Mercer Botanical Garden. Its free! Mark and Mo wanted to do something and I had no idea what to suggest, this was mo's doing. I had fun, the place was very well kept and anyone wanting to do something even close to this had better look at how many people it takes to maintain this environment, before going with the usual rocks, dead tree's and the non running vehicle look I like. It was perfect weather to walk around and just be without thinking of the many things that usually seep into the cracks of grey matter while doing nothing at home. Mark was locked onto the butterfly exhibit, but apperently the screen door ripped and they all got out. So you couldn't exactly step into a room full of butterflies, but they were all about the beams of light shining through the thick forest. I would rather drive to this place with a good book than spend anytime on landscaping my own home. I hear Koi ponds are like monkeys, it seems like a good idea till you do it. I go with the loner monkey or Koi pond in this instance.

My sister and her husband flew into town on Monday and by acci-coincedence I had tuesday off. Mcbro had the sweet idea to cruise down to the beach, AKA: Galveston. Project Brown Water was slated to start in the wee hours of the morning, but being cavedwellers we rose slowly in the mid afternoon. With light traffic we made good and legal time with a complete audio tour of Houston by Mcbro riding shotgun. I am quite fasinated by his knowledge of this place and it made the ride down very interesting, except I was driving so the finger pointing in front of my face to a church or building in front of my nose, was not meant for my attention. We made it safely to the notoriously unsafe Galveston. The evidence of the prior statement was the complete iniehilation of our way point. The dock that held all the little shops on the boardwalk had been destroyed by Hurricane Ike and washed out to sea, the second stop, the visitors center had been under 4 feet of water and was still being renovated and rather than search out the second one, we opted for an authentic sea food dinner at a local joint and watched the harmless waves dash against the newly returned sand bar(brought in by barge). We took the 2pm Duck Tour and had a great time. It was a dual purpose visit, we got to see what Galveston would be like and what kind of damage had been done. It was a sobering look at the life people here live through and still do. The ride back was mostly in silence, from being tired walking around, pain in my brothers case and of course remorse for this little sea side town that has suffered from the beginning and the wonderful people it creates due to the extreme nature of it all. If ever I had a bad day, I could always ponder the impossible actions of the Born On Island locals of Galveston,TX.

Ok I found more pictures. The first one"Is it ever going to take a picture" by evan. The second "stabbed by a six year old" by melody and lastly "A picture of what" by Mckay. We are all getting to know the little point and shoot that has served me well. I could add more info than that, but if you don't know more, you shouldn't know more. lastly, call them ships not boats.

I sneak'ed..I snuck out, is that even a word, or code for something. I was up late and could not sleep again and by the power of the internets I noticed a showing of Terminator Salvation at my local joint that serves frosty cold beer and nachos for cheap. Quickly spinning the ignition and rolling out of the driveway as quietly and quickly as I could arriving just in time to get a great seat. I have changed, movies have changed and I believe people with them, or maybe just me and everyone else is just the same. I can only answer for myself, but the movie was fantastic, I will not remember it or want to see it again while T1 and T2 are permanently etched in my head. I don't know, like flash in the pan or something, it was very showy, but not many could sit through T1 and enjoy it while similarly aware of HSM and/or a rip stick. First person of course. I remember sitting through "boy in the bubble" with my family and it was difficult because the pace was so slow, my little sugar filled mind could not handle what my little caffeine filled mind could handle now adays. Hoping you all find some menial enjoyment like me today. Sit and breath, its like kiegal exercises for your soul. Who doesnt like a good picture of a ship in the waterway looking toward Houston.

I have enjoyed what time I have with the family and in the interim tried to accomplish something. The duality of this is usually not very productive as the simple addition of one person to the plan doubles the time constraints or more depending on the person. So I have reverted to my usual lower expectations and as long as my left foot comes into view as I walk, I'm feeling pretty good. We have finally picked up the el camino. GOAL!!!! It does need some work, but it made the trip surprisingly well and elation of a job well done was rewarded by watching the kids wipe 3 months of dirt and bird poop off the degraded finish with about 8 dollars worth of pull out wipes. I and McBro sat comfortably in our camp chairs, his periodical about other people fixing up crappy houses let him live the life as I justified my quite excitement about receiving Peter Egans "Leanings 2". Even without the spectacular linguistics and passionate perspective the book is perfectly composed of a number of short stories just long enough to drag you in. If your not familiar with his work, or like others could give a rats about motorcycles and books associated with motorcycles, it's simple. Mcbro asked,"Who is Peter Egan?" I was at a loss for a simple summation of such a complex question and knew I only had his attention until something shiny came into his peripheral, I stated. Pual Harvey. Peter Egan is the motorcyclists, Paul Harvey. He can tell a tale, sell a story or bring an emotion to a tangible taste in your heart. I have not been able to live a privileged life with travel and excitement around every turn, nor do I really want to invest myself into it that much. With someone elses vicarious telling of the event i have traveled to many different parts of Europe, sampled a number of motorcycles in detail, been a guest to Honda in the orient, met with the best this great land of America has to offer and reveled in all the details of each event. Including Bonneville, expecially Bonneville. I go to a place no one else could take me in his pages. The past. These changing days have brought good and bad. Digital photos, media, linking, forums, the exchange of information is so quick and technology for casting, machining, computer design and metallurgy have advanced to the point where the landscape of the hobby itself has changed. Aftermarket parts are ordered before the car is delivered. And the great ones are coming to the end of their era. All the men I looked up to in the pages of multiple periodicals and the telling of tales by others are passing and with them, history with it. Peter is in the same realm for me as Gray Baskerville, 'dad' of "Hot Rod Magazine" as an influential person that has groomed me for many years with knowledge and respect. The march of time stops for no one and I feel like my idols are falling at my feet before i even got the chance to get to know them better. I wrote a letter to Ak Miller about an article I read covering propane injection and turbocharging a small block chevy about 4 years after he passed. I met Boyd Coddington and Ed Roth only years before they moved on. I hope that I get a chance to just meet Egan once. I briefly thought of journalism in the sense of it's application in the hobby, but I don't think I'm geeked out enough to do it. I read forums and stay involved as much as a guy with other commitments to work and a school career in progress can. It takes years to build a network of information and the new application doesn't apply to guys like these greats. Its us. The standard guy, working on his car/motorcycle/boat/truck or etc. Freelancers and Master Administrators of .org's and .com's organizing shooting and writing full features for publication, because the technology has become so easily accessible. No one will need Rickmans eye for the photo, because you can just shutter bug away and pick the best pic. So here I reminisce about the greats, and what they have brought to me and I think many others. Thank you for teaching us all about so many things and thanks to the technology we have, it will never need to leave. And Thank you to spell check for all the repairs you have given me over the years, lest I ever learn to spell on my own for all the books I have read.

Alot has been happening in Mcbro's interim from the dept. The El Camino sits in the garage where he left it and have yet to bring it home. Lots of potential there, being the miser I am I have purchased a 2010 camaro and began making modifications immediately. 4 stage iridium blue paint being the first one and at 6 dollars, not cheap. Today we had a big day in Pasadena cruising the old playground. A lovely place if your mechanically driven as the bulk of the town appears to be factory owned. Today was also a day of remembering fallen officers, the service was really awesome and the officers in attendance where top notch. I got a tour of the new department an excellent investment if I may say so and in the back some lifted 4 wheel drive police trucks marked, High Water Response. A gun and a Truck, Nice. They also had a few Tahoes, Chargers, Goldwings and a fleet of PI Crown Vic's. We picked up the contents of his old car's trunk and almost filled the bed. It was a big day. -Evan

We are everywhere. I was riding up Rosa's driveway and the motor mount on her little electric scooter broke, while I was riding it. I knew what was broke and even how to fix it, that didn't mean that I had any access to the right tools. A simple muffler shop with a mig could have easily fixed it, but this is the shop I stumbled in down the road. Why me, why here, will this sickness ever go away. I admired the mans skill and the bike on the rack is actually going to be featured in an up coming periodical, hence one photo from a bad angle, If you want to see more, buy "The Horse" two months from now. The geometry on the sporty chop is a little extreme and if you want the option of turning its a strong arm proposition, with little suspension in the front and none in the rear the handling of a tractor is probably more comfortable. I loved it. While you read this I can access your webcam and stare into your glassy eyes and hand shoved in cheek propping your head up to keep you from impaling yourself on a starbucks cup so I'll move on to something interesting. Venti Double Wall Starbucks cups. I bought 4 and if you want one your out of luck. Oddly enough we have all written our names on them, of course to designate ownership, but it's the names. I have and alias and that works most of the time, but in this case we all went for some reason with nicknames or surnames. Kimbo, Mcbro and EZ, with X10sin on the side. Am I the only one that refuses to grow up, I think not. To all the stubborn children of the earth that cast aside a certain amount of adultness thank you. this excludes pouting and throwing tantrums like that woman on youtube that missed her flight from japan to the united states, funny, but not what I'm talking about. If you have ever saran wrapped a coworker to an office chair and used him/her for a game of bowling for pins of shredded paper waste containers. Good Job. If you have ever threatened a coworker of taking your stapler or stealing your post its with access of the supply closet one floor away with an attack of a blunt but knurled object, that might have been too much, you should seek help, I can give you a good recommend. All kidding aside have some lucky charms for breakfast and sit for a coke and a smile on your unpaid break. If you have nothing left to do Friday night, all the other people that don't do anything on friday nights are meeting down at the movie theater for some big event or something.

To the young man who was kind enough to show me and McBro his dads SRT-8 Challenger while his/your Mustang was at the house. The benevolence subjected gave me even more hope than the recent crop of awesome muscle to leak out of Detroit lately. Thanks for your time and dealing with, extreme excitement I subjected and letting me sit in it. Sweet ride, let me know if you buy a Camaro and where/when that car show is again.

I came in through the back of Munday Chevrolet for McBro's easy ingress when I spotted the third demension of the thing that my dreams seem to linger on for to long. Like the long blond hair and fancy figure you spot at starbucks hoping the face is as hot, I raced at my brothers walker pace to the silver lined panels of the first v-6 victim my fingers would fondle. Over the yellow plastic chain and out on the handle the dash began to glow in a dim suble LED hew around the reminisent guages of long lost, the hidden switches and buttons showed them selfs by name in the yoke literally illuminating controls on controls, paddle shifted automatic 6 speed transmissions similar to the Ferrari of a few years back. The sun roof made sense, driving this thing could make the drivers head swell. HID headlights with the angel ring around it actually did not bother the salesman in the small cube directly ahead of it, for he was the one who asked to be blinded like me by the things this car can do. Rather than the look of an onslaught of guages, switchs, knobs and levers like I had expected based on the long list of features on the sticker, there was a clean finish with every button hidden in a knob with a variety of features and where some 8 or so buttons across the dial hold presets, they change a feature with the turn of the knob that hides the button. It took all of five minutes to figure out most of what it could do, begging for more trial and error it was on to the rest of the car. Given the attention to the cabin it's difficult to forget the stares this thing would get on any boulevard. The sales brochure could come with a tissue, and elect far fewer uses as the vehicle may eliminate every bodily function. oh, and Sassy does not like her cone, the entertainment for tonight is watching her bump into everything in the living room, with no peripheral vision and eyes on the side of her head I can relate to her given the beginning of this day. Happy cinco de mayo.

This has been an epic day of nothing. My first day off and I had already made an appointment with my neighbor/GM sales manager to see the new 2010 camaro. Nothing dampened my anxiety about the event of seeing something so long in the making only hoping that this new super efficient v-6 and the upcoming volt could save the general from bankruptcy, like the K car did for Chrysler in the 80's (only with some form of respect and credit I hope) I was extremely impressed with the fit and finish of the vehicle and my online education of the new direct injection, variable valve timing with coil on plug ignition super efficient and powerful v-6 is truly a masterpiece for the masses. The only thing holding the car down is ironically it's gravitational pull and steep sticker. As for the latter the RS is packed with creature comforts and features that will keep the ipod generation fumbling over the same simple keys on the dash to do a variety of neat features that is evident in my minutes of mastering the radio that does enough that the idea of going from the bolstered seat in the cockpit to the couch seems like a step down given the 4 household devices on the coffee table that take up residence in the smoothed out dash. It felt well thought out and before my brother could even figure out what I was doing I was syncing my blue tooth phone into the on board stereo to make a long distance brag call from the interior of the subdued blue lit leather lined and strong, but soft covered den of men. I hope they sell a million of them, it really is a great car. The Volt will I hope be an even better interpretation of what we need vs. what we want. The RS is the least of a compromise, because it's everything you want and something you need. Of course the same thing that stopped you from buying that last sweet deal on a first gen still exists, but financing on new vehicles vs. older ones is always easier for some reason. I have no idea why the snap of me and a beautiful '56 corvette roadster turned out so good. Standing next to something so nice its nice to look nice, at 53 years old, I would still do the corvette. They also had a 52 corvette at Munday Chevrolet, I am not a Corvette fan really, but I can appreciate greatness when I see it. Go check out this car for yourself, I double dog dare you to find anything that strums the soul quite like this. The last pick is of the air slowly deflating out of me and Mcbro, both having had a long day doing nothing.

I have been having problems with my new firewall and have not been able to post. Sbux has kept me busy and I love the drive through. Before all of this though, we installed a flower garden for the family. That little tiller kicked my butt. Kim and Rosa did a great job setting up and planning the whole thing and the kids even got dirty. Mcbro was there for all of it selling/yelling his opinion on a regular basis. I know it was on a Thursday, because Matt and Meredith were over. We had a blast and Sara soaked the whole thing real good. One day later it started raining buckets and didn't stop for three days, so we can do it again. I have been holdn out for a while, we do something on a regular basis and I take pics some of the time, but the best stuff is really trapped in my mind to come out at a later date when either time is plentiful or long lost synapse are chemically triggered by reverse alzhiermers...fingers crossed.