OffThePost.org

And then, there’s Vegas. Huh. Thought we had a puking smiley.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

I doubt any of you guys would be interested enough, but the Punk Rock Museum in Vegas is frigging awesome! It's got like 60 years worth of stuff, from original smashed guitars, to band members' jackets, to working guitars that you can play! AND- Wesley Willis' keyboard!!!!! And you can frigging play it! Amazing. Way too much stuff to name it all. There's a bar in-house that has memorabilia from various punk rock venues (including a part of the graffiti covered wall from CT's Anthrax club that was found 20 years after it closed, and was saved by a friend of mine and shipped to the museum). All in all, just absolutely great stuff! There's a small living room setup, where you can sit and read a bunch of punk books in their "library". It's a small bookshelf, but you can read them for free and just hang out. Some are for sale in the gift shop. There are QR codes that link to playlists for various sub-genres of punk music. That is cool as hell. I was talking to the owner and he was saying they're going to try to set up QR codes for each piece, so you can look at a photo and scan a tiny QR code and get info on the photo- as much as they can get, like date, location, who is in it, etc. Cool shit!
Funny scene while going through it. There was an older couple, probably mid-60s, dressed age appropriately. I kind of wondered if they brought their kid or grandkid in, but certainly said nothing to them other than smiling and nodding as I passed. Some twit loudly asked why they'd be in such a place... And BOOM, grandma got pissy and said to grandpa "hey Mike, remember when Dave took this shot? When Mike had to borrow your car to get to the shoot because his bike broke down? And Johnny borrowed your guitar for the show that night?" Kids got a slap of reality that not all old punks still dress the part but that sure as hell doesn't mean they weren't there, long before the youngens were born.

Then it was off to the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in Simi Valley, CA (just north of LA). It's like a 10k sq ft warehouse with decks all along some of the walls, a mini ramp, and some other cool displays, but the guy has a ton more stuff to display- he just doesn't know how to get it shown. There was only a few of us in the place so he took us into the back room and showed us a ton more stuff he has- sitting in boxes! All kinds of cool shit. Needs some racks or other stuff to display more boards.
He's got the original Search for Animal Chin skateboard monument in the museum. It's made of foam on a wire frame. People have torn off bits of the outer coating to have pieces of it, so it's a bit beaten up and different looking than in the video, but it's still readily recognizable, and definitely rad to see in person. It's like 6-7' tall.
Chatted with the owner for a while. Really cool guy. It's basically his personal collection and things people donate. He's got a ton of old Schwinn bikes and some BMX bikes as well.

If you're ever in the area, check either out. Punk Rock museum is $30 ($100 if you go when someone is giving guided tours- other than some adult entertainer, who is now giving them every Thursday for the same price according to their social media page. Kind of fitting considering they're next to a 24/7 all nude strip club, where I think she works. ) The skateboarding HoF/Museum is free. And it's across from a Vans outlet.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

So despite my health issues earlier this year we have been busy making up for lost time due to the pandemic by hitting the road perhaps a little too much. We did Calella, Spain in the spring which is about 50 mi/80km northeast of Barcelona and takes 65 minutes by train to get to. Barcelona is OK, the locals aren't as hostile towards visitors as they were before the pandemic and the police seem to be doing a better job of cracking down on the pickpockets and other petty street crime. Our youngest was relieved of 200 Euros by a group of Roma ladies after they herded her back in 2016. Still, been there done that when it comes to Barcelona and I wouldn't rate it as one of my favourite cities. I preferred the trips to Girona and Figueres where the Salvador Dali museum is as well as the seaside towns such as Blanes and other seaside towns right into southern France. Monserrat north of Barcelona where the monastery is in the mountains is also a must see. In the 3rd week of November we did another week at the same Mexican resort outside of Playa Del Carmen as a re-do from our previous trip in February when I was sick. We got home then not long later flew to exotic Winnipeg to visit the daughter and son in law then as soon as we got back we headed to the Okanogon river valley in Washington to see the oldest daughter, her husband and our 11 week old granddaughter. Home for the holidays but our youngest talked us into a week in Puerto Vallarta with her, her boyfriend and his father with the father's common law missus. This is Jan 6. We are suspicious there might an engagement announcement. One week after we get back we go to Albufeira, Portugal for 3 weeks to celebrate the Supreme Commander's birthday. We will be staying in the Old Town in an apartment hotel which has cooking facilities so we don't have to dine out every evening. We like going to these long stays in and around the Mediterranean during the off seasons of November and January/February where it's not so busy and the daily temperatures run around 22 C/ 72 F with sunshine as opposed to long, dark, pissing rainy days back home.

If any of you are interested in European long stays, check out Exotic Tours based in Montreal to see what they offer. No, I don't get commission for posting about them.

Glad to hear you're getting out & about! My wife went to Spain a few years ago. She loved Barcelona, although she was on high alert for pick-pockets the whole time. She's an untrusting NYer though, so that's normal for her.

_________________
Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Since I didn't get to go anywhere this past summer (coworker left our dept, leaving me to do all of my work and his for 3.5 months) I'm carrying over 2 weeks of vacation and told my boss to expect me to use ALL 5 weeks that I'll have next year. Maybe even a little more.

Wife and I are riding the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail and Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) trail from Pittsburgh to DC. GAP trail starts pretty close to PPG arena, so I may get a pic mooning Mario's statue to start the trip. It's about 350 miles total. Taking 5 days to do it.

Miss18.1 wants to go somewhere hot, so we're going to Grand Cayman for like 5 days.

Miss18.2 wants to do a writing course at Trinity College in Dublin, so we're also doing 2 weeks in Ireland. Miss18.1 will stay home for that one, so Mrs.18 and I might take advantage of being kid-less for a week and rent bikes to ride the new Greenway paths Ireland is building. They're working on a bike path from Dublin to Galway, and have others around the country. Although some friends might come over with us and that would mean no biking, but they're flakes, so I doubt they'll come.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Time to give Chris and all of you a good laugh:

https://teelingdistillery.com/teeling-w ... h-visitor/

Yours Truly and the Supreme Commander looking as magnamous as possible two days after a red eye flight from St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador to Dublin, Ireland. This was back in June 2016. We went to Teeling Distilleries because I hadn't heard of them before and we ended up getting a VIP tour for being their 60,000 visitor on their one year reopening. The gents bookending us in the suits are owners Steve and Jack Teeling, sons of the original owner John Teeling. We managed to get some good gifts courtesy of the VIP tour and I got to pour my own bottle of 14 year old single malt whiskey. The photo is still up on Teeling's website, you have to go into About Us/News and keep scrolling to see our mug shot.

Spellcheck listed the Montreal travel company with the wrong spelling, the correct is Exotik Tours. Here is their link:

https://exotiktours.com

Nice!

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Nice, Mr. P!

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

So we returned from Albufeira via Lisbon and Paris CDG on Valentine's Day. With the exception of the last Thursday, Friday and Sunday when it rained and had heavy winds the weather was sunny and around 18-22 C. I have a tan on my face except for my white eyes from my sunglasses. At happy hour guests told me I looked like a Panda. We did a couple tours of the Algarve including a jeep safari into the interior by a driver/guide who called himself Chicken George. The Algarve Coast is spectacular with cliffs to the west of Olhos De Agua and long beach to the east. The missus enjoyed her birthday trip and neither of us really wanted to return home. A company called TraVac based in Ottawa does long stays at Cerro Mar of 5, 6, 8, 12 weeks which is appealing but unfortunately with my dad turning 91 in 10 weeks and my mother while still only 84 is starting to have the cheese slip off her cracker. It'll be difficult to be gone more than 5 weeks. Which is too bad because the señora and myself would like to hike the Santiago De Compostellana in the fall.

Trip sounds amazing!
I hope all is well with your parents.
I always hear people talking about returning from work "energized and relaxed" and talking about being ready to return to normal life and ready for work... When I come back from vacation, the last thing I want to do is return to work or normal life. Especially a good vacation. It just makes me wish I could win the lottery and never have to work again.

_________________
Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Booked a weekend in Lake Placid for Mrs18 and myself for our 25th anniversary. Her idea but she'd never pull the trigger on it. So I did. Mid-Oct so the leaves will hopefully be pretty. Plan on hiking and maybe bring our bikes.

_________________
Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Anam and I are looking for somewhere to go in late Oct/early Nov without the kids. Flights to Europe get limited and some very expensive around that time.

Has anyone spent any time in San Juan and Puerto Rico in general? Heard good things, sounds pretty cool, relatively close.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!