Dispatch called me first thing this morning while I was having my coffee. She said she had a small partial that needed picked up about 2 hours from here, but she hadn't so far found anything else. She mentioned that there was another of our drivers down here also needing a load, but as I was first on the board she had to offer it to me first. As it was only a partial and I would just have to go pick it up and then just come right back home again until she found something else I told her to...

The following video, along with a press release regarding the incident, is a good example of how little respect we bicyclists receive from much of the motoring public or even the police. Bicyclists have just as much legal right to use the roadways as someone in a polluting, gas guzzling, behemoth of a vehicle and seeing things like this really gets my Irish up. The press release: ROAD RAGE AT BERKELEY CRITICAL MASS Police Again Fail to Protect Bicyclists' Rights VIDEO FOOTAGE AND Q...

This one is, ummm, well, you just have to see for yourself.

This one is, ummm, well, you just have to see for yourself.

This one is great if you ever spent any time playing Donkey Kong and/or Mario Brothers.

This one is great if you ever spent any time playing Donkey Kong and/or Mario Brothers.

A lawsuit has been filed against a Chicago school because a substitute teacher showed the movie Brokeback Mountain to an 8th grade class and claims that a 12 year old girl was traumatized by the movie. Ok, the "traumatized" bit aside, what the hell is a teacher, substitute or not, doing showing this movie or any other non-educational movie in a public school? What happened to actually TEACHING? Our school system is going to hell in a hurry. Link Link

This video is pretty funny.

Among other things I am in the process of doing my laundry. Yeah, I know, that ranks right up there with adventures in toenail clipping. So sue me. We have a small laundry facility on the next street over from me that is owned by the park and is for park residents only. It's not much but it's a very short walk for me. I walked over, tossed in three loads to wash, and walked back home to enjoy a nice cold beer and some carport conversation with my nieighbor who happened by on her bicycle j...

Despite my vow to remain indoors the rest of the day to avoid inhaling any more of the smoke in the air I realized that I needed to buy laundry soap. As the Publix shopping center is only about 1.5 miles from my house I decided to go there and get it from Dollar General. I wound up picking up the items I went for as well as a nice T-bone for dinner from Publix and a bottle of Gatorade, which I'll toss on the grill later. As usual I carried my cloth tote bag into the stores with me so as...

I just got home from a 10 mile bike ride. I had planned on 20 miles, but I couldn't breath. My chest is tight and I feel oxygen starved. It's the smoke. The sky is hazy again from the smoke blowing down from Georgia. It's not so thick at ground level that you can tell it's there, or even really smell it, but it's there just the same. After about 5 miles I was having a hard time breathing and my eyes were stinging. Clean air is something we tend to take for granted unless we live some pl...

I went over to Mom's before lunch and picked up the small package sent to me from a nice lady on a knitting forum. As I had guessed, it contained hand-made stitch markers for knitting. I had complained on the knitting forum that stitch markers tend to be "girlie" and that I hadn't seen any that appeal to a guy. She was kind enough to make some for me and surprise me with them. I really like them and they'll come in handy on complicated projects requiring stitch markers. Th...

A few days ago one of the ladies on a knitting forum sent me a PM saying that she had sent me something. She wouldn't say what it was, only that it was something I had written about wanting some time back. The only thing I can think it could be is some hand made stitch markers, but she refused to confirm or deny that, saying it was a surprise. I have to admit that my curiosity has been piqued a bit. Late this afternoon Mom called me to say that some sort of small package had arrived for me...