Winding Down

I would've posted sooner but I was still just too wound up from last weekend.

Ask me what I did!

... I'll tell you, I went to Sacramento to have dinner with my friend who lives there.

I left at 5AM on Saturday morning and got there at about 5:30PM Saturday evening. Stayed one night and came back on Sunday.

Saturday: Got out of Washington State in about 3 hours. Was driving into Oregon just before 8AM. Let me tell you, Oregon is a bad state to drive in. Once we crossed the border and got to the south end of portland we came across the very best part of I-5 in the state of Oregon. Those of you who have been driving South of portland know what I'm talking about. I-5 and 405 split and they don't split the normal way where the smaller freeway is to the right of the larger freeway, they do it backwards... Needless to say, we had to turn around in Beaverton.

Beaverton is a city similar to many suburban Seattle area cities, it's got a few tall buildings and terrible streets. In fact, almost all of the streets in beaverton are one way streets. We literally had to drive ten blocks west, four blocks north, six blocks south, then two blocks east to turn around. I hate beaverton.

This is not all that attributes to the terrible experience of Oregon driving. Once we get back on I-5 Southbound, we get stuck in traffic with lots of sports fans driving to the Ducks game in Eugene. The next 200 miles to Eugene was like driving on a long flat stretch of road without being allowed to use cruise control, in fact, it wasn't like doing it, it was doing it. Aparently cruise control is illegal in Oregon, and you have to maintain a variation of speed within at least 20 miles per hour above or below the speed limit, and cannot maintain that speed for more than 5 minutes at a time.

Once we passed Eugene, everything was nice. We had to stop for gas twice and were not allowed to pump it because gasoline in Oregon is more explosive and too dangerous to handle, however I will not complain about the lower prices due to lack of sales tax. Once you get to southern Oregon, it's actually rather pretty anyway, so it wasn't all bad.

Ashland and then Medford, there was snow on the ground in the passes, it was very nice really.

Which brings us to California. Many people hate California, but personally I like everything North of Oakland and nothing else, the only exception being San Diego because it's a pretty nice city. The rest of California, however, could fall into the ocean and I would never miss it. There are many rolling hills with mountains and pastures in that part of California and I like it a lot. We made it to Shasta in record time (The lake is very low this year and there were really high winds).

We could see the very bottom of Mt. Shasta and most of Black Butte, but there were thick clouds in the sky blocking most of the view.

For those who haven't been down I-5, Mt. Shasta is a pretty big and very beautiful mountain and black butte is a small black mound to the southwest of it. It looks like someone dumped a 2000 foot high load of coal at the bottom of the mountain.

From there it was basically straight through to Redding where we got gas (and pumped it ourselves). From Redding to Sacramento it was nothing but Olive farms and rice patties.

We got to Sacramento and ate dinner at Mel's diner, then retired to a local pool hall where we proceeded to play the worst games of all our lives (I had just driven 12.5 hours, everyone else just didn't sleep enough, wusses).

We kind of got lost finding our hotel, but found it, slept and that was that.

Sunday we got up and started driving again at about 8AM. It took us 4 hours and 10 minutes to get across the California border. I forgot how much I liked Northern California. It's really not a bad place at all.

Once we got past Ashland we stopped for fuel and Brandy took over for a couple hours (as long as it took us to need to get gas again). I broke out my pipe and watched Southern Oregon float by. Southern Oregon is a pretty nice place as well, I would have no problem living there if it were just in another state.

By the time we stopped for fuel again we were in the terrible part of Oregon that I was talking about before, the part where the traffic gets to be really annoying due to the law against cruise control. At the gas station we bought some beer (tax free) and had some tea and continued on the trip. I have never had more of a desire to get the hell out of any state and back to mine than this point in the trip. When we hit the outer rims of Portland it started pouring rain. Rain I can handle because I've obviously lived in Washington for a long time. The problem with Oregon rain is that water doesn't just fall from the sky, the entire cloud comes down and graces you with it's presence (if you don't understand, go to Oregon). We exited the state at no more than 50 miles an hour, generally closer to 35 or 40, and basically gridlocked traffic. However, I was able to sidestep the previous exit problem which we had in Beaverton by making sure I was in one of the right hand lanes before Beaverton. Once we crossed the bridge into Washington the weather got suddenly clearer and everyone started using cruise control again. It was magical. It took us over five and a half hours to get out of Oregon, I hate Oregon so much.

We made one last fuel stop before making the final trip to my Father-in-law's house in Lewis County (why we bought the beer in Oregon, tax free).

Upon arrival, I had a well-earned beer and toasted the bread on my three day old, soggy sandwiches. We got there just in time to watch The Simpsons, and then we watched Batman Begins.

Being in Oregon makes me feel like I've been microwaved, and I don't much like the idea of being microwaved. It's sad though, because I'd very much like to make another trip or two to California in order to visit other friends and relatives, but the thought of going through Oregon again just makes me cringe. 

Sunday morning we had breakfast with Brandy's dad and stopped into some outlet malls in Chehalis before we came back home. we bought a nice suitcase (would've been nice to have it before the trip, yes) a shirt and belt for me, and a shirt for Brandy at a 50% off store called Bass or something like that. And then bought Brandy and Myself each a nice wool cowboy hat from a hat and boots store. I needed one for driving the truck, it just doesn't feel right driving a full sized truck without a cowboy hat.

We took 101 home from Olympia and got back to the house at about 5PM. I was very tired indeed.

Motorcycles Are Cool - 10/27/2005

I put my motorcycle back together with it's new tires, chain and sprockets on Saturday. I rode it around a little and it is like a new motorcycle, at least it feels that way.

The last body part will arrive sometime this week, at which point I make the motorcycle look as good as it was before, maybe even a little bit better..... Then I finished reading the ultimate hitchiker's guide.

Sunday I went to rocky brook falls, ate dinner in port townsend and went home to watch scary movie 3 again, it just never gets less funny.

I've officially decided that things used to be cooler when you could live on some land somewhere and just had to worry about living.

I've also officially decided that we should either require all voters to take a pop-quiz on the voter's pamphlet before allowing them to vote OR we should ban all people who watch TV from voting. The reality of this is that it doesn't even have to be true, just that if you payed for a TV ad telling people that they could not vote, most of them wouldn't vote because they saw it on TV.

Another alternative would be to ban campaigning all-together. All campaign signs, posters, TV or radio ads should be disallowed. They allow people to make un-informed decisions because they saw something about it once and decided to vote about it.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing my grassroots movement to decrease voter attendance. I've commissioned several people to convince two other people not to vote. If everyone convinces two people not to vote, then we will get rid of most of the voters. The logic is simple: You can barely run your own life, don't try to run everyone else's.

Clearing Things Up - 10/22/2005

OK, let's think about what happened last night and remember the real story.

The Maple Leaf: A trashy bar that consists of mostly older people. It's a quiet place with nice people and x rated pictures all over the bathroom walls. The floors are spongy and uneven in a funny sort of way. One end of the pool table comes up to just above my knee, the other, is up to your chest.

Lenny: Man at the maple leaf, one of those people that you like instantly because they are just so forward and pleasant. Not to mention that he plays a very graceful game of pool, he's not the best player I've ever seen, he just never makes terrible power shots that send balls flying everywhere.

Rainier beer: One pitcher for three people, combined with the graceful games of pool and other friendly people. This was a good idea. Went home, dropped off the car and went to another bar.

Amirato's airshow bar and grill: A fairly nice bar with no apparent floor problems at all. Airplane engines and parts are scattered all around, and most of the people there are pretty nice, but they aren't that good at pool.

Mack and Jack's: Two pitchers of Mack and Jacks between three people. Combined with bad pool players attempt to act good. This was also a bad idea. Our friend drove us home from the red apple (it's only two blocks).

My house: A place with yellow walls, wood floors and nice, comfortable leather couches; one of my most favorite places to be.

Old English HG 800: HG stands for High Gravity; interestingly enough, gravity feels like spinning, two forty ounce bottles of old English HG 800 for two people. There is only one purpose in this type of alcohol, unfortunately, nobody can be told what the purpose is, they have to experience it for themselves.

This is where everything went wrong.

Long Ride - 10/15/2005

My friend was up to visit from California for a couple days and he left today. So Nick and I decided to ride out to HWY 101 with him and see him off. It poured rain. It wasn't so bad for me because I have a foul weather suit, but Nick kind've got frostbite on his fingers. I loaned him my foul weather gloves long enough for us to stop by a place and get him some cheap ski gloves.

We stopped at the red apple in Shelton and some kids on bikes asked us to do wheelies when we left. I told them that only people who want to die to wheelies. They were loud and annoying children, the only thing more annoying than them at the time, was the fact that I know lots of dumb riders do wheelies for young kids because they ask them to (I get asked all the time) and the kids think it's the coolest thing, never realizing that the rider is probably going to end up dead on the freeway (and if not, they deserve to). My fellow riders dissapoint me in their stupidity, but this is nothing new. Either way, the red apple had no gloves, so we went to the Wal-mart and rode home through Union and Belfair.

The road through union is one of the best rides in the state. It was miles of marsh-lands, then miles of waterfront on the south end of hood canal. It was a beautiful ride home, very much out of our way though, considering it added about 20 minutes to our ride back.

It was a good way to spend most of my day. I came back and started doing some more repairs on my motorcycle. I replaced the starter cover and changed the oil (You have to change the oil when replacing the starter cover). No more nasty scratches from being backed over on the starter cover. Soon enough the bike will have no more damage from the incident. Just waiting on some backordered body parts to arrive. Once that was done, I came in and shared a beer with the cat.

Kitty Cow loves beer.

Trucks Are Cool - 10/14/2005

I am officially, at this point in time, $6.29 away from owning my truck.

I made a $1006 payment this month to pay off everything, and the bank still charged me the $6.29 finance charge for the month. I hate them. It would be fun to not pay them and let them reposess the truck just out of spite. But that would also be stupid..

I would like to take this chance to point out that when it is cold, trucks frequently switch from having an anti-lock braking system to having a super-lock braking system.

One Easy Steps to Getting Rid of Hornets and Wasps - 10/13/2005

If you ever need to get rid of hornets, burn them out with a mix of gasoline and styrofoam, it's a poor man's napalm and it burns good and hot. Of course, don't do this in your house, I'm only talking about if it is outside in your yard somewhere.

The best part is that, because of the stickiness of the styrofoam and gasoline, the hornets can't get out and attack you before they are already sticky and on fire. If any are left outside, just burn them with a lighter when they get near you. A note: the fumes are still just as explosive as pure gasoline, stand clear when you drop the match and NEVER pour more on top until you are sure the fire is out.

Midnight Revelations - 10/12/2005

I hate when you have something really profound to say just before going to sleep, and forget all about it before you wake up.

Left only with the knowledge that you had a thought, and it was profound and that you really wanted to remember it.

Other People's Insurance - 10/10/2005

New parts for my motorcycle are now leaving San Diego. Soon it will be restored to it's former glory (not to mention a few extra aftermarket things I'll be getting thanks to the fact that I know how to replace the parts myself and saved $600.

I think I might consider having people run over my motorcycle more often, but I'll make sure it's at the end of the riding season next time.