ramblings2006b - Page: 1 of 1

Well, 63 doesn't feel a hell of a lot different than 62...but I really didn't think it would. After three or so hours standing on my feet, directing traffic at the Bears Run, I felt a lot older than that, though. After all the detours getting to the run, I was just glad that it was over.

First, we had a glitch getting our liability insurance but the Prez's last minute scramblings took care of that. The real bugger was, at the last minute, the ESCO decided we had to pay overtime of $78 (I think it was) to each of the deputies escorting our ride. Luckily we had a good enough turnout to cover our costs but we may have to reconsider either locations or fees for future rides. The scuttlebutt is that the VNV's Memorial Day Ride and our Toy Run in December will be gratis, but we'll just have to wait and see.

I hope I have all the bugs out of the site on the new domain. I think last Friday's rash of e-mails led me to my last correction and everything is working properly now. Oh, yeah, I discovered something this week I never knew before. There's something called a cache on our computers that sometimes will show an oleder version of a file than a later, identically named, one...like the Happenings or Ramblings, after I update them. If you think it isn't the latest version, try holding "control" while you hit "refresh". My new file manager for the site operates a tad differently than the old Geocities one, and I'm still learning.

Beyond all that, ride safe and see you in Tally at the Freedom Rally this weekend!

4/6/06

Funny how moods can turn around so quickly, ain't it? Just last night, I rode the ol' 750 up to Fat Boys to show to a guy who was possibly interested in adopting her. Before that, I had gone by the Nine Mile Sonic to visit with the Retreads. Anyway, it was good to ride the old scoot in the highway again and not only did the guy seem pretty interested, but someone else came by and was sounding good, too. I was in retail long enough to know you don't necessarily move a big-ticket item on first touch, but the vibes were good that one of the two want her.

It was a pleasant evening and made for a good night's sleep, so I was feeling good and full of energy this morning. It sure as hell was gonna be a great riding day so I decided to wash the VTX before I went. I opened the door and the first thing I noticed was the pegboad with all my tools was bare! Well, there were pegs, but no tools. I dont know if it's really possible to describe the feelings I had ... and still can't. It took, it seemed, forever to get a deputy out but I used the time by trying to inventory what was missing. You know, there's still a couple of pegs I can't remember what was on them plus some empty spots on shelves I can't remember either but what I did remember comes to something like nearly $500 if I could remember the prices right.

I have a property theft list from the sheriff's department to fill out, but I just couldn't bring myself to go to Sears, today, to get the right descriptions and prices; I was just too pissed off and discouraged. It took me years to build up that Craftsman collection. Oh, and of course I never engraved my initials or any other identifying marks on them. Oh well, tomorrow is another day, and I'll start from scratch, one more time. Naw, I'm not feeling sorry for myself; just pissed as hell that I forgot to lock the door when I came home last night. Expensive lesson, eh?

Oh, one other thing I almost forgot over all this: I won't be going to the Freedom Rally this weekend. Mom's appointment with the surgeon for the preliminary workup on her cataract came up, and I tried to postpone it, I'm afraid she's back out and we'd never get it done. Sorry folks, but Mom comes first.

4/20/06

Yeah, I did notice it's been a while, but stuff happens. I just don't feel like sharing everything! Whooppee, like ther's a lot to share, anyway. A lot of the tools have been replaced, one way or another, and I've found that engraving my name on tools is not such an easy task. I got a Dremel engraver with a carbide tip and it works pretty good with the larger tools, but there's not a lot of room on a 4mm combination wrench to work. I haven't even started on the sockets, yet!

After all my concern about Mom and her cataract surgery, the doc says she can wait another six months and they'll take another look. On the plus (or maybe, minus) side she went down for her driver's license renewal and she's good to go until 2012, according to the state. I think maybe she pulled the "poor ol' widder-lady" routine. She does that so well<G>.

Another victory: the ol' 750/825's been adopted. I feel like she's in real good hands now, and I can stop feeling guilty about neglecting her so much. Al the CB750-specific stuff went with her but now, wee need a swap-meet somewhere around here so I can pass on all the other stuff I've accumulated over the years and CAN'T use on the VTX. Oh, yeah, I've also got a Vetter fairing for sale. I've just GOT to clean out my storage area!

Y'all take care for now, and be safe!

5/2/06

Time sure flies when you're having fun, doesn't it? Truth is, there just hasn't been that much to talk about. Lessee now, Mom changed her mind...again..., so I'm taking her to the surgeon tomorrow, I think to get the computer to do something about measuring the eye before they actually schedule the surgery. I was back at the VA yesterday for my annual liquid nitrogen party. At least they didn't have to cut out anything this time. Hmmm, I wonder how these cool shaved-head guys riding their scoots are going to feel when they're 63 and have all these little freeze-burned spots on their scalp.

I went for my regular bleed last week and found out I'm just one unit short of donating 12 gallons of blood in my lifetime. Of course, that's just the recorded ones; when I was in the Army I used to do it to get the rest of the day off, and I don't know how many that was. You regulars know that's one of my things, though. I don't have a lot of money to spread around for charity, but I can save a life, here and there. If you can, you really should consider donating blood. I think the last stats I saw on it were that only 55-60% of the population can donate blood, but only 5% do! Think about it.

What else??? Oh yeah; I went to Emerald Coast Bikefest on Sunday (I just don't have a $25 span of concentration, but the $10 for Sunday was okay) and saw a bunch of "no colors" notices, as well as a greater concentration of the local constabulatory than I remember from the past. Are they just going to wind up cutting their own throats on this? You tell me.

Well, I guess that all the drivel that's fit to type so I'll shut up for now. I sure hope that rain forecast for this weekend doen't mess up Thunder Beach too much. That's usually another day trip for me. Ride safe and be happy (or, at least, reasonably content.

5/7/06

Didn't think I'd be back so soon, did you? Most of the scabs have fallen off my face, so I'm about as presentable as I've ever been, except for the summer buzz-cut. It's just too hot, too early! It wasn't too bad on Thursday, when I decided to take advantage of retirement, and ride to Thunder Beach on opening day, Thursday.

It was a fairly nice ride over, except for that continuing abomination, Destin-Sandestin. There's way too many Ferrarris. Mercedes's and Jaguars flitting around 98 for my comfort. There two little blonde twits in a convertible who MIGHT just understand a little more about weight-to-horsepower than they did before, though. I think it was a Birmingham tag. The State really did themselves proud with that stretch of 98 between 30A and the Freeport light.

Once into Panama City Beach, though, it was a totally different story. Problem one is all the construction going up on the Beach road. It seemed like there was some little signholder every 50 yards, flipping between "stop" and "slow", as well as scads of construction vehicle insistant on dropping white sand ball bearings all over the asphalt. Even though it was only the first day of the rally, the streets and venues were already filling with paper-tag scoots and sun-burned arms and faces of brand-new wannabees.

I spent about 4 hours, checking out the several main venues, from Pier Park down to the Spinnaker and decided, setting sun or no setting sun, it was time for me to leave the overabundance of cheap adult bubbling beverages and cheap semi-adult bubbling testosterone. The ride home was fairly uneventful except for even worse highway traffic than coming over. There was no racing anybody this time, but I did find I had better gas mileage. Hmmm, maybe there IS something to obeying the speed regulations?

I'm glad to hear that the inaugural Pace Sonic Bike Night was a pretty good success, with somewhere around 50 scoots showing up. Sorry I missed it, but you won't see much of me over in that neck of the woods on a Friday afternoon until the I-10 bridge is replaced. Well, I see I'm rambling on so this is a good place to shut 'er down for now. Ride safe and watch the idiots: full moon next week!

5/15/06

It was a quiet week on the Redneck Riviera, at least for me. We finally got some significant rain in so the grass is growing better and better, and it's even filling in where the Ivan debris sat for so long it killed everything off. My eldest grandson aced all his finals so he's actually going to graduate high school. Now, I'm proud as hell and everything but, by the same token, it's somewhat disconcerting. He and his girlfriend are planning on moving in together and, to me, that's the first step to my beoming a great-grandfather (and I'm too damned young for that!)

I hope you've read the Patriot Guard Riders announcement on the Happenings page. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, they formed to provide escort and support for military funerals and to prevent their disruption by anti-war protestors. Now, I don't know (or even really CARE to know) your position on our military around the world but, regardless of politics, our fallen men and women in the military and their grieving families deserve respect and dignity in these, their final missions. Soapbox off!

Beyond all that, it's been great riding weather when it hasn't been raining...and I FINALLY washed the bike for the first time after PC. See, it's that old conundrum; if it's a nice enough day to wash the bike, it's a nice enough day to ride it. Sure was a tough decision, though.

5/23/06

Well, if you go back and check the "Ramblings" archives, you'll see what I've been doing for the past week. It's a whole lot easier to do something the first time than it is to re-do a few years later, with a different set of software. Anyhow, I think I have it all on the new domain, now. If you find something wrong wth any of the links, please drop me an e-amil and I'll straighten it out. If, however, you find words overlapping, the problem is probably on your computer. In MS Explorer, go to "View", then "text size" and, in all likelihood, you're using something larger than "medium". Try getting glasses. I don't know what the command structure is in other browsers.

I don't know if you've heard the gossip about Fatboys closing but, to the best of my sources, that isn't the case. What is happening is that Muff's share is up for sale, but he is the majority shareholder, so I guess the whole thing is. I dunno; you need a corporate lawyer to figure that out, as far as I'm concerned. Anywho, it isn't closing. Like so many others, he has found that it is real tough holding down a job being at sea half the time, being a union rep, AND running a business here in P'cola. Anybody who's had the urge to run a biker bar, and has some money to invest, should get in touch with him.

Y'know, I really shouldn't have said the website was the only thing that's kept me busy the last week. On Friday night, I went to my eldest grandson's high school commencement. Sure does make me feel old! Dang, I was doing the same thing as him 45 years ago. On Saturday, I (along with a whole bunch of other friends) went to celebrate Tom and Teresa's wedding at American Legion 340. It was neat to see the bride and the groom RIDING down the aisle on their scoots. Now, THAT was a biker wedding!

I hope the weather's going to hold up for us on the Ride To The Wall South this weekend. As of today (Tuesday) it's kind of iffy. I guess we'll just have to see. Oh well, until next time try to stay safe.

5/31/06

Phew, it's finally over, for the most part. Naw, I'm not talking about the Ride to the Wall South, although that went pretty good as far as I could see. I heard about a member of the local motorized constabulatory dumping his scoot, but I didn't see it and never verified it.

What I'm talking about is Mom's eye surgery! For 87, she's doing grand, but she has been troubled with cataracts. She had one eye done a couple of years ago and was so impressed with the new visual acuity that I figured there'd have no problem when the time came to schedule the other. Wrong, Dot-5 breath; she kept putting it off and putting it off, saying she saw fine with the one eye and didn't need the other one done. Now Mom still drives. Granted, it's only a couple of miles up to Food World or to K-Mart, or maybe even to the Commissary, but I really do think two-eyed depth perception is better than one, so I've kept at it.

Well, to make a short story long, I drove her into Baptist SurgiCenter this morning at the ungodly hour (to someone who's retired and really HATES an alarm clock) of 7 this morning and got her home, surgery done and recovery room time served, by 10:15. I was impressed! Of course, I had to kid her that she just did it so she could get that eye patch and be one of the Fiesta pirates. She's asleep now, still a tad groggy from the surgery, but I'll be taking care of her the rest of the week or so...or at least as long as I can hold her down. I hope I'm doing so well in another 24 years.

As a side bar, my son Kevin had a TV feature done on him by WAVE3 in Louisville as being one of the few police officer amputees to return to active duty in the field. He's also started his helicopter flight training. I caught most of it on http://www.wave3.com but with dial-up, it was kinda disjointed. The piece was entitled "Officer loses leg but not courage to overcome." Okay, so I'm proud.

Too danged hot to ride in the middle of the day but, if you do, drink plenty of (nonalcoholic) fluids and stay safe. Catcha later.

6/7/06

Well, it looks like 6-6-6 day passed and we're all still here, although I'm not really surprised. If those who were concerned about it were to think about it, there's one every hundred years, and we're all still here. What has also passed is the 14th anniverary of my moving back to P'cola, and I'm still here, too. Hmmm, what does THAT portend?

It's been one week since Mom's eye surgery and Dr. Ray and Dr. Casey have given her a pretty clean bill of health. She still has to use some kind of eye drops for a few more weeks, and one more doctor visit in three weeks, but I think we're done with this episode..

In a way, I'm glad my favorite TV shows have gone into re-runs because that frees my Tuesday and Thursday evening up for some live music. Tueday is Blues of the Beach, at Casina Beach, and Thursday is Music in old Seville. The offering aren't completely flawless, but I would urge you to get out to Casina Beach on the 13th or some real kick-ass music. Trust me! I try to make Fat Boys on Wednesday evenings, and sometimes, Fridays, but I just don't know how much karaoke I can stand. Sometimes Saturdays will find me at Gene's Lounge, on Navy Blvd., if I can get there early enough to park the scoot in sight of the door, and then get out before it gets too crowded for me. Crossfire, the band, is very good and the air conditioning is cold...most of the time.

I'm still doing most of my riding in the late morning and early evening because I think I'm getting old. When I was a kid, the heat never bothered me but I sure as hell can't take it now. At least I'm still riding, though. As you might be able to tell, there just hasn't been that much going on around here (Mom excepted) so I've run out od stuff to say. Take care and ride safe. Seeya on the road.

6/22/06

Some random thoughts on a really hot, dry day: Damn, it's HOT! I really do hate used car salesmen, or at least, having to deal with them. If it's so dry out, why do I still have to mow the yard every week? I keep forgetting how much better a wet clutch feels after an oil change. Yay, my portable generator started on the first pull when I tested if for this hurricane season. Yeah, Tony Stewart got it right: "if you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough". Later!