Bikeless World Wanderings

After almost 7 weeks of fighting with the portable Sirius Sportster Radio including a couple of complete change-outs, I decided to install an in-dash unit.  I was disappointed that I would loose the portability but at this point, just getting a good signal was paramount.  

The other day I had the work done, hopped into my truck and headed back to the hotel.  Well, the damn thing still doesn’t work right.  OK, OK, I give up, for now anyway.  I’m going back and having the original radio put back in, get my money back and just give up for a while.  I hate to do it but I’ve spent so much time at Circuit City that they should start paying me…

When I get some time I’ll go have a diagnostic test done on the truck to see if they can find some kind of electrical fault that could be causing this problem.  Don’t really know what else to do at this point and I’m so tired of messing with it.  Sirius is of no help.  They say no one has ever had this problem before.  Somehow I find that hard to believe but I’m to burned out on this to push the issue.  I’ll probably just have them suspend my subscription or cancel it and get a refund…

Bye Howard, bye Bubba…

What a great weekend. Rolling hills, sweeping curves, big V-twin 88 engine roaring under me… It was an absolutely beautiful weekend…

Saturday was a bit on the cold side as temps were in the lower 40’s as I left the hotel at 9:00AM expecting to meet up with some Moose Riders and a couple other folks at the local diner for breakfast. Much to my surprise, when I arrived there was only one other bike there and he was as puzzled as I was. He made a few phone calls and found out that everyone else whimped out due to the temp. Come on guys, if a Florida boy like me can do it, it should be easy for a bunch of people accustomed to the weather to ride with the chill in the air. Anyway, the other guy decided to head back home since his buddies didn’t show. How about that, get invited to a ride and then be the only one to show up, what’s up with that? Must be that Georgia hospitality… As it worked out, I had a great day in spite of them, riding north to Dahlonega across through Helen and on to Ellijay. I then made a large circle around Atlanta and headed back in through the northwest corner toward Smyrna. The temp got up to the lower 50’s in the afternoon and really wasn’t bad at all. The colder temps made the bike really run well. I put about 250 miles on the bike and the weather didn’t bother me at all. Layers are a wonderful thing for this type of activity and I had plenty. I kinda looked like a black version of the Michelin Man with my riding leathers about as full of clothes as they could handle but I was warm and happy.

When I left the hotel on Sunday, I was bundled up like the day before but it got warmer much earlier and right after I got to the Moose Lodge at about 10:30 for the Special Olympic Benefit Ride I was peeling off layers from underneath my leathers. This ride was much shorter, about 85 miles total with 3 scheduled stops before returning to the Smyrna Legion Hall. There were 24 bikes on this run and we broke out in three smaller groups to make it easier to stay together. It was a beautiful day and the temp got into the 60’s that, while still cool, made for an awesome time. We raised about 2K on the ride and combined with the early activities at the Moose Lodge and the later activities at the Legion Hall the total we raised for the Special Olympics for the day’s activities topped 15K. It was a good day…

I took a bunch of pics, really I did, but when they transferred my programs from my old computer to my new one they left off my Kodak software and the disks are at home in Florida so I’m still not able to post them here. I’ll have Stacey bring the software with her this weekend and I’ll get it up and running and post some pics next week.

Time to get some work done. After all, that’s what they pay me for…

It is nice to have a computer again. Just finished posting yesterday’s ramblings. This new Dell Latitude D610 is a nice laptop with a Gig of RAM and an 80 Gig HD it should work for me for a few years to come. I have to get used to the differences between it and the Panasonic I had previously but I’m sure that won’t take long.

Took the car to Circuit City last night and they put in a new system, same as before, and apparently the same results. I went for a bit of a ride during lunch and still have the same problems. The Sirius Rep for Georgia had them give me his phone number so we can discuss the problem. I wonder what he can do? I’ll probably have to give up the portability of the Sportster and get an in dash model. It will be worth it though, Sirius is awesome uncensored radio with Howard Stern and Bubba the Love Sponge and the music channels have no commercial interruptions. No, I’m not a Howard fanatic but I do enjoy his radio shows and Bubba’s show is a lot of fun with a focus on NASCAR, wrestling, and hot babes… Definitely a man’s show…

It is supposed to be a sunny but cool weekend with temps running from the high 30’s to the high 50’s so I’ll have to bundle up but it should be great for riding otherwise. I went shopping yesterday for some long johns and a touk and I’ve got full leathers so I should be fine.

On Saturday I’m riding in an open, long distance run with the Moose Club Riders. We should be on the road for about 7 hours. I much prefer this type of riding to the around town bar hopping poker hand runs that so often happens, especially since I do not drink when I’m on 2 wheels. On Sunday the Moose Riders and the Smyrna Legion Riders are doing a joint benefit run for the Special Olympics and it should be a lot of fun. I am definitely looking forward to it. I got batteries for the camera and hope to get some nice shots along the way.

This weekend riding, next weekend in Savannah with Stacey, Life is good.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

It’s amazing just how much I rely on my computer to do my work here. I had to send mine off yesterday (see previous post) so am spending the day without one. I’ll only be here for 8 hrs rather than my usual 10 but it sure is becoming a long 8 hours. I must admit it was nice to sleep in an extra hour this morning and will be nice to leave an hour earlier so I shouldn’t complain. Problem is, I just can’t do anything. I borrowed a co-workers computer for a few minutes to check e-mail and printed out a few but otherwise it’s a wasted day for me.

BTW- To my co-workers still stuck in India, you might be surprised to hear that I haven’t been in any bar fights, haven’t lost my temper, cursed or shouted at anyone, not even close to doing so since my departure from Vemagiri…

I talked to Stacey last night and we have made plans to get together next weekend. We will meet in Savannah, GA on Friday night and stay through Sunday afternoon. We talked a bit about the recent tension between us and hopefully it is behind us now. I sure hope so anyway… Looking forward to spending some time with her.

Everything I own or touch lately that is some electronic marvel of the modern world has either turned to crap or in one way or another just not worked right.

My laptop is dying a slow death. I had to send it out to Tampa to get a replacement yesterday. In fact, I’m writing this blog by hand because I have no computer today. Hopefully they will be able to transfer files to my new computer today and ship it out this evening so I can get it first thing in the morning.

Yesterday I bought an external hard drive to back up my computer before sending it in and I couldn’t get the computer to read the HD. After 2 calls to the really incompetent Western Digital help desk, they determined that the HD was not working and suggested I take it back to the store for an exchange. Fat chance of that! I took it back all right but for a refund, not for exchange.

Being the wonderful son that I am, I added a phone to my Verizon Wireless account for my mom. I had it shipped to me so I could fill up her contacts and set everything up for her but when I went to perform the simple act of activating it, it just wouldn’t work. I was on the phone with customer service for over an hour trying to figure out what was wrong, all to no avail. They kept telling me it was activated and I kept telling them that it wouldn’t let me dial out or receive calls. I called them back 2 more times and on the third try I got someone else who noticed they hadn’t done something on their end. I was hot but kept calm and at least it was now done. Everything worked and I shipped it to her. I hope she’ll be happy with the new phone.

The signal to/from my Sirius satellite radio in my truck began to degrade so I replaced it with a new one. The new radio has much worse reception than the old one. It’s been about a month now and the problem persists despite a half dozen visits back to Circuit City to figure out the problem. Tonight they fix it or I return it.

Hopefully, by tomorrow, I’ll have a new working computer and radio… but I won’t hold my breath.

This was a good weekend. Friday was beautiful and I was chompin’ at the bit to get away from the office. When it was time to leave I was gone like the Flash… Made it home, changed into some riding gear and headed down the road. Unfortunately Atlanta rush hour traffic got in my way so I didn’t get far. I stayed on some back roads and got around without to much delay but there was no way I was able to escape the city since that is what everyone was wanting to do. I rode for a while, stopped for a steak dinner and it was awesome. Outback has some new blue cheese chopped salad that goes really good with a medium rare New York Strip. I was in heaven thinking back to just a couple months ago when I was stuck in India and the closest thing to steak was some really tough water buffalo… Sorry Jules, sorry Slyght, I just had to say it… I know you are stuck but just think of all the money you are making… BTW guy’s… nice party posts, good pics. Anyone wanting to see what they are dealing with and how they handle it can just click on their names.

OK, back to the evening. After dinner I rode for a while longer but it was dark and getting colder (as usual here this time of year) so I headed back to the hotel and traded in the bike for my truck. Headed out to the Smyrna Legion to begin the St Patty’s Day partying and boy was it one heck of a night. Had a great time partying with some new friends I’ve recently gotten to know there. Went bar hopping a bit with some others that wanted to get out for a while and honestly, aside from the Moose Club, I’m not sure where all we were but there were a couple stops in there, I’m sure of it. We some how got back to the Legion in time for last call for one final drink and then everyone climbed into their own vehicles and headed home, or wherever for the night.

I awoke late Saturday morning took a bunch of Ibuprofen and chased it with a pot of coffee w/Irish Cream and got ready for the days ride. Most of the Legion riders were at a district meeting in Macon so I was on my own for riding, which suited me just fine. I headed north of Atlanta, mostly on back roads and passed through a few surrounding communities that looked like they were probably really nice before the Atlanta urban sprawl began to catch up to them. Didn’t make it as far as I wanted but had a good time. Visited some old haunts from my previous trip when I stayed in Buford and just really enjoyed the ride. I got back to the hotel just before dark and took a short nap before getting around for Saturday night.

It seems like the party just picked up where it left off on Friday. Lots of the same faces and a few new ones were out. Some even showed up with the silly St Patty’s day stuff on, you know, the typical hats, beads, Irish shirts and such… We partied until the wee hours again, dancing and cutting up and then I stumbled home once more.

Slept in on Sunday. Actually think I got caught up on my sleep from the entire previous week as I awoke feeling really good with just enough time to shower and catch the beginning of the race, or so I thought… damn rain… Anyway spent a quiet day hanging out and went to a party I had been invited to that evening. The party was different as it was a “dinner party” thrown by one of the older women (about my mom’s age) from the legion. Kind of a quiet affair considering there were 30 or so people there. The food was awesome and I ate stuff I shouldn’t have but hey, I can splurge now and again.

Today it’s back to the grind but now that Monday is just about a wrap, only four more days until next weekend. I wonder what it has in store for me??? Not planning a trip home until Easter and Stacey doesn’t seem interested in meeting me anywhere in the mean time so I’ll just have to force myself to enjoy what is here in Atlanta… Damn the luck…

As usual, I missed most of Bike week in Daytona this year. Always seems to be something going on with work that carries me away during all the good stuff. I did make it home for the last weekend though and it was fun.

We stayed away from the main festivities in Daytona Beach and went instead to the Port Orange Legion 270 for a big party there then went to a private party for a while and ended up at OB’s on Saturday and then spent the day Sunday at Iron Horse Saloon in Ormond Beach and returned to OB’s that evening as well. We like OB’s ‘cause it’s a big party bar and it’s really close to the house. We left early though so I could pack up the bike on the trailer and get it all ready for the trip back to Atlanta on Monday.

Even though we avoided the Daytona Beach area there were still bikes everywhere we went. There were parties going on everywhere within a 50 mile radius of Daytona. On a sad note, 18 bikers lost their lives in the area this year during the 9-day period. Some were the fault of the bikers and some were the fault of others. It’s a record though and it’s one I hope does not get repeated again or even comes close.

Some of the coolest bikes in the land were to be seen cruising from place to place. Bikes of all kinds were out there on the road. I’ve been thinking that I want to get a HD Screaming Eagle Ultra Classic and turn it into a trike. That’s an expensive venture so it will have to wait a couple years but it’s nice to dream.

Things were a little tense with Stacey and I this weekend and continue to be even now. Don’t get me wrong, we had a good time but our relationship took a bit of a hit, recoverable, but it definitely put us back at least one level in our relationship. Certainly not the first and definitely not the last… My next trip home will be Easter weekend so we’ll just have to see what happens between now and then. Realtionships can be tough on people who are able to spend lots of time together and for those of us that live on the road and apart for long periods, they can present real challanges especially in the area of trust. Generally a person has to want to make a change in their life based on feelings for the other person, contentment with the relationship, etc but many times those changes just don't happen because there is a perceived loss of "freedom". Oh yea, you can insist someone act differently, bend to your will, submit, etc but bottom line, it will not work that way, it has to be something that each person in the relationship wants or it will never work. Of course, you run the risk that, if nothing changes the relationship stops growing, stagnates and eventually ends...

The job is going well and there is a chance I could be extended past the end of April which would be great. I like the job (it will get old after awhile though) and really like the area. I don’t have to fight with to much traffic and the local legion is a good place to hang out. There’s always plenty to do. I’ve meet quite a few good people there that have been asking me to go out and about with them and I put them off at first but now I’ll start joining in a bit more. The riders group at the post is small but active and we’ll probably go out Sat and/or Sun depending on the weather.

All in all, life is good and I am happy…