Sunday morning report

Ahh, French toast, coffee and the Sunday paper on the screened back veranda. The temperature is a perfect 70 degrees with a light breeze that brings down a slow rain of oak and hickory leaves. It’s late October mornings like this that make we love our home here in the Mid-South. And, yes, that’s Log Cabin Sugar Free syrup, but it’s real butter. No fake butter in this house.

I gave breakfast a few minutes to settle, then knocked out a mile on the treadmill.

This is my third day back on the treadmill and I’m relearning how great it feels to get moving. I’m at, or past, the age where our bad habits catch up with us and inertia has always been one of my worst habits.

Ordinarily, a carb-loaded breakfast of French toast, even with sugar free syrup, would skyrocket my blood sugar, but I tested after walking and got a very respectable reading of 133.

We got about a 5-minute shower around 7 a.m. today. The Weather Channel suggests a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms around sunset, but I doubt if we’ll see enough rain to lift the burn ban and make it possible to use our fire pit or outdoor fireplace.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the pin from the 1994 Iowa Rally at Coralville, Iowa.

Here I am with Greg Miller and the guest of honor at the 1994 Iowa Rally hog roast. Yes, that’s my cap on his head.

Lauri and the Wienermobile

Friend Lauri and her family encountered one of the fabulous Oscar Meyer Wienermobiles at the Meijer store in Lafayette, Ind. this afternoon.

There are multiple Wienermobiles. This one has the Wisconsin vanity plate “BOLOGNA.” Lauri’s husband Jim shot this photo of her and sons Judd and Jake.

I saw the one with a “WEENR” plate on U.S. 49 on Aug. 10.

My favorite Juan Williams firing response, so far

“Getting fired from NPR when you’re a fixture on Fox is like Will Smith learning he’s been kicked out of his local dinner theater company.”

Read more here.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the pin from the 21st annual Iowa Rally in 1997.

In those years, the rally was held near Coralville, west of Iowa City, on land owned by former BMW MOA president Keith Dempster.

WOOF

I ordered a tote bag from my storefront on Cafe Press to see how my WOOF image reproduces.

The bag showed up in this morning’s mail and I’m delighted with the way Pete the Aussie’s smiling face is reproduced on the canvas fabric. I think Pete likes it too.

I showed it to the postmistress and she thought it was charming as well, but didn’t make the connection with the Obama HOPE poster. Maybe it’s too subtle or too long after the election. Whatever. I like it.

You can get the image on dozens of items from t-shirts, to bags, to caps, to thermos bottles at cafepress.com/bucksnortproductions.

It’s good to be in the Mid-South

BMW rider friend Gail Hatch, who lives in Vermont, posted this horrifying (to me, anyway) photo from her phone to her Facebook page around noon today.

It’s sunny and 73 here right now and I’m going for a ride.

Here’s a story you probably missed

Angela Dorian, 66, who had about a three-second spot in my favorite original Star Trek episode, has been charged with attempted murder in the shooting of her boyfriend.
From the New York Daily News:

A one-time Playboy Playmate may be forced to cover up - with a prison uniform.
Angela Dorian, who in 1968 graced the pages of the men's magazine as Playmate of the Year, has been charged with attempted murder, according to TMZ.
Dorian -- whose real name is Victoria Vetri -- was having a spat with her lover when she allegedly shot him in the chest, the gossip website reports.
He was hospitalized and is expected to recover.
The 66-year-old former model, who appeared in several TV shows, such as "Star Trek," "Batman" and "Mission Impossible," was also featured in Playboy in 1967.
TMZ reports the argument between her and her boyfriend may have turned physical, which sparked the shooting.
Bail has reportedly been set at $1 million.

She played Isis, the woman disguised as a cat belonging to Gary Seven in the “Assignment Earth” episode of Star Trek that first aired on March 29, 1968. Isis morphed into Dorian’s form for about three seconds near the end of the episode. Dorian had no lines.
Robert Lansing played an agent from the future sent to Earth in the year 1968 to prevent an accidental nuclear war. Terri Garr played his clueless secretary Roberta Lincoln. The episode had spinoff written all over it and, indeed, there were plans to turn the Gary Seven scenario into a series but it never came to fruition. Robert Lansing, who IMHO was one of the coolest actors of his day, died in 1994 at the age of 66.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the pin from the 1993 Iowa Rally put on by the Pure Stodge Touring Association, a BMWMOA chartered BMW Club.

Truth is the new hate speech

Special Report with Brett Baier had a text/online poll this evening asking, “Do you worry if people in Muslim clothing get on your airplane flight?”

The results, as of 10:10 p.m. CDT:

• 90.16% – Always
• 8.74% – Sometimes
• .62% – Never
• .47% – Shouldn’t ask the question

Just for the record, I find it very worrisome.

It’s a good thing, Juan

I still think Juan Williams can be a witless liberal tool, but at least he knows a scary situation when he sees it. I hope he realizes that being fired from NPR is a good thing.
From FOX News:

National Public Radio fired Fox News contributor Juan Williams on Wednesday after a Monday night appearance in which Williams said that it makes him nervous to fly on airplanes with devout Muslims.
Williams was terminated following a discussion with "O'Reilly Factor" host Bill O'Reilly on the dilemma between fighting jihadists and fears about average Muslims.
"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country," Williams said.
"But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they're identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous," Williams said.

If FOX News had canned him, you can bet there would be loud charges of racism. Rush Limbaugh wonders if Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson will come to Juan’s defense. After all, 99 percent of NPR’s programming is by white liberals and for white liberals. Reminds me of what used to happen on the old plantations when the help got out of line.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the pin from the 1996 Iowa Rally, which coincided with the state’s sesquicentennial.

Just don’t care

Here’s today’s list of things I really don’t give a damn about and don’t care to have in my awareness:

• Major League Baseball
• Paris Hilton, Lady GaGa, etc.
• Ice Road Truckers
• American Choppers
• Geraldo Rivera and his Enormous Ego
• Zombies, vampires, etc.
• Gays in the military
• American Idol
• Dancing With the Stars
• Survivor
• Facebook apps like Farmville and Mafia Wars
• The NFL

There’s more, but I don’t care enough to list them.

Aaron Galvin’s “Monsterface”

Thorntown, Ind. homebody Aaron Galvin wrote, produced and acted in this YouTube video, destined to go viral.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the pin from the first, and as far as I know, only Southwestern Indiana BMW Riders Rally at Elnora, Ind. in 1996. It’s a classic example of why there is no such thing as a “first annual.” It’s not annual until the second event occurs. That’s why we had a style rule at The Indianapolis News that forbade the use of the term.
The rally was intended to replace the long-running Shakamak rally that was held for several years at Shakamak State Park. That is until the part superintendent decided he didn’t like motorcycles and refused to let the rally continue there.
The county fairgrounds in Elnora proved to be a really crappy venue and the place was overrun with mosquitoes.Here’s the patch (there was no pin) from the final Shakamak Rally, held in 1995.

Just sayin’

Pressure

My garage is full of stuff that I can look at and wonder, “What the hell was I thinking when I bought that?”
But the Craftsman air compressor I bought a few years ago from Sears is definitely not in that category.
For $100 and change I have the luxury of airing up my car and motorcycle tires when they’re cold, just as they should be. If I drove down to the gas station and used their air, I’d be working with warm tires and distorted psi values.
This occurred to me this morning when I prepared to drive to the post office. I recalled that my del Sol’s handling was a little mushy yesterday, so I got the tire gauge out of my motorcycle tank bag and checked pressures. Sure enough, all four tires were low – a couple of them alarmingly so.
So I dragged out the compressor and brought them all up to 29 psi. The difference in handling was noticeable.
And I get the assurance that I’m saving gas and prolonging the life of my tires.
So there.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the pin from the 1992 Iowa Rally, held on the second weekend of June by the Pure Stodge Touring Association.

I’ve been to seven Iowa Rallies and ‘92 was my first. In those days, the rally was held on campgrounds owned by former BMW MOA President Keith Dempster at Coralville, just west of Iowa City. The wonderful thing about the Iowa Rally is that your admission fee gets you camping, two dinners and unlimited beer. You get a plastic cup when you register and can fill and refill it whenever you please. Some years, they would take a keg on a golf cart and cruise the campgrounds to make sure nobody was thirsty.

Croutch rockets, etc.

Craigslist is always a fun read if you’re looking for creative spelling.

• 2000 Katana croutch rocket 600
• Parting out v 45 sabar 1984
• Fixing to have a litter of FREE Chawawa puppies!!!
• 1950 hopalong cassidy thermas
• 2 troling moters

Germany is waking up

BERLIN (AFP) – Germany's attempt to create a multi-cultural society has failed completely, Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the weekend, calling on the country's immigrants to learn German and adopt Christian values.

Merkel weighed in for the first time in a blistering debate sparked by a central bank board member saying the country was being made "more stupid" by poorly educated and unproductive Muslim migrants.

"Multikulti," the concept that "we are now living side by side and are happy about it," does not work, Merkel told a meeting of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party at Potsdam near Berlin.

"This approach has failed, totally," she said, adding that immigrants should integrate and adopt Germany's culture and values.

"We feel tied to Christian values. Those who don't accept them don't have a place here," said the chancellor.

"Subsidizing immigrants" isn't sufficient, Germany has the right to "make demands" on them, she added, such as mastering the language of Goethe and abandoning practices such as forced marriages.

Merkel spoke a week after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which they pledged to do more to improve the often poor integration record of Germany's 2.5-million-strong Turkish community.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul, in a weekend interview, also urged the Turkish community living in Germany to master the language of their adopted country.

"When one doesn't speak the language of the country in which one lives that doesn't serve anyone, neither the person concerned, the country, nor the society," the Turkish president told the Suedeutsche Zeitung.

"That is why I tell them at every opportunity that they should learn German, and speak it fluently and without an accent. That should start at nurseries."

German President Christian Wulff was due for a five-day visit to Turkey and talks with the country's leaders on Monday.

The immigration debate has at times threatened to split Merkel's conservative party, and she made noises to both wings of the debate.

While saying that the government needed to encourage the training of Muslim clerics in Germany, Merkel said "Islam is part of Germany," echoing the recent comments of Wulff, a liberal voice in the party.

Horst Seehofer, the leader of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, CSU, who represents the right-wing, recently said Germany did not "need more immigrants from different cultures like the Turks and Arabs" who are "more difficult" to integrate.

While warning against "immigration that weighs down on our social system," Merkel said Germany needed specialists from overseas to keep the pace of its economic development.

According to the head of the German chamber of commerce and industry, Hans Heinrich Driftmann, Germany is in urgent need of about 400,000 engineers and qualified workers, whose lack is knocking about one percent off the country's growth rate.

The integration of Muslims has been a hot button issue since August when a member of Germany's central bank sparked outrage by saying the country was being made "more stupid" by poorly educated and unproductive Muslim migrants with headscarves.

The banker, Thilo Sarrazin, has since resigned but his book on the subject -- "Germany Does Itself In" -- has flown off the shelves, and polls showed considerable sympathy for some of his views.

A recent study by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think tank showed around one-third of Germans feel the country is being "over-run by foreigners" and the same percentage feel foreigners should be sent home when jobs are scarce.

Nearly 60 percent of the 2,411 people polled thought the around four million Muslims in Germany should have their religious practices "significantly curbed."

Far-right attitudes are found not only at the extremes of German society, but "to a worrying degree at the centre of society," the think tank said in its report.

"Hardly eight weeks have passed since publication of Sarrazin's theory of decline, and the longer the debate continues to a lower level it falls," the weekly Der Spiegel commented Sunday.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the pin from the 1997 Hoosier Beemers Rally at North Vernon, Ind.

It was the last Hoosier Beemers rally that I attended, so this will be the last of these unimaginative pins I’ll bore you with.

Oh, I love Boscos!

 

If you’re old enough, you may remember the Bosco jingle from TV:

I love Bosco!

It’s rich and chocolaty.

Chocolate flavored Bosco is mighty good for me!

Mama puts it in my milk for extra energy,

Bosco gives me iron and sunshine vitamin D.

Oh, I love Bosco!

That’s the drink for me!

Well, that’s not what I’m talking about.

I refer instead to Boscos Restaurant & Brewing Co. in Memphis. Our local BMW motorcycle friends Deb and Charlie drove us over to Memphis for Sunday morning brunch at Boscos today. The menu is fabulous and the atmosphere, which included a jazz/blues combo featuring Amy LaVere, was wonderful.

Boscos is Charlie’s favorite Memphis bistro and he has his own beer stein that lives there. They also sell half-gallon growlers of their beers and Charlie bought a half-dozen growlers of Boscos Bombay India Pale Ale, two of which he graciously shared with me.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the pin from the 1996 Hoosier Beemers Rally at North Vernon, Ind.

Facebook Manners

November 2 can’t come soon enough

I signed up with CIGNA for my Medicare drug insurance coverage when I turned 65 in July.

My packet for 2011 came in yesterday’s mail and I dived into it this morning.

Guess what I found.

My monthly premium increased by 15.6 percent. And the deductible went up by 300 percent.

But wait, didn’t the geniuses who pushed Obamacare promise just the opposite. Malignant imbeciles.

Secondhand smoke threat: More junk science?

I'm a reformed smoker. I quit cold around 1978 after smoking three packs of Viceroys a day for years. I absolutely detest the smell of tobacco smoke and flee from places where people are smoking. Nevertheless, it strikes me as inexcusable that "scientists" have twisted the data to show secondhand smoke is a much greater danger than it really is. First Climategate and now this.
American Thinker: Nanny Bloomberg's Outdoor Smoking Ban

Barney Fwank, then and now

2003 -''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

October 11, 2010 - “Low-income home ownership has been a mistake, and I have been a consistent critic of it,’’ said Frank, 70. Republicans, he said, were principally responsible for failing to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants the government seized in September 2008.

Is California Insane?

Is California Insane?
Roger Simon nails it.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from the 1994 Hoosier Beemers BMW Club rally at North Vernon, Ind.

I’ve been to three Hoosier Beemers rallies but only on a Saturday day ride down from Indianapolis and never to camp.

Fords

My dad was a Ford man and the sight of a 1951 Ford coupe on the street in Jonesboro the other day got me to thinking about his cars.
We had a brown ‘51 Ford coupe. Dad always bought two-door models when I was little because he and mom thought I might open a back door  and fall out at highway speeds.
We took our family vacations in the ‘51, and I have vague memories of a trip to Washington, D.C. and stopping for lunch in Fredericksburg, Md. My chief preoccupation at the time was getting my parents to stop so I could buy more comic books to read in what seemed a cavernous back seat area.
Dad kept the ‘51 when he bought a 1955 Ford Fairlane. The ‘51 became his daily driver and the white-over-aqua Fairlane stayed in the garage unless Mom needed it for shopping.
I found this picture of a Fairlane online and it looks pretty much like ours.
This is the car that took us to Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 1956. That was the summer I spent on crutches, having broken my left femur when I rode a friend’s bicycle into the path of a Cadillac. Luckily, the driver of the Caddy was a local doctor and he scooped me up, checked in with my parents, and drove me to Home Hospital in Lafayette, Ind. for treatment.
I also found this picture of the front seat space of the ‘55 Ford Fairlane. What jumps out at me is that there are no seat belts – seat belts weren’t  standard in Fords until the mid-1960s – and that big, hard, unforgiving steel dashboard. I shudder to think what would have happened to us if we’d had an accident in this thing.
It was our first car with an automatic transmission – the ‘51 had three on the tree – and also our first with a one-piece windshield. The speedo was kinda cool – it had a clear plastic top so it was backlit with daylight as well as with a light bulb when the headlights were on. There was no air conditioning. My parents didn’t have an air conditioned car until I left for college so the controls to the immediate right of the steering wheel only worked the heater and the vents. The chrome inner half ring on the steering wheel, by the way, worked the horn. The next thing to the right is the AM radio with push-buttons for your favorite stations. FM and FM stereo were still years in the future. I think that’s a clock (analog, of course) to the right of the radio.
It was thoroughly modern in 1955, but it seems desperately primitive compared with today’s cars.

My new favorite coffee

After years of drinking Folgers extra dark roast, I now have a new favorite home brew coffee - Starbucks Caffè Verona.
We found it in the coffee section at Sam's Club and decided to give it a try since it's a bold dark roast that suits my taste in coffee. Maria doesn't drink coffee, so she has no opinion about it other than she doesn't like it in any form.
I love coffee that tastes like coffee, not that nasty watery stuff you get at IHOP or Cracker Barrel or Denny's. (Kudos to McDonald's for upgrading the quality of their java.)
Here's what Starbucks says about it:

Starbucks' most popular coffee, Caffè Verona® is a versatile, complex blend combining great Latin American and Asia Pacific coffees with a touch of Italian Roast. Great in a coffee press, drip brewer or even as espresso.
Every Starbucks barista receives a pound of coffee each week, and Caffè Verona® has been their favorite for many years.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from the 1988 Hard to be Humble Rally conducted by the Dinky Dozen BMW Club in Pontiac, Ill.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from the 1995 Trail of Tears Rally sponsored by the Jugs and Shaft BMW Club. It’s held at Castor River Park, Marble Hill, Mo. on the third weekend in April.

Maybe so, probably not

Bill Clinton was in town – well, at the airport – last night campaigning for doomed Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Dist. 1 Rep. hopeful Chad Causey.

I read George Jared’s story in The Sun this morning. George, as usual, did a good solid job covering the event.

One quote jumped out at me. He said Clinton recalled attending the Gillett Coon Supper on several occasions, quipping, “I’m the only president in history who’s ate pounds of coon.”

Recent history, maybe, but I expect Andrew Jackson and Abe Lincoln were no strangers to raccoon meat.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from the 1993 Husker Rally at Franklin, Neb., conducted by the Nebraska BMW Nightriders.

The rally is the second weekend in August at the Franklin County Fairgrounds. I was there in ‘93 on my way to visit my son in Portland, Ore.

My doctor is quitting, thanks to Obamacare

I got a letter from my doctor in Indiana over the weekend, even though he's no longer my physician since our move to Arkansas three years ago.
The gist of the letter is that he's quitting primary care practice because of Obamacare.
"I have not made this choice easily and will miss the opportunities to see you in my office," he wrote.
"In light of recent changes in the healthcare industry and legislation, I have accepted a job that combines both my knowledge as a physician and my experience in the healthcare industry. I feel this new role will enable me to make a greater impact on the quality of care that patients receive, including those in Montgomery County. I will begin in this new role as of Nov. 5."
I can't help but wonder how many other physicians have sent or will send similar letters to their patients since the passage of the Democrats' version of healthcare reform.
I have yet to meet anyone in the medical profession who thinks this headlong charge toward socialism is a good idea.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from the 1987 Chicago Region Rally.

I didn’t go. I bought the pin on Ebay.

A decade of freedom

What a real newspaper newsroom looked like, The Indianapolis News, circa 1968. And, yes, that’s me.

Ten years ago today, I was driving from my condo to The Indianapolis Star’s Metro North Bureau in Carmel.

It was my first day back at work after the Oct. 5 death of my mother.

I called Maria on my cell phone and said, “I think I’m going to quit today.”

“You don’t have the nerve,” she said. “I dare you.”

Well, I did have the nerve. I walked into the office, sat down at my desk and called the human resources department.

“I’m quitting, as of today. What do I need to do?” I asked the HR woman.

She looked up my information and offered, “I see you turned 55 three months ago, so you’re eligible for early retirement with a reduced pension.”

“OK. I’m retiring,” I said. “Do I suffer any penalty for not giving two weeks’ notice?”

“Do you ever expect to need a recommendation from The Star?”

“Hahahahahahahahahaha! No, I think a career of 33 years kinda speaks for itself,” I replied.

I think this is the point where I noticed everyone in the office was looking at me in stunned surprise. I’d talked about bailing several times in the preceding months. Gannett bought the paper months earlier and their style of management by fear, coupled with contemptibly inept middle management had sucked the last bit of fun out of the job I once loved. My reading of my mother’s will and my conversation with our attorney the day before made it clear that I’d been handed a parachute.

So that was it. I got a couple of cardboard boxes and filled them with my stuff and was home within an hour.

The first thing I did when I got home was to call the circulation department and cancel my subscription to The Star. (Employees were required to subscribe.)

I like to think my seemingly bold move encouraged my fellow sufferers. Over the next 18 months, practically everyone else in the Metro North Bureau retired or took a job elsewhere. I think the only people who stayed were relatively new to newspapering and had never worked on a paper where it was done right. Those of us who had worked for years at The Indianapolis News before the merger with The Star, had a love for the newspaper business that made us feel incredibly lucky to be journalists. We thought it was the best job in the world – you get to go to interesting places, find out about fascinating stuff and tell other people and actually get paid for it.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have gotten into journalism at a time when copy editors still kept a bottle in their desk drawer, the news room was filled with the clatter of typewriters and wire service teletypes and the haze of cigarette smoke, and you could saw off a coworker’s necktie with copy shears and not get fired for it. (It really happened. Ask Bob Basler or Skip Hess.)

But real newspapering in Indianapolis died around 1995 and by 2000 The Star had turned into a newspaper factory where editors dictated what the story would be and reporters were tasked with writing it, whether the facts supported the original premise or not.

Time is the only irreplaceable thing we have and it’s criminally stupid to waste it doing stuff you don’t enjoy. Once you start making your decisions on that basis, your life gets a whole lot happier.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from the Dinky Dozen Motorcycle Club’s 7th “Hard to be Humble” rally in Pontiac, Ill., in 1987.

Falling Leaf Rally wrap-up

More than a dozen Indianapolis BMW Club members were among the 862 mostly BMW riders attending the 2010 Falling Leaf Rally in Potosi, Mo. this weekend. The closing ceremonies opened and closed with an anvil shoot. This is a video of the first of the two. (It’s really hard to track a flying anvil with an LED monitor viewfinder.)

Wikipedia on anvil shooting:

Anvil firing (also known as an anvil launching or an anvil shooting^[1]) is the practice of firing an anvil into the air with gunpowder.

Typically, two anvils are used: one as a base (placed upside down), and another one (also known as the "flier") as the projectile (placed right-side up, atop the base).^[2] Alternatively, a single anvil can be fired from a stone base. The space formed by the anvil's concave base is filled with black powder (not modern gunpowders, which have much higher energy densities) and a fuse is made to project out. The fuse is lit, and the resulting deflagration (the rapid combustion of the powder rather than explosion) sends the projectile anvil hundreds of feet into the air.

An alternative method is to place the bottom anvil right side up, and fill the hardy hole with black powder. A torus or washer, often made from a playing card, is placed over the hole, with a space for a fuse or powder trail. The top anvil is placed upside down, face to face with the bottom anvil.^[3]

Anvil firing was once commonly performed in the Southern United States^{[citation needed]} as a substitute for fireworks during celebrations. One such noteworthy celebration was held on the day the state of Texas voted to secede from the Union. On February 23, 1861, Texas Ranger and prominent Union supporter, Thomas Lopton Campbell Jr., was held captive and forced to "fire the anvils" in the streets of Austin.^[4]

Anvils were also traditionally fired on St. Clement's Day, honoring Pope Clement I, the patron saint of blacksmiths and metalworkers.^[5]

Although its practice has lessened in recent years^{[citation needed]}, enthusiasts still participate in anvil launching events and competitions.

And here is a photo of those of us from the Indy Club who camped together at the rally. Living in northeast Arkansas made for a relatively short ride for me. I left for home about 10:15 a.m., stopped briefly at Poplar Bluff, Mo. to check in with Maria and take the liner out of my jacket and rolled into my driveway at 12:24 p.m.

Oh, yeah. I stopped for this picture too. Oh, Lord, stuck in Lodi again.

The Garmin stats:

• Miles ridden: 454.8
• Average speed: 50.2 mph
• Maximum speed: 86.1 mph
• Time riding: 9 hours, 3 minutes

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from the 2010 Falling Leaf Rally, put on this weekend by the Gateway Riders BMW Club of St. Louis.

The rally, as always, was in the Lions Club Park at Potosi, Mo. While cold and/or rain has dogged the rally in past years, the weather this weekend was perfect – highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s and only the occasional cloud. The turnout was exceptionally high – 862. More than a dozen Indianapolis BMW Club members attended, including me.

Saturday Morning rally report

POTOSI, Mo. – I’m at the Falling Leaf Rally in Potosi, Mo. this weekend.

Actually, I’m at the Potosi McDonald’s which seems to have the only free Wifi in town. This is a roam zone for Sprint, so my G3 Internet connection is useless here.

After some fumbling and a false start, I got onto the road about 10:45 a.m. yesterday and arrived at the rally site some 174 miles later at 2:18 p.m. I figured several of my Indianapolis BMW Club friends would already be here, but it turns out that I was the first of the group to arrive.

Wayne and Peggy Garrison and Rick Nelson rolled in about a half-hour later and we established our campsite with Rick’s big lime green rainfly as the centerpiece (see red arrow about 1/3 of the way in from the right side of the photo. Jim Thatcher and Dallas Peak arrived a bit later. Sometime after dinner and well after sundown, Rich Nathan appeared. Then, to our surprise, Craig Caldwell and his daughter Maia, a fifth-grader, turned up. So, as of 10 a.m. today, there are nine of us here, but there’s always a possibility of more showing up later.

I was the 295th registrant and Craig and Maia’s registration numbers were in the low 700s, so it looks like the splendid fall weather may result in record attendance at this, the 35th annual Falling Leaf. The temperature soared into the high 80s yesterday afternoon, but dropped quickly after sunset. The temperature got down to 53 in my tent before dawn this morning, but I was reasonably comfortable using the 35-year-old North Face down sleeping bag, left over from my backpacking days in the 1970s. I brought the down bag out of retirement because it compresses better than my heavier synthetic fill bag. I packed light and, for the first time in memory, left my oversize saddlebags in the garage and used GT’s stock bags.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from the 1990 Wisconsin Dells rally. Like you needed me to explain that.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from the 1994 Falling Leaf Rally in Potosi, Mo.

I’m heading for the 2010 Falling Leaf rally as soon as I finish my morning computer stuff and pack and load the bike. And check at the post office for a rent check.

The rent is late again

Our tenant is late again with the rent. That makes three or four times this year. And once again he swears he put it into the mail on Saturday.

Never mind the fact that we’ve told him repeatedly that anything posted from that small town post office on Saturday doesn’t leave town until Monday afternoon.

If he wants to get it into the mail stream on Saturday, he’d better be prepared to drive to a post office that functions on Saturdays.

Thursday morning stuff

I’m having my second cup of “Meaning of Life,” an alternative to the house blend of coffee at Seattle Grind. Some days, I think they should call it Meaningless Life and see if anyone notices.

I’m wearing my mildly politically incorrect Mississippi BMW Riders “BMW Vintage Tour” t-shirt that features a WWII BMW R12 with a list of locations visited (or conquered) by the Wehrmacht. I regret wearing it today, but not because I worry about offending anyone. Most people don’t look closely enough or have enough historical knowledge to grasp its significance. No, I regret wearing it because it has shrunk and fits me like a sausage casing. Hence the jacket.

We threw about $800 at the Subaru Forester today for repairs to axles, wheel bearings and other front end components that failed Tuesday. Fortunately, Maria was just a few blocks from the place where we have our Subaru work done, there being no Subaru dealership closer than Memphis, so she was able to limp in and call me to rescue her.

While the repairs are a budget buster, they’re less than we paid to fix Ruthie’s knee last month, and I’m just glad the front end failure didn’t:

• Cause Maria to veer into oncoming traffic
• Happen while Maria and Morgan had the car in Indiana last month
• Happen while I was driving Morgan to the airport in Little Rock last month

We were pleasantly surprised to see our old friend Brent Wheat’s face on the Street Smarts segment of S.W.A.T. Magazine TV on the Outdoor Channel last night.

Brent’s a career police officer in Lebanon, Ind., an increasingly well-known outdoor writer and apparently now a TV self-protection gun guy. We got to know him when we were newspaper people in Indianapolis, Lebanon and Crawfordsville when he was the Lebanon Police Department public information officer and came to appreciate his sense of humor and insightful writing.

Good work, Brent! You’re one more reason to keep watching the Outdoor Channel.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from the 2000 Falling Leaf rally at Potosi, Mo.  That would make the one scheduled for this weekend the 35th anniversary Falling Leaf rally.

Go Green or Else

This was produced by a wacko environmentalist group in the UK and was intended to motivate us to reduce our carbon emissions. They pulled it back almost immediately. They were so deep into their “go green or else” mindset that it didn’t occur to them that this might actually turn people against them. What a bunch of morons.

BMW Motorcycle Rally Pin of the Day

This is the rally pin from last weekend’s 36th annual Return to Shiloh Rally at Pickwick Landing State Park, Tenn.