Brianj5600
TJ Expert
It is easy to stop drinking...I've done it 6 times.
Your other hobbies?
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Can you say Vodka Gimlet 6 times fast
Brianj5600
TJ Expert
Can you say Vodka Gimlet 6 times fast
Not after drinking 6 Vodka Gimlets.
That's unfortunate! Ya the horses are really my significant others idea and years ago
she persisted finding me one so I caved in. I'm very respectful of horses since they do strike out at other horses randomly and if your in between watch out. My rule of thumb is when your within close range/striking distance I.E. cleaning them up/brushing them down Always keep one hand on them so for one they know your there and secondly if they move your moving with them. Not my current horse but one we had 20 years ago bit/nipped me in the rump, stepped on my foot once, and another occasion reared up on two rear legs and almost hit me with his front hooves. That horse found another home.Santa Cruz make some nice bikes. I enjoyed the Santa Cruz but for me being a little older I found the Tall Boy a little on the heavy side (i think it was 31-33lbs), so I have since sold it and moved to a lighter mountain bike. I think this BH will go to my grave with me (full carbon frame, seat post, & handle bars - 23lbs 4oz). The weight difference btwn the two is huge for me. The lighter bike just moves up hills (at least for my age) and the carbon handle bars, frame and seat post absorb a lot of the terrain.
Ya, my son and I hiked Half Dome when he was 10 and I just turned 50, great views and memories but I was a little over my head in not prepping for hiking down hill for 9 miles after hiking up hill for 9 miles, a calf killer
. Going up hill was easy, down not so much.
We’d got so carried away we would ditch the stem nuts and caps while joking loosing the fat from our asses would be more help...that’s a beauty you’ve got there and the technology and larger wheels are light years ahead of the stuff we were riding.Santa Cruz make some nice bikes. I enjoyed the Santa Cruz but for me being a little older I found the Tall Boy a little on the heavy side (i think it was 31-33lbs), so I have since sold it and moved to a lighter mountain bike. I think this BH will go to my grave with me (full carbon frame, seat post, & handle bars - 23lbs 4oz). The weight difference btwn the two is huge for me. The lighter bike just moves up hills (at least for my age) and the carbon handle bars, frame and seat post absorb a lot of the terrain.
Ya, my son and I hiked Half Dome when he was 10 and I just turned 50, great views and memories but I was a little over my head in not prepping for hiking down hill for 9 miles after hiking up hill for 9 miles, a calf killer
View attachment 202749
ha, yep I’m with you there on the hike. I walked just 4 miles down a steep Jeep trail cut into the side of a hill leading to the American river a few years ago it was in to poor shape (not as poor as me) for anything but an atv or dirt bike carrying my detector and mining gear, took hours and two naps in the middle of the trail to hike back up followed by two days of the worst leg cramps I’d ever had, lol.
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Kiwi TJ
I don't suffer from insanity I enjoy every minute
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Love the outdoors Hiking, Mountain Biking, Bungy jumping, adrenalin sports,..Love doodling and arty stuff (Im a sign painter from way back in the day, old school with a brush) recently started picking up the brush again after about 20 years.
And my first love are Hot Rods.(pre 1949) So combining my love of cars with my love of art ,,Ive tried pinstriping....its harder to do than I thought haha
And my first love are Hot Rods.(pre 1949) So combining my love of cars with my love of art ,,Ive tried pinstriping....its harder to do than I thought haha
Real talent you need to keep picking up the brush, beautiful work.
Kiwi TJ
I don't suffer from insanity I enjoy every minute
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Thank you....I just need more time to practice more lol
Brianj5600
TJ Expert
There is 4800' of vertical too. Coming down was not good for me either. I had trouble controlling my speed. It was kind of like a semi looking for a runaway truck lane.Ya, my son and I hiked Half Dome when he was 10 and I just turned 50, great views and memories but I was a little over my head in not prepping for hiking down hill for 9 miles after hiking up hill for 9 miles, a calf killer
I didn't know what to think about this at first. Anyone hiking Half Dome bring some gloves or use some out of the community pile. The cables are rough.
Looks like the trail was the same when I hiked it.
Ah, a Gilroy "Ranchette" - I remember those. We were trying to buy a rural place and looked in the Gilroy area, but the de-facto 10 acre minimum canned that idea. Had a co-worker whose wife caught the "horse bug" - poor bastard. Now he works another shift every day when he gets home. Not my idea of a good time. My ex-boss in California is another one whose wife is a horse person - they spend kazillions on boarding. What is it with women and horses?
Would have loved a small place up Rhoop road or somewhere similar in the hills below Coyote lake. We ended up outside Watsonville, and were there for the quake in '89 that the idiot news media thought had happened in San Francisco. All we heard about was the goddamn World Series. Houses were off their foundations in Watsonville, the Pacific Garden Mall was destroyed in Santa Cruz, the Nimitz was flattened with loss of life, and the media kept going on about when the interrupted baseball game was going to be played. NOBODY CARED RIGHT THEN!
Brianj5600
TJ Expert
It used to be a nice place to live. I probably won't set foot in it again, although there's a funeral or two that I'll probably have to go to eventually. Damn near everybody I was close to has gotten the Hell out!
I loved California unfortunately the California I loved began getting ill sometime in the 1980’s and the condition quickly became terminal dying years before I gave up on the rotting corpse in 2019 moving to Nevada escaping the stench.
When the earthquake hit I was in the front yard of my moms house in Saratoga working on landscaping finishing off a 2 year project remodeling the house, the shaking was so strong i couldn‘t get off my knees in the garden. Half the pool water sloshed from the swimming pool and I was certain the house would collapse after all the work done, luckily I had only a cracked garage floor. That first night I spent helping out in the EOC helping to direct emergency resources, it was hectic. Several of my friends lost their homes in the Santa Cruz mountains one of them for a second time sliding down the hill he and his wife rode it out surviving some how. A few years earlier in the same location he lost the first home during a storm when I think it was Love creek flash flooded taking out the first home. I spent a lot of time helping to remove rubble and bracing foundations.
We lucked out. We were living in a mobile home about 2/3rds the way between Watsonville and Moss Landing. A properly setup mobile home is the BEST thing in an earthquake. It sloshed about half the water out of a 55 gallon aquarium, the TV fell off its perch, but nothing was damaged. Our daughter was making Tacos - the skillet bounced up into the air, the entire world moved out from under it, and it fell on the kitchen floor! I always joked that our property value went up $10K - before the quake, the top corner of the hillside property had what they call "a glimpse of the ocean". Afterwards, that same glimpse was viewable from the front windows of the home! We gained something like 20 feet in elevation.
I remember going outside once the shaking stopped, and how QUIET it was. Then the sirens started. Sirens from all directions! I remember there was a lot of stupid politics afterwards, in both Watsonville and Salinas, probably elsewhere as well. My dislike and distrust of "the authorities" dates from this time.
I remember going outside once the shaking stopped, and how QUIET it was. Then the sirens started. Sirens from all directions! I remember there was a lot of stupid politics afterwards, in both Watsonville and Salinas, probably elsewhere as well. My dislike and distrust of "the authorities" dates from this time.
I'm sure like many, my hobbies have shifted over the years, especially those with young family members in the house.
I was, and still am, a huge fan of photography since the age of about 14 and saved up working summer jobs and washing dishes for a used Nikon FA and a halfway decent 50/1.4 prime lens. I do some now but a lot less and I've greatly parsed back my collection of expensive lenses and bodies for modern, simple stuff that my kids can also use (my son is showing a growing interest so I got found him a used D90 and a small assortment of lenses he can play with).
For a long time, I was a regular at a lot of firearm competitions: USPSA and a small amount of IDPA, FT/R, 5-stand and was just getting into 3-Gun Matches for a while.
I even wrote for a popular gun website for a while, which was pretty cool since I got to try (and keep) some very cool gear and guns.
As a gearhead, I also enjoyed getting out for motorcycle rides with the Mrs, both by ourselves and with a local club:
Then my career shifted a bit - going from a local role to a regional and then national (and international) support role over the span of about 5 years. This meant a lot of travel and busy weeks. I transitioned from competitions to smaller projects I could do over the weekends. I began to restore a handful of SxS shotguns, particularly old Stevens models, in the period-correct "rust blue" method.
After buying and restoring every shootable SxS 12, 20, 16 and 28 gauge I could find, I transitioned to old S&W revolvers. I took an armorer's class from a retired S&W smith and worked my magic on a handful of them:
Not long after my career got busier, my wife's career also skyrocketed (I'm an environmental engineer for a large industrial chemical manufacturer and she's a project manager for a huge pharmaceutical manufacturer). While I had a good bit of travel, I found myself home in the evenings and most weekends when the 4x4 bug bite me again. I bought my YJ the day after Thanksgiving in 2015. It's been what I've mostly focused on since then.
I do still get out hunting and fishing when I can, and shoot when the weather is nice and I feel the urge, but I focus mainly on Jeeps/4x4 and getting out exploring the local trails. We do a bunch of camping and I was the Cubmaster at my son's Pack for the past 3 years (I gave it up this past year after my frustration with the BSA and my son's lack of interest pushed me over the edge).
The Mrs. and I are fortunate and I am lucky to get to keep all of my frequent flyer miles and my travel rewards. We put those to use as much as possible...
Hawaii this past March
Vegas this time last year...
And back to my old stompin' grounds the year before that...
I was, and still am, a huge fan of photography since the age of about 14 and saved up working summer jobs and washing dishes for a used Nikon FA and a halfway decent 50/1.4 prime lens. I do some now but a lot less and I've greatly parsed back my collection of expensive lenses and bodies for modern, simple stuff that my kids can also use (my son is showing a growing interest so I got found him a used D90 and a small assortment of lenses he can play with).
For a long time, I was a regular at a lot of firearm competitions: USPSA and a small amount of IDPA, FT/R, 5-stand and was just getting into 3-Gun Matches for a while.
I even wrote for a popular gun website for a while, which was pretty cool since I got to try (and keep) some very cool gear and guns.
As a gearhead, I also enjoyed getting out for motorcycle rides with the Mrs, both by ourselves and with a local club:
Then my career shifted a bit - going from a local role to a regional and then national (and international) support role over the span of about 5 years. This meant a lot of travel and busy weeks. I transitioned from competitions to smaller projects I could do over the weekends. I began to restore a handful of SxS shotguns, particularly old Stevens models, in the period-correct "rust blue" method.
After buying and restoring every shootable SxS 12, 20, 16 and 28 gauge I could find, I transitioned to old S&W revolvers. I took an armorer's class from a retired S&W smith and worked my magic on a handful of them:
Not long after my career got busier, my wife's career also skyrocketed (I'm an environmental engineer for a large industrial chemical manufacturer and she's a project manager for a huge pharmaceutical manufacturer). While I had a good bit of travel, I found myself home in the evenings and most weekends when the 4x4 bug bite me again. I bought my YJ the day after Thanksgiving in 2015. It's been what I've mostly focused on since then.
I do still get out hunting and fishing when I can, and shoot when the weather is nice and I feel the urge, but I focus mainly on Jeeps/4x4 and getting out exploring the local trails. We do a bunch of camping and I was the Cubmaster at my son's Pack for the past 3 years (I gave it up this past year after my frustration with the BSA and my son's lack of interest pushed me over the edge).
The Mrs. and I are fortunate and I am lucky to get to keep all of my frequent flyer miles and my travel rewards. We put those to use as much as possible...
Hawaii this past March
Vegas this time last year...
And back to my old stompin' grounds the year before that...
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ejay
TJ Addict
At the glue factory? Or Wendy's?
You have w wonderful family and quite a collection of firearms I’m envious, the way the gun market is you’ve made a nice profit on the investment.