Paris

Photo From Here

Photo From Here

It won't be Paris in the Springtime but it will be Paris and Paris in the winter is better than no Paris at all. I met up with a couple of my fellow travelers for breakfast last Saturday, ostensibly for a little planning session but as it ended up our lady traveler brought a trio of nephews along so she didn't enter into the conversation too much. My buddy and I are both going to be looking into obtaining some Euros, lining up a cell phone that works in Europe and credit/debit cards that will do likewise. Last time we went, the tour company provided my buddy with a phone and the rest of us all had an opportunity to load up a Visa debit card that was good in Italy. I just opened an account that has a debit card associated with it and they're supposed to reimburse any and all ATM fees, so I should be good on the card. As long as one of us has a phone, we can share it and set up some type of phone chain on the home front prior to leaving so it will only require one call home and everyone will be in the loop. I think a couple of them are planning on taking a laptop along so e-mails can be sent as well.

Starting to get excited about the trip. I need to go through the wardrobe and see what I need to fill in the gaps - can't wait too much longer or I won't be able to buy any warm clothing. It's not even Halloween and the stores already have Christmas stuff out, the mercenary bastards. Thanksgiving needs to do a little PR work. It's pretty well out of the game now, other than people going to the grocery store to buy a turkey and some cranberry sauce, that is. Maybe I'll do my Christmas shopping in Europe this year. Never in a million years did I ever think I'd say that! In the meantime, I'll start getting my things in order.

Progress

"In one hundred years we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to teaching remedial English in college."

Joseph Sobran
Quote From Here

In My Element

I'm currently reading The Element by Ken Robinson. I'm about half way through the book, and as expected from something written by Sir Ken, it's an excellent read. As the subtitle suggests, it's all about finding your passion. He cites many examples of people who find their passion and go on to do great things. My big question is what about those who either never find it or get talked out of pursuing it. I've seen a lot of students over the years who didn't seem to have any aspirations to do big things. Or even much of anything for that matter. I'm sure that will be addressed in the book at some point but I'd be willing to bet a lot of drug, alcohol and crime problems stem from people who have never found their element. Me? I'm certainly one of the fortunate people who have found their element. I give you Exhibit A:

If you look closely you can see the repaired boss on the motorcycle engine case above. Nothing to it really. My buddy made a replacement piece and all I had to do was weld it in and add a little more weld along the mating seam to the left of the boss. I'm not sure what the other aluminum piece is on top of the case. He said weld it here and that's what I did. After years of doing this kind of work, it's almost a no-brainer but yet they never are. The reason the jobs are so easy is because the solution is already in the brain. You don't have to think about it because you've already thought about it. A lot. 

I've been working on motorcycles for almost 50 years now either by turning wrenches on my own bikes or by welding/fabricating on bikes for myself and others. I would have been real happy to have made a living welding on race bikes or choppers or doing some type of custom sheet metal work on cars. I'm certainly in my element when I'm doing that. I still have a lot to learn but I do have the passion. Seems like I got sidetracked with teaching school but looking back on it, I'd have to say I was in my element there as well. What a blessing it has been to be able to make a living and have a hobby where I was in my element.

If you're an educator, I recommend reading The Element. If you've never found your passion, you definitely need to read The Element. If you're living your passion you're in the element. Consider yourself very lucky. Read The Element so you'll know how really lucky you are.

Profound Disconnect

Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame, and friend to all of us in vocational education, has a scholarship program that has a little twist to it. He makes all recipients sign the SWEAT pledge. You can get all the details at his Profoundly Disconnected website, and I strongly urge you to check it out, but the following quote gives you an idea of where Mr. Rowe is coming from:

"We're lending money we don't have, to students who can't pay it back, to educate them for jobs that no longer exist. That's nuts."

He's definitely right on the money with that. He and John Ratzenburger are probably two of the most influential people in "hands-on" education these days. It's a shame there aren't more like them out there. Probably the real shame is the fact that the big muckity-mucks have lost sight of the real value of vocational education and apprenticeships in creating wealth for our country and rewarding careers for its citizens. Profoundly disconnected, indeed. Also, to complete the hands-on hat trick, if you haven't checked out The Wisdom of The Hands blog recently, Doug Stowe has a couple of interesting posts about Milton Bradley along with all his usual good stuff. Games and education go hand in hand it seems. Definitely no disconnect there. Unless you're one of the knuckleheads who feels that recess needs to be discontinued in order to leave more time for testing. Then it's more games with education.

Since it's getting cold out and there's not much worth watching on television, you might want to attend a local school board meeting to find out just what is going on with your local school. After a couple of meetings, it'll be pretty easy to see the value, or lack there of, that is placed on vocational education. We need to make our voices heard.

Hemp - Breakfast of Champions

I stumbled across another photo-blog that has lots of good motorcycle stuff. A few other things, but mostly bikes. You can check it out by clicking here. 

I've been starting my days off right lately with a little "weed" for breakfast.

I'm not much of a shopper and the older I get, the less I need more things to clutter up my life but I do enjoy going to Trader Joe's. The stores seem to have a nice bohemian vibe - like the people working there would have all been beatniks back in the '50's. "Like cool, Daddy-O." Or maybe like the hippies in the 70's. "Far out, man. Granola with weed." But more importantly, it's also possible to get food that isn't loaded with sodium, sugar and fat. Can you dig it? I knew that you could.

It's been cold here the last couple of nights - down to about 25 degrees on Monday night. I think the peppers are going to be OK but that's about it for everything else in the garden for the year. I'm pretty happy with the results of the Square Foot Garden and plan on adding one more box next year. I'll plant the tomatoes outside the boxes and try to get a few things started a little earlier. By having the tree taken down, everything should get more sun light and do better. I hate to be a "buzzkill" (staying with the hemp theme here), but I think growing your own food and getting debt free is going to be much more important in the near future. Even if things don't turn sour, nothing wrong with eating fresh vegetables and having more cash at your disposal.

I've got another Ducati case to weld up. My buddy brought one by the college the other night. This one is for the bike he plans to ride in the Moto Giro in Italy next year. Wish I was going. It'd be real cool to ride around Italy on a little Sprint/Aermacchi. The other Ducati case I worked on he got back together but the kickstarter gears need some work. He can't find anything through his contacts or after searching the internet. Apparently the gears on the 200 cc bikes were a poor design to begin with and 50 some years later most all of the spares have been used up. He was wondering if I could weld up a couple of the teeth. Welding them isn't a problem but the heat treatment is. I need to look into that a little more before I tackle one. At least I'm working on a motorcycle project instead of just household chores now. Lots more fun than laundry and getting things ready for winter around the shack.

This is what an Elite looks like when restored better than new. Gotta love the jelly mold tank! Be a real gas riding one of these in the Moto Giro. The photo's from the same place as the sidecar picture, by the way.

And on the education front, the local paper reported about a high school teacher who got some students all beered up then took them to a strip club and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction is suing the State Board of Education for violating the "Open Meeting" law. Makes you wonder what all of those clowns were smoking. Especially the high school teacher. Time for that dude to find a new line of work.

Is That All There Is?

Now that I've gotten some but not all of the vitriol out of my system concerning the federal government, maybe I can focus on matters closer to home.

The Missus is doing better, the cat's dead and buried and I just dropped off the brake rotors from the truck to get turned at the machine shop. 

Yep. That's all there is. Oh, there is one more thing. The dog puked on the front seat of the van when I went to pick up the brake rotors. 

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Photo From Here

Moto Guzzi sidecar racer. Hard to beat that combination. 

Maybe I can sign up for my Social Security and take the first few checks to construct an outfit like this one. Oh, wait. All you get at the Social Security website is a blank page. I still remember the words of President Kennedy: "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." OK. After giving away nearly a third of all my income for the last 45 years, anything else I can do for you idiot politicians? How about a couple of suggestions? While you're frittering away my grandsons' future, maybe keep the parks open with the money you piss away on foreign aid and then sit down at the table and negotiate in good faith. Maybe realize this isn't just some silly pissing contest. This is the future of the free world at stake. 300 million people in this country and this is all we get? A bunch of clowns that can't balance a budget? Hell, you haven't even made one.

Maybe that's why the government is buying 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition and armored personnel carriers and at the same time signing on to the small arms treaty.

You keep fooling around and there's going to be a revolution, televised or not. You all should be ashamed of yourselves. Leaders, my ass.