Near-Stupid Experiences

Rode my '06 Bajaj Chetak up to the maternal parent's abode yesterday. This vehicle, sometimes known as The Flying Percolator, is more-or-less Vespa-inspired classic scooter, silver-gray in color, 150cc (4-stoke!), 4-speed on 10" tires. Top speed around 55 mph, at least per the onboard speedometer, and on those little tires, it's plenty fast.

It wasn't the season's first ride. I'd had it out for a couple of short trips and I always do a pre-flight inspection (one picks this habit up driving an MGB -- or one walks even more than is usual for an MGB owner). Nice, sunny day and no rain in the forecast, so no worries, right?

I was buzzing along College Avenue at the going rate when the SUV behind me suddenly swung out and went around me on a double yellow line. Wha-? He pulled away fast and as I was scanning for potholes and wondering if that was fresh paving coming up, he climbed the hill ahead and sent up a big rooster-tail of water.

Y'know, I thought that was awfully sparkly for asphalt. I had plenty of distance -- half a block? More? -- so I dropped my speed 'way down. Wet roads and I don't have a happy history together. Went through it under 10 mph, keeping near the crown of the road, wondering what was up. At the top of the hill, a blue-painted Indianapolis Water Company manhole was bubbling up like a natural spring, flooding the road all the way down the hill. (IWC has a history of leaks and cracks in this stretch of the road. Dunno why). Perhaps an inch of water at the deepest point and pretty good channels being cut -- and undercut -- on both sides of the street. It had surely washed the grease and oil away long before but it still wouldn't've done me much good to have come upon it at speed.

Clearly, that route was out for my return trip. Hey, I wanted to stop at the five and dime (Tarzhett) anyway.

...Except I found myself fighting a gusty SSW headwind all the way (the tall windscreen doesn't help in such circumstances!); went through the lot and the place was empty -- duh, Easter Sunday! -- and headed down Westfield Boulevard, still arm-wresting the wind. A couple of points, I nearly pulled over, and then I remembered: bridges! Westfield's got a couple of aching, exposed bridges over branches of the White River. I jogged back to College (South of the man-made waterfall) and took the slightly-better bridge there. It was still a gusty ride; South of Broad Ripple Avenue, I detoured down residential streets to get in among trees and out of the wind.

Note to self: next time, read the entire forecast!

Look, A Baby Wolf!

Inevitable.

Oooo! Oo! And had a video posted the comments of which led me to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor played on the glass armonica, wineglass-type. Can't be beat, that. Also? Said to drive the musican mad, eventually.

Holiday Visit

I love my family but I can't claim we get along. My siblings found it the height of humor, when I remarked on how my 20-year-old tomcat had lost weight (recently diagnosed as a thyroid problem -- he's on meds) and is creaky enough that he can't groom himself much (I brush him), to suggest perhaps he was already dead.

High-larious.

I love my Mom and my nieces and nephews are decent kids adults but I gotta line up somebody other than my brother and sister to bury me because they'd be giggling too much. And Baby bro's a health nut, so I can't count on waitin' to be last in line. Gads, I shudder to think of the sport they'd have at my house after I was gone, all the science fiction and radio and techie books (with a few mystery novels here and there) and old tools and radios they'd just snicker at and dump at the curb.

Maudlin nonsense. Guess it's good to be rid of it by venting.

Sounds Like...

"What was that masked robot?"

"I dunno, but it sounded like this...!"

From the blog of Venus Hum's Tony Miracle.

Like A Chimp With A Hammer

...An editor with an opinion page to fill. Take Friday, in which we are treated to a conniption that an Indiana lawsuit designed to block portions of the federal government's new health-care law carries the appearance that it's politically motivated. Indeed, the claim is made that our State Attorney General has conceded as much, even while pointing out the case is over whether or not the Federal Gummint can require individuals to purchase a product, which is not a partisan issue.

Ah, but the paper crows "hypocrisy!" because that selfsame AG expressed the (personal, AFAIK, as the lawsuits have gone forward) opinion that school districts should not sue the State using tax money collected by the State.

It's a good illustration why newspaper editors generally flee Federalism, shrieking, "It's a zombie!" They think it's dead. They're unable to grasp the distinction between State governments (using their own money; well, mine, but they took it) filing a suit against the Feds and school boards (funded by the State) filing suit against the State, not to mention the wider gap between a political figure's opinions and his, ahem, actual duties.

Me, I'd be in favor of every unit of government suing every other one, but they're all doing it with my money and whichever side lands up, I'm likely to lose. At least Indiana (and 13 other states) are standing up for Federalism and if they prevail (U.S. history presents us with a conundrum -- do 13 or so States have any right standin' up against the impositions and encroachments of an overreaching government? Yes and no), I might even win a tiny something: some of my liberty back.

Um, hooray? --But there is no cheering at out local paper, not 'til Leviathan has crushed us all. I guess we'd all be equal in every way once we were smashed flat,but I sure don't know how they're gonna sell any papers that way.

Range At Last, Range At Last

...In the words of that old spiritual....

Ummm, somebody'll take that the wrong way, so let me start over: At some (dang) point in my (dang) chores today, I'm a-gonna get my (danged) self to the (dang) range and have happy-go-shooty fun. Paper targets will be endangered, at least potentially. Hooray!

I'm takin' the 22-cal-converted AR-15. Haven't shot it with the conversion in yet. Need to. (That's converted to rimfire, .22LR, with a drop-in bolt carrier and suitable magazines).

Update: So, off to Creaking Eagles we went, snagging two of the last three lanes available despite a pretty good rain. The firing line's under a roof; it's a staggered deflect-o-roof from there back, set so that stray shots are blocked but air and light -- and rain -- are not. It turns out that .22LR EBRs are so "unusual" that there were a couple more already on the line. I had my Ruger/PacLite Mk. II and the Sistema Colt, too. All three of 'em still shoot better than I do and I wasn't shootin' all that bad. The AR puts 'em a bit low at pistol distances, which is just what you'd expect.

Returned home after a couple of hours and cooked up a big skillet o' stuff: sausage (mostly "country" style sausage with some andouille for kick), the last two strips of bacon, purple cabbage, an Anaheim pepper, two kinds of mushrooms, a leek and eggs, topped with chopped uncooked sweet red pepper, radish, carrots and a little grated cheese. Condiments as desired (a little Cholula hot sauce for me) and it's as tasty as can be. Small wonder I napped after!

Overheard

So, I'm lookin' at the kewl collection of photos of the USS Macon which DirtCrashr linked and said to Tam, "Oooo, you should see the mooring mast for the Macon, it's like a combination switching engine, scenic elevator and radio tower!"

Tam spins around. "There was an airship named after Mencken?!"

[...long pause...] "Oh, Macon!"

"Yep," sez I, "But how wondrous if they had. The USS Mencken would have to be equipped with a pointy ram and go around deflating enemy airships!"

O, happy, happy world, that'd have such vehicles innit....

The Next Battle

HuffPo (again) advises Democrats how to win the midterms. Scary? Delusional? Scary and delusional?

They still don't grasp what they have awakened. Come the day, hie thyself to the polls and show 'em. Incumbents who've rammed through budget-busting, freed-restricting laws, out!

Definitely 2 April Materiel

I didn't believe it when I found it. My initial source is spoofable, though the cross-links would have taken a little more work and they try hard to prevent such things. Withal:

It appears the last Letter of Marque & Reprisal issued by the Federal government of the U. S. of A. was to the airship Resolute, in 1941; the blimp operated as a submarine-spotter out of Los Angeles in 1941 and '42. And they did have a rifle aboard, so we're talkin' armed privateer. (When you buy tires from Goodyear, you're doing business with the only surviving U. S. company to have operated a privateer vessel. I don't know if the Brits or other parts of the former British Empire have any. Did the French go in for privateering much?)

Airship privateer. The career I dreamt of* and it actually existed. At least for a few months.

Update: Commenter Justthisguy points to The Graf Zeppelin March and reports himself earwormed. What the heck -- earworms for everybody!
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* Some of the time. You know, when I wasn't exploring outer space, bein' Pat Savage or pounding brass in the Merchant Marine.

Congressthing Frets: Is Guam Stable?

Yes, you read it properly. Go. Watch. Enjoy. My confidence in our Fed'ral masters has never been...higher.

Update: And then Neo-NeoCon takes it, in a very real way, to the next level!

A Democrat's Tea Party Calculus

Very conventional thinking (but interesting nonetheless) found over at HuffPo. Among other things, the writer's overlooking the present wave of anti-incumbent sentiment -- and he doesn't look to have read much political history prior to 1980.

If I were advising RNC Chairman Steele, I'd be reminding him of what happened to the Whigs.

Tuneup

Tune-up: That's when the mechanic sets your engine to rights with two sharp whacks from a small non-marring hammer: Nup! Nup! Two nup. Simple!

Update: Tam points out that prior to a two-nup (or a three-nup, for more severe cases), it's probably wise to sign a pre-nup agreement.