The Republican platform…

Well…needed to get on this one early today with the cable going to be out later today….have been reading about that hoary old practice that happens before the political conventions of putting together the party platforms that consist of the promises of what the parties will do if elected in the fall….and when looking at the shape repub platform is taking, all I can say is we’ve seen all of this before…more tax cuts for the rich…more hate for LGBT people…more “clean coal” and the rest of the nonsense that has shown to never work whether it is economic or social…do they really think they can get a constitutional amendment to make LGBT citizens second class again? Do they want to turn the entire US into Kansas which is imploding from repub tax cut policies? Sadly to say, they really do believe this stuff and will continue to push it if elected….they just love to trash this country and anyone who is not rich…after all, in the greatest country in the world, if you are not rich, it’s your fault…that’s implicit in their platform, too….what a bunch of asses…geez…

July 12th

Well…it was an okay day yesterday but I still didn’t get anything done…other than spending 2 hours trying to get the squeak out of the bike….finally did it but the bike was covered in every lubricant I have so I had to clean it so I didn’t have the smell of gear lube in here…so, I’ll have to start from scratch today….hope it’s easier….need to get out early today since it is going to be 92 later…..was going to go to the beach today but the water temp is only about 60 and that is too cold for me so I guess I’ll wait til next week…slept okay last night and had some psychedelic dreams…as T calls them…that were all over the board….I do hurt this morning but I think it’s from working on the bike…but, I did have cramps in my calves last night that I can’t figure out….not much to do today…just the normal stuff and maybe some cleaning but I’m not sure about that…..more later….

This is bravery…

Well…just had to do a short one on an article I just read out on Kos…over the weekend, an Iraqi man recognized that a suicide bomber was trying to get into a shrine to detonate a suicide vest….this brave man, Najih Shaker Al- Baldawi hugged the suicide bomber and detained him while he set the vest off…killing Mr. Al-Baldawi and the murderer….but saving hundreds of lives….this is bravery….RIP….

Listen to this NRA….

Well…with the tragedy in Dallas last week, the usual suspects started spouting off that if more of the people in the protest were armed, they could have taken out the shooter and saved the lives of the 5 officers that were killed….the standard response from the 2nd amendment crazies who think it is a good idea to have guns, guns, and more guns everywhere. But, in response to that, I want them to listen to a quote from the Dallas police chief that came out today talking about “open carry”…”we don’t know who the good guy is vs who the bad guy is if everyone starts shooting…”  Yep…the police think it’s nuts for everyone to be carrying guns all the time but does that matter to the NRA who is pushing for more and more open carry? And we all know why they want it…so the gun manufacturers that bankroll the NRA will make more money…not giving a damn that it puts more people in danger, that it puts the police in the unenviable position of having to make spit second decisions that can and will kill the idiots that are strutting around playing soldier….and, if you read history, the 2nd amendment was never meant to say that anyone could carry any gun anywhere…it was to protect the country since, at the time, there was no standing army and state militias were necessary for the people’s protection…they always forget the first part of the 2nd..”a well regulated militia…” not any yahoo with more money than brains…geez…

Random stuff….

Well…sitting here waiting for the rain to stop so I can get on the bike and thought I’d just get a few random thoughts out while I wait…I found it funny the other day that over 2,000 alumni, teachers and administrators at the Wharton school of business signed a letter asking the Donald to stop talking about going to Wharton…a nice long letter objecting to basically everything that Donald has said during the campaign…good on them….just read about some damn Pokemon game that people are playing on their phones that bad guys are using to rob people…first, who plays these games? And second, has humanity sunk this low? I mean, come on people….the Baton Rouge police department didn’t learn anything from the bad publicity that beating on protesters usually brings…they did it again over the weekend, arresting a bunch of people using their constitutional right to protest…but the big laugh was a post commenting on the pictures that came out of it…by a combat veteran who was amazed how armored these idiots were…saying that he never wore that much body armor in the war he was in….I can’t wait to see the loser that gets selected to be ole Donald’s vp….should be a great laugh with the “deep bench” the repubs have….okay, that’s it for now…will try to get to another one later today….

July 11th

Well…it was an okay day yesterday but I didn’t get much done with all of the sports that were on…from F1 to soccer to indy car…it gave me a good excuse to just veg out the day….oh, well….slept okay last night and feel okay this morning but it is raining and I won’t be able to get on the bike for a while…so I guess I’ll run a couple of errands after I work out…..still not sore again today and I can’t figure it out…last year I had the moving pain in every joint that really did hurt….but, nothing this year….weird…..it is nice that it is raining and the car is getting cleaned from all the bird crap….maybe I’ll have to take the day off the bike with the rain…but, I think I’m going to the beach tomorrow and will take the day off the bike if I do….and I can’t have two days in a row off…not much to do today…errands this morning and then maybe clean the bathroom but that is about it….and I will come back with a political one later today…have been a little burned out on the whole process but I know I need to get back to it…more later…

152 bikes…yikes…

Well…as you know, when something unusual happens on the trail I like to count just to quantify what happened…like the 42 tiny bunnies from last year or the snake counts I have done earlier…and today started out normal…the shifter was working great and I even got rid of the squeak in the bike but I noticed that there was a lot of traffic on the trails…bikers especially so I thought I’d count them…and yikes…in the 15 miles on the ride today, I counted 152 bikes…almost 10 a mile and it is something I’ve never seen before…at the start of the 9 years I have been riding this bike, I could go the entire ride without seeing another biker but today was a little ridiculous…and there were a lot of the spandex boys out, too…wonder if that has to do that the Tour de France is on tv…it seems that every year when it is on, there are a lot more people out on bikes…at least I hope they go away after the tour is over…it was a pain moving through the traffic…maybe I’ll just have to go out earlier….who knows?

July 10th

Well…you know about the day I had yesterday so I won’t go into that again here…slept okay last night and had some dreams that were boring so I won’t report on that now…didn’t get anything but the bike and cleanup done yesterday and today looks the same since there is soccer on this aft….not sore anywhere again so I’ll take that…I do have to comment on gluten-free aspirin later along with the garish color of the new ibuprofen I just picked up a few days back….not much to do today…watching F1 right now and will probably watch the tour later….more later…

What a day…

Well… I was going to comment on all of the killings that have gone on here in the US today but what more can I say that hasn’t already been said by me and others? So, I think I’ll just update everyone on the day I’ve had today…the whole thing started out with that damn squeak in  the bike coming back and it is just so annoying…still haven’t found it yet and I’ve taken the entire rear suspension apart and greased it so we’ll see tomorrow if I found it or not…but, the worst thing was I broke a shift cable out on the ride and had to ride it back with just 2 speeds and that was a pain…so, I went to the bike shop and got a new cable and decided to put the new shifter on that has been sitting here for almost a year now since I would have had to adjust the old one and it was getting too worn out…now I remember why it has been sitting here for a year…what a pain in the butt…worked on the damn thing for almost 3 hours to get it right but I think it’s close….the bike was so greasy that I spread grease all over everything and had to clean until just now to get it cleaned up….I think it will be a few days until I can get the grease out of my hands….not something I really wanted to do today….

July 9th

Well…it was an okay day and I won at pool so that was cool…slept okay last night and feel kind of okay this morning…have already been working on the bike to try to get the squeak out of it since it is so damn annoying…no pain anywhere and that is getting kind of weird with the normal being pain somewhere…but, I’ll take it….didn’t get anything else done but didn’t expect to so I’ll have to fix that today….it is nice that it is cooler and less humid…I was getting really tired of everything being wet all the time….okay…F1 qualifying is on so I am going back to the couch and having more coffee…more later…