You Bluff'n Me?

This weekend was supposed to be filled with great options for exotic paddling trips. However, the weather, and the Corps of Engineers had other things in mind. We had some pretty severe storms come through, but they all seemed to skip the watersheds for the desired rivers. Plus, all our dam release park n' play spots got turned off at the last minute. Fortunately, the rain hit one spot, and we got to drag out the equipment and satisfy our paddling addiction.

This was a new river for me. Lots of fun, remote, and very pretty. Fairly tame. Class II at the most. In fact, the only sketchy moment on the whole trip came when I tried to take out about 28 Harley Davidsons during the shuttle. I'll bet there are some foul posts on the motorcycle forums about some crazy kayakers.

ReTIREment Benefits

It's been raining here for the past 4 or 5 days. Not enough to fill any rivers or local sewer ditches creeks so I can go kayaking, but enough to keep standing water on the road and drive me to the point of buying new tires. I've been putting this off because I was emotionally attached to the set I had on my truck. They never gave me any grief. In fact, the dealer made money off my road hazard insurance this time around.

But my new tires (or 'toars' as they say in Tyler) are upgrades from my last set. Still Michelin LTXs, but they now have a 70,000 mile warranty instead of 60,000. We figure I put about 70,000 on my old set, with a little meat to spare.

If you price these you might cringe, but let me tell you, they are cheaper in the long haul(literally) than any other tire I have purchased. All other brands I have run on my truck have worn out at less than 40,000. And they aren't that much cheaper up front.

So if you plan on keeping your ride for any length of time (I hope to hit 200,000 with mine), you might just consider a set of these.

Carbon Footprints in Time

No, this is not how much I paid for gas this weekend. But it was pretty close. I actually paid $2.60/ gal for the 'might contain ethanol' stuff. The real stuff was about $2.85/gal.

It's funny to see closed down gas stations with the price of the era still displayed. I figure this place closed down sometime in the summer of 2008. That summer I paid as much as $4.17/ gal up in Colorado. I think in one week I spent $700 on fuel during my summer vacation! I also remember gas dipping down to $1.31 about a year ago.

Let's see, since we are waxing nostalgic, in 2005, right after Hurricane Katrina, it topped $3.00 for the first time I can remember. That's when I bought my motorcycle. I remember in June of 2001 buying gas for $1.15, and I think for a day it actually dropped to $.99, then shot up. Oh, let's see, in 1979 I vaguely remember paying $1.08. And in the 80s I remember being annoyed because i had to burn up an entire $20 bill to fill my tank.

But the day I got my driver's license, I paid $0.34/ gal. I could fill up my Volkswagen for less than $5.00. Oh, and I remember the day I got pissed off at the gas station attendant cuz gas shot up to an ungodly .51/gal!

Of course, when my dad used to drive us around, we would finally find a self serve station and get gas for .18 or he would really splurge and get ethyl for .19. On occasion there would be gas wars and the stuff would hit .16.

No, I'm not complaining... well... yes I am. I never expect fuel to go back to .16 or .51 or 1.08 or even 1.31. Heck, I'd settle for $2.34, which pissed me off even after Katrina settled down. What really irks me is the lack of reasoning behind fuel pricing.

Guess I'll just ride my scooter.

A Little Hoarse Today

Easter Sunday my wife and I spent almost the entire day on the back deck, including all three meals. Weather was fantastic and we had nowhere to go and no schedule to keep. Nice.

Sometimes some interesting things happen when you slow your life down that much. I have lived in my house for almost seven years. I mow my yard about 22 times every summer. That is about 132 times since I bought the house. To get from the front to the back I pass through a gate at least four times per mowing. That is 528 times through that gate.

Sunday is the first time I have ever seen this little horse head on that gate. So I started looking around at my fence. There are four of these. How have I gone this long without seeing four cast aluminum horse heads on my fence? And more puzzling: why would anyone ever purchase and install such a thing?