Funny and weird stuff on Sigalert.com

06-08-09 Yup, those center dividers, they gonna getcha.

11-12-08 I wonder who won with this accident? Vehicle vs Wall to the right.

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11-11-08 Below is a sigalert 'brown diamond' indicating some sort of non-injury accident. The details struck me as funny. I know this is age-profiling, but based on the exchange of dialogue between participants and law enforcement, you can just IMAGINE how old the participants are. How can they tell if there's any damage? I mean, just how fast CAN you go in a car wash parking lot and if the cars are BOTH white and BOTH tanks?


"Reporting party of white Chrysler hit other vehicle per employees but reporting party states she did not hit;

"Reporting party in white Chrysler vs White Cadillac at car wash PLot (this is DispatchSpeak for 'parking lot')

"Reporting party advised CHP doesn't handle private property traffic collisions but party is insisting on unit".

I can just see them talking about this at the station later today.

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12-03-08 I wonder who started it? Can't we all play nicely together, especially on the freeway? I mean, Gray Nissan vs Black Scion vs Gray Toyota vs Red Toyota vs Black Honda Civic vs White Chevy Subrubru vs Green Ford Explorer...blocking the # 1, 2, 3 AND 4 lanes...
It's times like this you almost wish you owned a tow truck company...

Or were a CHP officer... talk about job security...

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121208 The cars are in the middle of the freeway, it's rush hour, and the White Honda is 'uncooperative'. Three guesses where he's gonna end up? You're right-in the back of a CHP cruiser. I believe it's called "ALOC", an Altered Level Of Consciousness, because WHO in their right mind would be uncooperative to law enforcement and getthehell outta the way of ongoing traffic?!

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12-22-08

A black Jeep vs. a sign..."Well occifer, a sign just leaped out at me and nailed m'truck...swelp me, it did. Do me a favor, hold m'beer for a sec..."

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12-22-08 Just two words...

"Thank God". ("Not injuries to MC Rider")

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12-22-08 We'll call this one, "Thick As A Brick".

I guess nobody can count...at the top, it reads, "3 vehicles involved"...BUT the next part of the sentence reads, "Beige Chev Work truck vs Black Honda vs Hyundai vs Ford F-150"... Luckily the Falcon towing tow truck driver realized that people just don't get it and magnanimously offered to 'carry two'. and whereinthehell did the bricks come from?

For those of you who know how IMPORTANT music is to me in my life...

I am the process of tapping into my creative musicality, i.e. creating my own holiday music disks with my own special flair, choosing just the right items for my creative outlet.

Read between the lines here, folks: we're talking Mannheim Steamroller, Trans-Siberian Orchestra http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szLmAPW39uE like the music on this youtube file, this type of music people use to tie in with their holiday lights on their homes...the lights go on and off with the music's ups and downs. "Now That's What I Call Christmas!" music, Johnny Mathis says it's the most wonderful time, Brenda Lee does it around the tree, Burl Ives does it very holly and jolly, Celtic Woman, Charley Brown and of COURSE Mel Torme have it all goin' on. You catch my drift, right? Like not getting me in trouble with the powers that be who control media?
Motivating, non-traditional, mostly non-denominational, really NEAT, NEAT season-specific music.
Operators are standing by for your order.
Lemme know what you may be interested in...I rotate songs around a little but can give you an idea of the titles and 'genre'.
To my friends...FREE.

BG

Chapter 345 Ride to Palm Springs 11-08-2008

No, it's not the holidays...YET. Didn't realize we had dressed 'way ahead of time for the holiday party! I guess Barry & Gregg emailed each other with the, "What are you gonna wear?" "No, what are YOU gonna wear?" questions and ended up coming dressed alike. Luckily Keith decided not to go with that color scheme. The 3 'Joe Cools' are to the left.
I MISSED you, Stacy! It was really neat shopping!!!
Ahem, to continue...
STAR Chapter 345's ride took us to Palm Springs downtown for lunch at Ruby's Diner and shopping. Nice ride. Haven't been around Palm Springs since I don't know when. Neat shopping, got the ubiquitous vest pins, (my right shoulder is KILLING me because of the weight of all those suckers!!) a cute Palm Springs T-shirt for Her Royal Jax-ness (so MAYBE she'll give me my Cook's Corner 'Ladies Who Ride' tank top back), and a book for 25 cents (the library was having a sale; 25 cents for paperbacks, $1 for hard covers-I bought 'The Hunt for Red October'.).
Really perfect weather. About 65 degrees when Bub & I left Brea at 8:15 AM, about 70 degrees when we left Union 76 Station in Norco/Corona at 9:00 AM, about 80 degrees in Palm Springs when we arrived around 10:30 AM, and wasn't more than 85 degrees after b'fast/lunch at Ruby's Diner on Palm Canyon Dr. Had 5 groups of 6-7 riders each.
Took the 91 E to the 60 E, met up with the 10 E, off at Palm Canyon/111, down Palm Canyon.
Went right down the main drag, Palm Canyon with all the bikes. You could just SEE the fear in some of those, um, more 'mature' folks' eyes. Good thing you couldn't smell it.

The Plaza Theater has a couple of shows that all feature performers are over 65, I believe. One of the showgirls is 84. I want her plastic surgeon's name.

One of the cutesy shops was "Cold Nose, Warm Heart" shop for (mostly) dogs but they had a cat corner as well. Ick. Below is a picture of one of the really neat things they sell-it's saddlebags for dogs!!!

The guys are waiting for the girls...we gotta go into EVERY door and check stuff out. They look SO bored....heh,heh,heh. We get them run ragged, get 'em so tired and then they throw up their hands and say, "Go ahead, BUY IT ALREADY!" thereby giving us carte blanche to spend more money.

There's madness to our method, guys.

Bub's posing with Sonny Bono. You remember him, right? You don't? He was the short dweebish half of "Sonny & Cher", was Mayor of Palm Springs and a US Representative before his life was tragically cut short by a killer Nevada tree that sprang up in front on him when he was skiing. (those trees are cousins to the killer Colorado trees)

Mannequins are posed in some of the quaint shops, as the 'Walter' below and the 'Hula Howard' over to the right.

This is the proper way for ladies to wear all of the pins. I cornered her in the ladies' restroom at Ruby's and REFUSED to let her go around me until I took my pic.
Palms Springs has always had the best flowers - check out the bouganvilla at the left.

Back at Chuy's is Greg, Keith and Lina Limbaugh. Greg and Keith are brothers. I don't see it.... do you?

If you look closely, you can see how many pitchers are on the table, and Mr. Shapiro leaning back. Add it up.

By the way, my email address is AquaInst1@aol.com, if you want to get ahold of me and share phone numbers. Just put who you are and your relationship to what STAR club or how I know you into the 'Subject' area.

Palms to Pines Ride Nov 1 08 and No Pork BBQ

First of all, a TOTALLY big THANK YOU to NO PORK for their gracious hospitality and FOOD!!! It was a total blast, so very very nice of those folks to open their doors, their hearts and THEIR BARBEQUE to us bikers!! They are always so very generous with their time and wares, and the Shapiro family will be customers for a long time. It made a great ending to a really great ride, and now that I see what they have (even though I might not UNDERSTAND what the hell it's for!) I can get it locally here and support a great motorcycle business. It's going to be really tough to get EVERYTHING onto this blog, but I'm going to try my darndest. Dan was kinda bummed because his Yamaha wouldn't start, so it was great that Jerry and Patty could make it to be Ride Captains. It was a great ride, even though I was really nervous because Glen or Gary had to watch my riding skills, so I was in Group 1 with Terry and Glen & Don were right behind me. I was stiff and as I said nervous (maybe because Glen said he was going to 'sledgehammer critique me'!), but after breakfast I figured 'what the hell' and just rode my usual way. It worked, I guess. Glen said afterward at No Pork that I did fine, that I did well in the curves, and I told him that Bub and I LIKE curves & turns, lots of 'em. It's like a bit of a game with myself-can I safely and totally in control take the curve without braking? Yes, and it's called downshifting, plus gauging the turn, looking where I want to go, and trying to do 'late apex' turns. Sometimes it was hard because the freakin' curve didn't STOP CURVING when you think it would, so you ended up closer to the center line than you wanted and have to correct out, then in again. Oh, well.
Took a ton of pictures, a few videos, you'll get the idea. Below, Pete's getting his bike ready. He said it's weird being in the first group, first to get to the restaurant, first to get gas, first to stop anywhere...Saturday morning was beautiful, didn't even really need the jacket WITH the turtleneck, either one or the other would've been good, but you never know and Dan warned us that there would be temp changes. (there were, just not too wild) Met up at Starbucks, had an instructional demo regarding left rear fills, right rear fills, left front fills, right front fills. (I have some video, so maybe I'll put that into a separate blog) Below is a really neat Raider (at least I THINK it's a Raider, looks a bit like the type I rode at STARBQ last March when I got the ride of my life), very futuristic, check out the rear sissy bar. Had a phat tire on it too, really bitchn'. Not sure whose it was, thinking it mighta been Ed's. (I just had a thought, I'd better take my laptop along to STARBQ in Vegas next March, so I can upload the daily pics and put them on the blog. I'm gonna need a TON of memory for that sucker. Maybe break it up into each day. See, I'm always thinking ahead, planning ahead, we've gotten our reservations already and I'm planning the route. We're going up on Thursday late morning just to get the lay of the land and go up before all the vacationers and stuff go up, so if anyone wants to 'tool' on up with us, you're more than welcome to bee-bop with us, yours truly will be leading as usual...oopsie, must check, is that by ANY CHANCE EASTER WEEK????? Nope, Easter is April 12th. Whew!)
We had 20 bikes and about 25 people total going, a very nice manageable number. Left around 9 ish, took the 57 north to the 10 east, got to the Farmhouse around 10:15 or so, that place for breakfast is AMAZING. Their gravy is awesome (yeah, I know, I gotta go to EmmaJeans and compare; sure, sometime I'll go, when I get some time, say, oh, 2011) and the portions are huge. Unfortunately I lost a lot of what appetite I originally had by taking a pic of Dave and Ed, see above right. Barry had a ham steak that filled up a whole plate. Good wholesome food and great service. To the right is "The Breakfast 230 Club"; above left, Rick and Tom gave it a pointed finger / show the menu rating. To the right are two new riders that went with the group-Alura and Martin Mayhead. Great place. Prices not bad either-my chicken fried steak and eggs with gravy was 10.99 and Barry's hamsteak and eggs was 11.99. Coffee was 1.99. And they had the GOOD creamers, you know the International Coffee ones that are hazelnut and french vanilla flavored. Below left, the perfect pair-Don and The Flag. Below right, table two, your breakfast is ready! When we left the Farmhouse it was getting warmer so I took off my turtle neck but left my jacket on. WRONG. When we went thru Palm Springs or wherever we went thru, it was hot. Not THAT hot, like not in the 90's, but in the 80's.
Continued on the I-10 east, then south to the "Palms To Pines" route 74, passing what seemed to be 5 MILLION GOLF COURSES, then through to the scenic point partway to the Idlyllwild area which I BELIEVE was Pinyon Pines. Not sure, must check.
There were these folks visiting from the Phillipines. They wanted pictures of Don Thomas posing with one or two of them (see the left, Don is SUCH a poser), and pics of me. Well, you know me...the first thing I did was put my vest on one of the ladies that wanted a pic with me, then they all wanted to get in on it! The next thing was I put them on my bike with the vest on. I think we made their day, really and truly. (see close left) I did take off my leather jacket and that was a good thing, because when we did come down out of the mountains from Idlyllwild onto Cajalco Road it got hotter. Below is Stan the Man, yours truly (the only picture of me on this blog, thank goodness) and Ken Indorf at the vista point. Also to the right is a beautiful line of GROUP ONE bikes...nice park job except for yours truly parking off to the side away from the group, which still worked out ok because of the photo ops with the visitors from another country. I only wished I had charged $5 each! (Just kidding, I did this 'photos on the motorcycle' stuff last weekend for Goodwill, remember?)
One of the funniest things I thought of was when we left the scenic area, we got behind a SmartCar. Well, actually, RICK got behind the SmartCar. Now he knows how it feels to be BEHIND one of those roller skates! Beep, beep! I swear, I bet my 650 could eat one of those things, or at least use it as a hood ornament.
The curves going to and from Idlyllwild were nice. Got a little cold up there, wasn't too bad. The scenery was beautiful in spots, with the trees changing into all sorts of colors and leaves dancing across the road when our bikes went by, very peaceful. I love the pine smell. That's one of the nice things about cruisers...we just CRUISE, don't go all out b**ls to the wall nutso, just kick back and ENJOY. Enjoy the nature, enjoy our fellow riders with us, enjoy ourselves merged with our bikes. Ok, enough metalphysical stuff.
Glen was helping a lady put air in her tires when we got gas in Hemet-his better side is in the righthand photo. On the left, ok he did good. He made nice.
He was also the one 'watching' me, watching and assessing my riding skills (along with Don Thomas). Talk about freakin' nervous-I felt like I couldn't even come to a bloomin' stop nicely, much less ride. After breakfast, though, I thought to myself, "Screw it, I'll just ride the way I always ride and if it's not up to snuff, then I can try to get better."
After coming out of the mountains we were on Cajalco Road where Rick got his very first road pylon! He shoots, he SCORES! Stuff like THAT I wish I had a handlebar mounted camera so I can catch all the wonderfullness of riding with this group!

The ride was called at No Pork and Terry handed us each a "No Pork" pin for our vests. Yeah, BABY, another pin for the flak jacket I call a club vest! That thing is starting to get UBER heavy. I wonder how Bob Barbano does it, with all HIS pins? Maybe has two vests? One with all the metal and one for riding? I just thought of something-some of these members who've been around for years had BETTER watch their jackets-the jackets might get ripped of for the metal!
To the above right at No Pork, Glen's Harley had a TON of admiring people around it. Including himself. The BBQ was really great and 20 percent off of everything. I'm going to order Barry a new front tire (Bridgestone, of course) and it's great that they have those pin backs. Below, Mark Murray hogging the mic AS USUAL. (like he really needs it) Barry won a 2X size Yamaha (I think it was Yamaha, might've been No Pork) T-shirt that we're going to give to some worthy soul. (I just gotta figure out how to put some 'abuse' into that shirt-perhaps itching powder or sulphur smell)














Check out Dave's shoes above by the 'Flamer''s bike-are those motorcycle boots or spats, dude??



I have a wish list, a totally unrealistic wish list, but if we ever win the lottery, I'm going for it: a camera 'holder' for my handlebars that has a longish 'handle' to click the pic; a cupholder like the one to the right; a helmetcam; bluetooth earpieces for an mp3 for music; etc, etc, etc. I'd love to take pics of everybody taking the curves so beautifully, and usually the scenery is gorgeous as well. I don't have the luxury of having anyone riding behind me who can do that, maybe I'll have to ride behind on a bike to take pics....NAW, we know THAT ain't happenin'.