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Bitterroot Bugle archives

Was the grasshopper correct?

I have lived ant’s part in the fable of the ant and the grasshopper while over thirty years ago my ex roommate, best friend, and one who cared deeply about my well-being advised wholeheartedly that I would be much happier and better off if I quit even thinking about The Deep State and ugly side of the world around us. That is over 11,000 days he spent power boating, traveling, watching pro sports with friends, believing in an honorable media, living in a pleasant, unconcerned leisure class while I kept my nose to the grindstone, squirreled my nuts away, researching, working, and railing against the evil elites. As my, our enemies come down home stretch on their nefarious Agenda […]

some things elude quantification

Early this week I shared bits of a personal exercise wherein I attempted to quantify, weigh my time management. As I mentioned there, blogging did not land anywhere near the top. It in fact seems to be near or at the bottom of things I objectively think I should be doing. Yet here I am. I just finished a review of the list I created, made some modifications, but still came up with no justification for doing what I am doing at this moment. My difficulty lies in quantifying community service, building a team with survivable potential, calling out warnings, or some Paul Revere-ish driving mechanism inherent in my psyche. There is another part of me that HATES BULLIES. […]

Darby Adult Ed classes

This semester I am offering three classes through the Darby Adult Education program. Their local reach is great with direct mail flyers going to every mailbox in the Darby zip code. I notice their website is not functioning, so I will do a little boosting of my class offerings here. Community Threat Workshop-Probability/Severity Exercise Instructor will explain the Probability/Severity exercise format, then lead a participatory workshop designed to assess and with potential disruptions to our community. The group with then develop action items for highest level threats. Instructor: Ted Dunlap Day(s): Saturday Dates: September 30 (1 class) Time: 10:00 am to 12:00 am Location: Darby Community Public Library Meeting Room Student Fee: $4.00/$2.00 seniors 60+ Materials/Material Fee: None Two Way […]

The Sunday Morning Ride

I woke up quite early that Sunday as was normal for me. I considered quietly creeping around my sister’s house until she got up around 11, which was normal for her. The drive from Palo Alto to Santa Rosa would change from mundane to ugly by mid-day were I to delay my departure. Instead I unzipped and opened the driver’s side of my tonneau cover, tossed my bag into The Speedster and headed out before the traffic woke up. As I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge on this glorious summer morning I decided to enjoy Highway 1 instead of plodding along the northbound freeway. With the crack-of-dawn absence of traffic, the windy coastal road would add no time, but tremendous […]

My new role as biker chick coach

1979 Honda XL75 and new rider … more than 20 years its senior My brother-in-law has over 35 years riding, and tinkering on them, now with a stable of Harleys. There was this little Honda training bike taking up valuable garage space until his vertically modest sister sat on it during a recent visit we made to his house. He did a thorough mechanical restoration, added rare bits to make it street legal, then delivered it to his sister. He, she and I have been working on rider training for about a week now, starting with a bike strapped down, rear wheel in the air.  As you might understand, kick starting, left foot shifting, left hand clutching, separate front (right […]

Ukraine has me in their crosshairs

In my estimation, my websites are the tiniest little annoyance, minuscule, less than a pinprick. Nevertheless, five out of the five that I maintain are now being regularly probed by hackers located in Ukraine. Really??? How do they have time for me? C’mon Russia, give them something more interesting to think about. You probably know one of my websites, but I built four for various purposes from commercial to politics and one for my wife to play with. They are all still standing, and regardless of their extremely low threat profile to anyone, do attract enemy attacks with unending regularity. Check them out: Bitterroot Bugle, Idaho Liberty, Ted Dunlap, The Fixer, Free Missy. Do you see anything worth their […]

Bitterroot Bugle under attack

This website is constantly under attack. Perhaps adolescents trying their hand at hacking because some teens like tipping over outhouses, making messes and destroying the productivity of others… but I doubt it. A more likely possibility is someone hoping to hack in so they can make their marketing pitches to my small audience… I doubt that one as well. I am a tiny voice among those who are hacking at the root of the evil that is trying to destroy humanity, nature and life in this otherwise beautiful world. They would love to swat this mosquito … along with other annoyances both small and large. A few weeks ago I received notification of a bigger than normal attack sent […]

Fasting along – Day 7 report

Looking at a websearch on what others have shared about fasting, I tripped over a new-to-me phrase that fits well: therapeutic fasting. Upon finding out that I am fasting, the normal first assumption is that I am working for weight loss. Not that my 6′ 175-pound figure appears to be overly plump, but few can come up with another answer to “Why a person would skip meal after meal for days on end?” As I begin Day 7 of this fast, I weigh in at 163 … down 12 pounds. However my love handles are still apparent and poochy belly is still there … but those won’t be apparent to others until swim suit season … an event I […]

Appreciating California Highway 1 in the good old days

I grew up in idyllic Sonoma County that nature graced with beauty and interest in every direction from border to border. Lightly traveled mountain roads, river roads and Highway 1 skirting the rugged coastline were perfect for 20-something sports car and bike aficionados. Running solo more often than not, I gloried in the capabilities of my series of old-school Porsches and a sweet-handling BSA 650. Rarely did the destination have any significance; the journey was everything. I was leading a sports car tour to the Big Sur campground for a weekend of watching premium sports car racing at Laguna Seca. This group of young couples had shoehorned our gear into 50s and 60s topless cars with similar luggage capacity to […]

my turn as an enemy of the state

I was recently asked why I am unwilling to cross the border into and out of Canada. Here is the real answer. I was a significantly above average Libertarian activist. I ran for governor of Idaho twice, gave the Ada County Sheriff the closest race he had in 20 years, though I had no peace officer experience, and spent several years as Libertarian Party of Idaho state chairman. Needless to say, I was working diligently against THE STATE. When TSA had just (unconstitutionally) taken over transportation security at all the airports, I went through the Boise airport on my way to a convention of state chairs in Houston. I was the only person who got “randomly” plucked out of a […]

shop heat

One of the real treats in my life is a heated shop. I have a lovely collection of tools and workspaces enabling me to putter with woodwork, metalwork and a bit of mechanical maintenance. I am not great at any of it, but pretty darn good at solving the little challenges and opportunities life sends my way. I have spent some time turning my Jack-of-all-Trades persona into a way to make an honest living, but only at the wrong place at the wrong time. The Fixer business did not blossom, but my website The Fixer.biz is still kicking around as a place where I document some of my creations and share ideas I have come up with. I wish I […]

last ride of the season -?

The weather prognosticators are predicting significant drops in temperature and increases in that frozen water thing Montana likes to do to us. Meanwhile, my new-to-me 2009 BMW R1200RS-P (patrol or police model) bike has way-too-few me miles on it. Thursday I pushed all my ‘get the estate ready for winter’ chores aside to grab what may turn out to be my last highway munching ride of the season. The Iron Butt (long distance motorcyclist) guys may snicker, but 160 miles was way better than spending all winter wishing I had taken it out one more time. The roads were excellent, the patrol bike was a great pleasure to ride, the weather suited my clothes perfectly and the scenery was […]

Who am I?

sailing the San Francisco Bay on my Nacra 5.8 catamaranThis is an update to a post I published a few years ago. You can go see that one if you wish: https://www.teddunlap.net/who-am-i/, but I republished it below to save you the trip. A little bit older for sure, slower, wiser, and now with a few more experiences under my belt. Ohmygosh, I am probably 15 to 20 pounds lighter too, having discovered fasting as a healing and fitness tool. I have also worked on the estate, which now suits us a lot better than it did in January of 2019. I got to scratch my sports car track time itch for the first time in 35 years. This year I […]

settled in to my domain

A main driver of my life is gaining control of my homestead, estate, working spaces and equipment. After each move from one to another, the list of urgent/critical projects is immediately followed by the crucial, then important and so on until I reach the settled in phase. In each case there is some marker that gives me the feeling I have arrived. Seven years into our Bunkhouse occupancy, I finally hit what I think is that marker. I am comfortable that I know what spaces I want to irrigate, have them relatively easy to wet and no longer have to disconnect hoses, move pipes and reconnect to run my mower around the yard. This evolved irrigation system will be reasonably […]