Sometimes, “Green” = “Idiocy”

Bike lane in Cardiff, Wales is 8 feet long, designed to encourage “green transport”.

Here’s a link to the article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7547129/Council-condemned-over-Britains-shortest-cycle-lane.html

The article mentions that the bike lane was installed for around $3300 dollars, is 8 feet long, and takes about 1 second for cyclist to traverse it. The article also says that the purpose of the bike lane to allow cyclists to turn safely against traffic at a busy intersection. Somehow the part about encouraging “green transport” crept into the article.

This is probably not the best example of green idiocy, but I found it amusing. It seems like the trend is to make something “green” in order to make it acceptable for the biomass of people who swallowed the whole “global warming” scam without question. Remember “global cooling”? That was only back in the ’70′s, folks, not THAT long ago.

I agree that the planet MAY be changing, and that man-made causes MAY have something to do it, but I don’t think we need to radically tax the living crap out of everyone and everything in order to “fight global warming”. Only to find out 20-30 years from now that global cooling was all wrong. I mean, global warming.

What does “Circle” mean?

Today, there was a car accident out on the main road near our house. The accident took out a utility pole, including downed wires. I do not know the state of the driver, but I sincerely hope he was not badly injured, or that he was treated quickly and successfully.

In any case, the accident caused the main road to be closed. PennDOT closed the road with a piece of red tape stretched across the road. Earlier in the day, a ROAD CLOSED sign was in front of the tape, but later the sign was removed. Cars approaching from the south had to turn onto the side road to leads to our cul-de-sac, a street with the name “Circle” posted on a street sign on the side road.

So what seemed like a nearly endless stream of cars came into our circle, turned around and went back out. I know they were trying to find a way around the block to get around the accident site and back to the main road. But seriously? If you see a street named “So And So Circle”, would you guess it is a through street?

Usually a street named “Something Court” and sometimes “Something Terrace” are not through streets. But “Circle”? Pretty much guaranteed not to get you out.

So I went out to the side road, and put up a sawhorse with a hand-lettered “Detour” sign with an arrow on it, showing motorists the way down the side road so they could get around the block. This slowed down the traffic in the circle a little, but didn’t stop it all together.

I realize that when you are driving down the road and something unusual happens, it throws off your concentration a bit. But when did we become a people who just stopped thinking for ourselves? We learned in Kindergarten what a circle is – a hoop with no openings. Does “Something Circle” sound like a street that will get you around the block?

Community Groups – finally got a ride in

On Saturday, the Motorcycle Group got it’s first official ride in. We did the Newark – French Creek run, using the same route I mapped out a couple of weeks ago. There were only two motorcycles and three riders, but we had a great time, good fellowship and nice riding weather.

We started out with breakfast at Perkins in Newark, then rode straight up to the state park. We stretched our legs walking around near Hopewell Lake, then took a short ride up to Scott’s Run Lake. After a quick snack, we rode back south. Rt 82 is such a great road to ride on – scenic, winding and nicely paved.

Judgement Day (or Still Riding With the King)

So today is May 21, 2011. According to Harold Camping and Family Radio, believers will be raptured today, and the end of the earth will come five months from now, on October 21, 2011.

As I write this, it’s after 9:00 PM on the East Coast, and nothing has happened. So for those of us Christians who read (and believe) the Bible, I guess that part where it says “No one knows the day or the hour, not even the Son, when Judgement Day will come.”

Today, I organized a ride for my motorcycle community group. I ended up going solo, since no one else was able to make it. It was such a great riding day, I did the ride anyway to check the timing, turns, make riding notes, etc.

I rode from Newark, DE up to French Creek State Park, east of Reading, PA. The ride took 1 1/2 hours, as predictied, and covered some really nice back-country roads. I started out around 8:3o AM and was back home by Noon.

It’s a Jeep thing…

Remember the 15 year old who wanted to host the French students? Well, she’s turning 16 this month. What does every 16 year old girl want for her birthday? A Jeep, of course! Really? OK, they’re good cars, but a Wrangler? Well, that’s what she wanted.  So we went shopping for a gently-used Wrangler, and found a ’98 in pretty good shape. It has a hard top, but that can be removed in the summer so it just has the roll bars. This Jeep needs a little work, but what 12 year old car doesn’t? And it’s so easy to work on – everything can be reached easily (so far). And the little Ninja likes it, so that’s what counts. I drive an ’07 Liberty myself, and I really like Jeeps, because along with Willys, they practically invented 4-wheel drive. It’s a Jeep thing.

Ever driven a Jeep? Ever got one stuck? Me neither. Put your story in the comments section.

Peace and Transfer Cases – Chester

Community Groups and end of the riding season

 

So we started up some Community Groups at our church. The definition of a Community Group is: three or more people with a common vision for an activity. I started one for motorcyclists, and bought a ’97 Honda Shadow for my buddy Pete to learn to ride.  This is an excellent beginner’s motorcycle – well balanced, low seat height and center of gravity, and simple controls.

Plus, this thing has a “softtail” suspension, using a nitrogen-filled monoshock in the rear end. Much more confy than my Sportster. Makes me want to buy the bigger Harley now.

Even though the weather here in beautiful SE Pennsylvania has been really nice for the past several Fall weekends, I haven’t got out to ride – the Harley is currently getting some engine work, and Mrs. Chester has needed some extra TLC lately. Hence – the end of the riding season.

And the above is also the main reason for lack of blogging. I have thought about the blog nearly every day, but just sitting down long enough to write a post has been daunting. Taking advantage of that now.

So Chester Jr. got his Outdoor Community Group up and running, and took some folks down to the range today. We shot the shotguns for a while. I even fired the 20-gauge tactical shotgun one-handed and managed to hit at least one clay pigeon. Then it was over to the pistol range, and we shot the .38 and the .22, and the other fellow’s 9mm and .22 revolver. I really liked the .22 Ruger – single action, long barrel, really nice tight groups.

Peace – Chester

Riding Season, part Thrice

 

Nice Vance & Hines. I have Screamin’ Eagles on my Sporty, and they sound pretty good, but I definitely like the Vance & Hines, too.

The sun is shining, the weather is definitely warmer, it stopped snowing…..so it’s time to swap out the Jeep for the motorcycle commute. I still ride the same roads, and it’s funny – the longer I ride, the more potential accidents and weirdness I see and avoid.

I took a class last Fall to get my MC license up to snuff, offered for free by the Pennsylvania Motorcycle Safety Foundation. A really great class, I recommend this to anyone looking to start riding (or pick up where they left off 20 years ago, when they had kids). It covers the basics, both classroom and hands-on. Half the students in the class had never ridden a bike, and the other half were re-certs like me, or had just never gotten around to getting their paperwork in order.

Got your two-wheeler yet, or still paying outrageous money to commute? Save on gas, buy a motorcycle, take a class, get certifed and get rolling! Tell your story in the comments section.

Peace – Chester

Live Rounds

Today, we went down to the gun range near North East, MD. Grandfather, father and son, all gun enthusiasts. We shot the .45 caliber semi-auto pistol, the 12 and 20 gauge shotguns, and then we sighted in the .22 caliber rifle.

Grandfather still holds his Master Class Shooter designation. For those who aren’t familiar with the rankings, they are (lowest to highest) Marksman, Sharpshooter, Expert, Master. He helped my son with some shooting fundamentals, and the two of them proceeded to shoot the centers out of the pistol targets at 20 yards. They were firing a Sig Sauer .45 Caliber semiautomatic using standard ammunition. (I didn’t even come close to their scores.)

Then we went over to the trap range, and took turns firing the 20 gauge Mossberg and the 12 gauge heavily-modified tactical shotgun. We blew up a whole bunch of clay pigeons. The son even hit one firing the 12 gauge one-handed.

Then on to the rifle range for .22 caliber target shooting. We used the regular targets, but the light was poor for shooting, and the targets didn’t have enough black on them to make them very visible at 50 yards. We borrowed a fellow shooter’s spotting scope, and figured out where the Henry rifle was hitting the paper. Grandfather and son shot some nice groups. I did OK, but definitely need to practice more.

All in all, a great three-generation multi-firearm shooting day was had.

Question: Ever shoot the guns? Ever want to know more about one of the most popular sports in the world, during this 2010 Olympic Games? Leave your stories and answers in the comments section. Would love to hear from you all. God bless America, and our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, which shall not be infringed.

“Gun Control is being able to hit your target”.

Peace – Chester

Plowman, Dig My Earth

 ”Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.” – Bob Dylan, All Along The Watch Tower

I have tried to keep up my goal of posting at least once a week. It became especially challenging when a 5-ton salt truck with a snow plow blade ran off the road in my cul-de-sac, sheared off my cable connection and buried itself in the front yard.

It took two skid loaders and over two hours to free the truck, but it finally got unstuck. This was on Wednesday, Feb 10, right in the middle of a blizzard in southeastern PA. Comcast, my cable provider, was out the next day to restore the connection – pretty good service, considering the conditions.

So, back online. As always, please post your ever-interesting comments.

Peace – Chester

Gettin’ Dirty For a Good Cause

The First Evar Delaware Mud Run was run on Sunday, October 11. This was a charity event to raise money for the Leukemia Research Foundation of Delaware – linked here.

The weather was great – warm and sunny. The people were great – nice and friendly. And the cause was great – raising money for Leukemia research. The organizers said they expected about 400-500 participants. They got about 1600. They were trying to raise about $50,000 and ended up with somewhere around $150,000.
A very successful day for a very good cause.

What is the Mud Run? Well, it’s a 5k Run/Walk through a very muddy obstacle course. It was held at Frightland, a Halloween-themed park near St. George, DE, just south of the canal. The racers all had a really good time, and got plenty muddy in the process. My little one competed with three other instructors from the ATA Karate School in Elkton, Maryland on a team named “Run Ninja Run”.

Check out the Mud Run.