It's so beautiful out here in the mountains. But it sure is cold.

I am so depressed...

Holy cow.  I just can't quite shake the feeling that the economic events of this week have forever changed the future of our country.  I simply can not believe we are nationalizing the financial system and bailing out those who have made record profits for the past eight years while the working person's wage has remained flat.  UGGHHHH!!!

I am too frustrated to say anything coherent about this mess.  So, let me just post a few related links:

We're all French Now: This article from this week's Time Magazine compares our current situation to the socialized capitalism France has endorsed for the past 20 years.  Arguably, we are even more socialized now...and it has been to benefit the richest Americans.  Ugh.

Bonus Heaven at Goldman-Sachs: This article from 2006 gives a bit of an image how much money was being made by these Wall St. fat-cats over the past decade of decadence (up to $50 million in one year by some traders).  Incredibly, we are now rushing to give them another $700,000,000,000.

Bailout would take away change: This podcast from NPR discusses how this enormous economic burden will essentially eliminate the opportunity for change that McCain or Obama have before them.  With the additional economic burden here, they simply can't do much with healthcare, social security, tax change, or social programs.

A useful service...

I just found a neat service...slydial.  It allows you to connect directly to someone's mobile voice mail without ringing their number first.  It's a great (and free!) way to connect with someone when you don't have time to actually talk to someone. :-)

Our first surfing adventure...

My friend Samurai took us surfing today and got all three kids up on the board within 90 minutes! Here's a photo of Tater Tot on his first wave. Matt and Madi did equally as well.

Wrapping up the MotoTour

Mark and I made it home safe from our CA MotoTour.  Wow.  What a wonderful trip.  I seriously can't remember the last time I had so much fun.  In summary, we rode back roads up to Ojai, over the mountains to Bakersfield.  Across the South Central Valley up to Sequioa National Forest, through the forest and across the Central Valley to Monterey.  Then down the PCH from Monterey to Malibu.  950 miles in all.  Absolutely incredible.  Both our bikes handled flawlessly and we had such a wonderful time.  Mark created a neat slideshow here (beware... it's long).

Here are a few of my favorite things about the trip...

3 - The joys of being on the open road on a powerful bike for days at a time.  It's a great feeling just being out in the world with little traffic, comfortable cruising speed, and no interruptions.  I listened to "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond, and "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson, as well as a few great NPR podcasts (check out this interview from Fresh Air).

2 - The amazingly diverse scenery of Southern and Central California.  As you can see from the slideshow link above, CA is an amazing state.  From breathtaking Alpine Forests, to vast agricultural plateaus, rocky, sea otter filled coasts to barren deserts, we have it all within a few hundred miles of our house.  It was amazing how much we saw in 950 miles and 30 hours of riding.

3 - Quality time with the most faithful and steady friend of my life.  Those of you with close siblings understand this, and those without...I don't think I can explain it.  My entire life Mark has been my best friend, trusted advisor, and playmate.  I'm so grateful to have had this time with him.

Crossing the Central Valley

In front of the millions of fruit trees near Fresno.

In Bakersfied

We made it to Bakersfield and found a Sonic.

We hoped to get about one hour further than this. But with the late start we stayed at the Hammpton Inn in Bakersfield. A wonderful first day. No problems at all. But we're ready for bed.

Making progress

Over the mountain and onto Bakersfield.

This is the scene from the last overlook in the Los Padres Forest before descending down into the Central Valley. All the rocks on Mark's right are from recent rock slides.

First stop Ojai

We finally made it to lunch in Ojai. Great ride so far. Bonnie Lu's Vegelicious!

We're on our way...

At about 10am the bike finally arrived. It's a beautiful black yamaha stratoliner 1300. Enormous, loud, and beautiful. Here's the truck it came on. What a sweet ride.

We're off!

Stumbling out of the gate...

Mark and I have been planning this awesome motorcycle weekend for about three months.  He flew in last night and is renting a Stratoliner (pictured to the left), and I'm taking my V-Star (below).

We're planning on riding up to Sequoia today, then on to Yosemite tomorrow before heading back down on Sunday.

 

 

To make this much riding possible, we planned an early start today.  The Stratoliner was supposed to be delivered by 7am to my house.  However, by 8am, still no bike.  So, we called and they said "Oh, we were planning to deliver that at 4pm."  Doh!  After some quick negotiating, they said they would get it here by 10am.  Unlikely.  I bet it will be more like 1pm.  Anyway... not the start we had in mind.

We thought by 9am we'd be to Ojai.  But instead, we're sitting at the bar of my house working on our PC's.  Doh.   (Take a look at the site Mark built to document our ride.)

The Big Dessert Bake-Off

We had a Bake-Off tonight after dinner.  It was great!