And some people wonder why I rant about the Illegal Alien (or UDA - Undocumented Alien) problem in the US.... When they T-Bone your car and leave theirs - or whoever's they were driving in the middle of the intersection and walk off.... boy does it piss me off. Not to mention my poor car. The guy at the Collision place told me that it's totaled. The entire passenger floor is buckled.

Crystal Mountain - The second time Ive boarded in 3+ feet of new powder. And it kept fallling all day. What a way to kick-off thanksgiving week in Seattle!

And then there were the Rucksacks filled with chain - tricycle relays....

My whole company thought I won until we realized the line I crossed was the 1/2-way point and we needed to get me back to the start line... they began tackling all the other trikes so I could make it. What a zoo!




The "Grog" is a military tradition at dining-ins. It is comprised of various amounts and types of things to represent the history of the Army and it's campaigns. From wine to represent Normandy, to sand (usually brown sugar) to warm beer to honey and even a sock and ground pepper to represent gunpowder... truly heinous stuff. Oh and the green stuff floating on top of the FULL 1/2 whiskey keg was to represent marajuanna for the 1960's. Three plus canteen cups of that sure did me in!!!

At the Natural History Museum in San Diego.

Buddy Jeremy and I after our conference well officially I guess this was DURING it... I took him and Tom to all the Museums by the Zoo. I love San Diego!!

I was pleasently surprised at how many folks 'got' my halloween costume. I wasn't sure what to do so I checked out the country singers that are 5'7" like me and lo and behold - Kenney Chesney came up. Scary part is I really like the hat now.

Ahh, and then back to work.... sometimes the job is fun.

Ok, so there was a little more than vodka fueling us at the bonfire.... good times with ED and some of the crew from the Kilimanjaro hike.

Mike and Jill doing a little shopping before the fire before dinner... hmmm you really like that stuff, huh Mike?

While in NH back in my old stomping grounds the scenery was great.

It was sweet to meet Pride Veteran Quinton Jackson (Left), and UFC Reality Star Chris Leben at the after party at Macayos. I talked with a friend about the fights and he said he knows Noah from the UFC reality show. Noah is training with Matt Hughes now - I told him he has to set me up to meet Matt - that would be the bomb!!


Enjoying the Amberbock wi buddy Chris at the fights - thanks for the pic Perry :P

RAGE IN THE CAGE BABY!!!

In Memoria, Oct 31 1975-Sep 4 2006

After a month of optimism and hopeful recovery, I got the news on Sunday. I was at a pool party when I found out. "Mike's gone from us," the text message said. Simple to the point, burned into the screen of my cellphone. The release of all the hope I was holding inside for him evaporated. The world of the pool party fogged, became insubstantial. A dark haze covered everything with one focus - to get out of the house to a solid place. Thankful for James to be there. I was toughing it out.

The monsoon was coming in - yellow-black clouds rolling over the city throwing haphazard lightning into the sky. We were driving to find a good overlook to watch. Then James busts out with "well you know I could die in a wreck on the way back to Tucson tomorrow." And then the thought of losing another friend broke through the thin skimcoat of cement I was trying to build around my emotions. It was probably the best/worst thing anyone could say to me. I pulled the car over and yelled at him for saying something like that. Then my anger transitioned into borrowing his shoulder for a few.

Very cathartic. Thanks for that, James. I felt clean, clearheaded and solid in the world again.

As a good friend of mine said about Mike, "what matters is not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog..." (well said Steve)

Mike's funeral is today and I wish I could go but I have to be with my unit for a training weekend. I am still so floored that someone so young, tough and full of life is gone. All my best wishes go out to Mike's family and friends. May he rest in peace.

"Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has
as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity."

—Nikola Tesla

I have to apologize for perpetrating a rumor- it wasn't Westinghouse that canned the possibility of free wireless electricity for everyone - it was J.P. Morgan.

When the Colorado Springs Tesla Coil magnifying transmitter was energized, it created sparks 30 feet long. From the outside antenna, these sparks could be seen from a distance of ten miles. From this laboratory, Tesla generated and sent out wireless waves which mediated energy, without wires for miles.

In Colorado Springs , where he stayed from May 1899 until 1900, Tesla made what he regarded as his most important discovery-- terrestrial stationary waves. By this discovery he proved that the Earth could be used as a conductor and would be as responsive as a tuning fork to electrical vibrations of a certain frequency. He also lighted 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 25 miles( 40 kilometers) and created man-made lightning.

Financially supported by J. Pierpont Morgan, Tesla built the Wardenclyffe laboratory and its famous transmitting tower in Shoreham, Long Island between 1901 and 1905. This huge landmark was 187 feet high, capped by a 68-foot copper dome which housed the magnifying transmitter. It was planned to be the first broadcast system, transmitting both signals and power without wires to any point on the globe. The huge magnifying transmitter, discharging high frequency electricity, would turn the earth into a gigantic dynamo which would project its electricity in unlimited amounts anywhere in the world.

Tesla's concept of wireless electricity was used to power ocean liners, destroy warships, run industry and transportation and send communications instantaneously all over the globe. To stimulate the public's imagination, Tesla suggested that this wireless power could even be used for interplanetary communication. If Tesla were confident to reach Mars, how much less difficult to reach Paris . Many newspapers and periodicals interviewed Tesla and described his new system for supplying wireless power to run all of the earth's industry.

Because of a dispute between Morgan and Tesla as to the final use of the tower. Morgan withdrew his funds. The financier's classic comment was, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?"

My question is: What would our world be like now if we had free electricity from the onset of the 1900's? No oil wars, no smog, no fossil fuels, maybe we'd have flying cars by now. Thanks, Mr. Morgan.

The Scenery riding back from Flagstaff was incredible. We rode from Flagstaff down Lake Mary Road past Lake Mary, and Mormon Lake. The water was at about 50% but we did get wet ourselves in a monsoon storm. This cooled us off a little, and cleaned the roads nicely. Luck was with us again as the lightning stayed to the East of us.












I was glad to see the Grand Canyon again. It always seems fake to me. Unbelievable. Yeah, sure it's a big hole in the ground. One of the seven wonders of the world it still is. So huge and deep it kicked in Matt's vertigo a bit. I always freak out when folks sit next to the edge with their legs dangling over it.

The bikes parked in the Hotel Monte Vista Parking lot. We had a great time there. The Cafe was nice, but the Lounge was even better. The crazy part was that it didn't get busy until after 11pm. Matt made some great shots the first night we were there.

Matt & I stopping off at the overlook to take a break.

Tired and ready to check into the hotel in Flagstaff, I looked back on the road we just travelled up from Oak Creek Canyon.
















On the way from Sedona through Oak Creek Canyon we caught a little rain from a monsoon storm. Good thing the lightning stayed to the West of us. It cooled us off just enough to finish the ride comfortably.

Montezuma's Castle. After living in AZ for 7 years I finally went to this National Monument an hour north of the city.

Buddy Matt from San Diego & I on our first leg of the weekend ride from Phoenix to Flagstaff via Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon.

Two hours later, wet, tired and hungry, I was ready for some sassy Alaskan Salmon!


After driving around for a bit trying to make sense of the two maps of the same location that looked different, I finally found the parking area at the trailhead.


I couldnt resist making my mark. Spirals,Fibionacci Series, Sunflowers, Pinecones, Nautilus Shells, DNA, Galaxies...



There were still tons of great blueberries on the ground to pick. What a treat.

Flattop Mountain is a 3,510-foot (1,070 m) mountain in the U.S. stateof Alaska, located in Chugach State Park just east of Anchorage. It is the most climbed mountain in the state.

It is usually reached by driving to the Glen Alps trailhead and following a well-maintained 1.5-mile (2.4-km) trail, with an elevation gain of 1280 feet (390 m) from the parking lot to the summit. Since it is the most accessible mountain to Anchorage, Flattop is a very popular location for hiking, climbing, berry picking, parasailing, and backcountry skiing. Campouts are held on the summit at the summer and winter solstices.

Flattop is known for its panoramic views of Anchorage and the surrounding area, including Denali, Mount Foraker, and Mount Spurr.

Oh yeah and its crazy the amount of bears around... makes ya a little cautious.

I think over again my small adventures, my fears, These small ones that seemed so big. For all the vital things I had to get and to reach. And yet there is only one great thing, The only thing. To live to see the great day that dawns And the light that fills the world.

-- Inuit Song

Even though we didnt catch anything last night, how can you beat fishing here?!? The 4-wheeling we had to do to get to this spot would have challenged me, and yes, even you Ed. ;) Fording the streams was a little uneasy but we were lucky to have Katie's buddy leading us in on a quad so we knew where the shallowest pars of the rivers were. The great thing about it up here in Alaska is that you can work all day and there's still enough light to go out and have a blast afterwards. The bad thing is it's light till 11pm, so you dont get too much sleep because you have so much light to have fun by.