Craziness, Nature and on the Move

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I can’t even listen to NPR or check out the news nowadays.  This stupid stuff that Donald Trump is tweeting is ridiculous for someone that isn’t a president yet.  And it would be worse for someone that is.   Why would someone in his position tweet, in 140 characters, that we need to “strengthen and expand” our nuclear arsenal?   I think we have a limit of 1550 strategic weapons now. Seems like enough to get rid of nearly all the people on the planet already.   I think he doesn’t understand the job.  Our new world.  We picked him.

I haven’t been riding the trainer, or outside, since Arizona.  I haven’t been feeling so  well. Actually, I’m just sick.  When I got back, Kris was sick, which means normally, I was going to get sick.  But being sick is secondary to all the other stuff, so it seems sort of minor.  Head cold symptoms don’t seem so bad compared to a TBI.  Weird how that is.

Tucker loves it cold.  He can’t run enough.  And he likes the snow.  We’ve been taking him to a park nearby and he goes crazy.  I like walking.  It seems to be replacing riding, sort of.  I don’t want to make that the norm, but it is a nice change.  The geese are migrating south and now that it is officially winter, it all seem normal.

We driving up to Chicago today for Christmas.  I’m a little apprehensive about spending 10 hours in a car, but it should be okay hopefully.  It is supposed to start raining in a hour or less, so that means snow in Iowa and Illinois.  It is what it is.

Okay, I need to pack some still.  Hope you are having a stress free pre-holiday.

Enough said.

 

I love geese. Especially when they are flying.

Someone built this at the park. It looks so primal.

I know who made all three of these melted tracks.

Tucker was bummed the snow was melting. He can’t get enough of it.

 

 

 

57 thoughts on “Craziness, Nature and on the Move

  1. De Flahute

    LIstening to NPR is not good for anyone–especially somebody w TBI. Layoff the liberal hype for a few months. Get outside, play with Tucker & the sky ain’t gonna fall.

     
  2. Steve Tilford Post author

    De Flahute – I don’t think that you have to be liberal to not want more weapons in the world. Especially nuclear. Presidents for 4 decades have made it their stance to reduce them. Liberal and conservative presidents. We have over 1500. I think the right number is zero. But that is just me.

     
  3. L

    Yep – agree with De Flahute. The best thing I ever did was get rid of my cable connection and turned off all sources of incoming “news” media. It’s amazing how much less cynical and worried you become when you’re not being bombarded with over-hyped political garbage. IF the combination of George Bush’s idiocy and Obama’s arrogance couldn’t ruin our country, I have plenty of faith that we can handle this guy.

     
  4. De Flahute

    Sure, in a perfect world, that number would be zero. And then we’d have gorgeous bike paths like in Netherlands. Unfortunately, it ain’t gonna happen. The world’s a big, shitty bike race with tons of cheats.
    It may be that the tough tweets we’ve been hearing have actually gotten the ear of some of the world’s tyrants & earned some respect. Time will tell. Nobody’s crazy enough to use nukes ’cause then it’s party over. And rulers, dictactors, et al, all love to party. Happy Holidays in the Windy City.

     
  5. ScottO

    If you think the way we “handle this guy” is by ignoring the media, then you’ve just decided to chill while other people handle it.

    I appreciate that Steve stays tuned in to the state of the country.

     
  6. craig

    If Trump doesn’t frighten you, you aren’t paying attention.

    From the Goldman Sachs cabinet appointments (guess whose stock is up 35% since the election!) who I am sure are going to be looking out for the downtrodden working class (that is how they got the name Vampire Squid, not!) to the complete disregard for facts and truth (he calls his win a landslide and claimed millions of fradulent votes!) to the other cabinet appointments like Scott Pruitt to head the EPA it should be a bit scary for all Americans, regardless of political affiliation.

    I guess the best we can hope for is Trump administration accomplishes nothing, because he is a con artist full of shit blowhard, and the people he surrounds himself with are no nothing sycophants.

     
  7. De Flahute

    I never said to tune out. Steve is tuned to his NPR channel. That’s just 1 version of the news. Folks shouldn’t accept it as the gospel.

     
  8. Jim

    You are correct. But what we can consider as gospel, and not “liberal hype” are things that anyone says publicly…such as the tweet Steve was referring to.

     
  9. darkcloud

    ????
    ❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️
    Time to break out the play dough and coloring books

     
  10. Bill Hall

    He doesn’t even understand the nuclear triad. He is from the past I grew up with. I doubt Trumpie even knows what the “Doomsday Clock ” is. It is and remains 3 minutes to midnight.

     
  11. Paul Barnes

    One quibble on the common sentiment that “we picked him” – I don’t know who we is, but I didn’t pick him. About 26% of eligible voters voted for him. About the same (slightly higher) voted for Clinton. 48% of eligible voters voted for neither of them. Some of those may just be apathetic or uninformed non or rare voters, but many of them, myself included, simply could not stand either candidate.

     
  12. De Flahute

    Don’t be so sure. Give the man a chance. Why are so many folks convinced they’re so smart & the “deplorables” are so dumb? Man, way too cocky & sore losers to boot.
    Let’s give politics a rest & work on cycling stuff. Like what brand of chamois cream to give as a holiday gift. Maybe something we can all agree on?

     
  13. Bill K

    Steve, everyone with a sound mind agrees with you, but all you are doing is making the Trumpites mad, and forcing them to defend every little silly thing he says.

     
  14. Calvin Jones

    The instinct or sense to get into an immediate echelon is something to admire in geese. Guess it is to give a sense order to the group, not to draft. Never seen a rotation but it would sure be fun to watch. Wonder if there tends to be a repeat on the head-goose , or maybe any goose gets to be the alpha-goose?

     
  15. James

    They rotate. Geese can figure it out, but good luck getting a strava/power fixated/zwift ‘educated’ group to do so.

     
  16. FSonicSmith

    Steve; I can not adequately thank you for having the fortitude to comment on our current political state. The internet serves to highlight the two extremes; members of the public that no one knows even if their true names and photos and addresses were disclosed on one and then on the other, personalities like you (and in our little world of bike racing culture, you are as VIP as they come). As easy as it is for the former camp to post, it is equally hard for the known personality to post a view without being pounded with incoming verbal ordnance. As much as 25% or so of our eligible voters might not like to hear/read it, it is soul-reinforcing for a great many of us to hear some common sense from a humanist bike racer with a good head (battered and all) on his shoulders. If you can post about roofing, auto mechanics, grass mowing, and myriad other subjects of everyday life-with the vast majority of us being entertained and amused by the off-topic commentary-why not politics? A couple years back, my twenty three year old son coerced me into watching what I at the time thought was a total POS movie, “Snowpiercer”. I still don’t think it is a great movie, but it does take on some great relevant symbolism when looked at juxtaposed with the in-coming administration. Kellyanne Conway would be Tilda Swinton’s character.

     
  17. James

    Trump is a nightmare. If we make it through his term wo an international crisis of his own making it will be a miracle.

     
  18. Mike Rodose

    The two-party system is a joke. One of them had to win. A four- choice presidential election would have been interesting.

     
  19. James

    Despite Trump’s landslide & widespread voter fraud, the fanboys lean with the majority.

    We can take small hope that there are still more people who can think critically & know shit when they see it.

    Unfortunately the shit shovelers will have us all covered in it by the time they are done.

    The Age of Trump, when Truth died.

     
  20. darkcloud

    You mean like the limp dick Obama administration?
    Operation Fast and Furious, Benghazi, and and and.
    It’s laughable that Obama was elected. He accomplished absolutely nothing as a senator. His qualifications were……he was African American. A minority. For many, checking the minority box was the most important issue. THATS IT. He wasn’t my choice for president yet when he was elected, I didn’t melt down. Or protest. Or destroy other people’s property. Or curl up in the fetal position. Or or or. I wished him the very best and hoped he’d be a great leader. Big fail.
    So me move on. Trump was elected and I wish him the best and hope he proves to be a great leader.
    It’s time for the far left to harden the fv<k up and slip into a pair of big boy pants.

     
  21. Buff It

    No I think he understands the job just fine. He understands weakness invites aggression. Our last President was as weak as tap water and Trump has a huge mess to clean up. Keep listening to that liberal echo chamber and keep dishing out expert stock market predictions. You were right on the money on that one. I’m up over 10% since your “the market is going to crash” post. Stop getting your financial advice from Paul Kreugman.

     
  22. Neil Kopitsky

    I love watching geese too. (I once did a presentation for my son’s third grade class “What You Can Learn About Bicycle Racing from Geese.”) But I have not been able to figure out exactly HOW they rotate. The best I can tell, the strongest bird at the moment moves “up” it and becomes the point of the “V”. When that goose gets tired and another feels stronger, it flies faster and then becomes the point. I think that is why the “V” is usually offset. Presumably, the stronger geese line up towards the middle and the weaker ones more to the outside.

    I’ve read that geese are even excellent teammates: If one goose gets left behind, another goose or two will stay with it and “pull” it to the destination.

    If anyone has a better explanation of the rotation, I would really like to know about it.

     
  23. James

    You mean the recession, double digit unemployment & an unecessary war? Hey things were great! I know its hard Trumpfuck, but facts are still facts.

     
  24. Bob

    Your pic of the geese flying in peloton form is proof indeed of winter truly being here as they head effortlessly to their winter nesting grounds. The pic of tucker w/ head buried is funny! Hope you and trudi and family have a restful holiday,steve!

     
  25. numbnuts

    ekkks, trump tweets… hey, wasn’t hillary given a load of sht for using her personal email…
    here’s a guy planning to live in the trump towers which could probably be very easily infiltrated/spied upon… etc… and uses tweets any time his hot head heats up.

    Russia and china are going to play this narcissistic fool like a fiddle. Its not that difficult to play a narcissistic fool like a fiddle. And, loose lips sink ships…. this guy has no boundaries.

     
  26. numbnuts

    anyhow, the war we wage now a days isn’t of big bombs and blood, that’s old stuff… and costly. Proves nothing really. The war we wage now a days is one of economics…
    those that can produce the greatest outputs for the least inputs wins (resource costs).
    USA has become a mess of debt ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt) – those that own the debt own you (ie china and russia).
    And, it sucks back 20 million barrels of oil a day, most of which is cheap foreign oil – oil is tied to economic activity from production through to transportation ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_consumption ) – thus, USA has a “drinking” problem… probably won’t stop until it falls on its face, like some narcissistic fool.

    don’t expect trump to save yah that’s for sure… made his money off of casinos and hotels. Junk money.
    there is one person he is in for – himself. Good manipulator as many are naive and gullible to his bullsht… but, as a narcissist, he’s an easy play… yah just feed his ego and he’ll come to the dish of poison… russia and china are going to play that big time.

    can’t blame obama for everything, USA has been up shts creek since it ran out of oil independence to oil dependence (middle east oil)… it over priced itself out of business …

     
  27. darkcloud

    ” I know its hard Trumpfuck, but facts are still facts.”
    Just another emotional post from another little ❄️.

     
  28. numbnuts

    like canada… we have 4 parties but two dominate parties..

    but, canada has its own problems – we’re 1 trillion in debt with many problems yet we only have 35 million people… any more and we’d have real problems.
    We give our resources away without boundaries, one of canada’s problems – bad at sticking up for our resources… thus, china buying them up.
    our health care system is full of bureaucracy and administration instead of paying nurses/doctors…
    and, its cold with lots and lots of snow – very very costly the cold and snow is… we are privatizing our hydro, so its skyrocketing.
    plus, pensions are a thing of the past in favor of big monopoly banks making a pretty penny from it all.

    Thus, its hard to find a good reasonable country now a days, all have their money and people problems.

     
  29. Randy

    Happy holidays, Steve. Hope your drive goes well. It”s been great following your recovery and I know a lot of people appreciate, and may one day really benefit from, your willingness to share your experiences. As for Trump, I guess the best I can hope for is that a significant number of people in Congress come to their senses and strongly exercise the power they are supposed to have over the executive branch.

     
  30. carlos

    How’s about good ole Topeka boy Kris Kobach in his team. America’s most successful white supremacist. Has done more to swing the election than any other American. Permanent White coup.

     
  31. Steve Tilford Post author

    Buff – So you think more nuclear bombs and missles make us immune from today’s terroism? I don’t agree. We’ve spent nearly 6 trillion US dollars on our “nuclear program”. Do you think that money was wisely spent? Probably so. I don’t. I don’t agree with hardly anything that Mr. Trump tweets.

    BTW-I’ve made quite a bit more than you selling my stocks and repurchasing them after the election. Guess we are invested in much different things?

     
  32. H Luce

    The operative part of the tweet is “until the world comes to its senses about nukes.” The fact not very much mentioned, especially on NPR, is that Obama has had plans since 2014 to modernize and expand the US nuclear arsenal and to eventually spend $1 trillion in doing so: “Obama’s administration is proposing to go on a nuclear weapons spending spree. This is an expensive and profound mistake, and one that ignores the limited contribution that nuclear weapons make to U.S. security. The administration’s costly plan proposes to rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, including the warheads, and the missiles, planes and submarines that carry them. These plans will cost $348 billion over the next 10 years, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate released last week. The National Defense Panel, appointed by Congress, found that the price tag over 30 years could be as much as a $1 trillion.” http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2015/02/obamas-trillion-dollar-nuclear-weapons-gamble/104217/ Now, if Trump had tweeted that he intended to go forward with Obama’s plan “until the world came to its senses about nukes” – as DefenseOne.com has – it wouldn’t seem like much of anything at all, would it? Maybe Trump has in mind giving the world some incentive to come to its senses about nuclear weapons. Suppose Iran hits Israel with a pattern of nuclear ground bursts. Ground bursts produce lots and lots of highly radioactive fallout. The prevailing winds go from west to east in that part of the world, which means that Iran, in the process of wiping Israel off the map, will saturate Jordan, Iraq, and … Iran with lots and lots of radioactive fallout. That means that unless they’ve figured out a way of protecting their farmland, they’re toast. If they actually use their nukes, they’re done, even if no one else joins in. Suppose India pops a pattern of ground bursts on Karachi, Pakistan. Guess whose farmland gets nailed? India, east of Pakistan, is right in the path of heavy fallout. If they have a food supply problem now, it’s nothing to what they will have if they do that. So maybe Trump has a point about countries coming to their senses about this. But that point gets passed over in the (manufactured) hysteria of Trump going forward with Obama’s status quo.

    Bill Moyers is a good source you’ll never hear on NPR: http://billmoyers.com/story/the-trillion-dollar-question-the-media-have-neglected-to-ask-presidential-candidates/ and so is Amy Goodman, of Democracy Now!: https://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/15/obama_s_trillion_dollar_nuclear_arms I’d suggest tuning into those two instead of corporate-sponsored (read, Military-Industrial-Complex-sponsored) NPR.

     
  33. De Flahute

    No, he’s not baking a Muslim terrorism clusterfuck like Jihadi Hussein either. You’ll just have to deal with the next 4-18-12 years of alternative reality.

     
  34. James

    Facts & a criticle thought process are are peaky things are they not dc?

    Just cause your boy tweets it does not make it true.

     
  35. euro

    I for one am more excited for this new President than in any time since Reagan took office. The hope and positive energy I see in my daily sales calls to folks in the construction sector throughout the Southeast is unbelievable. I haven’t met a single Hillary supporter. Of course that’s because I don’t hang out with overeducated, college types who think they are smarter than the rest of us.

     
  36. James

    Keep dreaming. Failed business man & successful con artist doesn’t mean he’ll make all you insecure ‘little guys’ a pretty penny. But hey you bought the shtick.

    At the end of the day you may find there are more important things than the almighty $, but probably not. For that you have my pity.

     
  37. mike crum

    listening to lots of people in the bar where I work, they bitch about the current president not doing anything to strengthen our military… now a new president gets elected and people are against him building a more powerful military. military is more than boots on the ground.. steve, if you’re sick, why are you going out to a healthy persons house and spread your germs????????. you’re bitching about a 10 hour drive, stay home…….stay home and get well..you said you got your germ from somebody, so now you are going to give your germ to some healthy person.. not cool….

     
  38. Mark G

    Not far from Trudis mom, on northwest hwy,rt14, is dons dock,get a bag of fried shrimp, great medicine for tbi

     
  39. Ti-Raleigh

    A failed businessman ? AMAZING how a failed businessman has the net worth he has.
    Business is like bike racing , there are wins and losses.And he wins many more times then he loses.
    The E college is what victory is based on . He won that big.
    The popular vote is not considered anything but talking points among the politically uniformed .
    There has always been a arms race since the invention of the slingshot.
    MAYBE even before that.
    And there always will.

     
  40. darkcloud

    Lefties are irrational, emotional Putzes. Righties are irrational, emotional putzes. But seriously, this country is raising a new generation that are emotional little pussies.

     
  41. carlos

    Disenfranchising millions of people is the only voter fraud that happened. And it worked! The coup was successful. The next 4 years will be about consolidating that fraud and ensuring white supremacist power.

     
  42. James

    And what is that net worth? Bought the con.

    Landslide? 47 out of 57. Facts are bothersome. Must be all the voter fraud – next rationalization?

    Arms race + idiot = disaster. Historical fact & another toublesome reality of the present.

    Simplified for the Fox News fans.

     
  43. nancy

    he hasn’t released his tax return. Billionaire, probably not. poor businesses with lots failure described better with rich dad to save his ass from trouble.. and for negotiating skill, he always did what he wanted and lawsuit fixed his problem.

    and for the arm, he needs it since diplomacy isn’t his strength. and naming Mobil as Secretary of state won’t help.

    hopefully, you will remind how much skills was Obama.

     
  44. De Flahute

    Obama’s greatest skill is not being able to say “Islamic terrorism.” That’s about it. Arrogant, petulant, racist, petty unqualified community agitator from Crookland Chicago, with a huge chip on his shoulder–though all his life feeding @the Affirmative Action trough. Most divisive, narcissistic, hacker ever to disgrace the White House. He looked to secular socialist liberal Europe as an example of how we could destroy our society through globalism. How’s that working out? Isalmic terrorist attacks: Berlin, Paris, Nice, Brussels, Ft. Hood, San Bernardino, Orlando. Jihadi Hussein should be tried for treason & hanged before the inauguration.

     
  45. nancy

    De Flahute

    don’t forget Obama can’t work a lot because Republican control the white house.

    and there are many crazy white people shooting others. just look more for the news. take the kid in the church in SC is even more crazy.

     
  46. Matt

    The answer to all the back and forth and differing ideology in our society is this: Be kind to one another and humble in all things. Those that can consistently practice this have real strength.

     

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