Tour de France

It's anyone's game - I am really enjoying the Tour this year. Without Lance it could be anybody.. ahh, but it won't be Bernard Hinault or Greg LeMond; I just liked this picture :-)

test

will this make it?

Mexican Elections

I am really heartened by the goings-on in Latin America. The recent Mexican elections are a good example - populism is alive and being respected, regardless of who the ultimate winner is. Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile - all moving moderate, or leftist, but all I think from a core of "the people". Poor and lower-class people pushing/pulling their governments away from the exogenous military/industrial/congessional complex. I can't help but wonder if the popular movements in Latin America are benefiting from our misguided sinkholes in Iraq and Afghanistan. With our military muscle being exhausted on other continents, the US maybe doesn't have the horsepower to prop up the reactionary military juntas any longer.

Immigration Debate

Who gives a shit other than politicians? Building a wall in the name of national security? How goddamned stupid do these politicians take us for? No illegal immigrant is hurting me or my family - Should I turn my back on someone who has the initiative to improve his or her life? It is not one whit about "National Security" -- it has everything to do with maintaining power. I'm with Neil Young, "Looking for a Leader" and with every breath I take I am more convinced it isn't going to emerge from this wellspring of "plurality" - Democrats vs. Republicans. My forebears didn't have to wind their way through bullshit bureaucracy in order to become citizens, yes, its true that some social services are strained in trying to deal in particular with the Mexican influx in particular, but the positive economic affect of these immigrants must dwarf the negative cost.

The "Slack Water" Mountain Range of the Pacific Northwest

I love the Pacific Northwest and, although born and residing now in California, I really feel like Oregon is my home. I was cruising through Wikipedia a few days ago looking at pictures of the mountains familiar to me (the Sisters are above) when I came across a reference to how the Cascade Range got its name. Apparently, a doctor on Vancouver's ship noted the proximity of the rushing cascades of the Columbia River to St. Helens, Hood and Adams and began to call them the "Cascades". The name stuck. Now to the irony. Today the cascades of the Columbia are nothing more than slack water behind the Bonneville Dam. I guess the only thing to do is rename the range ......

Vahik's Cafe

It is not really a cafe and I don't have any pictures. Vahik has a coffee stand in the parking lot on the corner of Nautilus and La Jolla Blvd. It is shaped like a Volkswagen bug chopped off at the top and it has 38 coffee beans painted on it. I know this because my son once counted them all in exchange for Vahik giving him a biscotti. I talk to Vahik everyday on my way into work and there are always a gaggle of neighborhood characters there. Anyway, several days ago Vahik was sporting a new hat. It was a camouflage baseball hat with a Wind'n Sea sort of logo on a shield in the front of it. This hat represents some kind of fraternity of beach rats from the area a group of which (Vahik among them) had also gone to France for a foosball tourney and had a wonderful time getting their asses kicked. Even amongst this group these hats are apparently valuable because Vahik was only allowed to have one when he agreed to post a large picture of the original owner's parents; this was a black-and-white from what looked like the late '40s or early '50s. I found the story kind of funny (you really have to see the picture) and showed up the next day with a small black-and-white of my parents holding me in probably 1955, with some unknown women standing next to us. Vahik thought that was funny and so started a "gallery" on his volkswagen coffee stand. Today, while I was at the volkswagen recovering from riding to Swamis (see below), some other customers were looking at the pictures and wondered where the "extra hands" on the original picture. Somehow there was another person hiding in the picture or some speculation that perhaps a mannequin was somehow involved. This discovery immediately cheapened my picture -- there were no curious appendages or inexplicable digits anywhere. Vahik wondered if I might have something that would work. As it sits now, my little picture is still there .. but far outclassed - I will have to find something.

Swamis

I rode out this morning up the coast to North County. I am learning this area but I know I passed through Del Mar, Solana Beach and Cardiff by the Sea. My goal was to get to the "Self Realization Center", or what people hear tell me is called Swamis. There is supposed to be a great surf break just off of where this place is but I didn't go down to check it out. I thought I was spoiled riding in the Bay Area Peninsula with the multiplicity of good rides, but this is better. The route along the coast is the perfect mix of rolling elevation and the surf views and bike lanes are great.Maybe somewhere in Europe might be better but I don'tknow where it would be. Even the south of France between Cannes and Nice probably isn't so good (I have just driven it in a car). Southern Spain or Portugal, I can imagine .. or maybe Australia ???