The New View From My Window

A couple weeks ago I made a rather long move - like a 2200 mile move - from Baker City, OR to Petoskey, MI. I'm still trying to fit a three bedroom house with a garage/shop into a one bedroom with storage. Packing, driving, unpacking, and suffering from geo-social shock explains my absence from this blog.

Looking somewhat SW from my sliding window in the living room. Petoskey is over in that general direction, past the hill and on the edge of northern Lake Michigan.  Depending on which side of town you're trying to get to it is about 5 miles.  (Click Pics For Full Size)

Out to the NE is my landlady's house and my '74 K5 Blazer. Previous to the move I sold "the fleet." While I have no use for it, I'll sort of miss the old '50 Chevy COE. I'll much more miss the '62 Chevy II and for driving and gas mileage the '04 SSR is a real loss. I needed money and I needed to not have a huge insurance bill. I've driven the '78 K20 Chevy work truck longer than any other vehicle I've ever had, but I could move one vehicle and a utility bed truck that could get all of 8 mpg and seat three tightly just wasn't in the cards.  The driveway is very light colored because it is sand, if you scrape the ground anywhere around here you get sand and it takes some work to not track it all over the house...

Since you can't go much over 10 miles in any direction with out running into water, lakes, I figured I probably needed something that floated better than the Harley which is parked in the garage past the "hole in the water you throw money into."  This thing is a '94 18' Four Winns with a 5L 215HP Ford V8 and it can scoot - the test drive showed it making 50 mph, which is darn fast on the water.  While I was paying for it and doing the paper work the shop winterized it - so I have a large expensive yard decoration that, unlike the Harley, I can't ignore... all damn winter.  Yeah, it's 11AM and 39F and over cast which isn't too bad for the last two weeks - at least it isn't raining or snowing, like it has been.  Baker County is semi-arid - which means a couple less inches precipitation and you've got desert - did I mention shock?

There are a number of reasons why this move happened and not a bit of it had to do with wanting to leave my friends and the country side of Baker City. I shut down the construction contracting business last fall since I couldn't afford to subsidize it any more and this summer my wife and I decided to divorce which meant selling the house since she was moving and neither of us could afford to buy out the other. All that and my mother's age of 85 years and the closest child 3 hours away made it seem that with little employment opportunity it sort of fell on me to get within her neighborhood. Mom's place is about 25 minutes away, close enough that I can help her out whenever she needs it and still far enough that she can - heh - still like me.

It is odd and kind of claustrophobic to ride the country roads and not be able to see anything unless you're topping a hill.  The humidity is sky high compared to Baker City, though most places aren't that dry.  The air does smell clean and 'The Big Lake" is present - in damn near everything.  The snow fall is an issue, the lack of it the last couple years - but I think I'll have to do it to judge exactly what they mean by "lack."  I lived near here for a while 30 years ago and the lake effect snow fall was considerable.

I'll make new friends and get used to the climate.  There are a lot of roads to ride and it is rural (well, crowded compared to Baker County) and I'll have plenty of water to fish and play on.  Large change is never easy and I've not only lived in Baker City for the last 24 and change years but also 22 years in my house there after never living in one place in my adult life for more than a couple years. 

Maybe I'll start putting stuff on this page a bit more regularly.  Anyhow, hi to all my readers.

Oh yeah, I won't suffer political shock of any big degree, this area is as "Red" as OR2 - lots of NObama and Defeat Obama signs, I guess with rMoney it's hard to know what to be for...

Random Musings

It seems Leon Panetta said in closed hearings that the CIA had misled the Congress, the CIA says it isn't their policy - OK, but did you do it?

Palin quit out of ALTRUISM. Huh? It seems there were only 3 ethics complaints active.

Ensign and Sanford were both "C Street" devotees, seems all that old time religion missed fire - makes you wonder about the rest of them... (C Street House is a secretive religious house and organization for electeds) The aggrieved hubby released a letter from Ensign that is a real winner - these pricks pretended to tell this nation about the sanctity of marriage, you betcha, the gays are a real threat to their marriages ... but they didn't do men...

Depending on which Republican is doing the talking; Sarah Palin either committed political suicide or the most brilliant piece of political strategy. I actually hope she's around for a good long time but I'm real sure brilliant is the wrong adjective.

Sen Inhofe says Sen Franken looks like a clown - in quite a few circles people who espouse the kinds of things Inhofe does are regarded as clowns despite their looks. There is a difference here, Franken made jokes in a previous employment, Inhofe makes a joke of being a Senator - one is funny the other is dangerous. That OK keeps electing this ... person ... makes some of the stereotypes of Okies seem reasonable. Too bad.

Sarah said Hillary whined too much, but then she also didn't quit when she quit and she was just pointing out how mean people were to her, not whining. Pitbull my ass, whining puking mewling amateur who'd cut your bowels out and hang them on her wall for political benefit.

Michael's dead, memorialized, and we haven't heard the end of it until hell freezes the networks solid. This dysfunctional bunch are going to be a staple of cable for...ever.

Sen Kyl on Obama/Russian nukes agreement: "I’m very concerned that the administration is more anxious to make a deal than it is to ensure the protection of the United States." Today's GOP - Palin and this, well there's always Cheney and Rush...

Rep Patrick Murphy, Iraq vet, is shepherding a repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell through Congress - just think of all the marriages this will destroy. Wingnut heads will explode, the 101st Keyboard Brigade will assault DC ... if they can find enough bags of Cheetos and Mom will let them out of the basement.

Michael Jackson is still dead.

At 70 mph Harley Davidsons can get real serious about bug killing, I'm beginning to look like a car wash stalker.

The cell phone camera is a convenient sized package for biking but it isn't much as a camera and I don't know how much I like it as a phone. I guess I'll have to start trying to figure out a way for the Fuji to ride where I can get to it. I've never wanted a 'bagger' but there is something to be said for having places to put things...

Construction workers need to work steady or they get out of shape - just ask me when I've had to pack shingles up a ladder. This afternoon I had a ready answer.

Boehner and that bunch are back to going on about tax cuts again, with tax rates at historic lows (minus SS/FICA). These are the asshats that couldn't cut rich taxes fast enough or spend money we didn't have to blow people up fast enough ... or in about a dozen ways drive the economy in a ditch. They hope that with GW Bush safely out of office everybody will forget that he didn't drive that car all by himself.

Sounds like Harry Reid is starting to push his Caucus around a little bit on health care. Try to wrap your head around Jay Rockefeller putting out a report trashing the Health Insurance Industry for reaming the public ... and comparing them to Enron and AIG. Where'd that come from? Somebody forget to send a contribution?

Not too long ago I asked a US Senator if the American public should think investment banks and health insurers ran the Senate or not. The Senator was not amused, and I wasn't making a joke. No, I don't think this Senator is owned by them but I'm not exactly sure about a hell of a lot of our government. I'm not nearly stupid enough to think that wealth won't always carry power and influence no matter who is making laws and regulations but there comes a point where it is so damn blatant and so obviously counter to the public interest that torches and pitchforks start to seem reasonable. We had some damn bad driving going on clear back into the Clinton era but some institutions put the pedal to the metal to make sure this wreck was spectacular and you will note that those most responsible not only got rich but are doing just fine right now. Wouldn't the GOP just howl if they were made to take personal responsibility for their crappy performance? Not like you could get enough out of them to fix anything, but it might be an object lesson. If I screwed your roof up that bad I'd have to fix it, but I don't play with big enough numbers to get the "free pass card." Now GOP (Cheney) pals Halliburton through KBR can electrocute soldiers in showers and the money just keeps rolling in.

Proof that abject stupidity is not a bar to employment at FauxNews:

Kilmeade and two colleagues were discussing a study that, based on research done in Finland and Sweden, showed people who stay married are less likely to suffer from Alzheimer's. Kilmeade questioned the results, though, saying, "We are -- we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other ..."

At this point, his co-host tried to -- in that jokey morning show way -- tell Kilmeade he needed to shut up, and quick, for his own sake. But he didn't get the message, adding, "See, the problem is the Swedes have pure genes. Because they marry other Swedes .... Finns marry other Finns, so they have a pure society."

The video is even more ludicrous...imagine that.

Things You Couldn't Make Up

Suppose you had some reason to want to honor GW Bush this month, maybe you'd want to give him an award. Christianity Today , 'A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction' reports that Rick Warren of Saddleback Church awards GW Bush with the first ever International Medal of PEACE for HIV/AIDS work in Africa. Apparently PEACE doesn't mean what it seems to as it is an acronym. I'm sure you could have a lot of fun working an acronym that fits the recipient. Ummm, I do have one question for the organization, Global PEACE Coalition, why make up an acronym that doesn't have anything to do with what it spells? You suppose they're Republicans? To be sure, there couldn't be any question that these guys might give John McCain a heads-up on Saddleback questions?
Sarah Palin is in Georgia campaigning for Saxby Chambliss. McCain/Palin took an asswhipping from a black guy (no really, you have to wrap your head around that one)and she's the hot ticket? Probably no Republican candidates could have won this year, but I don't want to hear any crap about how racially unbiased the country has become. Speaking of campaigns, it certainly looks as though Sarah is wearing the campaign clothes...you know, belly of the plane...or something...

I didn't think Hillary was anything like the right person for the boss job Obama got, but I'm not displeased to see SoS happening for her. Evidently I have company on the righter fringes:

Perle predicts that Clinton will likely perpetuate the foreign policy approaches that have typified Bush's second term, when the president pursued goals such as tighter sanctions on Iran. "I'm relieved," he says. "There's not going to be as much change as we were led to believe. I think she's very much in the mainstream. By now, I think the Bush foreign policy is, as a practical matter, the same policy as the policy of the Department of State--which is what I'd expect it to be under Hillary Clinton. Contrary to expectations, I don't think we would see a lot of change."

I suppose there could be something in the water these guys drink that lets them believe any damn thing they can get out of their mouths. Regardless of how wrong they are about Clinton's ideas, they seem to have moved into a world where the SoS trumps POTUS - and this is after being around BushCo with Powell as SoS? This guy hasn't been publicly right about anything ever but the Republicans take him seriously. (somebody still does, anyhow)
Rush Limbaugh sees Hillary nomination for SoS as a "brilliant stroke>:

"You know the old phrase, 'You keep your friends close and your enemies closer?' How can she run for president in 2012? She'd have to run against the incumbent and be critical of him _ the one who made her secretary of state."

I don't think this means he likes her...
The political genius who ran the McCain campaign, Steve Schmidt thinks Bobby Jindal is the GOP's future:

"The question is not whether he'll be president, but when he'll be president, because he will be elected someday."

If that's not enough stupidity piled in one place for one day, I give you Grover Norquist and Rush Limbaugh in that same corner, I had no idea Louisiana and Alaska were so close.
Jeb Bush thinks (speaking loosely) that the GOP needs to do something new:

GOP must broaden its appeal to avoid becoming "the old white-guy party," and recommends that Republicans create a "shadow government" to engage Democrats on important issues as the incoming Obama administration seeks to enact its agenda.

People have said he's the smart GHWB boy. Maybe somebody should point out to Jebthro that right now Boehner and McConnell are in charge of exactly that shadow government - the old white guy part is everybody's game. If they play the game that way, where are the old white guys gonna go? Imagine the disgrace, on the streets alone, partyless... Maybe the real question is who the hell would want whatever they've got left over? If they toss the part about having all these people to look down on out of the mix, what have they got for appeal? Without that stuff how do they sell what's left to anybody but old rich white guys? I can see why they're confused - I am.
Gay rights activists plan to demonstrate outside Gov. Charlie Crist's wedding to Carole Rome this month. This is funny on so many levels, including a word I learned a short while ago - beard. (I suppose that really proves I'm a hick)
Fox News 0 for 5 on Obama press conferences. If he doesn't let them ask a question pretty soon it'll start to look like he's not 'fair and balanced'.
What was that talk about a Party of Old White Guys?

Chambliss is leading 71-28 among whites planning to vote in the runoff. If Martin can't improve on that, the electorate on Tuesday would have to be 34% African American for him to win.

Oh yeah, Jeb is the smart one.
***Ludicrous versus Ludacris*** You have to wonder if Martin had this one in mind for the Georgia campaign?
I leave you with this thought:
Don't force that son, get a bigger hammer.