The Slacker

Been almost a year since my last blog entry.  Who knew the year would transpire the way it did!  I had no idea a thyroid, such a little tiny piece of flesh in my body, could cause so many problems, but it can and it did!  Most of my summer was spent shaking, sweating, and feeling lousy.  As such, I lost interest in a bunch of things and until the end of November, nothing much mattered.

The good news is my little thyroid episode is over and I have more or less returned to normal.  Which means I hope to be less of a slacker and more of a blogger.

Second Chances

Several years back I gave my son my old Specialized Hardrock mountain bike to ride as he had outgrown his bike.  That old bike had served me well since 1991 and I thought it would be around for a long time.

You need to know something about my son.  If I can find something that he can’t destroy then it is something worth owning.  I have often thought my son’s true calling in life is as a product torture tester.  Seriously, he is tougher on things than anyone I know.

My Hardrock survived 2 years of extensive riding in the Owyhee desert with my good friend Ron many years ago.  It survived one of the first Bicycle Patrol Schools offered up in Idaho, where, 18 years ago I met Rob, who told me his agency was hiring.  Then it survived another 2 years as a Police Bike for this very same agency.

The chrome-moly frame could handle just about anything.  So you can imagine how surprised I was when my son came home and the front fork was bent and crumpled.  “What did you do?”  I asked.  “Nothing Dad.  I was just going down a hill and the fork collapsed.”  “Nothing??”  I yelled.  “No screaming down Canfield mountain with your hair on fire or playing Evil Knievel and jumping over things?!!”  “Well,” he said sheepishly, “I was going downhill.”

When I let my son torture test this bike, I had replaced it with a Trek 7300 Hybrid, and had also purchased a Northrock for trail riding.  But seeing that old Hardrock in the condition it was in just plain made me sad.  Too many memories.

Having been the recipient of more second chances than I deserve, I decided to disassemble the old bike and see what was salvageable – I just couldn’t bring myself to drag it off to the dump.

The tires were completely shot, but surprisingly the wheels were fixable.  The frame was straight and true, as was the fork stem.  Nothing else was worth keeping.  Seriously.  Nothing.  Everything was either bent or broke.

After a couple of hours on Amazon.com, I assembled a list of replacement parts and a budget for the repair.  Yes, you guessed it.  I could buy a new Hardrock for the money I am going to put back into this one.  Sentimentality is expensive.

I picked up some parts at my local Specialized dealer and when I told him what I was doing he replied, “Yep, we do that sort of thing all the time for customers.” At least I am not alone.

The parts are slowly dribbling in as I can afford them, and today I spent 4 hours and $16 cleaning the wheels and getting them back to spec by replacing the bearing pack, bearing cones, and tightening up the loose spokes.   A new seat and seat suspension is now installed, as well as new V brakes. 

Its glory days as a Mountain Bike are over.  When I get it all back together it will be my “57 Chevrolet,” and will have an honored place in my garage.  Just too many memories to let it go.

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

A Nation that worships idols instead of God Part II

Along similar lines of what I wrote about some time ago, here is a secular perspective that I think completes the picture of what is wrong with our society.

This from  the Arctic Patriot:

Thoughts for Consideration

Here are some thoughts of mine.  They will offend some people.  That is not my concern; I cannot control others' reactions to what I say.  I hope people are able/willing to look through offense, and my clumsy words that cause it, in order to see what I am saying here.  Here goes-

It has been said that the Constitution would only work in a moral society.

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion ...Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  John Adams

Benjamin Franklin, Signer of the Declaration of Independence - "[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

" Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society."  - Washington

I think there's a little more to it than that, but let's assume that the statement is true at face value, and look at some things.

What do you think a "moral" and "religious" people looked like to Mr. Adams, Washington, Franklin, and their contemporaries?

No, I mean it.  Really.

Walk through the nearest clothing store and look at the people.  Look at the trash and filth polluting our children's (and our) minds at the grocer's checkout line.  Look at almost everything that comes from Hollywood and earns millions of dollars.  Look at the people who make the news, that slice of degenerate America.

Moral?  Religious? 


Those of you who know me well enough know that I am not pushing a certain religious worldview here; I have more than enough doubts and concerns with religion for five men.

What I am saying here is that taken in context, John Adams said that the Constitution cannot work in anything other than a moral and religious setting such as that in which he lived.

Think about this.  Please.  Really.


No, I mean it.  Really.  Think about it.

If John Adams is to be believed, even a complete, as-ratified, Constitutional restoration will utterly and completely fail in the society in which we live.

Think about that.

Consider what Washington or Jefferson might have had to say about that new Hunger Games movie.  Consider what Adams or any "moral and religious" person from that time period would say about the filth Americans pipe into their homes, the trash Americans allow to invade their children's brains, or the garbage that is known as "entertainment" today.

Think about it.

Would they accept it, or would they recognize it for danger and trash that it is, and drive it from their communities?

You may disagree with me on this, and that is (obviously) fine.

Just keep in mind that perhaps the problems in this nation go far, far beyond mere politics and economic interests.

Decadence and immorality often go hand in hand with tyranny.  Failure to self-regulate results in harsh government oversight.  I have learned this over and over again in the business world. 

A "moral and religious people" self-regulates. 

Bastiat once said that for a law to be respected, it has to first be respectable.

I will go further.  It works both ways.  For a people to be respected by the law (and government), they have to first be respectable.

Can you really see Washington and Adams taking their wives out for a lovely evening to watch Hunger Games?  Can you see any lady from 18th century America allowing her children to be exposed to the filth on display in nearly everygrocery checkout line?  It is utterly amazing to me that I cannot find clothes for my twelve and thirteen year old daughters that are not, by design, tight or revealing.

Moral and religious.  Without it, we as a people might as well forget any restoration of the Constitution.

I am not calling for a return of long dresses and breeches, or mandatory church services.  What I am saying is needed is a sense of modesty, respect, and basic consideration of others.  I think we can all agree these things are vanishing, if not altogether missing from American society.  What I am saying is that the American infatuation with materialism, instant gratification, and hedonism is dragging this nation to its death.

So there it is.  This is why I believe any restoration of American Constitution / Liberty as the founders understood it is bound to fail in this society.  If one accepts Mr. Adams', Mr. Washington's, and Mr. Franklin's words, and applies the proper historical context to them, I cannot see how any other conclusion is possible.

Think about it, and what we, what you can do to reverse this trend. 

Let me tell you, it doesn't make you a popular guy.

Outlaw Capitalists

Its official: my simple head cold wasn’t;  more of a sinus / lung infection requiring heavy doses of antibiotics and some really cool pain meds.  Suffice to say that this past week I had noting but time on my hands to feel miserable.

Starting to crawl out of it now, but the older I get the slower the healing process becomes. 

Some of that time on my hands was spent reading a small book (small because that is all I could concentrate on with the stuffy head – took me a week to read a 90 page tome!!).  This book, “Classic Harley-Davidson 1903-1941,”  just made me realize once again why our country is headed to the dustbin of history.

The first chapters of the book concentrated on how William Harley and Arthur Davidson, two boyhood pals, got started building motorcycles.  This was truly a family endeavor.  The boys utilized Art’s dad’s woodshed, the advice of good friend Ole Evinrude, and the help of family members who worked in the railroad machine shop and foundry, all unofficial of course, as well as many other friends and neighbors.  In the small time frame of five years they went from a very small operation to a mindboggling big operation.  I had no idea but these guys were the Apple Computer of their day.

Why did this reinforce my belief as to why we are slipping away as a strong country?  Easy, innovation and entrepreneurship of this kind cannot legally exist today.  Regulations and codes simply will not allow it.

Imagine that you wanted to build some kind of cool widget.  You are a young man or woman that is blessed with mechanical abilities.  You are also blessed with a dad who has some really neat tools in his garage.

You start making these widgets and advertising them in a local widget magazine.  Sales take off.  Enough for neighbors to notice that a lot is going on in your dad’s garage.   Next thing you know you are being visited by the code enforcement officer, who tells you that you must get a business permit, tax number, and you must build your widgets someplace else, as your parents home is zoned residential only. 

You quickly do the math in your head and realize that all of a sudden the money you were making is not enough for you to become “legit.”  Frustrated, you simply give up or go “underground.”

Can’t happen?  Oh but it does, all the time.  I know several people who operate businesses out of their garage on the side.  They all fly under the radar of existing codes and regulations – they simple can’t afford to do otherwise.  They have become “outlaw” capitalists.  Don’t think this stifles innovation?  Is it any wonder we are a nation of consumers and not producers?

I look at my Harley Davidson and lift a glass of homemade brew to salute all the backyard innovating “outlaw” capitalists out there in the heartland.  May your spirit and ingenuity never die – your fortunes and the fortunes of our country go with you.

Typing under the influence....

 Spring just wouldn't be spring without a nasty head cold.  I've already missed two days of work which is eating on me just imagining how far behind I am, and what a pain in the keester it is going to be trying to get caught up.  As soon as I find the guy who pumped all of this air and snot into my head there will be h eeh double toothpicks to pay.....

Nothing is easy.

Nothing is ever easy as it looks.  You know what I am talking about.  You watch those do-it-yourself TV shows and it looks so easy that after a trip to Lowes or Home Depot you are set to tackle whatever task is before you with confidence, except it is never easy and usually involves 2 or 3 more trips to the hardware store. 

So it has been this weekend.  I am not going to go on a rant, I actually like working on things.  I like the challenge.  When something brakes or doesn’t go like it should I take it as a challenge.  The machinery has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged my manhood.

I remember years ago working on my Sportster 883.  I noticed that the exhaust coming off of one of the cylinders was cold, meaning that the fuel/air mixture wasn’t firing.  I took the bike apart trying to figure out what was wrong.  After about two hours of extreme irritation, my Dad walked out and asked me if I had checked the spark plug.

There I was, sitting amidst a bunch of parts and my voltmeter, and I hadn’t bothered to check the spark plug.  That was what was wrong and my Dad taught me a very important lesson that day;  when attempting to diagnose a problem start with the simple and work towards the complex.   Genius right?  This simple lesson has since saved me countless hours of grief.  Looking back I should have paid more attention to my Dad when he was working on things……

Except this past weekend I discovered another truth; if something you are doing is easy, you are probably doing it wrong or you have missed something.  I know I’m not the first to come up with this, as nothing is new under the sun.  I simply “learned” it the hard way.

The silver lining in the cloud is that repairing whatever usually involves the purchase of some new tool to fix what I have messed up.  Hence, I have a LOT of tools.

Kind of like our lives, which are never easy – and if we are currently living on easy street this is simply a warning from God to be VERY vigilante.  Something is wrong; we just haven’t figured it out what it is yet.

God does not intend for us to live easy lives.  It is part of the challenge He has given us.  Luckily for us He has  provided a fantastic tool and a counselor to help us muddle through.