Lilac City Live

Lilac City Live is a lot of fun. It's exactly what you would expect of a talk show but on a smaller budget and with local talent. This is pretty cool, Spokane.

Two More Finely Crafted Instruments

Last night I woke at 3:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep so I decided to make good use of my time and build a couple of Diddley Bows. I went with guitar tuners and metal wound guitar strings this time so the instruments would stay in tune and be easier to get back into tune.  One has a G string and the other has a D. They both sound great.

I still need to cut the sound holes. I haven't bought a hole saw yet.

Only the finest hose clamps go on a Diddley Bow made by Hank Greer.

Cheap bits of old hardware work well for the bridge and to anchor the string.

Needed a guide screw to keep the string centered over the nut, i.e., hose clamp.

I cut away part of the rod to create a flat surface to mount the tuner.

It's 25 inches from bridge to nut so marking the frets is the same as a standard guitar.

North-South Freeway Circa 1956

I thought I'd check out the Dec 18, 1956 issue of the Spokane Daily Chronicle and see what the news was on the day I was born. Along with my birth announcement, a perfunctory "To Mr. and Mrs Henry W. Greer, E504 Tenth, boy" there was this. The more things change the more they stay the same, eh?

I really enjoyed how the publisher made use of every square inch of newspaper. And things were placed where they fit. Obituary notices, farm reports, news from anywhere, officers elected to various civic organizations, etc.

And then there's the advertisements.

And some bowling advice for the ladies. Apparently men were all perfect bowlers back then.

Sing Along Time

I've been riding my single speed to work since last week. Since I can't put the panniers on it I've been using a backpack to carry my stuff. I added my Bluetooth speaker system and I've been cranking out tunes as loud as I can during my commute.

On the way home from work these evening I passed by a house and an older gentleman was standing on the porch. Quiet Riot's "Bang Your Head" was blasting from my backpack. Danged if he didn't start singing along.

Rock on, dude. Rock on.

A Walk In The Woods

Since Kathy can no longer run the long distances like she used to, thanks to arthritis in her knees, we've been doing more low impact stuff together. On Saturday we enjoyed a hike in the Deep Creek area at Riverside State Park.

Saved from the obligatory selfie by another hiker.

River City Roots Festival

While visiting Steph in Missoula last weekend we caught part of the festival going on downtown. A group call The Whizpops was performing. They compose and play songs geared towards children, hence the little "groupies" up front. The Whizpops were fun and the kids were really enjoying them. The bored security guy was a hoot because he'd walk back and forth and tell the kids to get down off the barrier. As you can see, the crush up front was practically unmanageable.

 Hey, get down from there.

 Baby butt crack.

They make it sound so...sweet.

Sqeezed lemonade is the best.

Where Else Would You Look?

I met this couple yesterday. He's an 87-year-old WWII vet and she's his wife of many years. They were sporting Sun Meadows Nudist Resort t-shirts.

An incredulous person asked the woman, "You went to a nudist resort?"

She answered with a twinkle in her eye and a playful lilt to her voice, "You just look at their eyes, honey."

Walla Walla Trip

Kathy and I headed down to Walla Walla for the weekend with our friends, Bob and Donna. Bob and Donna recently celebrated their 30th anniversary and Kathy and I have our 35th on June 29th. We had two goals: ride our bikes and taste some wine. With the high temps in the low 100's we got up early and hit the road by 6:00 am each day. There is some beautiful country down there. We rode south of town and into Oregon through wheat and wine country.

 Lucky for us some other cyclists came by and they took a group shot.

Halfway through our first morning ride we stopped in Milton-Freewater to take a break in the shade right outside the Palm Tavern. No sooner had I leaned my bike up against the building when the loudest diesel pickup truck I ever heard pulled up. The driver turned off the engive so we could hear him talk.

"I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't lean your bikes against my building."

"No, problem," I said. "I apologize."

I checked the directions for the rest of our ride with him and he was off. We felt compelled to take photos of ourselves with the beer drinking frog out front. By the way the Palm Tavern is for sale. And there are no bike marks on the front of the building. Not that you could tell anyway.

The ladies who own the bed and breakfast we stayed at, Woodhaven Inn, recommended a number of wineries for us. We managed to check out six wineries on Saturday. A tasting at each one involves five or six wines. At dinner that evening, Kathy actually said she didn't want to have any more wine. That's not the Kathy we know. Thankfully, she got out of her slump.

Sunday's ride was shorter than Saturday's. We wanted to get back earlier so we could get properly cleaned up for breakfast. And it was hotter. By 8:00 am the temp was in the mid-80's.

Breakfast at Woodhaven Inn was incredible both mornings. It was a shame to be so hungry and then scarf down a plate of food that looked too good to eat.  I apologize for not taking photos.

After breakfast and checking out of the B&B we headed out for more wine tasting. As luck would have it, at one of the wineries this guy was showing off the Self Balancing Unicycle. He and his partner had been on that Shark Tank show and apparently got a deal for some financial backing. I have no idea what he was doing at this particular winery but I couldn't pass up a chance to ride it.

I watched a couple of younger guys try it out under the tutelage of the entrepreneur. I paid attention to what they did and the directions they were being given. When I got on I took off and the guy kept telling me, "Not so fast. Not so fast." And he was keeping a hand on me because he was concerned I was going to crash. Turning with the training wheels was challenging. I was trying to lean into the turn as if the wheels weren't there and that doesn't work well at all. But I could move along just fine. The guy asked if I had experience riding unicycles and I told him I did not. I also told him that he didn't need to hang on to me. He said he did for safety and liability reasons.

The electric unicycle cost $1800. For that amount you can also get a decent bike to commute with. You're not limited by battery life and you don't have to recharge it. It is fun to ride but I can't see one showing up in my garage.

As everybody knows it was hot as blazes this weekend, Here's a shot of my car temperature when we stopped in Pasco for a late lunch.

These are the bottles of wine Kathy picked up yesterday and today that she's keeping. She has eight more that she's giving away as gifts to people at work. I think we did our fair share of supporting the Walla Walla wine economy.

Missoula Visit

Kathy and I drove to Missoula to hang out with Steph. yesterday we hiked along Rattlesnake Creek in the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area. Steph loves being outdoors and she's been doing some serious hiking in the mountains with friends.

 Obligatory H&K photo.

 It was like that when we got there.

 Mountain Steph.

 Someone likes livin' on the edge.

Today we checked out Fort Missoula. There's a cool train you're not supposed to climb on, which Steph did. Otherwise we never would've known how the bell sounded. It was loud.

Next to the museum is an area loaded with old machines used in the timber industry years ago.

Chain. and gear.

I learned a couple of new things while in the museum. The US Army at Fort Missoula had the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps back in 1896.

These men, all African-American, as a test of Army bicycles rode Spalding military bikes from Missoula to St Louis, which totally sucked. These guys were hard core. The Army decided the bike would not be able to replace the horse. 

The other thing I learned was that Fort Missoula was used to hold Japanese detainees as well as Italian non-military men during World War II. I learned that over 2,000 Japanese-Peruvians were kidnapped from Peru and held in internment camps in the US. When WWII ended they were "voluntarily" repatriated to Japan. Damn, that's cold.

We had a great visit with Steph. It was good to see how well she is doing and give and get a couple of hugs.

Chicago Marathon

Kathy and I went to "My kind of town" last Wednesday to hang out, see some sights, and then run the marathon on Sunday. She ran. I took photos. On Friday we picked up her packet at the expo. There was a free shuttle from the hotel, which we rode. What we didn't know was that there were four different shuttles going to and from four different parts of the city. We took shuttle #3 to get to the expo. We got on #4 for the ride back and ended up about three miles from our hotel. So we had a nice walk and saw more of Chicago.

Honestly. With 40k+ people running, would they ever say the threat level was anything other than low?

 Plenty of photo op locations at the expo.

 Our runner before the start.

 Teeming masses lined the race as well as participated in it. I missed Kathy at the two-mile mark. You can probably see why.

 One of those people passed by while I was waiting at the halfway mark.

 Doctor Dribble making a respectable showing.

 I cannot tell you how many bright yellow shirts I looked at. I finally spotted my girl looking smooth midway through the race.

 Doctor Dribble bringing it in with a mile to go.

 I don't know. There's just something about this outfit thats screams "wrong" to me.

 One of those people again.

 I found the majority were not smiling at this point.

 And there she is. Wrapping it up with a time of 5:07:07.

The happy finisher.