Happy Halloween

Wow, its been a busy week and I’m behind!

Let’s see Wed Oct 25 was the AEHOG Halloween costume party. I went as an embattled hockey player and Darlene went as a sexy referee! We rode our bikes, although it had rained earlier in the day and the official dinner ride was cancelled. Great turnout at the restaurant although the folks that rode on bikes were in short supply! Great costumes overall and I took lots of pictures.

Friday night I took Ryan, Corey and Jake to the LG Action Sports Championship at Reunion Arena. Marc went with other friends. We got there just before 6 and got to our seats about 6:30 or so I guess. Show started just before 7:00. BMX prelims were first up, these guys were great. Only one I recognized was Ryan Nyquist, but the young guy from Venezuela was incredible. Then was the Freestyle Motocross demos, these guys are pretty talented to be able to work in the confined areas they work in. I wanted to see the Skateboard Vert prelims and was not disappointed. Bob Burnquist took top qualifier, and other top and great skaters included Bucky Lasik, Andy MacDonald, Pierre Luc Gagnon (go Canada!) and some guy from Brazil, Sandro Dias that was really good. Also during warmups was the inline skaters – including Fabiola De Silva and then the street skaters after the bmx was done. Those guys were very good and fast! The show lasted till quite late about 10:40, then the Deftones came on to play, there were a lot of fans just to see the band. Unfortunately the arena was set up for the events and the sound was a bit muddy, especially with their style of music. Some interesting sights though!

Saturday was a pretty relaxing day, I took a bit of a ride, and then Sat night we went to Bill Davenport’s 50th birthday party. Waaayyy out north of Denton, great setup though. Very nice house and property, full band and tent set up outside. A lot of the AE crew was there but took off pretty early of course the party started at 6 and some of them were there pretty early. We along with Dave Barnes and Jerry stayed late I think we left well after 1:00 as we got home about 3 am. Thankfully it was fall back so it was only 2:00….

Sunday I tackled the shed door, got that pretty well all finished except for caulk and paint but I realized I forgot one piece of trim. Also replaced part of the floor and reinforced one of the joists that had pretty much rotted out. We also trimmed the fence gates. That pretty much took all day, or at least all afternoon.

Oh yeah, the Cowboys won huge Sunday night!!!

Rock and Roll

This past Saturday was the LOH sponsored Rock and Roll ride to Leonard Texas, just a bit east of here. We went to the dealership to ride with the group and I guess we put on a total of about 200 miles maybe a bit less, I never really paid that much attention to it. It was a good ride, not too large a group. The roll part of the ride was a short 2-3 mile stretch at the end. After that we finished up Darlene’s red book.

Darlene was supposed to have her Advanced Rider’s Edge course on Sunday. She left about 6:30 and had to go to Texas Motor Speedway. She didn’t make it as it was very cold and her bike does not operate well in cold weather. Ultimately she came back home as she was unable to get to the course.

Monday night was Plano Photography Club night. I had only one entry submitted, I got 12 points but was in the middle of the pack, I really wasn’t expecting a lot from it. The speaker was all about Scrapbooking, it was ok I guess. I submitted two in Open for October but again, not expecting much. Next month is S-curves, I really need to get something in for that. I have some ideas and am hoping our ride in Ark will produce something, but I have an idea for local and tested the road on the weekend, I think it will work!

Finally waxed my bike too, if only I could get at my truck. Also tried my new toys, the edger and blower/vacuum, worked well!

Busy Weekend

The kids have a long (5 day) weekend. So we went to the TX State Fair on Friday. Its been a couple of years at least. It was a great day, great weather. We spent all day there. While we didn’t eat any fried confections the food just doesn’t agree very well with me. This year in addition to the Fried PB&J there was Fried coke and some other things that elude me.

I got quite a few pictures will see what I can post up.

The bird exhibit was good with a hilarious part that was very well choreographed. In short an audience member was to feed a young bird. Well it just so happened that that particular species is one of the largest in the world with a 10 ft wingspan. Well she freaked and as she was backing up she tripped into the pond set up on the stage. Afterward when she was coming out from behind another large bird was onstage and ended up chasing her back stage again. Of course it was all set up, but we certainly didn’t know till the end!

Saturday started early with the Plano Photography Club outdoor model shoot. Unfortunately there was a bit of a shortage with the models and even photographers. Overall the shoot went well, I am pretty happy with the shots I got. I think though it was one of the least well organized model shoots I’ve been on. The location just got set 2 weeks prior, the numbers of models and photographers were not up to standards and once the sun came out, the location lost its “luster”. Additionally the food was not coordinated and club politics reared their ugly head….. This is the first time I have seen it, by the sounds of things its not new but I guess I just haven’t seen it yet. Names will remain nameless but a certain someone was exerting just a bit toooo much control….

After the shoot I rode down to the golf course to hopefully catch the Hell-Over(?) golf tourney, but just caught one group. It was a shotgun start and I would have had to wait around too long for the ending so I left.

Sunday we were met with rain, and a lot of it. All day. So we did some work around the house. I hung a new ceiling fan and Darlene hung some sheers. Some other stuff but just general house chores. Its still raining today. We are probably going to get a total of 3-5 inches overall, much needed rain!

Ahhh Paris...

Ahhh, Paris….

Paris, TX that is… there is a movie by the same name with Harry Dean Stanton. I know I saw it but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was about.

Saturday we rode to Paris so I could get the Lonestar point. Also wanted to get a pin from the Harley Dealership. Its not that far from home, about 90 miles. We took a couple of back roads but pretty much stayed on State Highways. We stopped in Honey Grove TX for the Davey Crockett Day. Yes, Day, not Days. Friendly and historic little town.

Along the way we found a vintage airplane for Darlene’s red book. Pretty cool actually the whole trip had lots to see. We drove by an antique tractor graveyard too. But of course when we got to the dealership it was closed. I guess they close at 2PM on Saturdays to go riding or something.

We did get to the Eiffel Tower ok though and got my Lonestar point. Since it was so late we took the direct route home at that point.

Also I am now officially no longer in the "those who will" and now in the "those who have" dropped their bikes. Silly me, didn;t have my kickstand engaged under the tower. I guess if I'm going to drop it under the Eiffel Tower is as good a place as any.

Sunday we went downtown Dallas to get the last point I needed to get. Darlene didn’t have it either but already had 5. We stayed off the highways and stayed on some of the city streets. Now we know why we don’t go downtown often….

Sunday night we met up with the HOG group for a movie but since we had rode the last two days we decided to drive the car instead.

Almost forgot, Friday night we went to the Crosstown Showdown, Mckinney vs Mckinney North. We got beat. Bad.

Return from Penn

Well I’m on my way back from Pennsylvania. Left DFW bright and early Monday morning and got into the office about 2:30. I landed at the Pittsburg airport and drove about 1-1.5 hours to Greensburg. I stayed off the major highways, more or less and pretty much took Highway 30 right through. Very very pretty country, especially this time of year. Leaves hadn’t changed yet but weren’t far off, in fact I am sure they changed a bit while I was there and I was only there for 3 days! Pittsburg actually looked like I nice place to visit too, but I just pretty much drove through it and bypassed it.

The work trip was productive but I still have a lot a head of me to do. Need to prepare a presentation to be delivered to the CIO. I think we are doing all the right stuff, but the cultural impact may be insurmountable. I’ve got a couple of busy days ahead.

Pennsylvania is really pretty cool. Its an older state, at least the parts I was in, the infrastructure is definitely older and outgrown. There seems to be a lot of local heritage though, its not all chains, at least not chains I’m familiar with in Texas.
Pretty archaic liquor laws though! They may even be worse than Nova Scotia! I went to get a six pack to take back to the hotel room, actually I only wanted 3 or 4 singles. Finally found a beer store, they only sell dozens, cases and kegs! Liquor stores, which are also rare only sell liquor and wine. No singles or sixes to be found. Oh apparently bars can sell six packs at “competitive” rates, or about $8 a six, no thank you!

Lots of Harley dealerships around or so it seems, just getting to them without a map is a bit of an exercise. The largest dealership I have been in was located just about 3 miles from my hotel, on the main strip. It was Z&M Cycles, also sold Hondas. It has a bit of interesting history, although like most dealerships now, it tows the corporate line and looks very much like a typical corporate store. But it definatley had the largest parking lot I have ever seen at a dealership! Got pins and a long sleeve shirt.

That night I took a trip to Cerini, which was in Haverstock. Much smaller dealership with a much more storied history. Opened in 1920. Also a relatively new location, but extremely friendly, seemingly still family run. Unfortunately no pins, they were backordered, wahhh. May have to email in future to see if I can get some.

On the trip back to the airport I figured I may be able to hit one or two more dealerships, Steel City and Heritage. Well gosh darnit, I took a wrong turn and got on the toolway, ended up having to travel 15 miles or so to the first exit, and of course I screwed up going through the toolbooth, no picking up a ticket. $$$$20 hit for that! But equally as bad, I lost about 40 minutes on my already tight schedule….

The roads don’t have the same speed limits as in Texas but fortunately I made good time. I got to Steel City at about 3:00 got some pins and back on the road. No time to dawdle, still miles to go to the airport and my flight is scheduled for 4:40. Starting to freak out a bit, unfamiliar roads, no idea of drive time. Certainly no time to check out Heritage… Maybe next trip.

Got to the airport with minutes to spare, well for me anyway! No lines got ticketed at 3:50. then still had to get through security and to the gate. Got to gate about 4:15, which would have been boarding but lo and behold the plane was delayed till 5:30…. All that freaking out and sweating for no reason. Well at least I got to go to the bar and have a couple of beers and some food.

In the air now. No ride this past weekend, craving….

Business Travel

Well it looks like I'll be heading to Greensburg, PA next week. As much as I don't like business travel, I am starting to get excited about it. Account received a consultant's report about our solution, uneducated in my opinion. So we have to craft a response. Some analysis, etc.

More Photo Results

Well Monday was another Plano Photography club meeting. Chase Rouse was the speaker, talking about minor outdoor portrait retouching. Good stuff. The contest was open, I had two electronic submissions. I think with the e-submissions there are more entries, which is not a bad thing. I thought I had submitted two good entries, Peggy's Cove Dories and Its Your More. Peggy's Cove Dories is the image I posted some time ago, I got an honorable mention for that. For the other, Its your Move, which I took in El Raterio park in Madrid, I got a third place. So that's judges points/mention on 3 of 4 entries in the last two contests I entered. That boosts my confidence a bit. This contest is for Patriotic. I really didn't have anything to enter but found a rally pic with a couple of flags. Not really expecting anything out of that one but will see!

Much Needed Rain?

I shouldn't complain, we've had great riding weather since I've got my bike.... But we had a nice ride planned for Saturday morning. The LOH sponsored ride to Dublin to tour the Dr. Pepper Plant, with the ride along Texas hwy 4. However, it was not to be. A line of violent thunderstorms stretching all the way across our path. Even though it was a fairly thin band, there was high winds, driving rain and lots of lightning. We were actually at the bottom tip and probably got the least impact as it stretched all across the US over the weekend and left quite a bit of devestation and flooding.

Anyway, after waiting about 90 minutes for the rain to pass we eventually decided we couldn't hit our commitments so we all just went to breakfast then went on our way. So on the ride home we worked on Darlene's scavenger hunt book, she doesn't have much time left to complete and over the weekend we knocked out a few. I think we got a couple of good ones, there are prizes for creativity/photo so we will see.

Oh, we finished the floor. The home theater is hooked back up, furniture where it needs to be and I can see more kitchen counter than I have ever been able to!

What's new?

Not much! Nothing too exciting going on, just the normal stuff. Weekend we just went to the dealer and spent money! I bought the FXRG jacket after all and some chaps. Had a 20% off coupon. Also bought some Kury grips and a manual. Hmmm, need to change those up before the ride this weekend. Sunday we did more flooring, its almost done! And it rained, and rained, and rained on Sunday, supposedly 2.5 inches, well needed rain at that.

No hockey yet, not emails about the new season, just a little prep work setting up rosters. I really need to get active, either walk or take up jogging, even if its only 20 minute jog. My shoulder is giving me grief, just a bit, not sure if its just rehab needed or what. I need to get it checked out.

Back to riding, need to focus on getting lonestar points completed and seeing what to do on Darlene's red book. Looks like we have a couple of free weekends coming up although no doubt they will fill up like they do.

Photo Results

Finally I got some results in a Photo Club entry, its been a long time. Whether it’s the judges, my pictures or the competition, actually the competition is incredible, I haven’t scored any awards in some time.

Well for this contest season they have just started accepting electronic submissions. Additionally they collapsed the intermediate and advanced categories into Advanced so there are more entries. But to be honest some of the Beginners’ photos are the best I have seen in the club. Obviously the real Masters in the club consistent produce the best shots but there is incredible and consistent talent throughout the membership!

Well the last meeting was the results for Sports. With all the football pics I shot last year I figured I had a couple, I narrowed it down to about 5 then finally to 2. I didn’t make the meeting but sent a note in for the results and just got them back today.

My Goal Line Stand pic got 11 points, not bad, with relatively favorable comments, excellent capture, but slightly tilted field (horizon).

My The Wait pic got 12 points, good exposure, composition, and more importantly an Honorable Mention! Woo Hoo! Its funny, this was one I wasn’t sure about entering, but myself and everyone I showed liked it.

Weekend Update

Well another relatively busy weekend. A couple of rides, it was the new owner dinner ride on Friday night. We just went to Carmelita’s at Highland Village, but took an alterative route on the east side of I-35. There were about 45 people in total, a pretty good turnout.

Saturday was the Chapter meeting and after that we rode to Sherman. We put on about 160 miles that day. I also got my 5K service done. The leather jackets are on sale at AE. Hmmmm, I am going to need one, there is a very nice one there but it’s a bit pricy. This weekend is the demo ride and open house with additional savings. If I can combine the tickets then I’ll probably get the FXRG jacket, it looked pretty sweet!

Saturday night we lost our final playoff game, for the championship, Hangover’s D. It was a good series, tied first game into 7 skater shootout. Second game we won 1-0, final game we lost 3-2. Bob had me playing forward, felt out of place, I deflected the first goal off my body, well I didn’t deflect it, it deflected off me! And I scored our second goal as well, but it was too little too late with about 28 seconds left.

Sunday was more work on the flooring, and as of last night, all the flooring is complete, the wood laminate and the kitchen tile. Baseboard is down, just have to paint and put the quarter round down.
We had a bit of rain yesterday, much needed. This week won’t be so crazy.

Flooring!

Well it took all weekend but we pretty well got it all done Labor Day weekend. The weather wasn't great not sure if that helped or hindered the process as we had to put the bikes outside and I had to cut inside the garage. What a mess!
Still have a bit to do, the trim work to put back on, but that shouldn't take nearly as long. It looks good and will be good to get the room back in order. Darlene also started the kitchen floor and made great headway.

This weekend we should hopefully get it finished, have the new member ride Friday night and chapter meeting Saturday. Also will be taking my bike in for 5K service.

Arkansas State Rally

Back from the Rally. We didn’t spend much time at the rally site at all, but had great rides through the mountains of Arkansas. Originally we had tentatively planned on heading up on Thursday but waited till Friday. Just Darlene and I traveled up. I picked a route through Oklahoma, I thought it was pretty good, some good highways, a bit of scenery. I think Oklahoma may be a bit limited in that manner, but also wanted a pretty direct route. Driving into Ft Smith was a pretty typical older city, the end we came in on seemed to be pretty industrial but I think its just more characteristic of the city.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn city center which was a good spot for the main street cruising. Hung out a bit on Friday night to check out the scene.
Saturday morning we rode with Don and Martha, and Glen and Kim. We went up highway 71 to Fayetteville, a great twisty ride, and eventually caught up with the rain. We then did the Pig Trail, a truly great ride! And then Magazine Mountain. A bit of road work on the Magazine route but not enough to detract from the ride. I would have to say that these were definitely the best roads I have ridden in my short riding career. Just beautiful. Twisty roads, up and down hills, tree canopies….
Sunday the ride back we pretty much took the direct route back, and ran into a bit of rain. Just enough to put on our rain gear for about 45 minutes or so. We got back home about 2:30, total miles 810.

AE HOG Bug Run

Saturday night was the annual bug run. Basically you go on a night ride, get a small sticker (or more) and at the end of the run, the bugs get tallied for a variety of awards. As it has been for days and days, it was hot and dry, not exactly bug weather.
We met in Highland Village and we hit the road about 7:45 pm. It was a fairly large group, I think there was over 40 bikes, maybe more. The first pod out was quite large. We were second and there was a smaller pod went out behind us. It was quite a distance to our first checkpoint. I think by the first checkpoint I had about 3 bugs on my whole fairing and windshield, with absolutely none on the sticker!
Some of the ride was on FM 455 which is quite a crooked road, not nice curves but turns and turns and turns. But it was a good ride. I guess we got to our destination in Justin (Off the Trax) about 10:00 and lo and behold, Pod 3 had arrived before us, WTF? Well it turns out that Mike didn’t get the memo and did all 4 checkpoints, while the other 2 pods only did 3 checkpoints. No matter, we had a great ride, and still no bugs of any consequence!
The awards were given, no winners in this house, and the 50-50 was very large, I think it was over $170. We got home around 1 am. Late night and late ride. Darlene was practically falling asleep while riding! And no wonder we were up early for our yardsale that morning in the heat!

Coyotes

The other day coming into work, on Preston Road, just north of Hedgecoxe is a field with a tree line. Along the tree line were two coyotes watching a man walk along Preston after getting off the bus.

I'm surprised how often I see coyotes in the city, and during daylight hours.

Sliders Ride - Trip report

Well another good trip is in the books. It was an interesting trip in many aspects. Of course I cleaned my bike up a bit Friday night, and wouldn't you know it, Saturday morning opened up to rain and thunderstorms. We picked up the group in Mckinney, on the way. They were delayed by 15 minutes start hoping the rain would clear. We had rain or threat of rain till Greenville, were we stopped for fuel and probably about 10 minutes after we left Greenville we out-distanced the rain. A short stop on a farm to market road, for everyone to get out of rain-gear and we were back on our way again.

Mike Wylie was the lead road captain and he picked excellent roads. We had what could have been a very close call as we were negotiating a curve in the road, an oncoming pickup truck lost the rather large trailer he was hauling and somewhat miracously the trailer left the road and went into the ditch without crossing directly into our path as it occurred directly in the middle of our pod.

We ate at Krystal in Longview, hence the "Sliders" referece. I must say, I try to avoid fast food at the best of times, but I can honestly say I will not eat at another Krystal again unless its for a HOG ride. But, we did try to kick it up a notch with the wine that the Riley's brought along for the occasion!

Jefferson was an awesome town. We stayed at the Excelsior Hotel a wonderful old hotel that is supposedly haunted. It may have been but after the ride and the alcohol I don't think anyone would have woken up for a ghost, unless it was a very noisy one!


We were in no hurry Sunday morning and although we were downstairs by 8 am, pretty much everyone else was already gone. We went next door for breakfast as we did not realise we had to order in advance at the hotel. We were on our way by 9 am, on to Pittsburg for a LoneStar point. Oops missed the entrance, uturn and lo and behold some other HOG members, Paul and Michelle and Mike and Carol. So we hung out for a bit then travelled together the rest fo the way, mainly on FM 21 till we hit 30. Along the way we saw two vehicles off the road in the ditch, one apparently fairly recently!

An uneventful drive from there, we arrived home about 1:30. Bikes are very dirty from the rain Saturday morning, maybe I'll wash mine tonight. In total about 380 miles. A good trip, great roads and great people.

Sliders Ride

Well its been a few days, not that they have been uneventful, just normal day to day stuff. Kids are getting ready for school, first day on Monday. Ryan is enrolled in CCCC. Have been riding to work putting a few miles, etc. Still having cold start problems, need to push for the injector upgrade and to check the fork oil/steering head grease issue.

We got the floor in the game room all finished finally, including the trim. Haven't started the big room yet, not sure when but is should be soon. Maybe next week, I have no hockey so could make some headway in the evenings.

This weekend is the 3rd annual Sliders ride, we are heading east! Longview to eat sliders at Krystal then on to Jefferson to stay in a haunted bed and breakfast. It will be a hot ride, consecutive 100+ days with no relief in sight. Updates to follow...

day after hump day

Weekend is getting closer. been in a worskhop for most of the week, good and learning lots but right now its a real technical part, and a lot of it is not really of concern to me, at least not the activity but the end result will be.

Dinner ride last night to Pier 121 in Lewisville. Beautiful night. we were outdoors on the water.

GOt the floor down in the game room, need to put the baseboard and the quarter round down. The boys are away this week and will be coming back sometime tomorrow. We'll celebrate Marc's birthday on Saturday and I guess start ripping up the carpet in the main room this weekend. Hmmm, really need to do the yard sale next weekend with this schedule.

Need to figure out how to lose a few pounds. A diet will be very difficult, as I have never dieted.

Home Project

Well, we got a good start on our current project. Laminate hardwood floors. Actually its taking longer and is harder than I expected. Still in he game room but almost done putting down the floor. After that will be the baseboard, and corner round. The baseboard is the old stuff which came off a lot easier than I expected. Will probably finish Tuesday night, at least the flooring, not sure whether we will get the baseboard and strips down.

Saturday was Marc's birthday but we are delaying celebration till this weekend. They are all off to camp this week.

Saturday was also the AEHOG summer party. It was a good time and a lot of fun. We competed in a couple of games, we smoked the wet tshirt relay, and we somehow managed to win the scavenger hunt. In all it probably delayed our start on the floor on Sunday.

National Ride to Work Day

We have had consecutive triple digit temperature days. Yesterday was Wednesday, dinner ride as well as National Ride to Work Day. So of course I rode to work. It was hot, not unbearable but even in the morning it was hot. I suppose it was about 103 when I got off work. Went home and changed then went to AE for the dinner ride. There were more bikes than I expected but we had a good and relatively quick ride down 35E. Dinner was good although it was Mexican again. Took my time going home. It was probably still very close to 100F at 9:30pm. Bike is working better but I seem to be noticing the surging more, maybe it was just my gearing and rpms, may have been in the sweet spot. Only 2 little stumbles yesterday, much better than before. Will have to keep checking and make some decisions before next service. Rattle in my pipes is starting to irritate me now. Now that I'm consious of it!