The Hiking Writer

Just wow.

The new rig has it, and I'm beginning to get disillusioned already.

Random mouse lockups suck.

Give me XP Pro, or better yet, I might go to Linux.

Say goodbye to this number.

I've predicted this to a few people, but by the time the Presidential election comes along, we should be near $3.50 a gallon US. However, thanks to many car companies givng out deals with new vehicles that guarantee 2.99 for a gallon gas for 3 years, you have to believe we'll never see that price again, no matter what we find offshore, in Alaska or otherwise.

Lets get off the petroleum bandwagon folks. Electric or alternative fuels is the way to go. If we keep buying gas, we just keep giving the radicals in the Middle East our hard earned money. Get off petroleum and we deprive them of their money and power.

We win without a fight.

Hot damn.

There's a nifty photography contest over at Fark.com that is a look at various studies in the color blue. Some really great photos are included.

Check it out here.

IS NOT A FLAVOR!!!!

It's flipping Wintergreen. I would appreciate it if gum and breathmint companies would note this on the package because I HATE WINTERGREEN!

And I fall for it too. I can't find what I want, and I see some ambiguous words supposedly representing a flavor (usually associated with a temperature like "cool" or somewhere geographically cold like "polar") and I buy it thinking peppermint. I pop the first piece in my mouth and I'm taken back to when I was five years old with an upset stomach and my mother was pouring this awful pink goo down my throat to settle my stomach. Inevitably, I got to see what my food, mixed with pink goo looked like because I usually threw it up.

Wintergreen will always be the flavor of Pepto Bismol in my mind, and no matter what you call the flavor, it's just flat nasty.

Well, Greg Norman started bogey-bogey-bogey-bogey to end the suspense really early.

Padraig Harrington deserved the win with a back 9 32. Impressive in 30+ MPH winds.

You probably don't care about golf.

But you should care about watching the final round of the British Open tomorrow.

Why?

Let's look at a few reasons...

First, Greg Norman is in the lead, that's right, The Shark. He's 53. That's 5 years older than the oldest to ever win a major.  And Norman hasn't PLAYED in a major in 3 years.

Just some amazing stuff.

The weather has been brutal with 20+ mph winds and occasional rain. English weather is awesome. It has humbled the field to the tune that Norman is +2 after 54 holes and he's 2 shots in the lead. 25 mph winds are forcasted for tomorrow so going "low" will be miraculous.

When the golf course and weather humbles the pros, it makes it fun  for us hacks.

I hope Norman wins. It might eclipse his infamous choke job at the Masters many years ago.

GO SHARK!

I confess I've been a fan forever. Sin ce I was about 12 and I heard Moving Out for the first time on AM radio I was hooked. He was the first artist I made an effort to buy all of his work.

Some folks don't like him, but he's a great song writer and I will always hold his work dear to me. The Stranger stunned me with it's wonderful ecclectic collection of songs, but I didn't realize how good he was until I bought Turnstiles and listened to Summer Highland Falls.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, my mom kicks ass.

2 weekends ago, she hiked some of the trail at Elkmont in the Smokies and today, I took her to lunch, bought her an outfit for her birthday and then went for a nice ride in the country. She went swimming afterwards.

Stay young in your head people, and never quit.

I love my mom. She inspires me.