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Truckstop honeymoon Johnny and June

ween birthday boy

Truckstop Honeymoon - No Sight of the Sun

nothing soothes me like SLR
Split Lip Rayfield - Red Neck Tailgate Dream @ Wakarusa

Super stoked the SLR live at the Coalition DVD is on its way to my mail box right now.

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For 3-4 weeks now I have had a flat and the repaired tire for my shitty truck just sitting behind our garage. Tonight I finally got it switched out and the truck is once again mobile. Although it only gets used maybe 30 times a year, it is nice to have it functional once again.

Yard work has slacked for over a month. This pic below is the sunflowers I let grow this year. They are a huge unmanageable mess, but will produce hundreds of flowers here soon and will continue to seed the next years batch. My entire yard could be sunflowers if I did not choose to keep only specific ones. Years past have been huge and a severe mess. I thought only 3 would be manageable, I was wrong. They are huge and take up 1/2 of my small back yard.

I mowed, weed whacked, and cleaned up which was no small task. My neighbor wanted to replace the fence posts behind my garage. He asked me if I would clear out the area. It was a complete jungle which would of scared any man. Unfortunately I did not take a before pic. What you see below is after the second attempt to clean it out. There was a bunch of lumber and junk leaning against the fence which helped the posts rot which had been there before I moved in 7 or so years ago.

The lumber had rotted so severely and was filled with so many bugs that I shrieked like a girl a few times while wiping off stinging ants and being very creeped out. I got bit a few times. I am no wussie, but we are talking wood that has been there for a long time. We are talking white centepedes, strange betles, and other creep crawlies which I only saw for a few seconds while I tossed the wood.

Lucky for me the neighbor said he plans to wait for a cooler weekend to do the work. So I can take a bit to clean it up further. He said I need not help or help pay for the work, cleaning it up was enough. I am such a bad neighbor I need to load up the truck with all the rotted wood and get it to the dump sometime next week. Theresa wants to plant some iliac bushes there. They are her favorite.

Sometime here soon I will clean out my garage, which is a 2 + stall beast filled with tons of crap. It is disgusting. It will take a rolloff for sure. We are talking a garage that has seen 3 other roommates, being a tye dye factory, wood shop, tint factory, brewery, guitar making shop, and mechanics area and never really cleaned for 8 or so years. There is a bunch of crap shoved to the edges and I bet I get ton from all the aluminum.

I hang my head in shame for how disgusting it is.

I was soaked from head to toe from all the work tonight. Old style kept me going. Showered and made an awesome sammich. Turkey, provolone, tomatoes, lettuce, honey turkey, bacon, and toasted potato sourdough bread. It was delicious.

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2) Social Responsibility
You are not supposed to leave them alone for extended periods of time according to law, so you have a commitment to always providing people for them to be with, and sometimes to be with them yourself. You have to watch them in stores, keep them in sight wherever you are, and you absolutely cannot be mean to them in public for fear of winding up before a judge. How your child behaves will reflect directly upon you and your character. They say one curse word and people assume that you speak in Two Live Crew lyrics.

3) They Are an Economic Drain
Food, clothes, school-supplies, tuition, school-projects, toys, fast-food, prescriptions, not to mention having to pay for a large enough living space for two adults plus however many of them those two adults choose to have. If you rent, then there is always the potential of them destroying/something that you will have to pay for.

4) You Have to Teach them Things
You may or may not have figured this out: They are born knowing nothing. A blank slate. This means that you have years, possibly decades before they have anything insightful or interesting to say. But still, you will be a bad parent if you don’t listen to them. You are obligated to listen to all kinds of nonsensical irrelevant crap, all kinds of worthless interests and recaps of the Hannah Montana marathon they had on TV last weekend. You are obligated to tell them about life, sex, how to spend money, hygiene, calculus etc.

5) The TV Shows and Books you will have to Endure
A big part of knowing nothing is poor taste. Taste is a product of experience and therefore there will be a considerable length of time before they like things that make sense. You are obligated to read stories to them unless you want them whining about it when they grow up, you are also obligated to surrender at least one of the TVs in your house to the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon for several hours each day.

6) Their Friends
If your kids are normal they will at some point make friends, which means that you will not only have their presence to endure, but an assortment of other people’s failures as well. They will, perhaps, invite them home, at which point you may have to feed these other children, and endure their noise.

7) Constant Illness
Kids, especially when small, are walking petri-dishes. Nothing guarantees repeated stomach-flus, colds, and assorted random illnesses like being in the presence of a small child for hours at a time. Have a co-worker who is always sniffling or running to the bathroom? They either have a cocaine problem or they have a small child.

8)They Attract the Ill-Will of Strangers
Nothing in the world will get you more dirty looks than a poorly trained child. For some reason whole segments of the American population either have not yet had children, or will never have children, these people will not be sympathetic to your plight. Children to them are mere annoying strangers being inflicted upon them by you.

9)Once they are Born you are Pretty much Stuck with them
Under normal circumstances anyway. You don’t get to give them back, you don’t get to pass them on to somebody else short of going to prison or dying. If they are ugly or stupid, you will have to endure them for a long time to come.

10) They are Ungrateful
Kids in America grow up with a sense of being entitled to good parenting, as if it were something they earned in a previous life and have now come to collect. No parent, however is good enough, and they usually cannot find it in themselves to see how much worse it could be. They feel entitled to your time, the contents of your wallet and the remote control. And what do they give back? Maybe you will get to see your grandkids every now and then, and maybe, just maybe, they will pick a good nursing home for you when you are too old to take care for yourself.

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I like my morning commutes to work as well. I start off rather slow and hit a hill right away. Come to the busy streets and see all those people in their air conditioned coffins, waiting in line, rushing, smoking, just looking unhappy. I can reflect on how lucky I am to have a good job, live close enough to ride, not have to find a parking space, and get the blood flowing. It is only 10 blocks, but it is one of the best parts of waking up.

The freedom of a bike is quite a neat thing. I can go anywhere under my own power, I can fit places other modes of transport can’t. I get to see things that many have not. The state parks and trails around here are great. A new trail is like an adventure, and I am up for it. I take bunches of pictures.

My life is really good, I have almost no stress, healthy and loving relationships with my wife and family. My work is exciting to me, it is not a burdon. i get to communicate with different folks via the internet often, I have made many friends that way. Still riding my bike makes the little things that might bum me out simply disapear. Nothing feels as good as a finishing a long ride, it is an amazing feeling.

As many on the folks from lincoln site often refer to, it truely is a lifestyle, not just a hobby. Most I have met through cycling are severely decent peeps. Hardly any negativity flows from a bunch of folk who are activly getting out and doing some riding. I feel trapped when just sitting around in a house watching TV when I know there is some twisty singletrack dirt right outside my door.

I am sure I am going to continue to keep this lifestyle up, it makes me stronger in more ways than just physical.

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He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it
was. So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them
into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the
open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if
the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a
box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up
everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students
responded with an unanimous “yes.” The professor then produced two
cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into
the
jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students
laughed.

“Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to
recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the
important things–your family, your children, your health, your
friends, your favorite passions–things that if everything else was
lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles
are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car.
The sand is everything else–the small stuff. If you put the sand into
the jar
first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf
balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on
the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are
important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your
happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be
time to clean the house, and fix the disposal. “Take care of the golf
balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The
rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer
represented.

The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you
that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a
couple of beers.”

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