Rare political rant from Mr Ignorance is Bliss

My turn to be Andy Rooney for a minute...And as Todd Snider says before his shows, 'This isn't to change anyones opinion as much as it is to ease mine'...but in my case its to remember how I felt at this point in time. But I usually feel like this around election time so really it's nothing new.

The time has come to turn the news completely off(if u already haven't) and watch reruns of your favorite sitcom. What's about to happen between 2 seemingly good people running for president will be a lot worse and less sincere than 2 monkeys at the zoo flinging shit on each other. I suppose its just the nature of the game but its almost as hard to watch as, 'You light up my life' at Tuesday night karaoke. When I come across anyone who seems to perpetuate the hate they hear on tv as if they personally had to clean one of John Mccains 10 houses or they were the victim of Barack Obamas lack of experience I wanna vomit. As if either one will run the country all by himself. Please! I would love to see the bumper sticker people have their lives investigated from top to bottom and see what it might be like to grow in the public eye. You can't ever change your stance as you get more information or else you're a trader. When was the last time in recent memory an Agnostic ran for office, recovering alcoholic or maybe just someone who might need anti-depressants to help with a chemical imbalance. Nooooooo....We can''t have that. We've created an environment where its almost impossible to make mistakes and run for public office but on the other hand when we didn't have instant media we still had a mess. And that mess is called humanity. Most of us are weak, egotistical, fragile, selfish, power hungry babies. We used to fight wars on elephants over 2200 years ago and now we use laser guided missiles. Has anything really changed. We'll fight a war for land or just because we need to cleanse the population of different ethnicity's. Obviously we'll even stoop so low as to fight a war for oil. I'm not sure but there are currently a lot of wars taking place. I'll take lack of experience over lack of judgement and severe lack of intelligence any day. I used to know a 10 year old who had better judgement than most adults. Humanity is flawed for sure but what can you do. I really don't have an answer for how you can get balanced information. No article ever written is done so from a purely neutral position but I think this far left and far right mentality is nauseating at best and at worst it perpetuates fear and hate. How can something as complicated as a persons brain-added life experiences come down to either, 'us or them'..'black or white'....or my favorite...'pro life....pro death' as it pertains to electing government officials. If your sole position in electing officials is abortion then you get what you got. You are somehow pro life, you probably attend some Christian Church and yet the carnage this war has caused....is what? Say it.....'pro death'...1 last thing, I wish the candidates would say, 'If elected I will try' as opposed to, If elected I will'....because there is a large group of people involved in the process of law making and most of the time they help decide where the bus is going.(not that it eases my mind...They recently drove the bus off a cliff in my opinion) I suppose what I'm feeling is that you far lefters and far righters should go to the zoo and get monkey poo slung in your general direction..That's if you can turn away from Hannity and Colmes long enough...I get that nobody will read this but maybe in 3 years when I re-read it I will think, 'What were you thinking'...So be it...and 1 other last last thing...For as much intolerance as I see in the general population it seems like we sure do tolerate a lot when it comes to our government. And therein lies the irony. And the last bit of irony is that whatever choice you make there are really powerful RICH monkeys behind the scenes taking care of THEIR business which really clouds the waters. Over and out...See ya at the zoo...........Gene Gene, I should have ran this by you on one of our Gambrill hikes. I had to go it alone this time.

this goes out to both parties...
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLM5-2vZbgo&feature=related

Rocks and Rattlesnakes

There is a hill behind my apt that I like to climb/walk. Not quite a real climb but not a walk either. 1 day I decided to carry a rock in each hand and do some resistance training. Then I discovered if I carried the rocks to the top and started a pile I would have a log of my workouts. Today I actually ran part of the way so I carried no rocks but yesterday I had my rocks. On the way out of my apt complex I was walking on the side of the road in the shadows of a tree lined wall. I had dark sunglasses on and before I know it I'm on top of a rattlesnake. Thankfully he was dead or I might have gotten some time off work.

Ed - Onnnnnnn the EDGE

Ed came from Maryland for a visit last week. Without going into too much detail he is facing that thing a lot of us middle aged folks face. Ailing parents....but he's got a double dose because his wife Mary also has ailing folks..My plan for him was to not have a plan. Let him do whatever. I turned him off to blackjack, roulette and slots but I swear he looked like he was having fun. We even entered a tiny Blackjack tournament at the Silver Legacy which I won a whole 40 bucks. We watched the Friday nite Hot August Nights parade. After he adjusted somewhat to his surroundings we headed to the rim trail on top of Kingsbury and did the bench and back. This has never happened to either one of us. A runner not only passed us on the climb(the whole thing is a climb) but disappeared. After we turned around and were almost back he passed us again but we did have 3 flats. The tire gods were not with us but 1 of the flats was at a spot overlooking Lake Tahoe and I thought, 'there are worse places to get flats'. The following day we just rode around our lunch trails. Ash Creek trail, Postal, Jack Rabbit, Deer Run and part of Mikes and Baldy Green. He was impressed with everything but the hot sun. East Coasters are mostly used to riding in shade and rocks. He also made the comment that I've been making since I moved back, 'This sand takes a different skill'.....If you crash and are not in need of a helicopter Ed will mumble something like Hillbilly Bear or Billy Bob would, '...mmmmm..you be aaaaright' as he rides by you. Thankfully I didn't hear that on our 2 rides. I miss riding with you brother.....Hang in there.

some pics...

http://picasaweb.google.com/srussel459/EdsVisitPart1