If you've read this blog for a while, you know that I take great amusement from seeing the different 4x4 creations and amalgamations that I occasionally spot around town. My boys and I were out in the truck tonight and spotted this creation just before sunset: a Ford Galaxie on a '79 Ford F150 chassis!
I got to talk to the owner of this beast for a minute, and he said that the transformation took a mere four days due to a lot of planning. It's a really nice piece of work, I must say. This creation was only recently finished, but I bet you'll spot it around town soon!
I'd say this whole homemade 4x4 thing is getting out of hand...but isn't that the point? I'd hate to discourage this kind of creativity and ingenuity. Besides, it's exactly the opposite of what liberals want us to do, drive silly little death traps in a vain attempt to "save" the planet they worship.
For any of you who haven't seen them all, here are a few of the other creations I've spotted in Bismarck-Mandan:
My boys and I spotted this rugged looking Ford Van conversion last year. Yep, it's a dually; it's got four tires on the back. I guess it's ready for some heavy cargo, since it can't pull a fifth wheel trailer. Interesting.
Nothing says class like a Mercedes sedan. Apparently if you don't like the ride height, it's possible to give it a little boost (along with some four wheel drive for good measure).
Equally classy is the Cadillac sedan, which happens to bolt on to a Suburban (by the look of things) chassis. The step rails are a bonus in my book. This is in the nicest shape of all the conversions I've seen.
Knight Rider had a lot of gadgets, but I'm pretty sure that four wheel drive and a Vortec V6 were not among them. There's a ZR-2 model S-10 chassis underneath this Firebird.
There's one other 4x4 I haven't seen around here since the mid 1990s: a pinkish-red pearl El Camino, or possibly Ranchero, which was last seen on the used car lot at Cedric Theel. Who knows where it eventually ended up. If I spot that one, I'll count my collection complete. Of course, that's what I said before I saw the Gremlin.
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( 3.1 / 124 )ND motorcyclists: call your legislator and tell them to vote NO on the government healthcare takeover
I was sitting in Barnes & Noble as I'm known to do occasionally, reading some of those zany British motorcycle magazines that make our American mags look like vegan cookbooks by comparison. I was reading an issue of Visor Down and noticed an interesting tidbit in the "confessionals" section. I snapped a quick photo (above) of the reader's submitted letter. The part that jumped out at me was:
After a trip in the big NHS taxi, I found myself in casualty, on a Friday night and it was packed. I was walking wounded so I was left in the corridor on a luxury PVC NHS wheelchair. After about 2 hours, and feeling a bit stiff, I decided to hop across the packed waiting room to the drinks machine.
This story takes a more interesting turn, but the fact that this guy took for granted that he could be stuffed into a plastic wheelchair and left in a hallway after crashing his motorycle is absolutely ridiculous. Motorcyclists are known to be a little more freedom-loving (and -exercising) than most...yet this guy, a product of European socialism, has been conditioned to think that his situation was acceptable.
Depending on your monitor size, the text of the article may or may not be legible in the photo above. Let me clarify: he didn't write to complain about his experience at a government (NHS) hospital. He wrote in to say how embarassed he was that, during the "hop to the drinks machine" he mentioned above, he realized that the crash had ripped the butt out of his jeans and boxer shorts, exposing him to the people in the waiting room. As an freedom-loving American, I would like to point out that his REAL source of embarassment should be his nation's government healthcare system!
North Dakota has a lot of motorcyclists, especially considering our weather. If you're one of them, and think that the government won't find a way to penalize you for riding a motorcycle under its "fair" new health care system, you're deluding yourself. Call Dorgan, Pomeroy, and Conrad and tell them to vote NO on government health care!
I was discussing this with a nice gentleman from the Cato institute last fall, and he pointed out that motorcyclists should probably pay more for insurance because they present a greater risk. He didn't state that as his opinion, just as a matter of the business of insuring against such risk. I agree from a business standpoint, because the free market will sort this out just like anything else.
Case in point:, in the 80s it was very difficult to insure a motorcycle like mine. Yet, the sportbike riders were out there, and enterprising insurance companies bucked the trend to shy away from them and be the only ones to offer reasonably priced coverage. Now it's easy and cheap to insure a sportbike capable of 300kph like mine, even with a $100 deductible! The free market sorts things out and lowers prices like government never could. See what happens when motorcyclists band together?
Once again, I implore you to call Conrad, Dorgan, and Pomeroy to urge them to vote against government run health care. Your fellow bikers will thank you...we're all in this together.
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( 3 / 146 )
Click here for the full size version
This is good news and bad news. First the good news: Senator Dorgan will NOT be coming back next year as a US Senator from the great state of North Dakota. We won't see any loss of representation, since he hasn't represented North Dakota views in years. In fact, his Republican replacement will probably do a far better job.
The bad news: I expect him to vote with a "scorched earth" mentality in mind, since we don't have his re-election to hold over his combover-clad head any more. Plus, I suppose he'll dole out his four million dollar war chest to PACs set up to elect other North Dakota democrats across the various ballots.
With all the liberal Democrats that are announcing they won't be running in November, I expect they're all being bought off with promises of "czarship" or some other cushy reward within the bowels of the Obama administration. Kent Conrad alluded to as much already. That's the way of Chicago thug politics: buy off and intimidate.
The major thing of note in Byron's career, and this is why I refer to him as Byron "Skybox" Dorgan, was his involvement with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, something the media branded as a "Republican scandal" to shield their beloved Democrats. There is the Northern Plains Heritage Area debacle as well, which is still in the "unfinished business" category.
One question: does this mean he'll "return" to his "home" at 1001 Central Avenue #8 here in Bismarck? Not bloody likely. Heaven forbid that we get another Democrat senator...but if so, will Kent Conrad rent this placeholder apartment out to them instead?
I guess Byron will have to remove this illustrious placard from his mailbox at good ol' Apartment Number Eight. Think he'll be able to cope without such luxurious trappings of office? I bet his home on the east coast doesn't look this shabby!
Good Riddance, Senator Dorgan. Don't let the door hit your combover on your way out.
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( 3.2 / 166 )
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
I'm always giddy to use a line from my favorite Carl Sandburg poem, thus the title. And on cat feet it came, only this time it was ice fog instead of the traditional kind. It left just as slyly, leaving me only one location to try to grab a few shots of its remarkable effects!
With an otherwise crystal-clear sky, the airborne crystals of this ice fog turned any bright light source into a blazing spire piercing the darkness above Bismarck-Mandan. In some places with enough bright light sources close together, the sight was reminiscient of aurora borealis!
I noticed these by accident, keeping true with my typical modus operandi: stumble into the right place at the right time, with my camera in my possession. Why do you think my motto is, "it's better to be lucky than good?" I had stepped out to run an errand for my wife when I saw this phenomenon in the sky, and I took quick advantage of it. I'm glad I was timely in doing so; within twenty minutes, the ice fog has gone. Little cat feet, indeed.
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( 3.5 / 204 )
This is the fifth time I've done this. I got a camera in 2005 and started this website on January 1, 2006. You can see the first post here, which naturally features the capitol with "2006" in the windows. As a result, taking pictures of the capitol on New Year's Eve isn't just a fun pastime of mine, it's also an anniversary of sorts.
After running a video camera at the Wizards game, I stopped up at the capitol grounds on my way home. Man, was it COLD out! I would take a few shots (with my remote so I could keep gloves on) and then sit in the nice, warm truck for a while before trying a new angle!
There were a lot of cars coming through. Many just stopped and looked up at the numbers in the windows. Some, however, were as insane as myself and braved the cold to get out and take a couple quick photos.
I used my 10mm lens for most of these shots, which gives the tower a unique bit of perspective distortion. It also allows me to fit it all into the shot, something that's not easy to do with most lenses. I snapped a few and then bolted to my nice, warm home. Happy New Year!
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( 3.1 / 153 )
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