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autopilot
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There's something that is just so wrong about that! But, seriously- I got another day in this life to live, love, laugh, watch the grandaughters looks of total awe & surprise opening gifts. I got to watch the best father I've ever seen, interacting with with his kids. I got to watch a grandmother glowing in the love of her granddaughters as they played in the floor, trying together to figure out how a particular toy worked. I got to remember Christmas's of years past when we all (my brother & sisters & their kids) would gather at Mamma & Daddy's house and feast on the best food that my Mom loved fixing for us all, and the stories and the laughing. I got to sit and talk about mundane things with my son, interspersed of course with the occasional squeal of one of the girls when he tickled them. I got to watch a couple of very interesting (to me) programs on TV. This year, I got to come here and read about all of your Christmas(s). The best gift I got was being able to talk to my Lord and asking His blessing for all of my friends & acquaintences here...His help with jobs or money for those who need it; with renewed good health/healing for others; safety and safe comings & goings for all who are away, so they may make safe returns to their loved ones. All in all, I had a super Christmas and oh yeah, I got a neat fleece lined hooded sweatshirt, to boot!
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One more from the autopilot book of things to make you fat! These are little finger foods. The components sound like an odd combination to be together, but they are quite tasty. INGREDIENTS: 1 pack (about 3” X 6”) pre-cooked, pre-sliced Danish ham. Slices must be thin enough to roll up without breaking apart. (~1/16” +/-) Kosher dill pickle spears (Heinz or an equivalent tasting pickle) Tub of whipped plain Philadelphia cream cheese PREP: Dry off the ham slices on a paper towel as you prepare them. Take each pickle spear and lightly squeeze with a folded paper towel on the cut surfaces to soak up most of the liquid. ASSEMBLY: Lay out a ham slice on a cutting board and spread with a light even coating of cream cheese. Turn the slice so that its length is away from you (short side is closest to you. At the edge, place a pickle spear across the ham slice. Roll the pickle up in the cream cheese coated ham slice. Stick about six or eight toothpicks in the completed roll to keep it from unwinding, then take a sharp knife and slice the roll in between the toothpicks. You are shooting for 3/8 to ½ inch wide pieces or size to your liking. Each piece with it’s own little serving handle. Repeat until you run out of something or until you’re satisfied you have enough. Arrange on a serving platter of some sort and you’re set to go. They’re a little tedious to make, but they always disappear ; and they are good. (I will usually take the ones from the little end of the pickle and eat them while I’m making them….they’re not as pretty as the others and I don’t want anyone feeling slighted if they happened to get stuck with one of them ends ..you DO believe me, right?) Try ‘em, you’ll like ‘em!
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This is a dish for cheese freaks! The recipe is for a small batch (I’m thinking about a 9” square Pyrex or Corning dish?) The batches I usually make for holidays, etc. are double batches. So, simply double all ingredients for a good sized batch. (use one of the rectangular dishes) Ingredients: 2 eggs beaten 1- 7 ounce can of chopped green chilies 2 tablespoons flour ½ pound grated sharp cheddar cheese ½ teaspoon salt ½ pound grated Monterey jack cheese 1/3 cup milk (optional) chopped jalapeño peppers NOTE: The chilies can be mild or hot according to your personal taste. I use the mild when I’m making it for someone else. The same goes for the addition of the jalapeño peppers (a little goes a long way with these babies). Directions: Lightly grease a glass baking dish. Preheat oven to 350°. 1. Mix the eggs, flour, salt and milk. Work out the flour clumps as best you can. 2. Combine the cheeses, chilies, add liquid mixture. Mix by hand in the same manner as you would prepare ground meat for a meatloaf. Knead/squish until you have even distribution of all ingredients. 3. Pour/scrape into the baking dish, making an even layer. 4. Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes. 5. Allow to cool for 10 minutes or so before cutting & serving. It doesn’t cut well when hot. Best served warm. Cut into about 2" square pieces. As with any recipe, the flavor is dependent on the ingredients. Two different brands of sharp cheddar cheese will have different tastes between them, as will the hardness of the cheese block. The same is true for the Monterey jack. The one suggestion I offer is to use block cheese and grate it yourself, either in a processor or manually. (the results are better) The stiffer the block of cheese is the better the flavor and texture is. I use the Walmart house brand. You don’t want stringy drippy cheese (obviously cheeses like mozzarella or Velveeta would be really poor choices for this dish, but hey—you’re the one making it, you’re the one that’s gonna’ eat it; use what you want!) You'll probably be able to feel your arteries harden while you eat it, but man is it good. I hope you guys like it. Enjoy!!
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An opinion and a story. I don't believe in random or coincedence. There is purpose behind everything. If you study it thoroughly, I think you'll see why I say that. A few years ago, shortly after my son was saved, he was relating that he stopped and picked up a guy who was apparently homeless & broke and was talking to him about the Lord, etc. My son took him to breakfast and fed him, well. He then gave him his leather jacket as it was pretty cold weather. He gave all the cash he had on him, prayed with him and he gave him his personal Bible before he dropped him off and continued on to his work. I remember thinking to myself..He's got it right and it's in his heart and I was so proud of him. I tell that to set the stage for my part of the tale. In the days following my son's episode, I was putting gas in my truck and a guy approached me and asked if I had any spare change or words to that effect. He looked a little uneasy and it made me uneasy as well, so I told him I did not, even though I did. I went inside to pay the clerk and it kept gnawing at me. The Lord will send angels to test us and if this was one of those times, I just failed miserably and lied in the process. I went outside to correct my error and the guy was gone. I jumped in the truck and went in the direction I had seen him walk away in, but to no avail. I felt horrible. I had a chance and blew it. Well, a couple of days later, my wife and I were returning home from visiting my son and decided to stop and pick up a couple of burgers at Wendy's to take home. I dropped her at the door and pulled the truck around and parked until she was ready, because it was pouring rain at this point. It was late and dark and there was a darkly clothed man plastered up against the side of the building to try as best he could to stay out of the rain. Shortly, he nervously left the relative dryness of the wall and approached the drivers side of the truck. I rolled the window down a bit and asked him what he wanted. He proceeded to tell me that he had been up for 2 days straight without food, getting here from wherever he had been. He had been released from prison and had spent everything for bus fare getting here and explained that he had a place to stay but they needed $5 to hold the room until he could try to get a job the next day. The story seemed pretty lame, and I chuckled to myself as we spoke. He thought I was laughing at him and asked me to please not do that. Without a lot of explanation I told him that I was not laughing at him at all, I was laughing at myself...God had put him there for me to make right my previous screwup. I took his hand and prayed for him, gave him $20 and told him to go inside and get him something to eat, warm up and use the rest for his room. I don't think I've ever seen anyone move so fast to go buy a burger in my life. He was so profuse in his thanks, I was embarrassed. I thanked the Lord for for the favor of giving me a second chance at one-on-one charity. I like to think that this guy meeting me made a big enough impact to get him jumpstarted in a new direction. I'll never know, but for me, the feeling of being able to help this guy, even if it was for only those few minutes was beyond wonderful. The feeling of being able to have a second chance at doing it right for the Lord is priceless! I didn't have much money to be throwing around at the time, but I remembered a biblical lesson from some point in my life....to give, out of your own need. With study,you'll find that to be another great truth! Sorry about the length, but if you're going to tell a story....you tell the story!
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Bummer! Then again, I can't really tolerate the really cold riding much any more, anyway.
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Mini got Muffinman a set of battery powered gloves last year...Never did hear how that worked out. I was thinking about some of them myself.
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Wish he was still around. I used to love to watch him. We could use more like him today. What a concept.....clean jokes, no cussing and standing up for America in the process! God love him.
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Thanks for the post. I am forever humbled by the bravery exhibited by men such as this. God surely has a special place for heroes! Thank You Mr. Freeman!
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If they are the Cobras (and I believe they are), they obviously don't make them anymore. I got mine in mid-'07, but I don't recall what I paid for them. I do remember that Cobra took them off the website shortly after the time I bought mine. I'll dig around and see if I can find my receipts (I keep everything). Seems like they were quite expensive if you got them from Cobra. I think I got mine from a guy on Ebay. (hard to remember.... I was buying a lot of stuff for both bikes from all over the net, at that time. ) I'll let you know.
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Amen to that!....For Sure.
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Looks like Cobra Dragpipes. I have a set on my '98 RSTD
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Now, why doesn't that surprise me. You sure you didn't used to be named Sally???? Congrats on the new ride; by the way..us guys are very much into "colors", thank you! Seriously, though...We got my wife an Escape in '05; she loves it; I.......tolerate it (It's not fat-guy friendly). I used to have a red '89 5.0 Liter, 5 speed....had way, way too much fun with that car, if ya know what I mean!
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And all this time I thought I had been abducted by (insert your favorite conspiracy) and had a tone generator implanted in my skull. Or it could be a HAARP transmission! They really turned up the volume on me today! Dang, I wish I hadn't thought about it. Now I'll be aware of it all night. Come to think of it, I have been having more headaches lately I had been told by medical "professionals" and was under the general impression anyway, that they didn't know what caused it, nor did they have a fix for it. I have however, seen an ad on TV lately for something non-prescription that is supposed to help. Naturally, I don't remember what it's called! Now, if they can fix memory failure.....I'd be interested in that for sure!! What were we talking about?
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Even though I quit smoking a couple of years ago, the thought of a fine Havana cigar, hand-rolled on the thigh of beautiful mulata woman does have it's attraction, I must say!
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I would say thanks for sharing, but.........NAAAAHHHHhh!!! I had the 5foot version of the pipesnake done a few years ago. I told the Doc, that with regard to the stuff you have to endure to prepare for it, the next day that I could have accomplished the same result with a big jug of Welches grape juice, and been more or less happy drinkng it. I also told him that if it was all the same to him, I could do without all the CO2 next time!!! (I started to ask him to use Helium just to be able to know.....you know!!)
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The words seem way too small, but thank you....very much! My earnest prayers go out for you, for a speedy, un-dramatic tour and a safe return. And a very large thank you for your wife. Tell her ..we ain't so bad and we do clean up well (most of us anyway)
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I ahhhh, designed and ah hand built a 2 liter V10 engine and a ahhhh eight speed..yeah, eight speed trans and put them in my bike. Yeah that's it! Now I have ahhh 650 horsepower and ahhh kept the weight of the bike below ahhh 400 pounds, yeah that's it.... Now The bike will go ahhhh 250 miles per hour and still give me 150 miles per gallon. It'll run on booze, but the ah cops keep wanting to ticket the bike for DUI when they smell the exhaust! I needed the extra power because ahhhh I also built a ahh pull behind trailer for it. Yeah. And when I push a button, it opens up into a ahhhhh 1500 square foot camper yeah that's the ticket.... with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a full kitchen and ahhh garage for the bike and a generator to power the lights and ahhh heating and air conditioning. During the overnight, a special unit I designed will take hydrogen and oxygen from the air and make water and fuel, so I never have to stop in gas stations. There's more but I have to leave for dinner with ahhh six ...no ---8 leaders of European countries! We're supposed to talk about forming ahh special company that will use my designs to ahhh start a colony on ahhh Mars, yeah that's it!
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Nicely put, Annie! I agree.
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I guess it's that time again. My trading computer cratered last Friday. The long & short of it (no pun) is that the motherboard bought the farm. Got a new MB, a new bigger HDD, more & faster memory. And on top of it all, the darn UPS battery went south! Of course you KNOW how when something happens, there's something else right behind it, right? Well, I wanted to put off buying tires for my truck; had a tire wearing funny, so I thought I would get an alignment. When they started work I told them to swap tires front to back so I'd have the best tread on the front.....rear brake pads are down to 10%..replace the pads/turn the rotors......see those rusty spots on the rotors....the calipers pistons are hanging up. so several hundred dollars later, I got brakes & I got aligned...definitely putting off tires for a while. Then, last night, the wife calls out...."you better look at this toilet; thing's trying to overflow". I plunge...no joy! Fearing a downstream paper clog, I check the other toilet....nearly ran it over; now I have water very slightly backing into both tubs. It's gonna be past the wye connector, possibly the septic tank itself....I'm pessimistic about these things, I figure the tank is going to have to be pumped. Never been done, house was built in '86. Well, it's 11:00 PM by this point, mama's ticked off ...."I have to shower in the morning, I have 3 appointments, etc., etc." Fast forward.....tanks empty, lines clear, yard is rutted up, since it's been raining for 3 days; there's a shallow pile of dirt in the yard; but all is well.......except for my wallet, after all this. And my mechanic is going to be calling any day for me to bring the Goldwing in for the $400 carburetor job I told him to go ahead and work into the schedule. Sometimes ya just have to shake your head and laugh It's like I told my friend at the alignment shop: "Shoot this thing; Lord have mercy, Shoot this thing! Somebody shoot up in here amongst us......one of us has got to have some relief!"
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Glad to have you back. Thanks for the effort and the sacrifices on our behalf. God bless you and all our fine men and women in military service!
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I have stated elsewhere on this site, my affection and appreciation for all the Veterans out there. This post is special appreciation for another Veteran I know very well. She’s not a combat vet, but she did serve during the Viet Nam conflict for 4 years as a USAF medic. She worked in the Emergency Room. She worked Sick Call. She worked General Medicine Clinic. She was NCO in Charge of the Pediatric Clinic and later, the OB/GYN Clinic as well. She was and is the kind of person you always think of when you think about true heroes. I don’t mean the combat hardened, 3 tours under fire, Purple Heart, obvious “I was in war” kind of person. She was and is quiet & unassuming, genuinely humble and doesn’t think that doing the jobs she did, holding the positions she did was a particularly big deal….even if she was only 19-20 years old at the time. If you didn’t already know, you wouldn’t suspect that she had even been in the service. She has never been one to say much about it……Actually, if you were observant, you might pick up a distinct no-nonsense, get it done attitude, reminiscent of the type person you would expect to find in a position of authority in the military and elsewhere. She has always had the attitude “do the job, do it well!” The funny part of that is she was always driven by her work ethic and never really gave much thought to whether “rewards” would be greater or not. Of course they usually were because of that very attitude, but she didn’t hunt for them. She still has that same ethic, 40 odd years later. So, I would like to make this a special statement of appreciation for a fellow Veteran, whom I admire for those very qualities that make ordinary men and women into heroes. I truly believe that if the situation demanded it, she would be a fearsome opponent.........One like you usually think of when someone uses the term Veteran or Hero This one is both! This one happens to be my wife!
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I can add only my deepest heartfelt thanks and appreciation to our Canadian neighbors and brothers in arms. Rest assured that I will remember....always!
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Thanks for the appreciation. Add my thanks also to our brothers/sisters in arms, past & present. Anybody else get to Applebee's for the free Veterans lunch? I thought that was a very nice thing they did for us. Meal wasn't bad either!
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I agree with you on everything but styling. Yamaha specifically targeted a demographic that likes (more or less) the "retro" style of the Harley, but wanted something "different".."better"...in the most subjective areas-long distance comfort and strong versatile power, when they introduced the 2nd generation Venture. If the demand weren't there, I doubt Kawasaki would have introduced their new touring bike; and Harley still gets a big chunk of the market. The difference, I believe, is that the Venture/RSTD represent the proverbial "old shoe" comfort feel & look, with a leg up on the technology part of the equation. That's not to say the Venture is loaded with tech ..it's not.... not yet. Notwithstanding that Yamaha has milked the 2nd gen a little too much and has delayed upgrades in favor of developing other parts of the product line, I honestly feel that the "next" Venture will be similarly styled, though not quite so staid and tech-wise it will be all over it's immediate competition, cruiser-styled touring bikes; there will of course be Goldwing and euro-bike converts, but only........IF Yamaha paid any attention to us at all about what we liked, disliked and wanted in the next generation, AND acted on it. So, I'm cautiously optimistic. I mean if all else fails, Yamaha can go back to just making musical instruments and outboards, I'll keep trying to make my RSTD & my 'Wing more to my liking and keep right on riding them.
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Regarding the dropping of the RSV in favor of another model in the line (or simply dropping it), I would say this about that! I don't see it happening. Yamaha corporate has far too much money tied up in engineering & development, tooling, etc. of the new Vmax engine for them to not use it elsewhere. The Vmax is just too much of a specialty bike with a limited demographic to tap for sales. It only makes sense to use the powerplant in other models (RSV & RSTD) as was done before. Yamaha may be a lot of things, but I don't think stupid would be among any descriptive terms I would use for them (and I do think it would be a financially dumb move for them to make). Agonizingly slow to do things?...yes! Rigid in their thinking?... possibly! Stupid?...I'd have to vote no!! Besides, they were the ones to take ten plus years developing a following for these machines. It just doesn't compute for them to blow that off or to expect RSV & RSTD owners to forego 4 cylinders for two, or liquid cooling for air and hang around out of good will, etc., etc. And I think Gregg's discussion with the Yamaha rep. dovetails with what I've said. OK, I'm done!
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