Thursday, September 25, 2008

Chris say's that I'm helping to shape the world..

by posting this

Have you registered yet?

I'm not trying to sway you- I promise......well, maybe a little, only a tiny bit....

Getting things straight on Sarah Palin

I had this passed on to me today--I did NOT write this myself but felt like it was worth passing on. Considering who my Facebook friends are, this is preaching to the choir BUT...

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're
' exotic, different.'

Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you're a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim. Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable. Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive t hat registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people,then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

If you have been married to t he same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.

If you're husband is nicknamed 'First Dude', with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.




Wednesday, September 24, 2008

real life

So, would it really be that weird to set up my tent in the living room? I'm actually thinking of doing this- just to keep the smell of vacation around. I'd probably lose most of my 'adult status' though, and god knows it's taken me about 20 years to reach my current level of respect in the grown up world.

Maybe I'll do it antways and just not let anyone come visit- so if you were planning on coming over in the next couple of days, either post pone or be prepared.

Here are a couple of photos that I've been working on:


More of the ghost town



















Salt Flats





Randoms






Sunday, September 21, 2008

on with it

Bishop is in our rear view mirror. We've made a pit-stop in Salt Lake where it's cold and raining. I'm already wondering if I have it in me to make it through the upcoming winter. Here's my mantra: Please keep air travel affordable and Thank god I'm not in Minnesota. (sorry guys, it's just that you're a little crazier than me, and not in the good way).

We had 2 good fly days out of 7. I tell you, Bishop is a windy place. This means lots of disappointment for the competitors, as well as a whole lot of free time on our hands.

I'm not complaining though, I had a blast and was really sad to leave. It was great to see our flying friends. These are people that we only see on the road, sometimes in foreign countries, other times in the deserts of a bumble-hick town. These are special friendships. No frills, no sparkles. We bask in each others B.O., and wake up with two tasks: Coffee, fly and the occasional clean skivvies.

There were no catastrophes. One reserve toss and a day hike out of the mountains, one sprained ankle involving the flight of an unmanned wing, some fingers crushed in a car door, and a spilled margarita-pretty good, given humans aren't (yet) born with wings.




Pilot Favela- or Shanty Town.
This is an example of just how cheap paraglider pilots are. Too cheap to pay the 10 bucks for a camp site, so they fit 8 tents to each site, costing each person $1.25, more $$ to drink with... I guess.



Bishop, or Mars.



4 people in the front seat, 4 in the back and a 85 pound dog. 9 gliders in the bed with 3 more people holding them down. 4-wheel low, 40 minutes up to an 8,300 foot launch. Note, we're still smiling. (Kansas- the one in the green hat has a 3 week old with him on the trip- proving to me that you're life doesn't have to stop because of kids)



Melanie feeling some happiness- she's on my back-up list.



This is Bodie Ghost Town. One of the craziest places I've been to yet.













Chair Crater, Nevada.





desert rats



After reading the newspaper for the first time in a week in a half, and seeing that the world has gone to the lions, we've decided that we'll be just fine living in our truck, wondering the countryside. Someone's gotta make use of the tax payers public land.