A walk in the park

I got out with the camera for a while and here's a picture I took at a park I used to play in as a kid. Everyone was at the Griz game and I ended up watching the amazing second half comeback with a couple of my friends.

The road home

Here's a picture I took going home for Thanksgiving. I don't know exactly what to say about it. The food was good and the road was dry, and I made it right on time. So everything worked out. Plus there was a lot of turkey left over and I think that's always the best part about Thanksgiving.

Have you ever gone somewhere for Thanksgiving and they tried to serve something other than Turkey? I usually feel a little ripped off. I know someone who always tried to do that. "We're having ham this year.." It's usually good and everything but it just isn't the same. And the leftovers aren't the same. Like leftover Pizza. Leftover steak. Leftover tacos.

Not the same.

Happy Thanksgiving

I don't have much time today as I'm late as usual. Happy Thanksgiving.

Ribbons and bows

She used to tier her hair up in ribbons and bows,
sign her letters with X's and O's..

I knew a girl like that.

Angry old man

I've been thinking about a lot of different things. I don't want to just use bicycle log as a place to voice my complaints, and I don't want to become this angry old man who just complains about everything.

On the other hand..

It's hard to find good content. On TV. On the radio, and on the internet.. I realize that's a sentence fragment..

It's hard to find a good blog actually. And after you find one they seem to go away. Like Dating Drama and My Dog. That was a great blog and now it's gone. Or you'll find a good blog and you'll get to liking that person and they will lock the blog or something.. Or they'll say,. "I'm done blogging but you can find me on Facebook"..

I've been thinking about Facebook. Just one of the things I've been thinking about.. I multi-think actually.. I think they ought to have friends on Facebook, but also have a website for enemies.. You could have a wall to just argue with your enemies on.. They could call it Sh**list or something.

And what about those people who don't show their face on their "facebook" page.. ? What's up with them? That's something I'd do..

I've been thinking how much I don't like the new Yahoo page. I don't know.. I just can't like a page that presents me with a big grey box on the screen that tells me that I might like something else.. What were they thinking when they came up with that? I've even had better ideas than that.. Like bringing back the Hitler moustache...

Well I can't grow a moustache.. I can but it makes me look like I've forgotten to shave.

But here's the really exciting thing that I've been buiding up to in this post. We've all heard about how great duct tape is.. I have a friend who has written an unpublished book on all of the things you can use it for. Several months ago I got a sliver in my finger. My fourth finger on my left hand. My angry old man finger. Right on the tip. The sliver went straight in and I coudln't get it out. It hurt for about a week. I thought it would disolve or something, but it turned into a wart. I'm not sure if it's really a wart but that's the only way I can describe it. It was really bothering me plus it was making it hard to play guitar. I can't afford to go to the doctor with this because I have a thirty thousand dollar deductable on my insurance and no doubt they'd use it to deny me coverage in the future.

So out of desperation I decided to try duct tape on it. It seems to be working. I've had the duct tape on it for three days now and no question, there's been a big improvement! I'd say it's half the size that it was. I was going to photograph it to document the progress but I decided not to as it's kind of disgusting.

***
Ok so I had to remove the part about this girl's boyfriend's back video. Didn't meet my decency standards, and people might have gotten the wrong idea.

Forest trees

A picture of some trees in the forest that I took last week while I was hunting.

Winter camp

I thought I should make a post since it's been a while. A week ago I was in my camper way up in the woods in a snow storm. Tonight after work I covered up my camper with a tarp. We had a very difficult time getting down out of the mountains last week as the logging road was steep and slick. The snow on it had been packed down by other trucks and it was like ice. I was very lucky I didn't slide my truck off of the road and down the hill.

It was exactly the same conditions that I wrecked a 4 wheel drive as a kid in. I was hunting with my Dad and he was teaching me how to drive before I had a license. Pretty difficult conditions to learn to drive in. I was coming down a steep slick snowy road and lost control. Rolled it three times down this hillside with both of us in it. I've often though of how different my life would have been if he'd died in that crash. I had flashbacks to that last Sunday as I slid down that road.

I got to a flat place where I could stop. That's where I took the picture of my camper. My friend and I decided to share chains. We both had rear chains but you needed them on the front wheels too. So I removed my chains and we took them up to my friend's truck in the jeep and he drove out. Then we took all four chains back to my truck and I drove out.. So here's a picture of my truck all chained up. (Notice the chains on the front wheels of my camper)

I've been really busy at work. Who cares right? But that's good I guess. I usually don't talk about work here. At least I won't loose my job for now. It's like if we don't have enough work we will all loose our jobs and it's unsettling. It's sort of like this thing constantly hanging over us. We're either busy to the point that we can't handle it all or we're gonna loose our jobs. It's like there's no middle ground.

Oh yeah. I fixed the action on my new guitar myself. Now I'm enjoying it. I took it to the guitar guy three times. First the action was too low. Then it was too high. Then he made it too low again. So I decided to do something about it myself. I got it pretty good. It's still a little high but not bad. At least I can deal with it now.

I got this new coffee maker... Quisinart.. You can set the time you want it to make coffee. So I get up and the coffee is ready to drink. That's pretty slick. I didn't think I'd like that but I do. It saves me time and brain power in the morning.

I had sausage and cabbage for dinner tonight. Good German meal. Used to have that when I was growing up. It's really easy to make. Just boil some cabbage and have some sausage in there. (I used fully cooked German sausage sliced) That's it. If you use uncooked sausage you have to cook that first. Then put it in with the cabbage and boil it.

That's about it for now. Soon I'll be skiing. I hope everyone is doing well.

Lodgepole Pine

I've been in the woods hunting for a few days. Lots of adventure.. Might tell you about it later. Here's a picture I took of some Lodgepole Pine trees (and a few Tamarack / Larch trees, the yellow ones) looking up from my favorite trail. You should see them dance and sing when it's windy, but it was calm this day. They sway to the music of the wind. I took this picture before the sun came out, the morning after a snow storm. I've taken pictures like this before, but I didn't realize you could see my trail in the sky.

Camp photos

Went up into the woods this weekend as it was hunting season and all.. Took a book to read and my camp guitar. It was really windy and stormy when I got there so I parked my camper out of reach of falling trees. Never camp in the trees when it's windy.. The path above is golden yellow because it's covered with Tamarack needles that have fallen from the trees. They cover the whole forest floor and are soft underfoot.

I call this picture; chair, guitar and fire. Or chair, fire and guitar... Chair, fire, guitar and stump... Well I haven't exactly decided. That's the difference between punk rock and camp rock. In punk rock you smash the guitar into the amplifier at the end of the song. In camp rock you just throw the guitar on the fire and cook a hotdog over it.

Flathead River

Since I haven't been taking too many pictures lately I thought I'd post another couple from a set I took along the Flathead River. I posted a couple a while back and they all kind of look the same, probably because I just stood there and took a lot of pictures of the same thing.. Well each one is slightly different I guess. Anyway.. click on them if you want to see them bigger. (I'm not posting anything at full resolution)

You aint goin to no bar!

"You aint goin to no bar!" I heard from the next isle in the hardware store. Some redneck father scolded his little daughter. "If you don't shut up you're gonna wait out in the car!" The mother added as they came around the corner into my isle. My gosh I thought.. "In ten years you can go to the bar," the father croaked. "You can to to the bar..and..grill.. " the father added, "But you aint goin to no bar!."

Good grief! I thought. They went past me in the bolt section and walked away. The little girl following along behind not saying a word. She was all of ten years old.

How I wish I had a daughter like that I thought as I watched them walked away. We'd never have a conversation like that. I'd enroll her in girl scouts and teach her how to tie a BOWLINE knot. I'd get her a camera and tell her how nice her pictures looked. I'd give her dance lessons and let her pick out a shelter dog.

But we wouldn't be talking about going to no bar.

***
The rabbit comes out of its hole, around the tree, and back down its hole... That always confused me. But if you're going to learn one knot, learn how to tie a bowline. They shouldn't graduate people from college until they can tie it.

Daylight savings time

I wish they would just leave the time alone. I've said before that if I were president I'd introduce legislation that would split the difference between standard and daylight savings time and then leave it alone after that. Everyone would get half of what they want.

You know, I'm not that fond of November. Maybe we could have two more weeks of October and two more weeks of December, and just save November in case we need an extra month in the spring.. We could throw it inbetween April and May. Or perhaps we could use November for an extra month of summer..

I got my guitar back from the luthier and now it's better, but I'm still not that fond of it, so I'll probably be selling it. I think there might be a Martin in my future.

I'll be keeping the case.. I could put my laptop in it. and a change of clothes..

Storm clouds

I've been trying to catch the thoughts that have been floating around in my head and arrange them into something that makes sense.. but it's not working. So here's a picture from a set I took a while back and rejected all of the pictures because they didn't make sense, but now I see that they sort of look like the inside of my head. A big empty space over here, a big dark spot over there. A dark forest below and a dark sky above.

Tweed guitar case

So here's a picture of my new guitar case.. I bought a new guitar and it came in this great big pimp daddy gold tweed case. I was kind of expecting a black case and when I opened the box and saw it I was like, Holy Cow!.. but people seem to love this. Women seem to love it. I can't walk around with this and not draw attention. It's bigger than it looks and that even makes it worse.

But I have to admit that I even like it now. I think I like it better than the guitar that came in it.

The great pumpkin

My neighbor drove by with a pumpkin in tow, so I chased him down to get a snap.

I like this guy's style.

Tamarack and Larch

I wandered around in the forest for a while yesterday. The Tamaracks are changing color and it's starting to give the forest a golden tint. There are other trees in this picture too. Pine and fir. I thought I should throw some color in my blog before winter sets in and all of my pictures are of snow.

Here's a picture of a young Tamarack that I took last year deep in the forest that was starting to change color. That post is HERE.

Flathead River pictures

Here are a couple of pictures I took today of the Flathead River south of Flathead Lake in Montana. A snow storm moved through last night. So much for Fall..

I disturbed some ducks as I walked down to the shore. You might have to click on the photo if you want to see the ducks.

Outhouse picture

I finally painted the old outhouse. I didn't really want to because I liked the way it looked, but everyone else thought it was an eyesore. It took me a while to paint it because I kept stopping to take pictures, and once I start taking pictures I just loose control.

I should take pictures of nothing but outhouses.. I thought as I took pictures of the outhouse. That's crazy, I thought.. Then I thought, they should give cameras to crazy people and let them take pictures of anything they want.. Withhold their medication and just let them go crazy taking pictures..

How do they detirmine when someone is crazy? I wondered.. "What's the diagnosis Dr.?.." "Well I'm afraid he's gone crazy.." "We'll have to put him on medication.."

Leftover chicken

"You were on the edge when you were younger Donald." said Mr. C. "Well,.." I started to wonder if being on the edge had a different meaning from generation to generation,.. "Admit it Donald!" he went on to insist.. Well I guess you might look at it that way.. Mr. C. being one of the only people to call me Donald.

You know that chicken you get in the grocery store? They cook two kinds baked and fried. The fried kind has this golden brown breading on it. 8 piece.. and they grab it with tongs and put it in a paper box. When they grab, I count. Could be doing the slide of hand as they move pieces around to get you the right eight.. Plus what if they give you one drumstick and three thighs?! That would just be wrong, and under that breading how can you really know?

If they were to segregate the chicken when they cooked it instead of when they served it, they could save time I thought, and much more of the breading would stay on the chicken.. After the first day if they don't sell it they put it on a black plastic tray with plastic wrap and sell it cold. It starts to become less golden and more brown. And it would be one thing if they lowered the price after the first day, and I guess they do a little, but if you ask me it's worth paying more for first day chicken unless you like your grease dry..

Who doesn't own a swim suit?.. Isn't that a little dysfunctional? I thought as we looked around her apartment complex. I wanted to get in the hot tub with this girl, and she really was on the edge, unlike me of course..Plus she had a great body, perhaps a swim suit was a little to square for her?.. "I can wear some shorts" she said. Shorts and a T shirt. She really was pretty, but she could be really ugly too. She had a problem I never fully understood. When she was straight she was sweet and hot, kind of like that mustard,.. but when she was messed up she was like split pea soup, the little girl in the Exorcist. The contrast was hard to imagine. One moment she would straighening my collar and tell me how nice I looked, and the next moment she was barfing pea soup and her head was spinning around 360 degrees. (not sure how many degrees in Celcius)

I pulled off the highway at night and drove into a small town to get some things at the grocery store. As I walked up to the store all of the people seemed edgy to me. But then I thought, I'm one of the edgy people too. We are all edgy at this store or we wouldn't be doing our shopping this time of night. After I got my things I went up to the counter to pay. Behind me in line came this woman. A woman from my past. I glanced at her. Is that her? I asked myself.. It is. It has to be. She glanced at me but we both did a good job of not noticing eachother.

She had a package of leftover chicken on a black plastic tray, the golden breading shrivled and brown. She could just throw that in the toilet when she got home I thought. It could save a lot of effort. "They have a good deal on soup" I wanted to say..

Montana rocks!

This is one of the reasons I love Flathead Lake, Wild Horse Island, Glacier Park and Montana for that matter. The rocks are beautiful. This is a picture of rocks on the shore of Wild Horse Island. I can't explain why they looks so cool. I'm not a rock expert.. But I can say this,. Montana rocks!

Boat ride to Wild Horse Island

I took the skiff (aunt Gertrude) over to Wild Horse Island. All of my boats are named after my aunts,. except for my Hobie Cat which is named after my cat. I have quite a few aunts to go so I can get quite a few more boats.. Did a little fishing. Climbed around on the driftwood logs. Looked at the rocks. Took in the sweet Montana air.

Glacier Park Photos

A couple of more pictures from Glacier Park. I took quite a few.

A cabin at Lake McDonald that you can rent. I tooked around in one of these while it was being cleaned. Very rustic. You can walk right out of these and down to the shore of Lake McDonald. They are all a little different too with bigger and smaller ones depending on your needs.

This chair was at the back of one of the buildings that the staff use at Lake McDonald Lodge. Looks like a good place to sit and play a guitar I'm thinking. A lot of the buildings are painted brown like this.

SpokeFest 2009 photos

SpokeFest was really good once again. I think what makes it good is, it's only 21 miles, It's only $20. and it starts and ends in downtown Spokane. Not to mention the route along Riverside State Park is beautiful. This year there were over 1600 riders. That's a lot for a bike ride. As we left town in a group and started to decend down to the river it was kind of tricky with that many riders around you and the bumps in the road.

Best Jersey, Stratocaster.

I rode with my friend Gary who I turned on to cycling and now it's his main form of working out. If you love a sport you have to convert someone.

This girl gets best form award. She had a really cool kit on that looked like a skirt, and her Cannondale bike fits her perfectly. Best smile too.

And here's a shot of the Spokane River and Pavilion that I took at the end of the ride.

SpokeFest Spokane

I was skeptical about SpokeFest last year and almost didn't do it because it was only 21 miles. It's possible to ride it in one hour or less. But I decided to do it anyway as it was the first year, and doing bike rides is the sort of thing I do here at bicycle log. It turned out to be pretty darn good and I was impressed. HERE are the pictures I took last year which was the first year of SpokeFest. Anyway it's a ride to take your time on and not race. I don't think that's the intention, and if you do go as fast as possible it will be over too quickly and I really don't see the point in that.

I decided to stick around and ride in SpokeFest again this year. It's going to be perfect weather for it. Sunny and warm for this time of year. Last year I used my single speed bike. That was ok until I got to Doomsday Hill. I had to fly up it like Marco Pantani to keep the bike going in my one gear. I wasn't trying to show off, I just didn't have any options. Go fast up the hill to keep the crank going around or walk. I did it ok without walking but it was a little radical. So this year I'm going to ride my vintage Gitane Team and I'll have 10 gears to choose from. 5 chainrings on the back wheel and 2 on the crank. Now they call bikes 10 speeds when they have 10 gears on the back wheel, but there are actually 20 gear combinations on them if they have 2 chainrings on the crank. You knew that!

I've been wanting to ride the Gitane in a group ride, but I don't want to ride it all day so this is a good event for it. It seems like overkill to ride my regular road bike. Here's a pic of my baby. Old baby I guess I should say...

My vacation relaxation only took a couple of days to wear off. I guess that's the way it goes. I rode over 80 miles in Glacier Park. I made an attempt on the Going To The Sun Road but there was road construction about half way up and they had the pavement torn up for two miles. So I turned around when the pavement ended. No way could I ride my skinny tires on the dirt. It's too dangerous up there. Tuesday a motorcycle went off of the road and the guy fell to his death. But I did ride up and down Lake McDonald and up to the road work. It was really nice if not really cold early each morning. It would be in the low 40s F in the mornings and up to 90 degrees F in the afternoon. Who knows what it was C !?.. 32 I guess..

Glacier Park Photos

Here are a couple of more photos from Glacier. This was taken on my way back to Logan Pass from Haystack on the highline trail. I think that's Mt. Clements. I've skied both of those peaks in years past early in the season when there's snow everywhere and you don't have to worry about hurting the plants. (they frown on walking off of the trails when there isn't snow on the ground.) We'd climb to where the snow meets the rocks above. I'm not sure I'd have the nerve to do it anymore. You can't see it from below but there's usually a big gap between the snow and the mountian rocks at the top of those snow fields, and you could fall in there and not get back out.

(it's Mt. Reynolds. Thanks! I get those two confused.)

I'm not sure what these plants are called. I've never noticed them before. In case I've discovered a new plant, I named them Wild Hippy Hair Weeds.. They were doing the Hippy Hippy Shake in the wind.

This is a picture of where Snyder Creek comes into Lake McDonald. It was so hot I swam in the lake to cool off. If I really wanted to cool off I'd get in the Snyder Creek water coming into the lake. It was like turning on the cold tap.

Glacier Park vacation

I spent a few vacation days in Glacier Park cycling, hiking and canoeing. I don't think there is any place I'd rather be other than Flathead Lake. Here are a few Glacier Park photos. One morning I hiked from Logan Pass to Hidden Lake as it was on the east side of the continental divide and got the morning sun. It, feels like you are on the top of the world up there. It was really windy and that kept the people cool and the bugs away.

Then in the afternoon I took the Highline Trail that goes from Logan Pass to Granite Park along the Garden Wall which you can see at right. I didn't go all the way to Granite Park as I didn't have enough daylight, but I did go to Haystack which is the hump you see in the distance. I wanted to make it to Haystack because I wanted to see over the other side, but kept looking at my watch because I didn't want to get caught out late up there. It's not a place you want to hike alone late in the day. If anything were to happen and you had to spend the night out it could be disaster, not to mention the Grizzly Bear issue. I timed it right although I think I was the last person off of the trail that day. Not good actually although I know the trail well. The wind really got strong and there are several places you could be blown away to your death. I guess it's happened.

One day after I went cycling in the morning, I took the canoe out on Lake McDonald. It was hot and calm all afternoon which is kind of unusual for Glacier but I knew it would be a good day to be on the water. This view is looking southwest towards Apgar. I'm infront of Lake McDonald Lodge where I stayed. I'd paddle along and then beach the canoe and go for a dip in the cold water.

The water was so clear I could see the shadow of my canoe on the bottom when the water was really deep. I could see fish swimming along too and one time a whole bunch of them swam by. I beached the canoe several times and went swimming. The bottom drops off steep in places and when you swim under water and look into the deep it is the most beautiful turquoise color. It was really amazing. I was wishing I had an underwater camera.

Here's a picture of my car canoe and bike at Apgar as I left the park. I have room for one more bike on the other side of the canoe. I stayed at Lake McDonald Lodge at the other end of the lake and Hiked in those Mountains. I rode my bike in the morning from the far end of the lake to this end and back. I had to time trial on my way back to Lake McDonald Lodge to check out on time. I rode over 80 miles while I was in the park. I took a lot of pictures too so perhaps I'll post a few more later.

Wild Horse Island Bighorn

Here's a very small detail of a bighorn on Wild Horse Island that I took in low light as night fell on the lake. I thought it looked sort of impressionistic when I zoomed in. It was so dark I didn't have any hopes for a picture but I took pictures anyway.

Learning to water ski

Leaning to water ski at the lake each summer is a time honored tradition for the young people. For the not so young people it's a chance pass on knowledge and learn just how not so young they are. The next morning anyway..

I usually don't post pictures of people I know, but I like this picture too much.