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HOWYADOIN!  Its been a while.  Don't let my silence fool ya into thinkin' I went away.  It was December when I last updated so I guess this is starting to look like a semi-annual update.  Facebook allows me to do what I had originally hoped this site would do (yes, this site pre-dates Facebook and Myspace).  But this is my forum, my little cyber-soapbox and Facebook is not always the appropriate  place for me to pontificate.......soooo let get to it!

Before I started tonight, I re-read all of my earlier thoughts and meanderings.  Ya know what?  Not much has really changed.  Certainly the country's financial situation is just as bleak as it was 7 months ago.    The housing market is at a record low.  I heard the statistics but am not going to try and recall them now but it was real scary.  How many masons, carpenters, flooring, plumbers, roofers, electricians and sheetrock guys do you think make up part of that pesky old 9+ percent unemployment.  And here's another f---d up thing.  It has become the norm to hire blue collar workers as sub-contractors. It's easy for the company, pay ya 20 bucks an hour and you're on your own, here's your 1099.  No health insurance (in fact you have to buy your own workman's comp out of that 20  bucks an hour),no retirement, 401 what?, no sick pay, no vacation, no nothing!  Unless they have personally paid into Unemployment, and I've never met anyone who did, they are ineligible for that too.  And guess what, come April 15th, you gotta come up with all those taxes noone took out!    And here it's summer again and millions of kids are finishing up school to enter the job market.  These kids probably aren't figured into the statistic because most aren't elegible for unemployment.  Jobs should be this government's highest priority.  Whatever Obama's plan was, it's not freaking working.

And speaking of our kids, lemme tell you another thing that's been pissin' me off.  It's the new radio commercials for the Army National Guard.  The commercial has these young "Citizen Soldiers" working in some kind of disaster near thier homes.  The focus of the ad is that they are doing a great service to thier country while saving thier neighborhoods.  There is absolutley no mention of them being deployed to a war zone.  And that is exactly where all of our Maine National Guard Units have been going.  The engineer battalion in Belfast has been to Iraq and Afganistan several times.  I know several guys who've been there three and four times.  And we've suffered more than our fair share of losses around here.  The last one was a 19 year old kid.  It was an IED.  He had just graduated high school.  Don't get me wrong, the kids know that they are very likely to be deployed "over there", but I just cringe every time I hear that ad. 

The Pres has been busy as a one legged man at an asskicking contest setting all kinds of records.  We're looking at another record for the budget this year. Yup, biggest ever.  And the deficit a new record high too!  Here's another one, first time EVER losing our triple A credit rating!  Wow.  I hope he's enjoying his vacation at Martha's Vineyard.    

So things are pretty crappy right now.  We'll just have to wait and see if things get any better.  Right now our legislators are in a month's vacation.  The long legged Mac Daddy himself is out playing golf at Martha's Vineyard.    And let's face it, all of those a--holes are in full campaign mode.  There ain't much gonna happen now.  I just think it's wrong to spend that much of you time and resources to get elected.  Campaining should only be permitted for 6 to 8 weeks before the election.  We are paying these a--holes to try and get themselves re-elected.  Am I the only one who thinks this is wrong?  And finally for a thought for Congress....you want to save money, 1. take the checkbook away from Obama  2. End the wars now.  We can't afford to worry about what the hell they do over there.  3. plug the loopholes or whatever they are that allows a company like G.E. to pay 0.00 taxes. 

Last but not least.....to all my friends,

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BUY BULLETS.  Gold is good, platinum, silver they are all good.  But what's really gonna come in handy is bullets. 

Hey! The bike business is good!  I love it.  I probably put in more hours out in the shop that I did when I was employed but WTF it's not a bad place to hang out.  I got the shop insulated last year with a furnace, got tunes, and a seemly endless supply of vintage bikes to work with.  Skally helps me out there and sometimes we take nice long breaks or will go outside and play for a while.  Right now I have been having a run on tandem bikes.  That and vintage Raleighs (which is a good thing!)  I am still amazed at the old Dyno hubs with the magneto built in.  I took in a 1961 (yup 50 years old) Raleigh Sport with one on it.  Before I did anything else, I hooked the wire back up to the hub, flipped it upside down on the handlebars and seat and gave the wheel a spin.  Both lights worked great!  And we made this better how?  I'll post some new pics of my bikes on another page!