It Has to Go Somewhere!

'Fess up! How many times have you gone down a street marked like this simply because it looked like it had to be connected to somewhere in spite of the sign?

I've been going down NO OUTLET streets all my driving life. Call me a ridiculous skeptic and I won't disagree because every time I end up at the terminus of such a street I'm just as surprised to find that there's no way out as I'd have been if there had been no sign at all.

Of course since I've had a scooter I've discovered that sometimes those signs only apply to cars because now and then there's a way for a scooter to get through to another street though it might involve a short excursion over an unpaved footpath. Finding an opening like that always makes me feel triumphantly victorious over those folks on the municipal traffic committee who deem such a sign necessary. Hey! Life's little scores are important!

I took a ride of moderate length this afternoon and the conditions were perfect for me to feel the hot sun on my arms while at the same time feeling the coolness of the apparent breeze of the air as I rode through it. I like it when I can feel the heat and the cool at the same time, each refreshing in its own way but somehow even more so together.

I had the opportunity this morning to heft a 20 pound weight which is equivalent to a little less than the weight I've lost since I was hypnotized on June 9th and I was very happy to discover that it's a more substantial amount than I'd thought 20 pounds was.

My bad knee doesn't ache like it used to and I'm able to do a few flights of stairs without feeling absurdly winded at the top. Best of all, the shorts that I had to shoe horn my gut into last summer are practically falling off me now.

My loss so far is approximately 1/3 of the weight I gained since I quit smoking five summers ago. In fact, July 26th was my fifth anniversary of the day I quit. I started smoking in high school 'cause I thought it would make me look cool. It wasn't the first time I was totally wrong about something, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Okay, a quick English quiz! What's wrong with this besides its looking like it might be the name of one of the characters in a Monty Python movie?

If you said that "Alot" isn't a word, good for you! Just about every time I grade a paper in which somebody means "a lot" it's written as "alot" which is as stupid as would be "ascooter" or "ablog." The "a" is simply an indefinite article as it is when used before any other noun.

I shot the sign while on a trip through the Poconos to "Mr. Scary's" house in Bangor. I didn't think we were going to get out of that old guy's partially restored Victorian alive, but that'll be a story for some winter day when I don't have anything more full of sunshine to write about.

The LED flashlight is one of the best developments in technology to come down the pike in ages except for what I think is a conspiracy between their manufacturers and the battery industry. Have you noticed how most LED flashlights ("Torches" for the British, I think.) require those expensive little button cells or 3 AA or AAA cells? Why three? Because you can only charge rechargeables in pairs or in groups of four, hence making the buying of disposable cells a necessity. Methinks it rotten!

Oh yeah... Sturgis is going on now even as I sit here and you sit there.


After seeing the Thunder in the Valley rally in Johnstown, PA a month or so ago, I can only imagine what the king sized one in Sturgis is like. I'd like to be there someday, on a Harley, just to say I did it!