The Mighty Little Clamp

I am out cleaning the garage tonight from a good sized deck project. I milled lumber for this custom designed handrail so there are tons of scraps and sawdust inside the garage from the table and chop saw . It is December in Oregon and my tools dont get to spend too much time in weather like this... I need them to last a lifetime and they probably will with the way Delta and Jet build their stuff. I want them to be safe machines that look well used, but solid, when I pass them on to my grandchildren- after I am long dead of course.
I was building a little shelf out of scrap 1x that would hold a 2' L-square under the 10'x2' rolling chopsaw bench. What I need to find is this one little, lightweight, red and black plastic clamp. It was very good quality for plastic- plenty of grip for it's purpose and the handle turned through polished aluminum threads. My wife's Uncle John gave it to me for Christmas a few years back with a gift card to Home Depot. It's the "draw names" sort of deal. This little clamp is probably one of the coolest little gifts I have ever been given. It's the kind of gift that doesn't impose in size- just in case you don't have a workshop. Yet is something so very useful even if you live in an apartment or something. He could have just gone the easy route and given only the gift card, I would have thought nothing less... but he added just the smallest little touch that really meant a lot. It is not the kind of clamp one would find at the check-out counter as an impulse buy ... it was quality and he probably had to go track someone down to even find the clamps in those huge places. It was still probably only a couple bucks but it was the nicest little one in its class.
I am real blessed with my wife's side of the family- they all have such good "takes" on life. They go about it the right way for the most part and I think it is because of this that their friendships flourish and family gatherings are something everyone looks forward to. It is an amazing family. I feel like they are my best buddies from high school decades ago or something- yet I have only known them for 5 years. And that's the way everyone gets treated. What a great way to go through life. I am looking forward to this Christmas.
I think I am giving every one clamps this year.

Super Clean 1980 Suzuki RM 125

It is kinda hard to stomach selling such a clean bike.

This is post shall act as a headstone. Man she was beautiful by the time I finished working on it. Why do I lose interest if there is no challenge, no work needed on my part any longer.

75 Bands- Virgin Records Avertisement

They say there are supposed to be 75 bands represented in this collage:


Questions to answer:
* Yellow flowers in the cart? The red roses already take care of the G&R reference.

* Three chicks holding hands crossing the street...

* I don't see any beetles to represent that one band.

* the Krishnas in the crosswalk can be Manic Street Preachers, The Cult, >>>? We won't know.

* The chick up top blowing a bubble>> some one gave a real good guess at Iggy Pop and I like that. It's too descriptive of an image to just be Blondie I believe.

* The construction workers are either Carpenter's or Men At Work>>>? We won't know

* Mannequinn in shop window... any significance?

*is the "house Plant" in front of the cart supposed to be Bush.. kinda stretching it.




I have found (not necessarily Virgin artists, by the way):
Bush ?
Pet Shop Boys
Cake
Skinny puppy
Radiohead
Smashing Pumpkins
Guns & Roses
Sex Pistols
Madonna (the painting above Postal Service)
U2
Streetlight Manifesto (the 3 street lights)?
Matchbox 20
Lemonheads
Blind Melon
Deep Purple (the wall on the back, maybe)
Cowboy Junkies
Gorillaz
B-52's
Led Zeppelin
Houseparty or Crowded House... Thanks Tripwire buddies
The Eels
White Zombie
50cent
Garbage
Hole
The Rolling Stones
Alice in Chains
The Pixies
The Police
Spoon
The Eagles
Whitesnake
Blur
Queen
Prince
Dead Presidents...correction "Dead Kennedys" -thanks tripwire
Ratt
Black Flag
Butthole Surfers? ... duh Beach Boys- thanks Tripwire
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Phish
Postal Service
Iron Maiden
Eminem
Jewel
The Cranberries
The Scissor Sisters
The Streets (a stretch...)
Twisted Sister? (the contorted chicks in the middle)
Korn
Counting Crows? tripwire buddies say Black Crowes.
Seal
KISS... but why is it two girls? (not complaining by the way)
Dinosaur Jr.
Green Day
Cypress HIll... Nice work Toby
GREEN DAY... but cant figure significance of that particular day.
"B","G","G" on the wall (center left in picture) = The Bee Gee's ...thanks B-Mag.
Behind the guys in white are "The Doors" ...B-Mag credit
"The muscle cars are simply... The Cars???" ... Thanks B-Mag, I was reading too much into it.
On the ground next to "Matchbox 20" are a pile of "Nine-Inch Nails"? (Bmag) could be STYXX but I bet they would have used real branchy looking things.
GREAT WHITE!!!! (the shark poster... man that was killing me... thanks BMAG.

The first one was pompous, this one is just arrogant

Well, there it is the final revision before the publisher gets the ad. I just drove it over and put it in one of teh guys trucks since it is 2am and knocking at this hour just isn't cool- even if you are awake.
The past few years I have taken on an attitude of "why bother doing something if it isn't your best". Not in every facet of my life but a few. This trailer is the one of them. Why a trailer? Why put so much effort into a "thing". It represents my dream I guess...
To make a lot of money?
No. the bottomline is to be able to have the only two decisions I have to make in the morning is where am I fishing and is my family coming with me or will I just see them around lunch time. This scenario can only happen if they are in a nice place near a river. Right now I don't have a river worthy of fishing within a half hour.
I want to live in one of those resort areas somewhere. So in part I guess that requires a bit of money. And some sort of self employment prior, or easily managed during, that affords me the time to just hang with Lisa and the girls anyday I wanted.
Why put so much effort into the fishing stuff?
Because it is what I love most outside of my Family (capitalized for a Reason, or The Reason... The Risen?). It is what I am supposed to do. I think if a person doesn't mute that voice in their heart, and they pursue that wildest dream, then and only then can we be ultimately sharpened into the person we were created to become. It seems as though it is only the deepest desires that can keep driving us through the fire of learning new things. And it is only the toughest stuff in life that we go through because of our heart... the rest of the stuff we just give up on...
-marriage for example.
Man it has its tough times. Luckily for me it's really just an annual weekend every year- not a particular event, this weekend just seems to appear once a year at random. I know my marriage is easy. Mostly because my wife is forgiving. Anyway, during the rough water if we humbly look at the situation and ourself (which IS ALSO your partner) then we become better people on the other side- and usually with the ability to love a bit deeper.

So by doing stuff (like this trailer) so "over-the-top" are you looking for fame and recognition along with a bit of coin?
Not so much.
But you want to do a fishing show- isn't that all about fame?
I think it is more about showing people that anything can be accomplished no matter where you start. Although, If I make enough money to be done working, I would still do the show. The message wouldn't be as powerful if I just won the lottery and began broadcasting. I may rise to some sort of weird celebrity status among the river walkers- and, again, I am just in that arena to make a point (i.e. you can wear waders that have more patches than Joseph's coat and catch just as many fish).
But you play the lottery almost consistently- do you think you have a gambling problem?
No. It would be a problem if I won the big Jackpot. I just play a buck on the powerball/megabucks. I am not looking for the insane 9 digits of cash, I am looking for $50k. And with the trailer business I am just looking for a bit more freedom... the kind that allows me to go to Avery's Gymnastics stuff.

The Finest Drift Boat Trailer in the World

Kind of a bold statement I guess, but really there isn't another one like this. I designed it and then tracked down a remarkable welder. He is pleased and so am I. This doesn't come cheap, however the versatility and style make up for it.

The emblem is on!

It is kinda silly to build a trailer this cool.

The Best Drift Boat Trailer in the World

I realize that is a very bold statement, but you should see the competition. There just isn't any trailer like this handbuilt piece.

Nymph No More

I tied up a couple new patterns with a softhackle approach while getting ready for a trip to the D for summer run steelhead late in the season. Little did I know of the swung fly and spey rod... until thsi trip. These are cool patterns none-the-less but I wonder when I will actually bust them out again. Spey is my new way... ALL DAY- dredging the bottom, even with these spectacular patterns is probably not going to happen any more.

NonConformist and the Nice Guy

After spending 3 days camping in spurts of 45 degree rain and 30 mile-an-hour wind, it is not hard to understand how the the two of us can get along. There is no one else I know of that will endure these kind of elements without whining even if there are double digit steelhead being brought to hand in less than 72 hours. Yeah, the splash in the blurry picture is a steelhead about to be released. Maybe if the wind weren't blowing so hard the camera wouldn't have been so shaky (even without the wind I was shivering from the hat-floater I did earlier in the day, so it still wouldn't have turned out perfect).

I just got back from a 3 day trip with a guide buddy of mine. Other guides twice our age say he is the best Steelhead fisherman in the state. My fishing career is real blessed to have reconnected with Rob. It took us a few hours to figure each other out again. We
havent hung out in 10 years, but, mix in a few fish, some politics and religion and we realized how the core ideals were still turning over better than my sink-tip. However, he is nice and even keeled, and in contrast i have a constant dribble of dry humor that is difficult to read, so some of our first conversations got stacked up
like my spey cast.

He called me out a few times for the bits of unnecessary non-conformity I try too hard to exhibit with the all too elitist act of fishing with a fly rod, and in return I call him out for ... well.. being so gall-darn nice and conformiing. Man he is a good guy and it is unfortunate that he has to hang with a bunch of guys (clients every weekend) who expect him to dress and act a certain way. I am sure he is looking forward to the day when he can just be on theriver only entertaining himself and his family.

Didn't do much with the still camera on the D

I seriously only brought home a dozen pics with the still camera, if
that. Rob was usually 50 yards from me fishing the other half ofeach run. I happened to swing a fly right as I got out of the boat and hooked this one so he was there to snap this.

I don't want to throw around a bunch of pics of him due to his profile in the weird world of fly-fishing, but he caught some beautiful fish... a lot. Here is that perfect shot of a well treated fish.