big cliché

S is for SPEGEL! Grips, that is.

2011-05-13T19:25:00.002-05:00

There is a reason Craig Spegel has been in the grip business for 30+ years, people: QUALITY. Simple, huh? one of the only sore spots, to me anyway, on the classic Hi-Powers has always been the blocky, cumbersome grips that were installed at the factory. In my opinion, this is how they should have been done--fully checkered, properly contoured and made from high-quality woods by someone who obviously loves what he is doing. Another rarity these days is that if you call the number listed on his website, guess who answers the phone? That's right: Mr. Spegel. I called him Tuesday before last, asked what he had in stock and he cheerfully gave me the low-down. I mailed him a check for $60US and he mailed me the wonderfully made pair of standard grade dark Coco Bolo grips you see pictured here. 8 days turn around time and he sounded genuinely happy to answer my call. Unlike some folks who act like you interrupted their favorite movie. As I said, folks. There is a reason Mr. Spegel is still in business.

R is for...RIFLE!

2011-03-14T04:06:00.006-05:00

And today, you get a double-bonus! Before AND after the flat-top upper, free-float tube conversion. Now if I can just get the scope thing sorted...

Q is for...QUICHE! (Thanks for the reminder, Jerry)

2011-03-08T15:34:00.004-06:00

Finally, I give you Q! Strangely enough, I've had this on my phone for three weeks completely forgetting that I needed a "Q" for the project. Slacktastic, huh?

P is for PEANUT BUTTER! (a day late)

2011-01-20T17:00:00.000-06:00

O is for OHLINS!

2011-01-18T01:48:00.000-06:00

O is for...Oh man, am I behind!

2011-01-10T15:24:00.002-06:00

Not really, but I haven't had the chance to get the pic yet. I know: it's lame, but I have to work out the lighting, in the garage of all places, so there's my even lamer explanation. Besides, based on the comment traffic it seems I'm the only one still keeping up with the project!

N is for NIKON! (he said a week late)

2011-01-07T05:02:00.002-06:00

Holiday Hiatus

2010-12-30T19:43:00.000-06:00

I forgot to mention that for this POTD project is on holiday, starting December 25 and resuming January 1, 2011. See you in the New Year!

M is for MOTORCYCLE!!! (duh)

2010-12-24T23:00:00.000-06:00

L is for LIGHT! (IQ Light, that is)

2010-12-23T00:14:00.002-06:00

K is for KNIFE!

2010-12-21T03:26:00.000-06:00

J is for JELLYBEANS!

2010-12-19T03:08:00.002-06:00

I is for ICECUBE!

2010-12-16T23:58:00.000-06:00

H is for HOMERCLAUSE!

2010-12-15T05:14:00.002-06:00

G is for GROCERIES! Or GREEN! (You get to decide!)

2010-12-14T03:42:00.002-06:00

F is for FIRE!

2010-12-12T13:54:00.002-06:00

E is for EAR! Or EARRINGS! (You get to decide!)

2010-12-11T05:38:00.000-06:00

D is for DICTIONARY!

2010-12-10T04:48:00.002-06:00

C is for COFFEE! (light and sweet, of course)

2010-12-09T03:44:00.002-06:00

B is for BOXERS!

2010-12-08T05:12:00.002-06:00

A is for APPLE SAUCE!

2010-12-07T04:11:00.000-06:00

PHOTOBOMB!

2010-12-06T20:59:00.000-06:00

Not really. What I'm going to do--in a shameless rip-off of many who've gone before me--is try to take a picture of something each day. The theme being the alphabet. So today, I'll start with "A". I'll post the pic later (it's a bit busy right now and I'm on break) but it starts today. Don't expect anything too clever, but I'll do my best. Each one will be shot with the MOTOZINE, because it is almost always with me, and it preserves the continuity of the theme.

Isn't it exciting? (You don't have to answer that).

We're Almost Ready.

2010-08-24T16:45:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since you've seen the SV, hasn't it? Check out that sweet new GSX-750R SRAD front end. Nice, huh? In actuality, there are parts from about 5 different bikes on there including the brake calipers and clip-ons from a TL1000S (but not the same TL1000S) the brake discs are from a GSX-600R SRAD, the wheel is from a '06 Hayabusa, the forks and triples are from a '99 GSX-750R SRAD, the fender is from a '03 TL1000R and the grips and switchgear are all original to the SV. Kooky, huh? I put Traxxion Dynamics springs in there along with new fluid, bushings and dust seals. It rides very nice and the brakes are worlds apart from the original SV clamps. It took a little bit to get used to, however, because the shorter forks reduced the trail and cause it to tip in on corners very quickly. That problem has been (mostly) remedied by reinstalling the GPR steering damper. I had to get the mount machined to fit the SRAD top clamp and then do a little creative filing on the frame-mounted portion to clear the beefier top clamp. So far, I'm loving it. I now have fully adjustable suspension by Showa (which I feel Suzuki should have put on there in the first place) with far superior braking and the fender has already garnered compliments to boot. And, if I'm perfectly honest about it, I really dig the blingtastic goodness of the inverted forks. Sure, I could have done the standard cartridge forks from the '00-'03 GSX-600R, but they just wouldn't have had the same vibe.

Not just once...

2010-06-03T22:01:00.003-05:00

But twice! All last weekend Carlos Checa was THE man to beat at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT. He had dominated practice all weekend and whooped Superpole's proverbial butt. Victory, it seems, was not be his. He was well within sight of winning race 1 when the unthinkable happened. His electronics failed. Since SpeedTV decided to start carrying WSBK (or at least since I found out they were doing so) I've been watching. In the season-and-a-half since then, I've seen a handful of electrical or mechanical failures. We even saw Ben run out of fuel last season with literally meters to go. More often than not, the rider crashes out (or if your Ben Spies, Michel Fabrizio takes you out) but bike failures for my money could be considered the exception rather than the rule.

But then it happened again! Just after establishing his dominance (again) in race 2, the bike failed him. And Max got the double. Again.

But Carlos handled it like a true pro essentially saying "This is racing. This is what happens sometimes, but what is important is what we can learn form it". Paraphrased, of course.

I STILL don't get it...

2010-05-06T16:51:00.002-05:00

I have heard, on several occasions, people say "I was looking for a job when I found this one". That in itself is a fairly obvious thing, much like "It's always in the last place you look", but I don't really understand the intent of this statement when it is used in the context of losing one's job either by attrition or termination for cause.

Health Care Reform?

2010-05-06T15:29:00.002-05:00

Documents reveal AT&T, Verizon, others, thought about dropping employer-sponsored benefits

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I wonder if this is what they had in mind when they decided to implement penalties for non-compliance. As low-down as this seems, can anyone really say it wouldn't be unthinkable that companies would undertake this kind of measure to save costs?

How Cool Is That?

2010-05-01T04:36:00.002-05:00

We just finished watching FP2 from Jerez! Thanks to the wonder of modern technology we call the interwebs, we watched the live stream direct from good old Espana. Seriously, how cool is that? MotoGp weekends start on Friday with FP1, then on to FP2 on Saturday morning and qualifying on Saturday afternoons. All of this, of course, is the build-up to Sunday: race day. Obviously circumstances can, and do, change but this is the usual progression. For us to be able to watch the practice sessions in the comfort of our own living room, half a world away through the interwebs and streamed right on to the big screen is easily the coolest thing going this week, hands down. If I didn't need some sleep, I could stay up and watch the qualifying session live, but by the time I get up, they'll have it available in the video section. Nice. But I wouldn't be able to enjoy a single minute if Aim hadn't got the season video pass for me--every single minute is subscription only. See? Greatest birthday present ev-ar! Thanks, Aimee.

Jerez Weekend

2010-04-30T16:50:00.003-05:00

I've just checked the results of the first free practice session in Jerez and, not surprisingly, there are some very familiar names at the top of the sheet. Stoner has apparently figured out what he can and can't eat (which is not poking fun--lactose intolerance has a steep learning curve because so many foods and products one would not expect contain "hidden" lactose) and is back on form with a 1'39.731. Lorenzo is only .144" behind, with Nicky Hayden rounding out the top 3 posting a time only .417" off Stoner's leading pace. Free practice 2 is scheduled for 09:55 to 10:55 Jerez time (GMT+2) which means I might actually get to watch the live timing at MotoGP.com tonight. Most surprising to me was Spies 11th overall. Granted, he's never seen the circuit before and in his own words he felt good about his time so we'll see how FP2 goes. Complete FP1 results can be found, of course, at MotoGP.com.

More proof that the UN is WAAAAY out of touch with reality.

2010-04-29T14:55:00.002-05:00

FOXNews.com - EXCLUSIVE: U.N. Elects Iran to Commission on Women's Rights

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Isn't making Iran your Women's Rights peeps kind of like appointing harp seal hunters to the harp seal protection committee?

Really?

2010-04-27T04:20:00.002-05:00

Just for fun, I spent a few minutes just now going through some old posts from 2005. Yeah, 2005. A few things occur to me upon revisiting those days of old: I sound (even 5 years ago) like I must be at least 50 years old, really right wing and have a gun stashed in every single room of the house with two in the cars. Not that those are bad things, but realizing how old I actually was when I penned those little gems leads me to believe I may actually be "that guy". You know, the guy at the end of the block who comes out in jammie bottoms and a bathrobe to let you know that your car stereo is too loud? Yeah, that guy.

In reality, I'm quite a happy person. Really.

I think I love Arizona!

2010-04-22T04:52:00.002-05:00

FOXNews.com - Ariz. House votes to check candidates' citizenship

Posted using ShareThis

The big 4-0.

2010-04-09T19:28:00.002-05:00

Hmm. I've been 40 for a whole 4 days now and you know what I think about it? It tastes like chicken. Who knew?

I think we're set

2010-04-02T02:08:00.003-05:00

Not that it's terribly important, but I think I've about got this new version to the point where it's going to stay for the foreseeable future. Obviously, I haven't been the best blogger of late--or actually any kind of blogger for that matter--but I still like to have it available should the desire strike me. It seems a bit corny, but I think I like the twitter format a little better. It's quick, easy, short and really forces a person to think about what they want to say. It's not always easy to distill a complete thought, let alone a complete sentence, into 128 characters. But it is a challenge. And I like that.

Goodbye FTP publishing.

2010-03-31T04:31:00.004-05:00

It seems blogger will no longer suffer FTP publishers. Which is why we're back on the blogger space. I don't really feel with messing with registering a domain (since I use it so much these days) just to keep the privilege of using the FTP client. Besides, everyone's all about the facebook and the twitter these days anyway.

It may take a few days (or longer) to get this thing back into some kind of shape (comments, etc) but who knows. I just don't seem to have as much to say as I did back in tha day.

OHLINS

2009-06-26T05:24:00.004-05:00

Oh, hey! You're still there? Glad to see you.

No, I haven't forgotten about this. I just haven't felt like posting anything. But I did check this the other day and it occurred to me that the two of you still reading were left in a bit of a lurch as to the state of affairs with the suspension upgrade. So, to complete the story: it works. I tore off the entire front end, drained the forks of oil, removed the springs and drilled 2 new holes in each damper rod. I'll spare you the really boring details of damper rod forks. All you really need to know is that when installing cartridge emulators, you have to negate the damping effect of the rods because you are turning over all responsibility for that operation to the emu's themselves. To do this, you drill out the existing holes to about 10mm and add a few more for good measure. Then the entire fork is reassembled with the emulators sitting on top of the dampers and the springs hold the emu's in place. Fill with 20 wt. fork oil and we're off to the races. So to speak. It wasn't all smooth sailing, but I got it down with only a few issues and I can say that now I know. And knowing is half the battle! Next on the list is an OHLINS shock! Yes, that OHLINS. I once heard a rumor that OHLINS is so good at what they do that everyone buys their suspension. Not even Valentino Rossi or Ben Spies gets a pass (Or should that be FIAT Yamaha and Sterilgarda Yamaha, respectively). Apparently, OHLINS is so good, they dont have to give away their bits to the top racers to get the free press. I found a sweet deal on a used one from a guy in Houston who was converting his race bike back to a street bike. Why he chose not to keep it on the bike, is a mystery to me, but I'm diggin' that he did. I sent it back to the factory for a full checkup and I got it back Monday. God willing, I'll be able to put it on the SV this weekend! Then comes the fun of deciphering the settings. You see, I've never before had a bike with adjustable suspension. The emu's are also adjustable, but you have to take off the caps, pull out the springs (dripping fork oil everywhere, I might add) then fish out the valve with a magnetic rod or parts grabber before you can make your adjustment. On the rear shock with the remote res, all you do is "click in" the amount you want. So we'll see how that goes.

More to come...

Could this mean that I have, in fact, "seen it all"?

2009-05-05T05:37:00.002-05:00

Not so long ago, some friends and I were making fun of the silly and strictly market-driven practice of placing the word "tactical" in front of anything a manufacturer wanted to sell to a particular demographic. You know who I'm talking about here. Gun folk. Well it seems this has reached it's (il)logical conclusion now that you can buy, and I'm not joking one bit, TACTICAL BACON.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised it didn't come in an ACU digital camo kydex can with a picatinny rail. Now that would have been tactical!

Notice that it qualifies for the 5% LE discount!

The Countdown Begins/Random Weekday Nonsense.

2009-04-15T03:21:00.004-05:00

Here we go, people. THE countdown has begun! In slightly less than one year, I will turn *gasp* forty! And I couldn't be looking forward to it more. Not in the sense that I'm looking forward to the actual aging part, but unlike some folks I know, I have absolutely no reservations about that fateful day. I suppose saying goodbye to my thirties will be somewhat nostalgic, but no more so than my twenties or even my teens. As far as I'm concerned, once you get past 21 it's all pretty much academic anyway. They don't even give you an insurance break at 25 anymore so 21 is really the last "big one" in my book. And if I may speak from my own personal experience, I was a bit of a dork at 21. I think most of us were. It just comes with the territory. Unless you are called Stephen Hawking or Albert Einstein, that is. In my book the older I get, the better. What did we do for the 39th birthday festivities, you ask? Simple: IKEA. Frisco, TX style.

In other news, a good friend of mine Saturday had an unfortunate crash test while riding his uber-sweet CBR 600F4i. He's going to be fine, but the bike is a bit worse for wear. It would seem he rolled the rear tire through some oil when getting the bike out of his garage and then when making the turn off his street things went all pear-shaped in a hurry. Obviously, when there are only two wheels present, maintaining COMPLETE traction on both of them becomes paramount and oil is the last thing you want on a tire. Or maybe Armor All. Not sure, but either one will probably end your ride in a most unpleasant manner. Here's a bit of trivia about import bikes for you: the plastic from which they make the fairings and body panels is more expensive than children! (Or so I'm told) Seriously though, if you crash test your import bike and go to the manufacturer to obtain your replacement parts, you are going to end up buying the bike twice. It doesn't look that bad, but the entire left side of my bud's bike is damaged--the nose fairing, the mirror, the clutch lever and mount, the side fairing, the alternator cover, the shifter, the foot peg and even the tail fairing are all either rashed or broken. Now he could just get the essentials and get 'er back on the road for under 2 bills, but if he were to go to Honda USA and get the parts I shudder to think what it would cost. I priced the nose fairing at our local shop and it comes up to $675.96 without the little bits and bobs to hold it in place and make it look all pretty and finished. The mirror is $104.97. Yes, that is for ONE mirror. He'll probably be able to save about half of retail if he can find all the parts on eBay but that is still money that no one really wants to spend. There are a few lessons to be learned here: first, don't roll your tire through oil and wreck your bike. Second, ALWAYS WEAR YOUR GEAR! Third, ALWAYS WEAR YOUR GEAR!

And in other bike news (you knew it was coming, didn't you?) I am just about set for the next round of mods on the Mighty SV. I have, sitting in the garage right now, one pair of RaceTech Gold Valve cartridge emulators and .85kg fork springs to go with. You see, gentle reader, when Suzuki designed the SV, they were working to a price point. Probably the easiest way to save money on a bike is to skimp on the suspension. So that's precisely what they did. Instead of fully-adjustable cartridge forks, they went with damper rod forks which have been essentially unchanged for about 40 years. The factory springs are notoriously weak and the fork oil has been compared to "dirty ice tea" by some. The magic of emulators is that they take cheap damper rod forks and emulate the function of cartridge forks. I will spare you any more detail but just know that this is supposed to be THE mod to get your SV's front end sorted--short of a full GSX-R front end swap. And that opens up a completely different can (or 4) of worms. The emulators combined with the correct spring rate for my weight, and topped up with fork oil thicker than the aforementioned iced tea should get things squared away in one afternoon. The only negative? I have to completely disassemble the front end to make it happen. Not overly complicated but certainly time consuming. There will be one easy mod, though. Today, our friendly neighborhood UPS guy should be dropping off my Yoshimura RS3 stainless steel slip-on canister. Since the day I picked up this bike, I've been annoyed by the ridiculous noise it makes. A twin should make a nice, low rumble that barely hints at the insane-o, crazy goodness just bursting to get out. The factory can, however, is an embarrassment. That's all you can say about it. Well I suppose you can say that and it's DOT approved! Oh yay. But all that will change soon. Very soon. I may even make a recording of the before and after so you can hear just what I mean. Or maybe not. That might be kind of a pain while trying to do the install and youtube has about 6,271 videos of exactly the same thing--just search for SV650 Yoshimura exhaust. Oh, and while you're there, search for "SV650 Crash" and hit the top link. It should be a guy on a blue SV doing a stand-up burnout that ends with the bike pulling him into a parked car I know it's soooo wrong, but that one cracks me up every single time!

And just to make sure this post is completely random, I'll end with something our Pastor on Easter Sunday asked the congregation: "Is your religion making you the kind of person you want to be"? Didn't see that one coming, didja?

Of Motorcycles and Mangled Designs

2009-01-30T03:47:00.003-06:00

Here's a little tidbit a lot of you have already figured out: motorcycles are almost as much about style as substance. No one, no matter how much techno-wizardry and horsepower you can pack in, is going to ride, much less buy, a bike they find hideous. It's as simple as that. When getting ready to buy the EsVee, I had a very strict set of criteria in mind (which some of you may recall): twin-cylinder power plant, half fairing or straight up naked, and at least 600cc displacement--mostly because most sub-600's are parallel twins and that is a whole different ball game. Notice the complete lack of horsepower, torque or fuel delivery specs. My choices were all about the style of the bike. I didn't want to be just another guy on a repli-racer--I wanted something just a bit different. Another big factor in omitting the current crop of crotch rockets from my search is the aesthetic trend among the big 3 these days. For some odd reason, about 5 years ago, they decided that every single bike sport bike sold in the US market would become sharp, angular, angry looking (think constipated, not enraged) and almost freakishly abrupt. They had lost the flow and subtle grace which had characterized previous generations' bikes and become the motorcycle equivalent of the F117 stealth fighter--not a curve in sight. Apparently this trend is not only here, but here to stay.

The 2008 Suzuki B-King was, in my opinion, a very bad execution of a very good idea. Take the insanely fast Hayabusa, strip it of the smooth, avian-inspired bodywork and give it enough matte-black and chrome to make anyone happy. What they ended up with is unquestionably the most grotesque bike ever produced. Keep in mind, this is not a new concept--it's been done before with excellent results. Take Kelly's 919, for example. Honda took their insane CBR929RR, tweaked the motor a bit and gave us a real-world bike that you actually ride without moving in with your chiropractor. Kawasaki did it with the ZRX1200R to great success and of course, there was the first-gen Yamaha V-Max, which was derrived from a V-4 touring motor back in the late 80's/early 90's, as I recall.

Yes, folks, I have a point and here it is: just when you think they can't make 'em any uglier, Buell tops the lot with a new take on the word "abomination". I know the curiosity will eventually get to you and you'll hit the link, but try to look at it in small doses. There is a lot of ugly going on in a little space and I don't want to be responsible for any loss of eyesight.

You've been warned: Here is the 2009 Buell 1125 CR

Here we go again...

2009-01-22T18:41:00.003-06:00

As some of you know, I work as a contractor for a large government organization. In this "Team" there are many, many mailing lists preexisting on the outlook servers. Supposedly, these make our lives easier by providing the means to send an "important" message to lots of people quickly and easily. But that's rarely how it works.

What actually happens is someone, who is trying to generate yet another almost-useless report that his/her boss requested, selects seven or eight of the wrong mailing lists and then sends the report without really thinking about the groups which have been selected because they are in such a hurry to get out the door. Now this by itself is forgivable. Sure, we all make mistakes and selecting the wrong mailing list is almost inevitable in The Team environment because there are about 7,893 from which to choose. The problem starts when 50% of the 18,459 people on the list hit the "Reply All" button just so they can share with the group the sentiment that perhaps the email "wasn't meant for me".

I am not joking one bit. The last time we had one of these little gems it generated so much extraneous traffic that one of the reigonal outlook servers was killed dead and the IT department had to terminate the message and all related traffic because the Emergency Service Bulletin they sent, instructing everyone to DELETE the message instead of sharing with the group, did not work!

I know I've gone off on the REPLY ALL button before but, seriously people, why do we have to go through this at least once a month?

Obama Supports Killing Babies

2009-01-21T18:23:00.002-06:00

That didn't take long, did it?

Overseas Abortion Providers Article.

FINALLY!

2009-01-15T02:51:00.003-06:00

Seriously now, I've tried to put up about 4 posts recently, but my cox-hosted webspace keeps timing out during the publishing process. Apparently, they've got it sorted but I may switch back to the blogger site anway. Nothing is more annoying than working on a post for an hour, only to get the timeout message. If I do, I'll see if I can't get this url to re-direct so you don't have to muck about with your bookmarks. All four of you still reading, that is.

Bringing It Back--25 Years On.

2009-01-02T03:41:00.007-06:00

Happy New Year to everyone!

And I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas as well. Things around here are good. Actually, they're better than good. They're pretty darn groovy. As I sit here, banging away on this poor keyboard, I can look just ever so slightly to my right and see a solved Rubik's cube. No it isn't still in the packaging, either. I solved it.

You see, back in the day, I always wanted a Rubik's cube, but for whatever reason, I never got one. So I always ended up fiddling about with a friend's cube never really having enough time to get really deep into the inner workings of that infernal device. Sure, I could solve one side--maybe even two on a good day--but that was it. Fast forward about 25 years. Yeah, I said 25. Last year (actually, it would have been November, 2007) my parents asked what I wanted for Christmas. I thought about it for a bit and, having recently seen a cube at the store, decided I would finally solve that darned puzzle and told them to bring it on. For one reason or another, we never really exchanged gifts properly and with my folks moving at around the same time, the cube was put aside and forgotten. Until last Sunday. We were having dinner down in Lex and there it was! I brought it home, and promptly started messing around with it just to get it good and scrambled. And that, my friends, does not take long. You may be asking "What makes you think you can solve it now Mr. Smartypantsguy?" Simple: I have the interwebs on my side! Granted, the puzzle does come with a solving guide, but theirs wants you to be turning front, back, lower, upper, left or right sides clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on the orientation of the cube. I found solution that is MUCH easier, as it has you make every single turn from the front face. Believe me on this one, it is by far easier. Obviously, using a solution guide could be considered bending the rules just a bit, but now that I have prooved the solution and have an udnerstanding of their method, I can set about learning the fifteen or so algorithyms needed to solve the cube. Then I'll be the one doing the 'cipherin'.

If you're intersted, check out THIS LINK for a nice tutorial on how to finally whoop that six-sided demon.

Happy Thanksgiving, peeps

2008-11-27T21:29:00.002-06:00

I've been pretty busy lately, what with all the slackin', but I wanted to take a few to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I can't even begin to say how much we've got to be thankful for, but let's start by saying if you're reading this on a PC (or a Mac) over a high speed internet connection, you have probably got far more than what you actually need--Much like us. If that's the case, I highly recommend finding a way to give a little sum-sum back to your local community. Even if it's just an anonymous donation to your local soup kitchen or Jesus House. They'll appreciate it and if you're not one for Christian doctrine ("There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land." Deuteronomy 15:11) then remember this: Karma knows where you live.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

The Procedure

2008-11-06T02:00:00.007-06:00

Ladies and gents, boys and girls of all ages, I bring to you a tale of how a once ugly duckling was transformed into a stunning beauty! Well, not really, but you get the point. Last weekend, I chopped the fender and this is how it went.

You may notice that my pattern bears a striking resemblance to other fender kits already on the market. Think of it like copying the wheel because that's the only way you can make things roll, you know what I mean? There just isn't another way to make this work on this particular bike. Surprisingly, ACE had every thing I needed, except for the LED plate bolts (which I didn't originally intend on using, but more on that in a bit) for the whopping sum of $21.56, tax included. Here are the goods:

You'll see in the pic a piece of 26g sheetmetal (probably should have used 24g sheet but they had either 22 or 26 and 22 was too thick and $5 more expensive. Then we've got the template, assorted hardware, jigsaw blades, rubber grommets, a fresh cup of coffee and of course, tunes. First, I had to transfer the pattern to the metal by tracing. Duh.

After tracing with the sharpie, I used the jigsaw (18tpi blade) to cut out the pattern, then used the dremel, hand files and sandpaper to get its final shape. Like this:

Now, I've skipped the portion where I took off the rear bodywork, but you knew we had to do that anyway, right? Good. Now it's time to drop the sub fender and cut off the offending ugliness. Note the amount of stuff they have stuffed under the seat and body work while we're talking about it.

If you look realllllly close in the pic below you can see the scribe line for the cut. Obviously, I had marked it while it was on the bike making sure to preserve enough of the material to provide mounting surfaces for all the gear Suzuki tucked away under the seat. Have a gander at the ugly:
And now, the moment we've all been waiting for...the cut!

It cut pretty easily, with just the coping saw. With the exception of a tiny bit of trimming and sanding, that was pretty much the only cut I had to make. After that, I had to mount the sub fender back on the bike and do the marking and drilling of the bolt holes for the plate we made earlier that will now take the place of the hunk I just cut out. Then, we have to check the fit by taping the plate up to the bike and marking for any final adjustments.

Now, if you have a look at this next pic, you can see where the original sub fender ends, and my smooth-daddy "kit" begins. That part in the middle with the wires is the igniter (I don't know either, but it costs about 6 bills to replace it, so if you see one in your bike, DON'T break it!). The nuts you see to the left and right of the igniter are the ones which are holding the fender plate in place. The ones which are actually holding the igniter in place are also holding the bolts which keep the license plate bracket attached. Check it:

Also of note in this picture is that for some odd-ball reason, Suzuki mounted the rear brake fluid reservoir under the rear seat. Don't know why, but that's the way they did it.

At this point, I'm going to spare you the boring details of fabricating the license plate and turn signal brackets by saying this: I put the license plate on the sheet metal and traced it, adding about 2 inches to the top so I would have something to bend and drill to provide a mounting point. Then, I cut a 1.75 inch wide strip of metal 10 inches long, so it will fit behind the license plate and have 1.5 inches on either side to bend back and make little "ears" for the turn signals. The turn signal bracket is bolted to the back of the license plate mount using the LED bolts which conveniently light my plate. Have a look at it all mocked up:

After this, all that was left was to take it back apart, prep and paint the metal then get the wiring sorted while it dried. Oh yeah, and remove the rear bodywork--again. Once the fender parts were dry, I mounted them back on the bike so I could see what was going to be where and how I would be able to hide the wiring. With that done, it was all down to soldering the factory pig tails (which had been cut from the original turn signals and tag light earlier) to the new lighting. As I mentioned, the original plan was to re-use the factory tag light in some fashion. What I did not know is that I would end up having to use that space to re-mount the igniter. I wasn't really aware of its presence earlier because it was jammed up SO far into that sub fender. In actuality, I originally thought it was the wiring harness for the rear lights, but that just wasn't so.

This little adventure took me about 20 hours labor, or so, but it was worth it because it is exactly what I wanted and I did it all myself!

Brace yourselves: we went from this:

To this:

Tidy.

Fenderectomy!

2008-11-04T05:10:00.002-06:00

Yes! I have finally removed about a half-ton of ugly from the back of the Mighty SV. I guess it is DOT regulation that every bike sold in America has to have a giant plowshare of a fender with about 200 reflectors on it. The one which used to be stinking up the smooth visual goodness of my bike is now laying on the garage floor, crying for it's mommy. Figuratively speaking, of course. It took about 20 hours labor, $20 in parts, 2 pots of coffee and the seeming endless task of putting on the sub-fender and body work to do the fitting, then taking it off again. I bet 3 hours of that time was spent either taking off or putting on the body work and tail section. But it is done now. And it is visual perfection. Sadly, it is waaaaaay to late to try and do the whole write up and post the pics. Sorry, Kelly. Monday night is Grocery night so it will have to keep until tomorrow night.

Now get up and VOTE...for someone who is not Obama. If you do, Krispy Kreme will give you a free patriot donut. How's that for motivation? Check out their website for details, and I know you have the address bookmarked!

VOTE! or DIE!

2008-11-03T03:44:00.002-06:00

Remember those T-shirts P-Dizzle or P-Diddle or the artist formerly known as Sean Combs printed up a while back? I wonder how many people he killed because they didn't vote?

I promise, my admonition won't be nearly as dramatic or life threatening. I'll simply say, if you choose note to vote then you are turning your back on literally the greatest responsibility, I feel, we have as Americans--while at the same time, disrespecting the men and women who have served and died just so you can do so. Yeah, yeah, everyone has said that before, but to me it really does mean something. Okay, if your under about 26, I KNOW that's not going to move you, so think of it this way: if YOU don't get up and vote that means your letting your neighbors pick your next president. Think about that for a second. These are the people on your street who thought pink plastic flamingos and Hummels were a good idea! Now imagine for whom they're going to vote. Yeah, that's what I thought.

Folks who've been reading for more than the last year (thanks to the two of you!) may have been puzzled by my silence regarding this here election. It is very simple indeed: my guy lost my party's nomination months ago and at that exact instant the election for me became the old "lesser of two evils" game. No McCain is not "my guy" but he ain't Barack Obama, either! To be honest, I don't know much about our man McCain other than he was a military pilot and a POW. Which, in my book, already makes him about 34,584% more qualified for the job than the distinguished senator. In actuality, it wouldn't matter if George Burns had the Republican party nomination (forget that he's dead for just a minute) the simple truth is that the prospect of an Obama presidency absolutely terrifies me. Now old boy talks a good game, but I have yet to hear him answer one question with a simple, direct answer. Sure, that comes with the territory when we're talking politicians here, but this cat is a master of avoidance. I just watched a little snippet of him with Bill O'Reilly and it was like watching...well I'm not really sure. I was waiting for him to answer one question about Bill Ayers, or anyone for that matter, without having to give an elaborate back story about how they came to be in the same city at the same time, under a starry sky and bla bla blah. At the end of the day, do we really want a guy whose cheerleaders include Hamas, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and North Korea? No thank you. (And yes, McCain has some unwanted fans, too, but isn't is strange that the commies are flocking to Obama?)

So I'm not saying you should vote for Obama, but you should certainly vote for someone. Someone else, perhaps? I think it should be someone who is definitely running for president, but most likely not Barack Obama. Oh, I know--If you can't bring yourself to vote for McCain, vote for Ralph Nader!

Turn Signal Madness

2008-10-18T15:33:00.005-05:00

Finally, my front turn signals are sorted! "What?" you say. Oh, that's right, not all of you were aware that they were un-sorted in the first place. Well then, let me tell you a story--and this one has pictures!

I may have mentioned before that the bike I bought last month had sustained the dreaded "parking lot tip over" and as a result the left turn signal was all jacked up. Now for some strange reason, these insanely ugly, DOT approved, monster-sized turn signals they put on bikes these days are beyond expensive for what you are getting. Mine, for example, are $51.54 each. For that kind of money, you can get some serious LED goodness (if you're down with that) and that will be for the pair. Unless you get Rizoma or Watsen Design. So, obviously, the previous owner did what most folks would do. She had the dealeship fix that bad daddy with epoxy. Now this is not a bad thing, but it is certainly a temporary thing. In fact, the epoxy gave way on the trailer somwhere between Dallas and Ardmore when The Rob and I were bringing it home. The Sunday after I got it home, I did some serious "spare parts bin fabrication" and was able to repair the repair and get the signal mounted. In fact, if you look at the first set of pictures I posted, you can see my handiwork. Didn't even notice, didja? Fast forward to last Monday.

We had gone out of town for the long weekend and returned Monday around 2-ish. I decided it would be a great time to ride up to CycleGear in NWOKC to see if they had some flush-mounts I could "re-engineer" to work with the bizarro-world Suzuki fairing. You see, Suzuki couldn't do a turn signal mount like everyone else. Oh no. They had to do some crazy stuff like this:

Notice how the mounting area is 3/4 of an inch higher? Notice how the little mounting plate is NOT flush with the rest of the material? Yeah, thanks, Suzuki. I love your bikes, but this is just silly. I know why they did it, but that doesn't excuse it. In all actuality, the real hold-up here is that I decided I was not going to cut the fairing. It is pretty common practice to cut that riser out, so that there is just a hole where that extra bit used to be. But I didn't want to do that. Basically because I'm goofy, but I just don't like cutting on perfectly good parts unless they really, really need it. Like my rear fender, but that's a different mod and a different story to be told at a later date. I should also tell you that this is NOT the original Suzuki configuration. Originally, the turn signal post had a rubber flange at the end of it with two "ears" which fit over the screw posts and were then secured by the metal piece you can see on the top of the stack up there. The brassy-colored nut you see there is the mounting nut for the new signals. The plate through which the signal is mounted is the plate I made by tracing the original metal part then drilling it so it would fit properly and essentially give a flat mounting surface or "blank-off plate" if you like. With this current configuration, I should be able to mount any stalk-type turn signal I like, as long as the stalk is at least 1.25" before you get to the signal head. As it was, I had to make a spacer to shim out the signal "head" far enough to clear the fairing. The plate and spacer look just like this:

The new mounting plate itself is just some thin sheet steel I had left over from a different project which I cut with tin snips, filed, sanded and then painted. Once it was in place, it provided a solid, flat mounting surface for the signal. Nice. The rubber you see there is my "spacer" shim that was originally a ceiling fan vibe mount which I sliced in half. Remember, I need TWO of everything for this to work out properly.

Once the mounting plates were finished and I had my hardware sorted, I had to work on the electrics. The first time I tried this, I cut the connector off the old signal and soldered it to the new signal to end up with this:

Not bad, huh? Shrink wrap over the solder joints and all. Problem is that the frickin' nut they supplied fits the stalk perfect but is TOO SMALL to fit over the OEM plug! Lovely. So I had to cut off the shrink wrap, cut out the solder joints, assemble the entire thing on the fairing, hang the faring back on the bike, adjust the angle so they were actually facing forward, take the whole thing back off the bike, snug down the nut without rotating the signal, then solder the OEM plug back on, heat shrink the tubing over the solder joint and put it all back together again. Whew. And that is why this took 2 mornings and 1 evening after work.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the reason I HAD to do this sooner, rather than later, was to replace the OTHER broken signal! Remember when I mentioned the trip to CycleGear in OKC? Sure you do. Well, to make sure I got signals that would fit properly, I took off the RIGHT signal to get measurements, make a rubbing of the fairing hole and take the signal with me so I could see if they had any "pigtails" that matched the OEM connectors. When I first got there Monday night (had to take the Honda 'cause it was raining down) I looked over their selection and decided I didn't really LOVE anything. I liked some of them alright, but I decided I would order some off eBay that I loved. Well when I got home and tried to re-install the right signal, the brittle, UV-rotted rubber flange (remember I mentioned it earlier) BROKE! After I got over the initial shock of breaking my good signal, I started again, being extra careful--after all, it was going to be reinforced when I got the OEM bracket back on there. Well, let's just say things didn't work out as I had hoped, and the brittle rubber broke all the way up where it joins with the ABS plastic that forms the signal body. I was mad. In all actuality, it looked like it may have been repaired before in that spot, but I can't tell if it is factory glue, or more dealership epoxy. In either case, you guessed it: back to CycleGear on Tuesday morning to pick up the signals which I now needed to be street legal. Oh, sure people think you can just drive around all willy-nilly using hand signals and your perfectly fine. Wrong. According to the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, you must have signals on your bike if it is newer than a certain year. I would love to be able to cite the statute for you, but the OK DPS page is not responding right now. Trust me. It's in there. And you must have mirrors, too. Not that any of this is going to keep your bike from running, but it WILL give Johnny Law a really, really lame excuse to pull you over while your out trying to get your ride on.

Granted, the new signals aren't drastically different than the old ones, but they are smaller and not quite as ugly. I got bulbs instead of LEDs because they were cheaper and I really didn't feel like futzing about with flash rate correction at all. Lots of folks I know don't mess with it specifically because they are more "flashy" and therefore more apt to get the obvliviots' attention. But, I'm crazy like that. I want them to flash like the blinkers we all know and love. On-Off-On-Off. Not onoffonoffonoffonoffonoff in the same span of time. I said I was crazy like that, right? So for now, the plan is to roll with these installed until I just can't stand them any more, or a pair of nice Riz signals fall into my lap. I think they're actually quite nice, all things considered. Have a look for yourself:

Not too shabby, I think. And while they do bear a certain resemblance to their forebears, I would offer that they are noticeably different (but not drastically so) as evidenced in this nice side-by-side comparison:

Just in case, I'll go ahead and say it: the new signal is on the left side of the picture. Be one with its undeniable smallness! Bow down to its reduced drag profile! Enjoy its overall "I did it myself-ness". Join me next month as I chop off the rear fender and wire in another pair of these signals. Or maybe I'll just install T-Rex Racing frame sliders. If things go really well, I might do both!

Here a deer, there a deer, everywhere a deer, deer!

2008-10-09T21:10:00.002-05:00

Jeeze Louise! It must be that time of year again or something. I'm on days this week in training for a new HP server we're getting ready to roll out which means there's **gasp** daylight left when I get home! I decided to take advantage of this today by hopping on the bike and making a run out to the lake for a picnic dinner. So Aimee and I get all geared up, grab some picnic supplies and head for the lake. The sun was going down as we drove east on Alameda so I was thinking that I'd need to be watching for deer, but not really expecting to see any. Man, was I wrong! Just as we were coming up to the park entrance, there was a big doe off to our left (north) looking all crazy like she might jump out in front of us just to see what we'd do! (We found out soon enough that they all look that way, not just that one particular animal). I immediately slow down and start hitting the horn. She spooked and ran back to the north. Okay, good deal. No deer parts on the bike and no rash for Aim and Wayne. Another 500 yards down the street, we arrive at the entrance to the park and the ranger station. For those unfamiliar with the area, Alameda runs east to west, and 132nd runs north to south. There is a large clearing on the north-east corner and wouldn't you know it, another 3 does! Aimee spots the group and points them out, but they were far enough away that honking wasn't really needed. Alameda quickly becomes Indian Point Road and turns back to the north, making lazy S-curves along the way. First one goes off to the left and as soon as we get to the apex, guess what? Another doe and two fawns. Que the honking, again. Finally, we make it to our destination, which is one of the camp areas at Indian Point and stake out a table for dinner. We watch the moon come up over the lake, have a bite and start back towards town. I figured for sure, now that it as properly dark, that the deer would be out doing whatever deer do away from the roads. Wrong. It was like they were attracted to us! Every single curve we rounded, there they were waiting like the hand-fed suckers at Arbuckle Wilderness! Strangely enough, they were all does and fawns. I didn't see one single buck out of the whole lot and I stopped counting after I hit 15. Probably 20-25 total, and I was having flashbacks to every single deer/bike incident I made the mistake of watching on YouTube. Not that I went looking for them, mind you, but it seems any time you do a bike-related search, you get, on the related videos pane, at least one video of a crash, wheelie, burn out, or deer strike. Try it yourself at home, kiddies. Obviously nothing 'bad' happened, for which I am very grateful, but there were a couple times where I wasn't really sure which way they were going to go and that is a pretty unpleasant feeling. Kind of like those times when you KNOW your brother is going to get you back for something you did to get back at him for the last time he was getting back at you, but don't know when it's coming. And don't even get me started on the bugs. I had forgotten what happens around the lake just after the sun goes down and that we used to call it "the bugging hour" for a reason.

Feel The Cheese!

2008-10-07T00:26:00.003-05:00

Earlier, Kelly had asked if I was going to get all "Power-Rangered" up after getting the SV. At first, I thougth he meant full leathers, gauntlets and boots. TUrns out he was referring to the super-sweet fashionability of riding jackets with their armored shoulders and elbows, the triple-density foam back protectors, 3243 zippers, many vents and securing straps. I am not joking one bit when I say it took me a full half-hour to get all the hang-tags and zipper protectors off this jacket when it finally arrived last Friday. So then, think "Silver Ranger" and enjoy the posing because you probably won't get any more for some time!

Dang poseurs. Sheesh.

Well It's About Time...

2008-10-04T04:06:00.002-05:00

I was going to put these up last weekend, but I really didn't like them. They were hurried shots at work while on break and I'm still not even remotely satisfied with them. But something's better than nothing, I suppose.

Anyway, after almost an eternity of searching, many false starts and mis-steps with Craigslist Crazies, I now present my new '02 Suzuki SV650S in Sonic Silver! I was able to locate (with much help from The Kelly and The Rob) this fine example, which was the last year they made the 'curvies'. In '03 they started making 'pointies' and changed it all up--frame, fuel delivery, bodywork, etc. Some say for the worse, but that's academic, isn't it? This was a 1-owner bike who didn't get to ride very much because of her busy schedule so it was very low miles for the year. How low? just over 6000. Which means very close to 1000 miles a year! Tasty. There is some slight cosmetic damage on the bike, so I got a petter price, but I challenge you to find it in the pics!

I will get some better pics at some point, but for now, I humbly offer these for your review. Oh yeah, my new jacket and helmet finally arrived today, so now I am offically 100% stylin!

Man, am I in trouble!

2008-09-24T21:32:00.002-05:00

For possibly the first time ever, breaking wind is a chargeable offense! This does not bode well for Wayne. Just imagine the ramifications: drop one in the office, your co-workers may now charge you with battery! Let one slip in the line at your favorite fast food joint (probably why it's happening in the fist place) and you may be up on charges faster than you can say "two all-beef patties...."

I laughed out loud when I read this, and I hope you do too--it's funny!

Read the shocking truth!

Aaaah, the joys of Craigslist!

2008-09-18T01:23:00.002-05:00

A person would think that by now I would have been able to find a bike. We've all heard the saying which goes something like "Man, I couldn't GIVE them my money!" And now I find myself in that very situation. I've finally got enough together to purchase a decent used bike and for the life of me, I can't find ONE BIKE that isn't somehow tainted, and therefore bad ju-ju. I set out a few simple rules for myself when I started looking, and I do mean just a few: no title issues (more on this in a second) less than 10K on the odometer and finally, that it would be (barring that once in a lifetime deal on something else) a Japanese V-twin sport/standard which automatically narrows down my field considerably. In fact, it narrows it down to just about a handful, which includes two bikes by Suzuki, two by Honda and exactly zero by Yamaha or Kawasaki. Of the Suzuki bikes, there are two models, each with two variants, one of which has two generations. So in actuality, there are 6 possible choices from that lot. Add in the two from Honda and you get exactly 8 bikes. And it isn't like these are 'rare' bikes. They are fairly common, with the Honda bikes being the more difficult of the lot to find. But not impossible. UNLESS, of course, you want to deal with someone who is sane, actually owns the bike and has a clear title. Which brings me to the subject of this particular observation: why is it that of the handful of owners I've contacted, only ONE of them has actually had the clear, clean title in their name and available to sign over? Too bad that one bike was a turd. Funny thing about Craigslist: those low-res pics can hide a LOT of ugly. Kelly, being the stand up guy that he is, was willing to drive down the street and check out said turd for me (obviously, we had high hopes going in) but a half-hour inspection revealed about $1792.00 of damage to a bike which was being listed for $3950. Obviously, I opted to skip on that one. Again, Kelly was willing to be my eyes and ears in his neck of the woods when he suggested another possible candidate. I had been in previous contact with the owner and all was looking good: bike was not a salvage or rebuild, it was the right year, the right miles at the right price and the guy seemed to be on his game. He even sent me TWO videos within an hour of contacting him and asking for more detailed pics. Today, he mentioned to me that the title was not yet in his name. Oi vey. Back to square one again.

Another constant hazard on the "C" list is the dreaded scammerpost. They always have a newer, low mileage bike in absolutely pristine condition that they simply must sell. It is usually a single mom type who won the bike in the divorce and has to sell because she has a deadbeat for an ex-husband. Almost without fail, the owner will be out of the country, but the bike mysteriously was left behind, and they are going to have moneybrokers or eBay handle the transaction for them. You'll get a 14-21 day inspection period, depending on the scam, and if it doesn't pass muster for any reason, they'll come and get it! Never mind that eBay has NEVER worked this way and if you do a google for moneybrokers, you can find out in about 5 minutes they are a company of ill repute created for, and probably by, scammers. If these people worked half as hard at a regular job, they could probably make a pretty decent living! And they are persistent, too. I had one guy going for a good dozen emails before he finally gave up on me.

So far, all I've accomplished is wasting Kelly's time and sending out about 75 emails just to confirm that when I had only about half of what I needed, the SVs and SuperHawks were falling from the sky, but now that I've got the cash money ready to go, they are all gone! Or in Pennsylvania. Go figure.

Joy.

Need to SALE?

2008-09-08T21:18:00.004-05:00

I've been reading a LOT of motorcycle postings lately. Mostly on craigslist, some on ebay and even fewer in the local OKC rag (which is absolutely useless unless you want to buy someones used Harley--they should call it the Harley section, without a doubt). One thing I've noticed in all three venues is the use of SALE when the poster meant SELL. I have lost count of the number of posts which read something like "My loss is your gain, need to sale". This does not seem to be confined to the south-central part of the US, either. I've seen it in posts from DFW to PGH. While I don't expect perfect grammar--strike that--I don't expect 6th grade grammar when I'm reading through the CL, I would have thought, until now, that most folks know the difference between the verb sell and the noun sale.

Another practice which I would've thought to be de rigueur is a prompt, professional and courteous response to any and all questions asked by those trying to purchase your product. I am almost (notice I used "almost") amazed at the number of postings which read "great bike, email with q's. must sale quick so I can buy a car, baby on the way!" and nothing else. No phone numbers, no mileage listed, no title information nor even, in extreme cases, a year or model listed! One would think a person trying to sell something via the internet would check their email at least once a day, especially if that person directs interested parties to use the email link! I didn't think my standards are too lofty in this respect but it would seem so given the number of posters who have embraced this practice.

Obviously with craigslist, we are dealing with the unfettered, untrained masses with respect to internet commerce. I thought I had found a sweet deal on an older model GSXR 750 (which is probably the bike responsible for the repli-racer craze started back in the 80's) but the poster was obviously a younger guy, not yet familiar with simple concepts like manners, etiquette or even (dare I say it) common courtesy. I called him on Friday afternoon during a break at work. We had a horrible mobile connection and he stated he would have to call back because he gets (obviously) bad coverage at his location. No problem, I can understand that. When I got back to my desk, I realized the only number he had for me would be my cell, which gets equally bad reception inside our building. I call him from the land line and leave a message with my desk number. "No problem" I think to myself "I've covered all bases". After 5 hours had elapsed, I started getting that feeling. You know, the "something's up" feeling? I had a buddy call him during his break and the call goes straight to v-mail. Big surprise. The following Saturday, I get up early and call him from the house. SURPRISE! He answers then almost sounds like "oh, it's you. I thought I'd brushed off any interest you had last night by not returning your call." I clarify a couple of things about the title and ask when I can see the bike. He informs me that he is on his lunch break but gets off at 3pm and should be ready to show the bike by 4 to 4:30-ish. I tell him I'll call at 3:15 and get directions. He agrees and all is well. By now, you've deduced all was not well or I wouldn't be telling this version of the story. 3:20 rolls around and I'm helping a friend with a quick wiring issue on his bike. I call. I'm not surprised when, after listening to the absolute worst ring-back tone EVER, the call rolls to his voice mail. About 20 minutes later, I get a call from a number I don't recognize so I figure it's his land line and start preparing for the onslaught of excuses. NO SIR! Wrong number. That was a week ago Saturday and I still haven't heard from old boy, yet his bike is still listed. I tried to flag it, but I guess I've exceeded my "flags" from this IP or something because I'm getting no love, Dr. Jones. By the way, that is his correct cell number so feel free to call him at all hours of the day to ask if he has Prince Albert in a can.

I thought it was GOOD FENCES which made good neightbors

2008-07-01T17:57:00.003-05:00

So now we know, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story. Take a gander at this from Fox News.com.

I thought for certain this guy was going to hang, but I guess Texans take a different stand on illegal immigrants caught during a little B&E. I can't say I'm glad that two guys are dead, but at the same time I have to think that these cats chose that lifestyle and, as a direct result of that choice, are now dead. I'm fairly certain if they had been doing any other job, they probably wouldn't have been shot to death--by this guy, anyway.

The reason I thought this was going to go the other way is that the shooter was himself not in any clearly defined danger. He was relatively 'safe' in the confines of his own home, armed with the same shot gun he used to kill the alleged burglars and he was told to stay there by the dispatcher, too. The second nail, or so I thought, is that they were shot in the back--as they were supposedly running away.

I foresee many appeals by someone or some group who thinks this man should be imprisoned, but I can't see it being overturned. Not in Texas, anyway. Maybe California, but not in Texas.

Insult to Injury?

2008-06-24T16:15:00.000-05:00

FOXNews.com - Man Slits Throat During City Hall Hearing - Local News News Articles National News US News

Now THAT is having a bad day.

Well...Maybe not today.

2008-06-06T00:43:00.002-05:00

I got up on time. I packed my new backpack with all the needed items. I put on my Psycho hat and proceeded to the garage to find a flat rear tire.

Obviously, I did not have time to change a rear. Front, maybe, but not a rear. So back into the house I went to shower, unpack my clothes from the backpack and get dressed for work. Ho-hum.

I was really looking forward to biking in today, but I guess a flat rear tire is about as good a sign as any that God was watching out for Old Wayne, as the torrential downpour hit just about 9:45pm central and it was still raining when I left work at 10:40pm. And the wind hasn't been below 20mph in the last 3 days.

Maybe tomorrow. If it's not raining. Again.

Yeah. That's how I roll.

2008-06-05T04:35:00.002-05:00

I've joked about it for years. I even almost gone through with it once. But now, it seems, it is going to become really real. Tomorrow, I ride my bike to work!

The last time I thought about doing this, I actually went out and bought a bike helmet. (Quit laughing, Kelly!) It's not one of the ultra-racy models you see The Lance wearing. Nosir, it's called "The Psycho" and it's the predecessor to the Bell Faction, which was their 'collaboration' with Tony Hawk--who's two years older than I, so if he can wear one...well, you get the picture. And I assure you, it is uber-cool.

Today I received the last piece of my puzzle, which answers the question as to how I was going to carry all the stuff needed to make myself presentable after arriving at work. Most of you know, I work afternoons, which means my daily commute is usually during the hottest part of the day. Granted, it's only about 3 miles, but a guy (especially a guy built like me) can generate a lot of sweat in 3 miles at 95 degrees F, if you catch my drift. Needless to say, there will be a shower before joining my co-workers to earn an honest day's pay. Hence, the need to carry work clothes, shower shoes, towel and toiletries, as well as all my regular assorted junk--mp3 player, small first aid kit, LOTS of tylenol, sunglasses, etc--and occasionally the laptop since the office has a shower, but no lockers.

This is all providing the weather holds. It's looking good to start, but they're saying it might get bumpy as the day progresses. Fingers crossed, and I'll let you know how it goes.

What a Month.

2008-05-11T00:42:00.003-05:00

Here we are on the 11th of May--Mother's Day, in case you forgot--and it's already been a literal whirlwind of activity. Seriously, the wind is like 30 mph outside, gusting to 38. But that's not really what I'm talking about. I am truly saddened to report that my grandfather, Mom's dad, Lawrence Barboza died in hospital Friday, May 2 at the age of 80. He had been sick for some time but it doesn't really make it any less of a loss. And I thought, until I got the call, that he had been doing much better. And that is my fault. As most of you (or should I say the 2 of you still reading) know, my primary means of communication is either email or gtalk. Which, sadly, means if you don't have the email, I probably don't stay in touch with you as well as I should. Even if you do, I have to admit I still don't mail as often as I would like.

In any case, the news that he wasn't doing well was a bit of a surprise and I was hoping he would pull through and have a bit more time. Obviously, that was not the case and we ended up flying to Boston Monday so we could be there for the funeral Tuesday. Now the positive side of a trip to Boston is we get to see that part of the family we don't usually see. In fact, the last time I was up there was the week of September 11th, 2001. It was absolutely amazing to see how everyone had changed and stayed the same. My youngest cousins are now in their twenties and the older ones, still not quite in their thirties, have their own children! Jeez Louise. People who were literally babies the last time we saw them are now in their teens (keep in mind we didn't get to see everyone the last time we were up there) and all sulking around like a proper teenager. Then there are the aunts and uncles who, despite the added years, are immediately recognizable and look almost the same as I remember them. My grandmother, who we've always called Nana, still looks exactly the same as last time, to me anyway. Granted, she's having a bit more difficulty getting around, but it's like she's been 55 for the last 25 years. And there must have been a dozen great uncles and great aunts who I hadn't met before last Tuesday and probably won't see again until something else bad happens. (Lovely thought, huh?) We didn't get to spend as much time with them as I would've liked, but that's always the case.

Since we were there, Mom suggested we drive up Cape Cod all the way to the bitter end. It's about 2 hours or so from Randolph and since Aimee's never been (it's been at least 30 years for me) we decided that was a good idea. Much better than the original, which was to drive out to Connecticut to hit the Mohegan Sun casino. I heard it's great, but I'm just not a gambler so the coast was a much better way to go in my book. The most striking thing about New England, to me, is the age of everything. Remember, Oklahoma just celebrated our centennial last November. We drove through towns which were settled in the 1600's and incorporated in the 1700's. A good example was our final destination, Provincetown. Which, if I remember correctly, was the ORIGINAL landing site for Captain Myles Standish and the rest of the pilgrims who eventually sailed over to Plymouth. Anyway, they signed the Mayflower Compact there in 1620 and the town was incorporated in 1727. Crazy, huh? Even in Randolph, where Grandpa was buried, there are stones in St. Mary's cemetery which are similarly dated. There is just so much history there, it is seemingly taken for granted. We stopped at a few little places along the way, including the Truro Vineyard so Mom could get a case of her favorite vino. Another notable mention was the township of Sandwich. Yep Sandwich. Imagine our delight when we saw our first Sandwich Police car. I wonder if they have a sense of humor about that one, or if it has become THE chip on the shoulder. There is one more notable fact about visiting Massachusetts: I am no longer the only Portuguese person for 200 miles. Eric and I used to joke that we were the only Portuguese person in the state, and that was only when we combined each of our "halfs" to make one whole. Mom's whole family is Portuguese--a lot of the sailors who settled in that area were hired from Portugal--and the region is thick with linguica and Portuguese bakeries. Grandpa came over from the "old country" when he was just a wee lad of 6 and I'm not 100% sure how many of his 16 brothers and sisters came with him and his parents. Yeah, I said 16.

Altogether, it was a nice trip for a crappy reason. Except for the delays at the airport. Thanks, Newark. I promise next time I'll have something a little more upbeat. After all, May hasn't been an entire loss--I got to see Kelly AND his brother last weekend! Now that doesn't happen often. I'll leave you with Grandpa's obituary, copied from The Patriot Ledger.

Randolph: Lawrence A. "Jake" Barboza, Sr. May 2nd. Beloved husband of Mary C. (Pina) Barboza . Loving father of Lawrence A. Barboza Jr. of Randolph, Jacqueline Jones of OK, Antonio C. Barboza of Las Vegas NV, Maria T. Beckman of Brockton, Jesse V. Barboza of Brockton and Lisa A Barboza of Randolph. Jake was one of 16 children and uncle to many nieces and nephews. Also survived by 19 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren. Reposing at the Cartwright Funeral Home 419 N. Main St. (rt. 28) Randolph. Funeral Services will be private . Burial in St. Mary Cemetery Randolph. Should friends desire, memorial contributions may be made to the South Shore Hospital, 55 Fogg Rd., Weymouth, MA 02190. Jake grew up in Falmouth and was a graduate of Falmouth High School. He was a WWII Army-Air Corp. Veteran; he had worked for Star Market for over 20 years as a warehouse manager. Jake had lived in Randolph for over 47 years; he passed away in the South Shore Hospital in Weymouth at the age of 80. For additional information please visit www.cartwrightfuneral.com.
Published in The Patriot Ledger on 5/5/2008.

Seriously?

2008-02-28T03:41:00.002-06:00

Here's a passing thought: if Osama Bin Laden were using steroids or performance enhancing drugs, do you think we could finally locate him get him before some type of committee? I know it's not new news, or even almost-new news, but I just now read yet another headline on the matter.

Seriously, why is Congress wasting our tax money on whether Roger Clemens did or didn't? Let's see: we're looking at probably the most unprecedented presidential election in history while we're how many years into an increasingly unpopular war and possibly standing at the front door of a recession and they're still wasting time and money on baseball?

I guess they don't call it "The Great American Pass-time" for nothing, huh?

I feel pretty, oh so pretty!

2008-02-27T23:17:00.003-06:00

Is this story from FoxNews.com the height of vanity, or is there indeed a sinister, secretive plot by airline flight attendants to rid planes of passengers who are just too darn "pretty" to have roaming about the cabin? After all, "no one else on the flight except [them] looked like [them]" and we all know what kind of shenanigans that can cause.

You've got to read this...

2008-02-22T04:49:00.002-06:00

Yeah, I know...I'm a bad blogger. But I'm a busy guy (it looks like I might actually finish a real BOOK sometime very soon) and there's lots of internet out there which requires my absolute attention. And that, my friends, is what brings me here tonight. While perusing the Beretta Forum, I ran across a link to this gem which you will need to read. By the way, even if you aren't a "gun person" you may even still get this guy's vibe. But if you are a gunnie (we'll pretend that's the gun world's equivalent to a foodie which should not be confused with Gunny--as in E-7, USMC) than this may be the best thing you read today. And you get bonus geek points if you can catch the Invader Zim reference!

In any event, you need to read this now. So here it is: Best Gun Article You're Going to Read Today!

Finally.

2008-02-08T03:45:00.000-06:00

Sometime ago, I was wondering why just about every "new" firearm was built on 100+ year-old technology. Just about every offering from the major makers is based on the the Browning tilting barrel system or some modification thereof.

Now, there's something new.

Feast your eyes on the Super-V system.

I know--and you're welcome.

And so it begins...

2008-01-09T03:00:00.000-06:00

A while back I mentioned that I was going to do the political post which would share with you all why we are doomed. It would seem the evening news headlines have already done so for me. Here we are, not even 24 hours after the nation's first primaries and it's already starting to scare me.

The original intent of this post was going to show how if Guiliani was to actually win the Republican nomination and Hillary was to win the other side then it really wouldn't matter--because they are essentially the same candidate. Sure, Rudy may be "Republican enough" in NYC, but to most of us he's as much a Republican as AAAAhnold. Which isn't really much at the end of the race.

Now, with the first results in, it would seem that Hillary might actually be able to pull it off--become the first woman to win a national party nomination. That I know of, anyway. And at a very close second, much closer I'm sure than the Clinton camp would've liked, is The Obama. Not quite sure what to make of him yet, but I do recall that just 6 months ago, he was the guy who didn't have enough experience to be a serious contender.

Sadly, my guy finished 3rd. And if we're honest, it wasn't a very strong third. I guess it's time to really start doing my homework on these guys. And one gal. What a thoroughly uninspiring thought.

2008-01-07T04:37:00.000-06:00

2008-01-03T03:37:00.001-06:00

2007-12-31T05:56:00.000-06:00

How Much Free Speech Can You Handle?

2007-11-01T02:59:00.000-05:00

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The preceding text is, of course, the first amendment to our constitution--the foundation of our Bill of Rights, if you will. Read it. Now, read it again.

Earlier today, a friend at work forwarded the link to THIS article with the title "Blog This". I briefly skimmed it and thought to myself "Good. It serves those people right". Before I deleted the original message, I went back and re-read Dave's statement which said, to paraphrase, "I feel bad for that Marine's family AND free speech. They've both suffered today". At first read, I thought I must've read it wrong. But I've known Dave for years now and I know for certain that he's not endorsing, in any way, shape or form, the kind of behavior demonstrated by these publicity-craving charlatans. And that's about the best thing you can say for the folks over at Westboro Baptist. In fact, I am so generally disgusted with their behavior on so many different levels I wouldn't even know where to start. But this post isn't about my loathing for those people. It's about whether or not their actions can be summarized as "the right of the people to peaceably assemble". And it is actually quite an important question--because, as I've often said, the Bill of Rights is not an a-la carte menu. You get the whole plate for one price.

I can think of very few things in this world more reprehensible than the desecration of a funeral. To me, it is even more appalling, as if that were possible, when family and friends are paying their last respects to any member of our armed forces, but especially so for one of our Marines. Yes, I was a sailor, but that had a lot to do with the advance knowledge that being on an aircraft carrier would keep me far away enough away (in the middle of an ocean, that is) from any battlefield as to effectively eliminate even the remotest possibility of any stray bullets finding their way into my body. Now Marines, on the other hand, know full well from day one that they will, regardless of their actual job title, be a rifleman first and by definition they will be the first ones going to the fight. In my book, that buys a LOT of respect points, even though it does not mean that all Marines are "respectable". I met some real gems back in tha day, but each one of them knew the score and accepted the responsibility.

So back to the question at hand: does standing outside a funeral acting the way those people do fall under the protection of Amendment 1? As far as I know, they've never been unpeaceful. All of the news reels I've seen show them standing outside the church or cemetery with their signs smiling and waving at the folks passing by. If their signs, and doctrine for that matter, weren't so disgusting one could almost mistake them for the folks standing on the intersection on election day, beating the drums for their favorite candidate. Until now, I don't expect this has ever been a question anyone had to ask. In fact, the State of Oklahoma had to add a statute specifically addressing this practice, while still protecting free speech. This is taken from Oklahoma Statutes, title 21-1380, known as the Oklahoma Funeral Picketing Act:

...full opportunity exists under the terms and provisions of this section for the exercise of freedom of speech and other constitutional rights at times other than the period from one hour before the scheduled commencement of funeral services until one hour after the actual completion of the funeral services.

Notice the crafters of this legislation made certain they couldn't be misconstrued as to be infringing on anyones first amendment rights while making it perfectly clear that this type of stuff won't fly 'round these here parts. The statue goes on to say that the primary intent of the statute is to:

Preserve the peaceful character of cemeteries, mortuaries and churches from one hour before the scheduled commencement of funerals services until one hour after the actual completion of the funeral services.

The penalty when one is convicted of this misdemeanor is a fine of not more than $500, or imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 30 days or both. But wait--there's more! The final section of the statute goes on to say:

Notwithstanding the penalties provided in subsection E, any district court may enjoin conduct proscribed by this section and may in any such proceeding award damages, including punitive damages, attorney fees or other appropriate relief against the persons found guilty of actions made unlawful by this section.

Now I'm not an attorney, although we did stay at a Holiday Inn Express while on vacation, but that sounds to me like the legislature were trying to make sure that we here in the Sooner state are able to make the same kind of judgment, should the need arise. It would seem, at least in Oklahoma, that their behavior is indeed protected, but only inasmuch as it does not interfere with the peaceful nature of the funeral, grounds or the privacy of the family.

To be honest, I hope this judgment puts such a financial strain on those people that they can no longer afford to travel or even operate their "church". In my opinion, these are the absolute worst kind of people for many reasons, but the one which really makes me angry is knowing that for some folks this is the kind of behavior which will forever be associated with "Christianity", which is just not true. I find it no different than those who automatically associate Muslims with homicide bombings. I can't dispute, nor would I even try, that some of the most heinous things ever done by man have been done in the name of religion but this, I assure you, is NOT what Christianity is all about and I really hope that someday soon, they'll see what they are doing for what it is and just stop. I'm not expecting that any time soon, but maybe this judgment will force them to take a long hard look at how they're doing business.

Picture Pages

2007-10-14T13:53:00.002-05:00

First pic is on a rest-stop picnic on the way down, the second is part of the view from our kitchen window and the last is me trying really hard to bodyboard. Trying being the key phrase. Enjoy!

Once again, something completely different...

2007-10-14T00:57:00.000-05:00

What a week it's been! You see, fine friends, I've got a confession to make: we've been on vacation! for the last week, but I didn't want to mention it until our house sitter was fully installed and on top of things. Probably best not to announce to the world that you're out of town until your proxy is in place, right? Right.

So then, what's been on the agenda? The usuals: IKEA, beach, beach, swimming pool, a little more beach then some seafood and, oh yeah, a beach! Once again, we're visiting one of our favorite south Texas destinations: Port Aransas. The weather has been absolutely beautiful this week and is supposed to bring more of the same for us next week. Lows in the mid seventies, highs in the high eighties (which is a bit warm for me, but Aim's diggin' it) and not a word of rain. Yet. But it hasn't been all fun and games, folks. Oh no. The condo management was trying as hard as they could to crush our groove from the start. Aimee booked this trip back in May. Yes, I said MAY. But they called halfway through September and said "Oh yeah, the condo you booked 6 months ago that is 25 feet from the beach will no longer be available. The owner is going to build a new deck/awning thing so we're going to have to move you to another unit". Lovely. Long story condensed, Aimee got it worked out and we were back on schedule. Which was very tight, by the way, and is the primary reason why none of you got a call/visit as we made our way through your respective towns. But I digress (as usual). We checked in late Monday--and I mean late--too late to get the management out of bed to come see the sticky, jam covered dishwasher and mystery substance on most of the cabinets. And I almost forgot to mention the fur coat on the ceiling fan blades and picture frames. In short, the room had not been clean, vacuumed, mopped and there was not a single surface which had been wiped down with any kind of cleaner. The final straw was found when Aimee wanted to take a shower and there was no cold water pressure! No problem if you like seriously hot showers. Really, it was too hot even for me and I dig the hotness. So we called the office, the maintenance guy shows up and does some checks and makes a few adjustments to the hot water heater and replaces the shower head. Still no good. Unless you want to boil eggs or poach salmon in the tub. We called the people again and this time the office lady shows up with maintenance guy and we discuss options. They 'said' there weren't any other units which we could move into right then and there (because of the length of our stay) so they gave us the keys to one which had been vacated, but was not yet cleaned, so we could use the shower. We would then move to that unit on Wednesday AFTER they had a chance to clean it properly. Which they did. Somewhat. I'll right now that the amount of crap which can be forgiven is inversely proportional and increases exponentially to the proximity of a beach, which is to say that the smaller the distance becomes between us and the beach, the more forgiving we become. This theory of beach relativity explains why we are still in the same unit even though Aimee has dubbed it the "Condo of 1000 Smells" and I'm sure they stuck us in this one, rather than shuffling guests who had not yet arrived, simply because the billing was easier on office lady. Oh well, so it goes. The good bit is that we are now on the third floor so there will be no more Clydesdales romping over our heads at unbelievably early hours of the morn and we're able to get a really good view of the beach from the kitchen window.

I haven't done much hamming so far, but I was able to hit an IRLP reflector while stopped for our layover in Georgetown Sunday night and had a quick chat with a very enthusiastic fellow from Crystal Springs, CA if I remember correctly. Tuesday night (late enough to be Wednesday morning, actually) I was also able to set up a long-wire antenna (which I had to build from parts purchased at Radio Shack because I forgot the one Sony so graciously provided with the radio) for my SW radio and was able to pull in Radio Havana's English language broadcast on 6060khz, followed by Deutsche Welle's English language broadcast out of Bonn, Germany on 7810khz. Good times, I tell you. Good times. There is an IRLP node in Corpus, but it appears to be about 16-18 air miles from our location here and I'm not sure about their antenna height. There are repeaters in OK I can hit which are farther than that, but I also know their antenna height. The week is young yet so I'll see if I can hit that node later this week. I did hear someone bring up the node last night but it was immediately followed by a conversation in Spanish! But remember: just because I can hear the repeater does not always mean I can hit the repeater.

I could go on and on about the local seafood, the giant size of the trucks (really, does EVERYONE in Texas need a super-duty diesel crew cab 4WD monster?) and the amazing, late night walks on the beach, but it's getting close to bed-time and there's a lot more beach to be had tomorrow. I'll have something nice for you peeps soon enough--provided blogger cooperates.

So...how 'bout those Romans?

2007-09-30T23:45:00.001-05:00

Last time around, I said

A lot of people think of the law as the "you can't do this, you can't do that" part of the Bible. And for a time, that was true. It's a bit outside the scope of this particular post, but if you're curious about why I say "for a time" read Romans.

Now then, before we get too deep into this, you must know that most of what I'll be talking about in this post is also the material we've been covering in Sunday school and that is a large part of why I feel comfortable enough with the material (being the "newbie" I am) to share. As a result, some of this will be what I've taken away from our class discussions, with ideas and illustrations borrowed from our pastor and even a bit more referenced from "The Exchange" by Joel Engle. The verses are all taken from the The Holy Bible, New International Version because it's a very easy to read translation. If you don't have one, and you feel so compelled, you can go over to Crosswalk.com and use their on-line version.

First, and this is straight from Sunday school class, think about who the Romans were at the time Jesus walked the earth: They were the empire. They were rich, powerful, educated, and every thing that comes with that kind of wealth and power. Our pastor likened the Romans of that day to the current day America that we all know and love. I would agree that it is, at least for the sake of this illustration, a fair parallel. That being said, one can easily apply what Paul has written to the Romans as what he might have written to the Ameicans, had the timing been appropriate.

Now, rememer the Mosaic law? I said last time that it started with the Ten Commandments, but by no means stopped there. There were even laws written concerning what to do with mildew. Yep, it was that complete and all-encompassing. And the Pharisees had a lot of time between the passing of Moses and the coming of Jesus to "quantify" these laws so that there was (or so I'm told) an excruciatingly precise measure of what, how much, or when something could or could not be done. The example given that sticks with me is the actual amount, quantified down to the last loaf of bread, of work which could be done on the sabbath. Prior to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, people would literally be stoned to death for breaking the law. I expect many were stoned after the fact as well, but from a Godly view, once a person is under the saving grace of Jesus, the law takes on a different role. Check out Romans 3:21:

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.

The emphasis is mine and is meant to show that there is now something else, apart from [the] law, which brings righteousness. Verses 22-24 continue like this:

22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

So at this point, the purpose of the law becomes a bit different. Yes, the things in the law still identify sinful behavior, but that, if I've got it right, becomes pretty much the primary purpose so that we are able to see and understand when we are getting it wrong. But, we are no longer condemned by it--see verse 24 above.

Verse 23 above is the one I used to hide behind. My thinking at the time was that if "all have sinned and fall short" than it is inevitable that I will mess things up and it is seemingly expected of me. Not true. If a person believes that Jesus is indeed the son of God and that we can be saved through faith in Him, then we must also believe on the same authority that we CAN live our lives just as He did. Check out this bit from Hebrews, chapter 2. (yeah, I know we're talking about Romans, but this bit is important):

14Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Again emphasis mine, but the catch is that we will never be able to do it alone. We, being human and flawed (Paul calls himself "Wretched" in chapter 7, verse 24) just can't do it alone. It's not in our nature. Look at the first two verses of Romans 8:

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Look also at verses 5 and 6 from the same chapter:

5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

The emphasis in verse 6 is again mine, and I did that just so I could ask this question: what do you think Paul means when he's talking about "the new way of the Spirit"? I get from those verses that through the Spirit of Jesus, we are free from the "old way of the written code". Also note in verse 5 that Paul says that when were were controlled by sinful nature (which is in my opinion our natural state) we bore fruit for death.

We may have taken the long way around the bend, but can you see what I was getting at earlier? I certainly hope so, but if you don't then you should ask your pastor because the absolute last thing I want to do is lead anyone astray or confuse you more--that's bad mojo. If you don't have (or want) a church then I suppose you could find The Exchange at a local Mardel or even through the publisher, LifeWay.

Now, the final bit: all of this is purely academic if you don't believe. I find the whole book of Romans incredibly comforting in that I don't have to continue trying to live a Christian life on my own and suffer the inevitable failure. For me, this helps bolster my faith and belief. So much so, that this morning I was baptized. Yes, folks, at the tender age of 37, I finally came to the conclusion that baptism is an important spiritual "step" which I needed to take. And so did Aimee! So I'd like to thank all of our family and friends for the kind and gracious words of encouragement.

Next time, I promise we'll talk about something simple. Like thermodynamics.

Alright already...

2007-09-20T00:54:00.001-05:00

I guess if several folks in two different states suggest it's time for a new post then it must be true, right? Even if it's not, for the sake of our discussion, we'll accept that to be the case.

First off, I want to thank everyone who sent an email with musical suggestions. I appreciate you taking the time and you all came up with some really good stuff. Since then, I've managed to find a sweet internet radio station which keeps new material coming as well. In fact, if you haven't checked out The Blast.FM then you need to be all over that. Colin and the rest of the staff are dedicated to keeping us in "aggressive, progressive" music and they're doing a fine job of it. If you are using iTunes, go over to the Radio icon under the LIBRARY heading. Then, hit the Religious streams and sort by bit rate so the 128K stations are on top. They should be right there at the top of the list. If you're not down with Steve J. then you can go directly to their website and pick either a Winamp or Windows Media stream but remember: they eat up extra bandwidth which costs The Blast extra dollars. I can honestly say that I've not changed the "station" since finding that stream. It's that good.

Second, and I can already hear the moans and groans from the peanut gallery, this isn't going to be the post I've been wanting to do. In my absence from the cliché, I've been doing a lot of thinking and the topic which repeatedly comes to the front of my wee noggin is the difference between belief and worship. I've always believed in God, but only recently started to worship. I can only imagine how trite and contrived that must sound to some folks, but if you look at the wordweb definition of worship, it goes like this: Verb, Love unquestioningly and uncritically or to excess; venerate as an idol. In use as a noun, worship becomes "The activity of worshipping". So it's not like were talking about chucking virgins down the volcano here. Try this: get a pencil and paper (or hit START, RUN, type NOTEPAD and hit OK) and write down (or type) all the things you can recall saying "Man, I love xxxxx" where xxxxx is the object of your "love". I just bet you'll come up with stuff like "this show" or "my car" or maybe even "the pizza from that place on the corner". I catch myself doing it all the time and I don't think there's much of an issue here until we add that "to excess" part (which is actually a different post altogether) but what's important to remember is that none of those things will love you back. My point is that it is entirely possible to believe in something and accept its existence without ever going beyond that. So for along time, I've believed, and tried to be a good person in accordance with the old school Mosaic laws. Or at least what I understood of them. Even if you think you aren't familiar with the Mosaic law, I'm sure you are. Those are the laws which put a lot of people off Christianity right from the start. I am not just talking about the ten commandments here. There are many, many more listed in the first 5 books of the Old Testament, including those which make shrimp, lobster and rabbit (which are all, as we know, most delicious) non-kosher meals and a big no-no to Jews. A lot of people think of the law as the "you can't do this, you can't do that" part of the Bible. And for a time, that was true. It's a bit outside the scope of this particular post, but if you're curious about why I say "for a time" read Romans. Then read it again. (We've spent quite a bit of time covering Romans in Sunday school for just this reason). Conversely, a lot of Christians think of the law as a measuring stick for goodness and purity. This is also no longer the case--again, referring to Romans. Anyway, I spent a lot of time thinking that everything is cool as long as I believe in God and make sure that I keep my nose clean. BUT...there is nothing in that equation about worship or even love. And love is the key. What would you say about a guy who is always good to his family and friends, pays his taxes, gets to work on time, lives by our current laws, but then curses everyone he sees on the road for driving too slow, too fast, or just for the unspeakably heinous crime of getting in his lane? I bet if you take a stroll through my archives, you'll see that guy. And that, ladies and gents, is how I knew my system just wasn't working and, consequently, that is exactly what I told our pastor the very first time Aimee and I met with him. I said I didn't want to be "that guy" any more.

And that's what brings us back around to the difference between believe and worship. I believed for years without ever getting any of the benefits of worship. Which, to me, become evident in us when we strive to live that Christ-like life we talked about before. Granted, this is not something I expect to achieve overnight. After all, it took 37 years to get this far so I'll not be too upset if it takes some time to straighten out the mess I've made, as long as I keep making progress.

On second reading, maybe this is the post I wanted to do after all.

Really...It's a HYBRID!

2007-09-13T05:47:00.000-05:00

Now this is how people should use those high-dollar engineering degrees! Make sure to scroll all the way way down to the bottom, even if you don't read the entire article. I'm going to have to award bonus points for that one.

Talk about unfortunate...

2007-08-01T15:58:00.000-05:00

FOXNews.com - Dog Shoots Owner in the Back in Memphis, Tennessee - Local News News Articles National News US News

What do you bet this guy now understands the value of properly securing your firearms even if it's just him and the dog in the room?

Thanks to Chris S. for the link!

Yeah, I know...

2007-07-30T04:25:00.000-05:00

I know last time I said I would come back and we'd talk about why we're politically doomed in '08. But you know what? I just don't feel like talkin' politics right now. What I'd rather do is have a little fun. This is a photo I took at the IKEA last April when Aimee and I went down there to "lay in some supplies" and it smooth cracked me up. (Remember folks, since it's b&w that makes it fine art and not just a snapshot of a figure display at IKEA). What I would like to do is play "Caption This:" Use the comment field to post your submission. Here's the photo, and here's I'll start off with my submission: "Man Down at the Stick Figure Rave". Cheesy? You betcha. But pizza is cheesy and you LOVE pizza, dontcha? Have fun, peeps.

Random Weekend Nonsense

2007-07-15T23:49:00.001-05:00

AWWWW Yeah! Don't call it a come back, cause I never wa...wait a second. I think I've done that one before. Forget that. (Wouldn't it have been easier to delete that whole sentence, rather than asking you to forget?)

Anyway, we were about 9 minutes away from the "Day The Music Died". Well, at least it is NOW. By the time I get this all polished and published, it will most assuredly be much, much later. 8 minutes now.

Remember a while back I referenced the Internet Radio Equality Act which was supposed to put the copyright royalty board back in realityland with the rest of us? Someone finally figured out raising royalty rates 1200% wasn't going to be realistic, or even collectible, from smaller webcasters. Which is good news in that internet radio (which is the absolute bomb-diggity when it comes to 'radio' music) will not go silent tonight, but still bad news in that the greedy radio people are still going to figure a way to get their $$$hare from webcasters. And that's too bad, because these webcasters are the ones filling the gaping void left by commercial radio by bringing new, original tunes to the peeps--and that, as Martha is fond of saying, "is a good thing".

This is by far the corniest thing I'll say all day, but music truly is the soundtrack of our lives. I don't recall where I first heard that, but going on the cheese factor alone, it must've been on the front of a Hallmark sympathy card or something similar. Corny as it sounds, try this exercise: imagine a milestone in your life. Maybe your fist kiss, the first time you drove a car or even graduation day. Now, think for just a second. I bet you can recall the exact song on the radio or even the one playing in your head at that precise moment. For me, this association effect is so pervasive (and I bet it is for you, too) that I can hear a song today and be magically transported back through time itself to they day when I first heard that song. Obviously, music is a major part of lives. Which is why it becomes so important to me to find some good, positive music that won't put old Wayne to sleep. And if a single one of you suggests Stryper, Bloodgood or Whiteheart, you are officially off the Christmas card list! Well, not really, but I will have to subtract 2 "cool points" and put you on probation. And all of this brings us right back 'round to internet radio. There are exactly two Christian stations in/around OKC and I am grateful they are there, but keep in mind the goal of commercial radio: get as many listeners as possible. Which means play as wide a variety as possible. This becomes even more paramount if you're in radio ministry. I've heard some good stuff, but by the same token I've heard twice as much that does not suit my musical fancy. Which is not to say that they are not good musicians and performers doing a great job of ministry through music. It is only to say that I am not "feeling the vibe" if you will. Last week, I ran across (you guessed it) an internet station which was playing the "good stuff". I've already compiled a list of bands which I'll be checking out based on their singles.

So, if you haven't called your rep's take a few and make that call, won't you? (If you don't, I'm giving Sally Struthers your home phone number and you can explain your excuse to her!) Even if your rep is in DC, you can usually contact their local office and you won't be dinged for a long-distance call. Just tell them that you would like their serious consideration in co-sponsoring the IREA and make sure the staffer forwards the message to the DC office.

Well that's all I gots for now, peeps, so mark your calendar. No, not because I posted twice in less than a week. You may mark July 15th, 2007 as the day Wayne quoted Martha Stewart! Join us later this week as I try to find a polite and positive way to illustrate how DOOMED we are in November, 2008. My stomach turns just thinking about it.

She's Dead, Jim.

2007-07-13T02:25:00.000-05:00

I am, of course, referring to my muse. For the last 30-something days, I have had absolutely no motivation to post. Not like it was much of a mystery, but it is the honest truth. Nor have I even felt guilty about playing hookey. In fact, I've had so little interest in blogging lately that I haven't even been checking the comments, and I usually do that even if I don't post. I just haven't had it in me. But here we are and we've got a lot of catching up to do, so grab a cup of coffee, some dark chocolate and let's get stuck in.

It would not be much of a stretch to say I've been using my ham radio as an excuse, but I'd been trying to sort out some of the connections I thought I had fixed a while back. So for a good two weeks, that was the order of the day--looking at schematics for hours, then retiring to the garage to try to put it in practice. For the most part, I think I've got it. Mostly. But I still have, to use Aim's word, this "ugly" radio jammed in the the bottom pocket of my center console, powered by a lovely cig-adapter which is just looping around on the floorboard looking, well, ugly. So I spent about a week trying to locate the kit needed to remote-mount the radio under my seat but keep the control head and mic within easy reach. Turns out Yaesu didn't make many of these buggers and the ones which are left are now apparently worth about $35 an ounce if you can find one. In the end, I had to order the individual component-level parts which can't readily be fabricated or scrounged and they should be in this week so we'll see how that goes.

Another thing that's been keeping me thinking (as opposed to actually posting) is the amount of negative, angry things I've amassed here. Granted, mean posts often make the best reads, but do I really want to represent myself that way? Is that the image I want people who don't know me personally to take away from this little chunk o' the net? The more I think about that question, the more I have to say "no, it isn't". Even more so when I consider that the number 1 thing I listed on my "100 things" (which should probably be updated by now, but just won't be, ha!) is that I am a Christian. (I know what you're thinking: "Whoa great. Here it comes, Wayne's got religion"). Well kids, I have for some time. The problem, as I see it, is that I haven't always acted in a manner which would lead a stranger to believe that to be the case.

I've rarely discussed my religious beliefs (in an outright fashion, anyway) on this blog because it is always something that's been deeply personal to me and, if I'm truly honest with myself about it, perhaps even a bit of a mystery. Mysterious the sense of where do I really stand on Christianity as a whole? Until recently, I've been able to rationalize skipping church by using the excuse that churches are full of hypocrites, when perhaps it would be more accurate to say I didn't want to be one of the hypocrites in church. I'm over that and we've been attending a good ol' Southern Baptist church for about two months now and I can genuinely say I enjoy it. We've met some very nice people and I feel a sincere sense of welcoming every time we're there.

So here's the bottom line: a very simple definition of Christian is "Christ-like". To put it another way, if I may borrow a little something from our pastor, Christians should be striving to lead a Christ-like life, otherwise we're wasting our time. I think he's got a good point. I think of it this way: if I call myself a Christian, then, by the definition already given, shouldn't I be following His example? Part of Christ living a human life was to prove to us that it can be done the way it should be--by his own example. Again borrowing from the pastor, if it wasn't possible, then what would be the point of trying? Our own God would be setting us up for failure, right? I understand the whole question of religion in general is not going to be every one's cup o' tea and some may even wonder why I've made (most of) an entire post of it, but it's been on my mind a lot lately and that's essentially what this blog is about--what's on my mind. Yeah, I know doing a post like this is going to put some people right off their breakfasts and essentially label me a nutter from this time on, but that's OK. I'm still the same guy you know and love (admit it: you love me or you wouldn't still be checking after a month-long hiatus, now would you?) I'm just thinking about things a bit differently these days.

Well It's Official...Again.

2007-06-07T13:14:00.000-05:00

Rich people don't have to stay in jail. We already knew this, but it's always good to see it reinforced for us reg'lar folks.

Don't want to finish your sentence? No problem! Just develop a rash and you're free to go! Thank you, drive through. Oh yes, and here's your super-cool new ankle bracelet--I hear they're all the rage in Newark. Don't stray from home now, OK? Thanks again and one last thing: can I have your autograph? My daughter thinks you save us from our mundane selves.

That's how I imagined the conversation when they were out-processing her skankness.

I'm telling you, people, if we don't get the People's Republic of Gah-LEE-fournia to succeed, we're all gonna be doomed in the end!

Double-Dang!

2007-06-07T03:08:00.000-05:00

Can you guys believe it's June already? Jeez Louise, where does the time go? Do you remember when we were kids and it seemed an eternity just to survive those 9 months of school to get to the good stuff? Now it seems like I blink and a month has literally gone past. It's downright criminal, I tell you.

What have I been up to, you ask? Ham stuff. As Aimee pointed out, I have revolving obsessions. Most of them revolve anyway--firearms are a permanent OCD. So this is going to be the year of the ham, I suppose. After turning in that perfect score on the general test (you can view the exact test I was given HERE, then select the GENERAL radio button and pick test 3 from the drop-down menu) I've been very busy trying to build my "station"--aka "The equipment I'll use to conduct my bid for global take-over on the airwaves". So far, I've procured the aforementioned Kenwood TH-F6A tri-band hand-held transciever and I've just added my first dual band (2m/70cm) mobile. Getting that mobile, a Yaesu FT-8100, back up to snuff has been the order of the week. Turns out quite a few of those radios suffered from a common soldering failure where the tiny (and I'm talking crazy-small) connector which joined the volume/squelch sub-circuit board to the main circuit board came loose and caused intermittent operation or none at all. The previous owner of the radio had tried to correct this common problem by re-soldering the tiny plug back onto the main board. I guess he must've missed a trace because it didn't work for him. He was going to let me borrow the radio because (remember, it's a dual band radio) the other band's volume/squelch nob was not effected by this affliction. So, in essence, it was going to be half a radio. Given that it wasn't working anyway, I asked him if it was cool for me to give it a go. He agreed. I started in and gave it my best, but by the end I truly thought I had hosed it beyond hope by soldering two of the 6 pins together--they are insanely close together. But remember: it wasn't working on that band anyway. Thinking that it couldn't be any worse, I decided to go whole hog and de-solder the wee plug from the main board, clean the excess solder off the pins and get it back together. Sounds good, but 3 of the 6 solder pads actually came detached from the main board with the plug! Lovely. After a few choice words, I scraped the lacquer off the traces where the pads had come off and tried again. It seemed to hold, but since I have not yet wired the CR-V for power, I had no way of testing my repaired repair. I finally "engineered" a passable power supply from a wall-wart power adapter and it turns out I actually got it right! Surprise, surprise--I guess I still know a thing or two about soldering. Yeah, right. Anyway, the other problem with the radio is that the display back light is burned out. The reason? You guessed it: all 4 micro-sized bulbs are burned out. They apparently burned out in groups of two which is strange given that, according to the schematic, all 4 are wired in parallel. Whatever the case, they are burned (verified with a 10X loupe) which means a trip to radio shack in my immediate future to obtain replacements and solder those in place.

Some of you (well, the two of you still reading) may be wondering why I would spend good money on a rig with two known issues. Simple: economics. The comparable current production model is approaching 4 bills. According to the reviews, it is worth every cent. This predecessor has just about 98.7% of the features on the current radio but because of these 'personality flaws' I was able to pick it up for 1/4 of the price. Which is still half of the going rate for this radio on the eBay. I don't expect it to last for ever, but it should get me through 'til I can get enough cashahol saved or scrounged to get a high-frequency radio and that, as you may recall, is why I started all this madness in the first place. Why even mess with spending $100 on a radio that could've gone towards that HF rig? Well, there are a lot of hams who chew the fat on the local (VHF/UHF) repeaters and they are usually (as with any hobby there are a few freaks out there) a very good resource for what works, what doesn't and what is actually worth that hard-earned dollar.

I haven't joined any repeater clubs yet, but I will be attending my very first hamvention this weekend! Yes folks; get out the pocket protectors and red suspenders 'cause it's time to get geeky! A great site which illustrates exactly what I'm talking about is www.hamsexy.com. It's a seriously funny look at those hams who've taken it "too far" maintained by, you guessed it, other hams. You should take a few to check out their galleries as they are immensely funny. I'm about out of things to type for now, so just to whet your whistle, I'll leave you with this hamsexy gem!

(Very Brief) Random Weekend Nonsense

2007-05-29T05:08:00.000-05:00

Well that was a...weekend, anyway. Once again, I was on call for the holiday. Fortunately, no one called in sick this time.

Anyway, I put the smack-down on the general class test so as of some time last week, I am officially able to operate on the high-frequency (HF) bands. Which is why I did this whole ham thing in the first place. Now comes the fun part: picking a radio! I have pretty well decided which one I would like to get, but it's all a matter of saving. I intend on getting an very-high frequency/ultra-high frequency (VHF/UHF) mobile radio for the Honda first (hopefully in as little as two weeks, depending on how things go) then I'll start saving up for the HF rig. Then we put up an appropriate antenna across the roof or in the back yard and it's on! Sadly, VHF/UHF doesn't bounce around the ionosphere, so they are mainly only good for local communications (hence the desire for a long-distance capable HF radio) and even then most clubs put up a repeater to extend the range of mobile and hand-held radios. Last week I installed the antenna on the Honda and I must say it looks pretty sweet up there--in a very ham-geek kind of way.

As far as movies go, Employee Of The Month isn't bad if you are buying what Dane Cook is selling. I enjoyed it, but then again, I like painfully sophomoric, fart-joke movies from time to time. Also of interest, although not quite as good as I had hoped was Children of Men. It was shot in such a fashion as to keep you, the viewer, as much a part of the action as possible. The story was alright and I know there was supposed to be some deep, introspective and somber reflection on humanity as a whole in there, but I'm sure it was wasted on my public-school brain. Anyway, they're both worth a rent in my book, but I'm often easily amused.

Food Day Lives On!

2007-05-22T18:29:00.001-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages; come one, come all to the return of The Tour 3 Food Day!

This evening, we decided to have another food day to send off one of our newbies who has found more bountiful employment and will be leaving at the end of this week. Ordinarily, quitters should be shunned, but it's hard to blame someone for taking a higher paying position in his chosen field which is by far closer to his home. Don't get me wrong, we could easily harass him all day, but it just doesn't seem as rewarding as it used to.

There wasn't so much a theme this time, as much as a plan. We had one main course, smoked brisket, with baked beans, potato salad, macaroni salad, chili-cheese queso, 7 layer dip, and cheesecake. It was ALL good, and I think the original Food Night contributors who have since moved on to greener pastures would be proud even though there was only one dish with chilies of any kind!

I think we're going to have to do this again real soon.

Piper June: April 16th, 1997 - May 6th, 2007

2007-05-08T05:18:00.000-05:00

It pains me greatly to have to write this post, and those of you who know us well will understand exactly what I mean by that when I say our little Fatpup is no longer with us.

Piper first came in to our lives in the winter of 1998--January--the year after we purchased this house. She was born on April 16th, 1997 according to her papers, but we never registered her as we knew she would not be a "breeder". Piper was a happy, energetic, cheerful pup--at times perhaps too much so--and occasionally she was capable of incredible obstinance. She would chase the rabbits who had taken up residence under our deck until she had wore herself smooth out and would occasionally even catch one. After she'd had enough, she'd lay in the grass to cool off, in spite of developing an allergy to the seeds.

About a year after we got her, she contracted lyme disease from tics so amazingly tiny they could barely be seen. Our old vet (emphasis on old) misdiagnosed the symptoms, and it was almost the end of her. Aimee, tired of seeing her condition worsening, decided to take her to a different vet for a second opinion. Piper was correctly diagnosed and proceeded to make a very slow recovery. Unfortunately, her joints had become arthritic from the lyme disease but she was put on a combination of maintenance drugs that allowed her a fairly active lifestyle for a pooch who had just survived an 18-week course of antibiotics to get the lyme disease in check.

She got back to her old habits in short order and even managed to catch a rabbit or two from time to time, which is amazing given that she had gained enough weight to earn the nickname "Fatpup". In all fairness, it wasn't her fault. It was a combination of reduced activity from the arthritis and increased appetite from the prednisone. It was rather humorous to watch her trot around the shed chasing after a rabbit while the rabbit stopped occasionally to allow her to catch up! I'm not joking either--to this day I wish I had videotaped it.

Piper was mostly bark and very little bite, unless you were trying to clip her nails or happened to be an annoying child pulling her ears. Of course she never actually bit a child, but she did let more than one know she was bored of their attention. Overall, Piper was a very good dog and fiercely loyal to Aimee. I could leave for work every day and she'd barely raise an eyebrow, but if Aimee was gone for even 15 minutes, lookout! The few annoyances she displayed were easily overlooked when considering how much joy she brought to the both of us and for that she will be sorely missed. I find it absolutely amazing how quickly pets become such a large part of our lives, but I'm sure it has a lot to do with the unconditional love they bring to the table. Piper was not a "cuddly" dog, but she was a loving dog and it will take some time before we're used to life without her, although I never expected it would be quite so soon. We always knew having lyme disease and taking the maintenance drugs would be hard on her body and would ultimately shorten her life, but when the day came, the advance knowledge did not make it any easier.

Piper had an excellent life, considering the things she'd been through and lived with on a daily basis, and I am absolutely convinced that is all due to Aimee's tireless attention and care of that little dog. If Piper had landed on any other doorstep, she probably would not have survived the incorrect diagnosis--never mind going on to be the happy, loving, well-fed, pampered pooch she was. She will most definitely be missed.

FOXNews.com - Paris Hilton Sentenced to 45 Days in Jail for Probation Violation - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment

2007-05-04T21:49:00.000-05:00

FOXNews.com - Paris Hilton Sentenced to 45 Days in Jail for Probation Violation - Celebrity Gossip Entertainment News Arts And Entertainment

The headline says it all! What a refreshing way to start the weekend!

Kilo-Echo-5-November-Xray-Papa

2007-04-25T18:20:00.000-05:00

That's right, my wee kiddiewinkies. According to the FCC, I am now an officially licensed amateur radio operator! And it only took 13 days to become "official". For those of you unfamiliar with the international phoenitic alphabet, that call sign is KE5NXP. For the purposes of radio communications, that's how I'll have to indentify myself. For now, I'm limited to about half of the ameteur spectrum, but that will all change in about 2 weeks or so when I take, and pass, my General class exam. Then, the world is my oyster!

A picture emerges.

2007-04-19T03:11:00.000-05:00

Now that we've all seen the killer's face, watched his videos and have a hint of insight into this guy's demented world, I can honestly say there is one thing I find a genuinely perplexing about the brady paperwork. (In reality, the entire form is an exercise in futility, but hear me out).

Most of you have probably filled out at least one brady form so you know there are about a dozen questions you must answer before the dealer can call it in and get a "proceed, delayed or denied" response from the NICS folks. One of them goes something like this: Are you now, or have you ever been adjudicated mentally unstable? Obviously, this murderer lied. The thing is, we're seeing, that there was indeed a paper trail indicating that he was mentally unstable. There's another question on the form which asks if you've ever been involuntarily committed to a mental facility. Again, I think he lied. I haven't personally confirmed it, but I'm hearing reports that the university did something along these lines to him last year after accusations of stalking two women.

The crux of the matter is this: if you have a disqualifying felony on your sheet, they are GOING to find it 99.9998% of the time when they do the NICS check. Lie all you want, Big Brother will shut you down. Then arrest you for signing a fraudulent form. If you, like the killer, have a checkered mental history, who does the reporting on that? Last time I checked, medical records are absolutely 100% private. As in your spouse can't even get a peek without your permission. So if no one can access your medical records, or your college counselor's notes, how does the guy at the gun store know you're the guy who's getting ready for something like this? That's right--he has to take your word for it! And if the fed's are actually permitted to access those records, someone has some serious explaining to do.

"They" might take away my man card, my ccw and all my shootin' irons, but I'm actually going to put this in print: if these questions are going to be of any value at all, there needs to be someway to verify the answers. Either that or take them off the form. Without any method of verifying mental history with at least the same level of reliability and accuracy as a criminal record, those questions are absolutely useless because the genuinely crazy person never believes HE is the one with issues--it's always everyone else, isn't it?

Of course this is all purely academic. In this case the killer jumped through all the legal loop hoops required by his local, state and federal LE agencies but that is not usually the case. By and large, criminals buy guns from other criminals or steal them, circumventing the system in both cases. So at the end of the day, we're back at square one: laws don't stop crimes in and of themselves, they serve only to punish those who get caught. Sometimes. After seeing a little of the footage from this guy's media package received by NBC, I feel certain enough to say that if he had been denied the legal route for obtaining the murder weapons, he would've just picked up the paper or went to a gun show. This guy was going to do what he did no matter what. I think John Markell, the owner of Roanoke Firearms, said it best when he replied to Larry King by saying "If we've got twenty thousand gun laws, I don't think one more is going to make a difference. It wouldn't have stopped him. How many laws did he break when he killed all of those people?." (1)

2007-04-17T04:22:00.000-05:00

I don't even know where to start. Well, actually, I do. If you're a prayerful person, pray for the victims' families. If you're not, how about a moment of silence or meditation?

Now that's done, I still don't know what to say about the terrible and tragic events of yesterday. It is beyond my comprehension that someone could think that taking 32 lives is the answer. But if yesterday's atrocities were the answer, what could possibly be the question? I'm not 100% sure I really want to know.

Generally, people surprise me very little. When reading the headlines, I seldom see a story that makes me think "wow, didn't see that one coming". What does surprise me, however, is our apparent capacity for dehumanizing one another. I don't think a lot of us really see people as people any longer. People are seen as the guy who cut us off in traffic, or the lady who took the last box of sugar-coated choco-bombs at the grocery. Eventually, other people become the things that keep us from what we believe to be rightfully ours--whether that's correct or not. Or, on the other hand, it's quite possible I'm trying to rationalize something that could never have a rational explanation. It is not the rational man who shoots and kills 32 others before killing himself.

Probably the most disappointing post-script to this story are those out there who are already trying to figure out ways to twist this to meet their political agenda. Out of curiosity today, I checked the brady campaign website. Here's a little quote for ya:

"Details are still forthcoming about what motivated the shooter in this case to act, and how he was able to arm himself. It is well known, however, how easy it is for an individual to get powerful weapons in our country." (italics and emphasis are mine)

I'm sure local LE has not even finished cataloging the crime scene yet and already they're at it. You can read the entire thing for yourself and make up your own mind here.

Wha?

2007-04-13T06:01:00.000-05:00

Just so I'm perfectly clear on this: Don Imus uses a racial slur and he gets fired. ANY ONE of the 3.2 million rappers out there do the same and they get a recording contract? Why aren't Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton all up in Snoop's grill? Where's the outrage/boycott over the 245 billion times women have been called hos and bitches in song? Or would that be "beyotches"?

Maybe if Imus had rapped his comments he'd still have a job.

Greedy Buggers

2007-04-12T04:33:00.000-05:00

Generally, if I'm on the internet, I'm listening to internet radio through iTunes. Lately, I've been hearing a lot of promo spots on 1.FM's Channel X and Rock104 about the copyright royalty board's decision to basically bow down to the RIAA and effectively double the royalty rates for internet broadcasters when compared to the terrestrial crap-lords who push the same 15 canned songs over and over again. I find this so disturbing that I took the 15 minutes to go to SaveNetRadio.Org and use their link thingy to email rep. Tom Cole, and I highly recommend you do the same. But make sure to email your rep. I don't think Tom is going to really care if you happen to live in New Jersey.

If you haven't checked out what netradio has to offer, you need to go get a copy of Winamp or iTunes and start listening to (mostly) commercial free, very genre-specific radio stations. No matter what flavor you like, I guarantee you can find a station that suits your fancy, even if Hindi trance is what floats your boat. Mmmmmm. Variety without all the crap. Now that's worth 15 minutes of your time.

And in unrelated news, tomorrow is the big day! At 00:00 UTC on 13 April (which is actually the same as 7pm central on the 12th) I take the FCC's Amateur Radio Operator's exam. To prepare for this I've been doing practice tests for the last two weeks and I just took all 12 of them back-to-back at QRZ.com. Each test is 35 questions and each took me about 6 minutes. Average score for all 12 tests was 97.85% so I'm feeling pretty good about passing. To hedge my bets, I've made a list of all the questions I missed and will be reviewing them tomorrow before the test. After I pass, all I have to do is wait for my name/license to show up in the FCC's universal licensing database and I am clear for transmission. I've even procured my first radio: a Kenwood TH-F6A tri-band, hand-held transciever (ht). Yeah, it's a 'walkie-talkie' but it transmits on 3 of the bands I'll be allowed to work, has a second wide-band receiver (that picks up everything except cellular) and it's smaller than a deck of cards. It is one of the best-rated ht's available and K5SNG hooked me up with a suh-weet deal on the radio, spare battery pack, quick charger, accessory mic, programming cable and carry case. I can hardly wait.

Not really sure...

2007-04-10T02:49:00.000-05:00

about a title on this post, but it should probably include something about an UNreal 5 million dollar house and cheesy bathroom mirror self-portraits. Either way, enjoy these sweet vacation pics. The house is on Preston Road and is the absolute shiz.

And somehow, it failed to impress.

2007-04-04T00:55:00.000-05:00

Well, we made it to the Beretta gallery. It was not at all what I expected. Imagine a disgustingly overpriced clothing boutique. With some guns. And I'm not talking about the regular guy guns you and I buy, I'm talking about those super-fine, double guns that cost what you and I pay for a car or even a house. In keeping with the overpriced theme, even the one small case of regular guy guns were every penny of the MSRP. Usually, most retailers take MSRP as a guideline and price accordingly to allow the best sales vs. profit margins for their areas. I guess I should've know when I looked across the street and saw the Jimmy Choo marquis. Seriously, even the magazines were $39.99 for regular and $60.00 for the 20-rounders that go in my CX4 carbine. Here's a perfect example: last weekend, I bought a Beretta weekender ball cap at Outdoor Outfitters in OKC. Price: $12.00 plus tax. The same navy weekender ball cap at the gallery was $20.00 plus tax--the full MSRP. Now I'm all about brand loyalty, but when the cheapest t-shirt they carry is $24.00, they can keep it. That same money would be better spent on ammunition or even a spare mag or two. The most ridiculous item? A pair of chrome-plated snap-caps for $35.00. I guess the little jewelry-style presentation box was included.

Needless to say there were no pictures made. I would've felt like a certified 'tard snappin' pics at the shopping mall because, for all the hype at Berettausa.com, that's what it was--a glorified (and insanely overpriced) shopping mall suite.

Once we made it back up Preston Rd to the IKEA (by way of Whole Foods) all seemed right again, and I did take time to make some goofy pics. Sadly, I forgot to bring the CF card adapter or even a USB cable, so they are stuck in the camera until I get home.

I can smell the vacation from here. or is that Texas?

2007-04-03T00:16:00.001-05:00

I think it must be both. Yes indeed, wee kiddiewinkies, it is time once again for the annual IKEA pilgrimage. I expect this will continue until they have the decency to build one in OKC or Tulsa. They really need to build it in Norman, but I'm not holding my breath.

Another fine reason for a trip south this week is to visit the Beretta Gallery in Dallas. It's about 16 miles down the street from where I sit typing, and I am looking forward to that like a kid on Christmas morn. If it's permitted, there will be lots of photographs and you'll get to see the best of them as soon as I'm able to publish. Maybe tomorrow night; but then again I may be smooth wore out from walking all day.

I had a super great weekend--spent most of it shooting the new Baby Cougar and teaching some wee nippers about the finer points of target shooting. Mainly because Funky-Fresh D was in town this weekend and he has about 34 nephews. We had at least a half-dozen shooters out there ranging in age from 8 up to 16 and they all had a blast. And yes, they were all briefed in proper handling of firearms, provided earplugs and eye protection and I personally stood at the line with each shooter to make sure they conducted themselves in a safe and responsible manner.

Well, peeps, I gots to hit the sack. Tomorrow morning is going to come way too early. I still can't believe people maintain these hours of their own free will.

Another case for the ham license...

2007-03-29T17:22:00.000-05:00

A tornado just rolled through west OKC/Yukon. My most honoralbe and esteemed ham newbie lives in the affected neighborhood. All the phone lines and cell towers are down, but he was able to establish communications with everyone in his ham 'group' on the first attempt.

Food for thought, folks.

I'm gonna be a HAM!

2007-03-28T03:34:00.000-05:00

Some of you may already think this to be the case, but I'm going to make it official. After much prodding, encouragement and a blatant display of super-sweet, ultra-geeky communications gear by one of my most honorable and esteemed newb's, I am going to take, and pass, my FCC amateur radio operator test. In fact, I just finished about 9 practice tests--it took that many for me to ace one. I am averaging between 85 and 95 percent on each of the practice tests depending on the amount of frequency related questions they ask. I still haven't memorized all the bands, but I'm getting there.

"Why", you may ask, would anyone want to be a ham in this day and age of instant interweb gratification? Simple: it is beyond cool. It almost seems strange to say a technology as old as radio is cool, but to me, it is. Think about this: if you're power goes out, your interwebs are gone. BUT...if you are a licensed ham, you just grab the battery-powered transciever and you are good to go! I can't believe more people aren't interested in amateur radio. You may have to humor me a bit, but I find the ability to use a transmitter, perhaps even a home-brew rig, to bounce a high-frequency signal off the ionosphere to another continent pretty flippin' cool. I know, I know, you're internet connection will allow you to communicate with that same country, but that's like frozen lasagna. Sure, it's still fat noodles, tomato sauce, beef, sausage, cheeses, herbs and spices, but is it really lasagna?

In reality, and quite by accident, this all started about 20 years ago. My junior year in high-school I opted to attend Mid America vo-tech (in good ol' Wayne, OK) at the absolute last minute. I was trying to be placed in a class with one of my best buds, but due to the last-minute nature of my decision, our principal ended up calling the admissions people instead of me filling out the correct paperwork. Net result? Our buddy Mr. West enrolled me in the wrong class! Instead of attending basic electrical whatever with Billy Huffman, I started communication electronics--which was supposed to teach us how to service and install VHF/UHF communications gear. What it actually taught me was basic electricity and electronics accentuated with the many different ways one can cause a capacitor to detonate. I also remember our freakishly eccentric instructor had a pretty nice radio shack set up in the parts room and, on occasion, if we finished a module early, he would let us chat with the other hams in the area. In any event, I barely scraped through that class, but it was interesting enough that I decided to try avionics in the military when I signed up for Uncle Sugar's canoe club--and loved it. Too bad Uncle Sugar was the one signing the checks or I might still be working on aircraft.

Until now, the only thing that has been any kind of deterrent towards getting my license was the 5wpm Morse code test, but now that the FCC has dropped that requirement (and the novice class license) I am officially out of excuses. And the cost? A whopping $14 application fee! Considering the license is valid for 10 years, that comes to about a buck-forty a year and in my book, that's a bargain.

Mmmmm. Berettalicious!

2007-03-15T04:20:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick question and an equally quick post: why would anyone buy a block 26 when they could have a Mini Cougar? There isn't that much difference in the two dimensionally, although the Cougar is indeed the heavier of the two by a good half a pound. I suppose some folks have to get a block and others have to get a Beretta (and still others, a S&W or Springfield). I ran across THE deal last month on a brand new-in-box Mini in 9mm and I had to get it. I'm sure it would've been a felony, had I let it pass. Technically, it's an early birthday present from me to me (the best kind!) but because Aimee's so super cool, I don't have to wait 'til next month to knock the new off it.

Now don't get me wrong, I've owned a block myself, and I traded it for...that's right...my first Beretta. That should tell you something. You may now bask in the glow of a pistol that's been patiently waiting 10 years for me to give it a loving home.

Tasty...

The Glorious and Triumphant Return of Random Weekend Nonsense!

2007-03-11T20:37:00.000-05:00

Once again, my friends, it is time for a (much overdue) installment of Random Weekend Nonsense!

Let's start with some movies, shall we? Let's talk about 300, for a minute or twelve. Some of you may know the original story. Some of you may even know the meaning of the catchy "Molon Labe!" battle cry given by the Spartans. Sadly, these are better than the actual movie. Now don't get me wrong, the movie is just fine for what it is, but it fails to exceed one's expectations. It was exactly what you would think from seeing the previews--nothing more and nothing less. The action scenes are indeed FILLED with action and the use of almost heavy-metal like music as a score for the battle scenes lends them a bit of added urgency and tension. But in the end, it's still all super gore-filled, body parts flying around, c.g. enhanced super slo-mo. The funniest part, and I know this was unintentional, was the love scene between Leonidas and Queen Gorgo. Of course, the entire thing was shot in ultra-sensual slo-mo (which differs only slightly from the gore-filled super slow-mo) which means that everything they did was exaggerated and more than a bit corny. If you can take my word for it, you should probably wait for this one to come out on video. Or wait until a friend brings it over. We also watched and The Departed and the The Black Dahlia this weekend. Only one of them is worth watching; can you guess which one? I'll give you a hint: Don't ever look directly at The Black Dahlia. Not as a dare, not even to see if it's really "that bad". Because it is. I promise. It practically smacks of Pearl Harbor (2001 version) for more than one reason. First off, both are trying to tell two separate and distinct stories at the same time and fail on both accounts. Second, they both have Josh Hartnett, but that may just be coincidence. TBD starts out like a cop story about the Dahlia murder. But then it becomes a very strange and twisted love triangle, just like Pearl Harbor, and in the end Josh Hartnett gets the other guy's girl. Just like Pearl Harbor. The most important thing they have in common is that you should not ever look directly at either one. Ever. Is that clear enough? Oh, and the final straw against TBD is that the screenplay is an entire fabrication built around the true murder of Elizabeth Short. Fittingly, both earned a low 5.X rating on the IMDB. It's a very good thing we didn't pay for that one. This leaves us with The Departed. SPOILER ALERT! WARNING: IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET BUT PLAN TO, SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH. Which should have been called EVERYONE GETS SHOT. Actually, I liked it. It was good enough, in fact, that I can forgive that no-talent hack, Jack Nicholson, played a principle character. I know, I know--I'm the ONLY guy in America today that thinks Jeff Goldblum plays Jack Nicholson better than Jack Nicholson, but it's true. I find his performances to be lackluster in every respect, and he is always the exact same guy, no matter what role. Which is not good when one considers that all his roles can be likened to his performance in The Witches of Eastwick. Blech. Anyway, the rest of the cast is absolutely superb, especially Matt Damon and, dare I say it, Leo DiCaprio. I was beginning to wonder about old Leo after The Aviator, but it's nice to know it was the movie that was all stinky and not Leo. Mark Wahlberg is so convincing an ass that I truly wanted to smack him after only 5 minutes, and you get a nice little bonus in Ray Winstone's character: Mr. French. Excellent bit of casting on that one. The climax is a bit of a departure in that EVERYONE gets shot. The good guys, the bad guys--everyone. The story is solid and well written, and it is actually worth the price of rental.

Now, in other news, the .45 is essentially complete. I fired 100 rounds a few weekends back to test it and it worked maaahvelously. At first. Then I found that the flange on the recoil spring guide was banging around and galling the front of the slide rails, eventually getting itself wedged in there pretty solidly. Last weekend, I got in there and radiused the edges and gave them a proper polishing to eliminate that problem. I still need to test fire it again to make sure it's really fixed, so that may take a while but once it's done, it'll be time for parkerizing. And while we're on the topic of guns, I'm still awaiting the return of my Beretta parts from Tripp Research, Inc. You see, I never liked the look of those black parts against the Inox finish on that pistol. Since it was a used purchase, any REAL collector value is pretty much shot (pun intended) so I decided to have the black parts of that pistol, except the Novak sight, hard chromed. The other option, which is quite popular, is hand polishing those parts AFTER removing the black finish. That sounds like a great idea at first, but I've read on the Beretta bb that some guys have spent literally 3-4 hours on just the safety lever alone! Obviously that is one of the more complex parts to polish, but I figure if I spent 3-4 hours on it at $20 an hour (and I really think my leisure time is worth MORE than that) than that's a minimum of $60 for ONE PART, and I sent 10 parts to Tripp. They charge $6 per each small part! Six flippin' dollars! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which is the more cost effective way to make those parts shiny. But seriously, hard chrome is the way to go. It is by far more durable a surface treatment than polished carbon steel and it's corrosion resistance is the whatup by comparison. It should be the super-sweetness when I get the parts back. My only hope is that I'll still be able to remember how to re-install them!

Well that's all I have for now, so I'll leave you with this deep thought (not affiliated with Jack Handey) until next time: why do democrats (Carolyn McCarthy in particular) still believe that banning a rifle based on its appearance is going to have any effect at all on gun crime in America? Hmmm, I guess that's not really so deep after all, is it?

Perhaps a bit more info is in order here...

2007-03-07T02:57:00.000-06:00

After reading that last round of comments, I feel perhaps a little bit o' history is required and it would be far too long for the comment field. And if I'm honest with myself, it's been far too long since my last long-winded, digression-filled, meandering post. So here goes:

Once upon a time, Aimee needed a new car--after the Taurus gave up the ghost. Well, it still ran, just not very well and we felt it was on the verge of a complete mechanical failure or a very expensive repair. Rather than waiting for either to happen, we donated it to some cancer charity or something. Keep in mind that while the I always thought the Taurus was a sweet ride (and Aimee extra-cool for being unique enough to sport such fine piece of gear) Aimee always thought it was just too big. After checking out the Civic, the CR-V and a few others, she decided on the Integra. I didn't really do much checking on the cars in question because this was going to be Aimee's car so she should get to choose the model, but the CR-V stuck in my mind. I think we even test drove one, but I was put off that Honda did not offer an available V6, since the under-powered Ranger 4 cylinder was still fresh in my mind. Obviously, Aimee didn't get the CR-V, but still it stuck with me.

Over the last few years, I've been checking the Honda website to see how they were changing the CR-V to keep up with the RAV4 (which was/is uber-ugly) so when they redesigned the body in 2002, I was sure right then that I needed one. However, I didn't really think I would be able to do so because of the smaller cargo capacity. Now, fast forward to the crash. When they initially did the estimate, I was sure it was going to be a total loss based on the numbers the body shop guy provided. So we started doing research on the vehicle to replace the BBT. As already noted, it was decided that just buying a replacement F150 would be a waste of money that would have to be rectified somewhere in the future. This rationalization kind of cleared the way to investigate all options.

I decided that a domestic vehicle would not do. There is too much depreciation and have seen too many of them simply fall apart. And not just the Berettas and Escorts. Then there are the issues of union labor and politics involved with the big 3 that I'm not even going to touch today. But in the end, it came down to RELIABILITY, attention to detail, quality, innovation, and function. Which, sadly, cuts out not only the big 3 (in my jaded opinion) but also anything from BMW, Mercedes and most offerings from Mazda and Mitsubishi. This left two: Toyota and Honda. Of the two, we were seriously considering the Toyota Tundra double-cab, the Honda Pilot and finally the CR-V. After doing a LOT of looking around and emailing dealers we found the Pilot and Tundra to be just far enough over the price line to narrow it down to a CR-V, which was just ducky with me. Sure, we'll have to make some changes like having lumber and other large items delivered or borrowing a truck from time to time but I think for about 90% of what I do--which is mostly drive to work--the Honda will be perfect. I've already figured fuel's going to cost about 50% less than The One-Fitty and it's by far easier to drive and park. The ride is freakin' luxurious, comparatively speaking, and I absolutely love the seats! I know that sounds kind of simple, but after 9 years of a bench seat with NO frills whatsoever, adjustable buckets are the absolute shiz. And while I'm thinking about it, here's the deal on the "four-wheel drive" thing: technically it is a four-wheel drive vehicle. In actual operation, it's more like a part-time all-wheel drive, which pretty much negates the need for some big ol' mudders. The way it's designed is such that during normal operation, it's front wheel drive all the time. If the system senses the front wheels spinning, it routes some of the power to the rear wheels via a super-nifty hydraulically actuated multi-plate clutch. The faster the fronts spin, the more pressure the system applies to the clutch which, in turn, applies more torque to the rear drive shaft. Simple, automatic, ingenious. The only problems with this particular configuration are that one can't manually engage the multi-plate clutch and if you overheat said clutch, you're fresh out of four-wheel drive until the whole thing cools down. Front-wheel drive is, of course, still available. The reason this is important to me is that I've spent entirely too much time trying to get out of our parking lot at work after an ice or snow storm and I'm not playing that again.

There are some downsides. The aforementioned cargo space is waaaay down, but that's how it goes. It was more expensive than a domestic, but by the time you add all the options to a domestic car that the Honda has as standard (like VSA, 4WD, in-dash 6-disk changer, 6 speaker audio, 16" alloy wheels, etc) it is pretty much nil--and you only buy quality once. The biggest gripe I've got about the vehicle as a whole is that, to my knowledge, Honda offered only ONE interior color choice. If you want a black exterior on an 05, you got a black interior. Period. I guess it's a good thing I don't currently reside in south Texas, huh?

All in all, I am 100% convinced that I got the right vehicle for the job and I plan on driving this one until I hit 200K. Provided someone doesn't crash it for me first!

Well, that took long enough.

2007-03-05T03:13:00.000-06:00

The saga of The Big Black Truck is officially over. It took 4 weeks, but it's a done deal. I was hit on the 22nd of January and I was mobile again as of the 24th of February. I'm still not exactly sure why it took so long to get all the details worked out, but in the end I'm very happy...with my '05 Honda CR-V!

Aw yeah. I decided to call the body shop on the 22nd to see what was holding up the works, fully expecting them to tell me the truck was buttoned up and ready to go. Not so, wee kiddiewinks. Their question was "Has your insurance adjuster called you yet?" Obviously not, if I'm calling you. I still don't know why this wasn't discovered when they were doing the frame measurements the first time, but I was told the passenger side of the axle housing was bent a full inch. And while the frame can be tweaked, the housing can not. So Saturday the 24th was car-shopping day. Obviously, I wasn't going to be able to find another F-150 for $6800--what they gave us after deductible--that was in the same mechanical condition as mine, so we decided it would be better to just go ahead and get something new-ish. The other option being to get something not-so-newish and then replace it when the house is paid off, but why throw good money at a bad vehicle just to replace it later? I'll spare you the long version and just tell you that we were able to find exactly the vehicle I wanted at the first stop! We figured it would be an all-day ordeal driving all over Norman, OKC and Edmond just like when we bought the Acura.

I guess after reading all this, you deserve a nice pic or two of the most amazingly outstanding vehicle on the face of the planet--my '05 CR-V! In Nighthawk Black Pearl, of course.

Well, they're at it again.

2007-02-15T17:22:00.000-06:00

Once again, the brainless ninnyhammers are on their soapboxes. And, as usual, getting it wrong. This raving nutbag purposes that somehow, the RIFLE was the issue, and not the SHOOTER. I've said it before and I'll say it again: blaming guns for gun violence is like blaming flies for feces. If you read this woman's site, you can see that she just doesn't get it--she actually says that gun-owners don't use the AK-47 for home defense! Is she serious? Then she admits that the shooter purchased the gun LEGALLY. Meaning that there was no reason to deny his NICS check. Ergo, no felonies, no drug addictions, no dishonorable discharge, not a fugitive from justice nor any of the OTHER 10 questions you have to answer on a brady form. So essentially, this guy jumped through all of the legal hoops required by Uncle Sugar and proved the point that bad people do bad things with guns NO MATTER how many laws you put in their way! Stupid, idiot, asinine, backwards thinkers really get my goat. I'm sure she's a lovely lady when she's off work, but I'm so mad I'd punch her right in the face!

Oh yeah, HERE's the link.

It's finished, but not finished.

2007-02-12T04:26:00.000-06:00

Yes indeed! Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, the M1911A1 MEU(SOC) replica .45 is finished! But, as noted earlier, not finished. Meaning that 99% of the file work and fitting is done, but I have yet to put a nice, even, black parkerized finish on the beast. The remaining 1% just the tiniest bit of touch-up work on the grip safety tang to make sure it doesn't drag on the trigger bow. Then, the absolutely-last thing will be to put the ejector back on (I removed it to fit the frame rails to the slide) and make sure it doesn't protrude from the back of the slide now that it's been contoured to match the end of the frame. Technically, I still have to make sure it feeds and ejects with dummy rounds to absolutely certain it really is fitted correctly prior to firing with live ammunition. All that aside, tonight's goal was to correct the problem of the slide binding at the end of its travel and that is done. It seems the slide rails internal cuts were made too short, so they were pinching and sticking at the end of the slide's travel. How did I know it was the slide? Simple; I put a different slide on my frame and it went just fine but when I put my slide on the other frame, it was would stick every time.

Right now it's not the most attractive piece of hardware, since all the filing and polishing I've done is plainly visible, but it's all done by your's truly. There's only one more part to buy, sadly, and that's a slide stop. I had an extended one laying around from the Norinco experiment and did a LOT of file work on that bad daddy to smooth it up all those hard angles, lighten it a bit and change the shape so it matched the thumb safety. The problem here is that I did all that file work BEFORE I checked it to make sure the pin portion would keep the barrel in battery. It's probably usable like this, but if you push down on the barrel hood it will drop just enough so you can feel it. The issue is that the pin portion is not 100% perfectly round and that allows it to drop just every so slightly. The simple solution is to buy one that is machined rather than cast because it will be as close to round as you can get. Easy fix, but still another $20 bill.

Sometime this week, I'll drop the off to have the engraving done. So far, I have 25.1 hours invested in this project, so I don't even want to think what a real smithy would've charged for it. With the parkerizing and any last minute tweaks, I hope to come in under 30 hours total. I expect built another, I could cut about 25% off that just because I know what to expect. Will there be another one? Maybe. I think I'll just focus on this one for now and see what happens. So then, without further delay, feast your eyes on The .45!

I almost forgot!

2007-02-10T05:10:00.000-06:00

Now that the bedroom is finished, you need to see the picture! Sorry about that. Bow down to Aimee's mad design skills! And give it up to Kelly, who was kind enough to brave IKEA and then ship us the orchid prints. Thanks Kelly, you rock.

A Tale of Two Estimates

2007-02-03T03:15:00.000-06:00

As the saying goes "There's good news...and there's bad news". The good news is that it appears The Big Black Truck may one day soon ride again! The bad news is that the woman who hit me had insurance, but not at the time of the collision! In fact, her company had canceled her policy 5 days prior to the accident. 5 flippin' days. Once the matter of whose insurance would be paying was settled, it was all about costs.

I took the BBT last Monday to Norman Body Works for an estimate and their number was $4922.62 for parts, labor and paint. Keep in mind, this is using "recycled" parts (except for the bed) which is super-PC code for used parts. And I'm alright with that, so long as they are made by Ford. Now here's where it gets a little iffy: the KBB value of my truck in its current condition (super-great) with 61,783 miles on is around $6635. Our insurance agent informed me (prior to the estimate) that USAA considers costs above 70% of the estimated retail value, but then the adjust appraised it around $6800. Which would mean that after $4760 in body work, the truck would be considered a total loss. Ah, but wait! The same adjuster came out to work last Tuesday and looks over the damage, hmmms and hahs a bit then decides they should be able to fix it for $3900 or thereabouts. He even printed out a nice little estimate list right there in his "car office" complete with the names and addresses of the yards who're supposed to have the parts. Great.

So I take the estimate down to the NBW last Wednesday and leave the truck with them. All good, right? Well, maybe not. The majority of the money the adjuster saved on his estimate can be attributed to using a recycled bed side, supposedly at a yard in Midwest City. I called the body shop Monday to see how things are progressing and they tell me they haven't been able to locate the recycled bed side at the yard spec'd, or any of 9 others, and are waiting on a return call from the adjuster. Great. If they have to use the new one the cost will jump $500 right then and there and if that happens, it doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. I decided to call the adjuster to see if he'd been in touch with the body shop (earlier today) but he never called back.

All I really want is the truck fixed so we don't have to pick up another car payment. Don't get me wrong, a new Honda would be extra-super-luxuriously sweet, but so would 2 or 3 years without car payments. I'll let you know how things pan out tomorrow night. Provided I'm able to reach someone.