Click images for desktop size: "Memories" by Dharma It looks like I fixed my bike yesterday.
I also think I fixed the leaking water cooler, the car windshield wiper blades and and and . . .
Of course it could all blow up today. The floor could be covered in water. I could end up stranded 8 miles away with a non-running bike. The windshield wiper blade could crack the windshield.
But that's for later. Today I am the king of the handy men. King . . . King!
It was a surprisingly productive day yesterday. About the only goal I haven't accomplished is finding a barber. My last haircut was pretty bad and it has grown out atrociously.
When you look at me head on I look like I have wings . . . not pretty angel wings, or even Mercury Messenger Of The Gods wings. Sort of like sea gulls attacking an anchovy pizza style wings . . .
I used to look forward to getting old. I was going to buy a tall, skinny mountain and live in a shack on the very top where I could see the single road for miles and miles. I was going to sit in a rocking chair, just my 12 dogs and me, with a shotgun across my knees, just to keep the strangers away.
I always imagined that I grow gray hair and that the gray hair would, through sheer force of will, make two jagged speed stripes on either side of my head.
My old age fantasies never included growing wings. Now that I have them I don't like them or want them.
Looking for a barber is a hard task. Especially when you have limited cash. Even then its a miserable chore.
I'm going to look today, on my totally cool George Jetson ebike, futuristic terror of the road and cleverly avoiding 4 buck gas.

I've been watching a fascinating serial, "Battling with Buffalo Bill". It was shot in 1930, which means that a lot of the cast and crew remember the real old west. Its interesting to see the reality and the myth combine and merge
Click images for desktop size: "Ninja" by Unknown into the present mythos.
One thing that's remarkable about the movie is that it uses real Cheyenne indians and even hired Chief Thunderbird as a technical advisor. This pays off in beautiful costumes and a fabulous Indian village.
It also makes for some sad but too realistic battle scenes. Settlers behind stockades fighting with rifles and six guns against Indians armed with coup sticks and tomahawks. (Coup sticks where like a long cane. The Cheyenne believed the bast way to defeat an enemy was to humiliate him by wapping him on the shoulder with your coup stick . . . admirable but . . . )
Coolest thing though is that the under equipped Indians keep winning.
The cast is impressive. Tom Tyler as a dapper Buffalo Bill. (How did this guy get and stay a legend? All he did was help exterminate the Indians by destroying the buffalo herds. Buffalos are not a very dangerous animal, not fearsome at all really. He made millions in 1890 dollars by sitting up his wild west show at the Chicago World's Fair and . . . that's it. I guess making money is worth being a legend, even then.
Tom Tyler looks awesome on a horse, a beautifully strange albino horse. Yakima Canuk makes an impressive beginning to his legend here. The riding and stunts are remarkable for any era.
"The Greatest Athlete Of All Time" Jim Thorpe plays an Indian! Looking at him is an adrenaline rush. He rides and runs with an elegance and style that is still in fashion.
The thing that impresses me the most are the Indian attacks. They're shot from the back of a flat bed truck so there's a negligible amount of camera wobble that only adds to the sense of reality. The camera looks full on at eye height as the horde of Indians gallops full speed right at it. The Indians are all riding bareback and each look incredible! They string bows, one rolls a cigarette (!), and there is never the slightest wobble in the riders. They keep their seats and truly look as comfortable on a madly running horse as I look sprawled on a sofa. It creates a gorgeous savage tableaux.

Click images for desktop size: "Samurai Chamoo" by Adult Swim The plot is mundane. The Indian attacks are all based on a tragic misunderstanding on both sides! Distrust and fear between the two races escalates the conflict to frightening inevitable war.
Buffalo Bill, so far, does NOTHING to ameliorate the situation. He just takes the white man's side and treats the Indians as wayward children who deserve to be killed. The Indians, who all speak in Cheyenne and sign language, never come across as in the White Man's simplistic view. They seem to be the tolerant ones who have been pushed by the white man's arrogance and white man's explicit murder of their women and children to rise up and protect themselves and their families.
Of course they do seem childish when they heroically ride pall mall through a hail of bullets to wap Buffalo Bill on his shoulder and get a bullet in the chest for their valiantry.
A cool movie that makes me curious about other westerns from the time period.

I'm still in touch with the dog people from my old home. I got an email, from the group not to me individually, about a cute little guy they've got. The pup has bad teeth. It looks like the owners got irritated with it or couldn't afford the expense of caring for it and dumped it at the animal shelter. Like most places the shelter gives surrenders 24 hours to find a home.
The group saved it from death and got it to a foster. The foster, though ell meaning, can't cope with the fact that the little guy wants to mark his territory. An annoying habit that's a pain but treatable.
I told my friend about the guy and now we're seeing about getting him flown over here. I don't know how we can afford the transport or the care he'll need but those things sort themselves out.
AND my puppy is now an Aunt! Her sister just gave birth to a single male pup! At least we know he'll be loved and well cared for.
Now, the open road is calling!