September 30, 2011
093055: The Little Bastard

Still, wasn't that the best picture of Jackson? Rest easy Jay, here is the one of you that sits atop my dresser.................
Today is the anniversary of the death of James Dean in a Porsche 550 Spyder he named The Little Bastard which was coincidentally a nickname someone gave Dean. Alec Guinness saw the car and thought it was "sinister" and predicted Dean would be dead in it within one week. He hit the nail on the head. I have no idea what I had for breakfast yet I remember this junk.
Reminds me of the time I played poker with a Tarot deck; got a full house and four people died (thank you Steven Wright)
And it looks as though the Red Sox found a new way to lose; somewhere Bill Buckner is rejoicing. 162 games after the season start and it comes down to that.
In Utah this week and saw this beautiful flag flying with the translucent blue field. Never really realized how pretty it is with the sun in the background. The Rockies help a little too. Spielberg captured that image in Saving Private Ryan, great cinema shot; perhaps a little better than me with my point-and-shoot in the Holiday Inn Express parking lot?

I have been to Salt Lake City several times and always seem to catch good weather. I decided to give this Mormon thing a try while I was here, thought the polygamy feature sounded attractive (that way I could disappoint more than one woman at the same time), OK, have not used tobacco in a long time, do not need caffeine that much....................no alcohol? I'm outta here. Thought I would get a free t-shirt, but nooooooooooooo. Pygmy, they have your social security number, Here is a shot I did not take on this trip

Beautiful, huh? I never seem to be able to get into that part of any city I visit. This is the area in which I usually work:

Let me know if you would like for me to pick up any souvenirs, there is usually an abundance of crack and meth dealers in the near vicinity. As Jay told Jackson many years ago "daddy works in bad neighborhoods." Jackson watched as I unloaded the car and said "they must play a lot of baseball in those bad neighborhoods." Able to solve that riddle? Come on, think, not really that hard...........
Worked with some reps for the first time out here, great young guys with a lot of energy. What is up with 5 hour energy drinks? Better than coffee? Really? Better than a morning shot of Bushmill's? Really?
This is a picture I took from the airport, even through the glass I hope you can see the purple mountains' majesty. My first impression of Salt Lake City 30-some years ago, still so beautiful!

I guess metaphorically I just mixed those national songs up, please forgive me. Daddy always liked America the Beautiful over The Star Spangled Banner. He told me once it made him cry. I told him it would have made me cry too if I were a 12 year old girl. (Sorry, OK I actually did tell him that one time a year or so ago, he looked at me and laughed, as well he should! The Greatest Generation? Definitely! As a coach once told me: you couldn't carry their jockstraps.......and he was right) Thought about asking everyone to sing America the Beautiful at his funeral, then thought different. Maybe if he had ever heard Jimi play the national anthem at Woodstock......................................Purple Haze! Bless Be The Tie That Binds worked really well, please sing that at mine along with Softly and Tenderly, Great Is Thy Faithfulness and maybe if you could get Alice Silberhorn to sing In The Garden or Mark Waugh to sing The Lord's Prayer? And then some fireworks, yeah, that would be nice, thanks. And try to get TAR to quit laughing, yeah, thanks.
The Seafood Festival is this weekend and our Sanford based Riley crew will be on their way. We plan to babysit Saturday night as Sister Hazel plays. Guess they are some nuns in that combo?
Except for a day trip to VA I plan to be in town for a change next week. Was this blog OK? Took me 10 minutes in the Denver airport with some editing Thursday night. OK? Funny? Can I make a living doing this? OK, back to the humidifiers.........................Spread this blog please!
And enjoy the ride

September 23, 2011
Since I Am In Indianapolis.......................

We are in Indianapolis so let's talk about cars, OK?
Last weekend we went to visit Jackson at college and had a great although rainy time. Saturday night we went to what is probably our favorite restaurant in the world: Mamma Zu in Richmond. We go there once or twice a year and have enjoyed each meal there. All of our dinners were perfect. After dinner I was ready to watch Lawrence Welk and hit the sack, but Jackson and TAR wanted to go clubbing. After we danced for the next 6 hours we.......................oh come on, do you think we went clubbing? Really? No, we went to see the Rise of the Planet of the Apes. As it was not funny, had no nudity nor was a cartoon I was not thrilled at this decision. I do not care for that genre and do not remember enjoying the original. As usual my preconceived attitude was dead wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and are you ready for this? Sitting down? I did not go to sleep during the movie. I know, earth-shattering. Really good movie if you have the chance. We have seen four movie this summer; by my count that is four more than normal. Now I have to figure out how to get to Raleigh quickly to see Senna while it is still at the Colony.
Oh yes, cars........ saw this classic on the way to Richmond. Not often you see a Bricklin anywhere, this one was a bit odd with the custom paint job but I liked it. I would not want a car painted that way, but it was pretty with the inner panels highlighted. As you can also see the a$$hole was in the left lane so as I passed him I gave him the "salute."

Yes, that bothers me quite a bit. It is really simple, like falling off of a log actually, if you are not passing get out of the passing lane.
While at our hotel in Richmond I saw this car with no nomenclatures. What is it? Help!

It was pretty, I am thinking Maserati but not a logo on the car.
This picture was taken in front of Mamma Zu. Try not to look at the old guy wearing the cheap toupee, it is a missing pet picture with another shot added below by some local wag. Very funny

Yum yum gimme some.
Indy has been good through day one at Comfortech. Heading home Saturday, then to Salt Lake City Monday. Go away Ophelia, your name has been used too recently for my liking

September 16, 2011
Wow, Did Not Expect That

Had a fun although unproductive weekend with the FO, the water was muddy. Bait is starting to appear but I doubt the fish can see them. Pretty weekend and we took a nice ride down the ICW to Swansboro. Seems as though the statutes of limitation have expired and we are now allowed back in that town. The water resembled the Tar River in color. Good ride, not many boats on the water.

As I do every Sunday after Labor Day I drove up to Ohio. Every year on this day I drive north for the Famous Expo, same bat time, same bat channel. Always look over at the Winston-Salem airport and see their air show, always get to Marietta and see the remnants of the Stern Wheeler Festival. Always pay too much for a hotel room; this one came with an unmade bed but with a bar. No maid service performed Sunday morning in this room, but based on the liquor that was left I'm betting the maids spent some time in there. No I did not, life is too short to drink cheap gin.

As I left the house Sunday my phone was ringing, the FO left half of a Five Guys hamburger and hot dog but warned me there were some jalapenos on it. Threw them in the VW and thanked him for the snacks. Got around Kenansville and reached over for one, decided to go with the hamburger as I had nothing to drink in the car; big mistake because the jalapenos were on the burger not the dog.. Hilarity ensued as I tried to drive, sneeze, cough, blow my nose and act "normal" as the NCHP car pulled up beside me. Thankfully the hot dog did not have the peppers which were apparently raised in an insane asylum in Mexico; it cooled my mouth and cured the common cold.

Famous Expo day one was very hot and uncomfortably humid; owner Jay Blauschild missed the first day with an injured back, but was there for the second day, tough guy. He brought the crowds and cooler weather; much better second day.

Finished up Wednesday night and back peddled to Pittsburgh for distributor calls on the way home. Started in the 40's with rain in Bethel Park, through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia. Nasty, rainy day, but somewhere north of Somerset I saw a sign that led me to a new national park honoring the 9/11 Flight 93. About a twenty minute side trip but glad I went and saw it. I did not know there was a park out there in the middle of nowhere; there is a temporary setup at this time with plans for a permanent display later.

Managed to stop by Jackson's for dinner, and then headed southeast through the approaching front. So let's see, home about 12-something Friday morning, re-pack for Family Weekend at Hampden-Sydney this weekend, Comfortech in Indianapolis next week. Look for us there

http://www.hvaccomfortech.com/

Cooler weather=HVAC problems with heat start-ups? We can only hope...................

September 9, 2011
Because I Wanted To, That's Why

One of my favorite pictures of Jackson. Hang on Jay, I will get one of you up there soon.
Great week down on that old eastern shore, had family in for Dink's birthday over the weekend and did we ever have fun. No seriously, did we have fun?
We did! Took all of the family out on the boat Saturday morning, as we got off about lunchtime Cooper told we forgot to go fishing. Oh don't throw me into that briar patch. So after he had lunch out back we went. The water is so stirred up it is difficult to find anything but he was able to catch some hogfish up in the Haystacks. One even said "I can see my house from up here" as I threw him back in, that's pretty funny stuff.........if you are a Riley. We had a lot of fun with Holly, Jay, Cooper and Keelyn. She is developing quite a personality, one day I hope to hold her (she is still a bit aloof)
I got to meet my new grand-niece Caroline and she is entertaining. Full of smiles, facial expressions, and I have already started teaching how to howl at the moon. It was good to see all of that crowd.
Morehead City turned into Mosquito Central over the past week or so; it is really bad when I go for my bicycle ride in the morning and have mosquitoes all over my legs. Maybe I should increase the speed level a bit.............
And speaking of speed the motorcycle should be out of the shop today. I had a problem with the gas cap, the "ratcheting" as I closed the cap turned out to be a very bad thing, very bad; but of course I did not know that until I could not remove the cap; reading posts about old BMW Airheads told me not to do that. Wish I had read that before. But my friends at Knuckle Headz (a really nice Harley-Davidson custom shop within walking distance) were able to remove the cap and do some welding on the center stand for me. I have some new friends, wonder why they giggle when they see my bike? Good guys and good community citizens, going to see those guys again, although I hope not too soon.
Now the business travel kicks up into a higher gear; I leave Sunday for Ohio for the Famous Supply Expo. The hours for this two day show are incredibly long but it proves worthwhile year after year. Take a look http://www.famous-supply.com/expo.html
I plan to be home either very late Thursday night or early Friday, depends on how bad I whip John Hinton on the golf course Thursday afternoon.
And guess what? No, not that. The old FO and I are fishing together Saturday. This will make the second day this year we fish in saltwater, must be some kind of record. I am pretty sure that is some kind of record, but not necessarily a good one. He plans on taking lots of fish home with him Sunday morning and I am going to do my best to make sure he is successful.
And speaking of pictures, this one of Jackson in high school was posted on Facebook yesterday; doctored it up a little, but there is something I like about it, just not sure what. Wonder what he was thinking? Looks like it is before a game. Thinking deep thoughts? Wonder if I can get me some of them French fried taters? Can you help me out?

Have a good, productive, safe week