Even more Rogue and Poet fun

This website is - for at least a while, going to be inactive. My attention is on my "new" website Rogue and Poet .com. This new site is taking up all my time, it's the funnest project I've yet sunk my teeth into. If you've found this from a blogroll I ask you to please have a look at my new site. I'm blogging there now, here's the link http://www.rogueandpoet.com/blog.htm

Thank you for coming to this site over the past few years, I still come here to navigate the blogosphere. I hope I see you at the new site!

Posted October 2, 2008

More Rogue and Poet fun

Building a new website can be a bit tedious but the process kind of sorts itself out. I spent a couple of hours yesterday going to all of the local Grants Pass venues that routinely have live music. I basically just wanted permission to link to their websites and find out how I might easily discover who they had hired to play on a given weekend. Surprisingly only one of the six venues I visited even have a website. I frankly thought that was odd.

Anyway I relearned a couple of things, even in a venture wherein I'm not charging anyone anything, I nevertheless need to go out with a business card and better, some wordy frivolous literature. So I spent much of yesterday and today creating a business card and a handout. I did add a couple of links but I need to add artist profiles… that's the part that matters.

Posted 5:17 pm October 2, 2008

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Posted September 21, 2008

I'm Energized

A couple of years ago I got into blogging and had a wonderful experience connecting with other conservatives and just getting out there. For a good while I was posting three or more posts a day and really moving up the ttlb rankings. Then at some point I simply soured on politics. I guess I had said everything I wanted to say and researched every angle and cranny there was. So this blog has been virtually silent for a couple of years now. Over that time I've been searching for a niche, for a type of project that I could throw myself into and just have fun with. Well I think I've found it. I invite you to check out my new Rogue and Poet site. It's fun!

The main feature of the site is the right sidebar where I have the Rogue's Gallery. Here are listed local Rogue Valley artists, musicians, authors and poets. I'm profiling each and every artist on the list, getting a bit of their back story and providing links to their websites or contact information. The fun is in meeting the folks and hearing their stories and then chronicling them on the site. The site is new and I've got lots of work to do but for the first time in about two years I'm energized about an internet related project. So, I'm back and with a purpose.

Posted 7:56 pm September 21, 2008

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Posted August 27, 2008

A tale of two boats….

Pictured to the right is a very nice boat a good friend offered me. It is older but it had a new engine put in it over the winter and other than the trailer needing some work it is a fine boat indeed. I won't say how inexpensively I could have picked this boat up for but you would think me nuts for not taking the deal. That said this is simply not the boat I wanted. I had a very specific type of boat in mind. A boat perfect for my needs….

Pictured to the right is my new boat. Oh it's not as sleek or as fast or as eye-catching as the boat above but it is exactly what I wanted. It's light, easy to handle and I won't tell you what I spent for it because it would make you cry. It is my perfect boat. Sadly I haven't yet taken it out but that day is coming soon. I hear the Salmon run in September and what do you know, it's just about that time. I'm a rookie to all this. I can fish a stream for trout with the best of you but Salmon? I'll let you know how that goes.

Posted 2:45 pm August 27, 2008

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Posted August 20, 2008

What I did this summer….

Well I've been wanting to show this off for some time. What it is, is a 1700 square foot deck with railing system. It has three levels, a kitchen of sorts, and five stairways off of it.

The undercarriage of it is built of construction grade Doug fir. All posts and beams are 4X4's at 4 feet off center and the joists are 2X6 Doug fir at 16 inches on center.

This second photo shows one of the levels. This is the dining room for lack of a better designation. The deck boards are a composite made by a company called Fiberon. I really liked this product and I spent hours comparing it to Trex and some of the other manufacturers of composite decking. One of the nice features of this material was that it has a hidden fastening system, with but a few exceptions there are no screw holes visible on this deck. It just helps to make a clean finished look.

Lastly a look at how we added a hot tub into the mix. The railing system was an invention in and of itself. I chose Trex for the post covers and rails. I used powder coated ballisters from a company called Fortress to fill in between the rails.

This has been a really fun project. I literally built every bit of it by myself. Also this was a design and built operation. I designed it, and I built it.

Anyway like I said I've been wanting to show this off so there it is….

Posted 9:52 pm August 20, 2008

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Posted August 19, 2008

Road Trip

I took a fly down to Los Angeles this past week. After years of urging we finally got the wife's sister and her daughter to agree to leave that town of little brown people and move up here to Oregon with us. My mission was to drive in, load up a bunch of stuff in my van, and take the daughter back with me so that she could enjoy the last couple of weeks of summer here in paradise.

I began my sojourn at 4:00 pm on Wednesday. I figured to beat the heat a bit for while my van has a brand new rebuilt engine, it does not have A/C.

So nuts and bolts, nuts and bolts. I made the drive from Grants Pass to Hollywood,820 miles, in ten hours. I pulled in at around 2:30, just enough time for the requisite late night tour of Sunset Blvd. Boring, no sights if you no what I mean. The cost for the trip one way was exactly $220.00.

After the drive I parked at an apartment complex that has no parking. I was blocking five vehicles in as I bedded down in the back of my van. I slept till 7:00 am then was greeted by my sister-in-law. I had some coffee and a little breakfast and then started loading the van. Niece in tow we got on the road by noon for the return trip. Eleven hours later I was out of the big slum and back home. The return trip cost $235 for a total of $455.00.

I'm generally not in favor of allowing Californians to migrate north but this is family…...