Spring...it has SPRUNG!!?

Well hello agien...is any one still there? Seams like just last week I was writing one of these, but turns out it was Jan. 23, WoW! where does the time go?(keep reading and you'll find out where some of my time went!)

Speaking of time, its spring time!(although my Mom, and the radio,(her station, not mine!)keep saying its still going to snow this weekend...I,(and my station,)hope only for a good rain. We sure could use a good long rain, the snows barly melted and already the fire ban is on. This spring feels better then my last 20 or so have. The differnts being, in Vancouver, the winter rain changes to a nice warm spring rain, and after a few beers, and the front nine at your favorite course...you don't even know(care)its raining! This year, the snow,(and angry guards,)have kept me off the courses all together, but now spring is here!(HA Ha) The wintery inches of snow melting away to reviel...dead, brown, dried up stuff every where!(we need rain, rain=green, green=golf, golf=sane kev!)

The shot on the left is Febuary,(I think...)and the one on the right is today, not enough snow in the left for there to be any green in the right! But I sure am enjoying the big blue sunny Alberta skies!

Is every body ready for the masters? It'll be nice for people to be talking about Tigers other wood for a change!(he he he...I've been saving that one for awhile now.) Its sad that in all this, no one has given any thought to the little one, life in turmiol, athority figures at each others throats, total house hold chaos, millions lost in future endorsments...but you know I gotta belive Frank will be ok, you know once hes out there, amonst his adoreing fans, fuzzy little Frank will be his old self once agien!(I know thats what I'll be watching for this weekend.) I even heard that Frank would leave Tigers bag if he didn't stop his carousing, but Im not into gossip...so you didn't hear it here first!

Now, for your review, a montage of beard. These next few shots are for those of you who either havent seen me for awhile, or have for some phycological reason been blocking out my image,(nice try...but I got through!)
While you puruse this gallary of the beard in all its glory, I'll tell you about the shelf full of crap that I moved across the mountins, just to have to build a shelf for here...to collect local dust!(some of the local dust has coal in it, why I bring that up now is a mystery even to me.) On this shelf of crap,(see top banner,) I have a brassish figurine of a Ben Hogan sort of guy, a p-47 thunderbolt, with retractable undercarrage, and detchable bombs! A Todd Bertuzzi bobble head, complete with simulated beard,(or is that coal dust?) My electronic "wax melter", next to that is my capt. Spallding bobble head, from the Rob Zombie classic "house of a thousand corpses" Then a nice big(old)bottle of Fiddlers Elbow,(may not even be drinkable any more, but I'm sure some cold winters night,(this weekend?)I'll resort to it. Next is Finn, cunucks mascot, I know I'm not there any more, but I'll still cheer for the nucks come play offs!(with no Alberta choice of course!) Next on the tour, is my scales of dissapointment,(reads about 7 right now), the Increable Hulk, and another as yet untapped source of desperation beer, Hobgoblin, a sneaky beer, kind of creaps up on you. Now we come to Buddy Christ, I had him for like 3 years before I even knew it was from a movie, I just thought,"He he, thats sacralisious!" Then another "wax melter"(just incase the first one breaks I guess.) Next is a stuffed golfer bear,(fuzzy putter, its just fun to say!)and Fozzie Bear dressed as an all star goalie,(thank you very much mcdonalds, they allways know what the world needs!) have you had enough yet? started skimming ahead to see when this dribble ends? don't blame you one bit. Any ways, next is my Jason bobble head, from the classic Freddy vs. Jason. Not making the banner,(as my shelf is wider then my lens,) is a figurine of lt. comander Data, a small, indoor, styrofoam, radio controlled helicopter, an aluminum beer bottle of Kick from Molsons, the only beer I've heard of with caffine! what a fine idea for those early tee times! Saddly, like most of my favorites, this was a limited time offer.(only because you people didn't buy it, Im only one man, they couldn't keep making it just for me you know.) (Really I drank as much as I could.) (I think I did more then my bit on this one...so, its your fault, there I've said it...probably your fault they canceled the McRibs too! ok, ok, I've said my piece, back to the boring tour.) Last item(of note)on the shelf of crap, is a large golf ball full of scotch whiskey. There are small planes and beer glasses but really thats it! whew!

So have you had enough time to soak in the beard? Do you have that image of me ingrained in your long term memory? Good, now forget it, because this is what I look like now!(like right now, same shirt and every thing.)

Even with no beard, still the same bleary eyed, 10am rockstar(wannabe)vacant look on my face, so next shot I tried opening my eyes wider, and now we have the"Oh I just stepped in my own bear trap!"look. At least with the beard there was some distraction going on, now just balding dumpy guy...
So you may ask what could have brought down such a mighty beard? a job. You remember last blog I said it was time to get back to work? Well it took a lot longer to get a job then I had thought, then when I had the job there was no energy left for the blog. Seams my resume needed work,(like me!) so my Mom punched it up a little,(when She was through with it I even needed a staple!)and some how made my lack of direction seam like a renaissonce man, instead of a multy facetted tool. And I scored a job! Now that you wrapped your brain around that one, and are used to that idea...I have no job any more. The only thing the boss and I agreed on was that I should not work there any more!(one of us had to go, and he had seinority...stupid pollitics!) So now I have no job, and no beard! Feel like a snake with a broken leg! I keep stroking the empty air in front of my face. Oh well, at least I stayed employed long enough for two checks, that should tie me over till a Good job comes my way

Now that I have some free time and some money, I'll start working on my house agien. Some things I need, some things I'll do with out. Like curtins, time to dig out the Bacheler tip of the week, if like me your newly renovated home has no place for the old, mouse peed on curtins, so carfully thrown into a heap 4 months earlier, and a window in your computer game room facing the sun, then, my friend, what you need is a slightly stained, spiderman beach towel!(and when the sun shines trough it, it looks just like one of those fancy back lite art thingy's! be the envy of your compound, be the first on your country block to have one of these handy devices! It keeps out sun, scares away common criminals,(and house flies!)and is guaranteed to keep you feeling safe...at least till dark, then sadly, your on your own.

Well have plenty more to tell, but it'll have to wait till next week,(like my new game, part golf, part easter egg hunt!) yes, I plan to blog in a week instead of 3 months, so I hope you all have a good one, and may golf be with you...amen!(sacralisious agien!) Latter DufferKev.

Escape Winter, at the Edmonton MotorCycle Show!

Well Hello all,(gee I'm glad I don't pay by the" L") hope this blog finds you all warm and happy! Today is the last day of my stint as a house sitter/animal caretaker.(I'm being paroled latter today! No it means this is the last day of my Mom's vacation, her and Lyn are flying home soon!)(Sad I know) Now that this is almost over, its time to get a real job, I've done a few side paint jobs,(last one with my brother,)but its time for a real get up earl every morning type of job!

But thats for another time, right now up here its the heart of winter, so what better time for a motorcycle show?(like a far off light, in the endless darkness, the promise of spring brings new hope to the empty soul...Golf is coming! oh yeah, ridin bikes too.) I havent even worked on my trailer much since my last blog, I sure have filled the lived in parts, where did I get so much crap? But I degress, last friday, my brother Carlin and I went into town for the big show. It was good cheap entertainment, hours spent drooling over things I don't need, for more then I'm worth. Most of the new bikes were set up with a bracket through the hub, so people could safely sit on expencive bikes without the oppps worries, nice!(last thing you want is to drop a bike when they're all set up in such pretty domino rows, hehehe...)

And speaking of dropping your bike, there was more on show then just bikes. Heres a happy looking little guy on the frount of a very stylish carbon fiber knee brace! Yes you too can be the cutting edge of hobble fashion with this little number!

There are far too many bike shots to have included them all this blog, so maybe I'll have a bike of the week thing untill I've used most of my faverites, but this blog will be all bikes!

There was some surprizes for me at the show, I've not kept up on bike stuff at all.(No money=No dreams!)
Some time ago,(I guess?) the Indian m/c company was bought,(or the rights to the name at least,) and they had some nice bikes there. The Chief, the one on our right, nice bike, feels fat and stable, thats important for an older, fatter guy like me, comfort is king when it comes to bikes for me know.

The other Indian I really liked was the Bomber, they had others, but these two were the style I liked. The Bomber was a limited edition,(of course! the one I really like will be hard to get.) Only 125 made and each one has a pin up looking hand painted girl,(your choice blonde, burnett, or redhead,)to replicate the ww2 bomber nose art. Very cool, and very out of my price range!(who am I kidding, the price of a event hotdog was out of my price range, luckly there was an A&W on the way home, mmmmm, cheap momma burgers!)


Now this monster is a new Honda, but I like to think its the new BatMoBike! I was checking it out looking for the missle guide detection system or somthing! Remeber I was talking about fatt heavy stable bikes? Well if you need the reverse gear option, then thats too stable for me!

Now I'm not a huge Harley fan, but this one I really like, and for the
same reasons as the BatMoBike above, its cooler really, its more like the Punishers bike then Batmans, thats cool! But sadlly probly not comfortable for the long rides, oh yeah, and out of my dream price range.(the dream price range is the cost I might afford, if I had a good job, had nothing else to buy, oh, like a kitchen floor for instants, and was actully looking to buy a bike, whitch I am NOT!(Please remind me of this fact latter, when I get down to my faverite, pretty little, almost cheap for its size, blue beauty!

This was a bike done for the Canadian forces in Afganistan, I like the way the camo looks with the blacked out, almost anti-chrome, engine, and the use of brass for the hand grips and yoke pegs, very nice!





Another one of the surprizes for me was the Can-Am Spyder, I didn't reallize Cam-Am was still around, and to have a 109 hp, 3 wheeled sports car lookin thing was a shock. Two days after this shot was taken, I was watching the movie, G.I.Joe, rise of Cobra, and in the Joes main hanger, some guy comes riding in on one of these things. Here is my brother with his best secret agent look, Go Joe!

Now heres the bike my Bro really wants, a big 650 street/trail monster! He plans to ride it,(if he gets it)8 months out of the year.(dont laugh, I can see him doing it, then agien I can see him sliding across 4 lanes of out of control veihicels, to get run over by a snow plow, but I've never been very good at seeing things, just ask all my ex's!) The bike even has a little flat storage on the back, for stapping your laptop on! Carlin told me the US marines had these bikes, but theres were coverted to use diesel, now theres somthing I could get behind! a diesel bike.



This was a bike I felt good on, too bad it was a Ducati! I like this view, cant see the price tag at all!(nuff said!)

Now here is the problem bike for me. This is the one I think about, Sort of street/sort of trail, 650, cheaper then the Kawasaki my brother liked,(I think, I mean I saw a lot of bikes, but I remember thinking it was cheap!) felt great under me, and was a Beamer! Yes the only BMW I might actually aford,(in my dream price range that is.) A real little sweety!

After a partal wander around, it was time for the stunt show. Wow, those dudes are crazy! They were almost scraping the ceiling doing back flips en stuff! Very cool! My crappy little camera is too slow for that type of thing, but my ex-pro photogerpher brother got some cool shots, I'll steal them for latter blogs! ( hehehe.)
This part is of the custom bike wierdness section, in it are wierd custom bike stuff. Like this little skull shifter knob for a quad, kind of cool, but might freeze your hand in the winter!


And speaking of quads, I liked this guys custom dethhed thingy, soo scary! No but it really was cool. Also amonst the quads, there were some with tracks, that was somthing almost unstopable! But you'll have to wait till next blog for those. This blog is more for the bike tattoos! Permenent outward expressions of inner being!

It was nice to see such expressions on dirt bikes and quads, instead of just the custom Harleys. Like this little cute guy here,

peeking off the side of tricked out dirt bike. Only the plastic parts were air brushed on this bike, so if he wipes them out, hopefully hes got a few more on stand by, pre painted,

Now we come to the last bike for this weeks blog, next week will be back to the working on the trailer, lookin for a job, stuff, so enjoy this while you can! This beauty fall under the too much cadagory! I was talking to the guy that built it,(and painted it,) and he sent 3 years on it! He was only able to work on it between paying jobs, and has NEVER rode it! To me thats too much, paint on canvas and ride a plain bike before you make a two wheeled museme piece. It was marvelous though!

Each side had its own depiction of chaos, and grim horror!

Each new angle, a new glimps into the mind of its creator!

Every curve, every flowing line was brought to life,(or death if you will)and tried together with this sinuious boader of thorns!

And to cap it all off nicely...the classic pale rider on his pale horse!...Well thats it for a nother week in the life of Kev. I cant promise next weeks will be as intresting,(or shiny, or bright, or so colour full!)(so don't bother reading it o.k., it'll just be reno stuff, but I'll trough in the bike of the week, so theres that...)Hope the wind and snow stops before I have to go to the airport to pick up my Mom&Lyn(Thelma&Louise?, Nah.)or they might just turn around and get back on the plane, and I'll never leave the ZOO!(hehehe! just kidding Lyn,)Latter all, have a great week, DufferKev.

"From the place they call the ZOO!"

Good day all! So here I sit in the bright sun shine, writing the latest of the lost blogs, weeks behind agein,(I blame you of course!)in the outskirts of the town of Morinville. What I'm doing here is, house sitting for Lyn,(you all rembmber Lyn, whos cottege I repainted out at gull lake,)who is off galaventing around the warm part of the world,(with my mother,)and leaving me behind to sit her 4 dogs, and 3 cats,(one of witch is pure hell, from the second he wakes up, till, well I don't know if he sleeps really, yes Chris, Im talking of you,(hes laying above my head level now, just waiting to jump down on me, or the puter, witch ever,)other then Chris, all the critters get allong well, and are peacful.)

Chris has decided to strech out in the sunshine and sleep,(instead of jumping on my head,)so I feel safe enough to keep writing this! The only bar left in town here is called the Zoo, but I think if they spent any time here, they'd give up the name!
The shot on the left, and the top shot, are of a foggy cold day, out my frount door. The warm air from the south, meets the cold ground, and the moister in the warm air freezes, and presto! we get ground fog! Frozen little air mollicules, floating around, neat.

So maybe its because the Vancouver winters were so ugly,(like always wet slushie, dirty snow,)but Id forgotten how pretty winter out here is! These are some midnight shots, of the frost coverd branches. Kind of looks like coral reefs or somthing,(I really got these off the coast, 35 feet down, while looking for nemo! stupid little fish!)
This one just reminded me of a cool hellowen type shot,(BoooHaaaHa!)just out side my bedroom window, my outside light, makes it glow with a creepy kind of shine, all night long!

So I moved into my house, on I think the 26th of dec. So these shots,(and the entire blog for that matter,)are old news, so to say, these shots are of the finished waynes coating.

I still have to do the finishing trim, and fill/caulk the windows, and door. I just bought a paint sprayer,(well 2, but the second ones tiny!)so will cut all my trim, then spray it all instead of the roller/brush trick.

Here is a shot of my new looking dresser, witht the new shelves above it. The dumb thing was, my waynes coating was thicker then the stuff I first thought of using, so I had to trim off an half inch off each of my newly painted dresser drawers.(oh well, they still open and close, and now are full to bursting with all my clothes! and that new shelf is full to the ceiling with clothes, seams some where along the line, I got too many clothes! also too bad is that I found the army surplus store here, I bet they got cool pants there!)

These next few shots are taken by my Mom, she was trying to kill her batterys before the vacation,(lucky girl!) so she got a couple of great shots of the close up kitties! First is Muligan, look deep into the light, you are getting sleepy, you will no longer wreck the house, youre a goldfish, trapped in an invisable, mine like fish tank! when I snap my fingers...

Now this shot is just plain creepy. Never have I seen Slice look more like a rat! and those zombie like dead eyes! just horrific! Nice job mom!

Now we come to the part of the blog I'll call "Red Neck Fun!" Remember a few blogs back, Punky the ho master? the guy with all the upsidedowntreedeadcow art on his yard? Well some time around "Jolly do gooder day" on an afternoon in the -20s somthing, Punky shows up with his boat!(now why he even has a boat when we're may miles from the nearest water, is beyond me.)

So on the frount of the boat is a chain, and on the other end is an old ford pickup. This is the fun part, you put the women and children in the boat, tell them this well be safe, then drag them at an ludicrious speed trough feilds and slews, untill the frount of the boat tares out, and all the riders are stranded out in the middle of nowhere!(see I told you this was fun!) My mom took thses shots as well, I was out side all morning so was too frozen to get my camera. All aboard the S.S.Snowplow!










It looked like Spotty and Magoo wanted to go along, they would have been better on the walk back!
Well, thats it for the old news, next week, I'll give you the last weeks news, then we'll all be almost caught up! Latter all, DufferKev.

I've Been Floored!

Well Merry Super Happy Snow Day, to all! We have had snowy weather here for the last week, and its starting to pile up!(at least its not -35 any more, our water froze for a few days,(like 6!)but after chain sawing a hole in the skirting, we realilized the heater under the trailer was broke, so my brother replaced the heater, and presto! an hour later we had water!)(Its kind of wierd how some things are just taken forgranted, untill they don't work!)

So its now offically winter!(so its ok to be cold right? before was just pratice winter,)and soon the days willl start to get longer. Im starting to go a little batty, no golf will do that to me after a while!(not quite ready to run screaming into the desert of my mind yet,("we can't stop here, this is Bat Country!")but lets just say, the kitty litter is starting to look like a sand trap to me!)(you know, I think I could make that shot!...just open up the face, sharp angled swing, hit behind the ball,(miss the turd,)short follow through,(to avoid the lip of the litter box!)but this might really piss off the kitties, and they are terrors enough when thier happy, so...I'll just wait for spring.)
Here is a sneak peek of my waynes coating, with one coat of spar varnish on,(and a peek of the green wall behind, but dont look at that, its dusty, and not looking its best.) Its sitting on my new puter desk,(I got to chain saw apart a old teachers desk, yes it was fun!, and mounted the frount half to my floor/wall. Installing things saves space. Because I removed the back legs and the back of the desk, I could move it 4inches closer to the wall, over the pipe cover I had to build to encase the water pipes from the kitchen to the bathroom!)(this pipe cover will make a nice foot rest when I'm on the computer, or just watching the snow pile up out the window, nice!)

Now that its warmed up some,(strange how -10 feels warm to me now! although today is -25) the kitties have started to go back out side. I think they like the snow a little bit, as long as they can run back inside as soon as the little toes start to get cold! They are starting to learn some cat balance, and of course like to show it off. Here is Bunker sitting on a little post, and Hazzard had to one up her! A few weeks ago, right before the snow, and -35 spell,(a spell is a measure of time, some where between a little while, and like forever,)our little kitty Putter went missing.(Putter used to be called Grey Ghost, and was the fat little two tone grey one.) I had held out hope, but with all the snow, and super cold weather, not to mention the hawks,(sharp eyed and ever hungry)Putter would have really stood out agienst the white world background, so now we only have 5.(but they play extra hard, as if to fill the void, 5 destoying as much as 6 ever did!)

Out on back deck,(by where my brothers pad is,)there is this bird feeder, and as the kitties have started to balance, they figured out how to get up to the feeder. The logic is simple, birds go to the feeder, kitties want birds, so kitties wait by/on the feeder for birds!

One of them was even in the feeder, waiting to ambush an unwarry little birdie, swooping in for breakfest, and getting a face full of furry hell instead! They seamed surprized the birds didn't come back, so they ate some bird seed and came back inside, to sit by the warm fire.(some times when I come in, the kitties are all lined up around the fire, sort of semi circle, like they are all as close as they can be, with out melting whiskers anyways, and some times even a dog lying some where close by as well.



Ok, on to the reno part of the story. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnle,(or the on coming train, some sort of light anyways.) Not the end yet, but...well Winstin Churchill, a wise,(and drunk!)man, said it best, when he said,"This is not the end, nor the begining of the end...but this is the end of the begining!"Brillient! keep it vague, like a weather man, or a good politition. As a first time home owner, I had questions I have never thought of before. Like, how much closet space do I need? Do I even really need a mirror?(if I ever forget what I look like, I have a drivers licence, I could just look at that.)And my new favorite, what type of wax to use on a no wax floor?(and here I thought, no wax was the right choice!) I got my floor done! and here it is, I like it, very simple/cheap, and reminds me of a 50's dinner, or old barbers shop, or somthing other then a 40 year old trailer any ways.

This is the No-Wax floor, with 2 coats of wax for No-Wax on it. I am now worried about covering it with stuff,(another thing I never thought of before,)First two shots are of the bedroom/bathroom, and then the puter room/office. I also used the left over scraps of floor tile to line the drawers of my dresser.(waste not, want less!)

So today, I'll do the last coat of varnish on the waynecoating, and if its dry enough, install them. then all I'll have left is the trim. So I hope to build my bed stand as well, so, should be moved in before my next blog. Any ways, I should be out there doing things, instead of writing this, and hiding from the cold, cold, reality, waiting to attack me, just inches away through the door, creeping up the windows, infultrating our world, growing through the glass, like a crystle mold...bye. Have a great Super Happy Snow Day, every one! latter DufferKev!