Madison Capitol at Night.

Ahhhh. I love Madison, WI. great people, great food and great friends. My friends from DC, who transplanted to WI a few years back, have been my hosts the past 2 nights. They don’t get a lot of guests being this far away from DC but we are enjoying our time here.

Saturday we drove to Isabella’s birthday party at Bounce U. Everyone had a great time. I refrained from joining in because I am paranoid I’ll find some way to injure myself before I get to Colorado.

Dennis taking aim at a 4 year old on the other side of the foxhole.

There is an artist who puts sculptures out on the ice on Lake Monona.

Heading out to where the ice fisherman are on Lake Monona.

There are people fishing on the ice every day. Some are fishing for restraunts and some are doing it to put food on the table. If I knew I’d be stuck here I would have hired an outfitter to take me out there. Costs around $150 or so.

Dennis and I went onto State Street where the college is and we bought some needed supplies and I present this photo collage for your amusement:

For all my smoking friends. Not to be confused with "Kitten Mittons"

Dennis of the North Country

Jesus is apparently a choking hazard for toddlers...

Braille on a baby changing station. The worst thing about being blind.

Ink Pen advertising from India. I'd buy anything this guy is hocking

Clive update:
Got Clive towed last night and I spoke with Ryan and Clint over at Fields Land Rover. Turns out the “Park-Neutral” switch is blown out. I also thought the starter was burned out and they have not determined that. With a Land Rover OEM Starter costing $940 I decided to buy an Aftermarket part from Atlantic British and ship it next day air just in case I need it. Worst case I return it and lose $88 shipping. It’s cost me a total of $298 with shipping.  We’ll see. I am 2 days behind schedule but being with good friends makes it bearable and I have internet and getting work done. No worries!

Clive in his weakened state. Still looks mean!

Replacing my Mass Air Flow Filter yesterday…fun!

Replacing my mass air flow sensor from Doug Clayton on Vimeo.

A Blue bird...duh...

I think if you have any interest in following my travels you would best follow my Twitter account which is http://twitter.com/Dugindc

It’s hard to post on the road and twitter can capture the banality in high tech precision. “Hey, that dog looks stupid…Tweet!”, “Hey, look a sign that has a funny thing on it…Tweet!”, “Look, my dignity just fell out…Tweet!”

Anyway, for what it’s worth enjoy…

I still think there is something wrong with the truck. I thought the Fuel pump was going bad but I don’t have classic fuel pump failure issues such as issues with cold starts, etc… The culprit may be that the Induction service was done after my new plugs were installed which would pretty much ruin the new plugs. I hope the mechanics are not that stupid but you never know.

I have some engine weakness when climing hills. Not a good thing when I am going to be driving through the rockies. Given that Clive has made this trip before in much worse shape I have confidence I’ll make it to Colorado where I can afford to have it sitting in the shop for a week or two getting fixed.

Wish this post had more “dreaming of the west” quality instead of the mechanical shop talk. More to come!

The vail bus system is large and removes the need for personal transportation.

I am at my friend Chris and Anjali’s home where they have kindly put me up for the night.

I remember reading Charles Bukowski when I was a kid around 16 years old. It shaped me when I was young. Perhaps it made me jaded too soon. I remember this poem in particular. It is even better when read by Bukowski.

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock

their finest art

I was curious what the oldest photograph was. Not sure why but I looked it up. Nicephore Niepce was one of the pioneers in photography using a tool called a Heliograph.

In stark constrast we have one of the most advanced photographic techniques for producing Gigapixel quality photos. Sorta interesting how the old Heliograph shares a rusticness to it that the Gigapxl camera also exudes.

I always love these high-resolution sites. This one is of Yosemite at 17 gigapiscals which is acheived by using a photo-stitching software called Autopano. You can explore and see if you can find any sasquatches or day-trippers. Another timewaster. Check out Harlem while your at it.

I spotted some climbers.

Well, hardcore vegan’s and veggies will know this already but around a quarter of refined sugar in the US is made that way by using Bone Char; which is essentially charred animal bones that are ground into a fine powder and used in a similar way to carbon based compounds that you find in water filters and aquarium filters. <<Read the science on Wikipedia>> 

Of particular interest was that in the late 19th Century people were selling mass quantities of Buffalo bones to industry for this purpose. When they ran out of Buffalo bones some bone smugglers were digging up indian burial grounds, which I suppose now that I think about how Native American’s always prided themselves on using all the animal when they had to hunt makes an interesting moral conundrum. Either way it’s just another creepy thought to make you put down the donut and get to the gym.

My friends Dennis and Deanna turned me on to these albums. They play them for their musically inclined little one who we call the maestro (long story). Anyway, these guys turn classic tunes into Lullaby renditions which are very effective on kids as well as adults because I pass out to these tunes on more than one occasion. I like the Radiohead and Nirvana the best. Check em out here or on iTunes.

Anyway. LD’ing is amazing and everyone should try it. Again, check the wiki for more info.

Photo Credit: http://www.richardalois.com