hell yeah

some pre/early WW2 niftyness

click to enlarge

more Chuckmas action

Chuckmas 09 pics by yours truly

I made these foam "#1" hands for a long-ago Chuckmas ('02?)

Dydia made tea for us.

Paul & Dydia's 1941 T-87

Pre-ride planning, Signal Hill 8:am.

Chuckmas 09 pics from Madeline & Josh

MMMChuckmas ride SUNDAY

likely to be the last mmmc ride of 2009, Chuckmas is upon us. come on down and ride with us. noon.

doin' it for the shorteez

9 days til Xmas? ..."kids, remember when the drain in the bathroom didn't work, and we had it fixed last week? yeah, that's your present, a working drain. enjoy.

Airstream/Silverstreak Toyhauler thumbnail

wow, look at my next big money-pit idea~

sweet, check it out akira fans

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/nob/co/tamaki/topc72.htm

Star Wars uncut project

um, spend a day and do this...

http://www.starwarsuncut.com/

trailer guy's skills

here's some kick-ass truck that Pete and Joseph built. Our 'lil trailer is their winter project.
check 'em out: Sierra Trailer Restoration

well, ain't this a dream come true...

like the drive-over musical road, the (kW usage) x(kWh cost) wall plug adapter, and so many other ideas of mine I've seen come to be through other peoples' action, I'm proud to present another one of my great ideas; sexy costumed figure drawing sessions, coming to a town near you. You win this round, Dr. Sketchy.

Sweet! Art in LA still going strong

"A Wall Across Wilshire," a symbolic re-creation of the wall that once separated East and West Berlin, will be temporarily erected across Wilshire near the Los Angeles County Museum of Art shortly before midnight on Sunday. It will join the museum's "Wall Along Wilshire -- Eastside Gallery West," a 40-foot section of the original Berlin Wall that will be on view in front of the 5900 Wilshire Blvd. building through Nov. 14.

http://www.wallproject.org/

Sections of the temporary barricade will be painted by muralist Shepard Fairey -- best known for his Barack Obama "Hope" poster -- along with graffiti artists working with ArtStorm LA and arts students at the Otis College of Art and Design, USC and CalArts; sections of the wall will be sold at auction with proceeds supporting the Wende Museum.

maybe the coolest police beemer

...and it's for sale! http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/mcy/1451692645.html

preliminary trailer sketches

thanks, panc

I never really think of my little pancreas workin' away for me, night and day...
thanks, lil panc!

happy halloween

like the blues and jazz and skate punk, halloween truly is a great American invention, and is by far the best holiday. sadly, this year has been another in which I've been too busy to decorate the house properly. We have candy and the kids have their costumes, but I've dug no graves in the front yard. I've eschewed work tomorrow to rectify that error, and we'll see what happens. boy-o-boy the time is a-flying these days; I'm just holding on.

footloose and trailer free...

"poppy" as it is now

We just got back from our 1200mi rock and roll mini-vacation to NorCal to d/o the pop-up for its make over. Thursday thru Sunday, squeezed-in a blast thru the Yosemite snow, visiting Shan's mom, and barfing and fevers. And lots of good time too.

running silent, running deep ...running poor

Welp, coming back to the blog... We miscarried our surprise pregnancy in August, went to the ER and everything, and had some sad times there for awhile. We had let ourselves get excited and adjusted to the idea of having 3 kids, but biology said no. We are better now, and have been unusually busy; September was truly PACKED. We had a concert fundraiser after I built the "dock" in the backyard (a freestanding deck made from surplus wood, looks like a dock), English riding lessons for Des and Shan, work work work, school for Alaster, Shan's birthday/work party, bought some 70 year old Russian firepower (an M91/30 Mosin-Nagant), and got forced-into buying a new refridgerator, which put some checks on ice (as in friggin' bounced 'em).

In other news, The C20 is on the verge of becoming roadworthy, having had my pal Steve K. recheck and finish the thing's COMPLETE WIRING HARNESS REPLACEMENT. Gasoline and a master cylinder swap-out are next.

And, we decided to do some work on our (t)rusty 1982 Stacraft Venture pop-up trailer. Photos to follow, and boy-howdy, will they document quite a transformation. I'll let the pictures do the talking as that progresses.

The 76 Malibu is still missing one of its opera windows, and maybe I'll fix that before it rains.

The 1991 Subaru is still rocking right along...maybe 400,000+ miles by now...

My R75/6 will need a new clutch, this is known. And the brakes suck ass lately. Rode it to work today, looking at it right now.

The CB550 is rad, and I should ride it next week. It's had some time off because I drive Ally to escuela 3 days a week and have been riding the beemer lately since it kicks so much ass.

Put $1000 into the deForrester for service and front brakes on Thursday, so they'll likely be some overdraft action happening again. 10 days til that next paycheck.

me & Shannon rock out!

Last night, me and Shan came to the realization that we are pregnant! Was it planned? No. Is my upcoming vasectomy? Yes.

We are overjoyed. This will change things, but we are in a happy, relatively prosperous place. The adventure continues.

I love you Shannon.

me & snootch rock out

photo credits:
top, Alaster
bottom, me.

how's your HMO action?

part of a thread from the UTMC, author:DerGolo (lives in Belgium)

Look here how universal healthcare systems are total failures and are more expensive than the current US system...oh, wait, they aren't!

http://www.npr.org/news/specials/healthcare/healthcare_profiles.html

We've got universal healthcare here.
Over the last couple of months, I had three surgeries, spent a week in hospital, was prescribed numerous medications and things.
You know the soul-crushing amount of paperwork I had to do in an obviously over-bureaucratic, stalinist system?
I had to sign three things for consenting to surgery (on three different occasions, basically just the waiver that protects the surgeon from criminal prosecution for assault), one thing for hospital admission (they filled it out for me, I just had to read it and sign it. Mostly stuff about how I'd have to pay a euro a day for the bedside phone, and a warranty card for a blood-sugar doodad.
Total time spent on bureaucracy: Maybe six minutes. Including reading through the lot.
Today, I had to fill a whole bunch of prescriptions. They have to order in two items, because I didn't get there before four PM or so, they won't get it till tomorrow (They have multiple deliveries of ANYTHING YOU MAY NEED per day. I've visited one of those distribution centers. Think the Amazon warehouse, only bigger. Any medication legal in the country, no matter how obscure, in any pharmacy in a matter of hours.). Because I don't get off work before they close, they'll send someone to my house to drop the stuff in my letterbox. Free of charge.
I glanced at the billing the pharmacist did for the insurance. Maybe 100 euros worth of stuff, my copay is 10.33. And I'll probably be able to get that reimbursed.
And guess what: I PAY MY OWN HEALTH INSURANCE out of my salary. It's a lot, but it's worth it. And they can't take it away from me and the only person who decides what treatment is necessary for me is my doctor.

Our hospitals treat any common disease. I got chief-surgeon treatment even before they knew I had the self-paid additional insurance for VIP hospital service. Why? Because my doctor called ahead and asked for it.
So even though I'm free to get better treatment (well, a more comfortable, quieter room, chief doctor consults and a newspaper delivered to the bedside every morning. ROCKSTAR!!) and pay for it myself, or rather pay for the additional insurance for that myself, even before I could give them my insurance details, I got the bigshot doctors because I needed them. You know what my copay was for five days in the hospital with a lot of expensive medication, testing and surgery? 50 bucks. And I'll probably be able to get that back.

When my mother had cancer, the petrol bills for daily hospital visits and the flowers and grapes probably cost more than the copays.
When a ankle brace had to be custom-modified to fit around my manly thighs, it cost me a grand total of a tenner.
When my father had emergency intestinal surgery a few years ago, the financial impact on the family was next to nill.

The critical care departments of our hospitals look like the ISS.
I can get an ambulance and specialised emergency-doctor here in under five minutes. It's not a grab and move operation but a rolling ER.

The system works. It's funded. The only problem is too many doctors competing with each other and some of them consequently not making enough money. But kinks like that can be ironed out.
We got a longer life expectancy than the USA, we pay only a bit more than half what you lot pay per capita, we got 99.8% of people in the country in health insurance, and those who are not insured could get insured like that by just going to the welfare office or finding some way to change their status from illegal immigrant to something else.

Everyone pays a percentage of their income for health insurance.
People making serious money can opt out and get private coverage with certain extras (like slightly less time spend in the waiting room). I could pay for my treatment myself if I wanted to and get the same VIP stuff. I can get (and have) additional insurance for more luxurious treatment. But no matter what, the stuff that needs to be done is DONE and it's paid for by my evil, socialist, oppressive, inefficient, bureaucratic health insurance. Wait, no, that's wrong. It's none of these things. It's just health insurance.

Joshua Tree some more

more pics of the high desert highjinks!

HBD baby Max!

Baby Max (center) marks his 1st birthday this weekend.

NEW GLASS

The All-Star Glass Fairy came-by the house yesterday and bestowed new, crack-free windshields in both the Subaru and the Malibu! Pics when I get home, cause I know you're so excited.

rock and roll hoochie-who?

Shan was singing 'Hang-on Sloopie' this morning, so I had to Cliff Claven her with the tidbit that Rick Derringer of R&R Hoochie Coo fame is the guy on guitar in Sloopie. This resulted in a blank stare from her, which resulted in the following from me...

space invaders

Shannon and Desi found this in their never-ending quest for (talk about) electronic pop music. This song is predestined for some new technology commercial where some hipsters fall in love while half a world apart, but still has some boppy merit.

temporary taillight

Honda daily

finally remembered to search for this old/new obsession.

when I was a kid, I loved this band's music. It wasn't til I was an adult that I started remembering/realizing that Slade was responsible for all of these songs I liked.

In particular, I held onto the refrain of "run run away" (below) my entire life, and just now discovered it was a Slade song. I've sung it to so many record store people to no avail...Basically I feel as if the saran wrap on my subconscious was just peeled back to overwhelm me with all kinds of til-now elusive leftover treasure that I've been always-forgetting to investigate!

...Shannon survived Budgie, and I think the kid's be on board with a few months of Slade sing-a-long action, so I hope the neighborhood can deal.

snootch turns three! party pics yo!

>>>>>>>>>>>>click the pic to see it all<<<<<<<<<<<<,

kate: still amazing

A cloudbuster is a fairly simple device. It consists of an array of parallel hollow metal tubes which are connected at the back to a series of flexible hoses which are of equal size to the parallel tubes. Alternately, the back of the tubes are joined together to a single large diameter pipe and flexible hose. The open end of these hoses are placed in water, which is believed to be a natural orgone absorber. Flowing water such as a river is preferred as an orgone absorbent, because a fixed volume of water in a bucket or barrel can become saturated with orgone and the cloudbusting process stops. The tube array is mounted on a two-axis gimbal permitting the tube array to be elevated or rotated horizontally.

The music video, directed by Julian Doyle, was conceived by Terry Gilliam and Kate Bush. The video features Canadian actor Donald Sutherland playing the role of Wilhelm Reich, and Bush playing the part of his young son, Peter. In the UK it was shown at some cinemas as an accompaniment to the main feature.

working on the truck...

...but just came inside to look for lightbulbs, and saw that my mega-upload of mpegs was finished! here's one:

ah, trivial obsessions....

I'm about 2 years into my little fantasy about owning an MGA (pref a MkII btw). I'm also about 2 years into my little reality about owning an MGA (pref a MkII), which basically entails monthly searches of ebay and Craigslist to "check the market." Look at this (Mk.I) sweetheart in NM, currently on ebay.

saturday night dance party

rave music, leslie hall, tlc, the toy dolls, and now blowfly and wesley willis on the rad henry rollins show.

how hard could it be?

So I bought this lawnmower a few years back (new, for like $249), then there was no room for it in the garage, then it got left in the rain a few times and stopped running...then I paid $100 to fix it, then it got rained-on again, and has recently been in the not-working column again. Meanwhile, the recent raining-au-go-go has made our yards a veritable jungle. Steaming and everything. So, the mower had to be replaced. Having the money at the moment, I was about to hop in the car and go get a new one when that last yelp for help sounded from the non-op mower. I guess I could try harder to fix it. At this point, Shannon rolled her eyes and shut the kitchen door in my face, leaving me to my fantasies of mechanical repair.

An hour later, I'd fixed it! And, yes, I'm growing a kick-ass moustache, thanks-for-noticing!

random mmmc pics

Early-morn meet-up fer breakfast 'fore heading to the high-desert. Maybe 40 degrees F.

Snootch and Steve-O on Brooks' (now broken-down and cafe'd) chopper.

Me and the /6 on approach to giant rock via the UFO runway near the integratron.