Snowboarder picture

It was such a nice weekend for skiing and um,. in this case riding. Of course that's what snowboarders do, they ride. As a life long skier I have no problem with snowboarders. (even though one of them did paste out Samantha one time) The more I'm around them the more I like them. Some of the cutest girls on the mountain are snowboarders. I might even try it myself one day.

But only for one day... :)

Superbowl Sunday is one of the best days in the year to ski... and ride.. You heard it hear first.
(click on the picture to see it big.. go big!)

May peace prevail on earth

In fairness, here's another bumper sticker from North Idaho. I can't say for sure but I would suspect that this car belongs to an evil "liberal". Someone who would be P_'d off if you bought a gun.

Buy a gun

Easterm Washington and North Idaho is a beautiul place to live, but there are a lot small minded people who live here. The odd thing is that the people who grew up here don't think anything of it. They think it's just normal or just blow it off, but I find it really disgusting and shameful.

This is the sort of person who is likely to go to his or her work place and shoot former co-workers.. after getting fired for being such a creep.

Hate crimes are on the rise here and there's little wonder why.

Ski bum

I've been skiing a lot lately so I've gone back through some recent pictures and decided I should post one. I get used to this view looking east with Montana off in the distance.

(click on the picture to get the don's eye view)

Skiing is getting so expensive that it's kind of hard to be a ski bum anymore. That's kind of sad. I'd like to just drop out of everything and be a ski bum but I can't afford to..

Hm,.. I never thought I woudln't be able to afford to be a bum.

What kind of salad dressing do you like?

"What kind of salad dressing do you like?" I asked a woman I met online, "if that isn't to personal.." I added. "What kind of salad dressing do you like in men?.. I'm attracted to women who like Italian salad dressing for instance.. but a woman who likes roquefort,.. Well that's totally hot!"

I told her I might use this line on my blog. Her computer isn't working so I thought I'd sneak it in.

US Figure Skating Championship photos

I went to Ice Dancing at the US Figure Skating Championships today. This time I took a better camera. It's still a difficult thing to take pictures of. The ice is bright and yet you have to use high ISO speeds and fast shutter speeds and they don't want you to use flash, not that it woudln't help anyway. You need a lens that gathers a lot of light wich I don't have so the pictures turn out noisy but they tell my story. Anway I loved this girls hair.

Here they are dancing. They ended up 2nd in Juniors.

There was one couple who were dressed up like Holocaust inmates or perhaps Jews during the Nazi occupation. I just finished a book written by a woman my mom knows who is a Holocaust surviver of Dachau. She was living in Kiev Ukraine as an 8 year old when the Nazis invaded. She and her mom were deported to a camp in Poland and then on to Dachau where she barely survived. The book was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. These outfits seemed a little odd to me in this context having just read that book, but this pair was really good. They danced to the theme from Schindler's List.

Here is one final spin to end this post with. If you ever get a chance to see figure skating in person don't pass up the chance. It's really worth it.

Dog photo contest

So we've entered this picture of Jake the dog (my header dog) in a dog photo contest at Jake's master's bank. You could win dog treats and stuff. I've taken a lot of pictures, but I've never entered any in a photo contest.. So how cool would it be if the first "contest" I enter a photo in wins dog treats!.. :) That would be perfect for my resume...

Well ok,.. it's not exactly a very high level photo contest, but you gotta start somewhere right?.. And if I don't win anything, I can say, I entered a dog picture in a bank dog photo contest and didn't win anything. And that's almost as good as winning dog treats!

US Figure Skating Championships

I got tickets again to the US Figure Skating Championships through our company which treated us. It's really great. Today I saw the pairs short program and tomorrow I'm going to see the Pairs Final. I like the pairs because you get to see both men and women, and I like seeing those lifts and throws.

It was hard for me to get good results with the little camera, so I might take my regular camera tomorrow. Anyway it it's great to watch. I think just about anyone would enjoy it. There are still tickets left so if you are near Spokane you should take it in.

That doggie in the window

Notice the doggie in the window. Good boy.. Good boy.. He's a good ski dog...

Rocking out

I took the day off today and went skiing. I called in to my dentist and had them move up my cleaning a day to Wednesday as I knew Thursday was going to be a clear, calm and sunny.

It was the best day skiing for me this year as the snow is now deep enough, groomed and no crowds so I could go as fast as I wanted all day with nobody in the way. All of my other days so far have been snow, fog, and you name it. But today was perfect. I'm really getting back in the groove again now and feeling the center of the skis. I was rocking out with my new MP3 player.

Click on the picture to see it bigger.

Spaces

Where am I today I wish that I knew,
Cause looking around there's no sign of you.
I don't remember one jump or one leap,
Just quiet steps away from your lead.

Nickel Creek, Reasons Why

So now it works!

Ice fishing

Who says ice fishing isn't a form of self-expression like fly fishing?.. This guy reminds me of a conductor I once had in orchestra, and that's pretty much the same view I had from the back of the second violin section too.

I think it takes a special person to really get into ice fishing. My dad used to be into it and would drag me out of a warm bed in the morning and in the winter to stand out on a frozen lake. I always froze to death.

And what did he do with the fish we caught?.. He froze them..

***
On the subject of self-expression, blogger isn't letting me make this text look the way I want (like I used to be able to.) It's adding spaces where I don't want and I can't seem to remove them. That really sucks for song lyrics.. I'm sure it's me not understanding the code, but as a result I just won't write what I want.

It reminds me of how bad Word got. If I don't put in a space, then I don't want a space. When it comes to text, I just want it to look like how I type it. Is that too much to ask?

I'm surprised they're letting me use more than one period.... I'm ranting.... I'm really not crazy about rant blogs. Honestly. I don't want to be that blogger.

outside of the bubble

What do you want for Christmas?.. You don't have to get me anything mom, I already have everything I want.. Well if you don't tell me something soon you'll get something you don't want. Well alright then,. get me an MP3 player. What does it do? she asked. Well it records music and stuff.

It also trys to record all of my pictures every time I copy music to it despite my efforts to turn that feature off. That's really a pain. I'd be happy to have one that didn't bother with pictures, or at least let you turn it off. What am I going to do with a thing like this that has my pictures on it?

Welcome to the modern world, a co-worker said..

the Stockmans Bar

The Stockmans Bar in Missoula Montana. Licquor up front, and Poker in the rear. That's a little crude for bicyclelog, but some things just rise above.

Bitterroot Valley picture

A picture from the Bitterroot Valley in Montana. A little peace on Earth I guess you could say.

Flathead River picture

I've added this picture of the Flathead River in Montana and a couple of others I like to my Favorite Photos link on the side bar as well as removing others. I think it works better now as a group. Click on the picture to see bigger.

I've been wanting to do some house keeping on my side bar. I'm reading blogs that I'm not listing and blogs are listed that aren't active that I can't bring myself to remove, not that anyone uses those links but they do look at the pictures so I'm going to focus on that. I'm still going to list blogs I read. It's just helpful.

I would like to get things sorted out. I don't want my blog to end up like my basement.. a bunch of stuff that nobody uses.

The rabbit lives

I thought someone might have done in the rabbit but it looks like it lives. I found its tracks in the snow this morning.

Go Griz

I've been in a mood. Work stuff mostly. And I might be getting cabin fever as this is my least favorite time of year. The skiing hasn't really started and everyone is into this Christmas thing.

I heard on the news last night that now our consumer based economy depends on the very wealthy people to save it for all of us by spending lots of money on Christmas. No matter how much the rest of us spend, it won't matter. How pathetic and sad for us on so many levels. So I as usual I can't wait to get past Christmas and all of the nonsense eveyone puts themselves through. It's too bad we can't just go to church and have one gluttonous meal if we must and move on. I have to wonder how we got to this point with our consumer Christmas.

The really bad thing,.. The very wealthy will use this to justify their political views and the rest of it. And the divide between the halves and have not's gets even greater. So I raise a glass to the very wealthy and hope they spend a lot of money on things they don't really need to save us all.

Today was pertty nice though. I just stayed in bed and listened to the radio. Finally got up and made some coffee. Ground the beans. Nursed it for a couple of hours while I watched the beautiful Tina Maze almost win a Giant Slalom ski race on TV. I'm a big Tina Maze fan. Don't get me wrong, I love our US women Mancuso and Vonn, but Maze is slinky like a mountain lion when she does giant slalom. I'm pulling for Julia Mancuso and Tina Maze to do well in the Olympic giant slalom.

And on the subject of sports way to go Griz! The University of Montana Football team is on its way to the championship football game against Villanova next weekend. Well watching them win today brought my spirits up, as did watching Gonzaga win over Davidson in basketball. Next weekend Gonzaga takes on Duke at Madison Square Garden. Too bad Natalia Antonova isn't around to watch. She's more into football these days though, and I don't mean football... I mean um, soccer..

One of my friends said I should go skiing this weekend. I think he's right as usual. Even if I only get to ski the bunny hill, I think it would do a lot for my mood. So I'll wax a pair of skis tonight and head out in the morning. If nothing else I'll be on the mountain.

Today I decided to make pizza. Since I taught myself to make bread I don't buy take and bake I just make pizza from scratch. Here's how my dough looked as it was rising.

Clark Fork River rocks

Last week I stopped and wandered along the Clark Fork River in western montana looking for rocks and taking pictures. I was looking for that one special rock that I needed for my project. Click on the photo if you really want to rock out man!

It was misty, quiet and kind of eerie along the river that morning. I parked my car at a fishing access and started to roam along the river taking pictures and looking for rocks. I went through a muddy section and and saw some cat tracks. It wasn't a bobcat or anything like that due to the size and the stride. It was a mountain lion/ cougar. A mountain cat. I've seen a lot of cougar tracks in this area along the river and saw one run across the road infront of my car not too far from here. My mom saw a great big one as did one of my friends. The one my mom saw sounded like it was really big from what she described. The one I saw was medium sized.

Anyway it put me on edge a little while I was out of the car. I don't mind bears so much. They are kind of la de da about things, but not moutain lions. If they take an interest in you they don't just let it go. These weren't the biggest cat tracks I've seen but they were big enough.

Gift exchange ideas

Today on bicycle log we are going to talk about eyes and eyewear... Hm, that sounds pretty official.

Anyway. We have have this gift exchange at work. and we each draw a name out of a bowl. They are typed on a piece of paper and then cut apart. You reach into the bowl and pick one out. I really hate stuff like this, but I go along with it. You can opt out but then there you are with no gift, and everyone is looking at you like what's up with you scrooge? So it's easier just to go along with it, and pretend you like your gift and this sort of thing. Sometimes I actually do like my gift. There's a $10. limit but I always go over that. I mean, what can you really get for $10 these days?

So anyway I put my hand in the bowl and got my name of a person to buy a gift for. It was the same person I had last year, so I got to draw again. Heaven forbid you get a person you aren't getting along with or can't stand, or something like that. But I know a way out of that,. just say you got that person last year... On my second draw I got one of the women as there are lots of them where I work. So I decided to get this gal some cheap sunglasses. I've done that before when I drew a male co-worker who ended up getting them ripped off when he left the company truck running and someone took the sunglasses (along with the truck), but that's a whole different story. We got the truck back, but they kept the sunglasses.

Ok,. So instead of me actually going out and buying sun glasses, I decided to ask another female co-worker who is 21 years old and always has cool shades, to go and do my shopping for me as I knew she'd come up with the goods. Plus I woudln't have to shop. Those are the sunglasses in the picture above. She got them at Target and I think they are really cool! I wouldn't mind keeping them just because I like cool things. Not that I'd wear them or anythign like that... I'm not a cross-glasser if that's what you're thinking.

Now the eye part of the post. Today I went to the eye doctor. I need new glasses. Plus I wanted to make sure my eyes are ok which they are. I tend to use them so I thought it would be a good idea.

So the first girl takes me into the test room and does a bunch of tests on me with the equipment. Then I go into the exam room and wait for the eye doctor to come in. While I'm sitting in there waiting I look at the computer screen with my profile on it, and there's a section called "Patient Disposition" or something like that and it says I'm "pleasant and sociable". I'm like, What?! What does this have to do with my eyes?.. What if it said something like "insane sociopath" or even "angry old man"..? I mean I'm sitting there and they've got to know I can read it.. Or maybe they think I can't read it because my eyes are so bad?..

Anway the eye doctor came in and she was into cycling so we ended up talking about trainers and cold weather cycling. So that was cool. Now my profile will probably say something like "know it all"..

My eyes are fine by the way,.. except that I can't see anything without glasses.

Clear and cold

I came across this picture that I took last year so I thought I'd post it again. The weather has been much the same lately. Clear and cold, except the moon has been full. I live off to the left of this shot in the distance. I can hear the train that goes on these tracks at night.

There isn't really enough snow to ski yet even though they have it open. I'm more than ready for my first turns. It's been snowing so perhaps I'll be on my skis soon.

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.