CIGAR ANYONE?

A half dozen, day-old Canada Goose chicks enjoy a familiarization swim around my pond this morning.  Momma goose was first noticed on her nest March 29th and her brood arrived right on schedule.  Gestation averages between 25 and 30 days depending on your reference source.  By human standards, poppa goose is a fine father.  He is just out of the frame in this photo and will be a careful guardian as these chicks work toward maturity.  The highlight of their growth is when flying lessons begin.  The biggest annoyance is--having to watch carefully where you step.  They are very prolific poopers.

Believe it or not, this is a view of the American Motorcycle Association Museum in Pickerington, OH. It is a marvelous, campus-like facility housing the nation’s premier salute to our passion for this two-wheeled sport, its machines and their riders.

The colorful bike below is an Arlen Ness creation on a Victory cycle in a museum display called “Awesome-Ness” a tribute to the man whose “...creations form a timeline of the custom-bike movement in America. His work has influenced everyone from other bike builders to factory engineers” museum officials explain.

Please stop by Saturday as lady friend Sue Brooks and I along with our friends, the Hatfields, make a visit to this delightful facility.  In Saturday's story we tell you about a bike that looks like a '57 Chevy.  That's it-in yellow-lurking in the background below.

BOOK REPORTS—

Hour Game by David Baldacci

I like Baldacci’s stuff for an easy and entertaining read. Mind candy, so to speak. The heroes of this tale are two Secret Service agents turned private investigators who are confronted by a serial killer mixed in with a dysfunctional, aristocratic family. In spite of having more plot turns and victims than a mountain road has curves this is another fun read.


Bathroom Reader by The Bathroom Readers’ Institute

This book contains 504 pages of whimsical trivia perfectly suited to those brief periods of daily scholarship. Topics range from “Triskaidekaphobia” to “Vampires on Bikini Beach”. And, on the bottom of each page is a delightful squib like this: “According to the Weekly World News, Heaven’s fax number is 011-972-2-612222.” You may find that amusing, but that could be a really helpful number to know someday.


The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux

This novel contains three short stories that take a penetrating look at life in India. The flyleaf says, “Theroux’s Westerners risk venturing far beyond the subcontinent’s well worn paths...A middle aged couple veers heedlessly from idyll to chaos. A buttoned-up Boston lawyer finds succor in Mumbai’s reeking slums. And a young woman befriends an elephant in Bangalore.” She wishes that is all she experienced. Good read!


Racing Toward Armageddon by Michael Baigent

The word “Armageddon” and the sub-title “The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World” appear to be the work of marketing gurus rather than the author of this scholarly, religion-oriented tome. While not exactly bedside reading, it does probe some interesting concepts, such as, belief in one God by today’s major religions while many other known societies in the world believed in many divinities.

BICYCLING IN THE RELAXED STYLE--

The bicycle wheels went round and round as that day morphed from frigid to tepid to nice.

Our skinny tires are sometimes stuffed with 100 pounds of air pressure or more. They rumble and swish as the mostly tar and chip country roads coax us by lots of Amish farms with spring flowers blooming everywhere.

A tapestry of laundry dries in the brisk morning air up ahead, suspended on long lines with pulleys so the laundress of the home can retrieve it like a fisherman wrestling with his catch.

My friend Gary Courtright and I were rolling up the state highway from Ontario to Shelby earlier that morning when it dawned on us we were supposed to meet our companions in Lexington for a caravan to our cycling launch site near the reservoir North of Shelby.

We grinned as Gary, via cell phone, confessed our mistake to our assembling companions who ultimately joined us as planned.

Old guys are allowed to do that, we mused.

There were nine of us that morning; Joe and Edie Humphrey and Tom Hadley and Lynn Rush and our leader Ken Johnson towing a tiny and ultra-light trailer behind his bicycle. That was to be used to haul back to our vehicles any treasures we collected along the way.

In addition to Gary and me, Ute Volk and Tammy Petersen rounded out our relatively ambitious population.

We trundled East on London West Road to North on Bowman St. Road to East on Kaster to Ganges Five Points, crossed state route 603, whizzed around the corner on Free Rd., and ambushed the Planktown Country Market—as only a squadron of cyclists in bike costumes can.

That’s Gary in the top photo (left) while Tom reveals my camera to Lynn who is putting a cheerful hex on my photography and Ken retrieves something from the floor. Tammy (also in blue) seems to be pondering our silliness at the market’s very nice deli counter.

After lunch we stashed the remainder of our purchases in Ken’s trailer and we rolled along roads with names like Free and Wells and Rome-Greenwich and Rome South and ultimately Shelby-Ganges back to the reservoir.

We compared bicycle odometers and concluded it was most likely our ride was a bit over 22 miles.

At some point there Ken was kidding Ute about her having trouble climbing some of the hills by explaining, “Obviously her bike is two tired.”

The rest of us groaned.

Good naturedly, of course.

Gently undulating roads coursed us through the farm belt of Northern Richland County as nine of us recently rode the component of the Mid Ohio Bikers known as the 1020 group. We do not go much over 10 mph and hardly travel more than 20 miles (most of the time); a very civilized approach to this timeless sport, in our view.

Members of the Mid Ohio Bikers 1020 Group munch a lunch of deli goodies behind the Planktown Country Market near Shiloh recently.  That's Tom Hadley's recumbent bike on the left and my new recumbent ride on the right, flanking Ken Johnson's upright bike equipped with the aqua-colored trailer box center.  Please stop by Saturday as we tell you about rolling 20+ miles through Northern Richland County Amish country recently.

CAN THIS CLOWN!

Goodwin Liu is President Obozo’s nominee to be a judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

That is a lifetime appointment and this court functions immediately below the US Supreme Court.

Liu would be in a position to make a serious impact on the Constitution and the laws of this country—even being mentioned already as a future Supreme Court candidate.

And, this guy has absolutely no judicial experience. None.

Worse yet; his legal writings have described “the US Constitution as a document that should adapt to changes in the world,” according to news sources.

Evidently this clown doesn’t even comprehend, should he receive this appointment, he will swear an oath to protect and defend the very Constitution he feels should be adjusted from time to time to meet contemporary whims.

How about the clown that nominated this guy?

He took the same oath.

That oath says, in part “...I will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” (1)

How can either of these clowns even hold public office when one nominates the other to high office in evidently apparent violation, or intent to violate, their very oaths of office?

Lord help us.
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(1)Art. II, Sec. 1, Clause 8, US Constitution, etc

Today's bird feeder visitor,

a Canada Goose!