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)

I retain the rights to all of my photos.  Please do not use without permission.

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.