I love Motorcyclegear.com

Four years in Arkansas have wrought some changes in my motorcycle wardrobe.
I made it through several Indiana summers with a BMW AirFlow jacket, but found it was a little toasty for blazing hot Arkansas summer riding. So I bought a silver Fieldsheer mesh jacket that was on sale at Grass Roots BMW back around the spring of 2008. It was cheaply made and had a liner that didn’t breathe very well but it had armor in all the right places and let the cool air in.
Then, at the BMW MOA Rally in Johnson City, Tenn., in 2009, I got seduced by a Fieldsheer High-Viz mesh jacket. It was a longer jacket with generous pocket space and made me feel a little safer for being conpicuous. The liner doesn’t breathe very well, but I have windstopper stuff that I wear under it to much better effect. I wore it to MotoGP in Indy and Colorado in 2009 and on my three-week tour of the West last summer with no complaints.
So I wasn’t really in the market for another mesh jacket last week when I stumbled across a closeout sale of the Firstgear MeshTex jacket, which normally sells for about $150, going for $29 at Motorcyclegear.com. I had just bought a pair of Firstgear MeshTex pants for a mere $59 (MSRP $150) from Motorcyclegear.com and jumped on the opportunity to complete the ensemble with a jacket that zips to the pants. The only color they had left in my size was blue, but that’s fine with me since my bike is blue. The jacket arrived yesterday and I was pleased to see it’s much better constructed and armored than the Fieldsheer jackets. So I ended up with a $300 Firstgear MeshTex riding ensemble for $90 plus shipping.
I apparently acted just in time, because the $29 jackets are all gone this morning and the size choices in pants are dwindling rapidly.
So I now have four mesh, flow-through jackets hanging in the foyer closet, stuffed in among the cold weather riding gear that doesn’t see nearly as much use as it did in Indiana.

Jailbird journalism

Here’s a new trend in publishing – jailbird magazines.

Busted is published in Columbus, Ohio, and covers central Ohio, with photos of perps. They even have their own Facebook page.

Kristy Cassell recently posted to the Busted Facebook page: “My baby daddy was BUSTED last night for felony child support. PLEASE post his picture on here!!!”

Jessica Butts wondered “where can i find an old picture of myself? been in there three times lol..... and ain't ever seen the pictures?.....”

Locked-Up covers all of West Virginia.

Locked-Up is edited by Corey Fregoso with CSJ Publications. The magazine was launched in 2008 and became a runaway success with some stores selling as many as 400 copies a month.

The magazine includes sections on missing people, wanted criminals and unsolved crimes.

The information is public record once a person is arrested and booked. The publishers emphasize that a person’s picture appearing in the magazines does not necessarily mean they are guilty of a crime, just that they have been arrested.

There are similar publications in Florida and North Carolina.

Free food for Buddy

I set out a big pile of macaroni and cheese as trailcam bait last night, but our neighbors’ dog Buddy got to it before the nocturnal creatures like coyotes and raccoons had a chance.

He found it about 8 p.m. – an hour after I put it out and an hour or so before it got dark.

43 minutes and $20 later…

My driver’s license expires next month, so I made the trek to the State Revenue Office – the Arkansas equivalent of the BMV/DMV – this afternoon.

I regretted my timing as soon as I entered the building and saw the end-of-the-month mob of customers.

All things considered, it wasn’t that awful. The worst part of it was having to listen to one of the clerks referring to a driver’s license as a plural (as if it were one “licen” and two or more “licens.”)

Plumbing problem solved

Terry Guest with ABC Plumbing showed up last evening and solved the mystery of the dead outdoor faucet.

After confirming that water wasn’t leaking from a broken pipe by checking the water meter, he determined the problem was a malfunction in the Nidal Vacuum Breaker, seen here on another of our outdoor faucets.

This appliance, which sells for about $40, is designed to protect hose connections from contamination where freezing temperatures are expected. Considering that we never had anything like this in frigid Indiana, it seems a bit of overkill that the builder put them on all of our outside faucets.

I suspect I over-torqued the unit in question when I attempted to fit it with a dog-watering attachment and the fractured internal valve finally went to pieces this week.

The oddly made locking screw had to be undone with a pair of needle-nose pliers, but once removed, the faucet works perfectly.

And he didn’t charge us for the service. What a guy. What a company. Their business card has a permanent place on our refrigerator door.

The surrealist and the cartoonist

This curious photo of Salvador Dali and Walt Disney examining a model locomotive is from an equally curious web site called Awesome People Hanging Out Together.

Check it out.

Couldn’t be much clearer

Water mystery

Maria observed that the dogs were almost out of water this morning.

Since the weather continues to be insanely hot and humid, we make sure they have a good water supply on the back porch. So I removed the big plastic jug and took it to the back yard spigot where I usually fill it.

I turned the tap and a dribble of water came out. Then it ran dry.

WTF?

I checked all of the other faucets and outdoor spigots and all of them have normal pressure and flow.

So why would one faucet run dry when all of the others have pressure?

Naturally, the mind runs to extremes and I visualized a broken line somewhere in the foundation with water gushing through cracks and undermining our foundation. Ack!

I have a call in to a plumber to get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, I think I’ll turn off the water at the main shutoff.

Literacy

We went in to town after dinner last evening to spend some time at Barnes & Noble.

We gave up on our table in the cafe because of the annoying chatter from the next table where an associate was helping an obviously technologically impaired older woman come to grips with the Nook she had just bought.

Settling into one of the four easy chairs in the reading area, I grabbed a book abandoned by the young boy who had been sitting there earlier. It was one of the Drazonball Z manga graphic novels. I’ve been peripherally aware of manga and other graphic novels for years, but never spent any time looking at one.

I found it graphically interesting but the story line was utterly baffling.

Then I noticed the page numbering and realized it was organized in the back-to-front Japanese reading style. Starting at the back and working my way to the front, I could make a little sense of the plot sequence, but quickly realized I’d come in in the middle of the story with no knowledge of characters or motivation. It was all just random action – kinda like an episode of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on TV.

As literature, it’s junk, but its real value is that it gets kids to read.

My parents’ generation thought the comic books of the 1950s were junk – sometimes harmful junk at that – but I owe much of my literacy to comic books.

They only cost 10 cents when I was a kid. (The Dragonball Z book costs close to $18.)

I’m old enough to remember the lurid pre-Comics Code Authority horror comics of the early 1950s. After the CCA was created in September, 1954, comics got a bit tamer, so the pre-code books were much sought-after by my pals and me.

My friend Jack Klepinger, who lived a block north of my house in Delphi, Ind., had a huge stash of old comic books, many of which he inherited from his older brother. The Klepinger house had a breezeway with crank-out jalousie windows between the house and the garage and I spent many a summer hour sprawled on the big breezeway couch poring over everything from Donald Duck to Batman to Green Arrow to Superman.

I learned to read at Monroe Street Elementary School, but I honed my reading skills with comic books.

An impending storm, a fire and an anniversary

The sun is peeking through a partly cloudy sky, but it’s going to rain in an hour or two.

How do I know?

1. Weather Channel radar, and
2. Pete the Aussie, who is terrified of storms, is hunkered down under my desk.

I dragged a few fallen limbs over to the fire pit this morning and chain-sawed them into 3-4-foot lengths before piling them up, dumping the contents of my office shredder into the mix and putting the flame to it.

The pile was blazing along merrily when I left it a few minutes ago, safe in the knowledge that it’s not going to spread. I hope to get most of it burned by the time the rain shows up to extinguish the flames.

I noticed this morning that today is June 24. Forty-four years ago today I married Diane Kroon at the Christian Reformed Church in Lafayette, Ind.

This is one of the few surviving photos of the event. The official photographer did all of the bridal ceremony setup shots with no film in his camera.

I don’t regret it. We had some good years and raised two handsome and exceptionally talented sons before the wheels came off.

The Real Story of America’s Founding

“We hold these truths to be revealed after careful study by Ivy League-educated people, that all men are in need of constant care and supervision, that they are endowed by the highly-educated intellectual class with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are free Health Care, strict and expansive Regulations on all activities, and the pursuit of Big Government.”

Read Frank J. Fleming’s hilarious Pajamas Media piece here.

Prayers, please

This is my ex sister-in-law Janice Cusack.

Janice is fighting what appears to be a losing battle with cancer and may soon enter hospice.

She was my first wife’s youngest sister. She lives in California and I last saw her at my son Sean’s wedding in Portland, Ore. in September, 2004, which is when this photo was taken.

She and her husband Pat have a son, Colin.

If you’re the praying type, please take a moment to offer a prayer for Janice and her family.

Thanks.

Gas prices still going down

Regular gas is going for $3.37.9 a gallon at Sam’s Club in Jonesboro today, but there are a couple of stations in Little Rock selling it for $3.15.9!

At this rate, we may get back into the $2 range by the end of summer. But I doubt it.

So much for Amazon.com referrals…

If you’re a regular reader, you’ve probably noticed the occasional Amazon.com ad embedded in my blogposts.

They represent an effort to monetize my blogging and generate a little income. To date, I have yet to see a dime from the referral ads. And thanks to Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe and a dull-witted majority of state legislators, I never will. They caved in to Walmart and other big-box retailers and are imposing a tax on such referrals, forcing Amazon.com to terminate the Amazon Associates Program for those of us in Arkansas, effective July 24. (If you want to help me make a couple of bucks, scan the blog for something you were going to buy anyway and buy it through me.)

Here’s the email from Amazon.com:

Subject: Notice of Upcoming Contract Termination Due to New Arkansas Law

Hello,

For well over a decade, the Amazon Associates Program has worked with a large number of Arkansas residents. Unfortunately, a new state tax law signed by Governor Beebe compels us to terminate this program for Arkansas-based participants. It specifically imposes the collection of taxes from consumers on sales by online retailers - including but not limited to those referred by Arkansas-based affiliates like you - even if those retailers have no physical presence in the state.

We opposed this new tax law because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive. It was supported by big-box retailers that seek to harm the affiliate advertising programs of their competitors. Similar legislation in other states has led to job and income losses, and little, if any, new tax revenue. We deeply regret that its enactment forces this action. The unfortunate consequences of this legislation on Arkansas residents like you were explained to the legislature, including Senate and House leadership, as well as to the Governor's staff.

As a result of the new law, contracts with all Arkansas residents participating in the Amazon Associates Program will be terminated on July 24, 2011. Those Arkansas residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.comPlease be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned on or before July 24, 2011 will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.

You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of Arkansas. If you are not currently a resident of Arkansas, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here. And if you relocate to another state after July 24, 2011, please contact us for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.

To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to continue to offer the Associates Program to Arkansas residents and will not affect their ability to purchase from www.amazon.com [ http://www.amazon.com/ ].

We have enjoyed working with you and other Arkansas-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to Arkansas residents.

Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

Good news from Sierra Vista!

The Monument Fire appears to have been stamped out in the flatlands east and north of U.S. 92 and fire fighting is concentrating on the mountains and canyons.

First-rate hometown journalism

We’ve been following the Monument Fire south of Sierra Vista, Ariz. closely for the past 10 days, largely through the online presence of the Sierra Vista Herald.

As a guy who’s been associated with newspapers all of his adult life, I know good work when I see it and the Herald staff of writers, photographers and editors have done their community a huge service through their persistence and hard work on this story of vital importance.

Their home page at svherald.com and their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sierra-Vista-Herald/105994446122855 kept residents and those of us far away informed about the heroic fire fighting effort to save lives and property.

I know journalism awards are the farthest thing from the minds of the Herald staff as they do their work through this crisis, but surely they’ve earned an honored place in Arizona journalism.

Lizard!

I found this 7” male Eastern Fence Lizard on the concrete driveway this morning when I went out to fetch the newspaper and bring in the trash bin.
I nudged him with the toe of my boot to see if he’d scamper away, but it quickly became apparent that he was dead. So I left him there in the hope that birds or bugs will return him to the Great Circle of Life.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Wednesday morning update: Mr. Lizard was still on the concrete last night, but was gone Wednesday morning.
++++++++++++++++++++++
These guys like to hang out along forest edges, rock piles and rotting logs or stumps from the Mid-Atlantic states to Texas, according to Wikipedia.
Summer begins at 12:16 p.m. CDT today, but it’s felt like summer – with highs in the 90s – for the past three or four weeks. The temperatures have been averaging 7-10 degrees above normal since mid-May and it’s only going to get hotter.
I rode down to the UPS Store and the Parker Road Walmart yesterday afternoon at a time when the temperature was 93 and the heat index was 100. My new First Gear Mesh-Tex riding pants and Fieldsheer mesh jacket made it bearable, but not exactly comfortable.

Just for the record

These metal and glass bottle trees are popping up around here. This one is in front of the new yogurt place and I saw one Saturday at the Farmers Market.

Some otherwise rational people are going apeshit over these things. Just for the record, I think they look stupid.

At last! An updated burn zone map

Posted to the Sierra Vista Herald Facebook page about 3 p.m. PDT.

Ripped on Friday, replaced on Monday morning

The Olympia gel palm hot weather riding gloves I bought through Amazon.com a week or so ago failed last Friday.

Specifically, the elasticized fabric ripped away from the leather of the right palm as I pulled the glove on Friday morning. You can see the rip in the photo above.

I went to the Amazon.com “returns” page and told them of my problem, noting that I would happily accept a replacement pair now that I know you have to grip the leather when pulling on the gloves.

They immediately emailed me the paperwork for returning the gloves, including a prepaid UPS shipping label.

The replacement gloves arrived before noon today and I’m using their box to ship the damaged pair back to Amazon.com this afternoon.

That’s the kind of customer service that impresses me and keeps me shopping at Amazon.com.