Gate Day

Gate in a day

There's a gate that needs a building, but it's saturday so don't get in a hurry, start around 11am, get all the materials together, get your tools together, now make a frame and put in some bars, get that privacy screen in, where we gonna put it, almost done, done, now it's almost 4 oclock, lock it up and go get another beer. Yeah, you don't really think I did this without have a few beers did you.

Whadyadowityurday!!!!!

Berkeley Report

Berkeley Report

Feb 12 I decided to show up in Berkeley in support of the Marine's in Berkeley. The city council had called the Marines "Uninvited, unwelcome, intruders". A group called Code Pink had been defacing the Marine recruiting office there and generally causing a bunch of grief.

I left Fresno before 3am on tuesday planning on being there early as the protesters were scheduled to start that early. I rode through light and patchy fog alone, through the Tracy area I encountered quite a bit of early morning traffic but it moved along well. Upon arriving in Berkeley and it still being dark, it was hard to tell where the protesters were and where the Marine supporters were. I parked on the opposite side of the square where a some people were gathered. I could here some shouting and hollaring, news crews were everywhere. Seemed to be more new media than protesters to me. As I sat there, unfurling my flags and getting ready to ride around the square in an attempt to find out what was what, I had 3 different folks come up to me and ask what was going on. After I explained what I knew, each and every one of them thanked me for showing up and said they supported the Marines also.

As daylight came I was able to find a spot to park my bike amongst the media vans. The groups, protesters and Marine supporters had been pretty much together on one side of the street early on, but my dawn the protesters were on one side of the street and the Marine supporters were on the other side of the street. By 8 or 9 am a fair crowd had gathered and the games began. It actually took until around 11am for there to be enough people there that the organizers of each side could get much of a reaction to their rants.

Early on I talked to the woman who was the organizer for Code Pink people, after talking for awhile she agreed that talking with each other would have better results than hollaring across the street at each other and she also thought that putting a table up on their side and calling it a discussion corner would be cool. I noticed later that she did in fact put up that table and put a sign on it inviting discussion. But she couldn't restrain herself from taking up the bullhorn later on. Oh well.

In summation I would say, " I came, I saw, I laughed!" and let it go at that. You can't take people serious who dress and act like the folks that showed up to protest. It was a true circus.

Later that evening the Berkeley city council changed their position on the Marine's presence in Berkeley.

Here are some pics, enjoy.

Nice Ride

Took Smokin' out for a ride saturday, headed eastbound, found the foothills, twisties, and such pretty much deserted. Found this old barn.

What are you doing this coming Tuesday?

FW: Urgent - You're Needed on Tuesday 12th for Berkeley Marines

There has been more fallout in Berkeley, California after the City Council passed a resolution that called our troops "unwelcome intruders" and called upon residents to not cooperate with any military recruiting center in the city. Anti-military protestors, feeling emboldened by the city's blessing, chained themselves in front of the Marine Recruiting Center and prevented people from entering the facility. The police stood by and did nothing - telling people that they were "trying to remain neutral." See the video for yourself - HERE. Photograph from San Francisco Chronicle Thousands of you have responded to our call to action and registered your protests with the city via emails, phone calls and petitions. Now, as Michelle Malkin reports, city council members are indicating that they may rescind the resolution at their next City Council meeting that takes place this Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 7:00 PM. Move America Forward has already announced our plans for a giant rally outside the City Council chambers at the February 12th Council Meeting. We need people there by 5:00 PM for the council meeting start time of 7:00 PM. However, since the news media will likely be camped out throughout the day, we will have staff arriving in the morning, and are asking as many supporters as possible to join us for at least part of the day - so there are bodies there for the cameras. Our first Move America Forward staff members will arrive at 5:00 AM (yes, in the morning) - this is when the early morning news programs begin airing in San Francisco. The City Council Chambers are located at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. It's right by Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. Here is a map of the location. PROTEST OF BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL * TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2008 * 2134 MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. WAY - BERKELEY, CA * Council Meeting Begins at 7:00 PM (We are asking people to be there early, however - if possible, start arriving by 5:00 PM) ** Also... If you can, please join us for our "picketing" of the City Council Chambers. We will be out there at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way beginning at 5:00 AM for the morning news. We will have a presence all throughout the day - the next newscasts are at 12:00 Noon, so we'll want a good size presence there as well. Finally, we appreciate your financial support that enables Move America Forward to continue to stand up for our troops, and against those who would defame them.

Weather

Weather looks like it's finally taken a turn for the better. If this holds through the weekend like it's forecast then a ride will be in the works for sure. Maybe a ride to San Francisco and have a burger at Joe's Cable Car.

Clear Day

Finally got a clear day yesterday and it looks like today too, at least for now. Weatherman says more rain coming and will hang with us until Sunday. Man, I am ready for a ride, it's been like 10 days of rain off and on. I sure miss being on the road.

What I did this weekend

After putting up a bunch of lights, locks, doorstops, and moving some stuff too, a piano being one of the stuff, my arms are ready to drop off. I'm taking a break, but there is still a few lights left to put up. Manana sounds like a good day. (Manana doesn't mean tomorrow either, it just means not today) LOL!

New internet friends

A while back I stumbled across Bumfuzzle, it sounded interesting and it has been for sure. Here is a little sample of their latest posting.

"

By 9:00 we were at the parking lot for the butterfly sanctuary. We were the first people there other than a couple of kids trying to make a buck by directing us to a parking spot with a flag, despite the fact that there was probably enough parking for 2000 cars. There was a long line of restaurant/snack shacks leading up the hill, but only a couple were coming to life at that hour. The guides hadn't even shown up yet to offer their services, so within just a few minutes Ali and I were disappearing into the woods on our own. We picked up a well worn horse trail and I assumed that it would lead us to the monarchs.

The climb was extremely steep, and within ten minutes we found ourselves stopping often to catch our breath. We were up around 9000 feet and it was a serious climb. We went on like this for over an hour, climbing and climbing, yet never reaching the top which always seemed just beyond our reach. By this point we knew we had screwed up, there was no way this was the trail that the tourists would be brought up on. But when you are nearing the top of a mountain there is really nothing you can do but keep climbing. Eventually we reached a clearing and we thought, or rather hoped, that we'd find millions of monarchs fluttering around. We didn't. In fact we had yet to see a single butterfly.

We picked up another trail on the other side of the clearing and began a much slower descent. We were not happy at this point, figuring we had just climbed an entire mountain for no reason whatsoever. But then suddenly we had a butterfly flutter past us. Then another, and another. Pretty soon they were everywhere. And then, in an instant, there were billions of them. A grouping of trees in front of us were dripping monarchs. They were so thick that their weight bent the branches straight down. It was truly an amazing sight, and certainly one of the most remarkable things we'd ever seen. Butterflies littered the ground, both dead and alive, making it hard to walk. It was like a living carpet on the forest floor.

After finding a safe spot for our feet we turned our attention upwards. The trees were heaving, and as the sun shown through the forest canopy the entire place came alive in a burst of orange. When the sun hid behind the clouds everything became very still, but the minute the suns rays warmed things up everything around us began to move. It sounded like a cave full of bats flying over our heads.

Ali and I stood for hours, afraid to move our feet while the butterflies made themselves comfortable all over our bodies. They seemed especially attracted to Ali's head where she almost always wore at least one as a fashion accessory."

Go to http://www.bumfuzzle.com and check it out. Be ready for some long reading though as their chronicles have been going on for about 4 years or so.

Movin Day for the girls

Movin day for the girls.

The girls started moving in to their new house a little at a time. I put some new light fixtures up and then yesterday they tented the house to deal with termites.
Tenting came of today and tomorrow bright and early they will attempt to get moved in for the most part. I think I'm gonna be hangin and installing more light fixtures. We'll watch Vaughn tomorrow and I may drop in to crack the whip every now and then.

Vaughn's Pics

Here's Vaughn in his camo outfit with Marine Corps emblem.


Here's Vaughn in his racing suit.

Here's Vaughn just hangin out with his Grandma.

Moving Day

I love moving day when now. Don't have to pack and unpack a bunch of stuff, don't have to call friends to help lug furniture around. Just pick up a few items, stow em in the trailer, hookup and go. We are all settled in at our new digs. Funniest thing though, I'm gonna have to put out the remote antenna for TV, there is 1 lone palm tree here and somehow it's exactly in the way of our mounted antenna and the sat in the sky. Oh well, gotta have some kind of excitement in my day.

Saturday's adventure

Here is a copy of Cuzn Frank's posting on his Yahoo360 site, I thought it was quite good.
"Yes the Cuz braved the bitter cold in the hours of darkness from Fresno to Roseville. Going, well, God only knows how fast, to get here in under 3 hours.


We offer him some hot moccha in a tankard that was large enough to warm both hands and one foot. And chatted for awhile, then worked a while.
Then, I offer to lead him off into what I thought would be a great ride to a place he picked out for us to stop and have lunch. Little did I know how much my area is changing, and I got a tad lost, but my cuz, Mr. Daniel Boon carved a path to the Garden highway from the Sacramento international airport, where my tiny Shadow gas tank needed another gallon of gas.
But, we did meet a nice chap in this motorhome who was on his way out of Alaska, and boy, he and his lady were really happy about our heat wave (32 degs).

Finally we arrive at the, "Squeeze Inn" Where there was seating for 10 along a very narrow counter.
I sure felt sorry for the cagers, but Ron and I had no problem squeezing our bikes in the tiny parking.


But, then we are confronted with a long line waiting to get inside to order, there was a lot of joking and good humor amongst everyone.





Once inside we were told there would be a 30 minute wait, we already waited 30 minutes, we ain't giving up now. And the wait was well worth it.
Not to mention the eye candy was fantastic!!."

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New Paint

Check out the new paint on the helmets. Got all four painted, much better than plain black.
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Grandbaby sittin'

Yup, It's a whole family kinda deal, even Kaluha gets in on the act.

New Years Day Blast