleyball a year early, and she is not one of them. But I feel so good today that I am going to wait on that until tomorrow.

First 100 Degree Day of 2007

Temperatures today reached 101 degrees this afternoon. Our first 100+ degree day of 2007. It certainly won't be the last. If this is a usual year we should have at least 100 more of them this year.

So far it has been a mild spring season. Last year our first 100 degree day was May 11th. Most years we don't get to June without at least one 100 degree day. This year we almost made it.

I have enjoyed our mild spring so far. My dear wife says that a mild spring usually leads to hotter than normal summer. But I figure it all this global warming means longer milder spring times than I'm all for it.

Forever Stamp

The United States Post Office has come out with a new stamp. The forever stamp will not have a price posted on it. You buy the forever stamp at the current first class postage rate and the stamp is good for first class postage – forever. Even if the first class postage rates go up, your old forever stamps are still good.

I like this idea. Not because I intend to stock up and save money once the rates go up. But this way I don’t have to count how many stamps I have laying around and then go buy enough one or two cent stamps to make them all good. I’m still trying to use up the last of my 37 cent stamps, not to mention my 39 cent stamps.



I have heard several people saying that they plan on stocking up on the new forever stamps so that when the postage rates go up, they will be saving money. I have a better plan. Just save your money. Buy stamps when you need them and invest the money that you would have spent on stamps so that it is earning some interest or dividends.

Now before I go too far with this I should explain – I’m not an investment banker, a financial analyst or a stock broker. I’m just a guy who did a little simple math and decided that I don’t think that stocking up on 41 cent postage stamps is going to be a good hedge against inflation.

Let’s look up a little data, and then make some assumptions. Over the last 5 years, postage rates have gone up 4 cents. The last 10 years – 9 cents. 15 years – 12 cents. 20 years – 19 cents and so on. On average the postage rates tend to increase a little less than one cent per year. So I’m going to be pessimistic and assume that they are going to go up 1 cent per year every year.

Since I need a place to start, let’s assume that you use about 5 stamps per week, or 260 postage stamps per year. That seems to be about what my family goes through with birthday cards, Christmas cards, and the miscellaneous items that we still need to mail each week. The number used to be a lot higher, but with online bill paying, I only have to mail about one check per month.

If I use 260 stamps per year, over the next 5 years I would need 1300 stamps. If I buy forever stamps now, those 1300 stamps will cost me $533. But since I expect the price of postage to go up 1 cent per year, if I wait and buy my stamps as I need them over the five year period I would pay $559 for my stamps. So buying a five year supply of forever stamps now will save me $26 over the next five years.

Well, I have a different suggestion. Instead of spending $533 on 1300 stamps that will sit in my drawer for five years I plan on buying about 260 stamps each year as I need them, and investing the rest of the money in an account that earns at least 4% compounded monthly. That way my invested money earns enough interest that I can pay the income taxes on my earnings, and still earn enough to cover the increased cost of the postage increases.

So how could I lose or win in these situations? If the postage rates don’t go up one cent a year, then I’m money ahead. If they go up more than one cent a year they I’m going to wish I had bought 1300 stamps when I had the chance to. If my investments earn more than 4% then I’m money ahead, if they earn less, then I’m behind again. If the Democrats get their way and my taxes go up then I lose.

Of course I will try and be smart about buying my stamps. If in August the Postal Service tells me that the first class postage rate is going up 2 cents in November and I know I need 100 stamps for Christmas cards. Then I will buy my stamps before the price increase. What idiot wouldn’t? I think everyone understands the concept of “On sale.”

So is it a good idea to stock up on forever stamps or not? Like everything else in life there is no clear cut answer, which, by the way, I’m getting tired of. I miss the good old days of my youth when my decisions were much easier. Do I whack my sister when she pisses me off and then let Dad wail on my butt when he gets home, or should I just go outside and blow the heads off her Barbie dolls with my left over 4th of July firecrackers and risk Mom yelling at me for days if I wasn’t able to blame it on the kid across the street.

Never mind, I guess the decisions I had to make a child weren’t all that cut and dried either.

Math Can Save Your Life

My dear wife sent this to me...

I was riding to work yesterday when I observed a female driver, who cut right in front of a pickup truck, causing the driver to drive onto the shoulder to avoid hitting her. This evidently angered the driver enough that he hung his arm out his window and gave the woman the finger.

" Man, that guy is stupid," I thought to myself. I ALWAYS smile nicely and wave in a sheepish manner whenever a female does anything to me in traffic, and here's why:

I drive 48 miles each way every day to work.

That's 96 miles each day.

Of these, 16 miles each way is bumper-to-bumper.

Most of the bumper-to-bumper is on an 8 lane highway.

There are 7 cars every 40 feet for 32 miles.

That works out to 982 cars every mile, or 31,424 cars.

Even though the rest of the 32 miles is not bumper-to-bumper, I figure I pass at least another 4000 cars.

That brings the number to something like 36,000 cars that I pass every day.

Statistically, females drive half of these.

That's 18,000 women drivers!

In any given group of females, 1 in 28 has PMS.

That's 642.

According to Cosmopolitan, 70% describe their love life as dissatisfying or unrewarding.

That's 449.

According to the National Institute of Health, 22% of all females have seriously considered suicide or homicide.

That's 98.

And 34% describe men as their biggest problem.

That's 33.

According to the National Rifle Association, 5% of all females carry weapons and this number is increasing.

That means that EVERY SINGLE DAY, I drive past at least one female that has a lousy love life, thinks men are her biggest problem, has seriously considered suicide or homicide, has PMS, and is armed.

Give her the finger? I don't think so.

I actually drive only about 3 miles to work each day in light traffic. So my odds are significantly better, but I opt for caution anyway.

Rachel is Back

Rachel Lucas was one of the first blogs that I started reading. She was caustic, irreverent and totally un-PC. Also, if she didn't invent the phrase "asshat" she certainly used it enough to make it her own.

Then several years ago Rachel quit blogging. For a while I really missed her daily rantings. Then I found other blogs to read. But few of them were as entertaining as Rachel was. I still remember the day I removed the link to her blog from my links list. It was like pulling the plug on a brain dead loved one. I finally had to admit that she wasn't coming back and it was time to quit hoping she would suddenly wake up and start writing again.

Rachel claims that this time she won't be so political. Yeah right. But I'm willing to wait and see.

So check out Rachel's new site at: http://www.rachellucas.com/

I should warn you that Rachel sometimes uses some rather colorful language. So if you find that sort of language offensive don't click on the link above.

Dolphins Finally Wake Up?

I think that someone on the Dolphin's staff may have finally gotten their act together.

Last week news was released that Ricky Williams the Dolphin's persistant drug abuser failed his 4271st drug test.

Alright that may be a slight exageration, but the Dolphins have given Ricky Williams more than enough chances. It's time for this team to finally cut their losser running back loose and move on.

Today when asked about Ricky Williams' most recently failed drug test Coach Cameron replied:

"I will not allow our fans to be let down by people that are not on our roster -- not again,'' Cameron said. "It's my responsibility not to let that happen. We have the greatest fans in the game, and we've got men on our team that we're going to focus on.''

Maybe the Dolphins will finally send Ricky Williams on his pot smoking way and get down to the business of trying to rebuild their football team.

Vote For Wyoming

We're in the finals folks and need all your votes.

Most Dominant College Mascot on Earth: Spartans vs. Cowboys

So get clicking and vote, as many times as thier system will legally allow you to.

BAGHDAD BLUES

Friday, May 11, the Washington Post carried an article by retired Army officer Ralph Peters about how our military should be Relearning the Art of War. Colonel Peters issues a rather biting assessment of Congress and many of our military high command.

IN his remarks at the Pentagon yesterday, President Bush stressed two things: The troop surge - which still isn't complete - must be given a chance, and the Democrats need to knock off the shenanigans and vote our troops the funding they need to fight.

On the second count, Congress is behaving disgracefully. Guess I'm a slow learner, but it took me until now to realize that when Pelosi, Reid & Co. chant "Support Our Troops!" they're talking about the enemy.

That may sound harsh, but it's true. There is no way that today's morally bankrupt Democratic leadership is going to sit by and let George Bush win this war. They have too much political capitol invested in making sure GWB, and by extension all of America lose. It is the only way they can be seen as winners.

As the generals who led infantry platoons and companies in Vietnam fade from the ranks, we face an incongruous situation in which our lieutenants, captains and majors are combat veterans, while the generals above them never fought in a direct-fire engagement or led daily patrols through Indian country.

Junior officers now have a better grasp of what war means than Army generals do. Platoon leaders want to win. The generals want to make people happy.

Too many Americans have forgotten what fighing a war is like. It is not pretty, it is not clean, and it is not without cost. I grew up listening to my Grandparents talk about the sacrifices they made to support the war efforts in WW1 and WW2. When is the last time you were asked to sacrifice anything for the sake of this war. All the American people have asked to give is our unwavering support to our military. Not just lip service support from the likes of Queen Pelosi and Prince Harry Reid.

Whatever happens in Iraq, the core lesson isn't that such conflicts can't be won - that's nonsense - but that you can't win if you're more concerned about placating your critics than about defeating the enemy.

Our troops know how to fight. Their leaders don't.

The worst part of this is that the worst leaders we could ask for, our democratically controlled Congress now wants to take over control of this war. On so many fronts this will be a disaster of nation shaking porportions. Pray that GWB keeps his veto pen inked up and enough of our Congresscritters come to their senses and manage to keep all the lose at all cost bills from passing.

Martian Sunset

Now this is cool...

Global Climate Change?

We have been hearing a lot lately about global climate change. Actually we were hearing a lot about global warming. But since comedians kept making jokes about Al Gore giving global warming warning speaches while it was snowing outside the environmentalists have started calling it global climate change instead. I have more to say about this topic, but still have several things left to get finished up for my middle school volleyball team before next thursday, so I'll write more later. In the meantime here is an article you should read.


The Faithful Heretic is about 86 year old Reid A. Bryson the father of the science of modern climatology.

Here is a brief excerpt:

Almost 40 years ago, Bryson stood before the American Association for the Advancement of Science and presented a paper saying human activity could alter climate.

“I was laughed off the platform for saying that,” he told Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News.

In the 1960s, Bryson’s idea was widely considered a radical proposition. But nowadays things have turned almost in the opposite direction: Hardly a day passes without some authority figure claiming that whatever the climate happens to be doing, human activity must be part of the explanation. And once again, Bryson is challenging the conventional wisdom.

“Climate’s always been changing and it’s been changing rapidly at various times, and so something was making it change in the past,” he told us in an interview this past winter. “Before there were enough people to make any difference at all, two million years ago, nobody was changing the climate, yet the climate was changing, okay?”

“All this argument is the temperature going up or not, it’s absurd,” Bryson continues. “Of course it’s going up. It has gone up since the early 1800s, before the Industrial Revolution, because we’re coming out of the Little Ice Age, not because we’re putting more carbon dioxide into the air.”

Little Ice Age? That’s what chased the Vikings out of Greenland after they’d farmed there for a few hundred years during the Mediaeval Warm Period, an earlier run of a few centuries when the planet was very likely warmer than it is now, without any help from industrial activity in making it that way.

Golf Swing Advice

Now that the bowling season has ended its time for some golf. The intramural golf league that I have played on for the last several years starts up next tuesday.

I have to keep this guy's advice in mind when I tee off next time.

Coaching Lessons

I have been learning something about myself the last couple weeks. The city recreation volleyball league started play about five weeks ago. Both my daughters wanted to play this year so I signed the oldest up for division 2 and the youngest for division 1. I volunteered to help coach either or both divisions as needed.

Just before the season started the administrator asked if I would be willing to head coach a team in each division. I agreed but pointed out that they would have to assure that I didn't have any evenings where I had division 1 and division 2 games at the same time. They opted to have me head coach a division 2 team and help out as an assistant coach for division 2.

I figured being an assistant coach would be a snap. I would help out in whatever way the head coach wanted me to. Unfortunately I find myself in a situation I never expected. I'm working for a coach who I universally disagree with everything she says or does.

My youngest daughter's coach is the worst nightmare of youth volleyball in Ridgecrest. She teaches a very static style of volleyball. Tonight she actually told the front row players on our court to stand on the attack line and stay there.

But her worst offense is that she apparently doesn't care one iota about the kids on her team. This evening between warmups, three games, the time between games and the post game, this woman did not say a single encouraging word to any kid on the team. When the games are going on she just sits in her chair and watches the game, she doesn't move, she doesn't talk, she just stares.

I tried to encourage a couple of the kids who were struggling, but everytime I started to talk she would interupt me by telling them all the things they had been doing wrong. This makes it hard to try and deal with these kids. But what makes it hardest is that I have absolutely no credibility with the kids. The first two practices this season she would follow me around and contradict everything that I tried to teach these kids. After we got home the first night I asked my daughter why she was not doing things the way I showed her, and she told me the other coach told her that she would break her thumbs if she did things the way I was showing her and that she should never do them that way again.

That is this coach's favorite threat to these kids. So far she has told them that they will break their thumbs if they don't hold their hands exactly the way she showed them. They have been told that if they hold their hand the way I showed them to underhand serve they will break their thumbs and if the try to hit a volleyball the way I tried to show them they will break their thumbs. I really like to know what kind of volleyball this woman has played that she has seen all these broken thumbs. But regardless, she has these kids terrified of doing or trying anything I show them.

I'm glad that there are only three weeks left in this season, I don't think I could take much more of this. In the meantime I really feel sorry for the kids. They show up for practice, the work hard and all they want to do is become better volleyball players and have some fun. Instead they get a coach who teaches them nothing, and the things she does teach are fundamentally flawed.

So I discovered something about myself this season - I'm not a very good assistant coach. I guess I've just gotten too used to doing things my way.

Dating in Ridgecrest

I didn't grow up in Ridgecrest so I never had to deal with being a high school kid and trying to find somewhere to take a girl on a date here. For years I've heard that the evening activities for teenagers here in Ridgecrest are limited.

This evening, I finished the bowling season. We bowled our sweeper, collected our winnings and everyone headed home. To celebrate the end of the season I decided to get myself an ice cream treat on the way home.

I decided to swing into Cold Stone Ice Cream for my treat. I was not that impressed with Cold Stone Ice Cream when they first opened up here over a year ago. But last year after the Trona Volleyball Tournament my team went to Cold Stone to celebrate. One of my 7th grade players introduced me to an ice cream creation called Cookie Doughn't You Want Some - french vanilla ice cream with chocolate chip cookie, chocolate chips, chocolate syrup and carmel syrup mixed in. Now I suddenly like Cold Stone Ice Cream, maybe just a little too much.

So I wandered into Cold Stone this evening. The only other customers in the place were a young, high school aged couple who were holding hands and ordering a medium ice cream creation and two spoons. After they left I ordered my ice cream treat and headed for my car. Out in the parking lot I found the young couple sitting on together on the hood of a car, snuggled together and sharing their ice cream while looking across the Home Depot parking lot. They looked very happy.

When I was in high school we didn't have a Home Depot parking lot to watch while sharing ice cream. I guess in some ways kids here have it a lot better than I did.

But they don't have the submarine races that we would watch. You could park next to Lake Absarraca in Cheyenne and watch the lights from passing cars on I15 as they reflected across the lake. If you didn't look too closely, the lights kind of looked like submarines racing across the lake. Unfortunately I don't remember ever sitting on the hood of the car and sharing an ice cream while doing this. Of course my car was a 51 oldsmobile and the rounded hood would have been difficult to sit on.

Too busy to Blog

I haven't been writing much the last week or so. Not from lack of anything to say, but from lack of time.

My daughter's club volleyball season is winding to a close and I have been trying to get the photo albums and DVDs of all their games put together. I thought this would be rather straight forward but I keep making the task more complicated than it really needs to be. But I like the way things are turning out, so I'm going to keep chugging ahead.

I had planned once I was done with the club teams albums to get started on certificates, photo pages and DVDs for my three middle school volleyball teams. I usually present these things on Sports Night which is held the last week of school. But this year they moved Sports Night up a month on me and I have until May 10 to get everything done.

In the meantime I still have work, 2 city league volleyball teams, my son's basketball and soccer games to attend plus my normal list of honeydos to keep up with.

So blogging may be slim for a while until I get caught up with all my chores.

Harry Reid Surrenders

Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that we have lost the war in Iraq.

"I believe ... that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week,"

Speaking about a meeting at the White House on how to end a standoff over war funding Harry Reid told the President that we have lost the war.

"I know I was the odd guy out at the White House, but I told him at least what he needed to hear ... I believe the war at this stage can only be won diplomatically, politically and economically."

So there you have it. The terrorists now know what it takes to beat America. You set off a series of car bombs that kill 200 civilians and the glorious leadership of the United States Congress will turn tail and run.

I cannot begin to describe the level of loathing I feel towards this spineless coward. The terrorists are blowing up car bombs to kill hundreds of innocent civilians and this slimeball wants to deal with them diplomatically, politically and economically.

Sooner or later it has to sink into Harry Reids feable mind that we are fighting an enemy that doesn't want to negotiate with us. They only want to kill and destroy and no amount of economic or political incentive is going to stop them.

So we are facing a conflict here. Either the Harry Reid doesn't understand the nature of the enemy we are facing or he understands but is willing to sacrifice our efforts to defeat terrorism in order to further his political future, or Harry Reid doesn't know what his job is so he is making it up as he goes along. So which is it? Is Harry Reid an ignorant fool, a lying rat-bastard, or a traitor trying to usurp the Presidential Authority as the Commander and Chief of the Armed Services.

Nancy Pelosi overstepped her authority when she took it upon herself to negotiate with the enemies of the United States. Now Harry Reid takes it upon himself to announce that we have lost this war.

What's next? Are the Democratic Leadership going to start doing the Supreme Court's jobs for them also?

Tax Code Explaination

Today is Tax Day in the United States, usually this black day falls on April 15th but due to a weekend and a Washington DC holiday, tax day was moved back to April 17th this year.

For those of you who got a refund this year, and think that meant that you didn't pay any taxes, pay attention. What follows is a brief definition of how our tax system works. I have read this several times in other places. It is a good description of how our tax system and how tax cuts work.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men --- the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too.

It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

As a follow-up, do you know the exact dollar figure that you paid in last year? I do, and between the Feds and the State of California it is a disturbingly high number. High enough in fact that it took every penny my dear wife and earned last year for the first three months of the year to pay that bill.

Stem Cell Cure for Diabetes?

The Times Online is reporting:

Diabetics using stem-cell therapy have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time, after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again.

These successes were limited in nature and not a cure. Richard Burt, a co-author of the study from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago noted:

“As a research scientist I am always hesitant to speak of a cure, but the initial results have been good and show the importance of conducting more trials,”

I want to point out that these successes were accomplished without embryonic stem cells. The procedure harvested stem cells from the patients, and then after using a mild chemotherapy to eliminate the white blood cells causing the damage to the pancreas the stem cells were reintroduced into the patient.

As I noted here, this is just one more success for adult stem cell research.

Easter Sunday

Our Easter Sunday started around 5 AM this morning. Sunrise services, which is our family custom, starts early, so we have to start early. We arrived at Church to find most of the chairs for the service taken. So we were trapped in every good Lutheran’s worst nightmare. We had to sit in the front row.

About half way through the service the sun came up. Pastor was really involved in his sermon and almost missed the sunrise. So he paused his sermon and we all moved over the parking lot where we could watch the sun rise over Home Depot. OK, we were actually there to watch the sun rise. Home Depot just happens to be in our line of sight for the sunrise.

After services we attended the Easter Morning breakfast which is put on by the high school youth group. As we entered the fellowship hall I stopped to pay for our breakfast. The youth group was selling tickets for the breakfast for $5 each. A young man who is a classmate of my oldest daughter was manning the cash box. I don’t know who in the organization decided to let this kid handle the money. But the next 30 seconds were one of the most eye opening experiences of my life. I told the kid there were five of us for breakfast. He paused with a confused look on his face for a moment, then he briefly looked at his hands. Finally he grabbed his cell phone, called up the calculator and quickly multiplied five times five. Then he looked up with a triumphant look on his face and told me “25 dollars please.”

While trying to wrap my brain around the fact that this high school freshman whose mother is a public school teacher was incapable of multiplying five times five without a calculator I opened my wallet and discovered that I only had two 20s. This caused a moment of dread, because I assumed that if the kid couldn’t multiply five times five he certainly would not be able to accurately subtract 25 from 40. But in the interest of science a bravely handed him the two twenty dollar bills.

This time the look of confusion on his face disappeared quicker than it did with the multiplication problem. I assume because he remember that he had his trusty calculator ready. So he punched in a few numbers, dropped my cash into the box, briefly thumbed through the small pile of currency in the box then with a triumphant grin on his face proudly handed me my $5 change.

I was going to correct him, but I it suddenly occurred to me that in the past when they just asked for a donation without specifying a value I usually dropped $40 in the basket. So this way I was at least $5 ahead.

After I got to our table and told my family what had happened, my 10 year old twins were able to immediately figure out, in their heads, that he owed me $15 in change not $5. Finally my oldest daughter figured out why he probably only gave me $5. She figured that since he probably added the two twenties together in his head and then did the subtraction on the calculator he probably added twenty and twenty and got thirty.

I know this kid isn’t indicative of all public school kids, but watching him struggle with the simplest of math problems gave me just one more reason to be glad we are sending our kids to private school for grades K-8.

After breakfast we returned home and found Easter eggs scattered all over our back yard. We were very relieved to discover that unlike last year, this year we didn’t have a couple ravens gorging themselves on our Easter eggs.

After our kids searched high and low for Easter eggs we relaxed for a while. Most of the family napped while I watched Masters Golf coverage and mixed up a couple dozen deviled eggs to take to dinner.

About 1:30 PM we went out to my Dear Wife’s parent’s house for dinner. We visited for a while and then had ham, potato salad, cranberry waldorf salad and veggies for dinner.

We cut out visit short because the family wanted to get home before 5 PM to watch the Discovery Channel special Planet Earth in HD.

All in all it was a good day. But then I don’t recollect every having a bad Easter Day.

Feinstein Corruption Scandal

Last week California Senator Diane Feinstein abruptly resigned her position as the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee (MILCON).

The MILCON subcommittee is in charge of supervising military construction. The committee also oversees "quality of life" issues for veterans, which includes building housing for military families and operating hospitals and clinics for wounded soldiers.

During her six years as MILCON leader Senator Feinstein had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects that were approved by Senator Feinstein.

That's Billion with a capitol B. My very own California Senator Diane Feinstein may have just hit one out of the park folks. By directing Billions of dollars of our tax dollars to her husbands companies, DiFi may have have set a new record for corruption.

According to a report compiled by MetroActive a San Francisco area newspaper Diane Feinstein used insider information to direct billions of dollars of military construction projects to companies, URS Corporation and Perini Corporation, that were owned or controlled by her husband.

While setting MILCON agendas for many years, Feinstein, 73, supervised her own staff of military construction experts as they carefully examined the details of each proposal. She lobbied Pentagon officials in public hearings to support defense projects that she favored, some of which already were or subsequently became URS or Perini contracts. From 2001 to 2005, URS earned $792 million from military construction and environmental cleanup projects approved by MILCON; Perini earned $759 million from such MILCON projects.

792 million and 759 million works out to 1.551 Billion dollars. And what portion of this billion and a half dollars did DiFi and her husband pocket?

In 2005, Roll Call calculated Feinstein's wealth at $40 million, up $10 million from just a year earlier. Reports show her family earned between $500,000 and $5 million from capital gains on URS and Perini stock. From CB Richard Ellis, her husband earned from $1.3 million to $4 million.

Public records show Blum's company paid $4 a share for controlling interest in Perini, and later sold about three million shares for $23.75 each.

The report also showed URS' military construction work in 2000 was only $24 million, but the next year, when Feinstein took over as MILCON chair, military construction earned URS $185 million. Additionally, its military construction architectural and engineering revenue rose from $108,000 in 2000 to $142 million in 2001, a thousand-fold increase.

In late 2005, Blum sold 5.5 million URS shares, worth $220 million

So a US Senator has used insider information to direct billions of tax payer dollars to her husband's companies and yet I have not seen one word of this in a single antique media outlet. Where is the outrage, where is the indignation, where are CNN, Fox, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS news? And even more importantly where is an investigation by the Senate Rules Committee? Oh wait, Difi is the newly appointed chairman of the Rules Committee so I guess we can rule out an investigtion there.

So after pocketing over as much as 300 million dollars as a direct result of her involvement with the MILCON committee DiFi just walks away unscathed?

Where is the investigation and where is DiFi's resignation followed shortly by her indictment? Or does that only happen to Republicans?


Full information can be found here and here and here.

Movie Meme

Mostly Cajun has this movie meme up on his site and I decided to steal borrow it:

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.

Star Wars
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Young Frankenstein
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Quiet Man
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Yankee Doodle Dandy
McLintock
Hatari
Quigley Down Under
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Oklahoma
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Singing in the Rain
Brigadoon
Little Shop of Horrors
Camelot
Captain Horatio Hornblower

2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theater.

Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Halloween (There were several girls in college who wanted to see this movie and I was one of the few guys willing to go see it with them. I saw it 5 times. Mommy always taught me to be a gentleman. So when those poor sweet dears needed someone to hold onto when the movie got scary who was I to deny them my protection)
Alien
Young Frankenstein (Ditched English to go to the 3 PM show and sat through the 5:30, 8:00 and 10:30 showings also)
The Karate Kid (see number 14)

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.

Not many of todays actors or actresses will get me to the theater but I have rented, bought or gone to watch a movie simply because of:

John Wayne
Cary Grant
Jimmy Stewart
Marilyn Monroe
Doris Day
Olivia Dehavallind
Errol Flynn
Mel Brooks
Gene Kelly
Fred Astaire
Red Skelton
Bob Hope
Judy Garland
Audie Murphy
Elvis
Debbie Reynolds


4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.

Johhny Depp
Jane Fonda
Barbara Streisand
Most of todays young actors who exhibit a pathological need to shove their political views down our throats or condemn my lifestyle.

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.

Young Frankenstein
Blazing Saddles
Star Wars

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Oklahoma
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Singing in the Rain
Brigadoon
Little Shop of Horrors
Camelot

OK my dirty little secret is out - I like musicals

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with

All the musicals listed above as long as no one else is in the house. I love to sing, but I can't carry a tune in a wheelbarrow. So I don't sing where others can hear.

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.

Watch the DVD box set Firefly
Then watch the movie Serenity

The Quiet Man
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Anything starring Harold Lloyd
Captain Horatio Hornblower


9. Name a movie that you own.

There are too many to list here. The actual number is well into 4 digits. Most of them self recorded onto DVD. I love movies. I like to collect actors works. I have over 100 John Wayne movies, and all but three of Judy Garland's Movies. I'm working my way through most of the rest of the list at number 3.

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.

Bing Crosby and Bob Hope

Just kidding....

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?

Yes, but not since college. The most memorable were a Mel Brooks Marathon, The Trinity movies marathon and a John Wayne/Howard Hawks marathon

12. Ever made out in a movie?

Um.. Yes.

13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t yet gotten around to it.

Titanic

14. Ever walked out of a movie?

I walked out of The Karate Kid when my date got sick (flu) and wanted to go home. No reflection of the movie. When I saw it later I enjoyed it.

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.

Yong Frankenstein (tears of laughter)
Old Yeller (the other kind of tears)

16. Popcorn?

Absofragginglutely

17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?

In my young and single days at least once a week. When my dear wife and I were dating and before we had children we spent almost every saturday afternoon at the theater. For the last 5 years I get to the theater about 5 times a year. We still love movies, just not most of the crap they are producing these days.

18. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?

300

19. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie?

Sci-fi
Musical
Adventure
Comedy


20. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?

That Darned Cat - my grandfather took me. We stood in line for what seemed like forever. He bought me popcorn, soda, and candy all three of which I spilled on him at one time or another during the movie.


21. What movie do you wish you had never seen?

Emmanuel the Joys of a Woman. They showed it at the Student Union in College, I had completed three final exams that day and was exhausted. But this was the first chance any of my friends and I had to see an X rated movie. So we went. I fell asleep, then in the middle of one of the heavy sex scenes, I (while sound asleep) toppled over out of my chair into the aisle. It was extrememly embarassing. I should have just followed my first impulse and gone to bed that night. I guess this is kind of a phony answer since I never actually saw most of the movie.

22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?

Rocky Horror Picture Show. I avoided this movie for months, then finally went to a midnight showing where the audiance (except me) were all dressed like characters in the movie and they all knew the responses, what to throw an when. Once I got over being self concious I had a blast.

23. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen?

Tie between Alien and Halloween

24. What is the funniest movie you’ve seen?

Young Frankenstein

I have seen lots of hillarious movies in my days, but I never laughed so hard at a movie in all my life.

End of the Sports Machine

George Michael's Sports Machine a weekly recap sports show that aired at 11:30 PM on Sunday nights has been a weekly routine in my life for over 20 years. The Sports Machine was ESPN before there was an ESPN.

According to USA Today The Sports Machine is going off the air because NBC which financed the show demanded several staff cuts. George Michael said that if there were layoffs he would be the first to go. Which just proves that the classy guy I watch interviewing athletes for over 20 years wasn't just an image cultivated for the show.

I'll miss the sports machine. But mostly I'll miss the "Plays of the month" monthly feature that George did. I always recorded that segment, first on tape and lately on DVD and used it as pregame entertainment for our superbowl parties each year.

The best feature George ever did was a fairwell to Julius Erving. His musical montage of Dr. J's basketball career was a masterpiece. When I showed it to a couple die hard basketball fans it left them in tears. My biggest regret was that he didn't do the same kind of show for Walter Payton when he retired from football. He wanted to, but Walter asked him not to make a fuss about his retirement and being the classy guy George is, he complied.

I know the Sports Machine was just a 30 minute sports highlight show. But my family is going to miss it almost more than me. Because now they have to sit and listen to me prattle on about the good old days when the Sports Machine was on.

Eco-anxiety

The Rutland Herald is reporting:

Melissa Pickett, an eco-therapist with a practice in Santa Fe, sees anywhere from 40 to 80 eco-anxious patients a month. They complain of panic attacks, loss of appetite, irritability and unexplained bouts of weakness, sleeplessness and "buzzing," which they describe as the eerie feeling that their cells are twitching.

So how does one go about becoming an eco-therapist anyway. I don't remember seeing that degree offered in any of the college catalogs I ever looked at. I'm also pretty sure that it wasn't one of the job's that our high school placement tests recommended.

So how do you treat eco-anxiety anyway?

Pickett's remedies include telling patients to carry natural objects, like certain minerals, for a period of weeks. Making environmentally friendly lifestyle changes can also prove therapeutic

Yep that's what I do when feeling anxious about things I don't understand I wear hemp and carry around rocks. It usually doesn't help my anxiety, but the chaffing and sore muscles give me something else to worry about.

So what causes eco-anxiety?

The fears of the eco-anxious are fueled by abundant media coverage of crises like global warming, collapsed fisheries and food shortages. The Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" warns that only 10 years might remain to avert a major environmental catastrophe.

There's your answer folks, the eco-anxious have to stop lugging around rocks and start sueing Al Gore. Afterall anyone diabolical enough to invent the internet probably wouldn't think twice before inventing eco-hysteria.

There is one bit of rational tought mentioned in this article:

Dr. Gavin Schmidt, who studies climate variability at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, is concerned about carbon dioxide emissions unnaturally warming the planet, but he hasn't succumbed to eco-anxiety yet. He attributes the rise in eco-anxiety to a naive public.

"The fact that people don't have a good grasp of how science thinking works," Schmidt said, "means they don't have a good grasp of what they should be skeptical about."

In other words stop listening to the media and Al Gore and start reading and listening to people who study the envirnoment for a living. And don't listen to just one side, listen to both, then use your brain for something other than keeping your head from imploding. Make a calm rational decision on what you should do or worry about.

"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action," Schmidt said, "but there's no scientific reason to despair."