I Feel Better Now ......................

Retired Geezer, over at Innocent Bystanders posted a link to a very entertaining article - "The Mosquito: Environmentalism’s Weapon of Mass Destruction" by a Mr. Eric Englund.

"Environmentalists want you dead; and the sooner the better. Did that get your attention? I certainly hope so. For it is the environmental movement’s objective to radically reduce the human population. As mankind seeks to extend the division of labor, to further explore for and utilize natural resources, to develop new life-improving technologies, and to enhance our quality of life, environmentalists view humanity as nothing more than a voracious parasite raping, pillaging, and sucking the life out of Mother Earth."

It gets better when he starts quoting these Rat Bastards.... No, I'm not gonna spoil it. You'll have to go read it for yourself. But you can bet, there's a quote from that SOB, Paul Ehrlich. That prick Ehrlich, has been consistentlyly wrong on every single thing he's ever said about the environment. He's got an unbroken record of BS. Of course, he's a friggin' hero to the Green crowd.

Environmentalists are like watermelons. Green on the outside. Red on the inside.

I feel better now because People are finally starting to speak up about this BS.

I need to add the Innocent Bystanders to the links over there on the sidebar. I'll have to do that. When I get some more motivation. Lazy Bastard that I am. That's a pretty fun bunch.

Watch Football? I Don't Think So ...........

Thanksgiving is usually a day to watch a game or 2 and indulge in turkey. We decided instead to celebrate National Ammo Day a few days late. I'd already bought ammo, but I'll have to buy some more next week as the kids and I stepped out the back door and hit the GrumpyUnk Firing Range for a couple hundred rounds of fun.

Look at that. Coffee. Smokes. Firearms and Ammo. If there were a couple of big breasted babes in there it'd be perfect.
















This is convenient as hell. Literally, right out the back door. Yeah, it can't be real good for the trees and I plan on making a target frame eventually. But hey, it's all good.
















Yes, I confess. Those are feed sacks tacked up on the trees. No, I don't mind being a Hillbilly. Thank you very much.

Bumpersticker of the Week ...............

The wife called me today while she was out resupplying the "GrumpyUnk Command and Control Bunker" and told me about this one she saw.


.................. Rehab is for Quitters!!! ........................



Yeah, that's my new favorite.

Wishing Y'all a Happy Thanksgiving .................

Hope everyone has a good Holiday tomorrow. Remember all of the things we have to be thankful for. And if you're looking at the grass from the green side? It's a good day.

Be careful if you're driving over the river and thru the woods to Grandmothers house tomorrow.

And say a special prayer of thanks and protection for our Service members of the Armed Forces.

And if you can't get Turkey? Try this.
Extra bonus points if you piss off a vegan tomorrow.

















Special Update!!!

In the Comments to this post, Jean has this to say - "hmph... couldn't have thrown in bit of Chippendale's for us gals?..."

Chippendale - Chappaquidick.
Close enough.

Never say I don't cater to you folks!

There's Sick Shit...and Then there's This Kinda Sick Shit............
Lawyer argues sex with dead deer not crime.

No. Not right, not right at all. Just how screwed up in the head do you have to be to haul a dead deer off into the woods and have sex with it? I mean, you should buy it dinner and a few drinks first, right?

And just how screwed up do you have to be to ARGUE about a case like this. One more reason to hate lawyers.
Professor Schlong - That evil genius, photoshopped the following picture. Priceless.

The last paragraph in the article has an interesting tidbit. -

"The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of nine months in jail and a fine of up to $10,000. If convicted, Hathaway could serve a prison term of up to two years because of a previous conviction. In April 2005, Hathaway pleaded no contest to one felony charge of mistreatment of an animal for the shooting death of Bambrick, a 26-year-old horse, to have sex with the animal." Bold per YerUnk.

I'm thinking sex with animals is gonna be taking on a whole new dimension for this young fellow soon. Very Soon.

War Stories....................

OK, maybe I should call this "Army Stories" as YerUnk never had to go to war in all the years I served, but War Stories sounds better. Just wanted to get that out there so everyone was on the same page. I did a combined 10 years, active and reserve and had a hell of a lot of fun for the most part and got to meet some weird and wonderful people along the way.

Let me tell ya about Sgt. Dave. He'd be included in the weird group, BTW.

Dave was an E7 (That's Sgt 1st Class, for you non-military types) and our new Platoon Sgt. You're always a little apprehensive about any new leadership change and it was no different with Sgt Dave.
Now Sgt Dave was a real, no shit by Damn, war hero. TWO Silver Stars. That's correct, Two of 'em. 3 Purple Hearts, at least 2 Bronze Stars and a host of other medals, some of them from army's, OTHER than the U.S. Yeah, a genuine stud. Now that gives a fellow automatic credibility with most GI's so we all were wanting to see how Sgt Dave was gonna run things.

Sgt Dave was also a Friggin' Genius. For real. He had the highest GT scores of anyone I had ever seen, before or since. He was probably MENSA class IQ.

He also had a first class case of OCD. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and I'm sure PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Dave had earned his decorations as a "Tunnel Rat" in 'Nam and it had tweaked his brain a bunch. Looking back in retrospect I can see He tried hard to control his OCD. He kept a daily planner with him that was filled out every morning in 15 minute increments on how he expected his day to go. Yeah, reality based.

Now all of you know that a day rarely goes as planned and Dave would get all bent out of shape if there were unexpected changes to anything he had planned in his schedule, which I took to calling, "His Wish Book".
He'd get all pissed off and would then mutter his trademark line - "That's F*cked Up, Man. We Gotta Talk."

It didn't take to long for most of us to figure out that Sgt Dave was Batshit Crazy. I tried to just do my shit and stay out of his way and most everyone else did the same thing. We did occasionally hide his daily planner from him if he was going off on some weird tangent. That would keep him occupied long enough for one of the other Sgt's to get things in order and achieve whatever mission needed to be done that day. Plus it was kinda fun f*ckn' with his head.

Then we went to NTC.

NTC is The National Training Center at Ft Irwin, Ca. It is an incredible training facility and maybe the only Laser Tag Facility in the world with a designated Satellite for keeping score.

Taking a unit to NTC is a big deal as you have to pack up all your shit, load all the tanks and such on train cars and then go spend 4 weeks in Death Valley and play war games with the home team there, known as The OPFOR. The OPFOR, back then, had vehicles mocked up to look like Soviet stuff, wore Soviet type uniforms and followed Soviet doctrine in conducting battles. It's a neat place and you got good training while getting your asses kicked.

Dave was going bugshit getting things ready to go and was a total OCD wreck, before we even left to go to NTC. He'd worried so much over all the little shit that he just about drove himself around the bend, mentally and physically.

I was glad when we left, because the plan in Sgt Dave's Wish Book, called for me to be assigned to the Artillery Battery, which pretty much assured I'd not see Sgt Dave for most of the time I was out there. OK!

When we all got to the NTC, reality on the ground changed the planning in Sgt Dave's Wish Book and bit me in the ass. I got stuck being assigned with the Headquarters Group (HQ). Shit! I was drafted to be the driver on one of the M-113 EVAC vehicles and my TC, or Track Commander, was to be Corporal Rock. Yeah, that was his name, Rock. He caught a lot of grief about it, but thank G-d he never was promoted to be, Sgt Rock. Nobody could ever deal with that name in the Army.

Rock was an OK guy and easy to team with and we did a good job through the time at NTC.

Here's what one of the M-113 we used looks like -










Yeah, they're a big Boxy armored vehicle. I didn't mind driving them and they would go most anywhere, if you weren't in a hurry.

Now the OPFOR, following Standard Soviet Doctrine, had a group of Soviet Special forces, or Spetsnaz assigned to them. These dudes would recon rear area support facilities and either lead raids, call in artillery or just generally cause havoc with support units. Like the one I was hooked up with. Over the course of the 2 weeks that we were out in the field playing war games, the OPFOR Spetsnaz group had nailed every support unit but ours. There was a lot of trash talk and money being bet between the guys at OPFOR and the senior NCO's and Officers in our unit as the days wound down to the end of the training exercise as to if they would get our ass'es.

And Sgt Dave was getting crazy as a Shithouse Rat about it.

NTC is a very intense and physically demanding training environment. You generally don't receive more than 2-4 hours sleep a night for the entire time you're out there and they keep you humping and jumping. It's a deliberate thing to teach you what to expect in a real battle situation.

So Sgt Dave was getting more exhausted by the minute. With the stress of being in charge of all the shit he was in charge of, coupled with the Spetsnaz threat, he was a basket case. You could hear him coming as he walked around muttering to himself, "That's F*cked up, Man. We gotta talk". All the time, everywhere he went.

It came down to the last 24 hours of the actual field problem and the bad guys hadn't gotten to our unit yet. I thought Dave was gonna blow a gasket just standing in place. He was totally fixated on us not being nailed by the Spetsnaz. We didn't stay in the same place for more than 1 hour the whole day and as soon as night fell, we moved again. After about the 3rd move it was 12 or 1 am and the officer in charge finally said that was it.

Sgt Dave wasn't happy about that, but being the good soldier he was, he followed orders and had us set up in a real nice low waddi, or low area, in our usual "Hedgehog" position. That's where all the vehicles form a circle facing out for maximum defensive purposes. Sgt Dave was bound and determined that, even if they found us, they weren't going to overrun our asses. So his big idea was for every single man to be on guard at all times till morning.

Yeah right. Everyone was dog ass tired after 2 weeks of nonstop battles and wargames and we knew it was back into post the next day for a few days of fix up, clean up and load up. And a shower!

So nobody gave a shit if the bad guys found us or not. We were parked on a little slope facing up and I crawled under the track with my rifle and E-tool, that's the Army folding shovel, and set up to provide covering fire if the bad guys did find us. I told Corporal Rock to leave the radio on and keep his ear peeled, but take a nap and I'd keep watch. Now, it was about 2 or 3 in the morning by this time and I figured we were home free.

No sucj luck. Here came Sgt Dave. He was going around to every vehicle and checking if everyone was awake and alert. I could tell from his muttering that he was not happy and a bunch of folks had been asleep. He was wearing a Tee shirt, Boxers and flipflops and he came flapping up to my track talking to himself and bitching about not seeing anyone on guard.

As he walked past the front of the track, without saying a word, I reached out and grabbed his ankle.

And all hell broke loose. He jumped so high and so fast, I damn near broke my wrist by hitting it on the underside of the track. He had jumped so fast, I hadn't been able to turn loose quick enough.

Simultaneously, he let out the most blood curdling scream I've ever heard. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then he went totally unhinged. He totally came apart and went totally friggin' crazy. He must've forgot about the bad guys who were looking for us, because he started running around the track screaming at me to come out. All the while saying he was going to kill me. I just scooted in a little farther, so he couldn't reach me with out crawling in after me. I figured I'd bash his head in with the butt of the rifle or the E-tool if need be, but there was no way I was coming out from under that track.

This went on for a few minutes till the Chief warrant Officer came over to see WTF was going on. He was totally unable to get Sgt Dave calmed down and told me to stay put till he had Sgt Dave in hand. That took a big shot of Valium to accomplish and about 20 minutes later came back and chewed my ass for "Driving my Platoon Sgt F*ckn' Nuts"!

And he really was, F*ckn' Nuts. And stayed that way. We convoyed back to the base in the morning as planned and began the process of clean up, pack up and load up. That takes about a week.

However, there were still things going on out in the field that required medics to be available. And Spc Rock and I were now the go to guys. We had brought the track we were using with us from Ft Bliss and were free from the clean up and maintenance required of those who had gotten tracked vehicles issued to them from the NTC stock. So we were it for anything that needed medics or transport.

Two days after returning into post from the official field problem, Rock got a call on the radio from Sgt Dave. Someone had gotten hurt and needed transport. We met up with Sgt Dave and he gave us the map grid coordinants of where we should go to pickup the injured GI. He never even looked at me or acted like anything had ever happened a couple of nights before. I was cool with that as I had never intended to totally launch him into the Twilight Zone he ended up in.

He spread a map out on the hood of his vehicle and showed us the most direct route to our injured GI and where the battalion Aid Station was set up at.

Sgt Dave had met us at the intersection of 2 trails, one of which just happened to be the one to take us to our GI. I figured his OCD wanted to make sure we were able to find our way without getting lost and he had met us there for that reason. Trails on Military maps are very deceiving at times. Sometimes they are easy to follow and sometimes they were a trail back in 1955 or some shit and there is absolutely no sign of a trail to follow. This one was easy to see as it led directly up over a 20 or 30 foot berm and headed due East. He even said a compass heading od due East would get us where we wanted to go. We split up and Rock and I headed out to get our injured Soldier.

The trail going up the Berm was pretty steep and it was pretty slow going at first till we reached the top and started back down.

Remember back a paragraph or so ago where I mentioned - "However, there were still things going on out in the field that required medics to be available for." Remember that? Guess what one of those things happened to be? Tank Gunnery.

Tank Gunnery, is target practice. Real tanks. Using real ammo. Shooting at painted plywood targets. Targets that look, amazingly enough, just like an M-113. Yep, just like Rock and I were driving.

And that Sonsabitch, Sgt Dave, had given us a route that led directly into and across an active Tank Gunnery Range. I had almost made it to the bottom of the slope when, "Pop" Up pops a target no more than 100 feet to my left front. Followed within seconds by a 120MM Sabot round perforating it. and a few seconds later by the noise of the muzzle blast that launched the round. Tank target practice is not an up close thing, but several thousand yards, so it takes a second or two to hear the initial firing noise. (Here's a little info on Tank Rounds so you'll know what I'm talking about here).

Rock and I both realized at the same time what the hell was going on and we both screamed, OH SHIT. THAT MOTHERF***** TRIED TO KILL US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To say the least, we were not happy.

The M-113 is a great vehicle but it will not go up a steep grade in reverse. That berm I was talking about? It was a man made thing for the Gunnery Range used to keep dumbass GI's from doing just what we were doing. Driving right into our death on a live fire range. I said the hell with it and hit the gas and flew down the slope and made a U-turn as fast as I could and hauled ass out of there with a head of steam up.

We found an alternate route to where we were supposed to go and pick up our injured GI. Yeah, you guessed it. No injured GI. We made a couple of radio calls just to make sure, and nobody knew of or had heard of any injured soldiers. We radioed back to the Chief Warrant Officer, who was the medical officer and told him we were coming back without a patient.

Just as we were arriving back at our unit area, Sgt Dave came in from the opposite direction. He hopped out of his truck and started walking toward the Battalion Aid Station.

YES!!!

I drew a bead on that Bastard and hit the gas. Now, I couldn't just run over him if he made it into the Aid Station Tent as I would for sure kill some innocent folks in the process of ridding us of Sgt Dave. Sgt Dave came to that same conclusion, when he was 30 or 40 feet from the entrance of the tent and I was 40 or 50 feet from him. He was on foot and I was in a 12 ton Armored Track going 25 or 30 MPH and accelerating. Odds favoring a Track vehicle usually, but that bastard ran like a damn Jackrabbit.

It was close, but the Bastard made it. Unfortunately, I did a serious brushback on a Captain who was just walking around the corner of the Aid Station, so I kept on going and hoped he didn't see the ID number on the rear of the Track as he was diving out of the way.

As luck would have it, he didn't take time to look and we stayed gone for 2 or 3 hours, claiming we got lost out in the desert.

After that, Sgt Dave stayed in his little tent, except to eat and use the can. He didn't even take a shower until the Chief ordered him to. You could walk past his tent at any hour of the night and he'd be in there sitting up watching out from the shadows. He had gone completely over the edge and then some.

He went home on the first bus back to El Paso and we never saw him again.

The Chief figured out what had happened pretty quick. Between the rumors and the whole, non-existent injured soldier routine, he pretty well knew what had gone down. He called me over after chow one night and asked me about it and I told him the whole story straight up. There was no use lying to him as he was like G-D and would've known if I was BS'ing him anyway. He just nodded his head a few times and mumbled -

"That's F*cked up, Man. We Gotta Talk."

National Ammo Day ...................












I have been remiss on posting this. My Bad.

I mentioned this briefly, last week and then let it go. Unlike that happy ass, feel good BS about - "If you love something, let it go and it will return to you." Once MY brain lets something go ......... It's gone.

I haven't gotten to the point where I have to remind myself to breath. Yet.

Anyhow, I'm gonna repost the link HERE. And let Kim DuToit explain it. Since it's his idea. I like it.

I don't know if this kinda thing makes a bit of difference in the big picture. I do know that Shooting Sports are good clean fun and EVERYONE should be familiar with Firearms. If for no other reason than safety and informed opinion about them.

Oh yeah, buying ammo now is probably a good idea anyway. The price is gonna go up. Our new leadership in, Sodom on the Potomac, have not forgotten gun control and taxation of ammo is one of the things that have been offered up as a solution.

So go buy at least 100 rounds of something this week. Better yet. Go shoot 100 rounds or so with a friend or family member who's not familiar with shooting. Then go buy 200 rounds.

Working on the Lost Links, Etc...............

I've been putting off this project for awhile, so I worked a bit on the links that were lost awhile back & added a few new ones tonight. I still need to replace the links I had to the Soldiers and Servicemember support areas. I'll get those up soon.

Here's some of the new, Hoosier Mafia folks -
Mrs Jose Goldbloom

http://www.jwiley.typepad.com

Dazd and Confused

Here's Army Wife and friend - Shannon. Who got lost on the big mess and link disaster.

And last but not least is Jean. Pondering, while looking through a Beauvoirglass.

Now, if I have missed anyone who was, should be or wants to be over on the links sidebar, drop me a line and I'll see how ambitious I feel and/or what kind of mood I'm in.

Fartin' around with the links and what not shouldn't be all that big a deal, but I have a remarkable talent for screwing things up. I did keep a copy of the revised template this time, so if I screw it up again, I will hopefully be able to fix it easier.

Maybe.

This picture gives you an idea of what I look like when I start working on computer crap. I'm talkin' work.

Medora Bridge..............

Continuing with our ride last week, Clint and I rode to The Medora Bridge next -








I didn't take this picture. It came from This site. One of several sites, that reader, Charley was nice enough to send me. This sorta' participation is encouraged, folks. Thanks, Charley!!

This Bridge is HUGE. 458 feet long, built on three piers. It's the longest covered bridge in the United States and the last standing triple span bridge in Indiana. I doubt that's gonna be true for long. This bad boy is in rough shape and is not gonna be here long.

Supposedly, there was a significant amount of money set aside for repairs in 2000. I didn't see any indication of them spending it on the bridge. The roof, on the East end is bad and leaks a lot of water, and there's not enough sunlight to dry anything out, so the deck is going fast. It was spongy with just me walking on it. Yes, I'm overweight, but not that damn much.
You can see some of the roof damage (Sorry for the blurry pic) here -















This is probably a bad sign too-
















But you gotta love the graffiti! "Kyle is a Fagget". Maybe, maybe not, but one can hope that Kyle can spell better than this Doofus.

Bridges? Yes We Have More Bridges.....................

Or a Bridge on this post. I'm gonna limit this to one, as the internet connection continues to be flakey and the pics make uploading these a bit dicey at times.

Went out last week for a couple of hours and rode with friend, co-worker and ManCamper, Clint. Clint bought his first bike this year and is close to becoming one of the "Hopelessly Devoted" rider types. Mr. T, (Xray Guy Extraordinaire) and I have been working on him hard. His KungFu is strong and just needs some developement.

Anyhow, we went and hit a couple of local bridges on our bike ride, starting with the Shieldstown Bridge. Built only 11 years after the Civil War. Amazing -






























Unfortunately, this bridge has been pretty neglected and has some serious Termite and or Carpenter Bee damage as is evident in this pic -

It amazes me how they built these things and the piers that they sit on, given what they had to work with back then. Incredable. This bridge could be kept intact with a minimal amount of work. Mostly treatment for insects. Unfortunately, it ain't gonna happen anytime soon and it'll be in the river some morning after a big storm. Shame really, but there's only so much $$$ to go around in this world and that's the way it is.

331 feet. Yep, a big long tunnel.

Since I'm on a Military Trend Here Today .......
(and Stealing pictures left and right from SondraK.)

I should note an article at her place from an active duty soldier. This gives you a pretty good idea of how The Troops Doing the Fighting feel about Tuesday's election results.

Makes me feel pretty bad for them. Those of you who have never served yourself or have not had a close friend or relative in the Armed Forces maybe won't understand.

I understand completely.

Despite all you have heard from the lying ass media, retention has been not been that much of a problem. If we kick the props out from under these guys, it's gonna be. We'll have some long term ramifications that will not be good for any of us too.

I suppose Charlie Rangel (asshole, New York) will be happy if he gets to bring back the draft. My guess is he'll not want people to remember him talking that shit in a few years. Just a guess, but we'll see.

Happy Birthday to the US Marines ............

231 years of service. Badass Service.










Stole this pic from SondraK too.
She's the shit on Military things.










Don't remember where I got this Chesty Puller Pic, but it's a good one and what better time than now? God Bless all of our men and woman in uniform, but to day belongs to the Marines.

Semper Fi!

Tomorrow is Veterans Day...........

Tell a vet (or 2) thanks for their service.

My Liver May Sue For Damages ...........

And a good time was had by all at ManCamp. Except a certain internal organ which may have strained itself in the last 24 hours.

Luke Skywalker brought Bambi Steaks marinated in some sort of Jedi mixture. Uuuuuuummmmm. The force is strong in his bowhunting skills. 4 days ago that little Bambi was happily frolicking in the woods and fields. Last night most of his prime cuts were wrapped and grilled with a mess of 'taters, onion, peppers, etc. Dead cow steaks and several side dishes, filled out the meal. All washed down with unhealthy amounts of Beer.
I was gonna pickup some of this to grill, but thought better of it.















Jokes, lies, guitars and farts continued into the early hours. Yes, I felt a bit rough on arising this morning (After not near enough sleep). I donated a Mr. Coffee, coffee maker after our first ManCamp and that came in handy right away. After coffee and a couple of bottles of water I started feeling human again and made the trek back home to the "GrumpyUnk Command and Control Bunker".

I'm seeing a nap on the near horizon. Hey, I don't do all nighters to well anymore and I really didn't drink a lot. But I don't drink much at all, or with any regularity, so I was feeling it when I dragged my ass out of the fartsack this morning.

Don't forget - November is National Ammo Day. Buy 100 rounds at least. Don't know what National Ammo Day is? I'll let Kim tell ya. He says it much better than I can and he's already written about it before. If you enjoy firearms and shooting sports, along with some good writing, you should be reading him already.

Random Thoughts on a Wednesday Morning ........

The Elections are over, Thank G-d. - Well, except for the wailing and the gnashing of teeth. Sackcloth and ashes by some, gloating and revenge planning by others. The Stupid Party got their asses handed to them yesterday. No surprise there. I'm sure the Republic will survive and I'm not gonna get all worn out crying about what should have been, etc, etc. They got what they deserve and as much as I hate to see the Evil Party in charge of things, life will go on.

The good news? No more friggin' campaign advertising on the airwaves for 2 years. Jeebus, I'm sick of that shit.

ER News - I got to use one of my favorite lines yesterday. It's great to be able to inform a young Zombie Gurl on why she's been so nauseated every morning - "You have sperm poisoning, Honey".

Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside when I get to use that one. Even though we'll all have to work overtime to pay for the care and feeding of this newest Zombie Kid till we all die.

ManCamp is Tonight - I shamelessly stole the name, "ManCamp" from SteveH at Hog on Ice. I suppose I ought to have asked him about that, but somehow I doubt he'll give a shit. If you're not reading him though, you should. He's a funny guy.

ManCamp essentially consists of a bunch of my Manly, Male Nurse Co-workers from the ER getting together and cooking meat, drinking beer, spitting, telling lies, farting, sitting around the campfire and playing guitar. You know, Manly things. Or basic Dumbass Guy Shit, depending on your point of view if you have an estrogen overload.

I suppose It's about perspective. Or a Breasticles vs Testicles thought processing thing. Whatever. It's good for my mental hygiene, sort of a "Mental Massingill", if you will.

I'm gonna have to go find my Fartsack (sleeping bag for you non-military types) and put together some side dishes to go with the meat. I'll hit the Beer Store on the way out there. It is Way Out There, too. A nice little log cabin on a lake out in the hinterlands of Flyover country.

Bridge stuff - Found a nice database of Covered Bridge stuff Here, that'll make planning a bit easier on the next roadtrip day. It's not like I need much of a reason to get out and go on the Motorcycle, but the Bridges make for a good excuse as any.

OK. That's it for now. I've got shit to do.

Gratuitous funny pic for you.

More Bridge BS .............

I got totally crossed up trying to find this last bridge. I was basically "winging it" all day today and had done remarkably well navigating on mostly unmarked county roads up till this last one. But hey, it all worked out and I got to ride some very nice roads in the process. It's all good.

This is the Guilford Bridge. No info on length, but as you can see, A. M. Kennedy and Sons 1879. Those boys were busy.














This bridge appears to have been moved to it's present location. It's sitting in a small park and Tanners Creek is only 100 feet from where it's sitting now. Another Arch type construction.

Here's a picture of the Westport Bridge to show you what I mean by Arch Type -

Here's a (somewhat blurry) picture of the Scipio Bridge with the Howe Truss Design, for comparison -

It seems the longer bridges were Truss design. There is a very long, multi-span covered bridge not far from here I'm going to get over to soon. It's nice that there are a zillion of these things in a relatively close distance from my place. Should be fun.

There is a Covered Bridge in the county park where I grew up at that I believe was a Kennedy bridge. I know it was moved there but I don't remember when or from where. I'll have to look it up and share, if you're interested. Oh hell, I'm interested and that's all that matters really. It's not like I'm gonna upset a lot of people. Take a look at the sitemeter and you'll know what I mean.

These bridges are pretty cool and I've developed an interest in them this summer. I'll have to start doing some research on them and see where it goes. If any of you have anything to add, please feel free.

You'll notice I haven't made any gratuitous "Bridge + Kennedy" jokes yet either. Trust me, that took effort on my part. Feel free to give it your best in the comments if you like.

All in all a good day. spent almost 8 hours out riding backroads. About 200 miles and my ass was getting sore when I got home. That's lame and shows how little I've been riding this year. My butt shouldn't be sore at the 200 mile mark. Especially with all the stops I made.

And a picture of the 2001 Kawasaki Concours, just because I love it.

More Bridges .............

disclaimer* - Unlike the last time I went looking at bridges, no Kawasaki saddlebags were injured in the making of this post.

The weather today was pretty nice. low 50's and partly cloudy. I figured it was a good day to head out and track down some more bridges for you all.

This is the Scipio Bridge, spanning Bear Creek. Or "Crick", in the local vernacular. No dates or info anywhere. It's in pretty good shape and looks to have been rehabbed at least once in the past.

This one is used everyday on a smaller country road and I know for sure it will hold more than the 5 ton rating. A tractor pulling 2 large grain wagons full of corn went through while I was there. I gotta believe that was over the limit.

From Scipio I headed out on the county roads to This Beauty here. This is the Westport Bridge. spanning Millstone Creek.














This bridge is also in use everyday and was rehabbed in 2004.

Here's a shot of the info plaque. Note the name of the Builder. A.M. Kennedy and Sons. 1880. They built a lot of bridges in this area. Also note the name on the engineering firm during the rehab. Beam, Longest and Neff. LLC. They must be the hot shit in Covered Bridge rehabbing, as I've seen their name on several others too. It seems proper that a firm with the words "Beam and Longest" in the name, should be associated with rebuilding old wood bridges.















From Westport, it was on to Versailles and the Busching Bridge. Another that is in daily use. This is a big bridge. 170 foot span and 13 foot 6 inches clearance height at the opening. Another recent rehab in 2005. Note the overhang at the entrance. Not the norm. I don't know if that was just something the builder did, or if there was a specific function. I don't know shit about Covered Bridges, so feel free to pipe up if you have any knowledge about these things. This is a new interest area for me.















Yep, same engineers. Note that this is a "Single span Howe Truss". Very similar to the Scipio bridge above. The westport Bridge and the Guilford Bridge, are both "Single span Burr Arch". I'm going to make another post on this and include the last stop of the day, The Guilford Bridge and include some comparison pictures of the different construction types mentioned.

BB Gun, Wise Ass Brother and a Perfect Opportunity. Hilarity Ensues ........

If Ritalin had been around when I was a kid, I'm sure my folks would have had me signed up in a heartbeat. I was a Cross-eyed, Little Fuck-Tard or CELF(TM) and just goofy as shit as a kid. Totally Attention Deficit.

I got in more trouble for doing stupid shit than I should have because I didn't care most of the time. My motto could have been, "Some things are just worth it." I just did whatever came to mind, knowing I would be getting my ass busted for it later. But a lot of the time I never even thought about what would result from my actions. And that's what got me on this occasion .........

At the time this event took place, I was about ten or eleven years old. Like most boys of that age, I had a Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun that was seldom out of my reach. Anything that moved or didn't move was a worthwhile target and I was surprisingly accurate for being a CELF(TM). I didn't shoot the dogs, because they were my buddies, but anything else was fair game.

We lived in an old farm house out in the country, so randomly shooting things wasn't much of a problem most of the time. One Saturday morning I was hanging out in the side yard, farting around and I heard a tapping coming from one of the upstairs windows. Looking up, I saw my older brother, Chief (We didn't call him that back then). When he was sure he had my attention, he turned around and dropped his drawers and mooned me, sticking his ass cheeks right to the window.

Oh Thank You, Jeezuuuuz!! I immediately whipped the trusty old Red Ryder up and drilled him in the ass. Yeah, right through the window pane. I heard him squeal and laughed like hell as I ran for the woods.

Unfortunately, Mom heard him too. Being a good Mom, she knew that squeal wasn't your ordinary boy noise and she sent The Old Man up to investigate. He, hearing the tale of woe, gave Chief a boot in the ass and started hunting for me. I was long gong already and stayed gone till he went off doing whatever Dad's did on Saturday mornings.

Chief caught me later and passed The Old Man's, Boot to the Ass, along to me. OK. Fair enough. Some things are just worth it and this was a perfect example.

You've probably seen the type of windows we had in that old house. Double hung, with nine small, separate panes. As I had only holed one of them, I didn't get a major ass kicking when The Old Man finally got me later. Just your standard ass whuppin'. He took the Red Ryder away for two weeks and told me I'd have to pay for a replacement pane. Ok, fair enough. Shooting Chief in the ass like that was worth all that and more, so how could I argue with that?

Fast forward two weeks........... It's a beautiful Saturday morning, I have my faithful Red Ryder back and all's right with the world. The birds are singing, the sky is blue and clear and I'm outside being one with nature.

And The Old Man was up on a ladder replacing the pane of glass.

I was watching him as he cut out the old putty, pulled the points and pulled the holed pane out. He had a new pane cut to size from the hardware store (purchased by me) put in and was in the process of glazing it in. Glazing windows is not as easy as it looks and The Old Man was pretty good at it. He was so intent on his work he never even noticed Chief come into the room, drop his drawers and moon me again.

But I did.

The Old Man had just finished the last bit of glazing ................ and I put a BB right through the new pane and tagged Chief in the ass again. Chief let out a squeal and The Old Man looked at him, then at me and then took a small hunk of putty and filled in the BB hole and came down the ladder.

I didn't bother running. He had that look and I knew I was in for it good.

And I started laughing anyway. DOH!!!

I just couldn't help it. The sight of Chief hopping around again overcame me. The Old Man failed to see the humor of it all and cuffed me upside the head, yanked the old Red Ryder from my hands and smashed it against a big oak tree, totally destroying it.

And then he surprised me hell out of me and said, "Nice shot".

Cold Weather Gloves ....................

Fall is here and winter is coming on strong.
A pair of good, warm gloves, are a must have item for anyone who wants to extend his riding season.
I rode around all last winter with cold hands and was determined to get a decent pair of gloves before cold weather really set in.

My biggest problem when making purchases like this is that I'm too cheap to just go out and buy the expensive item I know will work right off the bat. It's a curse and I always end up spending more time and money than I need to on things. So when I recieved an email notification from New Enough Leathers advertising gloves for sale, I immediately went over to their site and looked. I have purchased multiple items from them in the past and have had great service and no complaints about any products.

Here's what I bought. The Joe Rocket Blizzard Glove. I ordered them Monday and they showed up today. That's impressive. Good comfortable fit, and a wiper on each thumb for cleaning your face shield. The part I like best? A slick drawstring on the gauntlet for tightening them up to prevent air or water leaks.

Being as it was sunny and mid 40's outside, I decided to give 'em a test ride. They are very comfortable to wear and ride with. Not too bulky and the palms don't slide all over the grips.
The first 1/2 of the ride the temps were around 45 degrees and the gloves were just fine. Later in the afternoon as the sun was going down, the tempurature started dropping.

About the time the temp hit 40 degrees is when I decided that these would be better advertised as "Cool weather gloves". It was 38 degrees when I got home and after an hour of Interstate speeds at temps of 40 or below, my hands were no longer comfortable. Not freezing cold, but definately not comfortable.

Later, I filled the sink with water and with the gloves on, held my hands in the water for one full minute and they were still dry when I pulled them out. So it's a pretty safe bet they will keep you dry in the rain.

Overall impression? A good low cost pair of Cool Weather gloves. I don't feel bad about buying them as they fill a need for me. Just don't expect them to be Cold Weather gloves.

I'm probably going to end up buying These For when the temps get down below 40 degrees. Pricey, but I'm sure they'll do the job. I own several pair of Tour Master gloves already and really like them.

OK. There you have it, kids. Along with a gratuitous, Phil Read photo.

It Appears That I am Able to Post Something Today..........

Well, for now anyway. Consider this a test post as I attempt to get a picture up.
I am not hopeful.
Well, things may be looking up here. So far, so good. We'll see if I can actually get this to post now.

Canadian Sex Trivia ................

I was informed yesterday (By a Canadian) of this bit of trivia. It seems that Canadians make love "Doggie Style" almost exclusively. Naturally, I asked him why that was.

His Answer?

So we can both see the Hockey Game, 'eh.