Megan Case

Monica has stopped blogging so I'm going to remove her blog from my side bar for now. If she comes back I'll put it right back up. I noticed tonight that Megan Case has added me to her sidebar. I thought that was pretty cool as we don't always see eye to eye on political issues. I read her blog all of the time. She's in Sweden right now but has been teaching in Russia.

When I think of Sweden, I think of champion ski racers Anja Paerson, Pernilla Wiberg the so called "Swede with Speed" and of course Ingemar Stenmark, one of the best alpine ski racers of all time. Now when I think of Sweden I also think of MEGAN CASE.

Tubular man

I bought some new tires for my bike thinking it would motivate me to get on it as soon as the weather allows. Gas prices and all, I want to start riding to work and loose some of my winter fat. Actually I have a couple of sets of wheels and now my bike will have the same tires on both sets of wheels. They are Michelin tires. I'm not really endorsing them, it's just that they are the narrowest clinchers you can get (20) and they have a low rolling resistance. I'm kind of a tubular guy but all of the new consumer stuff has clincher tires.

People think it's easier and less expensive to fix a flat with clinchers. Just replace the tube. I've heard it all. It might be less expensive but it's actually easier to change out a flat with tubulars on the road. Much easier. The ride just isn't the same with clinchers as it is with tubulars, and a point of fact, Lance Armstrong always rode on tubular tires on all of his Tours de France, and get this, he never had a flat from what I understand. I'm not saying that you can't get a flat on tubulars, I've had many. I still have one bike with tubulars on it. My vintage Gitane.

The walls are closing in

Sometimes in the winter it feels like the walls are closing in on me. That is my drafting table in the distance. My cube is through the door on the right.

Clinton Obama Ohio debate

I just got done watching the Clinton Obama debate in Ohio. It promised to be a good one and perhaps it was one of the best to date.

First off, I want to comment on the way they looked on camera. If you remember the Nixon Kennedy debate,.. well I'm sure you won't remember and neither do I, but it has been well documented that JFK looked much better on camera. He came in with a tan and looked young and hansom. I look through my camera a lot. I thought Obama looked much better on camera, and the camera angles worked in favor of Obama, even though I'm not sure he looks bad from any angle. Clinton looked good front on but not so much in profile, and the way the desk was positioned it did not favor her as she was often seen in profile. Also with regard to the way they looked, Obama had very very white teeth. He must be getting them bleached. Obama looked young and hansom. Clinton looked good from the front but not so good in profile. As far as how they looked on camera Clinton reminded me of Nixon and Obama reminded me of the young JFK. However, if we remember our history, Nixon came back from his defeat against JFK to become president later.

Aside from how they both looked, I thought that Obama was flawless. I don't think he screwed up at all. Clearly he he can handle the pressure. The questions from Russert were pretty difficult for both Clinton and Obama, and they both did well.

There was one moment with regard to foreign policy that I thought Clinton fell on her face. She was asked about Putin's successor, (Dmitry Medevev) And she couldn't pronounce his name. It was a Bush moment. Even I knew his name and can pronounce it. She mispronounced Medevev a couple of times and then said "whatever". My gosh! If I were Obama I would have corrected her and it would have been huge. Perhaps Obama didn't know either, but he missed a slam dunk, however I think Obama won the debate by not making any mistakes and showing that he could be very cool under pressure.

President's week

I was watching CSPAN today (at lunch) and noticed that congress just got back from taking the WEEK off for President's DAY.

They looked pretty rested. Many people don't even get the day off.

500th post

It wouldn't be right of me not to mention that Levi Leipheimer won the Tour of California since he's a fellow Montanan and and this being bicyclelog and all. It's just that I can't get too excited about cycling yet. Leiphpeimer joined the re-organized Astana team which is pretty much Postal. If you remember, Astana got thrown out of the Tour de France last year due to Vinokourov testing positive. It's the same team in name only but they aren't invited back to the Tour de France. Some are saying they should be able to ride in the tour as it isn't really the same team, and they have one of the best teams. We will see if the tour lets them back in but I kind of doubt it.

***
I forgot to mention that this was my 500th post. I've been trying to find some meaning in this. I don't think I've been learning anything. I still can't spell. I'd been waiting for this 500th post for several days, and then when it happend I forgot about it.

Perhaps my life is like that. I wait for some important event to happen and then miss it by not paying attention.

Idaho day

It was an Idaho day on the mountain Saturday :) but I went skiing anyway as I'm not getting many chances. I decided to stay home today as it looks to be even more of an Idaho day today! You can't see a thing when you ski. No horizon, no snow, nothing. It makes my head swim, and racing in conditions like this is somewhat surreal but the gates give you a reference point.

So I went and watched the racing and took a few photos. There was a hold on the course as one of the women from Big Mountain fell and had to be removed by the ski patrol.

This is one of the guys I ski with so I took a picture of his start and then took his warmups and pack down for him. (Now which gate are you supposed to go around?..)

The slalom is today and I'd been wanting to do that, but there are no training runs (which I would desperately need) and with the weather such as it is, I decided to stay home and clean out my cage.

Don't stop thinking about tomorrow

I came back and edited this post. It was way off of my point. I watched the democratic debate the other night. Clinton got in a great final word and would have taken the win in the debate if she hadn't kept going after Obama for plagiarism, an argument that nobody bought, and this lack of experience thing. It's been my experience that young people without much experience often do just fine on the job and bring in new and fresh ideas.

We are a fast food culture. We want something new all of the time. Get rid of the old one and get a new one every few years. It's true with music, It's true with cars, it's true with all things that we consume. The Clinton campaign is no different. You can turn an old shirt inside out to try and make it new, but it's still just an old shirt. The Clinton campaign is like a Fleetwood Mac reunion tour. Kind of cool but not what's happening now, and McCain,.. Well...

Tastes in the music have changed. Time stops for no woman. Yesterday's gone.

Artisan bread

I don't know what to think. Sometimes I wish I lived in France or Italy or even Seattle. The food choices here just suck so bad. To Safeway's credit they are making great bagels. For that I'm thankful. And for some reason people here are crazy about sourdough. I'm not so much. I don't mind it, but it's not the only bread I think we should value, and depsite the fact that Safeway sells a few choices of hummus, they only sell one kind of pita bread and it is way over priced and it sucks. I really need to teach myself how to make pita bread.

So I'm looking over the bread choices at Safeway and I decide to buy some ciabatta. I get it home and pull it out of the bag and it had "ARTISAN" written on it in flour. It should have said "CIABATTA" but either way it was tacky I thought. Perhaps it's intended to make the local stepford wives feel "artistic" in their domestic roles.

Idaho day

"It's a Utah day" she said as we rode the chairlift up the mountain this morning with not a cloud in the sky. "It's an Idaho day." I responded/ corrected. I could tell that we weren't going to get along. I'm thinking,.. you're in Idaho,..deal with it. The day after President's Day (do we really need a President's Day? We should think this one over, but I'm getting off point.) Nobody on the mountain, perfect weather, great snow, great view. not a cloud in the sky,.."Enjoy it while it lasts" she said,.. Well I'd heard just about enough by the time we got to the top!

Next ride up the chair,.. "It's a Colorado day." this other guy said,..

I've always maintained that people in Idaho have an identity problem.

People aren't monkeys

Ok, so as you might know, I've been taking pictures of power lines. I took this one on my way home from skiing today.

In the news from Idaho, governor Butch Otter has introduced legislation that would make dog fighting a felony. (but he also said in last years state of the state address he wants to allow the hunting of wolves, and wants to be one of the first to get a permit.) I realize that wolves aren't dogs...(and people aren't monkeys...)

Sun dog sky

There was an unusual sun dog sort of sky this morning as the sun came up. And HERE is a better picture of a sun dog that I took back when.

Happy Valentine's day

Stepford wife

Since I broke a CV joint on my little car on all of the rough snowpacked roads, I've been driving my big old Ford redneck truck to work until I can get my car repaired. (I can assure you there is no way for me to ride a bike to work right now.) Anyway since it is soon to be Valentine's Day I bought a card for my Mom and wanted to mail it so it would be there on the 14th.

So I pulled in to the post office parking lot with old yeller, exaust leak and all, and right behind me was one of the local stepford wives in a very clean new Range Rover. I got to the door of the post office before she did. So of course I swung around and held the door open for her. Something I always do for any woman.

She was a pretty and well groomed woman. But she must have seen the Ford. It was as if a homless person had held the door open for her. Thank you she said almost in disgust. I guess I shouldn't hold the door open for women anymore.

Well I'll remember this, and when her Range Rover gets stuck in the snow, she just might be off of my list of people to pull out of the ditch with my old yellow Ford.

Kiss my butt stepford wife.

I've figured it out

I think I've figured out why people don't stay at the same job their whole working life like they used to. They get sick of dealing with the same people day after day.

Not that I don't like the people I work with of course...

A house divided

I listened to McCain's comments after Romney withdrew from the presidential race. Pretty much in line with Bush. Especially with respect to the freedom being a god given right statement. I honestly don't understand why Rush Limbaugh has such a problem with McCain. Perhaps Limbaugh is out of touch. If Rush is "right" then why did Romney have to withdraw and why is McCain doing so well? And what about the religious right? Why is Huckabee doing so poorly? It looks to me like the republicans are completely divided. I wonder if Rush Limbaugh might be part of the problem?

Much of what Limbaugh says offends me but I think he's actually out of step with his own party now. Perhaps people are tired of hating eachother. I wonder if he ever thought about that? Was it Lincoln who once said that a house divided against itself cannot stand?

Like a rock

It's been a long day. Had to get up at 4:00 am to drive in the darkness and blowing snow for a couple of hours to a conference. We were kind of concerned about the road conditions and one of the two routes down there got closed due to drifting snow. So I went the other way. I drove down by myself as I had a dinner date. The conference part of it actually went pretty well even though I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open all day. Then I met a very nice woman for dinner which I have been looking forward to as she lives in pretty much the same place as the conference. Then I drove back home in wind snow and darkness for a couple of hours. Got home at 8:pm I'm going to sleep like a,..rock. I don't know why I said that...

Do rocks sleep? What do rocks do during the day? Did they sleep before when they were mud and hadn't yet become rocks?

It's been a long day. The next thing I know it will be morning and I'll be drinking the mud.

Donwood

California has Hollywood,.. India has Bollywood,.. North Idaho has DONWOOD!

Just think of the films I could produce in the studio behind this landmark sign!...

On assignment

Yesterday I sent myself out on photo assignment as usual, but first had a little meeting. Ok don,.. today go out and get photos of the following; dogs, trees, train tracks, and power lines. That was my focus (pardon the pun). I have the same meeting each morning. And I came back with a photo of my own tracks on my way to the train tracks. The snow was much deeper than it looks and I was only wearing sneakers. The thing I like about this place is that it is so peacefull and quiet until a train goes by and then it's really overwhelming.

Don tracks

In some ways I'm no better than an animal. The only difference is that I'm aware of my tracks.

And that is really a stupid thought... But I'm aware that it's a stupid thought...

The dems debate

I watched Clinton and Obama debate last night again. I thought they were just a little too nice to eachother. I thought Clinton was smug. Perhaps it's because of all the so called super delegates she will most likely get as pointed out by Stephan Clark.
***
She has 159 "super-delegates," dwarfing the number she's received in Iowa and New Hampshire so far, and more than 100 more than the next candidate, Barack Obama.

Get this, forty-percent of the delegates currently at stake for Democratic presidential contenders are "super-delegates." The voters don't vote for these 842 people; they're high-ranking Democratic Party members: governors, leaders of the Democratic National Committee, former Presidents, like Bill Clinton. And they all go to the National Convention, just the delegates the voters send, and pledge their vote to a candidate during the nominating stage.
***
But Obama did score some reality check points. Honestly, how could Clinton have possibly thought that Bush wouldn't invade Iraq when she voted to authorize him to? It just doesn't hold any water no matter how she twists it.

That was a knockout punch from Obama if you ask me, so I give the debate to Obama.

Some are saying it will come down to a Clinton Obama ticket VS McCain Huckabee. We will see. It would make sense as Bill doesn't think Obama is "ready" to be President, but I think the Clintons would like to have him as VP. I've been thinking that the other consolation prize Clinton might bestow on Obama if she becomes president is a potential spot on the Supreme Court.