Cop doing his job...

We were out in the front yard this evening and noticed a deputy had someone pulled over down the block. Immediately after he was done he spun around and snagged someone else. We watched him over the next 1/2 hour and he ticketed 4 other people. We were rooting him on. He was parking right next to our house on the curve and would wait for some speeder to be doing their normal 45MPH in a 30 zone. In between writing tickets we dropped by and thanked him for making our neighborhood safer. He gave my son a Junior Deputy badge and made his night.

For an example of what these speeding idiots do on our street see my page of wrecks taken near my house. All of those pics were taken no farther than 50 yards from my house and is maybe half of the accidents that happen near here in a normal year.

Defender back in action...

I replaced the bent track rod on the Defender on Thursday. First thing was to jack it up and remove the tires to get to the ends of the track rod. Remove the cotter-pin and the bolt. Remove the center guard that keeps the rod from getting bent too badly so you can drive it home after a good bend and the rod pops right off. It wasn't too bad a job other than the ends that were frozen on. It took my father standing on two monkey wrenches attached to the rod while I pulled for all I was worth on the ends with a pair of 16" channel locks. And after all that they barely came off. The rest of the job was pretty simple. Put the caps on the new rod and drop into place. Shannon took it to PepBoys to get realigned on Friday and the job is done. As you can see by the pic it was only slightly bent. :-)

The Defender no longer handles like a wildebeest on crack and goes where I point it.

My next job is to replace the turn signal assembly that is broken. Bump it the wrong way and the horn sounds, and keeps sounding until you pull it back out. Quite annoying in traffic. I bought the new assembly on eBay for $10. Not a bad deal.

: Gumbo from the album "Live Phish 10 - Disc 1" by Phish

Wow! I'm rich...

I'm the 46,777,565 richest person on earth! Discover how rich you are! >>

Broke my Defender...

I was out working at the ranch this Saturday in my Defender. I went to make a u-turn on a narrow road and dropped my front left wheel into a hole I didn't see that was covered by weeds. I powered out of the hole no problem and went about my business. I didn't think anything about it until a few hours later when I was driving home. As I got up to highway speeds I noticed a little wobble in the steering and a pull to the left. I pulled over and did a once over and didn't see anything so I continued driving. Things only seemed worse. I pulled into a gas station out of the rain and crawled under. This is when I saw the damage. I had managed to bang the axle and track rod. The axle is beefy enough that no damage was done but I had bent the track rod pretty badly.

Sunday I took it to an alignment shop hoping I could get away with just an alignment. No go. The rod couldn't be spun to adjust the alignment. I took it to a Rover guy Monday morning and he wanted about $300 to replace a $45 part and it would take 4-5 days. Um, no thanks. I ordered the part online and it'll be here Thursday so I can replace it this weekend.

For now I'm driving my father's really nice Jag. It is a very sweet ride and it's for sale. If you are interested in buying a really nice Jaguar see this eBay auction.

Bears on trampolines

A hilarious video of a bear that got stuck up a tree. It was in the middle of town so they decided to tranquilize it to get it out of the tree. Some smart cop decided to put a trampoline under it for our enjoyment. Look at the rebound that bear gets from that height. If you watch in slo-mo you can see the poor thing land right on his face.

: I Guess I'll Get The Papers And Go Home from the album "An American Icon Vol. 3" by Louis Armstrong

your driving me nuts

I know it isn't CNN's spelling error but they posted it on their front page for all to see. C'mon, folks, it's 'you're'. You are. You're driving me nuts with your grammatical errors. See how easy that is? It's=It is. Learn the difference between they're, their, and there. It really isn't that tough. *sigh*

I refer you to Bob the Angry Flower's Quick Guide to the Apostrophe, you idiots.

For those out there, I'm sure, as with all grammar rants, that there is a grammatical error or two somewhere in this post. Deal with it.

ChapStick Addiction

What is it about this stuff? I've had a ChapStick addiction for many, many years now. It's not like I have dry lips or anything but I must always have a stick in my pocket. I constantly apply the stuff throughout the day. If you were to go through my dresser drawers and medicine cabinet you'd find probably no less than a dozen sticks of it. If I'm on my way to work or at work and don't have a stick in my pocket I'll stop at the nearest Walgreens and grab another. I can't go through the day without it. Trust me, I've tried. When I do, my lips feel all dry and cracked and nasty. I just counted, I've got 3 sticks on or about my person at this very moment. Do I need help? My personal favorite is the old standby of strawberry. I've tried their new Flava-Craze flavors but found them too fruity. I mean do you really need a flavor named 'Blue Crazeberry'?

What's next X-treme ChapStick? I can see it now: "Official sponsors of the X-Games. It now comes in X-treme flavas like Jumping-Jalapeno and Very-Vegan."

Maybe I should give ChapStick a call...

If you want more info on 'Chapstick Addiction' see the Lip Balm Anonymous Homepage.

Defender in the news

A Land Rover Defender, like I own, is a very capable off-road vehicle but it won't save you from your own stupidity. This is the story of some folks who decided to cross a high mountain pass and got stuck in a snow storm. It details how they jerry-rigged their cell phone to get a signal and were subsequently rescued.

This is why when you go off the beaten path you should always go in a convoy to help each other out of 'stucks'. The vehicle in the picture sure doesn't look stuck so I assume it was after they rescued the Defender.

Early Realese Day...

We were over at my parent's house yesterday after trying out the new boat. On the way home we passed a middle school. I think the photo speaks for itself.

And people ask why we are home-schooling our kid.

New toy...

My parents decided to buy the family a new toy this week. It's a 22' Seadoo Islandia jet-boat. We took it out for its maiden voyage today on Lake Travis. Since it's brad-new I couldn't open it all the way up. You need to break the motor in. That means 10 hours of putting around. Putting around meaning no faster than about 30M.P.H. on the water. We cruised around for a while then parked near Devil's Cove for a swim. We can't pull tubes or skiers until it's broken in because we can't over-rev the engine to get on plane really fast. We should have it broken in by next weekend and we'll see how she tows.

My sister the gun-nut...

Today I took my sister out for her first time shooting ever. She used to be very anti-gun but after living under my roof and finding out that guns don't jump into your hand and make you start shooting things randomly she decided to give it a try. I also invited along my friend Mando who also brought along one of his friends. We met a few geocaching friends out at the range. I started my sister out with my pre-sellout Smith and Wesson 9mm. She seemed to like it. Well I assume so, she put nearly 150 rounds through it before the day was over. I let her put a few rounds through the .45 also but it was a bit big for her to handle. Mando and his friend put many rounds through the .45 and the .38. While we were doing this my son was happily plinking along with his BB gun. After that it was time to move to my favorite weapon, my AR-15, pictured on the left. After I mounted a scope for them and zeroed it I let them have at it. My sister didn't want to try it but I made her. After which she asked to do it again. Mando said it was the 'coolest thing on the entire planet'. Mando and Anthony put about 150 rounds through it before we were done. We then moved to the shotgun range. I have a shotgun, a Remington 11-87 12ga., I bought brand new 1 1/2 years ago I'd still never shot. We loaded the clay launcher and my son pulled for us. The gun shot like a dream and the kick wasn't bad at all, not much more than my old 20gauge. Mando had a crack at it and Anthony was damn good for a first timer. Couldn't convince my sis to try it out. One of the geocachers grabbed a pic of me, to the right, describing God knows what to Mando.

All in all, not a bad day at the range.

: Look At Little Sister from the album "Soul To Soul" by Stevie Ray Vaughan

I can see your colon!

"I can see your colon!" was a phrase I never thought I'd hear my wife utter.

I went in for an MRI on my back yesterday. The doc is looking for a pinched nerve causing a bit of numbness in my left leg. My wife and kid came along bacuse we had an errand to run afterwards. I had the MRI done and afterwards I asked the tech if my son could come back and see the big 'donut'. My son thought it was pretty cool and the tech said he'd pull up my images. He was pointing out things like my spine and spinal cord. He showed Moose my back muscles and some fat deposits. He then pointed out my colon and my wife said the immortal phrase. I'll found out what they found next week.

I think my son is scarred for life.

: Sweet Talking Hippie - Imagine from the album "Live From The Fall (Disc 2)" by Blues Traveler

A sweet ride on land and water...

Man, if I hadn't just bought a new Land Rover and if I could get one imported, not to mention somehow afford the $250,000 price tag, I think I've found the car I want. It's an amphibious car made by a company named Aquada in the U.K. They claim 100MPH on land and 30MPH on water. It is also claimed to go from land to water in 12 seconds. The wheels pull up into the body for better planing. Check out some of the pics in the downloads section.