Kevin Nelson

A few pics I took this week with my Panasonic Lumix:

This is a circa 1988 Chevy Caprice that the Ontario Police Museum is using for display. This is the model that was in use when I started patrol in December 1989. Bench seat, no power windows, huge trunk and a great 350ci engine. No ABS, either. Weird to see something I started on considered a museum piece.

I can only assume they got a great deal on this paint.

I took this on Tuesday morning in south Ontario while on my way to the Prado Range to qualify. We had a big rain on Monday. I believe its Mount Baldy.

And that afternoon, a rainbow.

It still amazes me that, after numerous warnings are given in English and Spanish, some people still choose to take their chances with a police dog. I guess some people just have to learn things the hard way.

I Googled the local theater in the hopes that a couple good new movies might be on offer this weekend. What I found:

More global warming agitprop for the continued brainwashing of children

The saga continues: softcore domination porn for bored housewives and chubby high school girls

Homoerotic CGI sword and sandals flick for gays and the not so bright

Another unfunny Adam Sandler movie ( redundant) with a feel good premise and Sandler playing the part of his twin sister. Note to Adam- the Beverly Hillbillies pulled this off ( Jethro/Jethrene) forty years ago. You suck.

That’s it. That’s what our vaunted movie industry has put forth for this weekend. Any body feel like shelling out $40 to see any of this crap?

The  UPS 767 took noticeably less runway length to get airborne. Fed Ex is an MD-11. Note the third engine mounted in the tail assembly.

Today I worked the heavies for an hour, had a Replenish shake immediately afterwards, then rested a bit. For lunch I went to Albertson’s and got a can of black beans with a pop-top lid and a pint of ice cold egg whites in the carton.

The beans taste just fine right out of the can. Eating the whole can provided about 330cal, 18g protein and 3g of sugars. I washed these down with two pint carton of egg whites. This gave me 150cal, 50g protein, 0 fat and 0 sugars. Drinking the egg whites take a little getting used to but they taste like milk when cold. This meal sticks with you. Egg whites are the purest form of protein available, and they digest slowly, leaving you full for a good while.

Cost was about $5.

Later, I had about 8 oz. of Fresh and Easy boiled and sliced chicken breast, dipped in a little barbecue sauce. That was about 45g protein and a couple grams of fat, but negligible amount.

Later, I had a little more of the chicken on a salad, maybe about 6 oz. maybe 25gr protein.

Totals: protein 168g
calories about 2000

The literature say if you hit heavies and want muscle growth, you have to have at least a gram of protein per pound of body weight. That’s harder to do than you might think. Other sources say the body can only absorb 30g in a three hour period. That means having a half shake, a can of tuna, chicken breast, or egg whites every few hours. Doable, but you really have to plan it out, and carry a lunch bag with you. You have to do these even on days when you don’t work out.

My workout consists of 50 minutes of major body areas three times a week, Shoulders, chest, neck, lats, triceps, biceps and legs. Heavy weights, 5-6 reps of to failure, 3 sets each. Try to add weight incrementally each workout. I like to finish with a couple sets of elevated pushups or kettle bell toss. If I feel sore I’ll add in an extra day between workouts.Working out sore is a mistake; it means the body hasn’t recovered from the last workout. You risk injury and no results.

To maximize results, save time, ad prevent injury, I try to to use a barbell or machine simulating a a barbell for almost all the exercises. In other words, I avoid dumbbells. To lift max weight a barbell ( or Hammerstrength machine) allows to to use all the muscles of a particular body part. So you include the main muscles and the support muscles, and can push more weight. And if it gets away from you, all you have to do is let it fall to the rack. A falling dumbbell at muscle failure can tear a shoulder or land on a foot. I also work pairs of body parts together. This is a time saver, as it takes twice as long to do 3 sets of dumbbell bicep curls for each arm than three sets of barbell curls for both arms. The results should be the same.

Having read about Harley-Davidson’s latest “new” model for 2012, the unfortunately named Dyna Switchback, I spent Saturday morning cruising the local dealers in search of one. Why would I do this? Well, I was intrigued by the idea that HD would take an existing model, bolt on some parts, and call it a “new” model, especially since I did essentially the same thing two years ago with my 2004 Dyna Superglide.

HD’s bread and butter these days is the full size touring models such as the Road Glide, Road King and Street Glide. These “baggers” as they are known, weigh upwards of 850 lbs, and around $20,000 minimum. HD apparently realized that not everyone wants a bike that big or expensive, but would still like some storage space and wind protection. So they took a Dyna Superglide, bolted on some detachable hardbags, a detachable windshield and floorboards, and called it a Switchback. Now, when I hear the word switchback, I think of twisty mountain roads, maybe a fire road, something that would be best handled by a BMW F800SG, or a Triumph Tiger, not a 700lb cruiser. It appears HD figured if we change the name of something we have already done it will make it new. Then we can charge $16,000, plus license, tax etc.

While researching this bike on the Harley forums I came across two posts wherein the authors said their detachable hardbags on their new Switchbacks picked the freeway as a good place to detach. Not a good sign for this bike.

The Dyna series has been around since he early 70’s. They basically are a Sportster on steroids. They are a full size Harley Big Twin, but they generally weigh less than the rest of the full size lineup, handle more nimbly, and are a little zippier due to having a better power-to-weight ratio. They are as close to a “standard” bike as Harley gets, and because they usually come without all the bells and whistles and price tag of the other full size hogs, they lend themselves well to customization. I have one, and I love it. It makes a nice commuter, boulevard cruiser or cross country tourer, depending on how you set it up.

I had high hopes for the Switchback, being a fan of Dynas, but I left the shop disappointed. The bike was underwhelming. I didn’t like the large but plain front fender, the hardbags looked too small for the bike, the battery box cover was an ugly gloss black, and candy apple red color of the bike I saw was off-putting. There was just something off about the bike. As far as storage, the bags were too narrow; one would be hard pressed to carry more than enough for a day trip. Harley lauds the speed at which one can quickly detach the windshield, but that would be anyone, including a thief while you are inside eating. Some Harley windshields work with a lock (extra $40) and some don’t. I’m not sure about this one.

I’m not sure why anyone would spend $16,000 plus on this bike. You can find newer model year, low mileage Dynas for under $10K, and almost all will have some nifty aftermarket mods already installed. There are several outfits that make plastic ABS or fiberglass hardbags for around $400, figure another $350 for paint and quick detach mounting hardware. Windshields are a couple hundred bucks. Plenty of outfits make soft touring luggage for the sissybar rack if you do want to pack for a multi-day trip.

I didn’t go the convertible route on mine because I could rarely foresee a circumstance where I would want to remove the hardbags or windshield. here’s what I did to make mine a mini-tourer:

I took a 2004 Dyna Superglide and installed a HD sport windshield kit, $175. I installed Hardstreet Slimbag Saddlebags $275 at the time, plus about $75 for the installation. I got a tail bag, which slips on and off the sissybar in about 5 seconds if I need to carry more stuff. I left the bags flat black, because I didn’t feel like getting them painted, and I thought they looked just fine black.

Here are some pics:

I sent Hardstreet a couple photos after I had the bags put on, and they used one on their website

I have a strictly photography oriented website also. Check it out at

www.kgnphoto.com

Bookmark it. I’ll note it on this website when I post a new gallery, as a reminder.

Like dogs? Like the beach? Get the best of both at Dog Beach, in San Diego. Its in Point Loma, off Rosecrans Ave, where the 8 freeway ends. Google it.

I could spend hours hear watching these dogs frolic in the sand and water. It’s an exercise in pack behavior; in fact, its almost like watching children on the playground. There are athletes, bullies, wallflowers, wanna-be suitors. It’s a great place for photos but you will need a good, fast SLR camera, a decent lens, and patience.

Tips:

Plan on getting sandy and wet. You have to get down to their level. Shots taken from a standing position don’t work.

Portraits are nice, but try and combine those with action shots, shots that show the dog’s behaviors and interactions and shots that show the relationship between dogs and humans.

Take lots and lots of photos. I’m pretty good at this, I have good gear and experience,but I still took about 250 photos to get a handful of decent ones. They will look good on your viewfinder but when loaded up on your computer, many will be soft and out of focus.

Use photo editing software to (slightly) sharpen, bump up contrast and crop. Crop tight. You are better off shooting at your lens midrange focal length, if a telephoto, and cropping down. Focusing will be easier and sharper, and it will be easier to follow the action.

Put the sun behind you, depending on what time of the day it is. Work in that direction. Shots taken towards the sun just won’t come out.

www.kgnphoto.com

The Ruger LC9 is a new offering from Ruger that joins the ever-growing list of subcompact, single stack 9mm’s. These are falling very neatly into two camps- the high end offerings from Kimber, Sigarms and Kahr, that retail for upwards of $600, and the lower price-point models from Kel-Tec, Taurus and Ruger that are in the $350 range. According to Alan at Allstate Police Supply in Pomona, most of the other manufacturers want to jump on this bandwagon and should have offerings in the next six months.

This is really round two in the subcompact wars. Over the last two years or so, all of these manufacturers chased Kel-Tec in trying to get out a 7 shot .380. Ruger essentially copied Kel-Tec’s P3AT, in a slicker, smoother package. These flew off the shelves, and then came the call from gun owners for similar offerings in a 9mm.

I bought the LCP as soon as I could get my hands on one. I think it’s a great gun. Its small, it fits in a front pants pocket and it goes bang every time. I don’t have any problem with it, there are just times when I want to carry a 9mm, something with sights that packs a bit more punch than a .380, I have a Glock 26, which is a fine gun, but it is a double stack, and is heavier and bulkier than I like. I find myself carrying it less and less.

Think of the LC9 as the LCP’s bigger brother. There is clearly a family resemblance, especially in the shape of the guns and the grip; They are almost identical. The LC9 adds a left side flip-down safety and a loaded chamber indicator. Another feature the LC9 has that the LCP doesn’t is a slide lock that locks the slide back after the last round is fired. The LC9 holds 8 when fully loaded. The LC9 also adds three dot sights, where the LCP has no sights.

                   LC9 and LCP

Many of the reviewer in the gun rags didn’t like the safety or the loaded chamber indicator, I suspect this has to more with their understandable hatred of California’s wacky gun laws, which required these feature for it to be sold to non-law enforcement buyers, than with any practical reason. Much of their ire was directed at Ruger for supposedly caving in to California. Maybe they did, but can they really be expected to ignore the biggest gun market in the country?

My feeling is that I like the loaded chamber indicator. It doesn’t replace a press check, but it’s unobtrusive and adds an extra measure of safety without taking anything away from the functioning of the gun. As for the safety, it’s on the left side and snicks down easily. Its like a much smaller version of the safety on my Kimber 1911. I’ve carried that one daily for four years, so flipping off the safety when drawing the weapon is automatic for me. Those who don’t like the idea of a safety can opt to leave it off. It snicks down easily, but is takes a much firmer upward push to put it back on safe. It seems unlikely that one could accidently put it on safe. You have to want to do it.

I was only able to shoot about 30 rounds through the LC9. My first impression is very positive, The trigger pull was long, but not as long as the LCP. It breaks clean, and resets easily. Recoil was similar to the LCP; in other words sharp, but not too bad. I felt like it would be easy to shoot for extended periods. The sight picture was good. I really liked the sights.

This gun is accurate. I shot from the 3, 7 and 10 yard line, 6 shots each, and kept all rounds in the ten ring on a man-size target. I shot another 6 shot group from the ten yard line that was inside three inches. That’s right there with my G26, with a trigger that is substantially heavier and longer. It was better than I expected.

I think the LC9 is a little bigger than I like for front pocket carry, although it can certainly be done. I don’t like inside-the-waistband carry, so I am now looking for a strong-side open top leather belt holster. Since the LC9 is fairly new, there aren’t too many offerings specifically for it, so I will probably have to find something for the Kel-Tec Pf9, which has identical dimensions. Anyone with suggestions let me know.

I will probably make a trip to the range and run a few boxes through this gun. I will report on any problems I have but I think it will run just fine.

A new batch of kittens has appeared by the station gas pumps. I see them at the end of the day when I gas up.

The Lumix does well with standard focal length shots and close-up telephoto shots. It has trouble with distant telephoto shots, with noticeable softness and graininess. It serves its purpose, however, as a very small camera that I am managing to have with me most of the time.

Be sure to click on the photos to see full size versions.

Note the insolent stare of the black cat, the disinterested, disdainful look of the grey tabby, and the curious but wary gaze of the orange tabby. Cats express a wide degree of emotion with only a very slight change in facial appearance and body language. If these were the size of a tiger, which would you fear the most?