New Motorcycle Jack

Got it on sale at Sears. Tried it this morning and worked great. Now I can do my own maintenance and save big bucks.

A Cold One

Woke up this morning with riding on my mind. Sunny day off work. Had a hot shower and dressed for the cold. Loaded the bike with gear, fueled-up, and hit Interstate 90 headed east into the desert. Destination: The Escure Ranch for some hiking and photography. Possibly a side-trip to Towell Falls.

Temperature was 31F/0C and my speed was a constant 75mph. Cold wasn’t unbearable. Road was clear and traffic light. Twenty-five miles out of Spokane I realized my cheap leather gloves weren’t holding off the biting cold…even with heated grips. So I made the difficult decision to turn around and scoot home.

Set my free cruise control at 80mph. It’s merely a rubber O-ring I pulled off an electrical conduit elbow. Works a trick! Able to do the entire 25 miles back to town on cruise.

In the house, to the faucet, warm water running over my hands…it was my thumbs what took a beating from the cold. Crap gloves stopped me wrapping completely around the grips leaving my stubby digits exposed to the winds and reaping none of the benefits of electric heat.

Other gear: wool ski socks in Sketchers sneakers; polypropylene long underwear and Carhartt logger denims; gel-filled bikers shorts (for padding); T-shirt, cotton sweater, Marmot windbreaker, and Firstgear Kathmandu armored weatherproof riding jacket; Freeze-Out neck gaiter and helmet drift collar; Scorpion EXO500 full-faced helmet; Army-issued firing range ear plugs; cheap $20 leather motorbike gloves.

I will eventually invest in some heated riding gear…beginning with heated glove liners. Those will need to be wrapped in some good gloves. I won’t be taking the cheapos out in freezing weather again.

Once again, no photos to share.

Cold Weather

It’s been in the low 20s to mid 30s lately with frost on the ground and patches of ice on the roads. So I’ve only gone on a couple of short rides in the last two or three weeks. Sunday morning I rode to the gas station to fuel the bike but the ABS was working on a downhill stop. I don’t want to take chances so I gassed up and parked.

Collin got a job at Target. Starts Friday.

Devin still at McDonald’s.

Mellissa and I staying busy with Integrity Remodeling.

Another Boring Update

Had hernia surgery a week ago. Knew I had one. Turns out I had three.

Operation went well. Took a bit longer than expected.

Have to empty bladder before they let you leave hospital. Wasn’t able so got a nice catheter.

Got out of bed only for toilet first several days. Pain meds made me feel drunk and tired. Quit taking those a few nights ago. Rather pain than loopy.

Today is first day I’m not in agony…but slept wrong and pinched nerve in neck. Lucky.

Pictures–well I dropped my little Samsung camera and it broke. Now I have two inoperable cameras. Probably no pics uploaded here unless I get something good with crappy phone camera.

Planning a motorbike ride to Fairbanks, AK next summer. Lots of planning since I’ve been in bed. Figuring out how to do it on the cheap.

That’s all for now. Boring.

Ignore this

just need a place to store a photo online. move along.

sunday.october.twenty-three.two.thousand.eleven

Initial appointment with surgeon tomorrow. Finally getting this hernia taken care of. Going in for surgery Nov. eleventh. Been 2.5 years of constant discomfort and often painful to walk.

Mellissa and I are planning some tables. Sketched one out in CAD and made materials list. Just have to build ‘em now.

Riding as much as possible. Yesterday rode south and back 150 miles in the rain. Today did another 70 around Spokane. Getting in a little off-road action, too. Here’s one of three pics I snapped yesterday when the rain settled down.

Somewhere along HWY 27 in southeastern Washington.

Dropped our point-and-shoot camera. Broken. Canon DSLR is also broken but I’ve got it rigged to shoot basic shots. I’ll try to get a few photos on here sometime soon.

Working in the garage.

Been working in the garage. Organization. Storage. Clean-up.

Might throw down some grass seed in the front yard next week. Maybe pour some concrete.

Lots of riding, of course.

Finally had to buy a new hard drive. Average life-span is four years. Our 40GB lasted nine years. Got “The Blue Screen of Death” several times, heard a lot of hashing…so drove to Best Buy yesterday and picked up a 2TB external.

For nerds:
original drive is 40,000,000,000 bytes (40 billion)
new hard drive is 2,000,000,000,000 bytes (2 trillion)
That’s 50 times more storage for less than I paid nine years ago!
In 1997 I had a computer with a 2MB (2 million) hard drive. That’s only 1/1,000,000 (millionth) of my drive today and it cost nearly twice as much.

Another boring blog post

There are old riders and bold riders. There are no old bold riders.

Trying to get a ride in every day while the weather is nice. Managed to put 1,000 miles on in the first two weeks. Been riding about 50 miles each evening after work.

Just finished one around Newman Lake out near the WA/ID border. Looked really crooked on the map…and it was. Lots of 15-25MPH corners with not much straight in-between to crack open the throttle. So lots of 3rd and 4th gear. Probably won’t do that one again.

Last Sunday Mellissa and I drove south to Palouse Falls SP. Ten bucks to park for a day! Or $30 for a year. I wouldn’t pay two dollars to see that disappointment of a waterfall. However, I DID pay the tenner so that makes me a fool.

House stuff: Collin and I have been grading the front yard with shovels and rakes. Glad we didn’t splash out on a tractor. Didn’t take too long plus got some fresh air and exercise.

Coffee and ice cream news: Still haven’t had ice cream–going on three weeks now. I was like a drug addict with the Ben & Jerry’s. Couldn’t pass a supermarket without going in for a pint. Been drinking Yuban instant coffee in the morning. You are possibly thinking that Yuban sucks. You are definitely correct. Nasty-but-cheap. I’m saving a minimum of $5 every drink due to my previous “5-shot 12oz mocha” habit.

2.5 weeks money saved from no ‘fancy’ coffee = $70
2.5 weeks money saved from no B&J ice cream = $35
2.5 weeks money saved eating meals at home = $150
I’ve saved approximately $255 in a half-month. It all adds up. I never bought a coffee without leaving at least a dollar tip for the barista–didn’t figure that into the savings. Or tipping at restaurants (usually leave about 20% tip). Occasionally I’d get a breakfast sandwich at Starbucks or run through the McDonald’s drive-up for a sausage McMuffin. All these small purchases amount to quite a lot when they’re put down on paper.

Planning a drive to Seattle next weekend to see Dan Sherren. Haven’t seen him in 3 1/2 years. No good excuse. It’s a 4.5 hour drive and less than $100 in gas round trip. I’ve just been a pathetic best friend.

Trying to think of other stuff but not a lot going on here right now.
I’ll look for another pic to upload.

From 1988 yearbook.

1988 Dork being squashed. Nice hair and glasses. My part is so far down the side you might think I was a baldy with a comb-over.

Maybe this is what the picture should look like.

This looks more natural than the disaster I had in the original photo.

Whatever! Time to watch Columbo on Netflix.

New Post

Notice it’s not a house blog anymore.

Hey, Albert, here are a couple of pics.

Riding the Palouse, parked the bike and took a shot facing where I came from and where I was going.

This is where I came from...

...and this is where I'm going.

It’s weird. Spokane has the worst roads I’ve ever seen. When you get out into the countryside–into farmland–the roads are amazing. Maybe because there’s not much traffic out there. Smooth, sweeping bends; simply a pleasure to cruise on. I’ve done a few really good rides with 10MPH hairpins, following creek beds, climbing out of valleys into rolling grass fields and straight stretches where you can crack open the throttle and really get lots of bug guts all over yourself. Very nice!

Little Things

Been working on small stuff around the house. Hung a mirror, installed door stops, measured for some door trim…nothing major lately.

Other stuff we’ve been doing:
Went to Missoula for some hiking and barbecue. Drove to Oregon for a memorial service. Scooted over to Bozeman, slept in our car at the KOA, ate some amazing food, and took a few small hikes–plus had a rattlesnake scare at the Madison River. Rested overnight in a Missoula hotel. Went canoeing at Horseshoe Lake and South Skookum Lake.

Had Adam as a guest this weekend; ate sushi, did some walking along the Spokane River, visited Joe & Laina, ice cream at Cold Stone, browsed Cabella’s, strolled the floating boardwalk at Coeur d’Alene, munched at Red Robin, watched “Horrible Bosses” at Northtown Mall, streamed a bit from Netflix, and had a relaxing breakfast at Maggie’s Grill this morning before Adam hit the road home. Good weekend.

Revisiting an old Montana homestead where I used to make lots of photos

Rylan painting in our basement

Quinn painting in our basement