New Laptop

Today I cooked for my daughter. We sat down to dinner, just the two of us. By some unexplainable miracle, my talented and industrious girl has just finished her sophomore year in college with some money in her bank account. She has been asking me to help her pick out a laptop but we’ve both been so busy with the end of school. Now, with a big sigh and a little time, she said, “Hey Dad, do you think we can go look now?” I said, “Yeah, let’s go today.” Then I told her that there was something about this that made me a little sad. “What, Dad?” “Well, when your brother started college and you were about to, I told you I wanted to get each of you a laptop. Now you are halfway through and he is almost done, and I haven’t been able to give either of you one. I feel like such a poor provider.” Then she rocked my world.

“I don’t even remember that, Dad. Besides, you have provided lots of things other dad’s don’t. You haven’t bought me much stuff, but you help me figure things out and find things for me. You fix all kinds of stuff when it breaks. You keep fixing my car. Most people would just tell you to take it in and get charged $200 for every dumb little thing. You have saved me so much money, so see, you really did get me a laptop.”

I just totally lost it right on the spot. Tears went flying over my dinner and I sobbed. She jumped up, put her arms around me and we had a good cry together.

We calmed down and finished our pork chops. Then loaded into her little convertible (completely paid for by her) and headed off to Best Buy. She punched the button on the CD player and out sang James Taylor, “shower the people you love with love…”

Look, Ma!

Our network administrator popped into my office this morning to chat about something and saw a picture from the Tail of the Dragon on my screensaver. He's an autocross racer and has run it in his Porsche 914. He's the one who told me about killboy.com and showed me a picture of him in his car making a run. It just occurred to me that maybe killboy shot some of me too. Sure enough, I looked up the date and there I was! Several shots! You can go take a look yourself here. Or go to www.killboy.com click on the "store" link, type in 04/16/2006 and look on page 5 of the thumbnails. I'm in the first and second rows.

Shooting the Dragon

If you enjoyed my tale of riding the tail (of the dragon), you might enjoy this site I was told about this morning:

http://www.killboy.com/

This guy makes a fine pile of dough (judging by his own ride) shooting and selling photos there just about every weekend, which you can see on his site. If he happens to catch you, you can buy the shot. Nice gig.

I Love Technology

"Not as much as you, you see..."

This morning on the way to work I came upon an accident. It was on a side street, so not a terrible one, but semi-head-on. It would have sent at least one of the drivers to the hospital clinging to life, but the limp, played out airbag hung from the steering wheel. The driver will need a new car but won't be needing a wheelchair.

Ambiguous Loss

I recently finished reading a book called "Ambiguous Loss - learning to live with unresolved grief" by Pauline Boss. It dealt with the grieving and coping process in situations like children who disappear, men lost in war, and people with alzheimers. In these cases a person may be physically gone but still have a presence in the family because there was never a body, never any closure. In the case of alzheimer's, the person is physically present but already gone. These are obvious, gross examples, but the principals also apply to more subtle versions of being physically gone and yet present, or physically present yet gone. Ambiguity makes everything so much harder to deal with because things drag on without resolution and one doesn't know what to do or how to move on and recover. Lots of issues can fall under this pall of ambiguity.

Expectations and Surprises

I had the opportunity to ride these two bikes last year. I was looking forward to my first ride on a BMW as I had been told of them in almost mystic terms. The single cylinder F650 is not the bike on which to get blown away by BMW. It has some nice engineering and is an okay motorcycle, but I was underwhelmed. It's certainly a high-end trail bike, but the motor felt weak to me. I expected more beans out of 650cc's. I remember my old XT600 being stronger. That may not be accurate, but my Shadow 500 is definitely way faster on less displacement.

This Kawasaki Vulcan Classic 800 went the opposite direction regarding expectations. Kawasaki has kind of always been an also-ran in my thinking. But I got on this compact 800 and found it to be one of the most all-around balanced bikes I'd ever been on. I'm not a fan of the chain drive, but the balance in this thing was wonderful. Everything just felt right to me and it was a delight to ride. I didn't want to stop. They only cost around $6,000 brand new. Worth a look.

Bike and Tyke

The fathering has to come way before the grandfathering. Mine is just about over. I tried to provide those experiences I mentioned in the previous post to my own children. Alas, they were so few and so far between. I wish I could have provided so much more. The bike above was my ride when we lived in California, an '86 Yamaha XT600. It was a really good machine. So good that they are still building them. The 2006 model has many improvements, but you can see the heritage. There are many similarities. I used to take the kids up into the foothills of the San Bernardino mountains for long rides. Note the piece of PVC pipe wired to the frame beneath my daughter's shoes. Little pegs for little feet. We used to have a regular date. After a nice ride we'd go to TCBY for frozen yougart. With sprinkles, of course. She would invariably fall asleep on the way home. I got some strange looks at stoplights with this tiny child in her big helmet, laid out over the gas tank out cold.

Mirror

Yesterday I was riding my motorcycle around a corner and saw myself. There is a big plant nursery there and as I was accelerating I glanced to my right. A scene registered in a fraction of a second. A couple of parents were busy shopping for shrubbery and in tow was a boy of seven or eight years old. I can imagine he was bored out of his mind. His eyes locked on me and my bike, tracked like a weapon radar, and in them I saw myself at that age. I remember that wonder in his imagination and longing in his soul and after a hundred thousand miles or so on motorcycles over a lifetime, I was still experiencing the magic he dreamed of at that very moment. I wish I had much more to give. I would love to take every boy with those kinds of eyes and get him on a bike, put his hands on the bars, and let him feel a strong motor pull him through the gears. Or get him up in a plane to feel the wings bank and dive and climb at the whim of his hands on the controls. I think maybe I’m going to make an okay grandpa.

Inside Joke

This afternoon my daughter and I took her mother for a Mother’s Day treat at the Cold Stone Creamery. A little sign there said “Friends don’t let friends eat grocery store ice cream. Indulge responsibly.” It struck me how so much of American humor does not stand on it’s own but makes reference to something else. Parody seems to be an almost default genre for my college video students year after year. I was wondering if this is part of the human condition or is it an American or western thing? I’d be interested in finding out.

Fleece Lining

Back in the book of Judges, Gideon asked God to answer a question for him using a fleece of wool. I was thinking of that today when I walked out of church. The forecast had called for rain after 1:00 pm so I had ridden the bike. Well it was that or not go at all. In the middle of the sermon about 11:30, after some big booms, I looked over my shoulder through the back doors to see a gullywasher pounding away. The kind that strips gravel from the parking lot. I realized I had left my helmet hanging on the handlebars by the chinstrap. I figured it would fill up like a bucket. The bike was drenched with big beads of water on the seat, but to my amazement, the helmet was almost dry inside. Just a wee bit of dampness. Though I’ve been asking God some questions myself lately, I hadn’t any particular one on my mind this morning. But I took this as a confirmation that God is in control of everything and He is watching out for my well-being. That is really the best answer to any question.

Worst and Best

So, I ask you, what other blog brings you exotic orchids, cute little birds, and awesome motorcycles all in the same place? This post features the worst motorcycle I ever rode and the best one:

I took a spin on this Russian bike whose brand I can't read and probably couldn't pronounce. It doesn't matter because you definitely don't want one. A lot of Russian stuff is copied from elsewhere, and not very well. This bike was a good example. It was a lot like a 70's vintage Suzuki trail bike. Felt like it might have trouble lasting another hundred miles, er, kilometers.
I think this might have been in Kazakhstan.

And this is the best ride to date. The mighty Honda VTX-1800, the machine that basically defined the new power cruiser class. This one belongs to a former student of mine who has unfortunately moved far away. Sorry you Harley folks, your bone shakers don't come close. I've ridden several flavors of those. And the Goldwings just don't have the coolness factor or the sound of this beast. I haven't been on one of the new 1800 versions yet, and there are some BMW's that look mighty nice. But they are in the future for me. At this point, this thing is the sweetest experience on two wheels I have known.

I was talking to someone today about speed and it occurred to me I have ridden this particular motorcycle faster, significantly faster, than the top speed of any airplane I ever flew as pilot in command. Unfortunately, you can't cruise across the country that way on a bike. But like the famous little deuce coop, "if it had a set of wings, man, I know she could fly."

Cruise slowly down the boulevard on this thing and make Harley's look like kiddie bikes. Or take it up to top speed: approximately 160. With a windshield. As some of my students would say, "freakin' awesome!"

Discipline

Discipline is something I’ve had a hard time with in my life. I have been able to accomplish a lot of things, but mostly as a result of obsessive-compulsive stamina hammering at a goal or a project with a defined beginning, middle, and end. Long-term discipline at something that just needs to be done day in and day out, year after year, ad infinitum – I’m not good at that. So I don’t feel very disciplined much of the time.

Last night I did twenty laps for the second day in a row. I usually skip a day or two in between. Then I did something that needed to be done that most of me did very much not want to do. It was really hard, and today I’m feeling the repercussions. Why, oh why does the right thing sometimes seem so terrible and the undoubtedly wrong thing seem so good? I don’t know, but right now it feels terrible.

Why, why, why
Does it go this way
Why, why, why
And all I can say

Somewhere down the road
There’ll be answers to the questions
Somewhere down the road
Tho’ we cannot see it now
And somewhere down the road
You will find mighty arms reaching for you
And they will hold the answers at the end of the road

-Amy Grant

Ironic

Last night rain was threatening again. I almost didn’t ride my motorcycle to swim laps at the pool for fear of getting wet on the way there.

I have fears. Some are justified and reasonable. But many are just stupid. Like many people, I spend an enormous amount of emotional energy worrying about things that never happen. So I’m going to do my best to just keep moving ahead. If it’s going to rain, I’ve done my best to be ready. Bring it on.

Feathered Friends

So I haven't mentioned anything that flies lately. I've put up some pictures of our orchids. Here's another view of domestic life where I live. The cockatiel hen above has been with us for about eight years now. She was given to us by some friends to whom she was given. We don't know how old she is, but she is starting to show her age. I have read that they can live as long as 25 years but 15 or so is more common. She has been a sweet little pet who is always eager to see me and loves to get out and ride around on my shoulder. She was a good flier until one day I came home to see that all her flight feathers had molted out. And her crest was, well, crestfallen. They are growing back but something has been lost.

The yellow fellow we adopted about a year and a half ago when some friends had about a dozen they were trying to find homes for. He (she? we're not sure) had some problems with pulling his own feathers out. We thought he'd calm down but I 'm afraid the creature is flat out psychotic. They called him "Red Eye" because his indeed are, but we call him "El Ojo Rojo Pollo Loco."

After parakeets as a kid I became a cockatiel person later in life. Then one day not long ago, my wife spotted this brilliant orange canary at the pet store. She just decided she had to have her and so we went and got her. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens with these so-called red factor intense color bred birds, as she matured the brilliant color has started to frost to white.

The little canary seemed so lonely in her new cage. I kinda wanted to find a mate for her but the critters are kind of expensive. I saw at a pet store that finches were living in the same cage with some canaries. I thought it might be nice to get one of these little guys to keep her company. They don't cost very much and they are fun to watch since they are so small they can actually fly around inside the cage. Last weekend we went to get one I had picked out earlier. I was told they don't do well without another finch so we ended up getting two. Later I found out that zebra finches aren't the kind that are supposed to be able to live with canaries. But they all seem to be getting along, even feeding out of the same cup at the same time. The canary seems happier. Much more active anyway.

Isn't he a handsome fellow?

This one's sex is rather ambiguous as far as markings. The orange cheek patch indicates a male zebra finch. This one has a rather mutant color scheme with a hint of a patch on the right cheek and none on the left. I thought it was good looking, though, the white being unusual at least among the ones I've seen.

Cute little buggers, aren't they?

Home Sweet Hammock

I recently wrote about sleeping on the ground and the desire for a better kit of gear next time I find myself far from home needing to camp out. With the end of school right around the corner, plans are being made by a small group for a major motorcycle outing to criss-cross West Virginia and North Carolina on a bunch of awesome roads. It's finally time to push the button and get the gear in hand. Today the central item of that kit arrived, something I've been wanting to obtain for several years; a Hennessy Hammock. Woo! Woo! It's like Christmas! This is a simply brilliant bit of inventive engineering combining a hammock, mosquito net, and tent all in one compact and light weight unit. Along with a new zero degree mummy sleeping bag, some serious rain gear, and a few other odds and ends I'm ready for anything.

This is the new Explorer model. It's 8" longer than the original Expedition model. (Just the opposite of Ford SUV's) I like it a lot! (There is a Safari model which is 12" longer and 4" wider and than the Expedition and also ultralightweight versions using lighter, more expensive, and presumably more fragile material.) I set it up in some trees down the way to learn how to rig it. Then I set it up on my patio using some hooks I had installed for my more conventional Venezuelan hammock. My second time took me ten minutes to set it up. They claim 2 or 3 minutes once you really have it down. I think that's very possible. I got the optional "snake skins" and they are fantastic. There is a good set of photos and text describing how they work here. Also, if you are interested, the entry is through the bottom which is another ingenious feature. It's counter-intuitive, but works great.

The rainfly is in an unconventional mode here. Normally it is staked down low on the sides and looks more like a pup tent. If you Google images of Hennessy Hammock you will see lots of them set up that way.

I had to do some creative rigging to come up with a support point with all the brick in our building. The screw hook went up around the corner to a stud in line with the extended angle of the rope bent through 90 degrees.

The secret to hammock comfort is to lay at an angle. This lets you stretch out flat. Sleeping on one's side is quite comfortable this way. The noseeum bug netting looks strangely opaque because of the flash, but it is very easy to see through. There is a ridge line that holds up the mosquito netting and it makes a convenient place to hang stuff up like shoes and clothing, or as above, my watch and my flashlight (in perfect position for reading a book) and, in the case of the next photo, the camera.

This looks a whole lot more inviting than the ground, doesn't it? Safe from bugs and vermin, ready to sleep through any storm. Set up and strike in minutes. It also functions as an open hammock and a chair. There is lots of stuff about these things elsewhere on the internet. BTW, best price I found was at Kato Creek Outfitters. Well, now to go do a little test drive for the rest of the night.