It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

SN1’s 2Q2007 post is up… “Advice for My Son.” Rumor has it there may be another post hard upon the heels of this one. SN2 told me he was going to update his blog as well, in an unrelated conversation we had yesterday evening (“I DO have the time, now.”). Mirabile dictu!

So. It’s now two-out-of-three. All even and headed back to Hockeytown. It would be easy to resurrect the Ghosts of Playoffs Past, wring my hands, rend my garments, and start collecting ashes and the odd sack or two. But I’m not gonna do that. The Wings simply need to get their special teams into the game and quit giving Calgary the gift of the power play, which is the SOLE reason the Flames have tied this series. The Flames would be competing for tee times right now if not for their power play goals. Detroit can change this, and they’ve proven they can score on Kiprusoff. Easier said than done, perhaps. But it can be done. As George Michael sang: Ya Gotta Have Faith.

But some things go the way you want them to: Dallas (finally) won in OT last evening to stay alive (Vancouver leads the series 3-2). It seems strange to actually be rooting for Dallas, but that’s the case. I’d rather the Wings play Dallas than San Jose…

All the other playoff series are pretty much going according to plan, with the exception of NY sweeping Atlanta. Pittsburg is out, and Anaheim eliminated Minnesota last night. And the game to watch tonight is Nashville vs. San Jose. I’m pretty danged sure the Sharks will celebrate in Nashville tonight, what with momentum on their side…not to mention a 3-1 series lead.

NHL history is not on the Predators' side either. Of the 214 teams that trailed 3-1 in a best-of-seven series, only 20 rallied to win the series (9.3 percent).

OK…so Dallas was down 3-1, you say. True enough, but Nashville ain’t Dallas, now, is it?

Interesting…and scary: ‘I found Saddam’s WMD bunkers’ by Melanie Phillips in The Spectator.

It’s a fair bet that you have never heard of a guy called Dave Gaubatz. It’s also a fair bet that you think the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has found absolutely nothing, nada, zilch; and that therefore there never were any WMD programmes in Saddam’s Iraq to justify the war ostensibly waged to protect the world from Saddam’s use of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

Dave Gaubatz, however, says that you could not be more wrong. Saddam’s WMD did exist. He should know, because he found the sites where he is certain they were stored. And the reason you don’t know about this is that the American administration failed to act on his information, ‘lost’ his classified reports and is now doing everything it can to prevent disclosure of the terrible fact that, through its own incompetence, it allowed Saddam’s WMD to end up in the hands of the very terrorist states against whom it is so controversially at war.

You may be tempted to dismiss this as yet another dodgy claim from a warmongering lackey of the world Zionist neocon conspiracy giving credence to yet another crank pushing US propaganda. If so, perhaps you might pause before throwing this article at the cat. Mr Gaubatz is not some marginal figure. He’s pretty well as near to the horse’s mouth as you can get.

[…]

‘The problem was that the ISG were concentrating their efforts in looking for WMD in northern Iraq and this was in the south,’ says Mr Gaubatz. ‘They were just swept up by reports of WMD in so many different locations. But we told them that if they didn’t excavate these sites, others would.’

That, he says, is precisely what happened. He subsequently learnt from Iraqi, CIA and British intelligence that the WMD buried in the four sites were excavated by Iraqis and Syrians, with help from the Russians, and moved to Syria. The location in Syria of this material, he says, is also known to these intelligence agencies. The worst-case scenario has now come about. Saddam’s nuclear, biological and chemical material is in the hands of a rogue terrorist state — and one with close links to Iran.

Scary on a couple of levels…first and foremost, WMDs in possession of the very same people we SO wanted to keep them away from. And scary because it’s another example of incompetence on the part of the bureaucracy running this war. And I’m getting pretty danged tired of the latter. Ms. Phillips only adds fuel to my smoldering fire. Oh, and lest we forget: Ms. Pelosi et al thinks we should talk to Assad and the other asshats. Good grief. (Play those last words as you will.)

Apropos of nothing, Mr. Gaubatz was a special agent in the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). That’s what My Old Man did…but I can’t tell you any stories, other than the fact the Ol’ Man spent many a day away from home in various “exotic” places during the 50’s, when we lived in Paris. This sounds like a bad spy movie, but I remember many, many nights when there would be a knock on the door in the dead of night or in the wee small hours (we didn’t have a phone, virtually no one did in early post-war France), followed by the sounds and smells of Mom fixing breakfast and/or coffee while Dad packed and the “driver” cooled his heels in the kitchen, making small talk with Mom. And then he’d be off, sometimes for a couple of days, sometimes for a couple of weeks. Those were trying times for my mother, and it showed.

In the end, Dad never said one single word about what he did. Not one… Kinda like Omertà, only stronger.

Around the Neighborhood... Virtually Speaking

All Swift Boat Vets, all in one place… John Hinderaker, while engaging in a battle of wits with the unarmed, posts all the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads from the 2004 presidential campaign in one place. I think I should build a small shrine to the SBVT guys, because without them we just might would have had to endure a Kerry presidency. One shudders at the thought.

(h/t: Chap)

The Winner in Today’s “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” category: Iran Exonerates Six Who Killed in Islam’s Name. Not just “Iran,” but the Iranian Supreme Court. Spot-on commentary by McQ at the Q and O blog. I have nothing to add other than “What he said.” Well, that and “Aren’t you glad you’re an American?”

George Will writes a provocative op-ed in today’s WaPo on the subject of the legal drinking age. An excerpt:

McCardell thinks that, on campuses, a drinking age of 21 infantilizes students, encouraging immature behavior with alcohol and disrespect for law generally. Furthermore, an "enforcement only" policy makes school administrations adversaries of students and interferes with their attempts to acquaint students with pertinent information, such as the neurological effects of alcohol on young brains. He notes that 18-year-olds have a right to marry, adopt children, serve as legal guardians for minors and purchase firearms from authorized dealers, and are trusted with the vote and military responsibilities. So, he says, it is not unreasonable to think that they can, with proper preparation, be trusted to drink.

I agree. Mr. Will also revisits the age when America had a patchwork of “legal drinking age” laws. I’ll offer one piece of anecdotal evidence that a lower drinking age, while no guarantee of responsible drinking, at least familiarizes the young with alcohol and the pitfalls of over-indulgence.

When The Second Mrs. Pennington went off to college back in 1974, the legal drinking age in Michigan (her home state) was 18. And, without going into great detail, TSMP was familiar with the ins-and-outs of social drinking, including the effects of abuse. Her roommates, on the other hand, mostly came from states with a drinking age of 21. The difference in the attitudes towards partying was marked and visible between TSMP and her roomies. To quote TSMP…going out to the bar “was no big deal.” Been there, done that…in other words. Disregard for the moment, if you will, the obvious multiplicity of “other factors,” such as personality, upbringing, values/morals, and all that. My point is there is no substitute for first-hand exposure, warts and all. Today’s younger generation doesn’t get that exposure (for the most part), and they’re poorer for it.

Read the whole thing…

Michael J. Totten takes his readers for a wild ride (quite literally) in Iraqi Kurdistan, specifically Kirkuk, with numerous excellent photos. And in so doing touches lightly on the issue of the Kurds and the Turks. Mr. Totten’s sympathies are clearly with the Kurds, as are those of most Americans. We shouldn’t ignore both sides of the story, however. Turkey has legitimate complaints against the PKK, and those complaints continue to fester and just may boil over into something that could get out of control, and rapidly. It’s the Middle East…what’s new?

For the record: I’m a BIG Turkophile (a word I just coined, and one which MS-Word promptly rejected), in case you haven’t noticed.

Today’s Pic: Another of those “interesting skies” photos from day before yesterday. This is another view looking SSE from El Casa Móvil De Pennington.

Today’s weather still isn’t what I would call “bike-friendly” due to the ever-present wind. While it’s certainly warm enough to ride, the combination of persistent gusty winds, coupled with a (minor) threat of rain is enough to keep the bike covered. For the moment, anyway. That could change at any point in time...

It's Hump Day!

Interesting Skies in P-Town

First things first… Calgary won last evening, 3-2. The Flames are back in it, although it was a near-run thing. Calgary definitely plays better at home, to their fans’ great relief. The Saddledome was a literal sea of red (the Flames’ home colors) last evening…so much so that I told SN1 during the game that I thought Calgary must make as much off jersey sales as they do on ticket sales. It was an amazing sight. But…I digress.

Jarome Iginla (who finally scored after a five-game playoff drought) and Miikka Kiprusoff were the keys to the Flames’ success. Calgary’s game improved (although Detroit out shot Calgary… barely … by 30-28) while Detroit’s game fell off by just a little bit, including taking six penalties to Calgary’s four. The Detroit penalties hurt… what with two of Calgary’s three goals coming on the power play… while the Wings failed to convert on their power plays. The Wings’ game wasn’t off by that much, mind you, but the Flames definitely outplayed them and were the more intense team. But then again, the Flames had a lot more to lose. Going down 3-0 in a series is a deep, deep hole to claw your way out of…

So. We have a series, now, don’t we?

The Pens are in a 3-1 hole after losing last night to Ottawa , as is Dallas after their 2-1 loss to the Canucks. Both teams are goners from my perspective. The most surprising game of the evening was New York’s 7-0 drubbing of Atlanta, who are now down 3-0 in that series and in serious danger of being swept. I mentioned yesterday that I’d rather watch the NY – Atlanta game than the Sens – Pens…and sure enough… Atlanta, the number three seed in the East, has been totally humiliated by number six seed New York. The Rangers have simply owned them. That’s surprising in one respect, as the Rangers were pretty much on the bubble for the last month of the regular season. But not so surprising in another…the Thrashers were struggling towards the end of the regular season. It’s all about peaking at right time. The Wings know all too well about that.

Apropos of nothing…Ya know one of the things I like about hockey? Even after 20+ years of following the sport, I see something new every so often. And last night it was this:

A pane of glass behind Kiprusoff was dislodged with 10 seconds left in the second period, so the time was added to the third period.

I’ve never seen that before. It usually takes six or eight minutes to replace broken “glass.” Rather than make the players and fans sit through the maintenance only to play the remaining ten seconds in the period and then adjourn to the locker room, the refs made a pragmatic and wise decision. The last ten seconds of the second period were played at the beginning of the third. The teams gathered just outside the Calgary zone at the beginning of the third period, the puck was dropped, ten seconds of play ensued, the horn sounded announcing the end of the “second period,” then the teams switched goals and the puck was dropped at center ice to begin the “real” third period. Trés bizarre, but also very interesting. Not to mention amusing.

The well-dressed motorcyclist…This would be SN2 in his new leathers. All color coordinated and ready to go. Assuming of course, that the bike shop finishes the minor surgery on the RD that’s been in progress for well over a week now. Rumor has it the patient will be released today. And a good thing it is, too, as SN2 wants to take his Nebraska motorcycle license test today. Hard to do that without a bike, innit? Ah…but the good folks at the Bike Hospital have offered Sam a demo bike (demo bike? What a concept!!) to use for his test if the RD isn’t ready to go. And that’s a good thing.

It seems like every third moonbat in the USA, and several from overseas, were drawn to comment on this article in the WaPo:

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the most liberal of the Democratic presidential candidates in the primary field, declared in a letter sent to his Democratic House colleagues this morning that he plans to file articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney.

Ah, looks for all the world like a ploy to increase contributions to Kucinich’s quixotic presidential campaign, and the moonbats are rising to the bait (to mix a metaphor). The article, while quite brief, includes the text of Kucinich’s “Dear Colleague” letter. It’s the comments to the post/article that are both amazing and amusing. Assuming you have a droll sense of humor.

Today’s Pic(s): Interesting skies. We were semi-surrounded by heavy weather yesterday but most of the severe storms were to the north (Clovis) and east of us, around Lubbock. Still and even I thought it was touch and go for the longest time yesterday, what with the high wind, ominous looking skies, and lines of t-storms on the WX Channel’s radar tracks. But nary a drop of rain fell in my lil corner of the world. Clovis got wet, as did Cannon Airplane Patch, but not P-Town.

April 17, 2007. Right here in P-Town.

Mostly Hockey, with a Little Site Meter Weirdness

News/politics: I’m not gonna go there. Not today—except to say my heart goes out to the families and friends of the people killed at Virginia Tech in yesterday’s mass-murder. What a sad, sad, story. We’ve had more than enough of this stuff, yet it keeps on happening. I’m simply at a loss for words, beyond thinking what everyone else is thinking: “Why?”

Hockey… I watched three…count ‘em: three! …games this past Sunday, which was perilously close to Hockey Overload. But not quite. I’m not sure exactly where the limit is before I go into overload, but it ain’t three games. The Wings’ game was best (of course), followed by Dallas – Vancouver (Dallas lost in OT). I’m rooting for Dallas in this series, mainly coz I think Dallas would be the easier team to beat should the Wings advance to the Western conference finals…disregarding all the other possible permutations.

The Ottawa – Pittsburgh game had potential but turned out to be a bit of a snoozer. I was hoping to see some of the patented Sid The Kid fireworks, but there wasn’t anything exceptional. Good, most definitely. Exceptional, no. On the whole, though, I’m beginning to believe all this best-player-since-Gretzky stuff. Crosby IS good. But he and his line mates aren’t quite good enough (yet) to save this series. Ottawa should win in six, maybe less.

There were two games available to me last evening and I watched them both. The Sabres – Islanders series is shaping up to be a real dogfight; the Isles are giving the Sabres much stiffer resistance than Lindy Ruff (and the rest of the Sabres) anticipated. Last night’s game was close, but Buffalo prevailed, 3 – 2 to take a 2-1 series lead. The outcome was in doubt right up until the very last seconds of the third period. Be that as it may, I gotta go with the Sabres in this series; they lead the series 2-1 and should win in six.

I tuned into Nashville vs. San Jose with great anticipation. This series might turn out to be the best quarter-final in the West and it’s been marked with lotsa bad blood and rather nasty play between the teams.

San Jose and Nashville are tied 1-1 in their Western Conference quarter-final heading into Game 3 tonight, and perhaps no other post-season matchup has featured as much controversy and open contempt between competitors.

[…]

Heading into yesterday's games, no two teams had combined for as many post- season penalty minutes. San Jose and Nashville have amassed 186 penalty minutes through their first two meetings, where goals and fists have been traded in equal measure.

But last night’s game was much more subdued…there were only 20 penalty minutes, with Nashville taking 14 of the 20. San Jose outplayed Nashville in nearly every category—e.g., shots: 41-20; hits: 37-27—and where it ultimately matters most, the scoreboard (3-1). This series could go either way.

Tonight it’s the Wings again, preceded by game four of the Sens – Pens series. I’d rather watch the Rangers vs. the Thrashers, or even the Dallas – Vancouver game, but those games aren’t options for me. None the less, simply having two games available is cause for wonderment. After all, I am living in New Mexico…not exactly a hotbed in the hockey world.

So… if the Wings win tonight it’s all over save the shouting crying (assuming you live in Alberta). And the good folks in Calgary know it.

I have a minor issue with Site Meter I’ve been meaning to rant about mention: SM doesn’t display the results of image searches in the “Search words ranked by Visits” section of the metrics. This simple fact obscures the number and frequency of site visits from folks looking for something quite specific by omitting all image searches from the search engine metrics. In my case it’s a serious dilution, but I have no way of tracking it. As an example, lately I’ve been getting approximately three or four hits per day from people doing this image search (and variations on that theme), and this one, too. From Finland, no less! And once in a great, great while, I’ll get a hit from an image search like this:

Time of Visit: Apr 16 2007 2:26:03 pm
Referring URL: http://images.google...0%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
Search Engine: images.google.com
Search Words: profile sexy oldmen

Why, thank you, Ma’Dear! At least I hope I can call you “Ma’Dear.” One would hope that search is from one of those (prospective) eastern European mail-order brides…otherwise one shudders to think of alternative possibilities.

And speaking of alternative possibilities, it’s time for an EIP semi-regular feature… “Fun with Site Meter,” or… “Weird Searches that Bring Folks to EIP.” You gotta keep in mind: Every single one of these searches resulted in a visit to the blog, however brief it might have been. Let’s begin with these two from today:

Time of Visit: Apr 17 2007 3:26:26 am
Referring URL: http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=aieeee&btnG=Google%20Search&meta=
Search Engine: google.co.in
Search Words: aieeee (You hit paydirt, Sir/Madam. My favorite term of alarm!)

Another of the occasional hits from semi-bizarre sex searches, such as this:

Time of Visit: Apr 17 2007 1:21:34 am
Referring URL: http://images.google...hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff
Search Engine: images.google.com
Search Words: lompoc sex (The image was an aerial view of Lompoc Air Force Station…)

One of my favorites are these five variations on a theme, plus one that might be associated (one visit, each)…

woah-oh oh-woah-oh-oh-woah woa...-woah-oh-oh techno song lyrics
woah, woah, woah, woah techno lyrics
woah woah woah wa de da baby techno song
woah techno
woah oh oh oh techno
"hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo" techno lyrics

What am I missing here? I’m certain there’s something I’m missing…

And finally…lotsa hits for people looking for “stuff” about P-Town, including…

portales sucks
portales sex
portales rehab
portales nm sexy wives
portales nightclub
portales dog pound pics
portales bubba
portales aliens
porn portales

A few of these hits were directly from P-Town, most weren’t.

And that’s it for this installment! Of course, all the links above are available to be browsed in my Site Meter, which is open to the public. If you care. And I cannot, for the life of me, imagine why you would.

Today’s Pic: Yet another bike pic. Scraping the bottom of the barrel, we are. This tells me I gotta get out more…

Last Thursday.

Waiting for Godot UPS...

Mike Fay, one of my absolute favorite milbloggers, gets world-wide recognition from the Beeb. Frequent and occasional readers of “Fire and Ice” know that Mr. Fay has been branching out of late, what with finishing his first sculpture and working to make the National Museum of the Marine Corps a reality. And what does a slide-show on Auntie’s site do to your traffic? Take a glance at the illustration on the right!

BZ, Mr. Fay. You more than deserve it!

(h/t: Lex)

You may have missed the successful resolution of “the other” British Navy hostage crisis, what with all the riveting and supremely important stuff going on these days. But IowaHawk will bring you up to speed:

The former captives' ordeal began Tuesday, when the British destroyer HMS Chamberlain was conducting joint training exercises with the US Navy at Great Lakes Naval Training Station on Lake Michigan, just north of Chicago. According to insurgent naval commander Chuck Sorenson, the vessel strayed into Lutheran territorial waters.

"Oh yah, dey were totally on the Wisconsin side," said Sorenson. "I was tossin' some empty driveway patch cans out dere in my storage shed and I could see 'em out dere on da lake, big as day."

Sorenson's account was disputed by British Minister of Defence John Reid, who pointed to GPS records locating the destroyer 20 miles southeast of Kenosha. Whether or not the ship was in technical violation of Wisconsin territorial waters, Cambridge University Midwesternologist Geoffrey Pickering said the Navy was ultimately at fault for failure to recognize local culture and customs.

"Straying anywhere near their waters would be seen as a provocative act," said Pickering, writing in London's Daily Mail. "These are a proud and fierce people, who jealously guard their walleye spots."

What is not in dispute is that the Chamberlain was quickly surrounded by a flotilla of up to a dozen blown Hemi bass boats and party pontoons. Captain Colin Puddeley radioed several frantic distress calls to the MoD Mobile Command Centre in Waukegan, but the staff was away at a mandatory diversity training seminar. Surrounded, the crew surrendered. The Chamberlain was scuttled, but not before insurgents ransacked its stores of weapons and porn DVDs.

"Fighting back was not an option," Puddeley explained after this morning's release. "These men were brandishing Leinenkugel and deer scent. Resistance would have ultimately led to anger, misunderstanding, and potential unpleasant confrontation."

Read the whole thing…

A Hostage to UPS…that would be me. I’m stuck in El Casa Móvil De Pennington whilst waiting for deliveries of the various and sundry motorcycle-related items I ordered off the ‘net that (hopefully) will require my signature to complete delivery. It doesn’t help that today’s weather is a lot better than it’s been over the course of the last few days. Speaking of which…

My ride yesterday was a semi-white-knuckled affair. I took off yesterday afternoon for parts unknown in spite of the wind. Bad decision. It’s no fun to ride in gusty wind conditions, especially when that wind is directly abeam your (intended) path. I encountered several gusts yesterday that seemed to lift the wheels right off the pavement, although the truth is somewhere short of that...but only by the tiniest of degrees. I had to keep my speed down to 65 mph or lower; any higher than that and the wind made things just a lil bit too “uncomfortable.” So…I cut the ride short. All told I put about 125 miles on the bike this weekend. It needs more…much more…than that. The weather will change, UPS will come and go, and I’ll be free to get with the program. But, Dang!! I’m SO impatient!

Today’s Pic: Both of you Frequent Readers may have noticed the appearance of a new commenter here at EIP going by the rather cryptic handle of “hickmanma.” That’s my Bud and Partner-In-Crime Michele, from Former Happy Days back when I was with Ed’s Famous Data Company in Ra-cha-cha. The pic on the right is the Lovely Michele (on the right), along with the equally lovely Leslie, another EDS’er who shared Michele’s (and mine, of course) fondness for Rochester’s better watering holes. And dives. One of Michele’s lasting claims-to-fame (and she has many!) was running the famous legendary “Thursday Nite Distribution List,” an e-mail list that at one time had hundreds of members. The sole purpose of the Thursday Nite list was to announce the gathering place for our weekly “off-sites,” which were attended by anywhere from three to 50 thirsty EDS’ers looking to socialize and just generally have a good time. You simply cannot imagine how much I miss those occasions. It’s a gaping hole in my so-called-life.

Just thought I’d put a face with a name…

(Photo credit: Michele.)

Fallin' From Grace...

Just in from a quick blast out to the base and back (as I began writing this)…I was seriously short on some key consumables and the commissary is closed tomorrow—thus: shop today or wait until Tuesday. At any rate, it’s a beautiful day…59 degrees in a cloudless sky and more warmth to come. Needless to say, it was a top-down ride out to the airplane patch and back. With Joan Osborne blasting comin’ in, comin’ in loud and clear…so it’s a natural that she should have the...

Song of the Day

Song: Dracula Moon
Artist: Joan Osborne
Album: Relish
Year: 1995 (but listened to during ’98 and onwards)
Source: My Stuff

Makes Me Think of & etc.: The Second Mrs. Pennington. Read the lyrics…

Where are the bones on that one
What if the cure is worse than the disease
Serve me up some pretty, pretty people
Serve me up somebody I can believe

Don't feel sorry for me
I hate that look on your face
You say, just let go
You say, come back home
I say, I'm just fallin' from grace

I'm naked in a hotel room
My station comin' in, comin' in loud and clear
I'm makin' out with my one true love
I'm makin' this hotel room disappear

Stop feelin' sorry for me
I hate that look on your face
You say, just let go
You say, come back home
I say, I'm just fallin' from grace
I say that like fallin' from grace

You never know it to look at me
A Dracula moon
See love come down any way you want to
Doesn't ask for your permission
Open up your arms and we will break you in too(two?)

Stop feelin' sorry for me
I hate that look on your face
You say, just let go
You say, come back home
I say, I'm just fallin' from grace
I say, I'm just fallin' from grace...
Just fallin'
Just fallin'...

I'm smooth and heavy all over the world
I'm smooth and heavy all over the world

I’m also watching the Wings play Calgary. It’s the end of the first intermission and the Wings are up, 2-0…outshooting Calgary 22-7 in the first period. This is only Game Two, I keep telling myself. But the Wings are looking SO good!

And here comes the second period…

Back after the game. Maybe.

Update, 1250 hrs: Second intermission, Wings up 2-1. Calgary looked MUCH better in the second period, scoring a fluke power play goal...a carom off of Chris Chelios' chest that Hasek had no chance on. Overall, the Flames seem to be a LOT more motivated, they're winning a few more battles along the boards and are getting more quality scoring chances. Kiprusoff is playing a strong game...once again, if it weren't for his goaltending the score might be 4-1 at this point. Hasek, for his part, is looking good but hasn't faced near the same number of shots as Kiprusoff (Detroit outshot Calgary 12-3 in the second). The third period will be interesting...

Update, 1355 hrs: Wings win, 3-1 to take a 2-0 series lead. I don't think the next game will be this "easy" once the series moves to Alberta... But one hopes.

And now it's time to go for a ride!!

T'is The Season

You may or may not be aware that hockey is Canada’s national sport (pretty much... one can’t forget curling, of course. That’s a joke…) So, it should come as no surprise that some of the better coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs is coming from the Canadian press. By “better coverage,” I mean not only the game summaries, but idle speculation, rumors, commentary, and the color pieces. In the realm of color it don’t get much better than this:

It is a time for insanity, but not time yet for the depths to which the madness of superstition can sometimes sink and will very likely sink somewhere, on some team, before the four long rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs are through.

The first time the Senators reached postseason play back in 1997, they threw their faith not in their coaches, not in the crowd, not in their goaltender — but in a tiny wooden Buddha that forward Tom Chorske had picked up in a San Francisco souvenir shot.

"Buddha Power" became the clarion call of those young Senators, the equipment manager charged with making sure Chorske carried the tiny statue around in his shaving kit as the inexperienced team took the Buffalo Sabres to seven games before losing the final match in overtime.

[…]

The coaching staff once tried to bring an end to a regular-season slump by holding a séance in the trainers' room, complete with candles to help them call on the ghosts of One-Eyed Frank McGee, King Clancy, and Fearless Frank Finnigan. It didn't work.

One goaltender — and we shall spare him the humiliation of using his name — refused to change his underwear during one playoff run that, perhaps fortunately, came to a quicker-than-expected end.

And there’s some funny bits about the young’uns trying to grow play-off beards. Speaking of which, one wonders what it’s like to be 18, 19, or 20 years old and playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Not to mention making mega-bucks. Sheesh…if you win the Cup you’re not even old enough to drink champagne out of it…legally. Details, details.

You may be wondering why I didn’t write about the Wings’ domination of Calgary the other night. It was simple oversight and the excitement of having that new toy…which, of course, tends to relegate other things to subordinate positions in my personal hierarchy of Things That Matter. But hockey matters. So much so, in fact, that I’ll delay my (planned, weather permitting) ride tomorrow until after the game, which begins at 1100, my time. But I digress.

The Wings looked great Thursday night, or perhaps their greatness was a function of Calgary’s suckage. And Calgary did suck, mightily.

Given the opportunity to change minds about their underachieving ways in 2006-07, the Flames mailed in yet another road apple in Game One of the series with Detroit. The scoreboard said 4-0 after two, but it could just as easily have been 10-0 if Miikka Kiprusoff hadn't done his best Lance Burton. Can you say no-mentum? Knowing they had to stay out of the penalty box, the Flames took two tacky fouls in the first 6:49. Knowing they had to prevent a quick start from the Wings, they fell behind 2-0 in the first 8:36. Knowing they had to get pucks on Dominik Hasek, they pelted him with just 12 in the first two periods and 46-20 in all. Pretty much the road template all season. Forwards not coming back. Crucial faceoffs lost. Hitting a dirty word.

Or, in the words of the Calgary Sun: “Let's not mince words -- the Flames were humiliated.”

The Flames are supposed to be physical, but the Wings out-hit them, 37-36. You may not think that’s a lot, what with the count being almost dead-even. But for a team with a reputation of…uh…being less than physical (and that’s being kind), the stat is good, no…great…news. And things will only get better for the Wings once Bertuzzi is back in the line-up. Still, and even…

Thursday was Game One of a seven-game series. As Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press sez:

I don’t doubt Game 2 will be a different story. The Flames aren’t as bad as they looked in Game 1, and they’ve got to feel like they let Miikka Kiprusoff down; the guy saw 46 shots – ridiculous for a regulation playoff game. But the Wings established themselves with Game 1 in this series, showing they can beat Kiprusoff and showcasing themselves as the more physical team.

What she said. Some folks are predicting yet another upset and early exit for the Wings. Not me: Wings in six. What would you expect me to say?

Today’s Pic: Keeping with the bike theme, here’s my buddy Lee and one of his three bikes, just before he hit the road on his way back home to the Oregon coast. Lee owns a VMax, a Ducati (model unknown, or at least I forgot which flavor of Duck it is), and the pictured VFR-750 Honda…which is categorized as a sport-tourer. He was certainly loaded up, wasn’t he? But then ya gotta take along some stuff if you’re gonna ride from Oregon to Houston and back…

June, 2006.

AIEEEE!

It's raining! My new bike is getting WET!

The horror, the horror...

(PS: The bike cover was shipped yesterday. Or so I was told, via e-mail.)

Oh! The Places You'll Go... (I Hope)

Via Lex: Iraq: A Place of Ambivalence. Forget, for a moment, that the HuffPo is one of the watering holes for liberals (with a token conservative or two to satisfy the Diversity Mandate) and chase this link. Ms. Durkin has written one of the best pieces on the war in a long, long time, perhaps ever. And it’s sort of non-partisan in that she takes both the Right and the Left to task. But especially the Left. I don’t think you’ll read anything better today…

Dead Man Walking: Boris Berezovsky. Given the unseemly habit Putin’s opponents have of dropping dead lately, one can only surmise Mr. Berezovsky has risen to the top of Tsar Vlad’s hit list. Coz of stuff like this:

The Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky has told the Guardian he is plotting the violent overthrow of President Putin from his base in Britain after forging close contacts with members of Russia's ruling elite.

In comments which appear calculated to enrage the Kremlin, and which will further inflame relations between London and Moscow, the multimillionaire claimed he was already bankrolling people close to the president who are conspiring to mount a palace coup.

"We need to use force to change this regime," he said. "It isn't possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure." Asked if he was effectively fomenting a revolution, he said: "You are absolutely correct."

Yow. If nothing else, Mr. Berezovsky has a pair. A BIG brass pair. Let’s hope he survives. Not all that sure about the violent revolution angle Mr. B is talking about, but it's obvious (to me) that ol' Vlad is out of control. And that's not good for anyone, especially the Russians. Change is needed.

I’ve not written about L’Affaire Imus, considering it to be a tempest in a teapot and a rather minor one, at that. Personally, I think the guy’s a senile old idiot, but that’s just me and my opinion. As it’s said…we all have ‘em. Opinions… and other things, too. None the less, I’m OK with Imus losing his job…purely on “employment at will ” grounds. NBC and CBS may do what they will; it’s the way things work in America.

What I’m not OK with is this: the Usual Suspects smelling blood in the water and advocating action that is beyond the pale.

But as Media Matters for America has extensively documented, bigotry and hate speech targeting, among other characteristics, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity continue to permeate the airwaves through personalities such as Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Michael Smerconish, and John Gibson.

Smerconish and Savage, perhaps, those guys are borderline (and sometimes over it) objectionable. But the others? That’s a frickin’ bridge too far. But then again, I suppose the First Amendment only applies to those folks with the proper credentials. If you happen to be conservative, or controversial, you should be silenced…but I digress. There’s a reason conservatives sometimes refer to those on The Left as “The Perpetually Offended.” Case in point…Media Matters takes offense at this:

Substituting for host Bill O'Reilly on the April 4, 2006, broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor, nationally syndicated radio host Michael Smerconish repeatedly discussed "the sissification of America," claiming that political correctness has made the United States "a nation of sissies." Smerconish also claimed, several times, that this "sissification" and "limp-wristedness" is "compromising our ability to win the war on terror."

Well, Hell! A spade’s a spade, like it or not. I agree with Mr. Smerconish on this point. Political Correctness is the bane of our existence. Literally.

I recommend going to Media Matters just to see the PC mindset at work. “Know Your Enemy Opposition” and all that.

An anonymous commenter suggested (I think) names for the new bike yesterday… “Blue Wasp? Chrome(less) Strom? Cobalt Cheval?” And they’re all pretty good, doncha think? But let me say this about that…

I’m not normally in the habit of naming my vehicles. No other vehicle in my past has had a name, other than the Miata. As a matter of fact, the Green Hornet was named by a close friend of mine and it just sorta stuck. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with giving your ride a name…not at all. It’s just that I never was given to it. Well, except for that frickin’ SAAB I owned, and the assigned names (many and varied) for that vehicle aren’t printable in a PG-rated blog. I hated that frickin’ car…

Speaking of things automotive I hate… I just glanced out the window at the bike and was immediately offended…to the max…by the existence of not one, not two, not three, but FIVE of those damned legal-department mandated “warning” stickers on the bike. Two on the fairing. One on the tank. One on a frame member. One on the swing arm. And that’s just the left side and top of the bike, Lord knows there’s probably three more on the right side. They are all white with a large orange band at the top that sez “WARNING!” I’m not gonna go outside and get the actual verbiage because (a) it’s cold outside and (b) I’d have to get dressed. It ain’t that important. Suffice it to say they warn me of sh!t I already KNOW, as should any human being with at least a fifth grade education.

My bottom line is those offensive stickies thoroughly detract from the bike’s otherwise clean appearance, like canker sores on a beautiful woman. And it pisses me right OFF. “First we kill all the lawyers…” Overdue, that. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

I’m (sorta) glad I’m older. It’s 47 degrees outside (with a wind chill of 40) as I write. A mere ten or 15 years ago I’d more than likely suit up after posting this and go for a ride, cold be damned. Ah, but nowadays the need to be comfortable exceeds the desire to go out and put the new scoot through its paces. Which is a good thing, in more ways than one. First and foremost, a cold rider is a distracted rider, a distracted rider doesn’t pay attention, and a lack of paying attention whilst riding can get one seriously dead.

Wisdom. Where have you been all my life?

Today’s Pic: She looks just a little bit evil here, doesn’t she? I know it’s the angle of the headlights in the fairing, and that said, I think I’d have preferred the traditional round openings. These look a bit like an anime illustrator had a hand in the design. Not all that pleasing, but I suppose I’ll get used to the thought of it, given it’s a view I’ll rarely see. As for the subject matter of Today’s Pic…Well, what did you expect?

Mission Accomplished

Well, here's my baby!! It's a semi-miserable day here (for riding), what with the wind blowing at about elebenty-lebben mph... I rode the entire way back from Clovis at about a five degree list and (almost) made a couple of "unprogrammed" lane changes in the process.

Thank GOD it warmed up before I made the ride home. It was 47 degrees when the oh-so-kind Bike-Lady picked me up this morning; it probably was near 60 when I hit the highway between The Big(ger) City^TM and P-Town. I was just a wee bit chilly, but nothing serious.

It runs well. I haven't taken it above 6,500 rpm yet; I hit 85 once or twice on the way home but mostly held it at an indicated 75 mph. I love the riding position! Just frickin' perfect, it is! It's a bit of a bear to push around, but once I get used to it things should be fine. Under way it feels light and "flickable." Just how flickable remains to be seen, tho. Commend me on my restraint, please. The red line is 10,500 rpm, and I held it to no more than 6,500. I think I'm growing up.

I had to go to three bike shops to get a lock...none at the Suzuki store, ditto Honda. Finally found one at the Harley store, and that's a good thing...coz there was only ONE other possibility (in Clovis). So I now have an H-D logo-ed Kryptonite brake rotor lock, which probably cost me ten bucks more just for the Harley logo. And I bought a pair of Tony Lama boots from Joe's Boot Shop (That would be the "world famous" Joe's Boot Shop, thank you very much ). I got my old Red Wings (boots) out of the basement storage last evening and they were covered with mold...which is nature's way of telling me I really ought to replace boots I've owned since 1978.

Tomorrow will suck worse than today (weather-wise)...cold and rainy is the forecast. It'll be a day or two before I put any serious miles on it. But, Hey! It is what it is. No matter... the bike is parked right under my window so I can stare at it in the way a 14-year-old boy stares at the cute blonde in English class...with one key difference: she's mine. All mine.

Today's the Day...in More Ways than One

It looks like today’s the day… I’m 98% sure I’ll pick up the bike today. All I’m waiting for is confirmation from the lovely Wendy at Zia Power Sports that she’ll be around this morning to pick me up and take me to The Big(ger) City^TM. You read that right: I’m getting picked up by the dealership. That’s the sort of service that wins friends and influences people. Too bad it’s so rare these days.

I missed it the first time around, but when I booted up the ‘puter this morning I was prompted by the good folks at the Googleplex to check out their April Fools joke. Pretty funny! But OTOH, don’t we all know someone who prints out all their e-mail? I used to know folks like that…

It’s begun…and I’ll bet there are more than a few people dragging their butts into work today in Dallas (Vancouver, too):

VANCOUVER (CP) - The relief outweighed the exhaustion after Henrik Sedin scored with 1:54 left in the fourth overtime period Wednesday to give the Vancouver Canucks a 5-4 win over the Dallas Stars in the opening game of their NHL Western Conference quarter-final series.

[…]

The overtime lasted 78 minutes, six seconds. The longest overtime game in NHL history was 116:30 when Detroit beat the Montreal Maroons 1-0 back on March 24, 1936.

[…]

The game started at 7:11 p.m. local time and didn't end until 12:35 a.m.

That’s a lot of hockey, folks! Pity the poor Dallas fans: the game was on the Left Coast, to begin with. And then 78 minutes of overtime, after the regulation 60 minutes? That means it was over at 0235 hrs, Dallas time. Then add in the fact that the Stars scored twice in the third period to force the overtime… and you have tired and disappointed Stars fans. Oh, well. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of folks. Stars fans are...ahem..."ate up." Just sayin'.

Detroit plays its first game at 7:00 p.m. tonight (this afternoon, for me).

The Detroit Red Wings have had trouble as a high playoff seed in recent years. The Calgary Flames will look to take advantage - again.

A No. 1 seed for the third straight season, the Red Wings look to avoid another quick playoff exit as they host the Flames on Thursday night in Game 1 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series.

Detroit won the Stanley Cup in 2002 as a No. 1 seed, but suffered a first-round defeat in 2003 as a No. 2 and was the top seed last year when it was stunned by Edmonton in the opening round. In 2004, Calgary ousted the Wings, who that year won the first of back-to-back Presidents' Trophies, in the second round in six games.

I hate it when the write-ups begin this way, and they always do…when it comes to the Wings and the playoffs. (It could be worse. I could live in Toronto. Heh heh heh… But seriously, this article in the Toronto Sun says most of what there is to say about the NHL playoffs. Good stuff.) More on the Wings playoff woes from ESPN:

But we think "upset" is a term that should be banished, at least in the West. There are many who believe Detroit, again the top seed, is in for a rough ride with eighth-seeded Calgary. And the Red Wings could be. But with the Flames sporting Miikka Kiprusoff, Jarome Iginla and Dion Phaneuf and 96 regular-season points, would it really be an upset? We think not. The Western Conference is home to six of the top eight point-getters in the NHL. The Flames' 96 points are more than three Eastern Conference playoff teams.

A classic case of “the truth hurts” if I ever saw one. Be that as it may, I’ll be parked in front of the Tee Vee with a cool Fat Tire and a bag of popcorn at 1700 hrs sharp! New bike or not…

A legend passes… Kurt Vonnegut is dead. I loved his writing, even though I hated his politics.

His experience in Dresden was the basis of “Slaughterhouse-Five,” which was published in 1969 against the backdrop of war in Vietnam, racial unrest and cultural and social upheaval. The novel, wrote the critic Jerome Klinkowitz, “so perfectly caught America’s transformative mood that its story and structure became best-selling metaphors for the new age.”

S’true, that. “Slaughterhouse-Five” was certainly transformational for me.

RIP, Mr. Vonnegut.

Today’s Pic: An old bike pic on new bike day. The Yama-Hammer at the Continental Divide in Yellowstone. I anticipate posting more than a few pics similar to this in the coming months. Except there will be a blue V-Strom front and center…

May, 2000.

War Story

I’ve been a bit distracted this morning…which has delayed posting...but the distraction has been very pleasant. An old friend, workmate, and partner in crime (as in late nights at the bar) just happened to google my name last evening and found EIP, and thus…me. We’ve exchanged 12 e-mails (I’m counting both hers and mine) since last evening, including four this morning. Catching up is great fun! I can add another notch to the “bennies of blogging” gun…

Now about that war story...

Blog buddy Morgan posted a truism in the comments to one of my recent bike posts: “Dress for the slide, not the ride.” And at the risk of being redundant: “Truer words were never spoken!” Up until the last motorcycle I always…repeat: always…rode in full leather. As did The Second Mrs. Pennington. In my case it was a one-piece set of black 60’s-vintage English road racing leathers I bought second hand in 1968 (don’t laugh). I wore those leathers for over 20 years and only stopped wearing them because they were destroyed (totally) in the event that made me give up bikes for ten years. I tempted fate when I got back into bikes back in 1999—I didn’t replace my leathers; I simply wore Levis and my trusty, beloved USAF A-2. (I could digress at length about my A-2, but I’ll resist.) No more. New leathers are at the top of my “must buy” list. Now, about that event…

I was living in Detroit, it was around 1986 (or so), and I was riding a Suzuki GS-700 at the time. My in-laws lived in Harbor Beach, MI, about three hours north of Detroit in Michigan’s Thumb. My proxy daughter was visiting us at the time, and we (TSMP, our proxy daughter Robin, and good friend and neighbor Kim) decided to head north for the weekend to visit TSMP’s parents.

Slight digression... When I say “proxy daughter,” I mean a friend, not a relative. We met Robin when she was a student at the DoD high school in High Wycombe, England, back in 1981. The high school was a boarding school for kids who lived at bases that didn’t have a high school of their own, and there were many such bases. TSMP worked at the school for a brief period and enrolled us in the Proxy Parent program, which was designed to provide the boarding kids a place to go…in a family environment…to get away from the dorm. Robin was our proxy daughter, and we became fast friends. Robin is no stranger to bikes, and was my accomplice on the Mad Sunday adventure in the Isle of Man. Yep, she was on the back of the LC when we crossed Mt. Snaefell at well over 120 mph. (End of digression)

So. Back to the tale. We decided Robin and I would take the bike and TSMP and Kim would drive up in the car. The route is all freeway from Detroit to Port Huron, but after that it’s a well-maintained two lane road that skirts the shores of Lake Huron all the way up to Harbor Beach. Robin had never seen the Great Lakes before so we stopped at nearly every roadside turn out after Port Huron to gaze upon the lake, at Robin’s insistence. We fell behind TSMP and Kim by about 30 minutes as a result.

I was cruising along at 70 mph about five miles south of Harbor Beach when it happened. And it happened QUICK, as these things usually do. There was a sedan in the left lane about three car lengths in front of us. All of a sudden the driver turns left, right into our path, with no warning whatsoever. I grabbed all the brake I could, the bike swung left…hard…and we impacted the rear quarter panel of the car, doing about 60 – 65 mph. I heard Robin scream “NOOO!!” just as we hit. I was catapulted over the car’s trunk and impacted about 15 feet beyond the car, rolling, tumbling and sliding an additional 40 feet or so. I didn’t think I was ever going to stop. When I finally did come to a halt I lay there for 30 seconds or so, wiggling my fingers and toes and then running my hands up and down my legs to check for pain. There was none. I jumped up and ran back towards the car…

Robin wasn’t so lucky. She didn’t fly over the car as I did; she hit the rear quarter panel full force and dropped like a stone. The impact broke her femur in two, but without a compound fracture. Robin was conscious and in great pain, crying about her leg, but seemingly otherwise intact. The driver of the car, a 17 year-old girl, was out of the car and standing over us saying “I didn’t see you! I didn’t SEE you!” over and over and over. Fortunately for us, the residents of a near-by house had heard the impact, looked out to see me cart wheeling down the road and had immediately called the Harbor Beach ambulance service. They were on the scene in about ten minutes.

In the mean time my back had stiffened up and I couldn’t stand up straight. The pain intensified and was excruciating by the time the paramedics arrived. (It turned out I had two compression fractures in my lower vertebrae.) So…the ambulance pulls up, two paramedics jump out carrying what looked like plumbers tool boxes full of medical supplies. They were amazed that there was no blood, no road rash, no abrasions, no nothing except for Robin’s broken leg and my back pain.

To make a long story shorter, we were loaded up into the ambulance and taken to the Harbor Beach hospital, where we were met by TSMP, Kim, and TSMP’s parents. The one doctor on duty took care of Robin first, setting her leg and getting her ready for a transfer to the Bad Axe hospital, where she would have further surgery to put a surgical steel rod in her leg. But…at least we were alive and wouldn’t carry terrible scars for the rest of our lives. My compression fractures healed quite nicely, except for the slipped disc I experienced a few years later, an injury I’m certain was related to the accident but cannot prove. And the lawsuit was settled out of court. In our favor.

That accident was enough to make me give up bikes for ten years. I took away a couple of lessons from the experience, the first being you can do everything right and still get hurt on a bike…it’s the “other guy” you can’t account for. The second was an object lesson about the value of full protective gear. I’m not gonna roll those dice again, this time. Full leather saves skin, and lots of it.

Today’s Placeholder…

This is pretty funny (the incomplete screen cap on the right - there's more) and perhaps useful, to boot. And there’s much more at Miss Cellania’s place including some good jokes and more than a few mild, yet thoroughly amusing, links. (Miss Cellania’s link is work-safe, unless your boss/workplace takes umbrage at racy jokes in print. There are NO graphic images!)

h/t: Morgan. How DOES he find all this good stuff?

Rough Night, Explained

(sub-title: Buying That Bike)

I alluded to having a rough night last night in today’s placeholder post. It was only rough in the sense I just could not get to sleep; there weren’t any physical maladies or anything. Just “simple” insomnia, something I’m rarely, if ever, troubled by. One of the…um…skills I learned in the Air Force is the ability to grab forty winks whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself. I’m adept at sleeping on chairs, desktops, couches, in cars, or barroom floors (but not airplanes) and at anytime, seemingly. But sleep just wouldn’t come last night. I laid myself down around 2230 hrs or so and tossed and turned until 0100 this morning, when I gave it up…and got up. I stayed up until Washington Journal came on at 0500, and then hit the hay. Successfully.

It’s only minutes past noon as I type and I just poured my second cup. I feel for all the world like I have a hangover (minus the headache)…out of sorts, off-balance, and viewing the world through a fuzzy felt screen. Today will not be productive in any way, shape, or form.

SN2 and I had a fairly long conversation last evening about…you guessed it…bikes. I waited until about five minutes into the conversation before I told him about the V-Strom (a supremely odd name for a bike, nu?). Sam was in transit from Maine back to Offutt AFB, having gone home for the holidays. As he was in travel mode he hadn’t had a chance to read the blog and had no idea I’d suffered a bout of temporary insanity. He was surprised, even after all the lobbying he did to get me off the dime and buy another scoot. So, we talked, mostly about the how’s and why’s of yesterday’s purchase. I’ll recap the conversation, for the (blog) record.

Sam suggested the Suzuki to me last week, having read about it in a Motorcycle Buyers Guide he bought recently. I googled the V-Strom at his suggestion. I spent at least four to six hours reading everything I could find about the bike, and was impressed with the fact there were few, and I mean VERY few, negative comments from both the pros (the guys who write for the moto-mags) and people who own the bike. Secondly, the V-Strom is what one would call a mature design…it’s been around for three model years now, and most of the kinks have been worked out. I began thinking “Hey! This bike fits…it would be perfect for all the things I’d want to do, should I get back in the saddle.”

The next thing that happened was I read Lou’s post about Toby buying his bike. I looked at the pic Lou posted and thought “Man! Toby sure looks happy!” And that was the tipping point. I had already read up on alternatives to the V-Strom (and Toby’s Kwacker was one) and had systematically eliminated each of the other bikes I considered.

So the die was cast. I knew I was gonna buy the bike before I even left for The Big(ger) City^TM yesterday. I called my broker after I got out of the shower and initiated the process of transferring money between my 401k and my “working” account to buy the bike. Then I got dressed, put my checkbook in my back pocket, and headed out.

Buying the bike was easy. I’m sure the sales manager at the bike shop thought I was nuts, as the purchase, from beginning to end, took about 30 minutes. She didn’t have to sell me on anything, and I didn’t want her to try. The only fly in the ointment was I failed to get exactly what I wanted. The V-Strom comes in two versions, with and without anti-lock brakes. I wanted the ABS version. Of course, there wasn’t one in stock at the Clovis Suzuki store. As a matter of fact, there’s exactly one new V-Strom with ABS in all of New Mexico, and that bike is in Albuquerque, and that bike had a deposit on it. No problem, says the helpful sales manager… “we’ll check Texas.” Same story, different state. She found one ABS-equipped V-Strom in Midland, made the phone call and got the same story: it’s sold. When I asked why she had no ABS-equipped bikes, she replied she thought they wouldn’t be any demand for them. Same story with the other dealers, she said. I’ll bet she orders bikes with ABS next year…

Somehow I feel last night’s bout of insomnia is related to buying the bike. I’m not suffering from buyer’s remorse… not consciously, anyway. Sub-consciously, perhaps, but I really doubt it. No…I think it’s because there’s a lot to be done in the few short days before I take delivery. Not the least of which is finding a way to get over to Clovis to pick up the bike. I think I have a line on the solution to that problem, but there’s more. I need to buy a few things to get well and truly ready to ride again: rain gear, a set of leathers (Aieee! Sticker shock! And these are cheap inexpensive), a bike cover, a new lock, perhaps a tank bag, and various other things that haven’t occurred to me. Yet. I kept my old helmet, but I might replace it with something “spiffier.” But I might not. In the meantime there’s lots of ‘net surfing on-line shopping to be done.

I’d best get to it.

LGBP Ver 1.01.1

Today’s Pic: Ah, Spring…and the frickin’ birds are back. It seems like they’ve upgraded their systems over the winter. Here is pictorial evidence of the deployment and use of Laser-Guided Bird Poop (LGBP—version unknown but I suspect it's release one), in which an avian bombardier missed the exact dead center of the Green Hornet’s hood by mere inches. Oh well, the car was gonna get dirty today, anyway. We’re under a strong wind advisory and the air is filled with flying dust. And LGBP, too. So much for washing the car yesterday.

I had a rough night. More about that when I’m back in the usual few.

I Did It...

I pick it up Thursday or Friday, depending upon when the money is transferred from my 401k into my working account.

In blue.

Oh, BOY!!

Space Blog, Progressive Patriotism, and Fever

The blog from space…literally. And lots more, too, including some very cool vids. The meat of the blog is in the archives, which detail (and lo, the details!) the preparation and training prior to launch. There are no postings from space, yet.

Charles Simonyi, the former Microsoft software architect and current billionaire, is now the fifth civilian ever to be rocketed into space. (He's on his way to the International Space Station onboard a Soyuz spacecraft that took off from Kazakhstan on Saturday.)

This is what a spectacularly successful career in the IT industry (Xerox PARC and Microsoft) will get you. Well, that and 25 million Yankee Dollars…

Just about the coolest site I’ve seen recently, suitable for kids of all ages! (That’s a hint to SN1 & SN2.)

Chris Bowers writes an interesting essay on progressives and patriotism at MyDD. Excerpts:

Allegiance to a fixed cultural identity is fundamentally at odds with a progressive worldview. Over the past two years, I have written about this at great length in articles such as Maybe It Is A Battle Of Civilizations, Try Something New, and The End of the 1960's? Differing concepts of the value of identity form one of the core differences between progressivism and conservatism: pluralism vs. cultural supremacy, and fluid identity vs. fixed identity. Since progressivism highly values both pluralism and fluid identity, the long-standing, dominant use of the term "patriotism" described in the paragraph above clearly becomes a difficult term with which ideological progressives can self-identify. How is it possible for someone to value both pluralism and fluid identity while simultaneously self-identifying allegiance to a fixed, idealized--even absolutist--cultural identity? That is not very easy, and does not come without a lot of internal tension and self-contradiction.

[…]

In fact, America was founded on exactly the opposite principles: no national religion, no national language, no national media, no national ethnic identity, welcoming borders, and freedom from being forced to cohere with larger cultural norms. We even fought a civil war over this idea, and pluralism won out. (Can the civil war be accurately described as a fight for the cultural distinctness and superiority of, and resulting need of independent sovereignty for, nineteenth century southern white culture from the rest of America? I think it can.) American patriotism is thus the opposite of patriotism in many other countries, and thus in no way causes a self-identification contradiction for progressives. Theocons and anti-immigration cultural supremacists will of course disagree, which is why they regularly argue for things like America being a Christian nation, for keeping brown people out of the country, for mandating prayer in public schools, or making English the official national language. They believe in, and want everyone to cohere with, a discrete and distinct cultural identity for America. Quite frankly, I can hardly think of anything less American and, within an American context, less patriotic than all of that.

I’m no theocon (defined here) and I’m not an “anti-immigration cultural supremacist.” Yet I disagree, especially with Bowers’ allegations that us cultural supremacists (I do admit to being one of those, without the anti-immigration modifier) want to “keep brown people out of the country” and “mandate prayer in public schools.” BS—pure and simple. Allowing prayer is different than mandating it, Mr. Bowers. Prohibiting prayer in schools is the de facto law of the land these days, and is that somehow “better” than allowing prayer? I don’t know of a single conservative—not one—who wants to keep “brown people” out of the country. I know a lot of people, on the other hand, who simply want our existing immigration laws enforced…equally and fairly. And, making English our official national language ain’t such a bad idea. It’s the key to assimilation, and I was always taught (and thus believe) assimilation is what makes America The Great Melting Pot, and it’s the key factor in making our diverse culture work.

On the other hand, Mr. Bowers goes on a great deal about pluralism, about which The Wiki has this to say:

Pluralism is, in the general sense, the affirmation and acceptance of diversity. The concept is used, often in different ways, in a wide range of issues. In politics, the affirmation of diversity in the interests and beliefs of the citizenry, and so political pluralism is one of the most important features of modern democracy. (emphasis in the original)

I don’t disagree with The Wiki, and I’m wholly in favor of pluralism, as described above. I do, however, disagree strongly when pluralism morphs into identity politics, which appears to be the ultimate outcome of the whole diversity “thing” we’ve experienced over the last two decades or so. The key is in knowing when to stop. And that is precisely the point where most liberals fall down. They don’t know when to stop, thus the transformation of pluralism into identity politics which is most often based on rejecting America’s “mainstream culture,” rather than accepting it. It’s pretty damned hard to be patriotic when you don’t like America, isn’t it?

On the whole, Bowers writes an interesting essay even if he lets his dislike of conservatives, and his hyperbolic, misinformed attacks on same get in the way. I’m glad Mr. Bowers considers himself patriotic, and I’m most certainly glad he loves our country. Mr. Bowers is very, very big on this pluralism thing (follow the three links in the excerpt posted above and you’ll see). And that’s all well and good, assuming he considers conservatives to be part of that plurality. I’m not sure he does.

The pressure…the PRESSURE! It’s getting out of hand. SN2 is putting the ol’ RD back on the road (as noted elsewhere on the blog) and is running me HARD about buying another bike. Then I learn that SN1, with d-i-l Erma egging him on, is actively bike shopping. Lou’s partner in crime just bought a Kwacker…pic here. What’s a guy to do?

Well, for starters, I just might go over to The Big(ger) City^TM today and check out one of these:

A Suzuki DL-650 V-Strom. Dual-purpose. Fast fire-roader. Competent street bike. Fever.

Sheesh. I thought I’d outgrown this sh!t.

The weather ain’t cooperating, either. It’s supposed to be 70 today, although we got off to a chilly start. With fog, believe it or don’t. I’m oh-so-ready to get back to “normal,” whatever that might be, in addition to WARM. Coz it sucks to ride in the cold, yanno?