Pollen, politics, pundits, pistols, pasta, pizza, and more…

This is going to be one of those rambling, topic-hopping blogs that flits like a butterfly in a bed of flowers. You know, touching lightly on a variety of topics and then flitting to the next one for a pollen fix.

First up:  Do you have a favorite family restaurant?  We’ve got two.  One is Rancho Las Magueyes, a Mexican place right around the corner.  I know everyone there by their first name, and they all know Susie and me.  And my shooting buddies (we always have lunch there after a day on the range).  The other is an Italian restaurant.  It’s Di Pilla’s in Rosemead, and I’ve been going there for thirty years.  Susie and I always get a small pizza and a pasta dish, we share some of both while we’re there, and we’ll bring the rest home (it’s good for another two meals for both of us).  I was in Los Angeles last week to renew my passport and we stopped at Di Pilla’s for exactly what I described above (a small pizza with olives and mushrooms, and Dante’s angel hair pasta).  It’s just wonderful…the closest you’ll ever get to Heaven without a one-way ticket.  If you stop in there, tell Claudia Joe sent you.

Next topic…the Superbowl. I guess the game was okay. It used to be I would occasionally watch the Superbowl just for the halftime show and the commercials. I’m not much of a football fan (never have been), but the commercials and the halftime show used to make the 4-hour slog worthwhile. Not any more, though. At least not to me. I thought the halftime show was revolting, and if my kids were at home, I would have changed the channel. Is it me, or was it like going to a strip club? Maybe I’m just getting old. I don’t like twerking coming into my family room on a widescreen TV, and I didn’t understand a good 70% of the commercials. They weren’t clever or entertaining, and I wasn’t sure what most of them were advertising.  The commercial would end and I’d wonder: What was the product? Ah, there’s no maybe about it…I am getting old. But hell, even old people still buy stuff. After four long hours of Superbowl LIV, there’s nothing I’m going to purchase as a result of watching any of those commercials. Color me cranky, but I thought the whole thing was a stupid waste of my time.  That’s four hours I won’t get back.  It won’t happen again.

I do buy stuff, though. Lots of it. In fact, my new goal as a senior citizen is to make sure my outgo equals my income (I keep telling the kids if there’s anything left after I’m gone, it’s strictly the result of an computational error).  And to help me meet that goal, I think I’m buying a new motorcycle. One that has no fraud associated with freight and setup, as is typically encountered at most dealers. Maybe around the end of this month. Watch for more details. Before I do that, though, I want to get my TT250 running. I don’t ride as much as I should, and my TT250 carb gummed up from disuse. I’ll have to refer to my free CSC TT250 shop manual (why don’t all the manufacturers do that?) on how to clean the carburetor, but I’m not worried about the job. I hear the TT250 manual is pretty well written. I’m thinking I’ll get around to the TT250 this week or next.

More rambling, this time about Facebook and the endless supply of brainless memes that flow from its feed. I like Facebook and I like to keep up with my friends and my memories, like that photo above of good buddy Carl and me up on Glendora Ridge Road with the CSC 150 Baja Blaster I rode to Cabo and back. But the rest of the Facebook schtick…wow, it gets old fast. Is anyone else here tired of the mindless political ranting on Facebook?  Look, who I vote for is a decision I’ll make without any help from CNN, MSNBC, the NY Times, the Russians, or you.  It’s my vote, and all the breathless exhortations by Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, and Sean Hannity will matter not one whit. It’s what happens in a free country. Mindlessly sharing memes on your Facebook feed (I know, there’s a lot of redundancy in that phrase) isn’t going to change a thing.  Folks, get a life. Grow up. Vote, and then move on. It’s what we do in America.

On to a new topic…I’m afraid this coronavirus business is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I have good friends in China from my Chongqing and Riding China adventures. I recently wrote to one of them to see how things were going over there.  In a word, it’s bad. Real bad. The streets are deserted in China, no one is going out, companies are shutting down, travel is severely restricted, and the market is plummeting.  Their economy is tanking.  Approximately 2000 people a day are getting infected (and that number is likely going to increase).  I loved my time in China and I love the Chinese people.  I respect their engineering and manufacturing prowess. I hope things get better for them soon.

A happier topic…I’ve been spending more time on the range. If you didn’t see the 9mm cast bullet comparo, you might want to take a look at it. I’m going to start shooting the 9mm jacketed bullet series in another week or two. Jacketed bullets are frequently more accurate than cast bullets, so I’m excited about how that’s going to go. I was tremendously impressed with the Sig Scorpion and how it handled cast bullets. We’ll see if it brings home the bacon with jacketed bullets.

One of my shooting buddies is a California Corrections Officer, and he told me about their qualification course with the Mini 14 (the California Department of Corrections uses the Ruger Mini 14, one of my favorite rifles, as an issue weapon). They qualify with the B-21 target, and when I was at the target manufacturing operation where I buy all my targets I asked if they stocked that one. The guy behind the counter was surprised, and he told me the only folks who ever want that target are CDC officers. But they had it, and then it was my turn to be surprised. The B-21 target is huge. I’m going to have to make a bigger target stand for it. I’m thinking maybe our next informal milsurp match will be with it.  My objective is to shoot a higher score than my CDC buddy, and he’s real good.

And on that subject, we’re still toying with the idea of a postal match. You know, one where we specify the course of fire and the target design, you mail your targets to us, we score them, and there’s some kind of a prize for first, second, and third place. We’d make it for handguns only and spec the distance at 50 feet, and we’d make the prizes significant enough to bump up participation. Like maybe a Gear’d Hardware watch for first place, with a book and a T-shirt for second and third place. Let us know…if we did that, would you participate?

Last topic for today, folks:  Baja. Yes, Baja beckons. I aim to get down there sometime soon and then again later this year. Maybe stop in to see Baja John in Bahia de Los Angeles. See the whales in Scammon’s Lagoon. I’ll be on my motorcycle, and of course, I’ll be insured with BajaBound. Gresh will be along, maybe even on Zed now that his Kawi 900 resurrection has resumed. Whaddaya think?

14 thoughts on “Pollen, politics, pundits, pistols, pasta, pizza, and more…”

  1. Hey Joe, what do you know about strip clubs? I have known you for over 56 years and I know you would never go into one. But that being said, it took 56 years to disagree with you but I thought it was the best superbowl half time show ever. Then again, I am me.

  2. Superbowl review,
    I found those two Latina woman with their long flowing hair and smooth rounded curves in a constantly undulating….pulsating…. thrusting motion, highly offensive. Only to be compounded by the close ups of the glistening beads of perspiration on their round smooth buttocks.
    APPALLING

  3. Already got the new motorcycle; a CSC RX4, bought in October of last year. Highly recommended. Order your accessories at the same time as the bike, and CSC will install them for free. On mine, I just need to finish installing a few bits (adjustable clutch lever, KOSO heated grips, auxiliary lights), get the side stand lengthening done, and it should be good to go for 2020. In the meantime, I have a perfectly good RX3, with 16,000+ miles on it, that seems to do whatever I need it to; yesterday it was a run to the bank, to make a deposit. We don’t get too many 60 Deg F days in February, at least not here in Ohio, so I made the most of the last two and was able to get 100 miles of riding in.

    1. Like the guy said in the Indiana Jones movie, you have chosen wisely. CSC offers great motorcycles and absolutely stellar support. I rode the very first RX4 prototype in Chongqing about 3 years ago, then I put a few miles on the bike in China a couple of years ago, and I rode the CSC EPA/CARB certification models extensively here in the US about a year ago. You can read my US RX4 impressions here, along with detailed comparisons of the RX4 to the RX3 and the KLR 650. The RX3 is a fine machine as well. You just can’t go wrong with a CSC motorcycle.

      Thanks for commenting here on the ExNotes blog, Daniel, and best wishes for continued safe and fun riding with your RX3 and RX4.

  4. I agree with you about the halftime show. The Super Bowl is supposed to be a family show. That halftime show was not family friendly. The NFL should have issued a warning that what was to follow was not appropriate for kids. I’m not a prude – there’s a time and place for scantily clad pretty women to pole dance, twerk, grab their crotches and pretend to masturbate, but the Super Bowl halftime show ain’t it.

  5. Hi Joe,

    Speaking of the Mini-14, ask your CDC buddy about Newsom’s use of force policy.

    1. Marty:

      Good to hear from you. I’m pretty sure I can guess what the direction our illustrious governor has provided, but I will ask the question. You know that guy has his eye on the White House. Let’s hope that never happens.

      JB

  6. Whew!!!! You covered so much ground so fast my head is spinning a bit. I think everyone who didn’t like the Superbowl show is being a bit too judgmental. I thought it was brilliant of those women to eliminate the possibility of a wardrobe malfunction by eliminating most of the wardrobe. I mean come on, that’s thinking outside the box at its best !!!!

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