Jon in Pasadena

I.Knew.It.After.Watching.The.Video. EDIT: In my reply to TRBJ, "this point" refers to the point TRBJ is making. Sorry if that was unclear.

If I may pass along one bit of wisdom that was given to me by the guy who taught me to ride.. The most dangerous time for new riders is after you've been riding about 6 months. Your skills and road experience will be quite a bit higher by then, and there's a natural tendency to relax your guard a bit. That can be fatal. In my case, right on schedule at the half-year mark, a snot-nosed kid in his Civic crapmobile shot out from a side street and made a left in front of me without looking, at the perfect point where my sight-line was blocked momentarily by a parked van. I steered to avoid him, and would have just missed the rear of his car if he'd kept going, except of course he slammed on the brakes mid-turn. That was 28 years ago, and it taught me a very important lesson: always reduce speed whenever your sight-line is blocked, even for a split-second. I was lucky, but many other new riders are not. Good luck and keep the shiny side up!

Thank you. I'm amazed (and a little bit scared, frankly) that this point wasn't obvious to everyone.

I was more referring to the part where they grow up to 30 feet arm-span and 600 pounds, but your point is good too. Trust me, you do not want to see how a starfish feeds on its victim....

Oh boy, are you gonna hate this

My younger son just read a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" story, where the family is on a road trip, and while they were staying at some low-rent motel Rodrick accidentally mixes up the room safe and the microwave. Maybe it was something like that. Ok, that was wrong. Very wrong.

Ah. Well, I've never lived in Altadena, though I have friends there. There are some real nice pockets.. .and some less so. A lot has changed since the 80's in the foothill communities. (I'm not in Pasadena anymore either, but still close enough that I didn't bother to change my handle.) Personally, I love being 5 minutes from hiking in the mountains, 45 minutes from the beach, an hour from skiing. My commute is an 11 mile motorcycle drive over a scenic mountain pass. San Diego is also great, and only a couple hours drive. We just went down there last Saturday and hung out with friends. Ever been to Asti's in the Gaslamp? The kids liked the food, which is always a plus!

The point of JO's show was that today they are, contrary to what you might expect, still alive, kicking, and draining lots of fools of the little resources they have. Maybe the IRS could tighten up the parts of the tax code that deal with "churches" just a wee bit without causing a massive collapse of society...? Yeah, and the really awesome part is laughing at the lame fools who're gonna end up paying for the dumbfolks' medical care and other life expenses after they've given all of their $$ to the hucksters! Wait, hold on...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y1xJAVZxXg

I live in the foothills, and it's great. What's all the nightmarish stuff that I'm apparently missing?

This one's my fave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT3SBzmDxGk LOL kid @2:36

I'll keep that in mind next time I want to !@#$ a broom.

Naw, you want to go down to the Mission for those. Or not.

Probably. Maybe you should brush up on the PIT maneuver, and use that next time.

You dumped... your hand? Did you man up and tell it directly, or just "un-friend" it on fb?

Just wait until the PE teacher has a few too many nogs at the Christmas party and starts dancing around shirtless.

Great minds are in tune.... and so are ours. I think every state is racing every other state to graduate their seniors earlier and earlier to give them some kind of competitive edge. I figure it's only a matter of time before they lap themselves, and we end up right where we started, Sep - Jun school year.

Yeah, but they finish in May. Or did you mean early in the a.m?

Well, I left work to go get mine and saw him safely home, but I can't vouch for the rest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H07zYvkNYL8

First day of the new school year, and my younger kid is trapped at elementary school because a bear wandered down out of the mountains and was cavorting around the perimeter of the campus. All the "walk-home" kids were made to wait in the cafeteria until someone showed up to get them. It's gonna be that kind of year.

Follow W.C. Fields' budget: 1) Spend half on gambling, alcohol, and wild women. 2) Waste the other half. YouYour friend will be rich in life experience.

I just learned how to say "Holy !@#$!" in Mandarin.

Arguing with bills fans on DK Valentine's old BBoard; amber monochrome text, blinking cursor (block OR underscore, yay choices!), 9600 baud if you were lucky, no graphics. Man I tell ya, those were the days! /ducks

Good lateral movement. Not sure if starting material, but probably will work in a pinch.