With A Rebel Yell, She Cried Yuppie Yuppie Yuppie

Due to the flooding occurring in Davenport Iowa, a motorcycle event was moved from the river up to the Missouri Valley Fairgrounds.  We ended up driving by that area on our way out of town and witnessed a huge number of bikers converging on the area.   I didn’t find this too ironic until we started getting close to the Black Hills and you probably guessed it… Sturgis.  So our trip (from the very start to our return trip) allowed me to observe the biker community.  I do not ride myself, but always intrigued by those who do.  When I was growing up there was really two camps – those that rode the Harley lifestyle and those who preferred the laid back luxury of the Honda Goldwings.  To be honest, I really didn’t see these two groups mixing much which probably led to my surprise at the number of “mixed” groups I was seeing on the road – The standard Harley crowd, mixed with the Honda crowd, interspersed with the Victory and Indian owners with a few crotch rocket riders.  (ironically the Dark Custom Harley commercial just came on the television)… one thing that stuck out, was the impression that none of these bikes were the low end machines.  As I was looking at the chrome and huge amount of accessories it occurred to me that motorcycle marketing must have transformed themselves.  Somehow they are winning over high bread makers who want to either live the weekend lifestyle or the biker lifestyle is transforming themselves into corporate management.  I’m not sure which way the change is happening, but what I do know from looking at the Harley website, some of these bikes are costing more than SUVs. 

I also had another observation that help drive this home while out in South Dakota.  We had stopped in Custer State Park to have a little picnic lunch when an individual rode up to the wayside on a nice looking Harley Davidson – chrome all over the place and decked out in all sorts of sidebags and lights.  The guy was dressed in a leather vest, leather chaps and a skull themed dew rag.  He steps off the bike and turns off his docked iPod, pulls out his GPS and flips open his iPhone.  I then looked on his passenger seat and noticed a laptop cased strapped into the rear bar.  No tattoos, no earrings – a quick wardrobe change and he could’ve been my CIO.  Hats off to the Harley marketing arm.

Taking “Green” to New Heights

I am sooo far behind on this month’s blogs!  I actually recently came back from a vacation out in the Black Hills of South Dakota which had its good points and bad points, but the difficult part was the Verizon Air Card would not work in a number of places we were at.  As a result, I had to capture a bunch of notes in hopes of making posts upon my return… well, I’m back and time to get down to work.

On our way out we headed through Davenport as we trekked up northwards to get around the massive flooding throughout Iowa.  So much flooding, in fact, that they shut down US80 – our planned main route out West.  As we drove through Davenport we started seeing an extremely odd scene.   Granted there has been a lot of rain pouring down up there, but I never expected to see weeds and grass growing out of house gutters.  At first, I figured it was just an abandoned house or something, but a block down I noticed it again, another couple of blocks and there it was again.  I can’t really figure out how this really happens.  Based on the type of shingle there may be some grit building up in the bottom of the gutter and in some situations I could see  a leaf buildup, but I’m entirely sure this is sufficient for plant growth…. and then a mass of seeds needs to be sprinkled on the area to produce the plants/weeds.  I am currently fighting with my new lawn to maintain last year’s seeding – apparently I need to lay down a covering of asphalt and leaves first based on the height of the gutter foliage. 

Then again, it could be another victim of Global Warming propaganda and the homeowners are actually planting grass on their rooftops in order to become GREENER.  Oh, and this just in.. Al Gore’s energy use went up 10% this year.

No Pain, No Checkmark

So I may have mentioned previously, I have a “Life List”… I use that name because it sounds a little more positive than “Bucket List” or “Death List” or any number of other names that people refer to their set of things they want to accomplish during their lifetime.  My list usually refers to physical challenges or achievements I use to challenge myself.  I generally do not give a timeframe for them, but often the activity requires a certain age level, preparation or sequence of events to complete the task.  Without a doubt, there are few moments I cherish as much as when I get to take that spreadsheet out and place a little checkmark and date next to an entry.  two weekends ago I had the opportunity to make such a check – so alongside the black belts in martial arts, completion of the Bix 7 mile race and learning to Snowboard (to name a few) I now get to add the following:

Steamboat IL Toughest 15K

I started running sometime back in order to complete the Bix 7 entry.  I’ve been pretty much running ever since with the sole purpose of being ready compete in every Bix since then.  In the meantime I would catch the various 5Ks and would catch the Peoria SteamBoat 4 Mile (IL’s Fastest 4 Mile) in preparation for the treacherous 7 Miles of hills at the Davenport IA Bix.  At the halfway point of the Steamboat 4M, I would make the turn and head back to the start while all of the 15Kers started their trek up into the hills.  For some reason, I convinced myself on the way back that I needed to complete the 15K so I could prove Continue reading No Pain, No Checkmark

Relevance Lost

I was waiting for a light to change yesterday and for some unknown reason started thinking about things that are no longer relevant to me.  I have no idea what initiated this self discussion, but it literally kept me entertained for the entire 50 minute drive I was in the midst of.  I figured I would put up a list of things that came to mind at the time…. I’ll likely update this in the coming months as I identify more and more items.  I also went ahead and added a new category – Ramblings – to organize these random thoughts.  What things are irrelevant to you these days?

  • Health Clubs – I became tired of traveling to workout and being subject to poser after poser – I think the guy standing in the aerobics room with a weight belt on and lifting gloves watching the women work on cardio was the tipping point  – that and having to pay a family rate even though I didn’t have any kids)
  • Nicole Kidman – finally removed from my exception list – have you seen her lately?
  • Music Cassette Tapes – I’ll go ahead and include albums and eight tracks along with the related player units
  • Sony Walkmans – I have a 1×3 inch 1G Nano that holds my running music these days
  • TV Dinners – My wife broke me of those
  • School Exams
  • Skateboards
  • Church – at least physical buildings

Continue reading Relevance Lost

The News Not Worth Reporting

So yesterday I was getting ready to take on the day with hopes of getting a good 15K run in along with some badly needed yard work.  By basic routine these days, I flipped on the TV as some background noise and a final check of the weather.  To lazy to worry about changing the channel, I left it on CNN Headline news which I interpreted to be “headline news” or “news I should care about”.   Here are the first three stories I was subjected to:

  1.  101 year old is still driving around her Cadillac
  2.  A pressing concern because Scott McClellan will not say whether he is still a Republican or not.  … yeah, the guy who waits till election year to claim “it’s not my fault” and try to make a few bucks off an election year drama
  3. Wife of San Francisco guy who hired a naked maid off of Craig’s List (and surprisingly stole $40 grand or so) believes the trust is gone in their relationship – complete with shadowed room interview.

 That was three leading stories which means there were at least 6 commercials for tax resolution lawyers, 3 commercials for ambulance chasing lawyers, 4 commercials for how to get a free mobility chair from the MediCare, 2 head ache commercials and the garden cultivator which consists of sticking a paint mixing bit on a drill and then sticking it in pre-tilled potting soil.  All that for three stories… correction.. three HEADLINE stories.  … Find Remote, Click Remote…. I can get better written stories, more pertinent to the real issues I care about and not be inundated with stupid *ss commercials by simply logging into my computer and checking my RSS Feeds. 

I will not be wasting my time with Robin anymore I’m no longer buying their fabricated drama.  Ironically, I was reading the paper waiting for my dogs to take their agility runs today and there was the answer in black and white… Iraq violence is at a near low… they apparently have nothing to talk about since that is contrary to their drama, conflicting with their agenda.  So instead of reporting the successes, we get the naked maid and resulting infidelity concerns.

sad.

The Fluffy Twins (Part 9 of Many)

I was just sitting here watching the TapOut show on Vs and decided to go ahead and make another blog entry.  If nothing else, it will bring a little balance to my karma since I have managed to sit through two UFC shows, a WEC show before the TapOut show… okay okay, I’m a MMA junkie, but having spent a number of years on the mats and striking the bags, it tends to stick with you.  So what better way to compensate than to add an entry on my fluffy friend(s) the Downy Woodpecker.

There are two twins (one male and one female) that have been visiting my feeders from the first day I put them up.  Actually, I have had the privilege of watching them slowly mature and they feel like an adopted part of the family.  Here is a baby picture of the male:

Downy Woodpecker

Both of them are very laid back and have never been aggressive to other birds or care if there are other birds feeding at the same time.  They did struggle a little bit at first because they couldn’t figure out how to actually get at the seeds on the big feeder.  They would latch onto the side and keep pecking at the side.  The female was the first to understand how to use the openings and then eventually the male figured it out.  Here is the female as a baby really submerging herself in the feeding process:

Continue reading The Fluffy Twins (Part 9 of Many)

What The Peck Is This (Part 8 of Many)

Okay, I think it is time to hit the bookstore and find a better field guide for birds.  I keep running across birds that do not show up in my guide at all, but in this particular case, I can’t even find it using a number of field guides on the web.  Oh, and by the way, I especially liked the online guide I found today that basically made me pick the name of the bird from a drop down list in order to see what it looks like… if I knew that… nevermind.   I do have a lot of successes using the Google image search, but struck out on this latest bird.  Unfortunately, I was rushing around trying to find the camera and make it back before this bird decided to fly off.  As a result, all you get is some fuzzy pictures, but you should be able to get a good feel for what it looked like.  It has NEVER shown up again and quite frankly glad I even got one picture of it.

So now you are probably asking yourself…  “When is he going to show me the bird?”.  Well, here you go.  I’ll start with a side shot that gives a good view of the side markings.

Unknown Pecker

It is clearly clinging to the side of the tree similar to a woodpecker, but I looked through all the typical woodpeckers and nothing came close to resembling this bird.  I thought the distinctive white bars on the wing and the solid brown/tan head would be a clear giveaway… but no luck.  Here is another side view which gives a very good view of the beak shape and a little crisper on the coloring.

Continue reading What The Peck Is This (Part 8 of Many)

King Pecker (Part 7 of Many)

It’s bird time again.  Today I bring you probably my favorite bird captured in my lens so far.  I According to my little guide, it is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker.  In case you are confused, he is the larger guy on the right.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

He is the largest bird that visits my feeders and although this picture appears to contradict this statement, when he is around, most other birds stay away.  I am guessing the chickadees didn’t see him because they are a little jittery anyway and he apparently scares most of the other species.  This is an assumption, but I have never seen him be aggressive to any other bird and generally stays in his own little world.  That massive weapon of beak he has definitely commands some respect.

In case you are unsure if it is a male or female, the following shot makes it pretty clear.

Continue reading King Pecker (Part 7 of Many)

Book Recollection: Guitar Man: A Six String Odyssey

It’s been a week, so now time for my traditional review of the book I recently completed reading.  This particular piece of literature/documentary was given to me as a gift from my brother Ron due to the similarities of the  author’s late endeavor to learn the guitar and my own efforts to master the instrument.   The premise of this book is the chronicling of Will Hodgkinson’s commitment to performing a gig.  The catch is the author does not know how to play the guitar, but set the date of the live audience event around 6 months out.   Having lived (actually still living) through the hardships of understanding the fundamentals of the guitar, this particular book really hit home and if nothing else provided some badly needed therapy to know someone else out there has struggled as much as I have.   I must admit, I was impressed with his commitment to immerse himself not only into the efforts to learn enough about the guitar to perform at his gig, but also to go underneath the technique and travel throughout the music world to meet with pioneers in the guitar field – including a tour through the deep south of the US to get closer to the birthplace of the blues.  I am not sure if this book would appeal to an individual that couldn’t relate to the hardships of learning the guitar, but I found it a very entertaining and actually looking forward to reading his sequel (Song Man) also given to me by my brother. 

 Now on to those items that stuck with me after finally putting the book down:

Continue reading Book Recollection: Guitar Man: A Six String Odyssey

Still Seeing Red (Part 6 of Many)

Guess what?…. yep another bird post.  This one actually came out of a discussion with my brother Ron regarding the previous post (Part 4) on a red colored bird I had come upon previously.  Originally I had classified that bird as a Purple Finch, but upon further investigation we decided it was actually a Pine Grosbeak (at least we think).  While trying to determine that type of bird, I came upon some pictures I had taken that match much better to the description of the Purple Finch.

Purple Finch

In agreement with the guide description, this guy’s beak is a more tannish tone and he is sporting a pretty trendy crest.  To be honest, I really do not know much about this bird.  I snapped a few pictures when I had the chance, but I really have not been able to observe any of its interactions with other birds or feeding habits.

Continue reading Still Seeing Red (Part 6 of Many)