That's awesome! Last time I was there the deer were almost tame looking for handouts. I don't think there was a zip line then. That's so cool! It would scare the crap out of me but I would HAVE to do it. Face your fears and all. Good for you!

Sorry to hear of this. Prayers for a speedy recovery.

I'm all over the place with music from country (waylon, willie, johnny cash, David Allen coe) to southern rock (hatchet, skynyrd, blackfoot) to harder rock (metallica, ozzy, van halen) to classical (mozart, beethoven). I am eclectic with music. But no rap ever. Well...some kid rock is good but not the stuff I hear blasting from some cars when I am in the city.

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his." -Patton

I like his quotes as much as I like Winston Churchill's.

I think Trump has clearly found a story that resonates with the American public. And I do like that he is an unrepentant AMERICAN first and foremost (which I can not say about our current POTUS). I also think he is a bit of a loose cannon and will say things that make people cringe (like the McCain comment) which could let him sink his own ship if handlers don't reign him in. One problem I see with him is that he is first and foremost a Trump flagwaver....that he and he alone have all the great ideas. I am not sure he can ever play second fiddle, right wrong or indifferent. One thing I always respected about W was how he surrounded himself with VERY smart people (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, etc.). I HOPE that Trump would do that but to this point I have not witnessed that (not saying he couldn't or wouldn't, just that I need to be shown it that's all).   

I really like Scott Walker, as he has governed a state (I think fundamentally Congressmen and Senators are poorly prepared to be President's because they never ever have to be "the one" they are always one of 100 or 1 of 435). I also like how he has taken on the unions to do what is right for his state (I see a little Reagan firing the Air Traffic Controllers in his moves).

I like Ben Carson as well. but I don't think he has the charisma to win the white house. Sadly our country is all about the 10 second sound bite and his quiet measured approach (which I think would be truly invaluable as POTUS) doesn't play well to a mainstream media that will want to tear him down. I think he would be a GREAT cabinet member.

I like Carly Fiorina (not love, like) and like that she could blunt Hillary's "vote for a woman" BS. but I don't know if she'll get through the primary as it stands right now.

Lastly I LOVE how Bernie Sanders is forcing Hillary to go further left. If I had tons of disposable money I would be sending him cash as much as I could. Ha! It seems to me that in most elections the primaries are won by the most hardcore in a party (most right or left) and then the candidate has to come back to the center to get the undecided/unenrolled/independents. The more right or left the candidate has to go to win the primary the more fodder it creates for the opponent in the general election. (It was Al Gore who ultimately sank Michael Dukakis as he found the Willie Horton issue that George HW Bush used so effectively- which could absolutely be the illegal immigration issue of today!). So the more Sanders drags Hillary to the left in the primary the more she paints herself into a corner for the general election. Not to mention the ungodly amount of baggage she already brings (Benghazi, emails, pay to play etc etc.0. Plus I just think the populace is a little tired of "royal families" (We really need a PUKING emoticon for this   :o) at this point.   

Just my $0.02. Sorry to be so loooooonnnnnggggggggwinded.  ::)

I'll still be able to shave and brush my tooth (I'm Kentuckian, so I expect to be down to a single tooth at some point...and I'll want to keep that sucker sparklin'!

a-HA!! So the toothbrush was invented in Kentucky!....Cause anywhere's else a-course it would've been called a teethbrush...

ba-dum-dum.  ;D

Quote from: Wilbur on July 27, 2015, 11:38:49 AM

Yestiday.....steaks and lobster. Mmmmm. Nica got the steak trimmings and her mouth was watering! ha!

Forgot to take a pic of the grilled corn.  ;)

Ah the perks of living near the east coast. lobster probably costs you what Dungeness costs me; a license. looks great, good lookin' dog too.

I can get a non-commercial tag for (IIRC) $40. But then I would have to get the gear and a boat to haul them with! I paid 5.99 a lb for these. I like the steak better.

Thanks she's a purebred East German and Czech so smaller than a lot of the American Shepherds (she's about 70 lbs). Her back is perfectly level when standing up. She is always working herding something. LOL Me or the kids.  ::)

Congrats Dawg! All the best to you and the Mrs. I hope it becomes your dream come true!

Sadly my neighbor who's son just deployed were advised to take down their Army flag which they did. We have all suggested that a decoy flag might be a really good idea in some places.

So cool to have that truck with the history. I would love to still have some of my old vehicles to share with my kids. You are fortunate indeed (and so is he!).

I am guessing you could make something similar pretty easily.  ;)

So I saw this online and thought of SD and other builds and figured I would pass it along. This is a mount a guy sells but it would be easy enough to fabricate one. I like the quickness at which it could be deployed.

So here are the pieces:

The top "bracket" in this pic has two slots between the welds for a hose clamp which goes around the extinguisher. The slot on the left hand side of it rides on the pin in the bottom bracket. Then the push pin goes through the smaller holes and holds the extinguisher in place.



Here is a pic that shows it holding the extinguisher:



And here's what the "finished product" looks like:



Anyway....figured it was a pretty good idea that some could use.

husker I am watching my Dad deal with cancer and completely understand some of your comments. I also agree that anything that could be used should be used and patients should be able to decide what they want to do. but I will also say there is so much information out there that we do have to rely on the Dr's advice many times even when it seems at odds with some of what we may have read or thought about. I am not saying that to say just keep the status quo (doing what Dr's recommend) because at the end of the day the whole "Quality of life" issue is a big part of this. Some times I think medicine loses sight of that and gives treatments that may help with some little aspect while causing other issues that become just as bad if not worse.

I am sorry your Dad is going through this, and that you are watching it. I know the helpless feeling you have, and the angry feelings as well, trust me. It is not easy. And while I won't claim that God can cure these things, I find, and this is just for me, that if I can let go of that frustration and put it on God, that it helps me. Will it provide a miracle cure? No, but I don't think God works that way. There's too many examples of horrific things happening in life that we can't possibly fathom from a "big plan" perspective. So I look to God not for a cure for my Dad, but for some peace for me, and for my Mom. That's what I hope He can provide. I hope the same for you at this difficult time. Feel free to PM me if I can help in any way at all. My best to you, your family and especially to your Dad.

I have had this problem with my Yukon as well. It worked for years and then the temp/compass got weird where every part of the digits lit up (like an 8 as opposed to the letter or number). Then two weeks ago it all started working fine again....and two days ago I'm back to gibberish. I clearly have power to the mirror but something is messing up the compass temp readings. I haven't bothered to try to fix it but would like to know what it is if anyone else has figured out this little gremlin.

Welcome Ryan!

Ha! You beat me to it. I just read this and was coming here to post this exact comment! Crazy stuff.

Does it make sense to have the oil analyzed? I know enough about that procedure to be dangerous but I believe it can uncover a lot of what lurks beneath the rocker covers. I just don't know how fast it can be done or how much it costs.

That is really amazing. I was sure the fastest one would have been a much smaller slimmed down copter. Unreal to have that payload capacity AND speed. Like a semi being faster than a Ferrari.  Way cool!  :)

Saw a story today that a civi was standing watch outside a recruitment station with a rifle.  Pretty sad day when that is how our troops have to be protected

Yes that's sad and hopefully that stupid a** rule gets changed asap. But it's also very cool that people, just regular people, would come to do that. I like that. Sad circumstance all the way around, but I like that there are still Americans here who get it too.

So for a long time I have been trying to learn about why Islam has so many suicide attacks on other religions. We all know (sadly) the roll call of attacks that stretch back over how many years (centuries! Look how/where Marines got their Leatherneck name!). So I have read a lot of the Koran and tried to see what is in that text that incites so many to do horrific things in the name of their religion. And sadly every time I mention some of the stuff that I have found (to Christians) I am met with the "Well Christians have the Old Testament with the 'eye for an eye'" kind of nonsense. So I want to rant about a few things I have learned.

Islam is the only religion I am aware of that actually codifies in its holy book (if you want to call it that) how to rape women, how to beat women, how to engage in polygamy, how to keep slaves, that Muslims should force non-believers to do one of three things: convert to Islam, die or pay a tax, how to lie and how to steal. All these things are done in the name of Islam.

For the nonsensical argument that the Old Testament has similar (but not as extreme) harsh things I always respond that I am not Jewish and what sets Christians apart is that we have the NEW TESTAMENT. I also try to ask....so you have one faith that is routinely doing exactly what its founder called for (Islam) and with that comes attacks, murders, suicide bombings, raping and all manner of horrific attacks on others. With the other religion, if its adherents followed the letter of rule by its founder (Jesus) we would see people "turning the other cheek", "treating our enemies as ourselves" and more. WHICH religion would be the one to inspire peace and tranquility throughout the world? Hint: It is NOT Islam.   

Plus I am so f'n sick of politicians and others continue to perpetuate the LIE that Islam is the religion of peace. It is NOT a religion of peace. It is a religion of hate filled attacks on anyone who is a non-believer and sadly also attacks on others within its own religion. The Koran ultimately is a book of Hate Speech, politicians platitudes notwithstanding. The fact is the Christian Bible is just NOT a similar document. Reading through the list of what Muslim believers are asked to do is chilling in some ways because it really reveals the depths of hatred that Muslims must have to Christians if they are to believe. As Don stated in his post about all the anti-American Muslim organizations in the US: "Know your enemy."

In my wanderings I found a great website that not only provides contextual comment for the vile things that Islam asks its adherents to do. But it also keeps track of all Islamic attacks. Not only do they keep track of them, they provide the numbers of how many are wounded, how many are killed etc. It is quite literally chilling to realize how many of these attacks occur daily around the world that the press just never ever discusses.

Here are the numbers as of today:

# of attacks SINCE 9/11 (not the # of dead, or wounded, the number of ATTACKS!): 26,424 (yes....that is 5 a day....1908 a year....for (almost) 14 years straight!)

Weekly attacks (7/4 - 7/10):
Attacks: 65
Allah Akbars: 16 (suicide attacks)
Dead: 512
Critically Injured: 580

June 2015 monthly attacks
Jihad attacks: 262
Countries: 29
Allah Akbars: 48
Dead Bodies: 2426
Critically injured: 2582

I really recommend this website and use it a lot when someone tells me I need to learn about the peaceful religion of Islam.

http://thereligionofpeace.com/

Don- having just read an interesting article on shock damping and the tuning of shocks for off-road I realized I hadn't seen exactly what shocks you put into SD. I couldn't seem to find anything either through the search function in the thread(s) (I saw the brackets but not specifically which shocks you used). I was thinking given all the suspension changes you have made and the weight of SD it would be hard to know exactly what shock would be best no? Did you go with adjustable ones? Again, thinking that some of this may end up being trial and error to get it tuned correctly for full payload, where you want to travel and how fast you want to go. Anyhoo....just curious.

Here was the article which (at least for a novice like me on this subject) I found pretty interesting:

http://www.offroadxtreme.com/engine-tech/brakes-suspension/inside-shock-tuning-how-it-works/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=inside-shock-tuning-how-it-works

hopefully not considered DOT ha

Hey you're already getting better advice than I could possibly give you so this is probably moot but I would check if the lift you want has any requirements for strength or depth of concrete. I don't know much about how they spread the loads and lots of folks seem to put them in garages without too much extra engineering but I figure it's worth double checking before you pour to be safe. Good luck!

So everyone's probably heard about the shooting in Chattanooga by now. Frigging terrible....4 Marine's dead. And the gunman.

Pamela Gellar had some interesting news about this....seems an ISIS supporter tweeted 11 or so minutes before the shooting started and specifically referenced Chattanooga:

http://pamelageller.com/2015/07/4-marines-shot-dead-1-cop-down-in-multiple-terror-attacks-on-us-military-bases-in-chattanooga-isis-tweeted-warning.html/

And while I am glad that the US Attorney is seeing this as an act of "Domestic Terrorism" I won't be holding my breath for the WH to call it that. Hell they still won't call the Ft. Hood shooting terrorism or Islamic terrorism (I guess lots of people say Allahu Akbar when shooting soldiers  >:(). 

EDITED TO ADD: Okay.....so I am not sure exactly what to believe right now....I went to the twitter site of the ISIS a**hole and the tweet that Pamela Gellar references in her piece was made at 2:34 PM so it could have been after the shooting. Or they made one earlier (Pamela Gellar's piece says it was at 10:34 AM) and just deleted it. Who knows.

https://twitter.com/K_H_O7777777777/status/621734561228177408

Anyway....still a nasty thing no matter what. But I did want to point out that part of my earlier post may have been in error. 

I remember after a pee wee football game, my dad told me my effort was pathetic... and he was right. Not that I "sucked" or that I was a bad athlete or something anything that, but that my effort was lacking, and it showed on the field. And it made me want to get better. And I did.

Then I remember when I got cut from the High School basketball team. It stung, was really embarrassing, but i'm glad i got to experience failure in that way, then, so I am better suited to handle it now, when it really matters.

Very good post Will. Competition is such a huge part of life, both internally to one's self, and externally with others. And the purpose of competing is to win.

All very good points Dawg, I totally agree. The only time I have ever given my kids grief for what they did on a field/rink was when they didn't try hard. I can't ever fault their talent level. But effort is the one thing they control, so I got on them if they didn't try hard.

have a great time! Stay safe!