When the U.S. joined World War Two,

When the U.S. joined World War Two, the president told the masses they all needed to pitch in by collecting rubber, iron, cooking grease and buy war bonds, and you bet they did.
Everyone chipped in to help the war effort, from the Boy Scouts to old folks people sacrificed.
When the oil war broke out, president Bush said "go shopping" what a croc of shmit, thats embarrassing.
All the shopping going on today is more than irritating, it scares me, thats a lot of stuff in the landfill, thats a lot of plastic, lead and mercury in all that stuff.
A lot of batteries, a lot of electronic components that will be rotting in fields in a few years, ya gotta look like 6 years ahead to see where that crap is going.
You know what are good gifts?
Socks, Caffeine's mom gives her loved ones socks and I always thought that was sweet.
Anyone who wants to treat old Dingo to a gift, I need the stuff that freezes off warts.

In other news, I saw a couple of people I know ...or knew, on the news, they are brother and sister and they were just killed in North Portland.
It's been a long time but I remember them.
I'm surprised they lasted that long, it's hard to stay in that neighborhood (rentwize).
I see the community is trying to band together to stop violent crime, if I still lived there I wouldn't, it was the biggest mistake ever trying to reduce crime in North Portland, for all the staying up all night, patrols, getting back stolen bikes and a car, fighting bangers and crack heads, all we got was classed out of the neighborhood.

Maybe if I owned a house, my opinion will change but as a renter, community policing sucks.
I'm glad we didn't own that house in North Portland, I didn't know how racist my neighbors were
until the max came in and the land was worth much more, within a year most of the black folks,
Asians and clowns were no longer living on the corner of Failing and Michigan.
I usually don't equate race and gentrification, it's a class thing not a race thing, but at our old place, you can't deny that 4 really racist homeowners got what they wanted, when we stood up for black and Asian folks, they got rid of us too.

I found a big branch in the road last night, I was riding around doing errands when I saw the most crooked
branch on a pile of brush, I tied it to the back of my bike and drug it home.
It's my new Chrismas Tree, I decorated it and I'll put presents for my kids under it,
(this year I'm getting them socks and wart remover) they will be impressed.

I inspect my bike twice a week or so, making sure that it won't fall apart while I'm taking a turn or something.
On this week's bike inspection, I missed a spot, the derailier fell off during a climb last night, it was a smooth break and I didn't crash or anything, I just didn't expect it.
I was lucky that I was up Hawthorne street and not down Hawthorne, I was able to mount the Behemoth, a great wind was at my back, all I had to do to get home (about a mile or so) was let the wind take me home by coasting.
I got most of the way home with no drive, that was great!.
I have to fix that stuff, it's gonna suck because I have to change out two chains, a crank and the derailier, they all wear out together.
I went out one morning to ride to coffee and to my dismay remembered the sad state of my bike, losing her entrails all over the ground and sitting helpless in it's bay.
I jumped on the General Lee and it was amazing how fast I suddenly was, it's a great bike.
The best bikes in the fleet were no dought built by Topher Moore, his contribution to the fleet formed the basis of our style and the standard.
The Behemoth is slow, heavy and won't fit on the Light rail trains but it can carry all the components of a personal computor easy, the General Lee won't carry much but it's like floating 6 feet above the ground, it's fast!

I think that when I go out to coffee, I'm really just renting table space, there aren't enough tables in my life, or more accurately, not enough room for the amount of tables I require, I need a castle or another mansion, this small room stuff would have been great when I was a teen but I'm a full grown man, I need space to draw cartoons and scratch my back on the doorways.

Today I will be fixing my bike, taking a razor blade to the bathtub ( I left a film during my hours long soak the other night.) and then I'm looking for a date.