45 degree ride

Great day.

45F seems to be the magic number where riding a motorcycle becomes tolerable. At 50, well , no more car. Forty really is the lower limit for me to spend a day on the bike.

I wonder what others here think is the magic number?

Leave a comment.

Life is good

To cold to ride?
Relax with kitty!

City of Joliet

Closed stores, closed factories, closed prisons, affordable housing.

Click here to see full screen slide show



I just thought that I would take a moment, to show all of you a little information about the City of Joliet where I have lived since 1995.

Joliet is one of those old "rust belt" cities that was destroyed by the economic policies of the Reagan administration. Unlike many other similar towns that have come back from the ashes, Joliet just never has.

Our mayor is an ex cop, with all of the foresight, creativity and imagination that police are famous for. The city council has been in power forever, and since some of them own slums and run down dilapidated buildings, nothing is done to improve the character of our town.

Sure, we have fallen for the same scams as other "rust belt" cities. A casino or two , a NASCAR track, a pretend minor league ball park. These same edifices can be seen in downtrodden towns all over the Midwest.

Our city council has also helped shift the property tax burden to our homeowners by giving away huge breaks to companies building big warehouses that employ nothing but a few low wage fork lift drivers and the like. Why are we subsidizing half price deals on property taxes for "Dollar Tree" and their ilk, when they give us nothing but more truck traffic?

Until the voters here change our city government in a sweeping replacement of almost all the council and our mayor, then you and I can expect the same.

At least we really do have affordable housing.

Suzuki DR200 Top Box

Low cost, works great.

The kid is usually so fashion conscious, but she has no problem riding a motorcycle that looks like it's right off Main Street Ho Chi Minh City.

One more thing, Don't these pictures seem similar?

War with Squirrels

I know this is off topic, but anyone with a bird feeder has prolly shared my frustration matching wits with your local tree rats.

I thought the location of my feeder was squirrel proof. Haaa! There is no such thing as squirrel proof when sunflower seeds are at stake. They are very very smart, and relentless. Our red squirrels seem to be more aggressive than the gray ones, but it was a small gray variety that discovered climbing up the siding on the corner of the house, then jumping for the feeder. The red squirrels were closely observing this, and next thing I know, there is a red squirrel "hiding" on the back side of the bird feeder while dining.

Important Update 03/27/08

The squirrels have won! Two squirrels jumped on the bird feeder at the same time breaking the cheaply made chinese item in half and sending it, the seeds, and the squirrels crashing to the ground.

Now I must decide if I want to increase our trade deficit and obtain another poor quality Chinese product to feed our birds ( and squirrels ), or simply admit defeat.

New Addition

Spring is almost here, so I thought it was time to even out the stable. I had a 2005 Honda Big Ruckus, and it was fun, but ever since I got the Suzuki DR200 Dual Sport, ( was for me, but my kid sort of appropriated it ) , I was thinking light dual sport.

So , off I went to my local Hondakawayamazuki shop , and there, there on the showroom floor was a new Honda CRF230L.

Well, I'll save the explanation, and you can see by the pictures what happened.

Even though it was cold today , I put about 40 miles on it.

Now I cant wait for warm weather.