This past Saturday we held our monthly shindig at Texoma Harley-Davidson. It was a good time. We arrived at 8:30 in the morning and had a line of customers waiting on Momma to sew patches on their vests and jackets. She was swamped by customers all day long. I just helped out with the water and ice containers. We went through a lot of water to try and keep customers well hydrated. T-Bones Restaurant was again supplying hamburgers and chips for free, but this time Schwann's was there to provide free ice cream. A couple of new vendors were on hand this month. The most unique was a couple that travel to rallies and gatherings to show their upholstering business. They will rebuild your bike seat to make it more comfortable. It's that memory foam and I tried it out to see if it did make a difference, and it really does. A couple of regulars from the last couple of months were also there. A lady applying free massages was kept busy most of the day..and Rudy simply baffled customers with his card tricks. This kid is gonna be something special one of these days. The calendar model was also on hand (in bikini) to autograph her month in the calendar, and she also took part in the watermelon-eating contest that afternoon. Texoma Harley-Davidson installed a big tent with a cooling mist flowing under it. That is where the melon-eating contest took place. Some of the contestants look like they were about to puke over filling up on the stuff. All in all, it was a good day and we look forward to August 21st when we do it all over again... See ya there.
I was talking to a friend the other day when the subject of the A-10 Thunderbolt came up..(We have strange conversations). Actually, we were discussing the two wars in the Middle East and some of the aircraft used in those wars.. We were both pretty sketchy about the plans of the government to scrap the A-10 to the trash heap. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The A-10 was built by Fairchild-Republic with one concept for the engineers...build the plane around an Avenger 30 millimeter cannon! The gun has a rate of fire of 4200 rounds per minute. Most pilots engage a target with short bursts of one or two seconds. In that two seconds the Avenger cannon fires 150-160 rounds. Designed for close air support, the A-10 is perfect for its job. The pilot is protected with a titanium 'bathtub' built around them and the plane is designed for the trouble it will encounter at lower altitudes. The electronic and hydraulic systems are triple layered, so if two complete systems are shot away, the pilot still has another way of completing the task. Built as a Soviet tank killer during the Cold War, the A-10 had to wait in the wings until the first Middle East war in 1992 to show it's stuff. Over eighty per cent of Saddam's tanks, trucks, personnel carriers, radar sites, skud missile sites, and other vehicles were destroyed by the A-10. The rugged design and basic concept of the plane reminded pilots and engineers of the P-47 Thunderbolt of World War II fame and they borrowed the 'Thunderbolt' name. Never to be confused with the sleek lines of the F-18 or the F-22, the A-10 was more commonly referred to as "The Warthog." The plane has NOT been allowed to slip into obsolescence, updated in 1978 with a new GPS system,... in 1980 the navigational system was completely computerized,...in 1999 the A-10 was made compatible with the night vision goggles of the pilot,...in 2005 new fire control & engagement software upgrades...in 2006 many of the A-10s received new wings..and in 2010 the A-10 is scheduled to receive a new Helmet Mounted Targeting System so the pilot simply looks at the target and the A-10 can utilize it's weaponry on it.....AND if that big cannon was not enough, the A-10 can still carry a bomb load of 16,000 pounds. So, the A-10 is not ready for retirement after all, but will be with us for many years to come.
I have ordered a new digital camera from the Kodak people. My current camera is a Kodak Z740 and has served me well since 2005, but now I find it is slowing down and starting to look a little fuzzy in some photos.. The new one is a Kodak Z981 and was only introduced in January of 2010. It is a fully automatic camera with manual overrides. You can set the aperture and the camera will set the shutter speed,.. or you can set the shutter speed and the camera will set the aperture...OR you can put it on fully automatic and the camera will do everything for you except make coffee. The part that was most appealing to me was the opportunity to manually focus the camera. My current camera has always let me down in that regard. I would focus on a subject and the photo would be right on the edge of fuzziness. The new camera is center-weighted metering so that should help out. That is the metering system made popular by Nikon. I carried my Nikon EL for over 25 years until it started to fade and the Nikon repairman told me it was nothing more than a fishing boat anchor. Kodak and Fuji are both planning to terminate 35mm film production soon, and digital cameras are the only alternative. I bought my wife a Nikon digital but so far we are a little turned off by it. Most of the photos in it come out brighter than the original situation. I haven't got any results with the new Kodak since it will be delivered sometime next week...but I do have these photos to share with you....
Both my wife and I are fans of Leonardo DiCaprio, so we were looking forward to the premiere of 'Inceptions'. I am not the coldest beer in the six-pack when it comes to figuring out these deep movies. (I am still working on Pulp Fiction). The basic premise of the movie is invading other people's dreams. I was with them up to this point. DiCaprio's character has devised a way to invade someone else's dreams and then insert a dream within a dream. I told you it was going to get a little freaky. Can you believe by the end of the movie they were dreaming into the fifth echelon of slumber? This is about the point where I kept asking Momma, 'What the hell is going on?' She did her best to keep me informed until the guy behind us kept making a noise like 'Sssssh!' I don't know, maybe he had a leak in his lip or something. I don't want to spoil the movie for you,..but Leonardo's wife in the movie was killed by one of his dreaming schemes and keeps coming back to mess up his plans within the dreams. The special effects are really good. At one point you get to see a city block of Paris, France picked up and stacked upside down on the next block. My right eye started to twitch about this time. If you like good action movies with lots of shooting and tusseling then you will want to see 'Inceptions.' The movie has the same director as 'The Dark Knight' if that is motivation enough for you...
It was a very popular win this past Saturday night in Chicago. With all the big name drivers battling to make the chase, David Reutimann came from behind to win the second race of his career. The first win came last year in Charlotte when rain stopped the race and Ruddy was declared the winner. Reutimann has had to carry the stigma of winning 'through the back door' ever since. The win Saturday night was nothing to apologize for, as he passed four-time NASCAR Champion Jeff Gordon to take the lead for good with 32 laps to go. Reutimann and Gordon put on a show for a while, battling for the lead. When Reutimann finally managed to pass him, Gordon radioed his crew, 'Damn, he is a good driver.' Reutimann is one of the favorites in the garage and it would be difficult to find someone that does not have something good to say about him. Reutimann came into the sport when Michael Waltrip started his own team. Reutimann requested car number '00' because that is his father's number. His dad remains the spotter for David and the two are extremely close. Earlier this year when Michael Waltrip wanted to re-new his contract with Reutimann, David told him 'whatever you think is fair,' and the two shook hands on the deal. When is the last time you heard of a major sports figure finalizing a contract with a handshake. More than a dozen of the drivers came to Victory Lane Saturday night to congratulate Reutimann on the win,...including Jeff Gordon.
I read today that former North Carolina Basketball Coach Dean Smith has been diagnosed as a victim of the Alzheimer Disease. Friends and family say he has good days and bad. On the bad days he does not remember those closely associated with Smith for years. The 79 year old coach was born in Kansas and lettered all four years he played for Topeka High School. He was named to the All-State Team as a senior and even played quarterback on the football team. Smith attended the University of Kansas on a basketball scholarship and was a volunteer coach after graduation at Lawrence. The United States Air Force held his attention for four years, but then he returned to coaching. In 1958 Frank McGuire hired Smith as an assistant coach at North Carolina, and in 1961 when McGuire was caught cheating by the NCAA, the school fired him. Smith was given the head coaching job and told to run a clean program. It was never even in suspect in the 36 years he was in charge of the basketball operations at Chapel Hill. Smith recruited the first black basketball player for North Carolina when he brought Charlie Smith to NC. Even though Smith led the Tar Heels to 2 National Championships and 11 trips to the Final Four, one of his greatest sources of pride was his players academics. Under Smith, 97 per cent of the NC basketball players received their degree. The rivalry between North Carolina and Duke University is one of the best in all of college basketball and they are two of the cleanest-run programs in all of the N.C.A.A....and today even the Duke players are wishing the best for Dean Smith.
The World Cup Soccer Games are being played in Africa, and like the Olympic Games, nationalism is being shown by all. Soccer in America is referred to as 'football' by the rest of the world, but it has never caught on as a real sport in the United States. I am the father of four grown children and they all played soccer in their youth. The game has been here, but has never attracted a national following in the States. I remember back in the 1960's when crowds would riot over the outcome of some World Cup games and deaths were even recorded as the violence got out of hand. The true mark of a professional is to be able to keep control of yourself during a period of pressure. That leads us to Saturday's game between German and Argentina. The coach of the Argentine team is Diego Maradona, who was a world class player in his day. He has been a delight with his sideline antics during the current games, but Saturday he lost his composure. Following the 4-0 defeat of his team he became involved in some name-calling with German fans that were located behind the Argentine bench. Maradona's daughter and security guards had to restrain the coach from going into the crowd. He later told reporters it was the most disappointing loss of his playing/coaching career. The photo of the crowd holding a banner reads "Good-bye Maradona". Fans of any sport can be a bit pushy, but World Cup crowds go crazy for their teams. Last week the Germans defeated England to advance to Saturday's game. I was looking forward to an England-Argentina match. These two countries have never been close since the Falkland Island war. The two countries have been at odds over those islands since the early 1800's and it finally came to blows in 1982. The British routed the Argentines, but it cost lives on both sides. Maybe soccer is the answer after all.. it definitely is not as dangerous as a war.
