My beloved bike is dead and gone. A motorcycle mechanic looked at it and pronounced it gone. Its remains were hauled off to a local bone yard. It was my first motorcycle and was a great bike to learn on. I was hoping to keep it going so the wife could learn to ride on it because of its gentle nature, but life rarely follows the plan you have set out. Now the wife is looking for another bike and I will be going down to the Triumph dealer in Kalamazoo on Saturday to ask questions. I kinda hate to buy one right now because of the season. Its fall now and I won't really be able to ride a bike till spring. Another reason to wait is that I might be moving, and a bike would be one more thing I'd have to move. On the flip side (the buy-it-now side) if I purchased the bike now I could have the winter to work on it (adding little bits here and there) and IF it would happen to be a mild winter (no snow) I could ride the bike. Either plan would be nice, but life rarely follows plans.

I've stopped smoking now. I have those nicotine patches that I'm using. For the cost of the damn things it would be cheaper just to keep smoking cigarettes.

With fall being here I am hoping to get out in the woods to hunt squirrels one day with my flintlock muzzleloaders. Pics will be taken of the hunt and posted here. Oh speaking of pics, I know some of you are still on 56k modems and don't like clicking the pics because they take a while to load up. I will be putting a thumbnail of the pic up so it will not take so long to load, then if you want to see the full size pic just click on the thumbnail. News of this improvement will be posted here.

I've had a few questions asked about what I thought of the John Roberts (the choice to be the supreme court judge). I will answer that he seems to be of a quick wit and smart as all hell. He does not have much of a record though, so this has the potential to bite the conservatives in the ass. It was very nice to see him run rings around the democratic senators who were asking him questions. Did you notice that almost none of the senators asked follow up questions to Robert's answers? I'm guessing it was because some staffer or special interest group wrote the question to be asked and the senator didn't understand the question  nor the answer Robert's gave.

Now about New Orleans. Wow, just wow. There is not enough time in the world to speak my mind on that one. It is amazing though the depths of poverty that 60 years of almost continuous democratic party control can bring to a population.