No-wax, easy maintenance, bacteriostatic, and anti-slip.
Let’s say you’re turning seven.
How could you better spend your birthday party than to beat your brains out in a bouncy castle?
Naturally, you would invite your friends…
…and maybe even relatives who may not be too clear on what this bouncing business is all about.
Of course, you’d have to ask your mom for permission.
Aw, c’mon. Please?
– bob
Friends!
Your suggestions in the previous post really worked! I’ll sum up…
Goodbye.
Hello.
You’re the best.
– bob
Hey Monkey! you say, how about more pictures and fewer words? Get on with it!
It’s parade time, so let’s go!
All 57 state flags were represented…
…and great giant fire trucks.
Yikes! Local skinheads! With water cannons!
Thankfully, Miss Idyllwild was there to make us feel better by waving…
…making it safe for the hot rods to come out…
…which is all the kids really wanted in the first place.
More in a little while,
– bob
When do we want it?
Now!
Yeah, what he said.
– bob
Thanks LawDog (via my vivacious writing partner!)
UPDATE: Sin! Damnation! Real fire and brimstone stuff…
Via the sweet-smelling Stinko. Thanks!
Friends,
Today is picture day, just because the late Winter rains have encouraged some fantastic Springtime blooms. I’ll just keep updating this post throughout the day with camera and crappy cellphone shots. It’s too good to pass up!
By the way, if you have Spring photos to share, let me know. If they’re on Flickr, people here at La Gran Fiesta de Dirt won’t be able to see them, so let me know if I can host them somewhere else. Thanks!
– bob
UPDATE: Here’s one from the James Reserve up by my house…
UPDATE II: It’s very windy up here this Saturday morning, so it’s a wonder that the old Canon was able to catch this without a blur.
Pals,
Through a circuitous route, I decided that I needed to do something about the utter lack of Beatles in my music collection. (the spell check in mac os x flags “beatles” as misspelled. will apple issue a correction when sir paul finally agrees to add the catalog to itunes? get on this right away. this story is hot, hot, hot. -ed I’ll contact my sources right away.) After importing the six albums I thought would cover a good bit, I find that iTunes is messing with the song order. So here’s a simple bleg for you—is there a way to keep the order intact both on the computer and on an iPod? It’s a little frustrating.
Oh, in other news here at the Lodge, there are job prospects that may end up allowing me to stay in town. I know you love to hear about the harrowing commute, but I could frankly do without it. Naturally, since I’ve sent off my fairly eclectic resume fifteen minutes ago, I will now begin my obsessive fit. I haven’t heard back from them! Not yet! Not even now! Cripes, what could take so long? (it’s nighttime. – ed But the thing is so brilliant, shouldn’t it have woken them? easy there, stressball.)
More fun bits tomorrow. In the meanwhile, here’s something that I should’ve posted days ago. A very cute girl I know pretty well said she was bringing an Easter gift for my niece, but who knew it’d be this?
– bob
No snow yesterday. A bunch of snow overnight. Pretty pictures for you today. For free!
Everybody loves a good cloud formation. Can you see the marshmallow Peeps?
Maybe more people love a good antique Jeep picture. Very dramatic. Very butch.
Other people love a shot of a pristine, unmolested sledding run. That’s my front yard, by the way.
Teak is great for patio furniture. Not so swell for holding up a patio umbrella overloaded with snow. This is not good news for sheltering the Clam’s tide pool. Maybe she’ll know when it’s snowing now.
Your pal,
bob
Friends,
You’ll recall a post about my vivacious writing partner’s move to East Texas and her pet cows Sid and Nancy…
It appears that somebody has been busy lately. Meet the new calf.
Working title—The Squeaky Veal. Yeah, I know.
I know!
– bob
Friends,
Listening to the Bluegrass station on Sirius on my way down the mountain this morning (“won’t have no more pain, ain’t gonna cry, when I go to bed this evenin’ just gonna curl up and die…” **sniff!** Tragic.) I had plenty of time to consider the car holding up the line. (Speaking of lines, did you know that Bluegrass music is almost completely obsessed with trains? Why not mules? Or perhaps corn liquor? The mind reels.)
The car holding up the line wasn’t a car at all. It was a Volkswagen Eurovan.
What ever happened to those things? I understood that they were okay drivers, if underpowered. The genius of communal speculation that is Wikipedia reports that they stopped selling in the states way back in 2003. This brings me to the saddest news of the week…
Isuzu has announced that they’re going to stop selling passenger vehicles in the United States. Their end date is a year from now but the worst part of all is you don’t even care.
How soon you forget about the mighty Isuzu Impulse. The diesel I-Mark. The fun and sporty Stylus!
But most important of all were the Isuzu P’up/Chevrolet LUV twins. Just marvel at the flowing design… I’ll wait.
What may be the saddest part of this story, besides the crushing economic loss to the dealers and all the people who support them, would be the L.A. Times story itself. Clearly it would be difficult to provide analysis of the company’s failure so instead they interviewed David Leisure, the man who played Joe Isuzu on the teevee.
Yep. Journalism is dead. I think I’m gonna write a song about it.
Your pal,
bob
Friends,
Here’s the reason why I ventured outside on Tuesday morning…
The snow caught in the tree bark was catching the sun and was turning to steam. Click on the picture to see a larger version.
Of course, there was a little danger involved…
Not the ice daggers above, but the icy walkway below. Here’s a shot from immediately after I checked whatever hip padding I may or may not have…
Thank goodness my cellphone cushioned my fall. [btw, the replacement refurb is much better than the old one] Also by the way, I now wear stretchy tire chains on my shoes whenever I venture downstairs. They’re brilliant and you should try them. Highly (and also muchly) recommended.
And lastly, this is the project I’ve been working on lately. Yes dear friends, it’s a door. Some people had said during the last Christmas season that gift cards are lousy gifts. I beg to differ. Home Depot gift cards are always welcome around here…
Yeah, the stain isn’t quite right but wait for the tannins from the wood to work and start turning the wood yellow with age. Give it half a year. Heck, I’ve got the time.
Your pal,
bob
UPDATE: Howdy socalmountains.com forum folks. Please drop a line in the comments to let everyone know who you are. Thanks for stopping by!
Friends,
My nephew and his staff invited me to America’s Finest Okay Joyless Awful Substandard** City to be his guest at a brazen display of carefully choreographed vehicular nuttiness. I’m referring, of course, to monster trucks.
The circuit that the unnaturally huge truck owners belong to is well defined. The trucks themselves are brands since you can’t mention the series without Grave Digger popping up. If you haven’t perused the Hot Wheels aisle at Target in a while, you’ve surely missed the madness. Bad night for the guy running—at Qualcomm Stadium at Jack Murphy Field (barf) on the eve of the AFC Championship game in Foxboro—the truck called The Patriot.
You’ve never heard such booing. Even after the perky announcer guy implored the crowd to give the guy a break. “He’s from Santa Cruz…” Boo! “He’s a California boy…” Boo! “C’mon people…” Boo!
Chargers fans, it seems, are not the most discriminating bunch.
It turns out that the intermediary bits, the semi-final race heats, are deadly dull for even the six-year old demographic:
Things started picking up later during the “freestyle” event. Ninety seconds to crush as many cars and jump as high as possible for each truck.
But after we’d seen a contender set his truck on fire, it was time to go. Good thing, too. It was after ten, my host was sleepy, and we’d seen all we needed to see. Rollovers, crashes, fire, jumps, we’d taken in that, hot dogs, and all the exhaust fumes we could stand.
Good times.
– bob
P.S. Remember Jose Jimenez, the comedy persona of Bill Dana, who was popular in clubs and on teevee in the 60s? I guess you’d have to be over 40 to recall this stuff, but who in the Chargers P.R. office has this much of a tin ear?
Here’s a piece of his TV Engineer bit to help explain what’s going on here. Even he gave up the bit for its perceived racism. Three decades ago.
** SUNDAY UPDATE: Las Chargitas lost to the Patriots this afternoon. Apparently the booing didn’t work.
Friends,
We made it. If 2006 was a truly stinkeroo year for reasons that might be best left to a splash into the archives, doesn’t it seem that 2007 was merely a “transition” year? Some of us transitioned more than the others though. I gained an impossibly adorable niece, ended an abhorrent and downright smelly habit, didn’t get a new job, and managed to annoy my vivacious writing partner enough to make her move to another state (not even a neighboring state. what the hell did you do, champ? -ed)
Yeah, that little Inez is awfully cute. This is from Christmas, where her handlers were sick. My nephew and his driver were also unwell. Now I hear that Dad has graciously accepted their gift of goo. Generous!
What about that smelly habit? Yeah, I’ve decided to quit smoking after a two and a half decade career supporting America’s proud family tobacco farmers. They’ll be sad even after hearing the real reason why I made the decision. It wasn’t because of the hectoring (although there was plenty of that). It wasn’t even because I’m a cheapskate and holy crap, have you priced a pack lately? No, it’s actually an anti-government move (yeah, huge. our institutions should start crumbling any minute. – ed. The scoundrels in office haven’t learned that they can’t count on cigarette taxes as a reliable source of income for their pet projects. Surely they’ll try to score political points by claiming that their taxation has achieved their aims of forcing more people to quit. “It’s a win for public health!” they’ll gloat. I’ll believe that on a cold day in a Kaiser waiting room, thankyouverymuch. So no more cigarette tax revenue from me.
To answer your questions ahead of time, I’ve tried to quit before and was unsuccessful. I’m angrier about it now though. Oh, yeah. I’ve got a hell of a headache.
As far as the job search goes, as little said about it as possible is better. How depressing is it? I made similar money (maybe more when adjusted for inflation) two and a half decades ago. Hey! Isn’t that when…
Once the nicotine withdrawals subside, I think I’ll be better able to get down the business of business. Stuff’s going on here at Jaunty Central too that’ll be unveiled very soon. Too soon for some!
I hope you’re enjoying your new year so far. We’re gonna have a bunch of fun, okay?
Your pal,
– bob
Friends,
If you’ve been missing out on the happy webcam feed (and what would be the reason for that, exactly?), you might’ve missed this:
A pleasant dusting yesterday was supplemented by another foot last night. Let’s see what the meteorologists at The Town Crier have to say about this brutal winter storm…
Breaking News — Sun., Dec. 9, 8:45 p.m.
As of 8:46 a.m. chains or 4-wheel-drive vehicles with snow tires on all four wheels are required on Hwy 74 from Hemet to Palm Desert, and on Hwy 243 from Mountain Center to the northern boundary of the San Bernardino National Forest. Which means, basically, from Mountain Center, through Idyllwild and Pine Cove, to just above Banning to the north.
About a foot of new snow fell last night on top of the three inches that fell the night before. It is still snowing pretty hard and the wind is gusting. The storm system is moving from west to east, and is expected to start breaking up today, with scattered showers continuing into tonight. Highs are predicted in the 40s, with lows in the 20s.
Most roads are snowy, icy or wet. Drive with extreme caution and make sure you have chains with you.
More information will be posted here as conditions change.
Chains. Right. Wonder if there’s anything really pressing going on at the Festival Of Dirt tomorrow…
Your [frosty] pal,
– bob
Friends,
They’re calling it a Pacific Storm. I’m sure that’s true if it snows in Hawaii…
…and just a little over 27 degrees…
Maybe they’re putting snowplows on those cute little surrey jeeps.
Aloha!
– bob
Oh dear,
Somebody’s grandpa is visiting the Coachella Valley this weekend from Washington state and grandpa’s always marched to the beat of a different drummer. Back in the 80s, grandpa found the Chevy El Camino to be nice and all, but he wanted something a little more luxurious. He drove a GMC Caballero. A midsize car, with a pickup bed! Smooth sailing plus utility!
Sadly, GM moved on and abandoned grandpa (maybe not. – ed) so he had to take pickupcar matters into his own hands. Behold, the Toyota Avalonamino XLS:
Sleek lines combined with a rock-solid (kinda. – ed) Japanese drivetrain and all the style and panache a man of grandpa’s station deserves. They’re all here!
Grandpa gets style points, surely, for the tasteful Rhino Lining in the bed of his Avalon, as well as the flip-out tie down cleats. The running lights on the B-pillar add a certain flair, don’t you think?
Frankly, I was hard-pressed to find a similarly tasteful ride in the Best Buy parking lot this afternoon. Certainly nothing that made me stop in my tracks like this masterpiece (or simply, “piece.” – ed). My hat’s off to you, Washington grandpa.
– bob