New Year's Eve

Getting ready for the Brass Monkey ride tomorrow. Went for a ride, it got up to about 47F today....!!!! Brrr and windy, cold. We went about 80 miles around the lakes.

Happy New Year!!!


History: The Brass Monkey - In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. But if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it in the salt air environment. The solution to the rusting problem was to cast the monkey out of brass. Thus the "Brass Monkey." Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature at sea dropped too far, the spacing between the indentations and the indentations themselves would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" And all this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you?

AE HOG 5th Annual BRASS MONKEY RIDE!

Meet at AE H-D 10:30AM for a 11:00AM departure. Monday, January 1, 2007

Toy Runs

What a fantastic weekend. The weather was awesome. High 70's during the day both Saturday and Sunday.

I took Friday off and got a good jump on the little bit of Christmas shopping I have left.

Saturday I finally got around to washing my truck after far too long and did both bikes as well. Saturday afternoon we headed over to the dealership for the Cumberland Children's Home charity run. That is one of the dealerships primary sponsors. There was a very good turnout probably close to 100 bikes, maybe a few more. It was fun, we had cops to block intersections but there weren't that many so several of us took over so the police could run ahead to the next intersection to block. I took one on a turn, so I got to see all the bikes ride past. In addition to the angel tree and all the presents, the dealership had a bike raffle and raised $20,000 for the home.

Sunday was the Big Texas Toy Run, the 21st annual. We met up with everyone at Starbucks in Flower Mound. We probably had close to 30 bikes from our group although there were a couple of extra bikes as well. We rode down to Grapevine. This was the second year for Grapevine as a starting point, in addition to Dallas and Fort Worth. Grapevine was fun. Wilhoite's was open and packed. Lots of bikes, I read one report over 5000 at Grapevine. I can't wait to hear the final tally, estimates were +45,000 bikes in total. I took quite a few pictures and will post some later. The ride went very well.

After the ride a few of us headed to the Thunderhorse for a beer. It was quite the ride home on the highways after the run compared to the ride down. Busy highways during Christmas shopping season..... yes, as bad as you can imagine!

Sad Note

Additionally, a sad note. Darlene's Mom passed away this week after a lengthy bout with cancer. She passed away in her bed, which was her wish.

Holiday Season

Well, its the holiday season. That means busy, busy, busy. Work is quite busy, there is lots going on and I have vacation time still today with lots of work to finish. Shopping/decorating/eating.... all those things as well. This past Saturday night was the AE HOG annual Christmas Party. It was at the Radisson in Denton. We spent the night there, good thing! There were about 120-150 people there, a lot of fun. The band was good and easy to dance to. Food was good, people were great. I actually rented a tux! In all it was a lot of fun.

I need to finish up my shopping, we are pretty much done so I don't have a lot to do.

This weekend is more toy runs. Saturday is a club run to the Cumberland Childrens home, but its late, not sure if we will partipate or not. I may have a hockey game Saturday night as well. Sunday is the Big Texas Toy Run, that should be fun, likely between 30K and 45K bikes depending on the weather!
http://www.thebigtexastoyrun.com/

Lewisville Toy Run

This weekend ended up being a pretty full weekend. The boys were off to camp this weekend. Darlene had LOH cookie exchange Friday night and I ended going to Choker's for MNO where the girls ended up later. We got home sometime after midnight.

Saturday was the Lewisville Toy Run, leaving from American Eagle HD. Darlene must have picked up a stomach virus and as much as she tried and wanted wasn't able to go on the ride. I got to the dealership about an hour ahead of KSU so had lots of time to see everyone and take some pics. The ride was good, but pretty well straight down 35. I don't know how many bikes were registered as of yet, hope to find out. Last year there was something like 1200 bikes or so.





Saturday night I played hockey with the D team, late notice, big meal and lack of sleep Friday night, it pretty well wore me out, I was tired Sat night.

Sunday we wrapped most of the presents, certainly got a great head start on it. The boys got home in the early afternoon.

Ride pics

These pics are from Len who we rode back with from the Leaf ride in Arkansas. They pulled up alongside of us and snapped these.