Riding Lady

04-02-11 Impromptu 422 Ride to the Rock Store

2011-04-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

This was thought of on Thursday or so by Stephen and Dan, and since it'd been, oh, about 36 YEARS since I was there on my 125 Honda, I thought this'd be a nice little trip, kinda like a pre-pre ride to August.

The Rock Store is one of the most famous motorcyclist and biker hangouts in the world. Frequented by moto lovers as well as celebrities and nice people of all types, the Rock Store is an amazing place to get away from the city without going too far. Located along famous Mulholland Highway halfway between Malibu and Calabasas, it's the perfect place to come by bike or by car for breakfast or lunch.

SOMEBODY decided to make a smartass comment about 'did they even HAVE motorcycles or engines or gas back in those days?!' (better watch your back, Mr. 214, better WATCH YOUR BACK) Jackie decided to go with us. SMART move!

EVERYBODY'S admiring Stephen and Sissy's fairing!

5 N/405 N/Lincoln=Hwy 90 to our 1st gas stop Marina Del Rey. Interestingly, half the gas station was 'Full Serve' and the other half 'Self Serve'. Haven't seen THAT since the late '70's. We parked in the DSW Shoe Store/Marriot pkg lot after getting gas ($4.07/gal) and had to go across the street to the Sport Chalet just to go potty. The Tea Leaf didn't have 'public toilets'. Sheesh. Well, they just missed OUR business!

The pic below shows Colin and Dan having some sort of disagreement - looks like pale(r) face speak with forks, er, I mean forked tongue; "Hey nah - hey nah - hey nah - hey nah"

Now THIS has GOT to be a Christmas Card shot!

Colin having a briefing with everyone and warning about the pedestrians and the bicyclists who think they OWN the city. Ok, so maybe they do...

Jax doin' her Facebook and nic thing.

After going down 500 little itty-bitty streets to PCH, we start on Topanga Canyon Hwy. Dan and Colin are in front of me. (one note-we passed Pacific Ocean Parkway, and I reminded Barry about P.O.P. aka Pacific Ocean Park, back in the 50's and 60's)

We were on Mulholland Hwy between 10:30 and 11 AM-the pics I took had the time stamp on them.

Above, Barry is behind me with Jax on the bax.

Above, Colin right in front, Dan in front of him.

We arrive at the Rock Store! Here's a link http://www.rock-store.com/about.htm

Not the greatest park job in the world, but "that'll do pig, that'll do".

Believe it or not, I think that's actually Ed & Vern (the proprietors) at the table below.

You want fries with that?

Are you sure you can see it, Lynne? HERE, let me MAKE SURE YOU CAN SEE IT!

Rock Store menus. Prices aren't bad at all.

View from the outside patio looking towards the street.

Kinda looks almost exactly like Cook's Corners, huh? They have inside 'dining' and a counter service area as well. It's not as noisy and boisterous as Cook's for sure. Today, anyway.

We HAD to get a GROUP SHOT!!!

We leave full and happy. Food wasn't too bad, not bad at all. I had the patty melt with onion rings. Jackie and her Dadu had the fish and chips. One thing, though-the iced tea and water were refilled, but the sodas were in cans, so no refills. Just FYI. $2 each.
We're on the road and the weather actually looks worse than it was. No rain, just clouds.

We're on Las Virgenes Rd. going towards the 101. Oh, JOY, the 101.

Below is Barry and Jackie, Mike V, Red, then her hubs, then Marge, then Stephen and Sissy.

Also below is Barry and Jax. They were behind me.

You can kinda see that it's Barry, and Jax's head was poking up over his helmet.

Colin going by some of the trees in the hills there.

This tree shot was cool-shows how long these trees have been in these hills and growing.

The last stop-gas up on the other side of the freeway from the Getty off the 405. Jackie's butt is SORE.

Dan is di*king around with his GPS thingy.

Jax the tiny, TINY baby girl is SO tired.

It was a neat, NEAT ride. VERY cool.

PARADE OF FLIGHT NAVAL CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION FEB. 12 2010

2011-02-21T12:17:00.000-08:00

It's been requested that post some of the bloomin' pictures I've been taking all along! So here's my first official EVENT/ACTIVITY BLOG POST of 2011-the Naval Flight Centennial on Saturday Feb. 12th at the Naval Air Station Coronado. It's going to take a few days to get the pictures in here because it's been a long time since I fiddled around with this sucker.

If I had KNOWN what a BITCH it would've been to get into that place, I seriously might've reconsidered.
It could've competed as being San Diego's SECOND ZOO.
I did end up TOTALLY HONING my lane splitting skills. It was a question of survival, i.e. would I have survived being in bumper to bumper traffic for 2 hours going into to Coronado Island and 3 hours of bumper to bumper traffic LEAVING Coronado Island?

I'll let the pictures come onto to this first, then give a longer blow-by-blow after the pics; that way, the reader can choose to check out the before, during and after planning, any caveats, stuff like that AFTER they view the photos.

Ok, here's the GOOD video.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk (GLOBAL HAWK)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_X-47B (UCAS)

I resolve that 2011 will be better, brighter and more beautiful than 2010.

2010-12-26T21:48:00.000-08:00

I will cherish my family and hold them close,
I will cherish my friends and those I love the most,
I will try to see the good in all and ignore the bad
So I can say 2011 was the BEST year I'd ever had.

To those who love me and appreciate me, I say
"Thank you. I love you more than you will ever ever know."

To those who don't, I say
Nothing.

To those I have wronged this past year, either on purpose or unwittingly, I say
"I'm sorry. I will truly try to make it up to you, because you don't deserve such treatment and I need to show you that I'm truly sorry for hurting you".

Family Follies!

2010-09-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

I think the pics speak for themselves.

Tip Top Restaurant tomorrow after aerobics.

2010-08-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

Am meeting some of the peeps from STAR 422 at Wingstuff in Lake Forest at 10 AM, providing they WAIT for me since my class is from 8:15 to 9:15 AM and I'd still have to change and dry my hair somewhat. Wet hair on a motorcycle? OH, PLEASE. I figure if I hit the ground running after class, throw off my wet gym shirt/shorts, throw on the jeans and stuff I came to class in, dry my hair somewhat under those wall-mount dryers while changing (meanwhile, tons of clothes and a bag and shit are at my feet), and hopefully leave the parking lot at 9:29 sharp because it's 31 minutes from the club to Wingstuff. So says Mapquest.com.

We shall see.

Yeah, yeah, class before food, that's SO smart-work it off BEFORE I eat it.
Let's see, the 'Big John All You Can Eat Meat' breakfast is around 2,000 calories, but I'll only be working off about 500 calories in the morning, so that means the rest of the day I have to find SOMETHING that'll work off another 1500 calories...

'Course, there's one kind of secret weapon I have...

ALII.

More stuff to come!!!
http://www.tiptopmeats.com/

All I Need To Know About Life I Learned from Motorcycling.

2010-08-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

I found this article online. Pretty damned good, in my opinion.

As much as many small brained people may claim otherwise, motorcyclists are human - to varying degrees of course. (They’re not ALL knuckle-draggers) And, like all humans, we develop a philosophy of life and basic values, many of these being shaped by our lifestyle of riding motorcycles. I found an article on the variety of basic life philosophies online at www.megarider.com/articles , life philosophies that have been shaped by the pursuit of motorcycling. The more repeatable of these they list, without prejudice, below:

• Variety is the spice of life: one day travel at the speed of a tired turtle, the next day give it heaps!

• Find your place in the sun, even if it's while you wait for your daughter to finally show up for breakfast which has now become lunchtime.

• If you're not receiving enough attention, try giving a cop the finger.

• Always give generously - a large patch of oil left on a friend's driveway tells them that you care. (only if you have a Harley-METRICS don’ DO that)

• Always be willing to accept another's seniority - especially if it's a big rig.

• Only put your foot down when you really need to.

• Success is a frame of mind, so think quickly as that cop approaches you.

• Strive for excellence, not perfection - leave the latter useless pursuit to those who build custom motorcycles.

• Get acquainted with a good lawyer, accountant and mechanic - the order in which you do this depends upon what and how you ride.

• Wear out - don't crash out, or rust out.

• Learn to recognize the inconsequential, then ignore it - unless it's a speed limit in a speed camera area.

• Lie on your back and look up at the stars - unless you are riding your motorcycle at the time.

• Measure people by the size of their hearts, not the size of their motorcycle. Or any body part.

• Know when to speak up - which is not at 75 MPH into a headwind.

• Evaluate yourself by your own standards, not by someone else's - they may be riding on borrowed time.

• Be a self-starter - better still, be an electric starter.

• Smile a lot - but only if you have a visor on your helmet.

• Re-ride your favorite road.

• Never under-estimate your ability to change yourself - after a close call it will come naturally.

• Never acquire just one riding buddy.

• Focus on making things better, not bigger - especially if it's your motorcycle.

• Once in your life own and ride a motorcycle.

• Never encourage anyone to become a politician - unless they ride a motorcycle.

• Learn to do something beautiful with your hands - and you'll never be lonely. ??? I'm afraid to ask what this actually means.

• Show respect for everyone who works for a living, even streetsweepers - a happy streetsweeper keeps the road surface clean.

• Wave to people for the fun of it - it keeps people happy, makes you feel good, and keeps the clutch arm supple.

• Every day look for some small way to improve the way you do things - especially the way you ride.

• Never use the last nine - tenths.

• Even if you cannot give the very best, give your very best.

• When you are hot under the collar, keep your head cool.

• Never under-estimate the power of forgiveness - your bike will forgive all sorts of poor riding actions if they are isolated incidents.

• Don't carry a grudge - a motorcycle has no room for excess baggage.

• Never tell anyone they look tired or depressed - even if you're lifting their bike off them at the time.

• Be enthusiastic about the success of others - even if you're insanely jealous at the time.

• Improve your performance by improving your attitude.

• Go the distance - and on your own bike.

• Every once in a while take the scenic route.

• Move up when you feel you are ready - not when others think you are ready.

• When playing games with children, let them win - when riding with a boy racer, let him win.

• Don't learn the tricks of the trade, learn the trade.

• Teach, Learn, Ask "why" and "what if" a lot?

• Look as if you are in control of your motorcycle - it will probably fool the motorcycle into believing it too.

• Don't lend precious things to friends - you might lose both.

• Don't give advice. Just say what you do or would do in a similar situation - you're not there to teach. You're there to help them learn.

• Leave whining to CX500 drive shafts.

• Your epitaph should read "No regrets and lots of fun". AMEN AMEN AMEN-I'm gonna change my Facebook to reflect that.

• Invest in skill and knowledge. The returns are fantastic.

• If friends ask you to be honest with them, don't.

• Don't smoke - and the same goes for your motorcycle.

• Rekindle old friendships - ride an older model once in a while. Not just motorcycles.

• Never ask a policeman or mechanic for riding advice - they're trained to find problems, not solutions.

• Don't spread yourself too thinly - learn how to ride within your abilities.

• Give thanks before every ride - and greater thanks at the end of every enjoyable ride.

• Compliment even small improvements - especially when made by a learner or a mechanic.

• Don't expect life to be fair - that way you're more likely to see hidden speed cameras.

• Try never to set yourself a strict timetable - otherwise you'll never have time to explore unexpectedly delightful highways and bi-ways.

• Happiness is not dependant on possessions, power, or prestige but on relationships with people you love and respect - and your motorcycle.

• Clothes maketh the man - and protective clothing holds him together.

• 'Tis not victory nor speed that defines a man, but wisdom and courage.

• If you miss the magic of the moment by focusing on what's to come, you need to slow down.

• Donate two pints of blood every year - someday the gift may be repaid.

• Love your fellow human being but install an anti-theft alarm on your motorcycle.

• Leave everything a little better than you found it - especially if the bike was loaned by a friend.

• Write a "thank you" note to the policeman who gave you the speeding ticket - a little confusion goes a long way.

• Don't expect money to bring you happiness - unless it's spent on a good bike.

• Avoid making sarcastic remarks - actions speak louder than words.

• Never take action when you're angry - cool down before you kick that car door in.

• Learn CPR - you'll need it for CPR (Charlies Practicing Racing) victims.

• Take time to smell the roses - and the cow poo and diesel on the road surface, too.

• Occasionally stop and read historical roadside markers - it will give you a future excuse to stop when things get too hot on a Sunday ride.

• Get your priorities right. No dying motorcyclist ever said; "Gee, I've spent too much time riding motorcycles”.

And that's the way it was on Sunday, August 8th, 2010.

L

1. DAMN I'M GOOD 2. Has it been almost a MONTH since my last post?

2010-08-01T14:46:00.000-07:00

Holy snikies, Batman! I've just been so damned busy at work with extra hours and training someone.
Ok, I gotta add a bunch of pics from different things in July, but FIRST.
Here's the DAMN I'M GOOD PART...
Jackie informs me that she is going up to Ventura to pick somebody up.
Oooohhh, kaaaayyy...as soon as MOMMY gets home from Sam's club, she gets on the Sigalert.com and checks the freeways.
Oh, what's this? Glendora Ridge Mtn Road closed? Gates closed? Whaaaa???? Ok, brush fire from yesterday, nobody's MC riding up THERE today!
What else we got going on...hmm, something is starting around Agoura off the 101...didn't Jax say she wanted to know how to get to Ventura, and didn't I tell her the 57 N to the 210 W to the 134/101?
Hmmmmm...
Ok, she calls at 12:39, on Whittier Blvd, wants to know how to get there.
I tell her to take the 605 N. to the 210 West and when she gets on the 210, to call me. (meanwhile, I'm checking that pesky red diamond off the 101 in Agoura.)
She calls at 1:00 and is getting on the 210. Fine, I said, but you'll probably have to stay on the 210. Call me when you get to Pasadena because I'm going to have you take the 210 to the 118 and then down to Ventura.
SMART.
SMART, SMART, SMART.
SHE'S lucky she has an anal mama, and I'M lucky she can take direction WELL and can know how to ask for help.
(and she knows that it takes a bit of time to switch between 3-4 screens on the PC: Mapquest, Sigalert, the destination place, and something else I'm doing for Barry)
1:11 PM she's at the 210/134. I tell her stay on the 210.
1:27 PM she gets to the 118. I tell her great, 118. Call me when you get to Simi Valley.
1:51 PM she's around there, I tell her to take the Thousand Oaks Fwy 23 south to the 101 West.
She says mama, should I go Los Angeles Street/23 North? WHATTTT!!!??? She says, "Sorry, just kidding!". (I'm gonng KILL HER).
1:58 PM she's coming up to the 101. Great time, she's making great time. I also had noticed that where she was going, there was no offramp for that street, so I look up where she's going, find it, do a Mapquest (which is why it was up on the PC) and tell her that she'll have to get off at Exit 63. I send her a text about where to go.

2:05 PM she asks me if I can find Del Norte St. Huh? Whaaa??? I tell her that might take some time, but I'm scrolling scanning thru Mapquest and I just happen to see it. I tell her it's exit 59. She's good with that, she's at exit 50.
And that is where it stands now at 2:47 PM.

Tip Top Restaurant Carlsbad Trip on a holiday Monday 7-5-2010 with the usual gang of misfits (except Minita and Luis-they're NOT misfits!)

2010-07-05T15:10:00.000-07:00

It started out GREAT...
I woke the hell up late, at 7:19 AM and the meetup time 8 AM at Starbucks by Best Buy on Chapman. GREAT.
Can you say, "Lightspeed"?
Luckily I had just washed all my stuff from the Mt. Pinos trip and it was still folded on the dryer so I just grabbed it all and started throwing clothing on, then realized I had taken a bath the night before and went to bed with my hair all wet.
So I had to stick my head under the faucet and blowdry my hair.
Bub, that saintly person that he is, moved my car and started my bike. I don't deserve such a kind, thoughtful man.
Know what else he did? He texted Johney and told him that I was on my way but going to be a tad late, would they wait for me? Johney replied with a resounding, "No".
He then said he was kidding, yeah, they'd wait.
I was (as usual) debating on 3 layers or 4, chaps or none, thermal t-neck/socks or no... I chose WISELY. Thermal T-neck, thermal socks, high boots (the ones I use for horseback riding), sweater w/hoodie, zipup aerobic jacket and my MC jacket. Again, luckily my passport purse was all together so I just had to throw in some money, put it around my neck with the camera, phone inside pocket, GO.
I left at 7:45, got there DEAD ON 8 AM.

We were waiting a bit because Johney called Luis, Minita and Pedro, and they got there around 8:15 or so, so we left at 8:19 AM.
Oh, yeah, I forgot. Guess who lead the pack? The AB is back in the saddle.
John R. and Johney asked me if I knew where we were going, and I pretended not to know..."uh, Ojai? Ventura?" John R. got exasperated and said no, Palomar Airport Road in Carlsbad. (Of COURSE I knew, I made sure I looked it up last night because I have it saved on Mapquest!) So they said for me to lead.
K. I was nervous because I don't think I've lead with John R. as TG, don't remember, just hoped I didn't screw up.
Nobody said it was supposed to RAIN, though. Ok, John R. said a foggy mist, but when drops hit the visor and stream down, plus you can't see a 'dry' track in your lane, PLUS the cars on the other side have their windshield wipers going, that TO ME is rain. We hit spots of rain suddenly, kinda cold rain, so I slowed down from my 75-80 to 70 and got into the 2nd lane. I appreciate the confidence that all the riders have for me, I really do. I guess I didn't let them down, I was told I did a good job. Hoped I did, I kept it steady speeds, when I noticed that the other side cars had their wipers going, I slowed it down and got over to the #2 lane.
We were supposed to hook up with Wayne around El Toro Rd, and John R. told me before we left that I didn't have to go over and go slow, he'd pick him up and they'd come up to us. Problem is, the independent riders in the group didn't know that so they went over 4 lanes and all of a sudden I'm looking behind me and everybody's over except for me.
I thought that everybody was supposed to follow me, you know, like 'into the jaws rode the four hundred' and that stuff?
We have too many independent thinkers around here, which is still ok anyway because of the Palomar Airport Road which came up a bit more suddenly than I thought, so the guys in the back went over.
(Guys, just kidding, you can think independently any time anywhere if I'm leading, because I appreciate it-Johney can usually read my mind, even from 7 bikes back and pretty much know when I'm gonna do something about the same time I do it. EXCEPT why did the back end guys get into the car pool lane when it opened up going north on the 5? I mean, I was debating it, but decided not to since I looked WAY ahead and noticed that they both seemed to be going about the same and since I make the trip 3X a month, I know that the carpool lane goes slower than the regular traffic, so those that stayed with me left those in the carpool lane in the dust. )

Chapter 422 Ride To Big Bear 6-19-2010 (in lieu of Palomar) via Anaheim, Azusa, and CUC-camonga.

2010-07-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, just kidding about that last part, but does ANYBODY remember that famous saying, 'Now departing for ANAHEIM...AZUSA...AND CUKE-CAH-MONGA"?

I can't believe I forgot my camera that day. Well, always have the phone cam, so I used it.

Route was actually pretty cool, Ortega (of COURSE!), 15 N, 138 E through Silverlake, Crestline, RimForest, Sky Forest (yes, the old Santa's Village buildings and ornament skyway stuff is STILL there, but the big parking lot is now used for lumber storage), Hwy 18 through Running Springs, and Big Bear, with the return route 18 to 330 on down.

Just WAIT until you see the few pictures I DID take.

JUST WAIT.

The first picture is ~~the usual motley crew~~ ahem, a nice amount of bikes just chomping at the bit to leave. Barry is, of course, one of them. Actually he, like all the rest, are waiting for ME. Whatever group I'm in, they have a very special shout for getting ready: if I'm in Group 2, the Group 1 Group Leader will shout out, "Group 1, 5 minutes! Lynne, get ready!" I repeat, if I'M IN GROUP 2, THE GROUP 1 LEADER WILL SHOUT OUT MY NAME. The group leader of the group I AM in will shout out, "Group X, 5 minutes! Lynne, NOW!" I can't help it if I have a lot of things to keep track of like glove liners/gloves/helmet/glasses/purse/tankbag/camera and making sure it's all stowed away nicely and everything zipped up INCLUDING my pants...

Lunch. THAT'S a story in itself.

Leonard was coming by the different tables at the Teddy Bear Restaurant http://teddybearsrestaurant.com/

(which I knew well from a previous 345 trip) and pointed out this particular menu item to me. By the way, does anyone remember back in the '70's when this restaurant was an Italien family-style dining, with big platters of italien food for everybody to dig in to? Just wondering...

Anyway, the menu item would be the star attraction at the Heart Attack grill in Chandler, AZ or whatever that place is called. This glorious tribute to breakfast AND lunch was called the 'Chicken Fried Steak Burger'. Holy CRAP. We have here a toasted burger bun with 1000 island dressing on it; lettuce; tomato (I didn't eat the tomato); pickles (didn't eat them either); chicken fried steak; 1/3 pound hamburger; cheese; fried egg; bacon; another bun. I asked them to put the gravy on the side. Oh yeah, a side salad came also on the plate. Below, I seem to have NO PROBLEM wrapping my face around that sucker. Below right, the monstrosity after I slathered some gravey on that sucker.

You can see the 'before' picture above, and the 'after' picture below. BOTH 'after' pictures. If you've known me for any amount of time, then you'll KNOW what the 2nd 'after' picture signified. It signified a pure and simple HELL for my poor husband approximately 36 hours from this point.

If you're wondering WHY I took so MANY pictures of this stupid lunch, it's because I have NEVER seen anything like this in all my years of feeding my face, and I was just amazed that a) there WAS such a thing, b) people would order it and eat it, c) I ACTUALLY ORDERED IT, and d) I ATE THE WHOLE THING.

And you wanna see something STOOPID? I had iced tea with my meal-do you SEE what's on the gravey plate? SPLENDA! Like some extra calories are going to be the death of me!

I've been tracking my caloric intake UP UNTIL NOW.

Now, I don't think I have a calculator or an Excel spreadsheet that can cover numbers in the gazillions.

If you know what the little blue pill is, then you can sympathize with Bub and be very very surprised you didn't have to send him a sympathy or 'get well soon' card.

A little July 4th ride w/Bub to a few places planned, some unplanned, some planned but not done...the usual.

2010-07-04T17:34:00.000-07:00

ORIGINAL PLAN:

Leave home and go to Walker's Cafe at Point Fermin in San Pedro. Reputed to be a cute place, a 'biker' bar (but not really), then to Roscoe's Chix and Waffles in downtown Long Beach, then ostensible to Cook's to check out the shopping and the bikes.

That WAS the plan.

WE ENDED UP:

Going to Roscoe's first, because Barry was hungry and by the time we got there, smelling those LOOOVVVEELLY waffles, I'm glad we went there first

BECAUSE...

by taking 2nd Street thru Belmont Shore and Ocean Blvd. along the beach, I realized that around Walker's Cafe which was RIGHT across the street from Pt. Fermin Park which was RIGHT across the water from the Queen Mary which, on the 4th of July, has a HUGE fireworks show...well, that area around Walker's and Pt. Fermin would've been CROWDED with people hanging around for the show later.

So we didn't go to Walker's. Damn. Spit. Dirty drawers.

You may notice the parking we got, under the tree in the parking lot next to the restaurant, 1st space. Oh, YEAH. AND we went on Jazz Sunday, with live jazz music wafting into the dining area from the bar.

While we were waiting, I was chatting with the security guard and heard loud carousing going on at a place next to the parking lot. I asked him what it was, and he said it was a gay bar and on Sundays they have a 'drag' fashion show. Glad Bub and I didn't wear our leathers, although ME they probably would've left alone, but BUB...well, he'd probably get more passes than Joe Montana ever THREW.

Another cute thing, this one's kinda R- rated...the security guy and Barry were talking, and the security guy said, "Hey, if you don' get none from yer ol' lady, you always got da sheep!" They said this to each other and I heard 'em laughing, of COURSE demanded to know what they were laughing at and Barry told me. If I had thought faster, I could've made a snappy R+ comment regarding the appearance and state of the sheep lately.

After sharing the Herb's special (1/2 chicken, 2 huge waffles, all white meat which was 2 breasts and 2 wings) we decided to give Her Royal Pain In The Butt Jackie a visit at her Best Buy store.

So BACK onto the 405 S to her store, surprised her!

Then I decided that I need to look into helmet pads for inside my helmet since it isn't as tight as it used to be and I'm getting tired of wearing a hoodie shirt to make it fit right. (I was wearing the hoodie to keep any hair from blowing around, but it's gonna get hot soon) so we took Jamboree to Warner to the 55/5/57/91 to Cycle Gear in Fullerton. No helmet pads that are there but they can order them to the tune of $25. Looked at helmets, clothes, glves, shirts...you know, SHOPPING.

Up Harbor to Brea Blvd to gas, home and iced mocha coffee, then next door for a 4th BBQ and some family gossip.

Tomorrow? Maybe Tip Top for another waffle (I'm into waffles now) and get some pastrami and corned beef for Bubski?
If I get him that, I won't be able to go over Ortega to Palomar...oh well, I gotta do some work here at home anyway, take the dog in for grooming, get Jax another phone, you know, CHORES...
I still might ride more...as Auntie Mame said,
"Live! Live! Live! Life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are STARVING to death!"

Chapter 422's Pre-ride to Palomar Mtn. June 12th, 2010 and the official 'birth' of the "Pit Bull Wearing a Chihuahua Suit On A Minibike"

2010-07-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

Beautiful weather, nice ride, nice destination, and of course STARBUCKS towards the end, always!

THE SHORT VERSION:

Started great, made a name for myself (or rather THEY made a name for me), saw Chapter leadership in action, learned a lot, you know, the usual great day of riding.

Leonard and Sissy have EVERYTHING for first aid, Michael likes snakes, Dan just kicks back.

Another short explanation:

-422 Pre-ride for Palomar Mountain June 12th.

-422 Regular ride for Palomar Mountain SUPPOSED TO BE June 19th, but found out from the bicyclist guy (whom we gave first aid to-he was experiencing anaphylactic shock, passed out behind the wheel of his SUV, we did the EMT thing) that there was a hill climb bike challenge on the 19th at Palomar so the 422 ride 6-19 ended up to Big Bear via 15-138-18 etc then back down 18-330-210-15 etc.

-422 Pre-ride for Palomar Take Two was Saturday July 3rd same day as 230's Mt. Pinos ride. I was TORN, believe me, TORN. (see 230 Mt. Pinos post for my decision)

-422 Palomar ride scheduled for Saturday July 17th.

Leonard sent the route out, Collin followed up with his wonderful turn-by-turn Publisher file, so I had a pretty good idea of where we were going and the temperatures thereof. I HATE HATE HATE HATE to be cold!

This trip was especially important riding-wise in that last year's Palomar ride was less than wonderful because I really started doubting my riding around then, so I wanted to see how it'd be on this trip.

On this trip we were to go UP the back way then DOWN the front way, the 'spastic colon' twisty way. I personally would've preferred the twisty way UP, but hey, I'm game and up for almost anything.

Route overview:

-Met up at Wingstuff

-Ortega Hwy to Grand/Clinton Keith for gas and Starbucks (GOD I love this group!!!);

-Thru Temecula around 79 to Lake Henshaw cafe/resort http://www.lakehenshawresort.com/

(pretty good food), DIDN'T fall over, was christened;

-Up the back Palomar Road which seemed like we were riding thru some low clouds, it got cold, misty/foggy, just like going thru a cloud, WISH I could've taken a picture, I really really do;

-Stopped at the observatory (where it was sunny and warm!!). Here is a link where, in the middle of the page, you can download an audio tour free as an mp3 to an iPod, phone, whatever. http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/visiting.html

Last year's trip paid off regarding being able to go into the observatory for free and that there were pins for sale at the observatory gift shop http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/giftshop/

-Down the twisty way which was WEIRD since it almost seemed like we were going thru clouds again, it was cold, misty/foggy and damp AT 2 PM IN THE AFTERNOON;

-Back around thru 76 down towards Temecula and around a corner just in time to see a gentleman in an SUV having a great deal of probs;

-Back out and around to Mission, to Starbucks at College Town Center and a de-briefing of the day's activities.

I didn't mention that we hooked up with the El Cajon STAR Chapter at the Lake Henshaw cafe!!! Marge and Sissy did NOT let this opportunity get away from them to exhort/tout/inform these folks about the August 21st fundraiser, Run With The Pack!! http://www.star422.com/Default.asp?ID=205&pg=Run+with+the+Pack+Fundraiser

Chapter 230 July 3, 2010 ride to Mt. Pinos

2010-07-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

Here's how it went, like, as if I were a 'normal' person:

Met at the usual time, at the usual place, went ga-ga over the usual Jetsons-type motorcycles (see pic), left at the usual time, 1st gas stop Agoura. 2nd gas stop Ojai. Next stop Mt. Pinos Nordic Center after a lot of curves and twisties.

Last gas/food stop in Lebec and the 5 Freeway at Chevron and the Los Pinos restaurant.

I ‘tapped out’ at Diamond Bar Blvd to get off at Brea Canyon, home around 5:30 PM.

Here’s an interesting switch-I was actually in Group 1. I don’t REMEMBER the last time when I’d been in Group 1. Kinda nice, doing everything first before everybody else gets there.

It’s always the little things that screw you up, the little things that I had taken for granted, namely Bub and I/the two of us as a ‘team’ at gas stops and stuff, where we’d take turns going in for a potty break and pumping gas. This became REALLY apparent to me when I had waited for a pump to be open, pumped gas, parked, took off the helmet / gloves/1st aid fanny pack, walked over to the potty & waited in line behind 2 other ladies, and then while I’m in line waiting for the ladies' room, I hear the yell “GROUP ONE, 5 MINUTES!” I don’t know if was somebody actually saying it or it was a sarcastic remark, I said “Yeah, RIGHT”, but it was then that I realized that in the scheme of motorcycle group gas stops, it takes a LOT longer for just ONE of you (one of me) to do all the gas stop stuff, do the ‘setter’ thing (which includes pants, belt AND leathers, not to mention all the unmentionables that I just mentioned), put all that shit back on in the correct way, walk back out, yada yada yada. It was ALSO then I felt somewhat disconcerted and embarrassed to see everybody in my group getting on their bikes and plugging in their helmets. Of course I DIDN’T want it to be even CLOSE to being left behind (they wouldn't forget ME, would they? Would they? Sniff) so I hurried up but did forget to do my belt. At least I didn’t forget to do my PANTS. Either way, on the road there’s not a helluva lot you can do about it then. I guess I’m just spoiled rotten by Barry.

NOW the not-so-great stuff...

Here’s the SHORT VERSION:

Felt my riding skills in the curves SUCKED due to some external feedback and some mental feedback. Felt that way for almost a year now.
Was starting to come back to feeling kinda ok about curves, but was still freaking about them.
Double whammy, today’s ride brought up mental anxiety towards curves that had laid Barry out, AND him not going on the ride to help ‘get me past’ this anxiety.
Angst and fear can make you sick, even after the fact.

I lived through it, even rode (I feel) with some style, but am still waiting for the Ibu 800 to kick in to take care of the aftermath. Kinda like a tsunami after an earthquake-there’s still residual STUFF going on.
Below the pictures, the LONG version...

Pictures underneath of the end destination, Mt. Pinos Nordic Base. Also below, the bikes lined up with ONE BIKE NOT ON ITS SIDE ON THE GROUND. Guess whose bike I be referring to?

And below, I hate my smile, but Keith took a nice pic of me. Thanks, Keith, you are now one of the few who can be trusted to actually know how to take a picture without 500 feet of sky above one's head.

THE LONGER VERSION:

For the past 7 months, I had been REALLY REALLY questioning my riding ability, but was kind of coming around now. Ish. A few rides, a few areas, I felt like I was kinda getting better, BUT hadn’t been on the ride that we had been on where I SAW him go down. THIS one. Mt. Pinos. 2008.

THIS ride made me nervous, enough so that I was just trying to maintain some semblance of a ‘person’, a body on a ride. I felt so alone & lonely because Bub wasn’t with me. Lonely and fearful, not a good combo. Others tried to make me feel like I was ok, thank you SO much Terry and Vickie Bishop, and Jim Rawlinson.

I don’t think anyone, really, except Bub knew what I was going through, but THIS time Bub wasn’t going to be there to help me get thru my anxiety. DOUBLE problems.

1. Projecting my memories and shock of those events into my own riding skills, and

2. Apprehension about my own riding down those routes where those events took place.

Anxiety can wreak havoc with your brain, it can make you lose sleep, it can make you doubt your inner riding self-time. I mean, didn’t you ever worry about something SO much that it almost took over? Didn’t you ever worry yourself SICK? Yup. BINGO.

I didn’t get to sleep until 3:15.

I was thinking of NOT going, up until 7:35 AM.

Well, obviously I went. Hence the pictures.

Just as obviously I didn’t have any problems. Part of me would like to find out from an external source how I did on these curves (or maybe I DON’T want to!) I personally think I did ok; ok in that I wasn’t talking myself through them, I was just feeling and doing them. How did I know that? Because I got some NICE lean angle, so nice that I was expecting a floorboard scrape a time or two. When you lean into a curve and you wait for the scrape, and you’re NOT freaked out about that gawdawful metal scrape sound, that tells you somethin’. Somethin’ GOOD is goin’ on.

The anxiety, though, took its toll in the form of a back of the head-ache and upset tummy that made themselves known to me just before going into the restaurant. I KNEW I shoulda stayed outside, but went in, tried to play it safe with tortillas and butter, but after everyone got served and I STILL hadn’t gotten my order, I cancelled it, went outside to the fresh air, drank some water & cleaned my visor and windshield. You KNOW something’s going on with me if I don’t EAT. THAT right there is proof that something strange is going on inside. The other proof is that I took a total of 5 pictures. 5. TOTAL. That’s it. No more. 4 are up there.

Oh, yes, I was injured slightly today, twice: bit my tongue, and broke a nail at the last gas stop.

Next step, I don’t know, but I did bury the idea of selling my bike.

A LONG Day's Ride, from Victorville to Santa Ysabel.

2010-06-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

Rick and Tammy's Moving Day

2010-06-02T15:43:00.001-07:00

THE CREW: Scott, Lynne, Gail, Rick (duh!) Tammy (double duh!) Chuck, Barry, Stan, and Gary.

THE MISSION: Empty the household of a certain Chapter 230 member who had succumbed to the evil virus of moving away from the Chapter. Makes you wonder, is it CATCHING? Here's the van TOTALLY unloaded and ready for us to do major damage to.

THE PLAN: Put out a call to arms and see what happens.

THIS is what happens.

Despite this motley bunch of ragamuffins, the job was finished (and with 2 breaks) in 2 1/2 hours. Gail checked her watch. She timed us. She's anal.

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, with only a few comments from me:

**Chuck brought these lifting strap thingys that go under, like, a mattress or headboard, you know, something that's heavy and takes 2 people but it's kinda unwieldy? They're lifting straps from Home Depot. I think we should all chip in $1 and give a set to Rick.

**It might LOOK like we took lots of breaks, but not really. We had our mojo goin' on and definite momentum and timing. Check out the pics of moving the upstairs bedroom's armoire DOWNSTAIRS.

**I hope they didn't put the boxes of the stuff they're gonna NEED first into the VAN first.

**Barry took pics of me-he said, "Lynne, lift something". I tried to lift Gail. She spilled water on me. I tried to spill water back on her. See photos. I think she won, 'cause I got wet. Thank God I shaved my underarms. (Ewwww!!!)

**That upstair bedroom armoire was a BITCH. Oh, did I already mention that? My bad.

Here are more pics of the day. Gary actually did some moving. The plant is all that we'd allow him to carry. You know, liability and on the job injury stuff. That food wrap is actually what Rick used to kinda 'shrink wrap' all the boxes and box padding on the big pieces of furniture. He bought the box at Costco and still had 1/2 a box left over. Joe Cool FINALLY gets there.

Tammy was SO amazed that it all went in there! I told her that the guys were GOOD, and with the help of God and a shoehorn, it all fit. Now getting it OUT...

Barry's birthday is today 05-16-10! Happy birthday, Bub!

2010-05-16T04:53:00.000-07:00

And many many more, honey!
Next Saturday, a birthday ride to Palomar.
It was fun last year, we gotta do it again.
Or Glendora Mountain Ridge Rd, since we missed it on our anniversary last Tuesday...

Chapter 422 Pre-Ride Temecula via DeLuz, Sandia Creek 05-08-10

2010-05-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to try to shake this 'sell my bike' funk so I wanted to see if I could at least make myself useful to a chapter I felt a great kinship with. I asked and was ok'd to go on their pre-ride and kinda TG train with their lead TailGunner Dan.
To me this was not only a chance to see how I would do as a tailgunner (with the 'pressure' OFF, I might add) but also to validate ANY skills I had as a rider. I was apprehensive about DeLuz Rd. The others didn't know it, really. We all know what significance DeLuz Road has, right? HINT: Sept. 11, 2009.
I respected Dan the lead TailGunner for 422 and his opinion highly, especially since he really didn't know me so didn't have any preconceptions. (He saw my riding at Skills Day, but that was my ego riding that day, with me telling myself that I'd show up all these other riders and not only get thru all the skills, but get thru 'em with STYLE. PLUS Sandstrom was there and I knew that if I would've screwed up, he would've NEVER let me forget it. I still wish we could have Skills Days every 3 months or so.)

To the left and below, at the first gas stop in Wildomar. On the left, Leonard and Colin are probably looking for the latest damage on my bike. At least, that's the only reason I can think of to look at a puny li'l 650.

When we hit Temecula, the interesting thing is that most everybody took their 'overgear' off. Didn't realize they had their riding pants on over their regular jeans, which meant when Leonard said 'back at 12:45', that meant back at 12:45 BUT we wouldn't be leaving until around 1:15 because everybody had to put all their gear back on. This was pretty cool because I'm usually the last one to be ready in whichever group I ride in for 230.

Interesting that when we were walking around, taking in the sights, we noticed a bunch of new construction going on behind Old Front Street. It was there that we found the Sweet Lumpy's BBQ and the street with TONS of parking on it. (see background in the picture above)

I guess I did ok on Ortega/DeLuz/Sandia Creek. I learned some interesting TG tricks, like when Dan does the 'squeezing' motion with his hand, that means secure the lane next to me so that no cars come up and ace the group out. It was kinda cool in that he as lead was the last rider on the left, but I was actually the last rider in the group; it felt pretty good. On twistys & when we were all single file, he was last rider which made sense because hje was on CB. That day, I felt 'on' with tailgunning & at the end of the pack, almost felt like Dan and I were a pair of cops, really in tune with riding. Weird. Usually I feel that good only with a couple of people, Barry of course being number uno.

This group is great in that they make STARBUCKS STOPS. (The renegade Lynne made a beeline to the 31 Flavors next to the Starbucks, though) To the left is Connie, Sissy, Colin, Mike, Stephen, Dan & Leonard, all watching Mike explain something about either basketball or babies.

Dan told me I'll make a fine TailGunner. Not I 'would' but I 'will'. That distinction in tense is crucial. Dan's the one in the dark glasses to the right. Connie looks SOOOO GGOOOODDD in that jacket!!!

I really really regret being sick and missing the actual ride today May 15th, but when I feel woozy even driving the car a few miles, riding a bike over Ortega then DeLuz and Sandia Creek Drive doesn't strike me as an intelligent thing to do. I try to be intelligent most of the time, and I try NOT to be sick most of the time. I should have worked out this past week, I should've taken my daily dose of 833% of Vitamin C this past week, I should NOT have worked OT this past week, I should NOT been stressed out work this past week...

Next month's 422 trip is Palomar. Another mental winner (NOT) for me.

Wonder if we'll go to Wrightwood/Angeles Crest ever, still ANOTHER mental winner (again, NOT) for me. Those two rides were the beginning of my doubts about my riding, and they were just before the time when I try to get back in the saddle and get my mojo working in September, Bub has his 'incident'.
I think I'd like to try to do all my old rides before hanging up my kickstand; Palomar, Wrightwood/Angeles Crest, Solvang, Palm Springs, Silverlake/Crestline, Big Bear, the ABAF's (you can read those as Ass Freezers or Ass Fryers) all those wonderfully fun trips from the past few years.

I have come to the conclusion that I am one of the worst riders in my riding group. I'm seriously thinking of selling my bike.

2010-05-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

THE SHORT VERSION of this blog, redone 05-15-10:
1. I feel I'm not a good rider to be in back of. I feel other riders want me to move the f**k outta the way.
2. I want to be as good a rider as some of the expert riders I know. I want to be better than 'above average'. I know it takes practice, but it's a Catch-22; to practice, I have to go somewhere with others, but then, I'll be in front of SOMEBODY.
3. This isn't a bid for sympathy but a hard, digging look at the mental and physical aspect of my riding skills, or lack.
4. My bike is worth $4400 per Kelley Blue Book.
5. If I'm to get out of this mindset, I think I need an objective, empathetic (aka gentle, compassionate, caring) look at my riding and have somebody do a blow-by-blow / turn-by-turn analysis, good, bad, ugly, whatever.

This is so very hard to put into words, but it's been bugging me part of yesterday and all of today, and

It's been an epiphany to me of how I truly ride (or don't ride, in this case).

My issues are a little different...
Last year I was braking about 80% going into curves, which in my usual opinion is 'way too much, so much so that I totally bugged off anyone behind me and anyone behind me wanted to get AWAY from being behind me as soon as they possibly could. It happened. I can document at least 3-4 times that it happened. I have abso-freaking-lutely NO CLUE WHERE I got the idea that braking before EVERY SINGLE FREAKING TURN was a GOOD THING, but I THINK it was just for a certain period of time. I THINK.
Before that time last year I RARELY braked & just went into the curves, la-de-da-de-da, like I do currently. I wasn't the fastest, but I did ok. I think I did ok. I thought I did, I really thought I did.
Now that I reflect back about it, maybe others behind me were just too polite to say I wasn't ok before.
Not good.

I've currently gone back to my old riding style of very rarely braking into curves & actually felt pretty damn good taking the curves in April from Idyllwild to Beaumont/Banning, (even after tipping my bike over while standing still) and it actually felt pretty fun and challenging.
BUT
Last Saturday I was kinda mentally freaking, thinking that what if I go into a curve too fast and overshoot the curve into the next lane and who KNOWS who'll be in that next lane (which of course I DIDN'T-the worst I did do was FEEL LIKE 'what if ...?' maybe, oh, 3 times, max). Occasionally I'd bobble a tad (don't ask me what "bobble" means, it just sounds like what I feel like I do, ok, maybe 'wobble' would work but a 'bobble' isn't quite as severe or as bad as a 'wobble') while turning because I went into an early apex turn and cut the curve line too quickly so had to kinda 'bobble' and correct my line. It probably seems weird to others that I feel like a failure of a rider when I do that because I 'bobbled' MAYBE 5 times out of God only knows how many curves, but I don't see ANY OF THE OTHER RIDERS 'bobbling' EVER. NOT NEVER. NOT ONE.
Maybe the guys behind me are too polite to snicker and point at me and my bike to my face when they notice this stuff.
Not good.

I 'scraped' my floorboard on a curve which to me sounds horrible and reminds me of the sound that Barry made when he went down, but I was told that it's a good thing, that it means I'm stepping outside my curving comfort zone. When I mentioned it, Brian on the bike behind me said yeah, he heard it but I was holding the lean nicely & riding ok so he didn't think anything of it.
Maybe I wasn't riding ok and he was just too polite to say so.
Not good.

Maybe I'm dragging anyone behind me, group or individuals down, and anyone who rides behind me is just too polite to say so.
Not good.

At the skills day in March, Vinnie Greva told us to go out to a large parking lot, put out cones, and practice, practice, practice. I feel like his advice is sound, that I could go out to local curves and take them, take them, take them until I felt comfortable on all kinds of roads and curves. BUT

I See A Problem Or Two:
-If I fall, who's gonna help me pick up my bike?
-If I'm taking curves at my comfort level, am I gonna piss off another biker on a bigger bike who's behind me & wants to go faster? If I pull over a tad and wave him by, then I'LL feel like even more like a failure.

I know some people are gonna say, "F**k 'em! Ride at your comfort level!" but I don't want to feel like I'm always and constantly holding people back from riding at THEIR level and enjoying their ride. (NOTE: I'm only and primarily talking cruisers here, not crotch rockets.) They deserve a better ride than they're getting if I'm in front of them. It's a no-win situation. They feel held back, and I feel like I'm holding them back. I can tell-usually the other rider behind me is crawling up my ass or coming up close, falling back, coming up close. I want to ride like them, gracefully and speedily taking any and all curves handed them, racing away faster than I go when I let them go ahead of me and I see them race off into the distance, zooming it and taking those curves so expertly as to make it look like low-level flying and me wishing I had the guts and the strength of technique to keep up. And I hate it when anyone has to wait for me to catch up.
I ALSO hate it when I lose sight of any riders/people in front of me, and then they end up waiting for me to catch up.
Not good.

Maybe I should just ride pillon on a bike forever.
Maybe I should just forget riding, period.

I read the word, "Technical" on another group's ride coming up. That word conjured up all sorts of feelings, mostly self-deprecating now. I don't want to look like a total idiot, no, that's not the right word, that I don't want to look like a pathetic, pitiful and pitiable rider, especially one who's riding without her husband who went down on his bike last year, so they might be thinking "what if SHE'S gonna go down too?" even though I never have, never even come CLOSE to it? (except for dropping my bike umpteen times while standing still, that doesn't count)
I feel I'll be watched, with every little riding nuance noted and counted against me, NOT to mention feeling like an outsider among a 'clique' of riders. Any riding that I do that is done well and to spec won't count, of course, unless I REALLY pull a rabbit outta a hat and do some amazingly wonderful riding or come out of a situation astonishingly well OR save the group leader's life...
Which could mean it that might be a good thing to grudgingly have me go on a ride.
"Hey, I have lifesaving skills but no aptitude for riding! Will you still want me to go?"
At least if I go slower in the curves and am in the last group, I can help pick up the pieces of another rider, or be the point person with the EMT's while the group goes on...

Time was, that term/word 'technical' NEVER used to bug me at all. I had always thought of myself as a proficient 'technical' rider (or at least able to handle technical roads without any mishaps) until last year. Then it became clear that I wasn't competent, or not near as good as I thought I was. Whether or not it was from my erroneous braking habits or something else, it doesn't matter. What matters is that I was not good to ride with, which was very depressing to me to find out.

I flashback to seeing Barry eat it in my rear view mirror in 2008; flashback to 2009 to hear him eat it before coming around the corner last year, seeing him lying in the middle of the road, trying to get up & out from under his bike, and think people will associate those incidents with my riding capability. I know that it still haunts me, and I project myself into that situation.

Sooo, do I take my bike and this querying, self-disparaging attitude & go on that ride and see what I can or can't do, or do I just quietly hang up my kickstand.

The funny thing is, usually I'm the first one to not give a DAMN about what people think. I do my own thing and that's that.
But when I question my riding ability based on prior interactions that I've had with other, better riders (and to me, about 99 & 44/100'ths of the riders I come in contact with are better riders even with their varying degrees of proficiency) and then I negatively project what they might or might not be thinking, hey, it can't be ALL in my head...there must be SOME truth to what I'm thinking...

I wish maybe I could get a verbal 'bi**h slap' what I need to do to snap outta this mindset (not Barry, WHO listens to their spouse? They're always gonna tell you the positives because they're 100% behind you), otherwise, I'll be about $4K richer.

A couple of other riders tried to do that.
One said that he thought my riding skills were well above average and that I should get encouragement to Barry's riding skills and confidence even after two incidents.
Another said I had the capability to become an expert/excellent rider but this thing with Barry was getting to me, and to 'get over yourself'.

The first was too impersonal & the second was a tad too harsh, even though both were compliments.
I think I need an objective, empathic look at my riding and have somebody to a blow-by-blow of my riding. Good, bad, ugly, whatever.
Like we used to do in Toastmasters (yeah, the 'public speaking' club), when we gave evaluations, we did just that-talked about what the person did right, touched on specifics, then gave one or two points for improvement.

Great info for lady motorcyclists! (as far as I think so, anyway!)

2010-05-02T18:54:00.001-07:00

Do you LOVE carrying a PURSE on a ride, but freak out that it’s gonna fly off when riding, or takes up too much room in a tank bag/saddlebag? Get one of those traveler-neck pouches that we use whenever we go ashore on a cruise, the ones that go under your shirt. I have a Samsonite Royal Traveller. It folds into 3’s (like a regular wallet), have a velcro closure, with a long enough cord (they have adjustable ones), it can be bandolero-slung around your neck across your chest & under your opposing arm, and can go under your top item of clothing i.e jacket or vest, or even ‘round your neck under your tops like how we wear it while traveling. Probably ‘round your neck & down your tops if it’s hot/summertime: if winter & cold & if you wear thermal T-necks, then slung across your body under your jacket. It’ll still carry your credit /debit /insurance cards, money, a pen, some paper, bandaids, ID.

What can you put in one of those ‘Traveler under clothing neck pouches’?
· ID
· Vehicle/health/credit/debit cards
· Pen
· Paper
· Bandaids (if possibility of heel blisters)
· Money
· I have a little jewelry baggie for a day’s worth of pills in it-my regular meds (except the ‘controlled substances’-those go in their original bottles under my seat where the tool kit and registration is-more on that area later), some aspirins, couple of cough drops & mints.
· For extra room, I, I scan the fronts in, 4 at a time then the same 4 back sides, then insert them into a word doc & print with the fronts and backs on both sides, then cut ‘em out, fold & stick into the pouch.

TOOL KIT #1-The leather bag mounted on the handlebars. I actually call it my Makeup Bag because this is SO good for makeup and those helmet extender/holder thingys for putting more than 1 helmet on your helmet lock. I put in a tube of lip gloss (doesn’t leak out or melt if hot), mascara, a small travel brush, hair ties, banana hair clip and a doo-rag in a baggie. The nice thing is that as SOON as you take off your helmet, the brush is right there with a mirror (the rear view ones, dorkbreath!). If I’m stopped at a light that I know will be a long one, I can take off a glove, take the lip gloss out, put it on, put the gloss back then put the glove back on. Takes practice. CAVEAT-unless you have one of those modular full-face helmets that you can lift the jaw part off, you CAN’T put on lip gloss with a full face! Another CAVEAT-if you wash your bike and use the hose, TAKE EVERYTHING OUT OF THIS LEATHER BAG!

TOOLKIT #2 (actually a toolkit AREA)
On my bike, I have a small space down from my seat, on the left side of the bike that has a locking front cover. This is where my actual toolkit is, along with my registration. This area is BIG ENOUGH for me to put the following items:
· Toolkit that came with the bike (comes in handy when one of the guys asks for it. Me, I’ve only used it to tighten my rear view mirror when my bike tipped over and screwed up my mirror.)
· Meds that NEED to be in their bottles i.e ‘controlled substances’ such as Adderall or IBU 800. I always keep leftover extra bottles for traveling purposes, and only put in 1-2 pills.
· Flashlight (and I check to see if it works before each ride)
· Glow sticks
· Bungee cords to lash things down or to use as a belt for the trash bag-raincoat
· Extra lighter pair of MC gloves (if necessary-if it’s winter/cold, I’ll be bringing my tank bag and can put them in there)
· Visors that are el-cheapo from the 99 cent store
· Small thingy of duct tape
· Largish trash bag rolled up, it can be used to put over you in case of rain

In a largish baggie:
· Registration
· Photocopies of the front and back of medical insurance and AAA cards
· Actual vehicle insurance card that supposed to stay with the vehicle
· Mini-pad
· Bobby pins & hair tie
· Money, not much & in different denominations, just enough to buy lunch and a tank of gas, plus maybe $5 extra (so that’d be around $30 tops)
· Change in case of metered parking
· Sunscreen stick (like a glue stick)
· A small pocket knife combo thingy
· Bandaids
· Business cards inside a first aid reminder fold-out
· AnOTHER thing of lip gloss plus some undereye concealer and eyeliner stick
· Paper, pencil, pen
· Latex gloves in case I gotta do something on the bikeExtra batteries for the flashlight

TANKBAG CONTENTS AND STORAGE:
A tankbag is a MUST for the girl biker: more storage space! (especially if you DON’T have saddlebags)
You may ask, “Lynne, WHAT can I take or keep in my tankbag? Is it REALLY that great?”
OMG, HELL YES, especially since we’re used to purses and keeping all kinds of shit!!! You can use it for:
· Makeup (more better makeup vs the bare minimum in the makeup bag on the handlebars), moisturizer, sunblock
· Brush, hairspray, banana clip, hat, doo-rag
· Meds
· Extra sunglasses, glasses
· Cellphone batteries, camera batteries, camera storage cards
· Food, water
· Small first aid kit (I carry a bigger one, but that’s a fanny-pack specific to motorcycle accidents)
· Bungee cords (I keep my spider bungees in them)
· If I DO bring a bigger purse, it can go into that.
FIRST CAVEAT-read the FREAKIN’ INSTRUCTIONS! I had NO CLUE for about 18 months that a tankbag works best when the one end IS ATTACHED TO THE STEERING COLUMN OF THE BIKE. It can be snapped on or kept on permanently, but IT NEEDS TO BE ATTACHED IN THE FRONT. I will say one word and you will understand…WIND. The wind, especially any cross winds, or if you don’t have a windscreen, will LIFT THAT SUCKER OFF, magnets or no magnets. This is NOT a good thing when you’re trying to maneuver in wind conditions, much less when you need your left hand to hold down your tankbag to keep it from flying up and off.
I like my bigger tankbag because, believe it or not, it also gives my inner thighs a break from the cold wind that comes under my windscreen.

I have three tankbags-
1. The smallest one is Cargo Basics; it’s a small version of the traditional tankbag, has magnetized flaps, a main zippered compartment, an outside stiff zipper compartment for a cellphone or a camera with Velcro to keep the item from falling out when you unzip it, two side zipper ‘pockets’ that are at least the size of an extra pair of sunglasses, a shoulder strap accessory to turn the tankbag into a purse, inside zippered netting area, and a top handle. It’s pretty neato for day rides if you don’t want to take a purse but want to take more than the Traveler Wallet, but ONLY IF you’re riding and not shopping OR your bungee cords in another part of your bike can handle any extra shit, IF you’re going with a significant other who has saddlebags (or someone in the group who lives by you and can take your shit in their saddlebags) and IF the weather remains constant so that you don’t have to shed clothes. I have actually put my spider bungee inside the main compartment, just in case.
I can put my cellphone, business cards, insurance info, a pen & pencil, some paper, a few makeup things, plus a smallish wallet inside. It won’t take my long ‘ladies’ wallet so I have to be creative re: how to keep that stuff in there.

My two bigger tankbags both have the following features :
· One main zipper area
· 2 side zipper ‘pockets’ big enough for a couple pair of glasses & other stuff
· A top zipper area that’s clear for a map or whatever you NEED to have on top to see
· The ability to become a backpack
· Bottom zipper area
· Inside area on the cover for stuff
· Handle on top
· Attachment thingys to attach the damn thing to the steering area.

2. The larger one’s make is ICON and kept its shape for a couple of months, now has become kinda, well, shapeless because of all the shit I’ve stuffed into it over time, and the magnets don’t work as well as they did. It’s the biggest tankbag and in addition to the above features, ‘telescopes’ upward if I need it to & can carry a helmet if needed. It’s good for longer hauls where I need more area for stuff and for shopping items, for my jacket or clothing if I decide to shed. THIS IS WHY LAYERS /LAYERS /LAYERS are good for clothing choices-they can be shed & stored vs. one or two BIG whompin’ jacket/sweatshirt combos. This tankbag WILL take my biggest jacket, although I gotta do some creative ‘stuffing’ and the bag comes up to my chest area when stuffed. Sometimes I’ll just ‘spider bungee’ the whole sucker to the back of my bike. Since the whole bag has a ‘looser’ construction feel to it vs. a ‘stiffer’ feel, the clear area can take more than a piece of paper or a thin thing of gum. I usually put in some extra sunglasses & my cell phone in there. A bad thing can be that it’s a bit unwieldy to turn into a backpack then stuff the shoulder pieces back into its little area. If you have heavier stuff to put in there, it can mean a really bottom-heavy, loose backpack, PLUS if you turn, you can nail somebody. The final iffy thing is that the clear area isn’t big enough for an 8 ½ X 11 sheet of paper so you have to fold the edges a little of your paper.

3. The last one is a Cargo Endurance, a little smaller and stiffer, holds the shape better (so far, anyway), is in fact squarer and is a little bit better engineered. I notice that the Cargo line has stiffer tankbags. It’s a newer bag for me and apparently they listened to riders because it is easier to use. The entire bag zips off its base and the base can stay on the tank. The bag’s shoulder straps are then exposed for the backpack feature. The base also has that clear plastic piece, so you could just use the base piece for traveling. The clear parts on the main bag and the base are big enough for an 8 ½ x 11 piece of paper, BUT are NOT good for something bulky like a pair of sunglasses, probably because it’s not a flexible or ‘loose’ as the ICON bag.

MORE GENERAL TIPS AND TRICKS:
· 24 Hours Between Bottle and Throttle.
· If you’re wearing your ‘colors’ vest or a jacket that you’re probably not gonna take on/off, I put my debit card for gas fill ups in my inside zippered pocket. Easy to get to, easy to store, just take off your gloves, reach inside your vest, slide it in & out, replace, done.
· On that note, if you’re going an extended distance on your bike (out of state, etc), might be a good idea to call your bank & let them know where you’re going. It’s a total bummer to try to get gas, get a msg to go inside, have to pay with cash or another credit card so you have dig thru your purse for another one, while all the time you have to go potty and/or the group leader/your significant other is waiting, waiting, WAITING.
· I always bring extra sunglasses, extra reading glasses and a pair of those sunglasses ‘readers’. I also have an extra pair of clear glasses for those times I wear a ½ helmet after dark and I HAVE to wear glasses. Sunglasses for riding, reading glasses for restaurants, and sunglass ‘readers’ for walking around town. Problem is, they don’t make cheap sunglass MOTORCYCLE readers. I know, too much shit.
· If you usually keep stuff in your front pants pockets while riding, and you go to buy leathers, HINT-regular generic leathers will usually have a long, deep pocket. These are handy and can hold lots of stuff EXCEPT that the leathers look like SHIT on your body. They’re functional and THAT’S IT. If you go shopping for ‘girl’ leathers, a) your local Harley shop will have lots of great chaps for our types of figures, b) wear the jeans you usually wear then try on chaps. Then try to put stuff in your pockets. You may find out that the chaps COVER your jeans’ pockets. Like I found out. I’d usually keep money and a lip gloss in my front pocket, but I can’t GET to my pockets now, and c) when you have the chaps on, TRY TO MAKE THE MOTION OF UNDOING THE CHAPS AND YOUR PANTS AS IF YOU HAD TO GO TO THE BATHROOM. This is the BIGGEST CAVEAT I can tell you. THE BIGGEST. Time is of the ESSENCE. Who has been at a gas station waiting to fill up (I don’t know about you, but I’m a lot of times in the last group towards the back), finally fill up, have to RUN to the potty then try to get ALL that stuff off before you wet your panties? AND the whole group is getting impatient, wondering ‘where IS she?’. Of COURSE you’re in the group with the gruffest, most time-conscious leader in the whole State. ‘Nuff said.
· Learn to take on/put in/take off your inside jacket lining. Learn what it feels like/the difference in warmth. Do it before you go on a ride.
· For keeping your MC key handy & not lose it, in my makeup bag (I’m just gonna call that leather bag on the handlebars my ‘makeup bag’) I have that helmet holder metal thingy & have a carabiner on it. I snap off the carabiner & put my regular MC key on it then snap it to my jeans loop or purse. I also use a bungee type of thing attached to my MC key. It doesn’t do that much scratching on the side of the ignition area and I’d RATHER the scratching vs. lose the damn key, especially since I can’t get to my front pockets anymore. (But the chaps DO look SEXY with the lace in the back leg area-it was SOOO WORTH IT!)
· I also bring an extra set of lighter gloves-sometimes your heavy ones are too hot and/or get sweaty which makes them HELL to get off and on, so I just bring an extra set. Glove liners can help with the sweat too, but again, they can make you hot.
· If your hands are cold EVEN with your best cold-weather gloves and glove liners (like if you’re on a longer ride with no hope soon of thawing out by dipping your hands into a hot pot of coffee), take some latex gloves and put them over the glove liners but under the regular gloves. Will make you more comfy.
· There is NO CURE for helmet hair. I even went thru wigs that might’ve staying on my head when the helmet comes off. Hope you look cute in a doo-rag or with a hat on.
Ok, ok, I DID come close to looking ok with helmet hair. This was only with a full-face and medium to longish hair, plus a TON of extra makeup to draw attention away from my hair. I brushed my hair up, secured it with a banana clip and a couple of hairpins. When I got ready to put on my helmet, I brought the banana clip down to my neck area and put the helmet on. The banana clip stayed on and kept my hair from flying and tangling. When I stopped, I took the helmet off, got the brush really quickly outta my makeup bag, rebrushed my hair, put it up with the banana clip and replaced the bobby pins. It only worked for the first 4 stops, though, before my bangs started protesting and going straight on me. Probably better to bring a hat. I can NEVER figure out how to do that damn doo-rag plus it’s hell to put my hair up into it. The doo-rag can be good for hotter days when there is NO WAY your hair will even come CLOSE to looking good after it comes outta your helmet. Unless you bring a hat. So practice with the doo-rag. I don’t know how guys do it.
· If your helmet is starting to get kinda loose & you only realize it while on a ride, put on a a doo-rag. It’ll help keep the helmet a little bit snugger and doable until you can put in more padding or get another helmet. That’s why I grudgingly take a doo-rag; if the helmets feel like they’re getting loose (especially in hotter weather), I don’t want that loose-fitting sucker catching the wind and snapping my head back. You can get solid colors really cheaply at your local swap meet. I keep some white ones in Ziploc bags, otherwise they get dirty.
· A ‘spider bungee’ is a bungee cord that has 8 hooks on it and will completely ‘bungee’ something to your back seat or whatever you want to attach something to. Very handy to have when 2 bungees will crush the life out of anything you want to hold down. I’ve actually brought home a huge whole pie on the back seat of my bike with a spider bungee and some creative box-packaging.
· Long earrings will work ok with helmets-just gotta try ‘em out first. They may ‘bug’ when wearing a ½ helmet. They also take the focus away from helmet hair. Having a great body does too.

Angels vs. A's at the Big A with Tori, Gary and Gary's friend Chuck.

2010-04-11T22:20:00.001-07:00

Saturday 4-10-10 Breakfast Trip 2 Tip Top in Carlsbad w/some of the FOS guys- Don "Doc" Thomas, John Ruhland, Richard Von Luft & Stan Partin.

2010-04-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

I FINALLY have a Saturday off (well, I have 3 out of 4 Saturdays off now because I gave up some Saturday classes), and when Richard emailed me about B'fast, I emailed him back that 'oh yeah, I'm THERE'. I heard about Tip Top from Bub and John R. and wanted to give it a shot but I'm on a DIET. Richard's email said they had food and a country STORE-that little 5 letter word pushed me over the edge. http://www.tiptopmeats.com/

John told Doc and I about the breakfasts and that there was the "Big John, all you can eat meat" breakfast for $6.98. I decided on that one, because if I'm gonna break the diet, I'm gonna BREAK THE DIET. EVERYTHING in excess...moderation is for monks.

1 hour to ride there from Starbucks, traffic good, & wait wasn't too bad at all. You go in and get in line to order and pay, then find yourself a table and get yourself your drinks. They call you r number and you go back up to the counter for your tray.

The food came pretty fast considering how many people were there. At 10:30 it had thinned out.

I got some corned beef and some pastrami for Bub, since he couldn't be there. That market/store has EVERYTHING.

Richard asked me if I wanted to break off and take El Toro over the hill to Santiago, around by Cook's and out, so we tapped out and went that-a-way. Going back up the 5, BTW, I couldn't BELIEVE the traffic going south. This group always picks the right times to go, but I'd still feel like some sort of a ride, either longish or quasi-technical or something immediately after b'fast. I mean, I'm on my BIKE, I wanna RIDE!

(This next part I paraphrased Richard's words-he put it almost perfectly, but you know I have to make 4 words do the work of one.)

After we went by Cook's Corner & rode on Santiago Canyon Road, a number of motorcyclists going the other way 'tapped' on their helmets to us, ostensibly to alert us to 'something'. We figured out that the local gendarmes were afoot and so made sure we were going the speed limit. Still got more head tap signs, so we're wondering, where ARE they? At Jamboree where Richard and I split off, Richard turns the corner and I look around that corner and there are two motorcops with cars pulled over. Oh. THAT'S where.

I went by Bub's work, told him the good news about the yummies then biked around & did errands; pharmacy, vest LOS back patch switched out for the Tin Star patch, got a pad for a weight lifting bar (because I'm TIRED of using my towel!), then gas. The nice thing is that I feel I get to destinations quicker because I can definitely make the lights when I time them right vs. having to manuever a behemoth cage around. I have a system now for on & off the bike.

Oh yes, the final great thing about taking the bike-I CAN'T get the phone.

Tomorrow, the Angels' Game with my sister in from Vermont.

NOW the Point Loma/Cabrillo National Monument trip on Easter Sunday April 4th 2010 and NO we didn't feel the Mexico earthquake!

2010-04-09T15:30:00.000-07:00

The Point Loma/Cabrillo National Monument trip ended up being Easter Sunday April 4th 2010. Unfortunately, ALMOST EVERYTHING IS CLOSED ON EASTER SUNDAY! So that's why parking was awesome!
We ended up at a little place called 'The Living Room', kinda health-conscious but good food. On Rosecrans.
Next stop, Cabrillo Nat'l Monument where Bub got to use his Senior Pass. The National Monuments are open 365 days a year which makes them a good place to go on holidays where everything else is closed. Like Easter.
Point Loma docks below. Same boats, same walkway, just NOBODY around.

This was an interesting type of thing-saw it on the way to Cabrillo, while we were on the Fort Rosecrans premises. One of these days I'll look it up.

The traffic really wasn't that bad going in, but I had to kind of juggle my money and my gloves and my throttle and clutch. Barry put his pass in his mouth. You pay at the Ranger station right there. I got a neat pic of Bub entering the area, below.

Below, the visitor center and the view of the Cabrillo Monument from the lighthouse.

Below right is the ONLY picture of me...as usual.

Fort Rosecrans Military Exhibit. Here's the link to find out all about the site.

This was a poster about 7 months after Pearl Harbor.

You can see these neat whale-watching view areas when you walk up to the lighthouse, below right.

Below, a back view of the lighthouse, and below right one of the most important structures in the area. (The women's restroom!!!)

The scenery from the lighthouse is really great.

Below right, I thought the picture of the telescope pretty apropos being that it was very close to the sentry lookout that was kind of in the ground. If you look to the left of the telescope, you can see one of the artillery cannon encasements. It's kind of a round top, almost looks like a brown pie.

Bub was checking out a whale sculpture, and the plate describing it and the artist. I though it was interesting that the plate's inscription was in braille also.

The whale-watching area. An absolutely beautiful day.

The spiral staircase was taken at the top of the lighthouse, 3 flights up. The 'window' pic was taken from inside the lighthouse. The view outside the windows was wonderful-again, a great day.

A pic of the side of the lighthouse.

The 'oil room' below was a shed where the lens was cleaned and all the equipment maintained. You can see how big and clean the lens is. The videos show it.

To the right, a view of the lighthouse from the monument. I tried to get the lighthouse AND the American flag in the shots.

Visit to the Dignity Memorial Vietnam Wall 3-30-10

2010-04-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

I hadn't been to the wall since it came to Brea about 15 years ago, and I wanted to go again and pay my respects. Above, The Wall at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier.
Below, a picture and a written description which kind of describes what a close family member went through.

The young lady below was pointing at grandpa.

These ladies are listing everything that people left at the wall-letters, animals, flags, everything (except of course the flowers) and will put them into a time-capsule/vault with the stone above it. They do this for every place the Wall goes.

I am SO glad I went.

It's going to Oceanside and San Diego, then coming back to Riverside National Cemetary in June.

I think the pics say it all.

A regonition of trained persons with STAR Touring and Riding that may be called upon to help from time to time.

2010-04-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

STAR Touring, like the citizens of the frontier towns, at times may need special assistance
from people trained as a police officer, physician, nurse, fire fighter, paramedic, EMT or Search and Rescue. To help identify which of our members have this special training, and have volunteered to be of assistance, we have developed a special pin, the “Tin Star.” The Tin Star readily identifies which of our members have volunteered to help when needed, and are qualified as one of the following:
• Physician
• Nurse
• Police Officer
• Fire Fighter
• Paramedic
• Emergency Medical Technician
• Search & Rescue
Or other special emergency training.

THE TIN STAR PURPOSE
The purpose of “Tin Star” is to allow STAR Touring to identify a team of volunteers in time of need.
If an accident or emergency occurs, or a member is in need of assistance (bike break down, stranded etc. or any other situation where help is needed), the “Tin Star” member in the group could be called on to lend a hand and/or to take control of the situation, until the local emergency services arrive.
(This is from the STAR Touring and Riding organization's Tin STAR website)

As of Friday, April 2nd, 2010, I have proudly become a Tin Star.
http://www.startouring.org/TinStarListing.aspx?id=CA

I was recognized by STAR Chapter 230 at the Saturday April 3rd 2010 Chapter ride for getting my Tin Star and was presented it by Scott Hamilton, the other Chapter Tin Star.

That was, by the way, the day I tipped my bike over AGAIN...standing still. Patty G. observed my Accident Scene Management patch and commented that I 'was supposed to help at accident scenes and not TRY THEM OUT'. That was actually pretty damn funny, come to think about it.

Came to the conclusion with a friend that it's slope/gravity issue and that my seat needs to be lowered somewhat. As he mentioned oh, about 2 years ago or so.

He also commented that 'Gravity is a MF'.

I agree.

Chapter 230 Idyllwild ride Saturday April 3rd, 2010, the day before Easter, when Idyllwild has their Easter Egg Hunt...

2010-03-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

Nice day for riding, at times cold, but had a lot of fun. A milestone and another oopsie.
Milestone-I got my Tin Star. Terry and the Chapter recognized this accomplishment and Scott gave it to me at the meeting.

1st gas stop, Pala. HI, CAROL!!!

Now you can see the owie-I was on a small slope and felt it going. Since I had gone to the Skills Day that Vinnie Greva held, I took his advice to heart; 'If the bike's going over, DON'T TRY TO HOLD IT UP! For once I didn't, but I of course had to make an 'exit', so I pushed myself away from the bike and rolled off like a kid doing gymnastics. Chuck G. gave me an 8.5 but I wonder if that was for artistic content or on the Richter scale?

Nothing worse happened on me or the bike except the rear L flasher unit which broke off the 'stay, so I need both items. I was told that they are pretty easy to put on, so I'll order them and give it a shot.

The bikes lined up in the parking lot.

Neat neat place, "Merkaba" where I got some tea and wind chimes.

Going back down 243, twistys were FUN FUN FUN FUN. Held the outside line until the end of the curve, late apex turns, FUN FUN FUN.

Ah, the joys of online information searching!

This url/piece of information below is pretty much it in a nutshell...

http://www.towncrier.com/publications_files/2009.idyllwild.map.v2.pdf

Idyllwild certainly has some INTERESTING places and things! For instance, the local newspaper's ad in the pdf above:

(Would that our politicians were so honest.)

A couple of interesting businesses that are flourishing in this quaint burg:

OM SWEET AUM YOGA
(951) 659-4705, 26120 Ridgeview Dr. The Courtyard.

(Say the above businesses' name a couple of times to yourself, you'll get it.)

HIGHER GROUNDS COFFEE HOUSE (951) 659-1379, 54245 North Circle Dr., B1, The Village Centre. http://www.highergroundscoffee.com/ - A popular meeting place in the heart of Idyllwild. Free wireless Internet. Amazing specialty drinks and cookies baked fresh daily. Try our homemade fudge. Open early ~ Open late.

(I guess there's no middle ground when you're open? HEY, I just made a funny with their business name! Get it-'middle ground' reference for the 'Higher Grounds' coffeehouse??? Geez, I crack myself up)

Planned San Diego Trip 3-31-10 BUT actually did Carson/Long Beach. San Diego was April 4th Easter Sunday, blog soon about the actual San Diego trip.

2010-03-28T15:54:00.000-07:00

Originally were supposed to go to San Diego, possibility of rain (I guess it DID rain in Oceanside, so we did a small day trip to Diana's Bakery on Sepulveda in Carson; Schooner or later in Belmont Shore at the Marina; and the Harley Store at the Anaheim GardenWalk.
Bub hadn't been to Diana's Bakery in about a decade, so I thought this would be good for lunch: I had heard about Schooner or Later from that Food Network show "Diners, Dives and Drive-Ins", and wanted to also check out the Harley store and the Anaheim GardenWalk.
Diana's has still the same wonderful food, Bub said. Easy to get to, 91 to 710 to Willow/Sepulveda.
Halfway thru, and after.

Next stop, up the 710 to the 405 to Bellflower Blvd to PCH to 2nd Street to the Belmont Shore Marina and Schooner or Later. Interesting stuff-it was about 55 degrees and windier than shit, but we were comfy because I was doing a try-out of the stuff I was going to wear on our Saturday ride. Weather.com said cloudy with 40% chance of rain in Long Beach...you can see the pic that weather.com, as usual, was dead on. BULLSHIT!
S or L ONLY has outside seating and a covered patio...THAT'S IT. Pretty small.

After my mini-burrito, I saw this and had to have it. The waitress thought I was nuts since it was so cold outside. Somethine cute-there was a group of girls about Jackie's age and as they were leaving they were taking pics of each other. I offered to take a pic of all of them and one of the girls admired my leathers. I asked her if she wanted to try them on and she said 'of course'! So I took mine off and put them on her and her friend was taking pics of the whole process, as if I was fitting a bridal dress on her instead of leather chaps! She got them on, her friend took pics, I posed her, then took a pic of them all. Made her day, it did.
What made MY day was this Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae. Buh-bye, diet.
Next stop, Anaheim GardenWalk. Very pretty but only at half capacity. At the Harley store Barry saw a 1947 Harley that was pretty close to the 1946 Harley he used to ride in Roswell, NM when he was stationed there.

Check out the bear in front of the chocolate place.

I thought this sign pretty much said it all, to the left.

Final stop, Cycle Gear because Barry noticed I lost my Guardian Angel bell.

A pretty nice day, overall, even though it WAS mostly slab.

Thursday morning STARBQ group leaving Brea!

2010-03-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

WARNING-you MUST have a gmail account to sign in and view this photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Schmink51/ThursdayChapter230GroupLeavingForSTARBQ032510?locked=true#

Since I can't upload vids to the Picasa album (or at least I THINK I can't -must check), here's what I have...
PLUS apologies folks, I did something wrong and didn't get Group 1 taking off on Imperial, but only got Group 2.

Coco's has pretty good food, TOO good if you're on a perpetual diet, like me. Here's the link to the nutritional information. I think their Angus steak and biscuits and gravy tops the calorie list. http://www.cocosbakery.com/menu_09-2009_Breakfast-01.php

BTW, they have a neat thing called "Club 55", a special menu for those 55 and over.
ME? ME? Guys, I am NOT 55, HOW, can you SAY or THINK such a thing??!!!!

I'm 56...

Motorcycle Skills Day THE BEST DAY Multi-Chapter sponsored by STAR Chapter 109 with Vinnie Greva, Master Trainer

2010-03-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

The Sunshine Boys, Chuck and Glen.
Click on the outlined picture of Marge, the lady with the sunglasses, to see my Picasa Album of that day.

Multi-Chapter Motorcycle Skills Day

This Skills Day was especially important in that last Saturday March 13th (THANKS, Richard! I accidentally put April 13th, DUH) was the first time I had ridden since early January, so a 2 month layoff created a lapse in what Vinnie Greva called 'muscle memory' (I think that's what it was), whereby your muscles and your brain forget all the proper riding techniques and you look like a newbie, until you can either rehearse them, re-learn them or learn them anew.
Kinda like fitness-use it or lose it.

To quote a GREAT statement by Bob "ACGuy" Barbano, "some of the skills we learn come directly out of the Police motorcycle handbook. As a Police Motorcycle Training Officer (for over 20-years), Vinnie does an awesome job explaining how each skill is mastered."

MAN, did he ever.

I once heard an extremely expert rider comment about an ERC class that he took. (he could almost TEACH a skills class and could definitely professionally demonstrate what you should do in any given situation; anybody who rides with this guy feel confidence in themselves and feel safer knowing he's there, he's THAT good. It's almost like having your own personal PD motor officer).
I heard him say that even though the ERC was pretty easy, he learned something that day i.e. look ahead to where you're going. I got the impression that he was surprised at learning something he didn't know (or knew it subconsciously and didn't realize it until that day).

To me, that shows we all can continue learning new things throughout our lives, motorcycling or not. That statement he made shows that I can not only be aware of what I do that may be improved, but what others do that may affect their riding.
THAT is the bottom line as to why everyone could benefit from a Skills Day-AWARENESS, AWARENESS, AWARENESS.

This birthday week has been a really really interestingly diverse week, physically, emotionally, mentally, and motorcycley. (I just made that word up) Between the regular 230 ride, my birthday, the Weekday Wednesday ride, the Garage Party and today, it had been a jumble of STUFF, so I was glad to not be rushed and treat this as a learning 'neat' day. I love learning stuff anyway, the perpetual student, so this was gonna be great.
It happened that I got invited to the Multi-Chapter Motorcycle Skills Day by Leonard Wasson, Prez of Saddleback Valley Chapter 422. Since I've been meaning to go down and ride with them and fill out the waiver/rider intro paperwork, this would be a great time to do it.
I had to be at WingStuff by 7:30 AM for their meeting so I left at 6:37 AM because I wanted to make SURE I was there on time. (I must mention that in Brea,at 6:30 AM in the morning, IT'S FRIGGIN' 45 DEGREES, so even though my body screamed at me to stay in bed another couple of hours longer, my mind said GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE and down to where you should be! Not wanting to argue anymore, I went. Was a good thing to do, now I know what I NEED to wear to stay warm. Great time to realize it, in springtime, but hey, better late than never AND I'm writing what I wear down for future reference)

I shouldn't've worried about getting there on time, considering the way (sorry, SPEED) I ride. It's not a question of speed really, it's a question of maximizing your potential for hitting a straight line while avoiding time wasters and things that slow you down. Like cages. ("If you're gonna get there, GET THERE QUICK") I got there in 31 minutes, RIGHT when dawn was hitting. Absolutely beautiful, wish I had had my camera around my neck to take a pic.

Phil and Hank at Wingstuff were the most wonderful hosts, having coffee and donuts and setting up tables and chairs for us. http://wingstuff.com/company.php

I saw a bobblehead trike rider and had to have it for my brother in law Ted's birthday. THE ONLY PROBLEM was carting that thing around in my tankbag, but it was worth it. He LOVED it.

I gave Colin Cunningham my camera to just take one or two pics...holy COW, dude, you got some awesome pics! (and some NOT so awesome-there is no WAY those suckers are going here.)

We got there pretty quickly and Chapter 109 was having their meeting. Their president reconized that quite a few chapters were represented and he noted each Chapter and wanted their riders to be recognized. When he came to 230, Chuck and Glenn raised hands then pointed at me. Somebody from 422 said "She's with 230 but she came with US". I pointed out that I was bi, like Bi-Chapter. For some reason, they took it another way...yeah, always going for the laughs, during non-serious times...during the training, VERY little kidding. I did SOME, but very little.

The skills day really reaffirmed my belief in my own riding skills and abilities; I had forgotten some basics and so reacquired them: I was shaky on some techniques and so mastered them anew: I learned new techniques. The science of motorcycle riding is always changing.

We practiced:

1. Curving in and out of cones placed appx. 15-18' apart. The first time, I hit one. The second and third times, perfect. Even gave Chris, my ridercoach, a high five from my bike.

2. Going extremely slowly down the middle of cones. I always did well with this one because Barry and I would have competions to see who could come up to a light and continue slowly behind cars until the light changed.

3. A full U-turn-the object was to 'crank turn' the motorcycle with the handlebars against the frame, without stopping.

4. A 'slalom' course with cones on either side of the area; the object again was to 'crank turn' the motorcycle with the handlebars against the frame, without stopping, BUT tighter and more Figure-8-ish. It involved what I call 'feather throttling', I forget what he called it, and light back brake. IMPORTANT, and I always forget this or mis-do it, 'SLOW RIDING, BACK BRAKE. FAST RIDING, FRONT BRAKE'. I tend to go at a lower speed into curves BUT use my front brake. Bad.

5. A 'Keyhole' turn, with two sharp left turns and a sharp right turn. Now, Marge and I are really really analytical, we have to see where we're going to go. One of the guys came over to us and quietly told us that it's the same thing going into this exercise as the U-turn, with an added right turn. That helped.

During these exercises/skills trainings, I was surprised at myself for only putting my foot down once. Yeah, I nailed a couple of cones on the first run-thru of each exercise, but I was kinda pleased with myself. I shouldn't-a been, though, considering how light and small my bike was. I know, quit making excuses.

6. The last exercise was braking quickly. I always shine at that. We started at 15, then 25, then 35. Each time I went faster and faster, finally up to 40 MPH.

I got feedback, both evaluative AND positive. (When I was President of our local Toastmasters, we didn't criticize, we 'evaluated' and gave a few points for improvement.)

I also received indirect positive feedback, 1 riding-related, and 1 other, in the form of requests:

"Can you/will you apply for, and receive your Tin Star thru STAR International". (this makes approximately 5 TIMES different people this week has said, sometimes politely, sometimes NOT, to GET THE HELL OFF MY DUFF AND DO IT). I mean, I passed the EMT-1 training in the top 5, might as well not waste it.

"Can you train to be, and potentially later perform as, a Tailgunner for one of the Chapters" (I put 'potentially' because it's not my decision to use me; however, it was a very positive and supportive statement)

It was also a great day because not only was I pleased with my performance, but I got direct comments from other riders and rider coaches that I rode VERY WELL. Not just good, but REALLY REALLY WELL.

Our two 230 guys of COURSE were friggin' perfect, I hate those guys (not really), and I respected their abilities on their bikes even more, seeing them expertly doing the slow skills trainings, moving those big behemouths around like they were nothin'. Especially (and I can't believe I'm saying this) Glen Sandstrom. Holy shit.

Too many things to put in blogs,BUT here's the first-The Garage Party at Harley Davidson Anaheim/Fullerton was a BLAST!

2010-03-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

I am SERIOUSLY thinking that my next bike will be a Harley. There was a Garage Party for women only last Thursday at Anaheim/Fullerton Harley Davidson.
The Garage Party that Fullerton/Anaheim Harley Davidson put on was for women ONLY, who hadn't ridden or who wanted some additional information about riding, gear, bikes, just STUFF. I likened it to a Tupperware party but instead of plastic storage stuff, it was about motorcycles. Since I'm on their newsletter mailing list, I found out about it and emailed Disco to RSVP. The event was 6-9 & I was coming straight from class, so I walk in and there are all these women with jeans, tops, some with tats, heavy MC boots, you know... And I'm in shorts, a tshirt and tennies. Ooookkkaaaayyyy-but it was still cool. The information was AWESOME.
I was telling my girlfriend that I got SUCH a good feeling from them, even above and beyond the ‘Girls-Only Garage Party’.

I'll prob go w/a Harley for my next bike because the Harley corporation is SO in tune w/women’s desires, motivations & interests, plus proactively addressing our concerns. Yamaha’s mindset, sorry to say, is still in the ‘50’s –I’m surprised they don’t make a pink Touring Cruiser with an airbrushed picture of pearls on it, complete a little stove, an ironing board and dishcloths on it!
Harley realizes that it’s a big step for women, a huge mental, emotional and physical step to not only ride something that we pretty much KNOW we can’t pick up, but also to 'insinuate' or involve ourselves physically, mentally, & emotionally into what had been traditionally men's area while trying to maintain our self-sufficiency, sometimes a MILITANT self-sufficiency if we grew up in the “I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar” 70’s. Hey, I still feel like I'm in Jr High when I feel I've been overlooked or slighted, that's why I sometimes get the feeling that I'm 'tolerated' in groups-I sometimes STILL feel too much damn emotion, some more than other women & I am really aware of what others verbally or subconsciously think. I can SENSE that UBER sharply. I don't get that feeling from the HD Corporation...they welcome us, make us feel special, don't overlook us or patronize us.

One other reason to get a Harley is that everybody calls my V-Star a Harley ANYWAY.
I’m really tired of correcting them.

Disco’s a crackup.

HD positive aspects:
OC HD has what they call a "Custom Fit" program where you buy a bike and they help you customize it to your individual needs, hence we women being able to flat foot on a touring bike.

I ACT like an independent cuss, but I don’t FEEL independent; I mean, if I truly felt independent I probably wouldn’t be in a group. Or would be leading, like last year.
More to come...

Weekday Riders Joshua Tree trip 3-17-10, flag ceremony and a great way to end the day...NOT

2010-03-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

Joshua Tree 03-17-10

Click on the pic of Barry in front of the house getting ready to leave to see the Picasa Album.

Above is the most important stop in the whole damn park.

Not too bad, to the left, with Laine's jeans on AND my chaps.

This pic above I think turned out really cool.

We met at Coco's in Brea all layered up for the morning ride. I figured out that morning it was going to be about 59 degrees until we hit Indio for gas, so I layered up accordingly. Bub of course only wears 3 layers-thermal turtleneck, sweatshirt, jacket. He never needs anything else.

One of the things I did do was take some Benadryl because I have allergies, especially in spring when everything is blooming and in the air. Aside from a dryness in the mouth, it seemed to work really well. Preparation is KEY on trips.

Left pretty much on time when the rest of the guys got there. Stopped at the Cabazon rest stop then went to Indio for gas, zoomed on over to Cottonwood Springs entrance to Joshua Tree.

I had read all about all the flowers that were starting to show themselves but we didn't really see any. I realized later that you have to HIKE up the trails to see the flowers, they're not on the side of the road.

First stop getting the permit/pass to go in and since I went to the non-profit org's website that helps the park out, found out they had pins specific to Joshua tree, so we got pins. Bub also bought a $10 senior pass that allows him to go to any National Park anytime for LIFE, and take whoever's in the car with him (or on his bike).

Tooled on up the road and first stop was Cholla Garden, a cactus garden. It was our first OFFICIAL photo op so we stopped, stretched and took pics. Wasn't really impressive, it was pretty in its' way, but had a gravel parking lot which meant we were very careful getting out.

Next stop, Skull Rock. Interesting formation-looks like one of the Coneheads from Saturday Night Live. I took another pic of a rock that looked like a hand clenching something or putting a hand over a face.

I took some pics from my bike at times & felt like stopping on the side to take a pic of a really interesting joshua tree, but never did.

After that was Keye's View. Pretty nice, you could see the Salton Sea and the San Andreas Fault. I pointed the fault out to some of the guys. I did get some interesting artistic pics and a pic of the most important place of the whole park.

When everyone was down at that important place, the guys were chatting about lunch and since I looked up some places online, I said why not try The Route 62 Diner. I had mentioned it to Rick earlier in the day when I asked if he had any ideas about food. One of the other guys knew exactly where it was so he led us to it. I had the address but he had been there before which was a lot better-it was kinda far down. Hey, it was probably as much or even cheaper than Carrow's or Sizzler.

This is very interesting...to get out of the park, you have to stop at the ranger station and they look and see if you have your permit on the front left side of your windshield. THAT'S how they get people that don't pay! Whoa.

Went to the Diner and found out that their hours had changed-I had read on a blog that they were only open until 2:30 but NOW open until 9 PM! Pretty good food, Barry liked his beef dip a lot. The tuna melt and patty melts looked good also.

The diner is adjacent to a Harley Dealership. Ironic.

Gas up again in Cabazon Chevron, home by 5:30 PM.

We both went to the Flag Retiring Ceremony in Orange, thinking that we and the guys would all go for some dinner, but the other guys had already arranged to do something else after Joshua Tree and went to Blake's for the Irish corned beef special when they got back to town-these guys can sure chow down the calories since we had all eaten at 2:30 PM in Yucca Valley and they then went and had ANOTHER meal at 5:30-5:45. Whoa.

Bub and I went to Big 5 because it was suggested to try there for riding goggles. Nope, didn't have what I needed, but here's the big WONDERFUL (NOT!) finish...I came to the stop sign by Big 5 (which was a kind of double incline-incline down and then incline to the left) and I was preparing to go when I saw another car coming to my left. They didn't have a stop sign so I kinda braked hard with my front brake and yup, fell over. So I dropped my bike AGAIN, but the difference is that I ALMOST stopped it from falling..ALMOST. This time it was easier to lift, thanks to muscles and the engine guard. Bub did help me lift it and I took care to make sure it didn't tip the other way-I had heard about someone dropping their bike in a fender bender, picked up his bike and it fell over the other way.

The thing that ticked me off is that I had JUST been trained to USE THE BACK BRAKE WITH SLOW SPEED MANEUVERS. Maybe standing still isn't a slow speed maneuver.

My Birthday photo (NOT my birthday suit-don't go there). I love this outfit.

2010-03-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

An interesting birthday-not the most spectacular one I've ever had, but not one where I'm suicidal or anything dumb.

Just...interesting. Like the whole f**kin' week.

Yesterday was a most interesting ride (read: up and down, mentally/physically). You know HOW strange? I didn't take ANY pictures. Not ONE.

2010-03-14T13:36:00.000-07:00

One weird day, starting out good, ending with a myriad of different kinds of thoughts and post-ride quarterbacking.
It was also a weird day in that I took my camera and DID NOT TAKE ONE SINGLE PICTURE. NOT ONE. I don't know why, just didn't feel like it. Didn't even ask anyone to take a pic of me (I like to have pics so that I can see what outfits go together and what works for what weather. So many different things fit now that I can't keep track/don't remember what works and what doesn't).

Firstly, I'm very grateful for Glen Sandstrom and Gary Felkel for the reassurance I feel when they're Tailgunners behind me. I kid them alot, they kid me back, but I love those two guys for the way they took care of me and protected me when I was having some riding issues. They didn't say anything about the gust that caught me in the twisties in the mountains coming down to Palm Desert, but I could feel them watching me and ready to jump in if something went wrong. Same thing on the 10 fwy. between Yes, I know that a Tailgunner must stay with a rider who feels they have to address a problem, but I feel like Glen and Gary went much farther for me. Until I realized that I ABSOLUTELY had to get off to do some fix-it, they were escorting me on the freeway, Glen in front and Gary behind me. When I had to get off the freeway, Glen came with me & offered ideas for stabilizing things that were pulling my focus on the 10 & loaned me his $125 goggles (those were SWEET, he got 'em at a shooting shop, and they LOOKED GOOD on me. Felt like stealing them or 'forgetting' to give them back), and Gary for waiting on the side of the freeway to make sure I got to the gas stop safely. I'm not TOO PROUD to recognize that they made my comfort level go 'way up with their support and encouragement, and faith in my riding ability.

The day started out good in that I picked out the correct clothing to wear the night before. I remembered our first official ride with Chapter 230 to Tehachapi in 2007 and how I FROZE. (We weren't on the email list yet so didn't get the head's up about riding gear & I thought I could kinda make do with some of my skiing stuff. NOPE) Richard Von Luft sent a website out that I'd had on my toolbar but TOTALLY forgot about since it was on there for about 500 years (ok, I exaggerate a tad) and never used the damn thing, so THANK YOU Richard, it's awesome! that calcs the mileage AND the temps for where you're going, what time and what date, up to 10 days after your current date. I plugged in the 13th of March, and saw that THE TRIP WAS GONNA BE FRICKIN' COLD, 47 degrees outta Mountain Center. We're talking 47 degrees in the middle of the day. LAYERS LAYERS LAYERS LAYERS did the trick, plus Bub put in his 2 cents work and made me take another, warmer pair of gloves.
Was a great idea, he always comes thru for me & I wish he coulda gone but he had the 6th off and the ride was called off and postponed until the 13th so he couldn't get off that date. IF he wasn't watching me ride off that morning, I SWEAR I woulda taken his bike. I should have, as you'll read later.
I emailed an officer of the chapter and told him I was gonna kind of be weird that day since Bub wouldn't be there and he said don't worry about it, I have friends there and it'll be ok.
(I ended up eating alone anyway until Glen and Gary started in on me. Made me feel a little better. It's hard to find layers of clothing that fit me now, but when I was going thru Laine's closet and drawers I saw a ton of his pants and jeans that he left behind. Yup, I found 4 pair that fit EXCELLENTLY, and wore one pair of his jeans yesterday. I didn't care that they had a 'wallet worn' back pocket outline, just now I don't have to go buy any. Interesting side note-a few weeks ago I found a couple pair of jeans in my closet and was wearing a pair just to see if they fit, what they looked like, etc. Barry texted me from his work and asked me to find his black thermal turtleneck and his black jeans because he was going to an "Unofficial" Bike Night (which I didn't know anything about where/when but I was teaching anyway). Found his T-neck, told him I could NOT find his black jeans for the life of me, where'd he leave them, yada, yada, yada. I was in the middle of texting him this when I realized that I was wearing the damn things-I thought they were mine.

TO CONTINUE ONWARD RE: RIDE YESTERDAY MARCH 13TH...
I wore comfy stuff, went down to the staging area and milled around as usual, chatting. Bought some raffle tix from Johney who came up behind me when I was calling Barry, telling him I got there and there's this big cheerful/smiling/booming voice over my shoulder and repeating me, "Yeah Barry, she got here ok". Found out that some people really DO like my blog here. I'm glad that people read and enjoy it and compliment me on my pics. Also found out that quite a few people on Facebook read it also and believe it or not, are actually helped by it.
When our President Terry warned us that there'd be wind, I thought that NO WIND could be worse than the wind on the way to Vegas. BOY was I wrong. But that's later.
I'm in group 2 as usual, Dan's in the lead, then Chuck & Patty, Charlie and Carol, me, Ryan, Glen and Gary. Great, the Sunshine Boys are behind me. Passed a HORRIFIC accident on the 91/55 with an SUV that had overturned and a smaller car into the side by a tree-the fire department was still trying to cut someone out of the smaller car. I don't see how anyone could have survived the SUV rollover-windows were cracked all to shit. Gas in Temecula (I think it was) then onward onto the Pines to Palms route. YES it got cold but it was doable since I had on glove liners/thermal socks/my long silky thermal underwear/head & neck coverup-balaclava, thermal T-neck and a ski sweater plus T-shirt underneath everything. It was just barely enough-it was cold but doable. NOTE TO SELF-probably need to wear a better leather jacket-that 'work' one I use isn't good enough nor lined to keep my core warm.
The TROUBLE started when we left a brief potty stop at (I think) Hemet Lake. Now, one thing I'll say about our Group Leader Dan (the immediate Past President)-he takes care of his group, always asking me if I'm ok, good to go, just, you know, caring about the group. It's easy to read him/follow him, I always know when he's gonna switch lanes or signal for a lane change or speed up. We went up to a summit past Black Hill, then while coming down into the curvies, a HUGE gust caught me by surprise. I almost pulled a shoulder muscle, trying to maintain the bike. Ryan behind me said that I looked like I was leaning nicely into a turn but then realized that I WASN'T TURNING. He said I handled it fine, though. He didn't realize that it FREAKED me out because THEN for the rest of the twisties I was waiting for the next gust, wondering if the next one would take me out. I should have better confidence in my riding ability, but frankly after seeing my husband TWICE go down on rides, with the 2nd time having a serious injury, well, I can get a tad concerned. The apprehension of the gusts totally ruined my enjoyment of the curvies. I did get some warning occasionally, because I saw Dan in the left lane go around a curve then end up in the right lane too early into the turn. I wondered 'why would he do that?' and then the same wind would catch me. Oh boy, I LEARNED. The others said that they had the same thing going on to a lesser extent because they had heavier (much!) bikes. Got down finally into Palm Desert, we were talking about the wind when we came to lights. I wasn't the only one who wasn't that thrilled-Patty (on the back of Chuck who was wing) said it kinda took her by surprise and not in a good way. The bikes that were riding 2 up and were heavier bikes were in good shape for windy weather. It's just that my bike is at least 100 pounds lighter than the next higher up bike, the 1100, God only knows how much lighter than everyone else's PLUS about 55 pound slighter than I'm used to, so I'm being blown like a leaf. Oh, wait, it GETS WORSE later on.
Lunch in warmth in Palm Desert, we shucked down to T-shirts.
I knew that the gas stop was around Banning or somewhere so I checked the Blackberry for the temp and it was 61 degrees. Somebody said they were just going to wear their shirts and put their jackets away for a bit, but I mentioned that it was 61 degrees, they might not want to put the jackets away. Turned out to be a good thing. NowTAZ, I don't know HOW he did it, but he was in shirtsleeves and a light denim vest going all the way thru the entire ride. And we all thought JOHN RUHLAND was a polar bear!
We get onto the 10 freeway and after 5 minutes I KNOW I'm in trouble. When you look over to the windmill thingys and there's a big dust cloud off to the distance quasi-obscurring them, you KNOW there's some serious wind action. The crosswinds were bad enough, tossing my bike around and me straining my muscles to hold my bike steady, but the crosswinds are also trying to whip my glasses off my face. It's a little hard to hold your bike steady when your glasses are about to lift off by themselves, so after a few more miles I tapped the top of my helmet to tell the guys that I had to pull over and readjust stuff. Got onto an offramp with Glen and changed into glasses that were tighter, got back on and got in with Group 3. It didn't work-my glasses seemed kinda ok, were moving around a little, but NOW my tankbag was trying to take off, and it has 4 magnets. HAD to pull off again at the Rest Stop and THIS time Glen offered me his goggles and I bungee'd the tank bag to my back seat. MUCH better, zoomed it to 80. Gary was by the side of the freeway by Cabazon, waiting for us. Got to the gas stop, people in my group were concerned wondering where I was. (Don't think the other groups knew, Richard noticed because he told me he was surprised that all of a sudden I'm in their group! and what happened.) Doing a post ride 20/20 hindsight, I felt that the wind was worse than on the way to Vegas, but Vegas didn't bother me as much since I was wearing a full-face and everything was bungee'd down for the trip. Dan asked if I was ok to go, because if he saw me riding ok, he'd continue his speed, but if he saw me lagging back then he'd slow down. I told him I was fine now with Glen's goggles because I zoomed it fine to gas.
Got to El Torito fine, even though I was inwardly berating myself for my riding UNcapability. I was told that my riding had really really improved, that person was very pleasantly surprised at my much improved riding abilities, and that made ME surprised because I thought I was riding my usual way. Huh. I will say again that Barry going down twice affects my riding, because I'm always checking for him, seeing if he's doing ok. Pulls my focus away from my riding, especially in curves where I can't see him. I remember seeing him go to the other side of the road and fall off the bike the first time in my rearview mirror, and the second time hearing the scraping of metal on the asphalt, praying to myself that it wasn't Barry, then coming around the corner and seeing him lying there in the middle of the road with the bike on him, trying to get up. That's why I prefer now to ride at least one or two other riders. My own peace of mind.

I had a multitude of moods and emotions going on, not the least is being freaked out by the wind gusts of riding my normal 'ok' way AND feeling stupid for letting stuff get to me, so I couldn't resist trying to salvage my pride by zooming it from a light before an expert and excellent rider (on a Roadie that was almost 3x the size of mine) did. Sorry, couldn't resist it. Haven't done that type of thing in a LONG time.

On a scale of 1-10, I honestly can't say how the total day went-so much was going thru my mind, so many things happened that day, great, good and bad, that I just...don't...know.
I just hope Wednesday's Weekday Ride to Joshua Tree on March 17th is better. It'll be a big change for once-no drinking on my birthday the day before.

A Day at the DMV, that Driver's License comes FAST in the mail! & bummer news about the free birthday admission to Disneyland promo.

2010-03-11T12:22:00.000-08:00

Bummer news-Disneyland is no longer having the 'Free on your Birthday' promotion. Ended in 2009.

Now, on to the DMV.

My Driver's License picture SUCKED, I've hated it ever since it was taken, so this year it came due on my birthday (March birthdays indicate my sign is Pisces, which Barry actually says is 'Feces') & I wanted to get a new pic. I knew that you can't get a new picture unless something really drastic happens, like a name change or something big.

Like weight change.

I saw on a blog or something that a considerable weight change that was obviously apparent was a good reason to get a new pic.

BINGO.

I figured that 55 pounds and 5 dress sizes was adequate, and it was.

Soooo...

I got the renewal in the mail in February about 6 weeks prior to my birthday. A week or so later when I found out about the new pic criteria, I went online to make an appointment. For my first choice Santa Ana DMV, the first available appointment was MARCH 22ND. Oopsie, that's PAST my birthday, so second choice was Fullerton. Got an appointment for today, March 11th at 8:44 AM.
Now, the reason why I made an appointment is because when I was online eyeballing the different offices that were close to me, I saw that each office had 'time counters', aka little counters that tell you the wait times for those with appointments and those who were walk-ins. Appointment wait time in middle of the day for both Fullerton and Santa Ana was appx. 40 minutes: wait time for walk-ins, 3 HOURS.

Yup, appointment all the way, unless I wanted to wait and read "War and Peace". Or do my taxes.

Before the appointment, I'm over-thinking the photo and the procedure-"What do I wear? What color looks good on me? Will I have to take the written test for C1 AND M1 (car and motorcycle)? Will I even PASS the written MC one?" (it's changed & harder-I saw the sample online tests)

Appointment day comes, hair turns out good, the sweater top is good (one of Jackie's old ones that she left here plus the turquoise and silver necklace she gave me), and I decide to get there earlier than my appointment.
GOOD CALL.
When I got there at 8:33 AM, not only were there maybe only 7 parking spaces left in the lot, but the line was around the building.
I got in line, started chatting with another guy, and after seeing some people go in and NOT come back out, I asked the guy to save my place and decided to see if there was a special check-in area for appointments.
YES THERE IS-inside it was Window 25.
Checked in, got form DL144 that you HAVE TO FILL OUT THERE, no copies allowed, got a number and waited maybe 10 minutes to be processed.
Was notified on the monitor that my number was called and what window to go to, went to Window 6 , gave over my paperwork, paid the $31 fee (debit card, forgot to get a check from home & they do NOT take credit cards), questions answered, printout and receipt gotten, AND I DIDN'T HAVE TO TAKE A WRITTEN TEST!!!
Went to Camera 1 and into THAT line. It was about 12 people, seemed to move fast.
My turn, had to sign onto an electronic signature thingy (like the one you sign when you get a FedEx package), then an electronic thumbprint (no more ink), then the picture. The clerk commented that my necklace was very pretty, told her it was from my daughter in Santa Fe, NM. She positioned me, I smiled (I practiced in the mirror that morning!!! I know, I'm such a weirdo), and she took it. I asked, "Did it come out good?" and she said yeah, very good, then told me she was adjusting the pic slightly so that the necklace showed. Wasn't that really cool of her!? I got my stuff, and just before I left I told her that her auburn hair color was perfect-she told me it was Preference by L'Oreal and I agreed that was the BEST.
I got outta there by 8:56, close to the time my appointment was supposed to be. Hey, it can NEVER hurt to be really early, especially for any parking or traffic situations. I try to be early-early to places anyway. Worst case scenario, I play games on my Blackberry.
While I was erroneously in line I was chatting with the guy in front of me (before I wised up to the appointment desk), & he commented that it was pretty busy and there were SO many people there. I told him that the DMV would be closed on Friday so people couldn't come for 3 days.

UPDATE ON MARCH 19TH, 2010:
Appointment was the morning of March 11th, right? Received my new license on Friday, March 19th.
WOW.

Ok, the cruise from Feb. 8-12, 2010 pictures, I FOUND THE OTHER SD MEMORY CARDS REPEAT I FOUND THE SD CARDS!!!

2010-02-22T16:40:00.000-08:00

BARRY is the packer par elegance. ALL THIS CRAP for 4 people, 4 nights. All the luggage is in a van that we borrowed from a friend. A VAN.
To the right, the ship from the embarkation ramp. This is getting EXCITING!

This is going up the ramp. The QM is right there next to the Carnival Terminal, the old Spruce Goose Exhibit. I remember when the Queen Mary came to her final parking spot back in the '60's. My dad worked on getting the electrical systems up to snuff back then, and the Millikan High School Prom in June 1972 was here. That's when I graduated, Millikan High School in Long Beach.

Our room, complete with champagne and cabernet.

Below, the ACTUAL view from our stateroom. The one on the left is with my phone, the one on the right is with my camera on a higher deck.

Ordered 2-3 of each item we wanted. Oh YEAH.

Below, Rhoda in HER room. It was 1-2 decks higher than ours, so I think hers had about maybe 5 square feet more space.

Star and Ted at the first night's dinner.

Mickey and Reinie. (sorry if I spelled it wrong!)

Muster drill. Notice that WE don't have to wear those 'Mae Wests'?

Below, the INFAMOUS Carnival 'tail'.

One of the first things you see is the middle of the atrium. Spectacular.

Going aboard, everybody passes this way to get to the buffet before they close. Dis is da way, peeps! (below)

More of the atrium ceiling.

Photo below left of the Long Beach skyline with Seaport Village in the foreground. We're getting ready to leave and it's windy cold, so we need to warm up with some alcohol! Below, the FIRST drinks, DEFINITELY not the last.

"Um, Lynne? Quit taking damn pictures! Can we go in now? I'm cold!"

It was eerie at night, not just because of the lights and darkness, but WHERE WAS EVERYBODY? Oh, yeah, getting ready for dinner. You can see the lights of Long Beach 'way back there.

Chocolate molten lava cake. OMG. That's all I can say.

Now, this might be too personal, BUT I was suffering...lemme change that, I was having some SERIOUSLY BAD gas attacks, and BUB was suffering. He finally had to resort to this, below left. To the right, morning at Catalina from our stateroom.

Catalina, I thought this was neat, using old 45's.

Yup, I took these pictures from the 'tender', the boat that goes from the ship to the shore.

Bub, as usual, waiting for me to get done shopping and looking at the sky, thinking to himself that we'd better get our asses aboard ship before it started raining. We made it with about 1/2 hour to spare. You wouldn't think that it was going to rain that hard, looking at the morning pic and the pic when we left the ship, but it rolled in pretty quickly.
Yup, I took all these shots. I AM getting pretty damn good at this stuff. I wanna take a class. (Yes, I AM the quintessential perennial student!) Below is the deck when we were leaving Catalina. I was walking around the top in my water shoes and umbrella.

The infamous tail with the waterslide. No one was around because it was frickin' raining!

Ok, a few diehards in the jacuzzi in the rain.

Sunset leaving Catalina. I took about 4-5 of these shots and each one was pretty spectacular.

Sunrise over Ensenada.

Went outside so Bub could smoke. It was cold but got better more towards the day.

The actual inside of a lifeboat.

Stopped at Havana Banana, where a Corona, guacamole, and a blue-haired bartender was all I needed.

No matter where you go, no matter what kind of hellhole you end up in, there's ALWAYS a McDonald's. The good thing was that there was a Starbuck's right across the street.

Below is sunset leaving Ensenada from two different places on board. I really loved going to the highest decks at sunrise and sunset, or being on a deck where I could 'frame' the shot. There were so many people up on the top decks who appreciated what Nature could show us, if we only took the time to look. That's what's nice about a cruise-you have the time to look...to experience...to relax.

I saw James Rawlinson's idea of dressing up the towel animal, so I wanted to go one better. Nyah, nyah, nyah!!! Above is the formal night picture. This is the ONLY picture I DIDN'T take, but just scanned in.
On the last day of the cruise, there were trivia games galore. We won one-Bub is holding the infamous 'ship on a stick'. Below are pics of the sunset over San Clemente Island on the last day, Thursday.

Barry always ordered lox and bagels and cream cheese, BUT he'd usually order about 3 sets of these.

Okkkaaaayyy, the last night Brian and Ted decided to do an impromtu strip tease. The SCARY thing is that there was absolutely NO alcohol involved with these two.

The first morning (I actually put the order out the night before, on Monday night) I ordered the 'Continental' breakfast, which had a TON of stuff on it. As usual (as I learned in the hospital and from past cruises), I ordered 2 & 3 of each item. Except for the cereal, I ordered almost every single thing on the menu. Hey, if I'm gonna eat my way down the coast of Cali and Mexico, I might as well start ASAP!

Carnival allows passengers to bring on board one bottle of wine or champagne per person in their carryon. I put them into my 'wheelie' bag. They don't specify the size bottle, so we brought two 1.5 liters of Cabernet, plus I always order a bottle of Champagne to be delivered to the room as soon as we get aboard. Let the blitzing begin! I figure since I don't have to drive, then I'm ok. For a few days. We ended up bringing the wine to the dinner table for everybody to enjoy. Even though we were charged $10 for a 'corkage' fee, it was totally worth it.

I HAD to bring on board a bottle of Amaretto, which goes very well on the rocks OR with orange juice. You can only get orange juice in the mornings at breakfast in the buffet, (during the day they charge you) so I'd fill up my big Royal caribbean mug with OJ and put it into the ice bucket. Stayed great all day.

Here's towel banana boy to the right AFTER we got done with him. Below, he's pretty plain.

Below, a proper British tea in the America Bar, the ONLY place inside the ship where people could smoke.

On the right, the 'almost' top deck on Thursday. Was a great day to be at sea, balmy weather in the mid to upper 60's, sunny.

Below, tiramisu. I would order 2-3 appetizers i.e. salad, a couple of shrimp cocktails, maybe a soup, then 2-3 entrees, and 2-3 desserts and try them all. My big problem is that I DON'T know when to stop eating. The problem is that when you get bored, you eat. I gained 6 pounds from Monday morning until Friday night & it took me about 2-3 weeks to finally come back to normal, whatever normal is. Ok, come back to what I weighed the day we left.

After hitting each buffet, this is where Bub would go-snooze time.
Rip Van Shapiro.

Below right, another pic of sunset over San Clemente Island on the last day.

Yeah, as they have done on every cruise since the Kon-Tiki, PEOPLE PLAY SHUFFLEBOARD.

The Normandie Lounge is HUGE, as you can see below. This is where everything happens at night, entertainment-wise. I will mention that the Captain's Reception on formal night Tuesday did NOT have free drinks, the drinks were on special for $1 off. They DID have a 'passenger appreciation night' on Thursday night and it was, believe it or not, pretty much all you could drink. I had (I think) about 4 whiskey sours. Maybe more. Things started to get kinda fuzzy around then, and I DID have to dress for dinner in my fabulous Catalina Island $19.95 dress, 'way below.

To the left, the Carnival Cruise line's mascot, "Fun Ship Freddie".

Below you can see 5 levels of the Atrium, the middle of the whole ship and where everybody ends up.

On the left, 3 decks at the stearn with people looking out at where we'd been. That bottom area deck with the yellow umbrellas is the Serenity deck, for adults only. They have 2 jacuzzis and I HEARD that it's where adults can go topless. Now that I've seen it, I don't think so because people can look right down onto the deck!

All of Jackie S.

2010-01-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

Continuation of 1-5-10 post, update 01-17-10 & 3-15-10. I realize we need to keep memories of those we love alive.

2010-01-17T13:53:00.000-08:00

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/need-you-now/bdc6508560a8f33fa243bdc6508560a8f33fa243-1403785184386

We need to get things together, get photos together and scan them in of those who mean so much to us, to have them safe. You cannot know when those photos and memories will come in handy; when you'll NEED to remember them.

Tell those that are close to you how you feel about them: tell them what they mean to you. You never know when you won't be able to do just that.
Forgive and forget anyone or anything you feel you've been hurt by. You may never get another chance to make up and have that person back in your life.
And if you feel too proud to do that, if you feel so bad that a knee-jerk reaction is to tell yourself that you can live with the hurt vs. allowing that person back into your life, just remember:
You can't 'love' pride. You can't 'hug' pride. You can't 'know' pride.

I'm limited -Just look at me -
I'm limited -And just look at you
You can do all I couldn't do, so now it's up to you
For both of us - now it's up to you...
I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led to those who help us most to grow
If we let them and we help them in return
I believe that's true,
I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you...
Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you I have been changed for good
It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend...
Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird in a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you, because I knew you
I have been changed for good
And just to clear the air I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for
But then, I guess we know there's blame to share
And none of it seems to matter anymore
Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood
Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
I do believe I have been changed for the better
And because I knew you
Because I knew you...
Because I knew you...
I have been changed for good...
from the musical "Wicked", song entitled "For Good".

Gave blood yesterday. There are good points and bad points to this activity.

2010-01-17T07:03:00.000-08:00

I wanted to give and as soon as I got the text msg about the 7.0 in Haiti, within 1/2 hour I signed up via online appointment to give blood in Fullerton. Not necessarily to have my blood sent to Haiti, but to augment the store we have in Orange County since you KNOW some of ours would be sent. We need more stuff HERE.

The GOOD Stuff:
-I gave.
-I have GREAT veins. UNBELIEVEABLE.
-I have no medical conditions that prevent me from giving.
-My blood pressure, pulse, iron count are all awesome.
-I fill up a bag in 7 minutes (I timed myself).

Now the BAD stuff:
-I'm a wuss. I always kinda get freaked out, ostensibly about needles. In days gone by when I was 12, my mother took me to a lab for the first time my blood would be drawn. (I had always had a problem with shots) She dropped me off and told me to do what they told me to. When they came at me with that needle, I FREAKED and it took about an hour to do it and I was crying all the time.
Something like that sticks with you through the years, so it takes a definite WILL and a certain amount of courage to be voluntarily stuck. IV's, giving blood, shots all fall under that category. I have to have a pretty DAMN good reason and and then psych/talk myself into it. When admitted to the hospital for anything from tonsils to pneumonia to childbirth, those were GOOD REASONS. Having blood drawn 2x/year to check for stuff going on with my body, hey, it's doable, information is crucial now at my age.
-I need to psych myself up to do this via lots of thinking about how someone can really use it. I also tell a lot of people about it because I know they'll come back to me and ask how it was or did I do it? and I want to be able to tell them that I DID.
-I had to TELL the phlebotomist that I was a wuss so she put my knees up and cold compresses on my chest and head. It helped. She asked me if it was my first time and I said no. I felt kinda shitty, being such a baby and it NOT being my first time, but it'd be better that she knew and I didn't keel over right there.
-It's harder and harder now for me to recover. The needle was in at 11:28 AM (I even just now shuddered when I wrote 'the needle'. I know, WUSS, WUSS, WUSS) and the blood was flowing and I had my headphones in so I wouldn't pay that much attention to it going in, and I timed 7 minutes until they put the bag on my tummy to note that I was done.
NOW the bad part: I kinda felt woozy at the 5 minute mark, and after they took everything out of my arm I felt woozier, dizzy, almost sick. You know how you see light flashes when your eyes are closed? and how you see light flashy-kinda things when your eyes are open? BINGO. It took 35 MINUTES for me to be able to get up and sit over at the recovery area, and about 8 hours at home to be able to not drag my feet around the house. I mean, we're talking almost seeming like I was drunk, kind of out of it.

POSSIBLE STUFF GOING ON and IDEAS WHY I REACTED SO:
-I DID eat. Kinda. Had a good dinner, had an apple before class, had some pretzels before giving, POUNDED water the previous 24 hours.
Note what I wrote-'had an apple before class'. Yeah, I TAUGHT the step class about 2 hours before I gave. Maybe THAT was it. Probably was part of it.
-It might be that now I'm getting older, it's getting harder to recover. Talked to someone else about my age regarding this, he agreed.
-I'm a WUSS and I psyched myself into the reaction.

NOTE TO SELF: Do this on a Friday when I have no class.

I'll see how I react to class this morning in an hour, and note the reactions/information.
Class today Sunday 01-17-10 8:15 AM went ok, high/low was ok, but I only used 1 riser per side of my step for the step portion vs. the 2 risers per side I usually use for this class. Good call, I kinda feel yucky right now at 10 AM.

Bub and I went riding with the 230 group today 01-09-10

2010-01-08T12:47:00.000-08:00

Our new fearless leader, Terry.
Below right, Ortega BEFORE the twisties. (Interestingly, I didn't catch sight of Hell's Kitchen this time. Huh)

NO, I'm not ready to tip over it's just the way I held the camera for those 2 seconds I used to snap the pic.

Chuck, Richard and Stan. Good eatin' buddies. Below, this was so freakin' FUNNY that I had to snap a pic. There was a clock with a deer pointing a rifle at a man hanging from his heels, and the hanging man was the pendulum. I think that'd make an AWESOME white elephant gift, come time of the holiday party! This statue was $24.95-the clock was $15.95. I SWEAR, if there was room in Barry's saddlebags...

We had to show up, we're almost the only STAR Yamaha motorcycles left!
It was interesting, riding with a group again. I checked, yes I have all my proof of everything.
I wanted to be in the middle and just cruise, not worry about anything. I like being around Bub when he's in front, Gary, John R., Joe, Terry, Chuck. Hmmm, sounds like FOS, doesn't it?!
We were in Group 2 behind Dan, with Carol, Charlie, Chuck, Wayne and Tammy, Greggster and Joe and Jim Rawls as TG's.
This was also Bub's first 'group' ride on his new set of wheels. He had a BLAST, new wheels were PERFECT.

With the route, I kinda wonderED, why the 15/215 to the 60 to the 57 then down? I mean, it goes right by our house so the tempation to 'tap out' is there, but we want to also finish the ride. Found out the 15 N to the 91 W was closed, which was a great piece of info because we were considering going over to No Pork and pick up Barry's tank protector; instead, we went with group 2 as far as Brea Canyon.

Perfect day, perfect weather, got to see everybody, nice ride, couldn't ask for more. I chose the perfect outfit-thermal T-neck, cute thin sweater with sequins 'Girls Ride Too', a gift from one of the members I teach aerobics to, another zip-up Nike workout jacket, my regular leather jacket, black jeans, chaps, high riding boots, plus I brought two pair of gloves just in case.

Worked GREAT. 50 degrees in the morning, 60 in San Juan Capo, 70 in Temecula. Ditched the zip up cloth workout jacket.

Bub's testing today-MyocardioPerfusion Imaging

2010-01-07T09:22:00.000-08:00

At first I thought it was Nuclear Ventriculography, but now I realize that it's only Nuclear Cardiac Stress Testing, aka MyocardioPerfusion Imaging.
It's to test how well blood is flowing through his heart & how his heart is functioning during activity and during rest. So far, he's passed every test with flying colors, even without studying (a little humor there).
It takes about a day, and allows imaging done of the heart during stress and during rest. The pics are called 'stress images' and there are always 2 sets done; sometimes the rest imaging is first, then the activity imaging, sometimes it's the other way around.

He couldn't eat past midnight but can drink water. After the first 'stress' test, he can eat.

He's going in to the doctor, will get an IV put in and will go on the treadmill to get his HR up. When he can't go any more on the treadmill, a radiotracer such as 'Technetium MIBI or MYOVIEW is injected immediately after getting off and imaging is done (pics of the pericardium area). This is to determine how well blood is flowing through the heart during activity (stress).

The IV will stay in all day because of the possibility of more radiotracer needed for the 2nd set of imaging.
Later on this afternoon he'll go back in and more 'redistribution' 'variously delayed' or 'rest' imaging will be done.

It's impossible to change the appointment times-the radiologist who specializes in these tests is booked for specific times, unlike a regular doctor who you can see almost anytime.
The testee has to pretty much block out a 6-8 hour timeframe to allow for both sets of tests' time spread.

Here's where I got the info, along with querying Bub...
http://www.myheartdoctor.net/myocardial_perfusion.htm
http://www.mikety.net/pted/exams/stressA7/html
http://www.cava.cc/mpst.htm

I realize that old pictures and thoughts will be needed someday, updated 01-17-10.

2010-01-05T14:24:00.000-08:00

I'm limited -Just look at me -
I'm limited -And just look at you
You can do all I couldn't do, so now it's up to you
For both of us - now it's up to you...
I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led to those who help us most to grow
If we let them and we help them in return
I believe that's true, I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you...
Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good
It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend...Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird in a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you,because I knew you
I have been changed for good
And just to clear the air I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for
But then, I guess we know there's blame to share
And none of it seems to matter anymore
Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood
Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
I do believe I have been changed for the better
And because I knew you
Because I knew you...
Because I knew you...
I have been changed for good...

I realized that we all need to find photos and scan them in of our loved ones, plus get appropriate music together 'just in case' there is a need for historical information and appropriate music. To remember them.

Make videos of yourself an d your loved ones: make CD's or let others know where they are and the subject matter.
Set them aside in folders marked for that person. Make CD's if you have to, with the photos and music, perhaps Windows Movie Maker. With WMM you can put in a slide show of pics and videos PLUS music.

Things you'd need to have in case:
A GOOD photo of whomever for whoever'd need a photo to use. A REALLY REALLY GOOD COLOR PHOTO. Possibly photos of them doing the things they love.
Would you like a family member to sing something, if possible.

GOOD songs for children/kids:
"River Lullaby" (from the Prince of Egypt soundtrack-Disney movie)
"Love Of My Life" (Carly Simon)
'This Used To Be My Playground" (Madonna)
"I've Been This Way Before" (Sarah Brightman)
"Everybody Hurts" (REM)
"Different Wings" (Trans Siberian Orchestra)
"Lullaby" (Goodnight, My Angel by Billy Joel)
"How Could This Happen To Me" (Simple Plan)
"Blessed" (Elton John)

Good Songs for parents:
"Hear You Me" (Jimmy Eat World)
"I've Been This Way Before" (Sarah Brightman)
"Everybody Hurts" (REM)
"You Raise Me Up" (I personally like the Celtic Woman version)

Good songs for a female girlfriend/spouse:
"Softly" (Gordon Lightfood)

Good songs for any spouse/significant other
"Evergreen" (Barbra Streisand)
"The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of" (Carly Simon)
"Nights Are Forever Without You" (England Dan and John Ford Coley)

Good Songs for anyone (besides those above, * are especially great):
"Amazing Grace" (Sarah Brightman is pretty good)
"My Immortal" (Evanescence)
"Touched By The Sun" (Carly Simon)
"Rain" (Madonna)
‘Wind Beneath My Wings’ sung my Lee Greenwood
‘My Love Song’ by Mercury Rev
‘Who Knows Where The Time Goes’ sung by Judy Collins
‘The Voice’ from the CD Celtic Woman
‘Blessed’ sung by Elton John
‘Amazing Grace’ sung by Judy Collins
‘Con Te Partiro’ (Time To Say Goodbye) sung by Sarah Brightman
‘My Heart Will Go On’ sung by Celine Dion (from the Titanic soundtrack)
‘Candle In The Wind’ sung by Elton John
‘You Raise Me Up’ from the CD Celtic Women
‘Everybody Hurts’ sung by REM
‘How Do I Live’ sung by Trisha Yearwood
‘Longer’ sung by Dan Fogelberg
‘Celebrate Me Home’ sung by Kenny Loggins
"Golden Moments" (James Taylor)
"I Love You, Goodbye" (Celine Dion)
"The Soft Goodbye" (Celtic Woman)
"Only The Heart May Know" (Dan Fogelberg)
"Can You Feel The Love Tonight" (Elton John)
"Fire and Rain" (James Taylor)
"You Can Close Your Eyes" (James Taylor)
"I'll Be Here Where The Heart Is" (Kim Carnes)
"The Blessing" (Celtic Woman)
"I Will Be With You "(Where The Lost Ones Go, from the Tigger Movie, Sarah Brightman)
"With This Tear" Celine Dion
"The Prayer" (Celtic Woman, A New Journey CD)
"The One" (Elton John)
"One Day I'll Fly Away" (from the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack)
"Song For A Winter's Night" (Gordon Lightfoot, specific to wintertime)
"Time Of Your Life" (Green Day)
"Hold On Hope" (Guided By Voices)
"For Good" (From the Wicked Soundtrack)
>Not ALL songs have to be downers!
"(I've Had The) Time of My Life (Bill Medley, Jennifer Warnes)
"Cherish" (Madonna)

And this song would be LAST...
"Shower The People You Love With Love" (James Taylor)

CAVEAT:
Before you listen to any of these, go and tell those you care for how much they mean to you; forgive and forget anything you feel you've been hurt by. You may never get another chance to make up and have that person back into your life. We all enrich each others' lives in some way, have in the past and will (hopefully) continue to in the future.

New Year's Day Annual Grace Community Church Ride 2010 thru PV to Roscoe's Chix & Waffles

2010-01-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

The whole group, above. Below, Stan and Bub exchanging some yuks.
Below right, we went past King Harbor. One of these days I'll stop by.

On Artesia Blvd. I couldn't resist trying to get a reverse shot.

The first park we stopped at. Below are Bub, me, John R. and Jill.

It was hard to snap pics even though I have a system re: I have to be going anywhere between 20 and 35 MPH, because that's 3rd and it has that wide of a range whereby I don't have to clutch/shift quite as much so I can use my left hand to quickly grab a shot.

"Captain! There be WHALES here!"

On Ocean Blvd-can you see Jill and John's faces in the rear view mirror??!!

As I did last year, this year Bub went and we joined Stan's church peeps (you know, Stan of "Friends of Stan") on their annual jaunt thru Palos Verdes Peninsula and end up brunch at Roscoes.

This time, this year the weather was still a little cold at the beginning, 49-50 but warmed up to 70 and was UNBELIEVEABLY clear and beautiful. We even did some whale watching.

From the Chapter, Stan (Of course), Bub and I, and John R. & his great and gorgeous daughter Jill went. This girl is a saint-she ACTUALLY LIKED Laine last week when we met up at Tutto Fresco's!

A note about clothing: this year was a little different. I had new leather chaps that are specific to girls, wore boots instead of my EMT shoes, and wore 3 layers of shirts, my regular leather jacket AND my big Xelement all-weather lined jacket with the shoulder and elbow protection. ALL AT ONCE.

*Do you see the significance of that statement? I am now a size 8 and still gradually decreasing.Of course, we had to stop at Cycle Gear to do a little shopping!

At least I know where Jackie is on New Year's Eve 2009 UPDATED 01-05-10

2009-12-31T15:58:00.000-08:00

**Cost of a couple of RockStar drinks on December 30th, 2009 while driving earlier than planned from Santa Fe NM to Fullerton, CA, in order to stay awake all night through for the drive-$4.75
**Cost of Verizon Roadside Assistance service to allow daughter to call anytime from anywhere for emergency roadside assistance or advice - $3/month
**Cost of eardrum surgery to mom when blond daughter shrilly yells in her ear that she's in the middle of nowhere dead center stuck between Grants, NM and Flagstaff, AZ in 17 degree cold at 12 midnight, that her truck suddenly died and that she and her buds are freezing - To Be Determined, Hope The Medical Insurance Deductible Isn't Too Huge
**Cost of towing, parts and labor for repairs to her Ford Ranger's fuel pump - $684.00
**Cost of motel room for 3 nights; New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and the day after, until the part comes in - $135.14

***Cost of experience for a sadder but wiser daughter who SHOULDN'T hve been driving overnight and who now has to spend New Year’s Eve in Podunkt, Nowheretown instead of partying with her friends in LA-PRICELESS

Yup, she ain't going to be partying or driving while drinking on New Year's.

Did I mention that she forgot her cell phone charger (except the car charger, which doesn't do much good because her car's in the shop!) so her cell is dead, and the netbook wireless modem isn't working?

You couldn't be more cut off from the world if you'd-a gone camping in the Himalayas!

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE 1

She's in SoCal, came in last night. Mommy arranged for lodging (since we have dogs, one of whom isn't the friendliest to strangers) and our mechanic has her car as I write this (1:53 PM Sunday).

So she has my car until tomorrow night and probably thru Tuesday morning. I'll be riding my bike or driving the other Ranger.

Pain in the ass.

MOMMY paid for the fuel pump, folks, plus whatever our mechanic finds. I mean, she has a RENT CHECK to make good.

Our mechanic, BTW, is the BEST, UNBELIEVEABLY TRUSTWORTHY, VERY FAIR, VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE, VERY FAST.

He's Wahid Hloul, owns Foreign Automotive Center at 2700 E. Lambert Road, La Habra, at the corner of Palm and Lambert directly across from In 'N' Out Burger, 562-690-8441.

HIGHLY recommended.

UPDATE 2 UPDATE 2 UPDATE 2

01-05-10

She's on the road now, our mechanic checked her truck out, replaced the cut-off ('inertia') switch, fixed her horn and alarm, and changed out her battery cables.

This was an expensive vacation for her, and she HAD to leave a reminder of her visit for me...They spilled Jack in the trunk of my Pontiac. Great. There goes a GALLON of Febreeze.

Will I miss her? 50-50. Mostly yes. I guess. Even though I got to see her maybe 4 hours.

Rhetorical question:

If I track her, I'm the first person she calls when she's in trouble or needs help or advice... WHY does she run to her Dadu, hugging and crying, and all I get is a 'lick' on the cheek & not even a hug unless somebody makes her do it?

Birch St. Starbucks, shopping for a cruise dress, Laine in town, riding Barry's Roadie, Tutto Fresco 2night, awesome Christmas Eve Day 2009

2009-12-24T13:52:00.000-08:00

Check out Laine to the right-I have always loved his smile.

Birch Street Promenade has some AWESOME shops, but FIRST...Daniece and I hit STARBUCKS! Where we saw 1/2 of Brea and people we knew!!
1st off, Laine came by after getting an oil change & going to Verizon. He's a nut.
We saw one of the Personal Trainers from Bally's there, then Daniece's daughter Gianna came by, then Daniece's friend Bill, then a coworker from Goodwill, Jose came by with some of his grandkids!
D & I went to the shop she's been meaning to try called "KANZ of CALIFORNIA" at 260 W. Birch St., Suite 8 in Brea. OMG, it's MY HEAVEN-SO many cute, CUTE things! Got 2 sweaters and a dress for about a C-note & D got some CUTE stuff too!!!
I dropped her off and decided I was gonna bite the bullet and take Barry's bike out for a spin-I had only ridden it the day we got it, so I didn't put it through its paces myself.
HOLY MERDE-that sucker ROCKS and sounds like 'Watch out, you have a hellhound (or the female equivalent) behind you!'.
I REALLY feel the part of the Alpha B--ch on THAT thing.

Of course I went by Best Buy and all I had to do was pull up and rev it and EVERYBODY knew who was out there on BARRY'S bike. He wagged his finger at me to say, "Now, now, be nice to my bike".
I was.

VERY nice.

We're talking a little Brea Canyon, a little freeway (0-80 in lightspeed!! I didn't even REALIZE it), a little city streets, and over to Daniece's to show it off. (Barry later said that I looked better on his bike than HE does, & I replied that he was absolutely correct EXCEPT that I'd still ride mine because he looks like an absolute DORK on my bike)
I WILL replace the windows I blew in when I rev'd Bub's bike.
Hope the insurance will cover it.

Tonight, Tutto Frescos (Laine and I will ride a bit and we'll stop by to say "Merry Christmas" to whoever's there and get dinner for Daddy.

Laine and I stopped in there, said a very Merry Christmas to the die-hards Joe, John R. and his daughter Jill!

Awesome day. AWESOME.
Then the ride tomorrow to Oak Glen!!!

Christmas Day ride to Oak Glen as suggested by 'Doc' Thomas

2009-12-21T15:35:00.000-08:00

Leave sometime between 9 and 10, depending on when it gets to the 50 degrees mark, probably from the Denny's parking lot at Imperial and the 57 freeway.

Any takers, lemme know.

lynne_shapiro@vzw.blackberry.net

A weekend of riding and shopping ..."These are a few of my fav'rite things..."

2009-12-20T06:57:00.000-08:00

Combine perfect riding weather and the 'need' for more stuff for the bikes, and you have a motorshopping weekend event.
Saturday, No Pork and now Sunday going to San Pedro/Port's O'Call and probably a few other places since I gave my chaps to my sis in law and my vest to my bro in law. (Oh, yeah, I need aerobic tennies too.)
Bub said 'let's take a run out to No Pork for some pegs' and we let a friend know. That turned into two friends then three friends, so we met Chuck at Starbucks in Brea (yeah, WHICH one, Lynne?! There are only, oh, SIX now...) then toodled on over to Richard's place where Stan was waiting also.
We were nasty. We were mean and nasty scofflaws. We ACTUALLY ONLY SLOWED THROUGH STOPSIGNS INSTEAD OF FULLY STOPPING. I love pushing the rules.
<Ahem>
Anyway, we took a scenic back route to the 91 which worked out ok because I would glance at the 91 when we came close and noticed that OF COURSE the damn thing was going slower than all get out, but we got on at Gypsum Canyon and Richard led us to 2nd Street where Stan took over.
(Ok, this IS sarcasm, kinda) I mostly bought out the place (No Pork). Now, repeat the following to the tune of 'On The First Day Of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me'...
20 screw-in pinbacks, another spider bungee, 5 bikers shopping, 4 fleecy jackets, 3 pieces of advice, 2 No Pork T shirts, and a leather tank protector ordered. Below, Barry reacting to Brian telling him that new tires will cost around $600 for whitewalls. PSYCH!! Just kidding. Bub wants Bridgestones but PERSONALLY, I think Dunlop would be ok, but you know Barry-a manly man whose opinions I CANNOT change on certain things. I gotta hand it to Barry and the guys for getting EVERYTHING (except the leather tank thingy) into his two saddlebags! BUT they had everything stuffed so much that there wasn't room for the spider bungee, so my little tank bag had to take that. Luckily the tank bag 'telescopes' up.
A bargain-hunting celebration lunch at Miguel's was then had by all and a victory picture, with thanks to Richard for taking it. (No, Joe, not a Victory picture, a victory picture! We all went our separate ways and Bub and I went the back way towards Brea, but NOT without stopping at a really nice place for pie and coffee. You know the place...on the back way between Norco and Brea? Hmmm, off Merrill and Euclid? Hmmm, RIGHT BY AN AIRPORT??

Today (Sunday the 20th) will be a trip to San Pedro then some shopping for me for chaps and tennies.
Highs in the low-mid 70's, PERFECT. We gave 2 of those fleecy jackets to Ted and Rhoda, and they LOVED THEM. Bub's wearing his today. Thanks, NO PORK Boutique!!! Lemme know when you get some No Pork halter tops in, Lynn...
10:30 AM Sunday Dec. 20th 2009
I ZOOM home from class, blow dry my wet sweaty hair (I figure that since we'll be on the road, the smell won't be too bad), jump into my riding gear, CHECK Sigalert.com and weather.com (anal, anal, ANAL).
CRAP, CRAP, CRAP-so we're getting ready to go, Ted & Rhoda on their trike and Eric & Michelle on the Suzuki cruiser (I think it's a suzuki, don't really care right now), and Eric all of a sudden loses the use of his clutch.

Ok, we're off, Eric and Michelle followed us in their car.
Port's o' Call is, well, kind of a shadow of its former heyday. Disappointing.
To the left is what MY bike feels like after riding Barry's! To the above right, well, do you notice where the trike is in relation to the handicapped parking sign? Hmmm...

What came next was a bit of a surprise-Lunch! Well, not the actual fact of lunch, but ROSCOE'S in Long Beach lunch!
To the above right, going over the Vincent Thomas Bridge.

Next stop, Cycle Gear to see if we can get some chaps for me. No go, tried on some, enh.
A friend of ours, Johney, suggested Lifestyle Cycles, so since it's right down the street, we went on the day that they were having their Christmas Harley bash with free food and beer. No, I didn't eat and drink, I was too busy feeling weird about having a Yamaha in a Harley parking lot. I also realized that I was taking my life in my hands wearing a No Pork t-shirt into a Harley place! Sometimes I amaze myself with stupidity.
I did get me some CHAPS. NICE CHAPS. Below. Had to take the pic of the chaps with the No Pork t-shirt. I think I'm getting bow-legged from my bike.

Next and last stop, Bub's work for his schedule and to schmooze with the folks and for me to use the facilities. (you know, 650? Light bike? Lotsa vibration? YEAH, you got it)
An awesome day, beautiful, see pics, I lucked out. PLUS Bub got 39 MPG on Saturday and 43 on Sunday. I got 52 and 60, BELIEVE it or not. I did the math twice.

Step Choreography, motorcycle trip choreography, they are my outlet, my fun, my self.

2009-12-18T13:43:00.000-08:00

I'm setting up, working through choreography/step movements and music in between office tasks (so yeah, I'm combining two jobs within one mind, no sweat!) and realizing that I'm anal when it comes to aerobic choreography and music, and motorcycle trips. I realize that in some weird way, setting up aerobic choreography and motorcycle trips can each have some similar elements i.e. planning the way to go, whether it's on a bike or a plastic aerobic step: wearing the correct attire: having/bringing the correct equipment based on the activity, the people involved, the level of expertise of all parties....YUP, it all fits. At least it occupies my mind with something creative.

Tomorrow, Advanced Step class at Fullerton Bally's 8:15 AM then a little MC jaunt to No Pork to buy Bub some highway pegs and maybe look at some of those tank leather protection goodies for his MC that he wants, and maybe a little trip, get out and enjoy the weather while we can.
SOOOO...
Friday for Saturday plan:
-Dress in stuff that a) will get me sweating EARLY, and b) that I can throw off the moment I hit the door, grab an EXTREMELY quick shower then put on jeans and MC gear and go pick up another MC friend and get on over to Norco.
-Have all music and choreography ready to go by the close of business today so all I have to do is throw on my workout stuff tomorrow morning at 6:45 AM and GO. This means I have to ALSO do some moderate field testing with the step choreography and look like a dork in my office at breaktime, doing 'step' moves without the step.
-Have all my clothes ready for both activities; gas up and wipe bike down; calc to see if I'll need tank bag, or will Bub's saddlebags work out if we go shopping or something. Plus have on clothing that's par for motorcycle riding and are easy to take off and on if we're shopping for motorcycle clothing...I mean, if I see an UNBELIEVEABLY jacket or something...
-Set up a smallish MC trip that is doable but will get us home by 5 pm aka dark aka when the temp starts to drop. OK, OK, just thought of something, need to shop and hunt for some leather chaps for me because my old ones do NOT fit anymore, you can only add so many holes to the belt part before you come back to the beginning and my chaps are that way now. The leather jackets I can swap with Barry now, but I need new bottoms, or I freeze. So I gotta look and see what leather chaps places are in the area, maybe Slappin' Leather in Temecula. Nice jaunt down the 15, maybe tool around that area, if I find some chaps then I can wear them and ride a little longer. Maybe even go over Ortega if we get done and it's still light, or MAYBE check out the shopping in front of Hell's Kitchen....hmmmm, that would combine BOTH worlds, MC trip and shopping!!! I LOVE it.
First things first: Step moves.
(and if you know 'step', you'll know what the nomenclature refers to. If not, the explanation in parens () will guide you. And if you REALLY don't know step, you'll be befuddled at the technical wording. Kinda like me when somebody talks about pulling a 'something' from a motorcycle...)

COMBO 1 32/64
1 'I' Step (up, up, jack out, jack in, down, down)
2 Over the top 'scissors'
1 Turn straddle/lunges
(turn straddle down R down L, up R, up L, lunge R, lunge L, double lunge R, down R, tap L)
repeat Left lead

MODIFICATION: 16 cts, would need to add 4 V-steps and 2 more Over Scissors and delete the single 'I' step for the above to work
"Double 'I' lunges"
Up, up, jack out, jack in, jack out, jack in (all while up on top of the step), lunge, lunge, down, down, jack out, jack in, jack out, jack in.

COMBO 2 64
1 slow V step (1/2 time)
1 repeater
1 slow V step
1 repeater
2 6-lunge Indecisions (up R, up L, lunge R, lunge L, lunge R, lunge L, lunge R, lunge L, down R, tap L)

COMBO 3 32/64
1 Basic lunges (up, up, lunge, lunge, down, down)
1 triple Mambo (mambo, ball-change, mambo, cha-cha-cha)
4 Kicks around the world
repeat L lead

COMBO 4 32/64
2 Charleston (single kicks)
1 Diagonal over
Walk around the corner to the left (or 1/2 hop pivot around the corner)
4 Turn steps
repeat Left lead

COMBO 5 32
1 Slow squat over R
2 Shuffle turns (from the front side, now)
1 Slow squat over L
2 shuffle turns

COMBO 6 32/64
1/2 Rocking horse L-steps off the end then back to the side, left lead
Slow Squat over (end up on front side, right lead)
Indecision (end up on back side, left lead)
2 Mambo cha-chas
repeat Left lead

COMBO 7 32/64
2 over scissors (to put class into position for the horseshoe)
1 horseshoe (turn straddle turn, finish on left foot, front side)
1 helicopter (2 diagonal 1/2 hop pivots, end up in same place)
2 shuffle turns
repeat Left lead from the front side

COMBO 8 'JOGGIE SET' 32/64
Knee lift L step (right foot off the left end)
March fwd 3 & tap, march back 3 & tap (so that you are in position right next to the end of the step)
Across the top (the long way)
Tap up, tap down
6 Marches (or jogs) across the top
Down, tap
Knee lift L step from the end to the back side, tap.
repeat Left lead

ESOTERIC REPEATERS, all change the lead legs
REGULAR-3 knee repeater, down, down
2-knee repeater-Up, knee-knee, down, down, up, up, lunge, lunge, down, down, jumping jack in, jack out
4 knee repeater-Up, knee-knee-knee-knee, down, down, up, up, down, down, jumping jack in, jack out
"5 X 5" 5 knee repeater with a basic-Up, knee-knee-knee-knee-knee, down, down, basic up/up/down/down.
"7 & 7" or "7-sie" 7-knee repeater, just like the regular except an extra 4 knees are thrown in there...
Up, 7 knees, down, down.

Close (VERY close) family member has either chronic kidney disease or kidney failure.

2009-12-16T09:11:00.001-08:00

2009 is beginning to look a lot like Hell.
And YES, I mean 2009. We don't know about 2010, but I do know and have seen 2009.

The MONTH from hell so far

2009-12-11T23:12:00.000-08:00

It's been 1 1/2 weeks since December 1st, the beginning of the month.
A very black day.

I'm sad. Very sad.
But also scared. It's not pride, it's fear. I never thought I'd be so afraid of the unknown, but I am.
Is it safer to not know, to continue with the status quo and hope for a miracle on the other side, or swallow one's pride and run the risk of finding out forever no more?
I don't know. I think I'm doing right to allow space & time, but how much time? How much space?
I feel like I just need a sign, some indication that I'm, well, that stuff happens to everyone and that everyone is human. We all fuck up our lives and sometimes others', but they don't stay screwed up because of us being human.
Do they?

This is just whirling around in my brain a lot these days.
I hurt.

'Watch The Kill Switch', good info provided by Gary Felkel

2009-12-10T14:57:00.001-08:00

Most motorcycle problems are caused by the nut that connects the handlebars to the saddle. ...............
Learned from experience.
1. Do not use the kill switch to stop your bike.
2. Do not get distracted by police pulling over another biker with ape hangers or any thing else.
3. Do not then run into a resturant for a long lunch leaving your key in the bike and especially turned on.
Result!!
1.Dead battery
2. As a result of either trying to push start or jumping the main fusable link is blown and I did not have a spare.
3. Must get a tow truck , at the same time it is getting dark and rainy.
4. Tow truck obviously does not cater to bikes with only 2 straps both oily and old to tie down your bike on a oily, slippery truck bed.
5. Gettin home 3 hours later finally and after tow truck leaves finding a large oil puddle from the tow truck in your driveway.
6. Bike was fixed the next day with a $1.98 fuse. (bought a spare).
Lesson learned... Check key before you leave your bike!!!! Watch using that kill switch. Have all the spare fuses .
My thanks to Glenn, Charley, Carol, Brian that tried to get me going and stayed as long as they could. Sent them home before it started raining.

Thank you, Gary, for that marvelous description of what NOT to do. I'll DEFINITELY take it to heart and soul.

In IT we have an acronym...
PEBKAC*

Maybe we should have a modified acronym...
PEBIAS**

*Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair
**Problem Exists Between Ignition And Saddle

The week from HELL 12-07 to 12-11-09

2009-12-10T12:55:00.000-08:00

This week sucks.
1. One of our managers/directors and a coworker of mine, known him for years, passed away suddenly Tuesday morning. This was Shock #1.
2. One of our workers at my work, a much-loved person whom I had seen every single day at work, passed away suddenly on Tuesday afternoon. Now this was Shock #2.
3. A VERY close family member went into the hospital on (I think) Tuesday morning with pneumonia. She's hooked up to IV's up the kazoo and can't really move because it'll set off alarms. Came on really suddenly, within a 24 hour period. So far, Shock #3.
4. My old boss and a good friend has been admitted to the hospital for testing and checking out some health issues. I'm starting not to like this stuff-Shock #4.
5. ANOTHER Manager in my Division (and a good friend to Barry and I) was admitted on Tuesday (what IS it with Tuesday?) to the hospital for heart issues and is hoping to get out today-he just felt weird palpitations so they admitted him and have been doing uber amounts of tests. He had had an TIA about 8 months ago or so, so this is scary. He kept it really quiet, I just accidentally found out. You know, for all this to go on 2 weeks before Christmas...Shock #5

I'm really glad I'm already 'out there', otherwise I'd fall into a heap of mush.

On December 8, 2009, I never thought I'd have to put on my thermals that I usually use for motorcycle riding.

2009-12-08T07:46:00.000-08:00

Enough said.
BRRRRRR